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<p>MKOHUT: Undo revision 14159 by Special:Contributions/MKOHUT (User talk:MKOHUT)</p> <hr /> <div>:'''&lt;big&gt;Please keep these annotations SPOILER-FREE by not revealing information from later pages in the novel.&lt;/big&gt;'''&lt;p&gt;&lt;br&gt;<br /> <br /> ==Page 57==<br /> <br /> '''Her name was never far from the discourse of the day.'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Another reference to something with respect to ''the day''.<br /> <br /> '''Dally's questions...'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> ...seem a tad complex for her age, if this is just after she was first seen, when she is said to be four or five.<br /> <br /> ==Page 58==<br /> <br /> '''a couple of professors at the Case Institute in Cleveland, who were planning an experiment'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> The Michelson–Morley experiment, one of the most important and famous experiments in the history of physics, was performed in 1887 by Albert Michelson and Edward Morley at what is now Case Western Reserve University, and is generally considered to be the first strong evidence against the theory of a luminiferous aether. Primarily for this work, Albert Michelson was awarded the Nobel Prize in 1907. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Michelson-Morley_experiment Wikipedia entry]<br /> <br /> In oversimplified form: Michelson and Morley built an instrument that would signal any change in the speed of light traveling along its axis. They measured no change when the instrument was rotated. Now a wave in the æther should appear to go faster if you are moving against it, slower if you are moving with it (like ripples in a pond: walk beside the pond in the same direction as the ripples, and you catch up to them, finding a lower speed; walk the other way and they come toward you at a higher rate, seeming to move faster). By the theory that was then accepted, the instrument certainly should have reported a difference. After repeating the experiment many times, M&amp;M concluded that the æther was somehow always moving the same way relative to the instrument, an absurd behavior, or that light was not, after all, a wave in the æther. And if the æther doesn't convey light waves, there is no justification for including it in physical theory.<br /> <br /> '''the luminiferous Æther'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> This passage recalls Pynchon's discussion of the &quot;soniferous aether&quot; in ''Gravity's Rainbow'' (695).<br /> <br /> :Michelson and Morley, in [http://www.aip.org/history/gap/Michelson/Michelson.html their original ''American Journal of Science'' article,] spelled the word &quot;ether.&quot; ''Aether'' and ''æther'' have hung on as minority spellings. Most people say EE-ther, but William Vermillion Houston, a venerable professor of mathematical physics in the middle 1960s, pronounced it EH-ther to avoid confusion with the anesthetic. Most writers don't capitalize the word.<br /> <br /> '''one finds in the devout Ætherist a propensity of character evertoward the continuous as against the discrete'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Particle or Wave? Aether is the medium that light would move in, if it were a wave. This enters the question of whether light is a particle or a wave into the discussion. Pynchon sets up the dichotomy: (aether/wave/continuous vs. empty space/particle/discrete) (also, see page 61)<br /> <br /> '''sal ammoniac'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Ammonium chloride. A solution served as electrolyte in storage batteries such as the Leclanché cell, which could be used to store the charge generated by the Toepler machine (next entry).<br /> <br /> '''[[T%C3%B6pler_influence_machine|Töpler influence machine]]'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> A machine for producing electrical charge. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/August_Toepler [Wikipedia]]. Also spelled Toepler.<br /> <br /> '''all those tiny whirlpools the theory has come to require'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> People still write articles and books about physics based on the æther. Many physics departments put such papers in the &quot;crank file,&quot; but now the World Wide Web [http://www.aetherpress.com/physics.htm makes them available to everybody.] One way of finagling the æther to accommodate &quot;real&quot; matter is to postulate vortices or whirlpools in the medium, corresponding to electrons and other particles.<br /> <br /> Ætherism escaped the fate of Ptolemaic astronomy, which collapsed gradually—over a matter of centuries—as it had to grow in complexity to keep up with the technology of observation. Ideas about the æther, in contrast, could not be rigged up to fit Michelson and Morley's results: one experiment spelled the death of the theory, and it became untenable between a summer and the next spring.<br /> <br /> '''Michelson'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Albert A. Michelson (1852-1931), American physicist. He was born in Strelno, Prussia (now Strzelno, Poland). His family emigrated to the US in 1854. He attended the U.S. Naval Academy and graduated in 1873. After some studies in Europe (Berlin, Heidelberg and Paris) he became Professor of Physics in Case School of Applied Science (1883-89), Clark Univeristy (1889-92) and University of Chicago (1892-1931). He invented an interferometer and an echelon grating, and did important experimental work on the spectrum, but is chiefly remembered for the Michelson-Morley experiment to determine æther drift, the negative result of which set Einstein on the road to the Theory of Relativity. In 1907 he became the first American scientist to win a Nobel prize &quot;for his optical precision instruments and the spectroscopic and metrological investigations carried out with their aid.&quot; ([http://nobelprize.org/nobel_prizes/physics/laureates/1907/michelson-bio.html Michelson].)<br /> <br /> '''Maxwell Field Equations'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> In 1864, Maxwell advanced a set of four equations that would describe almost all phenomena involving electricity and magnetism. They not only explained the interrelationship of these two but also showed these two could not be separated. There was only a single ''electromagnetic field''. These equations predicted the existence of ''electromagnetic radiation''. By taking the ratio of certain corresponding values in the equations describing the force between electric charges and the force between magnetic poles one can calculate the velocity at which the electromagnetic wave would have to move. This ratio turned out to be precisely equal to the velocity of light. In 1865 Maxwell wrote that &quot;light itself is an electromagnetic disturbance in the form of waves<br /> propagated through the electromagnetic field according to electromagnetic laws&quot;.<br /> <br /> '''in Berlin'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> 1881.<br /> <br /> ==Page 59==<br /> <br /> '''Ohio'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Harks back to Mason &amp; Dixon's visit with George Washington.<br /> <br /> TRP spends an inordinate amount of time in Ohio in AtD. Why?<br /> I don't know. An idea: in addition to the Mason &amp; Dixon connection, Ohio dominated US politics from 1869 to 1923 producing 7 of the 11 [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ohio_presidents presidents] (counting Grover Cleveland -- who ironically was not from Ohio -- once). Most of them were riddled with scandal. <br /> <br /> In AtD, TRP seems to mention things that are connected with some of these presidents without naming the president outright. Spotting them is what is hereafter named the &quot;Hidden Ohio President&quot; -- sort of like &quot;find the pope in the pizza.&quot; The only president mentioned by name (to the best of my recollection) is William McKinley -- an Ohio president, but not hidden. <br /> <br /> '''This strip of Ohio due west of Connecticut'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> The [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Connecticut_Western_Reserve Western Reserve of Connecticut.]<br /> <br /> '''Blinky Morgan'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> The Blinky Morgan episode is not invented; it was a sensation in parts of Ohio in 1887-88. For a spoiler, [[M|see M in the Alphabetical Index.]]<br /> <br /> '''bravos in blue'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> A bravo is defined as a villain, especially a hired killer. [http://www.thefreedictionary.com/bravo Definition] Here, it's the men in blue who earn that sobriquet. <br /> <br /> '''Northern Ohio Insane Asylum'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Full of light enthusiastes who invented light-powered bicycles (see p 76), believe light to have consciousness and personality, and who eat light.<br /> <br /> &quot;Originally known as the [http://www.rootsweb.com/~asylums/cleveland_oh/index.html Northern Ohio Lunatic Asylum], this was the second of 6 public asylums established in Ohio in the 1850's. In later years it was commonly known as Newburgh State Hospital because it was located in Newburgh Township as recompense for Cleveland having been awarded the location of Cuyahoga County Seat. The main building, containing 100 beds, was completed in 1855 on land in Newburgh&quot; donated by the family of James Garfield, later US president -- who ironically was gunned down by a [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/James_Garfield &quot;delusional religious fanatic.&quot;] <br /> <br /> Hidden Ohio Presidents: this is the first (not) mentioned president from Ohio in AtD, James Garfield. <br /> <br /> Could there exist some subtly altered version of the Northern Ohio Insane Asylum, filled with scientists? A university perhaps, from which physicists sometimes escape to wreak havoc upon the world? Surely, not: that would be Para-NOIA.<br /> <br /> ==Page 60==<br /> <br /> '''Lightarians'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> see Breatharians [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/inedia Wikipedia entry], who claim that it is possible to live without food.<br /> <br /> '''Aether reports'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Associations of light with &quot;wind.&quot;<br /> <br /> '''Roswell Bounce'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> GR includes a character named Hillary Bounce.<br /> <br /> The mentions of cosmic space, balloons, a US Bureau &quot;in charge of reporting,&quot; and his occupation as a photograper seem to allude to the 1947 Roswell UFO incident, an alleged alien crash that the US government insisted was a downed weather balloon. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Roswell_UFO_incident Wikipedia entry]<br /> <br /> ==Page 61==<br /> <br /> '''intervals of invisibility'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> When you blink, the world becomes invisible momentarily. Blinky - intervals of no light?<br /> <br /> '''international scramble to ''corner light'''''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Corner a commodity, or make a corner in it: to gain possession or just control of so much gold or silver, say, that you can dictate the price. In 1869 Jay Gould and James Fisk almost cornered gold; their success depended on the federal government locking down its gold reserves, but [http://www.americanheritage.com/articles/magazine/ah/1991/1/1991_1_20.shtml in the end it didn't.] The whole market collapsed. In the 1970s the Hunt brothers [http://www.wallstraits.com/main/viewarticle.php?id=1298 nearly made a corner in silver.]<br /> <br /> '''Somehow Merle got the idea in his head that the Michelson-Morley experiment and the Blinky Morgan manhunt were connected.'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Vaguely recalls the use of John Dillinger in ''Gravity's Rainbow'' (741), insofar as they both read a surprising amount of metaphysical meaning into the death or final apprehension of a notorious criminal.<br /> It also ties the criminal underground (out of the light) with the properties of light. <br /> <br /> '''box job'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Safecracking. [http://www.skepticfiles.org/faq/twists.htm [cite]]<br /> <br /> '''Each of Blinky's eyes . . . a walking interferometer'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> The instrument used by Michelson and Morley (see annotations to page 58) was called an interferometer. It worked by leading light along two paths, then back to the source. Light also reaches Blinky by two distinct paths.<br /> <br /> Blinky's damaged left eye indicates the 12th house in Vedic medical astrology, the house of invisible enemies, hospitals, insane asylums, imprisonment, bankruptcy, expenses, convents/monasteries, pleasures of the bedroom. The 4th, 8th (see Columbus below) and 12th form the triad of moksha houses, houses of final release and liberation. Being next to the 1st, the house of dawn and the day, the 12th is alongside the day, and a great place to disappear into.<br /> <br /> Cf. Vera Meroving in ''V.'' (9.II) has an artificial left eye the iris of which is encircled by the zodiac and seems to operate like a watch.<br /> <br /> ==Page 62==<br /> <br /> '''A walking interferometer'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Blinky Morgan is a walking [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Interferometry#Interferometer interferometer].&lt;br&gt;<br /> Incidentally, while you may not be able to become a walking interferometer, you can apparently train yourself to see light polarity, whether the polarization is linear or circular and in which direction thanks to [http://www.polarization.com/haidinger/haidinger.html Haidinger's Brush.]<br /> <br /> '''double-refractor'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> In physics, the word ''birefringence'' describes a substance that refracts light differently as a function of its direction or polarization. If the difference has to do with color or wavelength, the term used is ''dispersion'' (a prism disperses white light into a rainbow).<br /> <br /> '''Edward Morley'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Edward W. Morley (1838-1912), American chemist and physicist. He was born in Newark, N.J. He was a professor at Western Reserve (1869-1906) and conducted researches in the variations of atmosphere oxygen content, thermal expansion of gases, vapor tension of mercury, desities of oxygen and hydrogen. He was best known for collaboration with Michelson on æther effect experiment (1887).<br /> <br /> '''''goes somewhere else'' . . . where Blinky was when he was invisible'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Suggesting that Blinky's mechanism for invisibility—and Lew's stepping [[ATD_26-56#Page_44|&quot;to the side of the day&quot;]] as well—involves moving a little distance along some unconventional dimension, so that the light by which people ''would'' see him doesn't arrive with the rest of the light they perceive.<br /> <br /> '''when Michelson and Morley were making their final observations'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> M&amp;M's paper appeared in a November 1887 journal and reported observations dated January and July, presumably also 1887. (Publication lag was much shorter then than it is today.)<br /> <br /> '''Alpena, Michigan'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Town where Blinky Morgan is apprehended. One of two anchor cities in Northern Michigan. The other, across the peninsula, its rival, Traverse City. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alpena%2C_Michigan Alpena link] [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Traverse_City%2C_Michigan Traverse City link] <br /> <br /> '''''emerged from invisibility'''''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Blinky &quot;emerges from invisibility&quot; thus dooming the existence of aether. Aether is then &quot;Against the Day&quot; undetectable, unknowable, invisible.<br /> <br /> '''the moment he reentered the world . . . experiment was fated to have a negative outcome'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> The phrasing points to [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Schroedinger%27s_cat Schrödinger's infamous cat experiment,] where the fate of the creature is not determined until the chamber is opened and the system inside it reenters the observer's world.<br /> <br /> '''cults who believe the world will end on such and such a day'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Such as the [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Millerites Millerites], who thought this would occur on October 22, 1844.<br /> <br /> ==Page 63==<br /> <br /> '''O.D. Chandrasekhar'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Perhaps a nod to [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chandrasekhar Subrahmanyan Chandrasekhar] (1910-1995), an Indian-American physicist, astrophysicist and mathematician, known to the world as Chandra, who was awarded the 1983 Nobel Prize in Physics. He calculated and discovered the [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chandrasekharlimit Chandrasekhar Limit] which is the maximum mass possible for a white dwarf star (one of the end stages of stars that have exhausted their fuel) supported by electron degeneracy pressure, and is approximately 3 × 1030 kg, around 1.44 times the mass of the Sun.<br /> The initials O.D.C. refer to the novel &quot;2001: A space odyssey&quot; by Arthur C. Clarke, where [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dr._Chandra Chandra] is the inventor of the HAL computer system.<br /> In ATD p. 63 O.D.Chandrasekhar mentions akasa as the solution for the problems the aetherists have discussing implications of the Michelson-Morley experiment, akasa referring to [http://ignca.nic.in/ps_05013.htm space] in hindu cosmology, alas O.D. is proposing space itself here as the medium for light.<br /> <br /> O.D. may be named after Shiva, the destructive or transformative deity of the Hindu Trimurti. &quot;Shiva bears on his head the crescent of the moon. Thus Shiva is known by the names of Somasundara and Chandrashekara.&quot;[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shiva#Attributes_of_Shiva wiki]<br /> <br /> Chandra means moon. Punning, chandra &quot;sekhar&quot; might be &quot;moon seeker.&quot;&lt;br&gt;<br /> According to a colleague from India, &quot;sekhar&quot; means &quot;light.&quot; &lt;br&gt;So, <br /> O.D. Chandrasekhar means &quot;o.d. on moonlight&quot; or &quot;o.d. on moonshine.&quot;<br /> <br /> '''If we can explain . . . why keep it?'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> If Roswell doesn't engage his internal censor pretty quickly, he will be asking this question about God indeed.<br /> <br /> '''directionless drift…Mia Culpepper…astrology…void of course…mid October'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> TRP is taking some poetic license with the term void of course. The moon is Void of Course when it does not make any major aspect with a planet from the moment of its last aspect to the end of the sign it is passing through. The moon passes through each sign approximately every 2.5 days. Thus, void of course is an astrological situation that can last from a few minutes to a day or two at most – not until “mid-October” which sounds like more than two days into the future. And as it says in the book, it is a period of directionless drift. <br /> <br /> “Void of course” can also be a pun on the reality of the aether, it's void, of course, akasa. <br /> <br /> '''Madge and Mia Culpepper'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> May be descended from the noted astrologer, botanist and original wildcrafter [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nicholas_Culpeper Nicholas Culpeper (1616-1654)],through his only surviving child, Mary.<br /> <br /> They present another duality around light.&lt;br&gt;<br /> <br /> Madge derives from the Greek ''margaron'' meaning pearl or &quot;child of light&quot; and has some resonance if not relation to Magdalene. Madge as a pet-form of Magaret has been considered the [http://www.babynamer.com/Madgethe national Scottish female name].<br /> <br /> Mia, strictly speaking, is derived from the Hebrew Miryam meaning &quot;the wished-for child.&quot; It might be traced back to ancient Egyptian, and is a form of Maria/Mary. Other interpretations are &quot;rebellion&quot; or &quot;sea of bitterness.&quot; It might also simply be a pun on M.I.A. -- missing in action.<br /> <br /> Maybe 'Mea Culpa'? or to expand 'Mea Maxim Culpa' as [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mea_culpa here]<br /> <br /> '''fundament'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Buttocks.<br /> <br /> ==Page 64==<br /> <br /> '''Photography'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Light tied to silver and chemistry and a bit of alchemy.<br /> <br /> '''saw the image appear . . . out of the pale Invisible'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> The chemical processes of photography, a kind of alchemy, become the mechanism by which the visible becomes invisible (when the plate is exposed) and the invisible becomes visible (when it is developed). The chemistry of the silver salts may be the &quot;dimension&quot; Lew and Blinky move along.<br /> <br /> '''As if light had been witched somehow into its opposite...'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Darkness becomes light, and light becomes darkness. The essence of light is dark, and vice versa, and this might be a key hermeneutic for AtD.<br /> <br /> ==Page 65==<br /> <br /> '''Merle’s all-night illumination'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Distant echo of Blundell’s quote from p. 24 with inspiration (Merle’s new found obsession with photography) being like physical electricity, here like a light bulb. A glowing that keeps him awake.<br /> <br /> '''dip-fingered'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> A dip is a pickpocket. Merle has magic fingers for extracting information.<br /> <br /> '''Cleveland Library'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> The Cleveland Public Library was founded in 1869, its mission, &quot;to be the best urban library system in the country by providing access to the worldwide information that people and organizations need in a timely, convenient, and equitable manner.&quot; [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cleveland_Public_Library Wikipedia]<br /> <br /> The open-stacks system is deeply subversive and a great enabler of writers and other anarchists.<br /> <br /> ==Page 66==<br /> <br /> '''seeking admission to the hanging'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> This whole scene, with Blinky's Hanging memorabilia, people in town walking around in a trance, etc, strongly echoes the beginning verse of &quot;Desolation Row&quot; by Bob Dylan. [http://www.bobdylan.com/songs/desolation.html &quot;They're selling postcards of the hanging...&quot;(Dylan's lyrics)]<br /> <br /> '''murders in Ravenna'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Ravenna is the county seat of Portage County, Ohio (home to the famous Kent State University). Blinky Morgan and his gang broke into a train at the Ravenna Station to free a fellow gang member who was in-transit to be questioned regarding a recent robbery of a Cleveland area business. One officer was killed and another brought within an inch of his life [http://ech.case.edu/ech-cgi/article.pl?id=BMC [Encyclopedia of Cleveland History]].<br /> <br /> '''light of Heaven'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> By Merle ruining the plates of the hanging (where his photography obsession has led him) by over-exposure of physical light, his brain is lit up by a spiritual light.<br /> <br /> '''If the U.S. was a person . . . and it ''sat down,'' Columbus, Ohio would instantly be plunged into darkness.'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Merle stole this gag from ''Mason &amp; Dixon.''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Note that the bars in Columbus are said to close at 8 o'clock. In astrology (both Western and Vedic) the 8th house rules among other things, death, hemorroids, the anus and rectum.<br /> <br /> '''youthful folly'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> The name of the 4th hexagram of the I Ching (Yi Jing) in the Wilhelm/Baynes translation. Mentioned in GR as well.<br /> <br /> '''Lorain County'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Greater Cleveland. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lorain_County%2C_Ohio [Wikipedia]]<br /> <br /> ==Page 67==<br /> <br /> '''Beast Without Shame'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Inexplicably recalls the epithet earlier used to denounce Lew Basnight on [[ATD_26-56#Page_36|page 36]]: &quot;the Upstate-Downstate Beast.&quot;<br /> <br /> Given that Merle is involved with photography and that the ladies of indignation and male town folk are out to get him, one possibility, reading between the lines, is that Merle might be involved in risque photography, the late 19th century version of porn.<br /> <br /> Merle's backstory probably got rewritten very late in the game (see also pp30, 58, 64, and 75).<br /> <br /> '''East Fullmoon, Iowa'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> The full moon (fool moon) is usually associated with lunacy and strange behaviour. The moon is full when it is in direct opposition to the sun (against the day, so to say), and east is the direction of ascendancy (lunar, solar, planetary, etc.). An east full moon would be big and bright just after sunset (the death of the day).<br /> <br /> The moon also, traditionally in both western and eastern astrology, represents silver and the feminine -- the waxing moon, the growing young woman; the full moon, the pregnant mother; the waning moon, the mature woman becoming a crone; the new moon, the hidden cycle between death and rebirth/resurrection. <br /> <br /> The eastern houses of an astrological chart are the 1st, 2nd, and 12th. Only the 1st and 12th are above the horizon.&lt;br&gt;<br /> <br /> Full moon in the first house, the ascendant, represents the rise of lunacy, anarchy, the growing importance of silver and the empowerment of women. This is when the moon is big on the horizon. &lt;br&gt;<br /> <br /> As the moon moves higher into the sky, its apparent size diminishes as it transverses the twelfth house, and so the moon in the twelfth represents the loss of silver and the disappearance of women and mothers, and here in East Fullmoon we see the disappearance of two women, Roxana and Erlys. The 12th being a house of loss, &quot;there is little hope on the horizon...for any replacement.&quot; Venus is not rising on this particular night. However, &quot;Lucky&quot; Luca Zombini gets a replacement, while &quot;Miserable&quot; Merle Rideout does not.<br /> <br /> <br /> '''tenor sax player from the pit band at the local opera house'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> The &quot;opera house&quot; is not a venue for opera, then.<br /> <br /> ==Page 68==<br /> <br /> '''. . . have you ever felt that you wished to suddenly disappear . . . ?'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> While Merle is getting obsessed with revealing images from darkrooms and chemicals, Zombini comes and makes Erlys &quot;disappear.&quot;<br /> <br /> ==Page 69==<br /> <br /> '''some larger plan'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> May be talking about writing ''Against the Day'' itself.<br /> <br /> '''winter skies . . . Through the falling snow'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Above the white space we're in winter 1887-88 (after Blinky Morgan's execution); below it, winter 1893-94 (after the Fair closed).<br /> <br /> ==Page 70==<br /> <br /> '''scantlings'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Framing lumber.<br /> <br /> '''man-made bad times'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> The Panic of 1893 and the 1893-95 depression. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Panic_of_1893 The Wikipedia article] goes into causes and effects.<br /> <br /> '''giant spokes'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> This illusion, only with straight streets instead of straight planted rows, was described by the ''Chums'' author [[ATD_1-25#Page_10|on page 10.]]<br /> <br /> ''''seng'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Ginseng. ''Panax sp.'' The [http://www.wfbf.com/media_center/photo_gallery/ginseng%20closeup.jpg &quot;red berries&quot;] Merle refers to.&lt;br&gt;<br /> [http://memory.loc.gov/ammem/collections/tending/essay1c.html American Ginseng and the Idea of the Commons] at the LOC.<br /> <br /> '''. . . herbs the wildcrafters knew the names and market prices of . . .'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> &quot;Wildcrafting&quot; here means the harvest of any plant parts from non-cultivated medicinal plants, plants which have essentially planted themselves in any location&quot;. ([http://www.ryandrum.com/wildcrafting.htm wildcrafting] also contains a detailed explanation of the author's wildcrafting.)<br /> <br /> ==Page 71==<br /> <br /> '''Inner American Sea'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> The Great Plains. <br /> <br /> Melville in ''Moby Dick'' likens the sea to the prairie:<br /> <br /> Chapter 14: A Nantucker (sic) ''&quot;lives on the sea, as prairie cocks in the prairie, he hides among the waves, he climbs them ...like the Alps.&quot;''<br /> <br /> Chapter 114: ''&quot;in his whale-boat the rover softly feels a certain filial, confident, land-like feeling towards the sea; that he regards it as so much flowery earth; and the distant ship revealing only the tops of her masts, seems struggling forward, not though high rolling waves, but through the tall grass of a rolling prairie: as when the western emigrants' horses only show their erected ears, while their hidden bodies widely wade through the amazing verdure. The long-drawn virgin vales; the mild blue hill-sides; as over these there steals the hush, the hum; you almost swear that play-wearied children lie sleeping in these solitudes, in some glad May-time, when the flowers of the woods are plucked.&quot;'' <br /> <br /> But perhaps Melville was only following common usage as [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Conestoga_Wagon travelers] crossing the prairie often described their wagons as &quot;ships upon the ocean,&quot; or ships on &quot;rolling waves of green from horizon to horizon,&quot; or as resembling &quot;dim sails crossing a rolling sea.&quot; <br /> <br /> <br /> '''Ottumwa'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> City in Iowa. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ottumwa,_Iowa [Wikipedia]]<br /> <br /> '''Albert Lea'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> City in Minnesota. Hometown of Seaman Bodine from ''Gravity's Rainbow'' (710) and ''V.''.<br /> <br /> '''before the sun had moved a minute of arc'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> ''Pedantry alert:'' The sun moves 1 minute of arc in 4 clock seconds.<br /> <br /> ==Page 72==<br /> <br /> '''brightly lit against the stormy days'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Cf [[ATD_57-80#Page_57|page 57]].<br /> <br /> '''witch hazel'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Astringent distilled from leaves and bark of the witch hazel shrub (genus ''Hamamelis'') and used as a skin care product.<br /> <br /> '''thorned helixes'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> An allusion to Thurn and Taxis?<br /> <br /> '''Premo'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> 1903. [http://westfordcomp.com/classics/filmpackhawkeye/index.htm [cite]]<br /> <br /> '''Brownie'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> 1900.<br /> <br /> '''calm as a sharpshooter'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Allusion of camera as a gun. Also, perhaps the idea of breathing out when shooting to ensure calm when pulling the trigger (or pressing the shutter button).<br /> <br /> '''There was always plenty of bell-hanger work'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> In this and the subsequent pages we see Merle getting involved, apart from his usual ''light-related'' job (photography), to ''sound-related'' and ''electricity-related'' jobs.<br /> <br /> ==Page 73==<br /> <br /> '''frog-bonding'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Can mean a technique in brick masonry. [http://au.answers.yahoo.com/question/index.php?qid=20061106081517AAscjfG [source]], but when referring to streetcars, &quot;frogs&quot; are the heavy metal flangeways that connect track to switches, diamonds, cross-overs and other track structures. Frogs guide wheels from one track structure to another. Pynchon may be confusing the term. (Frog-bonding here is probably the electrician's task of installing cables to link the frog and the tracks to either side of it, so that the car's front and rear wheels are at the same potential relative to the catenary wire.)<br /> <br /> '''sal ammoniac battery'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Wet storage cell using sal ammoniac (ammonium chloride) solution as electrolyte. A well-known form is the Leclanché cell. Prof. Vanderjuice got mixed up with such a battery [[ATD_57-80#Page_58|on page 58.]]<br /> <br /> '''Skip'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Obviously recalls Byron the sentient lightbulb from ''Gravity's Rainbow''. Also possibly the movie &quot;Ghostbusters&quot;.<br /> Also recalls Insane Asylum where he is told light has &quot;consciousness and personality.&quot;<br /> But Merle's &quot;hitch as a lightning-rod salesman&quot; also may be read as Pynchon's<br /> tip-of-the-hat (or the copper rod) to a certain nineteenth-century American<br /> predecessor, the author of a story called &quot;The Lightning Rod Man&quot; (1854).<br /> Come to think of it, Pynchon may be the one contemporary author able to match<br /> Melville in whimsy, satire, melancholia, encryption, Jehovah-like ambition, and periodic<br /> sentences that are light on their feet yet labyrinthine. Cf. M&amp;D's link to Melville's<br /> ''Israel Potter'' (now, sadly, unread), or GR's line trailing back toward that book about a whale.... Cf. ATD, p. 123.<br /> This 'Skip' episode is not to be skipped or skimmed; it sets ATD's readers briefly aglow with sweetness and light &amp;#151; and sadness.<br /> <br /> '''Ball Lightning'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> 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 size 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 the same phenomenon. See [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ball_lightning Ball Lightning], <br /> [http://www.abc.net.au/science/news/stories/s520317.htm Ball lightning explained] and<br /> [http://www.sciencenews.org/articles/20020209/bob8.asp Anatomy of a lightning ball].<br /> <br /> :Great balls of fire [http://searchlight.anomalyresponse.org/2007/03/physicists-create-great-balls-of-fire.html]! Sort of reminds one of that [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Great_Balls_of_Fire Jerry Lee Lewis song]. Recall The Killer's 1973 tune [[Meat Man]], and one [[ATD 397-428#meatman|Alonzo Meatman]]...<br /> <br /> ==Page 74==<br /> <br /> '''two bits'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> The equivalent of an absurdly generous $5 in today's money. [http://www.measuringworth.com/calculators/ppowerus/ [calculator]]<br /> Merle's proposition to Dahlia echoes the old saw about marriage: if you put a penny in a jar for every time &quot;you do it&quot; in the first year of marriage and take a penny out for every time you do it thereafter, you'd never empty the jar.<br /> <br /> '''Indian grass'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> A North American prairie grass [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Indian_Grass Wikipedia]<br /> <br /> ==Page 75==<br /> <br /> '''She watched the invisible force at work'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> This subchapter, in which we have watched Merle getting involved in jobs about ''sound'' and ''electricity'', on top of his usual job about ''light'', closes with an image of the blowing ''wind'', the &quot;invisible force&quot;. A couple of lines back, we have Merle saying &quot;There's your gold, Dahlia&quot;, pointing to the wind &quot;blowing in the high Indian grass&quot; and Dally thinking &quot;what an ''alchemist'' [he] was&quot; (italics mine). It is the first allusion of Merle as an alchemist.<br /> <br /> '''San Juans'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> [http://www.americansouthwest.net/colorado/san_juan_mountains/index.html [map]]<br /> <br /> '''Dishforth's Illustrated Weekly'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> &quot;dish&quot; - gossip. Also, Dishforth is an English cricket club in the Nidderdale and District Amateur Cricket League.<br /> <br /> '''some new kind of gravure process'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> In gravure (rotogravure, photogravure) printing, the ink is applied to the paper via tiny pits or &quot;cells&quot; in the metal gravure cylinder. The equipment costs way more than hot-lead or offset plant, but the image quality ranges from very good up to astounding and the cylinder is good for extremely long runs. Gravure differs from halftone in pits versus raised dots. At the time of the action, gravure was used for premium materials such as lifestyle magazines.<br /> <br /> If anyone remembers the song &quot;Easter Parade,&quot; the lines<br /> &lt;blockquote&gt;The photographers will snap us,&lt;br&gt;<br /> And you'll find that you're&lt;br&gt;<br /> in the rotogravure,&lt;/blockquote&gt;<br /> refer to a gravure-printed fashion section in a newspaper.<br /> <br /> The halftone, which became common in the 1890s, revolutionized magazines, no longer requiring more complex and expensive engravings. Pictures were finer, as explained in this section, as they were reduced to &quot;a grain so fine&quot; that the dots were almost invisible. Light and dark were therefore split into tiny atoms of ink, allowing for subtle gradations of tone. [http://www.oldandsold.com/articles10/advertising-14.shtml Article on the history of the halftone.]<br /> <br /> '''approach the gates of the laughing academy'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Echoes &quot;approach the gates of the Penitentiary&quot; (used by the ''Chums'' author) [[ATD_1-25#Page_7|on page 7.]]<br /> <br /> ==Page 76==<br /> <br /> '''charge slowly building up on a condenser plate'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Condensers are now more often called capacitors. You store charge by taking electrons from one plate and depositing them on the other.<br /> <br /> '''photographer's or, if you like, alchemist's stuff'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Second allusion to Merle as an alchemist (see also previous and next page).<br /> <br /> '''Electric Generator hooked to an old bicycle'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Don't know if this is that important, but similar to Insane Asylum light-bicycle. (There was one in GR, too-- somebody giving a haircut.)<br /> <br /> '''annealing oven'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Equipment that definitely pertains to alchemy and metal fabrication more than photography. The alchemist who creates his/her own glassware (alembics, coils, etc.) has an annealing oven, in which newly made wares are allowed to cool very slowly (many hours) so that internal stresses are relieved. Unannealed glass shatters too readily. A similar treatment is applied to metal parts that have been made brittle by working (bending, hammering, etc.), and for a similar reason. <br /> <br /> '''burnishing machine'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> In darkroom times, very high-gloss prints got that way by being pressed against a bright, smooth, chrome-plated drum that was heated from the inside.<br /> <br /> ==Page 77==<br /> <br /> '''Webb Traverse'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> The character is introduced mere paragraphs after the description of spiderwebs &quot;that when the early daylight was right cause you to stand there just stupefied.&quot; As &quot;traverse&quot; means to travel across or through, perhaps the character's name signifies his ability to navigate the complicated webs off.. I dunno, society, the establishment or something?<br /> <br /> Traversing the WorldWideWeb is a common expression, eg by search engine 'spiders'.<br /> <br /> In law, to &quot;traverse&quot; means to deny, and a &quot;traverse&quot; to a pleading is a denial of its allegations. This appellation fits Webb Traverse, whose anarchism is a denial of industrial capitalism.<br /> He also traverses moral boundaries: he kills innocents.<br /> <br /> Mason and Dixon's survey was a traverse, as opposed to a triangulation.<br /> <br /> See note on p.62 in regards to Traverse City, MI (Alpena's cross-peninsula rival). Significant, or not?<br /> <br /> '''cupel'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> A porous ceramic cup used in refining noble metals like gold. When the contents are melted, &quot;base&quot; metals oxidize and the material of the cupel absorbs them, leaving the gold in the cup.<br /> <br /> '''the famous Philosopher's Stone'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Not famous enough: When Scholastic Books acquired the Harry Potter series for U.S. publication, the company insulted American readers by changing the name of the first book from ''Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone'' to ''H.P. &amp; the Sorcerer's Stone.'' The Sorcerer's Stone is not famous at all.<br /> <br /> My guess is they thought Americans would be scared off by anything involving &quot;philosophy.&quot;&lt;br&gt;<br /> <br /> This guess is correct as I heard from colleagues in publishing.[[User:MKOHUT|MKOHUT]] 14:43, 14 June 2007 (PDT)<br /> <br /> The Philosopher's Stone and alchemy discussion may refer to LSD. &quot;...acid and so on...&quot; (78)<br /> '''traprock'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> In geology, a dark-colored, fine-grained igneous rock like basalt.<br /> <br /> '''alchemists keep tryin, it's what we do'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Photography as alchemy. Mercury and the Philosopher's stone.<br /> <br /> '''Fulminate I believe it's called'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Merle gets almost everything right (and a good thing, too—these substances are lethal). [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mercury_fulminate Mercury fulminate] was discovered in 1799 and came into use in detonators by 1814. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Silver_fulminate Wikipedia] has a good entry on silver fulminate and fulminating silver. Some fulminates are so sensitive that their own weight will cause them to detonate. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fulminic_acid Fulminic acid,] discovered in 1824, is not the same as prussic (hydrocyanic) acid but does smell like it. Fulminating gold, not very closely related to these, is a material of alchemy.<br /> <br /> ==Page 78==<br /> <br /> '''The Anti-Stone'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Probably anticipates the atom bomb. See page 79 on &quot;politics through chemistry&quot;....&quot;temples of Mammon all in smithereens&quot;.<br /> <br /> This statement that Anti-Stone, if it is an allusion to the atomic bomb, &quot;has another name that we'd just get into trouble saying out loud&quot; <br /> reminds of Oppenheimer and what he said the detonation of the first atomic bomb &quot;Trinity&quot; in the New Mexico desert made him think of: &quot;We knew the world would not be the same. A few people laughed, a few people cried, most people were silent. I remembered the line from the Hindu scripture, the Bhagavad-Gita. Vishnu is trying to persuade the Prince that he should do his duty and to impress him takes on his multi-armed form and says, 'Now, I am become Death, the destroyer of worlds.' I suppose we all thought that one way or another.&quot;[11] <br /> <br /> :The A-bomb is just not convincing. No one—not even proficient alchemists—knew until the 1930s that elements could be transmuted explosively. And at the time of the action (1890s) the only way to get into trouble by saying &quot;atom bomb&quot; would be to say it to a conservative English teacher. While using an atomic bomb does result in &quot;smithereens,&quot; its action is not based on chemistry. If you dissect this conversation, going all the way back to &quot;In Colorado they found a farm outbuilding,&quot; it seems more likely that Merle and Webb are thinking of a process that deconstructs gold and silver and turns plutocrats' fortunes into rubble. Two alternatives: (a) Just as triple-rectified mercury is a step along the way to the Stone, fulminating silver is a step along the way to the Anti-Stone, some ideal or essential chemical explosive. Or (b) what demolishes fortunes and turns gold into just a shiny metal: revolution and anarchy.<br /> <br /> Anti-Stone seems to be a watchword. Merle and Webb are sizing each other up, looking for a &quot;countersign&quot; sniffing each other out as members of a conspiracy. Similar to Masonic (brick/stone) practice where signs and countersigns are used so that members may recognize one another in public without revealing themselves, &quot;Anti-Stone&quot; and &quot;alchemist&quot; stand in as coded references for &quot;anarchist&quot; -- a word, that if spoken, would get them in trouble.<br /> <br /> If the Philosopher's Stone is a &quot;figure of speech for God and salvation&quot; in everyday, &quot;Christian&quot; society, &quot;why then the other --&quot; the Antichrist is the Anarchist, who seeks to overturn that social order. In a [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Calvinistic Calvinistic]- Pynchonian world, the Philosopher Stone of God and Salvation represents the Elect, the &quot;pre-saved&quot; and the other is the preterite, totally depraved and ruined, common man. <br /> <br /> [http://www.3rd1000.com/alchemy/alchemyterms2.htm Handy Alchemy Dictionary]&lt;br&gt;<br /> Compare ''Lapis Philosophorum'' and ''Infernal Stone''&lt;br&gt;<br /> AntiStone might be thought of as the ''Infernal Stone'' which is an alkali hydroxide such as sodium hydroxide (caustic soda) used to make soap or potassium hydroxide aka potash. They are both alkali salts. Another alkali salt (but not an hydroxide) is calcium carbonate, better known as Iceland Spar.<br /> <br /> <br /> '''breathin in those fumes'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Mercury fumes are what made hatters mad.<br /> <br /> ==Page 79==<br /> <br /> '''poor folks on the march, bigger than Coxey’s Army'''&lt;br /&gt;<br /> Group of unemployed men who marched to Washington, D.C., in the depression year of 1894. Jacob S. Coxey (1854–1951), a businessman, led the group, which hoped to persuade Congress to authorize public-works programs to provide jobs. It left Ohio on March 25 and reached Washington on May 1 with about 500 men, the only one of several groups to reach its destination. It attracted much attention but failed to bring about any legislation [http://www.answers.com/topic/coxey-s-army Answers.com], [http://www.britannica.com/eb/article-9026696/Coxeys-Army Britannica]<br /> <br /> ==Page 80==<br /> <br /> '''not the result of any idle drift but more of a secret imperative, like the force of gravity'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Ties into the central scientific metaphor of GR, that the laws of physics and fate are somehow connected.<br /> <br /> '''as if silver were alive, with a soul and a voice'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> . . . like Skip the ball lightning.<br /> <br /> ==Annotation Index==<br /> {{ATD PbP}}</div>

MKOHUT https://against-the-day.pynchonwiki.com/wiki/index.php?title=ATD_1-25&diff=14164 2007-10-28T14:42:58Z

<p>MKOHUT: /* Page 9 */</p> <hr /> <div>:'''&lt;big&gt;Please keep these annotations SPOILER-FREE by not revealing information from later pages in the novel.&lt;/big&gt;'''&lt;p&gt;&lt;br&gt;<br /> <br /> ==cover text==<br /> The black text and its drop shadows are in different typefaces. It may be worth noting, from a conceptual point of view, that we can infer from the angle of the drop shadows that the light source is any individual holding the book—that is, the reader or a potential reader.<br /> <br /> ==cover seal==<br /> The seal appears to be written in Tibetan language, according to somebody who posts regularly to Pynchon-l under the name &quot;Ya Sam&quot;, who reports:<br /> <br /> I contacted the Tibetan Cultural Centre with the request to translate <br /> the mysterious legend on the AtD seal. They were kind enough to forward my <br /> request to the Tibetan tranlsator Tenzin Namgyal to whose generosity we <br /> owe the solution of one more ATD related mystery.<br /> <br /> It is the Tibetan language, alright, and it means ...... Tibetan <br /> Government Chamber of Commerce.<br /> <br /> Read their response below:<br /> <br /> :Dear Ya Sam,&lt;br /&gt;<br /> :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?<br /> <br /> :Best wishes,<br /> <br /> :Sandy Belth&lt;br /&gt;<br /> :Tibetan Cultural Center<br /> <br /> Also of interest: the coin bears a striking 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:<br /> <br /> :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, &quot;The Doubloon&quot;)<br /> <br /> ==copyright page==<br /> 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 &quot;Penguin Press&quot; as the publisher, as could be expected, and it seems likely that the substitution of &quot;Penguin Press&quot; with &quot;Viking&quot; is one of many typographical errors in the book (see [[errata]]). <br /> 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: &quot;this was a copyediting mistake that will be corrected. There was never a Viking contract for this book.&quot;<br /> <br /> ==Dedication==<br /> Most of Pynchon's novels contain dedications-- ''Mason &amp; Dixon'' (&quot;For Melanie, and for Jackson&quot;) , ''Vineland'' (&quot;For my mother and father&quot;), and ''Gravity's Rainbow'' (&quot;For Richard Fariña&quot;)-- but not so ''Against the Day,'' as published. Advance reading copies of the book did contain the words &quot;Dedication TK&quot; in italics, but this is simply [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/To_Come publisher-speak] for &quot;dedication to come.&quot; 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. <br /> <br /> ==Epigraph==<br /> &quot;It's always night, or we wouldn't need light.&quot; - Thelonious Monk&lt;br&gt;<br /> 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 &quot;God&quot;; 2) the character McClintic Sphere in ''V''. takes Monk's middle name, Sphere; and 3) &quot;It's always night, or we wouldn't need light&quot; 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]]: &quot;...daylit America ... its steadfast denial of night.&quot; <br /> <br /> ==Page 1==<br /> <br /> '''The Light Over the Ranges'''&lt;br&gt; <br /> &quot;Range&quot; is defined in the ''Oxford American Dictionary'' as &quot;a line or series of mountains or hills : the coastal ranges of the northwest,&quot; so &quot;range&quot; or &quot;ranges&quot; can be used to denote a number of mountains.&lt;br&gt;<br /> <br /> 'Ranges' may also refer to farms, homesteads and ranches in 1893 America. America was predominantly that in 1893. Cf. &quot;Home, home on the range&quot;.<br /> <br /> &quot;celebrating in song the wider range of life...&quot; Thomas Pynchon on<br /> [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Helen_Waddell Helen Waddell's]<br /> ''The Wandering Scholars'', p. 8, Introduction to[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Slow_Learner ''Slow Learner], 1984.<br /> <br /> A range is also a group of diverse objects.<br /> <br /> A-and &quot;range&quot; is a word full of its own meaning. [[Range|A partial list of definitions of &quot;range&quot;...]]&lt;br&gt;<br /> Range as diversity---lost---may be a major theme of AtD.<br /> <br /> ==Page 3==<br /> <br /> '''&quot;Now single up all lines!&quot;'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Pynchon was in the Navy for a spell and &quot;single up all lines&quot; 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 &quot;single up all lines&quot; is to remove the redundant second lines in preparation to make way.<br /> <br /> But the opening line has many possible connotations. <br /> :The Modern Word's Quail [http://www.themodernword.com/reviews/pynchon_atd.html writes] that &quot;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.&quot; <br /> <br /> :&quot;single up all lines&quot; 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 &amp; Dixon'', pp.258 and 260]. Perhaps we can understand this &quot;line&quot; as a text-string linking Pynchon's novels together (all but ''Vineland''?) &amp;#151; in preparation for a voyage to...?<br /> <br /> Also, in the very first sentence, Pynchon introduces the concept of doubling &amp;#151; &quot;single up all lines&quot; as a call to journey, to movement and expansion, a beginning. Then, on [[#Page_10|page 10]]: &quot;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.&quot; Thus, a progressive singling or reduction of all lines/paths, a rationalization/routinization unto death. Both represent &quot;a progressive reduction of choices&quot; &amp;#151; a collapsing of many possibilities into one &quot;reality.&quot; ''See also'' [[ATD_557-587#Page_585|annotation, page 585]] and more on [[Routinization of Charisma]].<br /> <br /> '''&quot;Cheerly now...handsomely...very well!!&quot;'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Cheerly means &quot;heartily,&quot; and was traditionally used as cry of encouragement among sailors. Handsomely (in nautical context): carefully, in good order, unhurriedly.<br /> <br /> :Pynchon served in the Navy and uses nautical language in most of his novels. ''Mason &amp; Dixon'': &quot;Cheerly. Cheerly, then, Lads...&quot; (54).<br /> <br /> '''&quot;Windy City, here we come!&quot;'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> The nickname for Chicago, of course, but in 1893 the use meant city of braggarts more than it did wind. The earliest known references to the &quot;Windy City&quot; are from 1876, and involve Chicago's rivalry with Cincinnati. A popular myth states that &quot;Windy City&quot; was first used by New York Sun editor Charles Dana in the bidding for the 1893 Columbian Exposition. The popularity of the nickname has endured, even after the Cincinnati rivalry and the Columbian Exposition both ended. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Windy_City,_Origin_of_Name_(Chicago)| Origin of name &quot;Windy City&quot; at Wikipedia]<br /> <br /> '''Randolph St. Cosmo, the ship commander'''&lt;br /&gt;<br /> [[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 &quot;randy&quot; St. Cosmo, aka the &quot;modern Priapus,&quot; and the saintly martyred St. Cosmo of Church lore. Pynchon, it seems, is connecting Randolph St. Cosmo to the former. &quot;Randy,&quot; as astute observers will note, is an adjective which means, well, &quot;horny.&quot; 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...]]) &amp;#151; a-and Heartsease, St. Cosmo's mate, is the first to get pregnant! &amp;#151; 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]<br /> <br /> In [http://masondixon.pynchonwiki.com/wiki/index.php?title=V#veery ''Mason &amp; Dixon''], Pynchon has the Veery brothers, Cosmo and Damian, who are professional effigy makes in Philadelphia! And, just to make it interesting, &quot;He's a rare Wax Artist, our Cosmo is.&quot; (p. 290) (Note: Wax phallus effigies were offered by the women to St. Cosmo at the festivals held in his name, as shown above.)<br /> <br /> '''Now secure the Special Sky Detail'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> 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 &quot;Now set the Special Sea Detail.&quot;] ''Inconvenience'' is run along fairly strict naval lines—given the age of the officers and crew, you might say she is a tot ship—and the beginning of the book was preceded by an analogous &quot;Now set the Special Sky Detail.&quot; Once the ship is aloft and clear of ground obstructions, the command comes, &quot;Now secure the Special Sky Detail,&quot; meaning disband the team for the time being and all return to regular duties. The language, tasks and customs aboard the skyship will show parallels to navy usage throughout the book.<br /> <br /> '''summer uniform of red-and-white-striped blazer and trousers of sky blue'''&lt;br /&gt;<br /> Calls to mind the color scheme of Ned Land's (Kirk Douglas) costume in Disney's 1954 film version of ''20,000 Leagues under the Sea''.&lt;br&gt;<br /> <br /> Also calls to mind the colors of the American flag.<br /> <br /> '''&quot;scuttlebutt&quot; . . . thousand . . . wonders'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> 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 &quot;Book of the Fair&quot; by Hubert Bancroft, 1893.<br /> :&quot;Scuttlebutt&quot; is a very close equivalent to &quot;water-cooler gossip.&quot; [http://www.jacksjoint.com/sailor_terminology.htm Here is a glossary] of nautical terms with some of the etymologies.<br /> <br /> '''''Inconvenience'''''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Pynchon's fictional navy includes the USS Scaffold 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. Impulsive is the name of the ship Ploy, who loses all his teeth in V., gets transferred to.<br /> Inconvenience is an apt name for the Chums' adventures in 'reality'. They are an inconvenience; they are inconvenienced. (In having to take on Chick Counterfly, for example).&lt;br&gt;<br /> <br /> Pynchon uses the word ''inconvenience'' in a possibly thematic, connected way in ''Mason &amp; Dixon'' and in ''Gravity's Rainbow''. In ''Mason &amp; Dixon'', the word is applied to the difficulties of an Other, other human beings as we act, interact. See citations at the ''M &amp; D'' wiki. Here is the clearest relevant use for understanding for the Chums' airship, perhaps: from ''Gravity's Rainbow'': &quot;the gift of Daedalus that allowed him [Pokler] to put as much labyrinth as required between himself and the<br /> ''inconveniences of caring''. [Italics mine] They had sold him convenience, so much of it, all on credit, and now They were collecting.&quot;<br /> page 435, Penguin paperback edition with the Frank Miller cover. <br /> <br /> In addition, if we take the Latinate roots of in-con-ven-(ience) and willfully misread the &quot;in&quot; as adverbial &quot;in&quot; (as e.g. &quot;in-come&quot;) rather than the privative &quot;not&quot; (as e.g. &quot;in-cred-ible&quot;), we get &quot;the arriving-in-together&quot;; the &quot;inconvenience&quot;, then, is essentially a tongue-in-cheek &quot;vehicle&quot;.&lt;br&gt;<br /> I do not think it illuminating to &quot;willfully misread&quot;!?! We are trying to<br /> willfully read possible meanings and resonances. [[User:MKOHUT|MKOHUT]] 06:01, 2 August 2007 (PDT)<br /> <br /> Also, recall Fender-Belly Bodine, in [http://masondixon.pynchonwiki.com/wiki/index.php?title=I#inconvenience ''Mason &amp; Dixon'']: &quot;Back on old H.M.S. ''Inconvenience'', we wasted many a Day and Night watching that fancy Counter get smaller by the minute...&quot; (p.28)<br /> <br /> '''patriotic bunting'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> TRP reminds again that this is a very American skyship.&lt;br&gt;<br /> AtD has many echoes of Doctorow's &quot;Ragtime&quot;: Doctorow fictionalises the same era, including anarchists, bombings, and early Hollywood. <br /> <br /> '''aeronautics'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> 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]<br /> <br /> '''five-lad crew'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Randolph St. Cosmo (ship commander), Lindsay Noseworth (master-at-arms), Miles Blundell (handyman apprentice), Darby Suckling (factotum and mascot), and Chick Counterfly. The commander's name evokes Randolph St., a main thoroughfare in Chicago. Perhaps also saint(liness) and cosmos?<br /> <br /> '''The [[Chums of Chance]]'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> To be chummy with chance might mean lucky, fond of gambling, fond of chaos, irrational, or anarchist. Or maybe they became chums by accident. The &quot;chance&quot; may also be that of the winds that carry them in directions not always intended.<br /> :The American philospher Charles Sanders Peirce, who set down his most important ideas in the late 1800's, argued that 'Chance' was a feature of the universe that can refute all determinisms.<br /> <br /> &quot;The certainty of chance&quot; is a Surrealist slogan. We learned from ''Slow Learner'' that Pynchon was influenced early by Surrealism. <br /> The slogan is quoted in this obit of a real life<br /> character out of Pynchon, George Melly, Jazz singer, writer, anarchist and polymorphous lover.[http://www.economist.com/search/search.cfm?rv=2&amp;qr=melly&amp;area=1&amp;x=6&amp;y=7]<br /> <br /> 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, &quot;The Boys.&quot;<br /> <br /> [[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. &quot;The Explorigator&quot; 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'' ran for 14 weeks in 1908 and made an impression for its imaginative and visual creativity. [[The Explorigator|More on ''The Explorigator'']] &lt;ref&gt;[http://lambiek.net/artists/d/dart_harry_grant.htm Lambiek Comiclopedia]&lt;/ref&gt;<br /> <br /> 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]. <br /> <br /> The creativity of Pynchon's naming of the Chums, as other characters, shows yet again his Dickensian influence.<br /> <br /> Note that there's five Chums, the number of chapters of the book (a-and the number of letters in &quot;Chums&quot;!). <br /> <br /> '''Chicago'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> It has been suggested that Pynchon relied on the [http://www.1911encyclopedia.org/ 1911 Edition of the Encyclopaedia Britannica] as a major reference for his treatment of 1890s Chicago. [http://www.1911encyclopedia.org/Chicago 1911 Britannica entry on Chicago]<br /> <br /> Also, The band Chicago's third hit song &quot;Does Anybody Really Know What Time It Is?&quot; deals with how one faces living in a world under constraints of time [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Does_Anybody_Really_Know_What_Time_It_Is%3F]. The opening lyrics are: <br /> <br /> Does anybody really know what time it is?<br /> Does anybody really care?<br /> About Time... <br /> <br /> '''World's Columbian Exposition'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> 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. &quot;The thousand or more such wonders which awaited [the Chums] there.&quot; p.3<br /> <br /> '''lifelines'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Called &quot;manropes&quot; 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.<br /> <br /> '''as my faithful readers will remember'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Pynchon here is immediately inserting this story into a larger canon of Chums of Chance fictions, titles of which are mentioned in subsequent pages.<br /> <br /> '''mascotte'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> The English word 'mascot' has its origin in the late 19th cent.: from French mascotte. The spelling may also be a tribute to the Dutch brand of rolling papers. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mascotte_%28rolling_papers%29 [Wikipedia]]<br /> <br /> ==Page 4==<br /> <br /> '''Professor'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Randolph St. Cosmo is called Professor.<br /> &quot;Professor&quot; was a common title for early hot-air balloonists. [EC]<br /> <br /> '''&quot;Turn to&quot;'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Evokes the &quot;Go to!&quot; of Majistral and compatriots, ''V.'', chapter eleven. &quot;Turn to&quot; is also a shipboard expression, &quot;put your back into it&quot; or something of the kind.<br /> <br /> '''Perhaps its familiarity... rendered it temporarily invisible to you.&quot;&lt;br&gt;<br /> Perhaps an admonition from the author that familiar things will be easily overlooked?<br /> 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.<br /> <br /> '''&quot;for Miles, while possessed of good intentions and the kindest heart in the little band, suffered at times from a confusion in his motor processes, often producing lively results, yet as frequently compromising the crew's physical safety.'''&quot;&lt;br&gt;<br /> Talk about Filles de Kilimanjaro and Miles post-quintet years, a prolonged effect on survivors after the bombings of 1945 and in the arts of Japan’s exploding subculture.<br /> <br /> '''Chick Counterfly'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Three possibilities: (1) A counter fly is an annoyance in (say) the butcher's shop. (2) Chick always speaks &quot;counter&quot; to anyone else's &quot;flight&quot; of imagery. (3) The only non-''AtD''-related uses of this word that I've found came in patents describing mechanisms; &quot;the counterfly direction&quot; means contrary to the direction everything else is flying in, hence this character counters the flying of the craft?<br /> <br /> He is the only Chum we know who was &quot;rescued&quot; from the &quot;real&quot; 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<br /> on a different &quot;earth&quot; happens.<br /> <br /> Like Suckling's name suggesting a relationship to another Pynchon character (Pig Bodine), Pynchon winks at a relationship between Counterfly and Tyrone Slothrop. In Counterfly´s first utterance in the book, “Ha ha,” cried young Counterfly, “say, but if you ain’t the most slob-footed chap I ever seen!” you can derive &quot;Tyrone Slothrop&quot; from an anagram of Counterfly and &quot;slob-footed chap.&quot;<br /> <br /> :Huh? That's a pretty sloppy anagram, ain't it? What about that &quot;b&quot; and that&quot;d&quot; ... this is ''way'' too much of a stretch. There's something to these names, perhaps, but I don't think you're close here, friend.<br /> <br /> ==Page 5==<br /> <br /> '''&quot;all tableware with Chums of Chance Insignia is Organizational property&quot;'''&lt;br /&gt;<br /> The organization in question is the Chums of Chance themselves, here considered as an institution rather than as a collection of individuals.<br /> <br /> '''picklesome'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Having the nature of a pickle, i.e, a boy who is inclined to mischief.<br /> <br /> A word not much seen since the nineteenth century.<br /> <br /> '''Pugnax'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> I suspect that, in keeping with a very strong [[Birds|&quot;bird&quot; 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 &quot;utterance&quot; is &quot;Rr Rff-rff Rr-rr-rff-rrf-rrf&quot;...<br /> <br /> There are a number of characters named after birds or bird sounds: Linnet Dawes, &quot;Pert&quot; Chirpingdon-Groin (there is a pert bird), and Wren Provenance immediately come to mind, but I'm sure there are others, and there are myriad bird references and metaphors (the Sodality of Ǣtheronauts and their mechanical wings); I just haven't had the time to explore it deeply, but others may... (Just read [[Birds|the bit about birds]] from ''Homage to Pythagoras''... <br /> <br /> 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)]].<br /> <br /> The name meaning, in Latin, &quot;likes to fight&quot; (i.e. one who is pugnacious). Pugnax's fantastic intelligence recalls another intelligent Pynchon dog, the Learned English Dog in ''Mason &amp; Dixon''. His manner of speech is somewhat reminiscent of the mystery-solving cartoon dog Scooby-Doo, and [http://waste.org/mail/?list=pynchon-l&amp;month=0612&amp;msg=112507&amp;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.<br /> <br /> Could this name be an homage to the dog in the Asterix comics, Idéfix in French; Dogmatix in English? Many of the character in the Asterix comics have names ending in &quot;x&quot;.<br /> <br /> '''&quot;...during a confidential assignment in Our Nation's Capitol (see ''The Chums of Chance and the Evil Halfwit'')...&quot;'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> 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 &quot;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.&quot;<br /> <br /> The Chums &quot;rescued Pugnax, then but a pup&quot;--an innocent, a child creature--&quot;from a furious encounter..between rival packs of the city's wild dogs&quot;.<br /> The wild dogs equal both political parties? <br /> <br /> '''lavatorial assaults'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> &quot;from the sky, which no one can &quot;begin to try to record, much less coordinate reports of&quot; recall the V-2 rockets which are linked to Slothrop's erections in ''Gravity's Rainbow''. That is, pee from the sky is &quot;folklore, superstition, or perhaps...the religious&quot; in ATD compared to rockets screaming across the sky and the destruction in GR.<br /> <br /> This also recalls jokes and urban legends regarding frozen waste from leaky airplane lavatories (i.e., &quot;you can still be hit by an icy B.M.&quot;)<br /> <br /> ==Page 6==<br /> <br /> '''''Princess Casamassima'''''&lt;br /&gt;<br /> ''The Princess Casamassima'' is a novel by Henry James, first published as a serial in ''The Atlantic Monthly'' in 1885-1886 and then as a book in 1886. 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 &amp;#151; admiration for the beautiful if imperfect world vs. a desire to change it through terrorism &amp;#151; will seem all too familiar to contemporary readers. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Princess_Casamassima Wikipedia] [[Princess Casamassima|Discussion of ''The Princess Casamassima'']]<br /> <br /> '''Placing . . . an emphasis'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Lapse of authorial control? Surely the creator of the ''Chums'' novels would not write such a Pynchonian sentence fragment!<br /> <br /> '''Pugnax sniffed . . . as always this scent eluded him'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> If Pugnax doesn't detect a human scent, that suggests Lindsay is not human. Not human, Master-at-Arms, speaks in hyper-constructed prose, has a notably short fuse . . . he's Lieutenant Worf of ''Star Trek, the Next Generation.''<br /> <br /> '''''Krakatoa'''''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Erupted 1883. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Krakatoa Wikipedia entry.]<br /> <br /> '''Heino Vanderjuice of New Haven'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Scientist who designed the ''Inconvenience's'' hydrogen engine. &quot;Vanderjuice&quot; suggests both &quot;wonder juice&quot; and &quot;wander juice,&quot; fitting since his engine allows the Chums to wander and is wondrous insofar as it apparently violates the [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Second_law_of_thermodynamics second law of thermodynamics]. &quot;Heino&quot; (HIE-no) is a man's given name [http://www.behindthename.com/php/view.php?name=heino meaning 'home'] in German, Finnish, and Estonian. Perhaps an allusion to the German pop star, [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Heino Heino].<br /> <br /> :Um, a quibble: ''Vanderjuice'' is some kind of corrupted Dutch, and in Dutch the name Heino would be pronounced HAY-no. He is not an immigrant, though, and American speakers no doubt say HIGH-no.<br /> <br /> Jules Verne influence? Vanderjuice a red herring, pointing to Dutch origin and electrical (&quot;juice&quot;) background? Or does one try to parse the name into eg &quot;Fond O' Juice&quot;?<br /> <br /> '''no better than a perpetual-motion machine'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> 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 (&quot;secret free energy source the government doesn't want you to know about&quot;) or mistakes. The hydrogen generator/engine is neither, which is why the disdainful phrase &quot;no better than&quot; is crucial.<br /> <br /> 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?<br /> <br /> '''Miles, with his marginal gifts of coördination, and Chick, with a want of alacrity fully as perceptible'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Like the old gag: The food in this restaurant isn't any good, but the service is awful.<br /> <br /> '''ratlines and shrouds'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> ''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.<br /> <br /> '''&quot;. . . anemometer of the Robinson's type&quot;'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Cup anemometer 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]<br /> <br /> '''how rapidly the ship was proceeding'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> 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.<br /> <br /> ==Page 7==<br /> <br /> '''Porfirio Díaz'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> President of Mexico 1876-1880, 1884-1911. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Porfirio_D%C3%ADaz Wikipedia]<br /> <br /> 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?<br /> <br /> '''&quot;beside a black-water river of the Deep South&quot;.&lt;br&gt;<br /> Blackwater River is in lower central Florida, pretty deep south; but there are numerous rivers in swampy areas that run black with organic matter.&lt;br&gt;<br /> 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]<br /> Thousands of news stories in September/October 2007.<br /> <br /> '''a bitter and unresolved &quot;piece of business&quot;'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Rather than give a proper reason for the Chums to be in the Deep South, the narrator cops out by pleading that it's &quot;not advisable&quot; to specify.<br /> <br /> '''&quot;the Rebellion of thirty years previous&quot;'''&lt;br /&gt;<br /> The Civil War was not called such during the time it was occurring; the South called it &quot;the war between the states&quot; to emphasize both their right to secede from the union and that this was a war between sovereign states; the North called it &quot;the Rebellion of 1861&quot; or, after termination of hostilities, &quot;the Rebellion of 1861-1865,&quot; appellations that did not recognize the South's right to secede.<br /> <br /> '''&quot;one still not advisable to set upon one's page&quot;'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> The American Civil War, that &quot;rebellion of thirty years previous,&quot; has not yet become a suitable subject for an adventure tale such as the Chums'.<br /> <br /> '''absquatulated'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Means to move away quickly, usually to avoid capture. Apparently a mock-Latinate formation, &quot;to go off and squat somewhere else.&quot; [http://www.worldwidewords.org/weirdwords/ww-abs1.htm A brief article] on the history and etymology of &quot;absquatulate.&quot;&lt;br&gt;<br /> The word is used in Vineland.<br /> <br /> '''&quot;Crackerjack!&quot; exclaimed Chick.'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> 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: &quot;Crackerjack&quot; entered English first as a noun referring to &quot;a person or thing of marked excellence,&quot; 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 &quot;crackerjack&quot; 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.<br /> <br /> '''to approach the gates of the Penitentiary'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> 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 &quot;never know how many Republicans were compelled to approach the gates of the penitentiary to make him president.&quot;<br /> <br /> '''posse comitatus'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> What Western movie fans know as a &quot;posse,&quot; 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.<br /> <br /> ==Page 8==<br /> <br /> '''a pocketful of specie'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Specie means coins as opposed to paper money.<br /> <br /> '''the town of Thick Bush'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Aside from whether this phrase might apply to some political figure of the past or present, &quot;thick bush&quot; is the literal meaning of the Spanish Matagorda, the name of many towns in Latin America and one on the Gulf Coast of Texas.<br /> <br /> '''&quot;which directs us never to interfere with legal customs of any locality down at which we may happen to have touched&quot;'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> 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 &quot;This is the kind of carping criticism up with which I will not put.&quot;<br /> <br /> '''legal customs'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Legal = pertaining to law, in this case lynch law. The Chums are interpreting their Prime Directive pretty broadly here.<br /> <br /> '''Katie bar the door'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> 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.)<br /> <br /> '''Ku Klux Klan'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Reminiscent of the [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ku_Klux_Klan Klan] encounter scenes in the Coen Brothers' ''O Brother, Where Art Thou''. <br /> <br /> '''tupelo, cypress, and hickory'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> The trees are no help in locating the town; all three kinds like bottom land and grow all over the South.<br /> <br /> '''speed . . . made it nearly invisible from the ground'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> 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.<br /> <br /> ''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 &quot;clear&quot; 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.<br /> <br /> '''way better than a mile a minute'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> The Chums' point of departure is unknown, but they arrived in Chicago after catching a southerly wind (pg 3), southerly meaning &quot;wind blowing from the south.&quot; 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.)<br /> <br /> ==Page 9==<br /> <br /> '''locker'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> On board ship, any cabinet with a door or lid.<br /> <br /> '''&quot;Do not imagine, that in coming aboard ''Inconvenience'' you have escaped into any realm of the counterfactual...&quot;'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> This may be Pynchon directly addressing the reader. Given that his [[Against_the_Day_description|book description]] proclaims the world of AtD as &quot;what the world might be with a minor adjustment or two,&quot; 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.&lt;br&gt;<br /> 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.<br /> <br /> A-and it must mean, coming from the commander, that all aboard the ''Inconvenience'' are also subject to the 'facts' of the world. &quot;The World is All that is the Case&quot;, from Wittgenstein. [http://v.pynchonwiki.com/wiki/index.php?title=W]<br /> <br /> '''&quot;Going up is like going north.&quot;'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> 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.<br /> <br /> North is not a positive place in Pynchon's world. It is associated with anti-life---coldness as here---compared to the South.<br /> <br /> ==Page 11==<br /> <br /> '''plummet'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> 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.<br /> <br /> '''bear a hand'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Nautical: help out.<br /> <br /> ==Page 12==<br /> <br /> '''Liverpool Kiss'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> A head butt.<br /> <br /> '''Herr Riemann'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> 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].<br /> <br /> '''''Mr.'' Noseworth'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Lindsay insisting on proper naval forms: an ensign, lieutenant (junior grade), lieutenant or lieutenant commander in the U.S. navy is correctly addressed as &quot;Mister Surname.&quot;<br /> <br /> '''&quot;topological genius&quot;'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Riemann's differential geometry goes beyond the Cartesian grid. See conic sections and dimensionality above, page 10.<br /> <br /> ==Page 13==<br /> <br /> '''There was an &quot;eager stampede&quot; to the rail''' &lt;br&gt;<br /> 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?<br /> : 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) <br /> <br /> :insightfully true, I suspect, but it still shows 'narratorial knowingness', yes?<br /> <br /> : Cf. Flaubert's use of quotations in ''Madame Bovary'' to isolate what he deemed the contemptible argot of the bourgeoisie.<br /> <br /> ::Apparently not a cliche: [http://books.google.com//books?num=100&amp;q=eager.stampede&amp;as_brr=0 GoogleBooks]<br /> <br /> '''&quot;...among the brighter star-shapes of exploded ballast bags...&quot;''' &lt;br&gt;<br /> Recalls the opening line of ''Mason &amp; Dixon'': &quot;Snow-Balls have flown their Arcs, starr‘d the Sides of Outbuildings, as of Cousins...&quot;<br /> <br /> '''&quot;...quite as if were some giant eyeball, perhaps that of Society itself, ever scrutinizing from above, in a spirit of constructive censure.&quot;'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> 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&amp;page_number=4&amp;template_id=1&amp;sort_order=1 At MoMa's Online Collection]<br /> Notice that society = censure, if constructive. Gamboling nude on a summer day was OK until the ''Inconvenience'', as eyeball, appeared.<br /> <br /> :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.<br /> <br /> ==Page 14==<br /> <br /> '''charmed into docility'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> 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.<br /> <br /> '''Jacob's-ladder'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Used here as &quot;a marine ladder of rope or chain with wooden or iron rungs&quot; (Webster's Third New International Dictionary, Unabridged) but is suggestive of Jacob's ladder in Genesis:<br /> <br /> 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)<br /> <br /> '''a giant sack of soiled laundry'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Perhaps ''freshly'' soiled during the great hydrogen valve disaster.<br /> <br /> '''''vol-à-voile'''''&lt;br&gt;<br /> The narrator has turned the French phrase ''vol-à-voiles'' (gliding) into a verb (removing the ''s'').<br /> <br /> '''gold-beaters' skin'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> 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.<br /> <br /> '''Evening Quarters'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Naval practice of mustering the crew at the end of the day's work.<br /> <br /> ==Page 15==<br /> <br /> '''ukulelist'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Ukuleles also appear in ''Gravity's Rainbow'', ''Vineland'', and ''Mason &amp; Dixon''. According to Jules Siegel's article, &quot;Who is Thomas Pynchon, and why did he take off with my wife?&quot;, Pynchon himself played the ukulele in college.<br /> <br /> '''Vagabonds of the Void'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> 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.&lt;br&gt;<br /> <br /> [[image:Macassar-Oil.jpg|thumb|175px|''Macassar Oil. An Oily Puff for Soft Heads''|right]]'''Beaufort Scale'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> A scale for measuring wind strength, developed 1805.<br /> <br /> '''&quot;Let the lightning lash ~ And the thunder trash&quot;&lt;br&gt;<br /> Again, the Chums are rock stars, the coolest cats in town.<br /> <br /> '''&quot;...forty-four buttons...one for each State of the Union.&quot;&lt;br&gt;<br /> Wyoming was the 44th state admitted to the union in 1890.<br /> <br /> '''port section of the crew'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> The half of the crew permitted to go freely ashore this time. The other half tomorrow. &quot;Port&quot; and &quot;starboard&quot;: are these simply either/or words that sailors remember easily?<br /> <br /> '''Macassar oil'''&lt;br /&gt;<br /> 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]<br /> <br /> ==Page 16==<br /> <br /> '''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.'''&lt;br/&gt;<br /> 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 &lt;i&gt;The Devil In The White City&lt;/i&gt; by Erik Larson and &lt;i&gt;Depraved&lt;/i&gt; 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]<br /> <br /> '''tension of the gas'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> I.e., the pressure in the bag.<br /> <br /> ==Page 17==<br /> <br /> '''&quot;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&quot;'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> 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.<br /> <br /> '''&quot;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.&quot;'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Is this just a metaphor from the narrator to describe what it is like for Darby, or is it also self-referential to<br /> all the adventures of the Chums?. Another Q: Is the Commandant of Earthly Days the invisible presence from whom the chums get their orders? &lt;br&gt;<br /> :Related Q: Do the Chums receive their orders from the author of their books?<br /> <br /> '''we were usually out the door and on the main road'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Dick and Chick knew the judge was more likely to order them out of town than into the lockup.<br /> <br /> '''Chinese foofooraw'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Also spelled foofaraw, a great deal of fuss, or useless frills. Cf folderol. However, why Chinese? <br /> :Chick's father tried to sell Mississippi to a Chinese syndicate.<br /> <br /> '''cubeb'''&lt;br /&gt;<br /> 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.<br /> <br /> '''&quot;...goldurn Keeley Cure&quot;'''&lt;br /&gt;<br /> A treatment for alcohol, nicotine and narcotic addiction involving injections of &quot;bichloride&quot; or &quot;double chloride&quot; of gold, and also known as the &quot;gold cure&quot;. 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.<br /> <br /> ==Page 18==<br /> <br /> '''headgear'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Description vaguely reminiscent of &quot;Madame Bovary&quot;. [http://robotwisdom.com/flaubert/bovary/bovary1.html [notes]]<br /> <br /> '''eclipse green'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Apparently an actual shade. [http://encyclopedia.jrank.org/DIO_DRO/DIRECT.html [cite]]<br /> <br /> '''Bindlestiffs of the Blue A.C.'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Bindlestiff means hobo; hence, the Hoboes of the Sky Aeronautical Club.<br /> <br /> '''(&quot;Penny&quot;) Black'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> 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]]<br /> <br /> '''Tzigane'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> French for &quot;gypsy&quot;. Also a piece by Ravel. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tzigane_(Ravel) [Wikipedia]]<br /> <br /> '''Egypt'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> 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 &quot;Egypt,&quot; especially in the 19th century. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Little_Egypt_(region) [Wikipedia]]<br /> <br /> ==Page 19==<br /> <br /> '''goin all blue from the light of that electric fluid'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> 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.<br /> <br /> '''Voices calling out together'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> 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.<br /> <br /> [[image:balloons-paris.jpg|thumb|200px|Garçons de '71|right]]'''Garçons de '71'''&lt;br /&gt;<br /> 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...]]<br /> <br /> '''a condition of ''permanent siege'''''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Surely no one has failed to notice what a &quot;wartime president&quot; is allowed to get away with. &quot;No reference to the present day is intended or should be inferred.&quot;<br /> <br /> '''pétroleurs de Paris'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> An early form of Molotov cocktail thrower during the Siege of Paris. There were pétroleurs and pétroleuses.<br /> <br /> ==Page 20==<br /> <br /> '''they'll fly wherever they're needed'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> While the Chums obey orders from above, the Garçons de '71 follow a different imperative.<br /> <br /> '''energy we could feel, directed personally at us'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Someone may be trying to influence what the Bindlestiffs do, or keep them away from the Garçons' work of mercy.<br /> <br /> ==Page 21==<br /> <br /> '''admissions gate'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Apparently a break in the fence, capitalized on by freelance impresarios.<br /> <br /> '''fifty-cent pieces'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> 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.<br /> <br /> ==Page 22==<br /> <br /> '''Kodaks'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> The word Kodak was trademarked in 1888, and the first Kodak camera was sold with the slogan, &quot;You press the button - we do the rest.&quot; 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.<br /> <br /> '''half-light . . . in the interests of mercy . . . the safety of the lights'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Interesting contrast suggesting a tradeoff between comfort/solace in the shadows and safety in the bright light.<br /> <br /> '''Isandhlwana'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> 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 &quot;military&quot; and &quot;blunders&quot; in the title.<br /> <br /> ==Page 23==<br /> <br /> '''Tarahumara'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> 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]]<br /> <br /> '''&quot;geek&quot;'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> 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 &quot;Fear Factor,&quot; but sad rather than stultifying.<br /> <br /> '''monte'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Three-card monte.<br /> <br /> ==Page 24==<br /> <br /> '''the curse of Scotland'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> 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]]<br /> <br /> '''like the electricity coming on... how everything fits together, connects. It doesn't last long, though.'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> 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. <br /> <br /> 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, Miles is also said to suffer from &quot;confusion in his motor processes&quot;, which may be related.<br /> <br /> '''Cracker Jack'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> First sold at the at the first Chicago World's Fair in 1893. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cracker_Jack [Wikipedia]]<br /> <br /> '''New Levee district'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Chicago's redlight district c1890. [http://www.ipsn.org/genesis.htm [cite]]<br /> <br /> '''Epworth League'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> A Methodist youth organization founded in 1889. [http://www.southernmethodistchurch.org/id48.htm [cite]]<br /> <br /> ==Page 25==<br /> <br /> '''Haymarket bomb'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> 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 &quot;a bomb-throwing anarchist.&quot; 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].<br /> <br /> '''if the Governor decides to pardon that gang of anarchistic murderers'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> 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 &lt;i&gt;The Haymarket Tragedy&lt;/i&gt; by Paul Avrich and &lt;i&gt;Death In The Haymarket&lt;/i&gt; by James Green.<br /> <br /> '''mixture of contempt and pity'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> This is ''definitely'' not from one of the Chums' adventure stories.<br /> <br /> '''embonpoint'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Convexity of body; what used to be called a &quot;prosperous&quot; look.<br /> <br /> '''duck soup'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Meaning &quot;an easy task,&quot; 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.<br /> <br /> ==References==<br /> &lt;references /&gt;<br /> <br /> ==Annotation Index==<br /> {{ATD PbP}}</div>

MKOHUT https://against-the-day.pynchonwiki.com/wiki/index.php?title=ATD_1-25&diff=14163 2007-10-28T14:38:57Z

<p>MKOHUT: /* Page 9 */</p> <hr /> <div>:'''&lt;big&gt;Please keep these annotations SPOILER-FREE by not revealing information from later pages in the novel.&lt;/big&gt;'''&lt;p&gt;&lt;br&gt;<br /> <br /> ==cover text==<br /> The black text and its drop shadows are in different typefaces. It may be worth noting, from a conceptual point of view, that we can infer from the angle of the drop shadows that the light source is any individual holding the book—that is, the reader or a potential reader.<br /> <br /> ==cover seal==<br /> The seal appears to be written in Tibetan language, according to somebody who posts regularly to Pynchon-l under the name &quot;Ya Sam&quot;, who reports:<br /> <br /> I contacted the Tibetan Cultural Centre with the request to translate <br /> the mysterious legend on the AtD seal. They were kind enough to forward my <br /> request to the Tibetan tranlsator Tenzin Namgyal to whose generosity we <br /> owe the solution of one more ATD related mystery.<br /> <br /> It is the Tibetan language, alright, and it means ...... Tibetan <br /> Government Chamber of Commerce.<br /> <br /> Read their response below:<br /> <br /> :Dear Ya Sam,&lt;br /&gt;<br /> :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?<br /> <br /> :Best wishes,<br /> <br /> :Sandy Belth&lt;br /&gt;<br /> :Tibetan Cultural Center<br /> <br /> Also of interest: the coin bears a striking 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:<br /> <br /> :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, &quot;The Doubloon&quot;)<br /> <br /> ==copyright page==<br /> 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 &quot;Penguin Press&quot; as the publisher, as could be expected, and it seems likely that the substitution of &quot;Penguin Press&quot; with &quot;Viking&quot; is one of many typographical errors in the book (see [[errata]]). <br /> 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: &quot;this was a copyediting mistake that will be corrected. There was never a Viking contract for this book.&quot;<br /> <br /> ==Dedication==<br /> Most of Pynchon's novels contain dedications-- ''Mason &amp; Dixon'' (&quot;For Melanie, and for Jackson&quot;) , ''Vineland'' (&quot;For my mother and father&quot;), and ''Gravity's Rainbow'' (&quot;For Richard Fariña&quot;)-- but not so ''Against the Day,'' as published. Advance reading copies of the book did contain the words &quot;Dedication TK&quot; in italics, but this is simply [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/To_Come publisher-speak] for &quot;dedication to come.&quot; 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. <br /> <br /> ==Epigraph==<br /> &quot;It's always night, or we wouldn't need light.&quot; - Thelonious Monk&lt;br&gt;<br /> 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 &quot;God&quot;; 2) the character McClintic Sphere in ''V''. takes Monk's middle name, Sphere; and 3) &quot;It's always night, or we wouldn't need light&quot; 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]]: &quot;...daylit America ... its steadfast denial of night.&quot; <br /> <br /> ==Page 1==<br /> <br /> '''The Light Over the Ranges'''&lt;br&gt; <br /> &quot;Range&quot; is defined in the ''Oxford American Dictionary'' as &quot;a line or series of mountains or hills : the coastal ranges of the northwest,&quot; so &quot;range&quot; or &quot;ranges&quot; can be used to denote a number of mountains.&lt;br&gt;<br /> <br /> 'Ranges' may also refer to farms, homesteads and ranches in 1893 America. America was predominantly that in 1893. Cf. &quot;Home, home on the range&quot;.<br /> <br /> &quot;celebrating in song the wider range of life...&quot; Thomas Pynchon on<br /> [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Helen_Waddell Helen Waddell's]<br /> ''The Wandering Scholars'', p. 8, Introduction to[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Slow_Learner ''Slow Learner], 1984.<br /> <br /> A range is also a group of diverse objects.<br /> <br /> A-and &quot;range&quot; is a word full of its own meaning. [[Range|A partial list of definitions of &quot;range&quot;...]]&lt;br&gt;<br /> Range as diversity---lost---may be a major theme of AtD.<br /> <br /> ==Page 3==<br /> <br /> '''&quot;Now single up all lines!&quot;'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Pynchon was in the Navy for a spell and &quot;single up all lines&quot; 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 &quot;single up all lines&quot; is to remove the redundant second lines in preparation to make way.<br /> <br /> But the opening line has many possible connotations. <br /> :The Modern Word's Quail [http://www.themodernword.com/reviews/pynchon_atd.html writes] that &quot;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.&quot; <br /> <br /> :&quot;single up all lines&quot; 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 &amp; Dixon'', pp.258 and 260]. Perhaps we can understand this &quot;line&quot; as a text-string linking Pynchon's novels together (all but ''Vineland''?) &amp;#151; in preparation for a voyage to...?<br /> <br /> Also, in the very first sentence, Pynchon introduces the concept of doubling &amp;#151; &quot;single up all lines&quot; as a call to journey, to movement and expansion, a beginning. Then, on [[#Page_10|page 10]]: &quot;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.&quot; Thus, a progressive singling or reduction of all lines/paths, a rationalization/routinization unto death. Both represent &quot;a progressive reduction of choices&quot; &amp;#151; a collapsing of many possibilities into one &quot;reality.&quot; ''See also'' [[ATD_557-587#Page_585|annotation, page 585]] and more on [[Routinization of Charisma]].<br /> <br /> '''&quot;Cheerly now...handsomely...very well!!&quot;'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Cheerly means &quot;heartily,&quot; and was traditionally used as cry of encouragement among sailors. Handsomely (in nautical context): carefully, in good order, unhurriedly.<br /> <br /> :Pynchon served in the Navy and uses nautical language in most of his novels. ''Mason &amp; Dixon'': &quot;Cheerly. Cheerly, then, Lads...&quot; (54).<br /> <br /> '''&quot;Windy City, here we come!&quot;'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> The nickname for Chicago, of course, but in 1893 the use meant city of braggarts more than it did wind. The earliest known references to the &quot;Windy City&quot; are from 1876, and involve Chicago's rivalry with Cincinnati. A popular myth states that &quot;Windy City&quot; was first used by New York Sun editor Charles Dana in the bidding for the 1893 Columbian Exposition. The popularity of the nickname has endured, even after the Cincinnati rivalry and the Columbian Exposition both ended. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Windy_City,_Origin_of_Name_(Chicago)| Origin of name &quot;Windy City&quot; at Wikipedia]<br /> <br /> '''Randolph St. Cosmo, the ship commander'''&lt;br /&gt;<br /> [[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 &quot;randy&quot; St. Cosmo, aka the &quot;modern Priapus,&quot; and the saintly martyred St. Cosmo of Church lore. Pynchon, it seems, is connecting Randolph St. Cosmo to the former. &quot;Randy,&quot; as astute observers will note, is an adjective which means, well, &quot;horny.&quot; 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...]]) &amp;#151; a-and Heartsease, St. Cosmo's mate, is the first to get pregnant! &amp;#151; 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]<br /> <br /> In [http://masondixon.pynchonwiki.com/wiki/index.php?title=V#veery ''Mason &amp; Dixon''], Pynchon has the Veery brothers, Cosmo and Damian, who are professional effigy makes in Philadelphia! And, just to make it interesting, &quot;He's a rare Wax Artist, our Cosmo is.&quot; (p. 290) (Note: Wax phallus effigies were offered by the women to St. Cosmo at the festivals held in his name, as shown above.)<br /> <br /> '''Now secure the Special Sky Detail'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> 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 &quot;Now set the Special Sea Detail.&quot;] ''Inconvenience'' is run along fairly strict naval lines—given the age of the officers and crew, you might say she is a tot ship—and the beginning of the book was preceded by an analogous &quot;Now set the Special Sky Detail.&quot; Once the ship is aloft and clear of ground obstructions, the command comes, &quot;Now secure the Special Sky Detail,&quot; meaning disband the team for the time being and all return to regular duties. The language, tasks and customs aboard the skyship will show parallels to navy usage throughout the book.<br /> <br /> '''summer uniform of red-and-white-striped blazer and trousers of sky blue'''&lt;br /&gt;<br /> Calls to mind the color scheme of Ned Land's (Kirk Douglas) costume in Disney's 1954 film version of ''20,000 Leagues under the Sea''.&lt;br&gt;<br /> <br /> Also calls to mind the colors of the American flag.<br /> <br /> '''&quot;scuttlebutt&quot; . . . thousand . . . wonders'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> 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 &quot;Book of the Fair&quot; by Hubert Bancroft, 1893.<br /> :&quot;Scuttlebutt&quot; is a very close equivalent to &quot;water-cooler gossip.&quot; [http://www.jacksjoint.com/sailor_terminology.htm Here is a glossary] of nautical terms with some of the etymologies.<br /> <br /> '''''Inconvenience'''''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Pynchon's fictional navy includes the USS Scaffold 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. Impulsive is the name of the ship Ploy, who loses all his teeth in V., gets transferred to.<br /> Inconvenience is an apt name for the Chums' adventures in 'reality'. They are an inconvenience; they are inconvenienced. (In having to take on Chick Counterfly, for example).&lt;br&gt;<br /> <br /> Pynchon uses the word ''inconvenience'' in a possibly thematic, connected way in ''Mason &amp; Dixon'' and in ''Gravity's Rainbow''. In ''Mason &amp; Dixon'', the word is applied to the difficulties of an Other, other human beings as we act, interact. See citations at the ''M &amp; D'' wiki. Here is the clearest relevant use for understanding for the Chums' airship, perhaps: from ''Gravity's Rainbow'': &quot;the gift of Daedalus that allowed him [Pokler] to put as much labyrinth as required between himself and the<br /> ''inconveniences of caring''. [Italics mine] They had sold him convenience, so much of it, all on credit, and now They were collecting.&quot;<br /> page 435, Penguin paperback edition with the Frank Miller cover. <br /> <br /> In addition, if we take the Latinate roots of in-con-ven-(ience) and willfully misread the &quot;in&quot; as adverbial &quot;in&quot; (as e.g. &quot;in-come&quot;) rather than the privative &quot;not&quot; (as e.g. &quot;in-cred-ible&quot;), we get &quot;the arriving-in-together&quot;; the &quot;inconvenience&quot;, then, is essentially a tongue-in-cheek &quot;vehicle&quot;.&lt;br&gt;<br /> I do not think it illuminating to &quot;willfully misread&quot;!?! We are trying to<br /> willfully read possible meanings and resonances. [[User:MKOHUT|MKOHUT]] 06:01, 2 August 2007 (PDT)<br /> <br /> Also, recall Fender-Belly Bodine, in [http://masondixon.pynchonwiki.com/wiki/index.php?title=I#inconvenience ''Mason &amp; Dixon'']: &quot;Back on old H.M.S. ''Inconvenience'', we wasted many a Day and Night watching that fancy Counter get smaller by the minute...&quot; (p.28)<br /> <br /> '''patriotic bunting'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> TRP reminds again that this is a very American skyship.&lt;br&gt;<br /> AtD has many echoes of Doctorow's &quot;Ragtime&quot;: Doctorow fictionalises the same era, including anarchists, bombings, and early Hollywood. <br /> <br /> '''aeronautics'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> 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]<br /> <br /> '''five-lad crew'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Randolph St. Cosmo (ship commander), Lindsay Noseworth (master-at-arms), Miles Blundell (handyman apprentice), Darby Suckling (factotum and mascot), and Chick Counterfly. The commander's name evokes Randolph St., a main thoroughfare in Chicago. Perhaps also saint(liness) and cosmos?<br /> <br /> '''The [[Chums of Chance]]'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> To be chummy with chance might mean lucky, fond of gambling, fond of chaos, irrational, or anarchist. Or maybe they became chums by accident. The &quot;chance&quot; may also be that of the winds that carry them in directions not always intended.<br /> :The American philospher Charles Sanders Peirce, who set down his most important ideas in the late 1800's, argued that 'Chance' was a feature of the universe that can refute all determinisms.<br /> <br /> &quot;The certainty of chance&quot; is a Surrealist slogan. We learned from ''Slow Learner'' that Pynchon was influenced early by Surrealism. <br /> The slogan is quoted in this obit of a real life<br /> character out of Pynchon, George Melly, Jazz singer, writer, anarchist and polymorphous lover.[http://www.economist.com/search/search.cfm?rv=2&amp;qr=melly&amp;area=1&amp;x=6&amp;y=7]<br /> <br /> 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, &quot;The Boys.&quot;<br /> <br /> [[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. &quot;The Explorigator&quot; 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'' ran for 14 weeks in 1908 and made an impression for its imaginative and visual creativity. [[The Explorigator|More on ''The Explorigator'']] &lt;ref&gt;[http://lambiek.net/artists/d/dart_harry_grant.htm Lambiek Comiclopedia]&lt;/ref&gt;<br /> <br /> 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]. <br /> <br /> The creativity of Pynchon's naming of the Chums, as other characters, shows yet again his Dickensian influence.<br /> <br /> Note that there's five Chums, the number of chapters of the book (a-and the number of letters in &quot;Chums&quot;!). <br /> <br /> '''Chicago'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> It has been suggested that Pynchon relied on the [http://www.1911encyclopedia.org/ 1911 Edition of the Encyclopaedia Britannica] as a major reference for his treatment of 1890s Chicago. [http://www.1911encyclopedia.org/Chicago 1911 Britannica entry on Chicago]<br /> <br /> Also, The band Chicago's third hit song &quot;Does Anybody Really Know What Time It Is?&quot; deals with how one faces living in a world under constraints of time [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Does_Anybody_Really_Know_What_Time_It_Is%3F]. The opening lyrics are: <br /> <br /> Does anybody really know what time it is?<br /> Does anybody really care?<br /> About Time... <br /> <br /> '''World's Columbian Exposition'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> 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. &quot;The thousand or more such wonders which awaited [the Chums] there.&quot; p.3<br /> <br /> '''lifelines'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Called &quot;manropes&quot; 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.<br /> <br /> '''as my faithful readers will remember'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Pynchon here is immediately inserting this story into a larger canon of Chums of Chance fictions, titles of which are mentioned in subsequent pages.<br /> <br /> '''mascotte'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> The English word 'mascot' has its origin in the late 19th cent.: from French mascotte. The spelling may also be a tribute to the Dutch brand of rolling papers. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mascotte_%28rolling_papers%29 [Wikipedia]]<br /> <br /> ==Page 4==<br /> <br /> '''Professor'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Randolph St. Cosmo is called Professor.<br /> &quot;Professor&quot; was a common title for early hot-air balloonists. [EC]<br /> <br /> '''&quot;Turn to&quot;'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Evokes the &quot;Go to!&quot; of Majistral and compatriots, ''V.'', chapter eleven. &quot;Turn to&quot; is also a shipboard expression, &quot;put your back into it&quot; or something of the kind.<br /> <br /> '''Perhaps its familiarity... rendered it temporarily invisible to you.&quot;&lt;br&gt;<br /> Perhaps an admonition from the author that familiar things will be easily overlooked?<br /> 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.<br /> <br /> '''&quot;for Miles, while possessed of good intentions and the kindest heart in the little band, suffered at times from a confusion in his motor processes, often producing lively results, yet as frequently compromising the crew's physical safety.'''&quot;&lt;br&gt;<br /> Talk about Filles de Kilimanjaro and Miles post-quintet years, a prolonged effect on survivors after the bombings of 1945 and in the arts of Japan’s exploding subculture.<br /> <br /> '''Chick Counterfly'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Three possibilities: (1) A counter fly is an annoyance in (say) the butcher's shop. (2) Chick always speaks &quot;counter&quot; to anyone else's &quot;flight&quot; of imagery. (3) The only non-''AtD''-related uses of this word that I've found came in patents describing mechanisms; &quot;the counterfly direction&quot; means contrary to the direction everything else is flying in, hence this character counters the flying of the craft?<br /> <br /> He is the only Chum we know who was &quot;rescued&quot; from the &quot;real&quot; 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<br /> on a different &quot;earth&quot; happens.<br /> <br /> Like Suckling's name suggesting a relationship to another Pynchon character (Pig Bodine), Pynchon winks at a relationship between Counterfly and Tyrone Slothrop. In Counterfly´s first utterance in the book, “Ha ha,” cried young Counterfly, “say, but if you ain’t the most slob-footed chap I ever seen!” you can derive &quot;Tyrone Slothrop&quot; from an anagram of Counterfly and &quot;slob-footed chap.&quot;<br /> <br /> :Huh? That's a pretty sloppy anagram, ain't it? What about that &quot;b&quot; and that&quot;d&quot; ... this is ''way'' too much of a stretch. There's something to these names, perhaps, but I don't think you're close here, friend.<br /> <br /> ==Page 5==<br /> <br /> '''&quot;all tableware with Chums of Chance Insignia is Organizational property&quot;'''&lt;br /&gt;<br /> The organization in question is the Chums of Chance themselves, here considered as an institution rather than as a collection of individuals.<br /> <br /> '''picklesome'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Having the nature of a pickle, i.e, a boy who is inclined to mischief.<br /> <br /> A word not much seen since the nineteenth century.<br /> <br /> '''Pugnax'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> I suspect that, in keeping with a very strong [[Birds|&quot;bird&quot; 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 &quot;utterance&quot; is &quot;Rr Rff-rff Rr-rr-rff-rrf-rrf&quot;...<br /> <br /> There are a number of characters named after birds or bird sounds: Linnet Dawes, &quot;Pert&quot; Chirpingdon-Groin (there is a pert bird), and Wren Provenance immediately come to mind, but I'm sure there are others, and there are myriad bird references and metaphors (the Sodality of Ǣtheronauts and their mechanical wings); I just haven't had the time to explore it deeply, but others may... (Just read [[Birds|the bit about birds]] from ''Homage to Pythagoras''... <br /> <br /> 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)]].<br /> <br /> The name meaning, in Latin, &quot;likes to fight&quot; (i.e. one who is pugnacious). Pugnax's fantastic intelligence recalls another intelligent Pynchon dog, the Learned English Dog in ''Mason &amp; Dixon''. His manner of speech is somewhat reminiscent of the mystery-solving cartoon dog Scooby-Doo, and [http://waste.org/mail/?list=pynchon-l&amp;month=0612&amp;msg=112507&amp;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.<br /> <br /> Could this name be an homage to the dog in the Asterix comics, Idéfix in French; Dogmatix in English? Many of the character in the Asterix comics have names ending in &quot;x&quot;.<br /> <br /> '''&quot;...during a confidential assignment in Our Nation's Capitol (see ''The Chums of Chance and the Evil Halfwit'')...&quot;'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> 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 &quot;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.&quot;<br /> <br /> The Chums &quot;rescued Pugnax, then but a pup&quot;--an innocent, a child creature--&quot;from a furious encounter..between rival packs of the city's wild dogs&quot;.<br /> The wild dogs equal both political parties? <br /> <br /> '''lavatorial assaults'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> &quot;from the sky, which no one can &quot;begin to try to record, much less coordinate reports of&quot; recall the V-2 rockets which are linked to Slothrop's erections in ''Gravity's Rainbow''. That is, pee from the sky is &quot;folklore, superstition, or perhaps...the religious&quot; in ATD compared to rockets screaming across the sky and the destruction in GR.<br /> <br /> This also recalls jokes and urban legends regarding frozen waste from leaky airplane lavatories (i.e., &quot;you can still be hit by an icy B.M.&quot;)<br /> <br /> ==Page 6==<br /> <br /> '''''Princess Casamassima'''''&lt;br /&gt;<br /> ''The Princess Casamassima'' is a novel by Henry James, first published as a serial in ''The Atlantic Monthly'' in 1885-1886 and then as a book in 1886. 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 &amp;#151; admiration for the beautiful if imperfect world vs. a desire to change it through terrorism &amp;#151; will seem all too familiar to contemporary readers. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Princess_Casamassima Wikipedia] [[Princess Casamassima|Discussion of ''The Princess Casamassima'']]<br /> <br /> '''Placing . . . an emphasis'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Lapse of authorial control? Surely the creator of the ''Chums'' novels would not write such a Pynchonian sentence fragment!<br /> <br /> '''Pugnax sniffed . . . as always this scent eluded him'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> If Pugnax doesn't detect a human scent, that suggests Lindsay is not human. Not human, Master-at-Arms, speaks in hyper-constructed prose, has a notably short fuse . . . he's Lieutenant Worf of ''Star Trek, the Next Generation.''<br /> <br /> '''''Krakatoa'''''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Erupted 1883. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Krakatoa Wikipedia entry.]<br /> <br /> '''Heino Vanderjuice of New Haven'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Scientist who designed the ''Inconvenience's'' hydrogen engine. &quot;Vanderjuice&quot; suggests both &quot;wonder juice&quot; and &quot;wander juice,&quot; fitting since his engine allows the Chums to wander and is wondrous insofar as it apparently violates the [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Second_law_of_thermodynamics second law of thermodynamics]. &quot;Heino&quot; (HIE-no) is a man's given name [http://www.behindthename.com/php/view.php?name=heino meaning 'home'] in German, Finnish, and Estonian. Perhaps an allusion to the German pop star, [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Heino Heino].<br /> <br /> :Um, a quibble: ''Vanderjuice'' is some kind of corrupted Dutch, and in Dutch the name Heino would be pronounced HAY-no. He is not an immigrant, though, and American speakers no doubt say HIGH-no.<br /> <br /> Jules Verne influence? Vanderjuice a red herring, pointing to Dutch origin and electrical (&quot;juice&quot;) background? Or does one try to parse the name into eg &quot;Fond O' Juice&quot;?<br /> <br /> '''no better than a perpetual-motion machine'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> 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 (&quot;secret free energy source the government doesn't want you to know about&quot;) or mistakes. The hydrogen generator/engine is neither, which is why the disdainful phrase &quot;no better than&quot; is crucial.<br /> <br /> 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?<br /> <br /> '''Miles, with his marginal gifts of coördination, and Chick, with a want of alacrity fully as perceptible'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Like the old gag: The food in this restaurant isn't any good, but the service is awful.<br /> <br /> '''ratlines and shrouds'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> ''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.<br /> <br /> '''&quot;. . . anemometer of the Robinson's type&quot;'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Cup anemometer 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]<br /> <br /> '''how rapidly the ship was proceeding'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> 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.<br /> <br /> ==Page 7==<br /> <br /> '''Porfirio Díaz'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> President of Mexico 1876-1880, 1884-1911. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Porfirio_D%C3%ADaz Wikipedia]<br /> <br /> 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?<br /> <br /> '''&quot;beside a black-water river of the Deep South&quot;.&lt;br&gt;<br /> Blackwater River is in lower central Florida, pretty deep south; but there are numerous rivers in swampy areas that run black with organic matter.&lt;br&gt;<br /> 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]<br /> Thousands of news stories in September/October 2007.<br /> <br /> '''a bitter and unresolved &quot;piece of business&quot;'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Rather than give a proper reason for the Chums to be in the Deep South, the narrator cops out by pleading that it's &quot;not advisable&quot; to specify.<br /> <br /> '''&quot;the Rebellion of thirty years previous&quot;'''&lt;br /&gt;<br /> The Civil War was not called such during the time it was occurring; the South called it &quot;the war between the states&quot; to emphasize both their right to secede from the union and that this was a war between sovereign states; the North called it &quot;the Rebellion of 1861&quot; or, after termination of hostilities, &quot;the Rebellion of 1861-1865,&quot; appellations that did not recognize the South's right to secede.<br /> <br /> '''&quot;one still not advisable to set upon one's page&quot;'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> The American Civil War, that &quot;rebellion of thirty years previous,&quot; has not yet become a suitable subject for an adventure tale such as the Chums'.<br /> <br /> '''absquatulated'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Means to move away quickly, usually to avoid capture. Apparently a mock-Latinate formation, &quot;to go off and squat somewhere else.&quot; [http://www.worldwidewords.org/weirdwords/ww-abs1.htm A brief article] on the history and etymology of &quot;absquatulate.&quot;&lt;br&gt;<br /> The word is used in Vineland.<br /> <br /> '''&quot;Crackerjack!&quot; exclaimed Chick.'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> 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: &quot;Crackerjack&quot; entered English first as a noun referring to &quot;a person or thing of marked excellence,&quot; 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 &quot;crackerjack&quot; 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.<br /> <br /> '''to approach the gates of the Penitentiary'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> 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 &quot;never know how many Republicans were compelled to approach the gates of the penitentiary to make him president.&quot;<br /> <br /> '''posse comitatus'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> What Western movie fans know as a &quot;posse,&quot; 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.<br /> <br /> ==Page 8==<br /> <br /> '''a pocketful of specie'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Specie means coins as opposed to paper money.<br /> <br /> '''the town of Thick Bush'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Aside from whether this phrase might apply to some political figure of the past or present, &quot;thick bush&quot; is the literal meaning of the Spanish Matagorda, the name of many towns in Latin America and one on the Gulf Coast of Texas.<br /> <br /> '''&quot;which directs us never to interfere with legal customs of any locality down at which we may happen to have touched&quot;'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> 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 &quot;This is the kind of carping criticism up with which I will not put.&quot;<br /> <br /> '''legal customs'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Legal = pertaining to law, in this case lynch law. The Chums are interpreting their Prime Directive pretty broadly here.<br /> <br /> '''Katie bar the door'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> 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.)<br /> <br /> '''Ku Klux Klan'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Reminiscent of the [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ku_Klux_Klan Klan] encounter scenes in the Coen Brothers' ''O Brother, Where Art Thou''. <br /> <br /> '''tupelo, cypress, and hickory'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> The trees are no help in locating the town; all three kinds like bottom land and grow all over the South.<br /> <br /> '''speed . . . made it nearly invisible from the ground'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> 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.<br /> <br /> ''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 &quot;clear&quot; 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.<br /> <br /> '''way better than a mile a minute'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> The Chums' point of departure is unknown, but they arrived in Chicago after catching a southerly wind (pg 3), southerly meaning &quot;wind blowing from the south.&quot; 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.)<br /> <br /> ==Page 9==<br /> <br /> '''locker'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> On board ship, any cabinet with a door or lid.<br /> <br /> '''&quot;Do not imagine, that in coming aboard ''Inconvenience'' you have escaped into any realm of the counterfactual...&quot;'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> This may be Pynchon directly addressing the reader. Given that his [[Against_the_Day_description|book description]] proclaims the world of AtD as &quot;what the world might be with a minor adjustment or two,&quot; 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.&lt;br&gt;<br /> 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.<br /> <br /> A-and it must mean, coming from the commander, that all aboard the ''Inconvenience'' are also subject to the 'facts' of the world. &quot;The World is All that is the Case&quot;, from Wittgenstein.<br /> <br /> '''&quot;Going up is like going north.&quot;'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> 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.<br /> <br /> North is not a positive place in Pynchon's world. It is associated with anti-life---coldness as here---compared to the South.<br /> <br /> ==Page 11==<br /> <br /> '''plummet'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> 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.<br /> <br /> '''bear a hand'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Nautical: help out.<br /> <br /> ==Page 12==<br /> <br /> '''Liverpool Kiss'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> A head butt.<br /> <br /> '''Herr Riemann'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> 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].<br /> <br /> '''''Mr.'' Noseworth'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Lindsay insisting on proper naval forms: an ensign, lieutenant (junior grade), lieutenant or lieutenant commander in the U.S. navy is correctly addressed as &quot;Mister Surname.&quot;<br /> <br /> '''&quot;topological genius&quot;'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Riemann's differential geometry goes beyond the Cartesian grid. See conic sections and dimensionality above, page 10.<br /> <br /> ==Page 13==<br /> <br /> '''There was an &quot;eager stampede&quot; to the rail''' &lt;br&gt;<br /> 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?<br /> : 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) <br /> <br /> :insightfully true, I suspect, but it still shows 'narratorial knowingness', yes?<br /> <br /> : Cf. Flaubert's use of quotations in ''Madame Bovary'' to isolate what he deemed the contemptible argot of the bourgeoisie.<br /> <br /> ::Apparently not a cliche: [http://books.google.com//books?num=100&amp;q=eager.stampede&amp;as_brr=0 GoogleBooks]<br /> <br /> '''&quot;...among the brighter star-shapes of exploded ballast bags...&quot;''' &lt;br&gt;<br /> Recalls the opening line of ''Mason &amp; Dixon'': &quot;Snow-Balls have flown their Arcs, starr‘d the Sides of Outbuildings, as of Cousins...&quot;<br /> <br /> '''&quot;...quite as if were some giant eyeball, perhaps that of Society itself, ever scrutinizing from above, in a spirit of constructive censure.&quot;'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> 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&amp;page_number=4&amp;template_id=1&amp;sort_order=1 At MoMa's Online Collection]<br /> Notice that society = censure, if constructive. Gamboling nude on a summer day was OK until the ''Inconvenience'', as eyeball, appeared.<br /> <br /> :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.<br /> <br /> ==Page 14==<br /> <br /> '''charmed into docility'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> 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.<br /> <br /> '''Jacob's-ladder'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Used here as &quot;a marine ladder of rope or chain with wooden or iron rungs&quot; (Webster's Third New International Dictionary, Unabridged) but is suggestive of Jacob's ladder in Genesis:<br /> <br /> 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)<br /> <br /> '''a giant sack of soiled laundry'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Perhaps ''freshly'' soiled during the great hydrogen valve disaster.<br /> <br /> '''''vol-à-voile'''''&lt;br&gt;<br /> The narrator has turned the French phrase ''vol-à-voiles'' (gliding) into a verb (removing the ''s'').<br /> <br /> '''gold-beaters' skin'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> 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.<br /> <br /> '''Evening Quarters'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Naval practice of mustering the crew at the end of the day's work.<br /> <br /> ==Page 15==<br /> <br /> '''ukulelist'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Ukuleles also appear in ''Gravity's Rainbow'', ''Vineland'', and ''Mason &amp; Dixon''. According to Jules Siegel's article, &quot;Who is Thomas Pynchon, and why did he take off with my wife?&quot;, Pynchon himself played the ukulele in college.<br /> <br /> '''Vagabonds of the Void'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> 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.&lt;br&gt;<br /> <br /> [[image:Macassar-Oil.jpg|thumb|175px|''Macassar Oil. An Oily Puff for Soft Heads''|right]]'''Beaufort Scale'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> A scale for measuring wind strength, developed 1805.<br /> <br /> '''&quot;Let the lightning lash ~ And the thunder trash&quot;&lt;br&gt;<br /> Again, the Chums are rock stars, the coolest cats in town.<br /> <br /> '''&quot;...forty-four buttons...one for each State of the Union.&quot;&lt;br&gt;<br /> Wyoming was the 44th state admitted to the union in 1890.<br /> <br /> '''port section of the crew'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> The half of the crew permitted to go freely ashore this time. The other half tomorrow. &quot;Port&quot; and &quot;starboard&quot;: are these simply either/or words that sailors remember easily?<br /> <br /> '''Macassar oil'''&lt;br /&gt;<br /> 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]<br /> <br /> ==Page 16==<br /> <br /> '''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.'''&lt;br/&gt;<br /> 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 &lt;i&gt;The Devil In The White City&lt;/i&gt; by Erik Larson and &lt;i&gt;Depraved&lt;/i&gt; 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]<br /> <br /> '''tension of the gas'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> I.e., the pressure in the bag.<br /> <br /> ==Page 17==<br /> <br /> '''&quot;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&quot;'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> 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.<br /> <br /> '''&quot;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.&quot;'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Is this just a metaphor from the narrator to describe what it is like for Darby, or is it also self-referential to<br /> all the adventures of the Chums?. Another Q: Is the Commandant of Earthly Days the invisible presence from whom the chums get their orders? &lt;br&gt;<br /> :Related Q: Do the Chums receive their orders from the author of their books?<br /> <br /> '''we were usually out the door and on the main road'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Dick and Chick knew the judge was more likely to order them out of town than into the lockup.<br /> <br /> '''Chinese foofooraw'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Also spelled foofaraw, a great deal of fuss, or useless frills. Cf folderol. However, why Chinese? <br /> :Chick's father tried to sell Mississippi to a Chinese syndicate.<br /> <br /> '''cubeb'''&lt;br /&gt;<br /> 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.<br /> <br /> '''&quot;...goldurn Keeley Cure&quot;'''&lt;br /&gt;<br /> A treatment for alcohol, nicotine and narcotic addiction involving injections of &quot;bichloride&quot; or &quot;double chloride&quot; of gold, and also known as the &quot;gold cure&quot;. 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.<br /> <br /> ==Page 18==<br /> <br /> '''headgear'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Description vaguely reminiscent of &quot;Madame Bovary&quot;. [http://robotwisdom.com/flaubert/bovary/bovary1.html [notes]]<br /> <br /> '''eclipse green'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Apparently an actual shade. [http://encyclopedia.jrank.org/DIO_DRO/DIRECT.html [cite]]<br /> <br /> '''Bindlestiffs of the Blue A.C.'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Bindlestiff means hobo; hence, the Hoboes of the Sky Aeronautical Club.<br /> <br /> '''(&quot;Penny&quot;) Black'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> 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]]<br /> <br /> '''Tzigane'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> French for &quot;gypsy&quot;. Also a piece by Ravel. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tzigane_(Ravel) [Wikipedia]]<br /> <br /> '''Egypt'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> 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 &quot;Egypt,&quot; especially in the 19th century. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Little_Egypt_(region) [Wikipedia]]<br /> <br /> ==Page 19==<br /> <br /> '''goin all blue from the light of that electric fluid'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> 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.<br /> <br /> '''Voices calling out together'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> 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.<br /> <br /> [[image:balloons-paris.jpg|thumb|200px|Garçons de '71|right]]'''Garçons de '71'''&lt;br /&gt;<br /> 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...]]<br /> <br /> '''a condition of ''permanent siege'''''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Surely no one has failed to notice what a &quot;wartime president&quot; is allowed to get away with. &quot;No reference to the present day is intended or should be inferred.&quot;<br /> <br /> '''pétroleurs de Paris'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> An early form of Molotov cocktail thrower during the Siege of Paris. There were pétroleurs and pétroleuses.<br /> <br /> ==Page 20==<br /> <br /> '''they'll fly wherever they're needed'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> While the Chums obey orders from above, the Garçons de '71 follow a different imperative.<br /> <br /> '''energy we could feel, directed personally at us'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Someone may be trying to influence what the Bindlestiffs do, or keep them away from the Garçons' work of mercy.<br /> <br /> ==Page 21==<br /> <br /> '''admissions gate'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Apparently a break in the fence, capitalized on by freelance impresarios.<br /> <br /> '''fifty-cent pieces'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> 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.<br /> <br /> ==Page 22==<br /> <br /> '''Kodaks'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> The word Kodak was trademarked in 1888, and the first Kodak camera was sold with the slogan, &quot;You press the button - we do the rest.&quot; 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.<br /> <br /> '''half-light . . . in the interests of mercy . . . the safety of the lights'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Interesting contrast suggesting a tradeoff between comfort/solace in the shadows and safety in the bright light.<br /> <br /> '''Isandhlwana'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> 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 &quot;military&quot; and &quot;blunders&quot; in the title.<br /> <br /> ==Page 23==<br /> <br /> '''Tarahumara'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> 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]]<br /> <br /> '''&quot;geek&quot;'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> 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 &quot;Fear Factor,&quot; but sad rather than stultifying.<br /> <br /> '''monte'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Three-card monte.<br /> <br /> ==Page 24==<br /> <br /> '''the curse of Scotland'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> 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]]<br /> <br /> '''like the electricity coming on... how everything fits together, connects. It doesn't last long, though.'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> 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. <br /> <br /> 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, Miles is also said to suffer from &quot;confusion in his motor processes&quot;, which may be related.<br /> <br /> '''Cracker Jack'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> First sold at the at the first Chicago World's Fair in 1893. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cracker_Jack [Wikipedia]]<br /> <br /> '''New Levee district'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Chicago's redlight district c1890. [http://www.ipsn.org/genesis.htm [cite]]<br /> <br /> '''Epworth League'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> A Methodist youth organization founded in 1889. [http://www.southernmethodistchurch.org/id48.htm [cite]]<br /> <br /> ==Page 25==<br /> <br /> '''Haymarket bomb'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> 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 &quot;a bomb-throwing anarchist.&quot; 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].<br /> <br /> '''if the Governor decides to pardon that gang of anarchistic murderers'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> 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 &lt;i&gt;The Haymarket Tragedy&lt;/i&gt; by Paul Avrich and &lt;i&gt;Death In The Haymarket&lt;/i&gt; by James Green.<br /> <br /> '''mixture of contempt and pity'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> This is ''definitely'' not from one of the Chums' adventure stories.<br /> <br /> '''embonpoint'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Convexity of body; what used to be called a &quot;prosperous&quot; look.<br /> <br /> '''duck soup'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Meaning &quot;an easy task,&quot; 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.<br /> <br /> ==References==<br /> &lt;references /&gt;<br /> <br /> ==Annotation Index==<br /> {{ATD PbP}}</div>

MKOHUT https://against-the-day.pynchonwiki.com/wiki/index.php?title=ATD_1-25&diff=14161 2007-10-28T14:35:26Z

<p>MKOHUT: /* Page 7 */</p> <hr /> <div>:'''&lt;big&gt;Please keep these annotations SPOILER-FREE by not revealing information from later pages in the novel.&lt;/big&gt;'''&lt;p&gt;&lt;br&gt;<br /> <br /> ==cover text==<br /> The black text and its drop shadows are in different typefaces. It may be worth noting, from a conceptual point of view, that we can infer from the angle of the drop shadows that the light source is any individual holding the book—that is, the reader or a potential reader.<br /> <br /> ==cover seal==<br /> The seal appears to be written in Tibetan language, according to somebody who posts regularly to Pynchon-l under the name &quot;Ya Sam&quot;, who reports:<br /> <br /> I contacted the Tibetan Cultural Centre with the request to translate <br /> the mysterious legend on the AtD seal. They were kind enough to forward my <br /> request to the Tibetan tranlsator Tenzin Namgyal to whose generosity we <br /> owe the solution of one more ATD related mystery.<br /> <br /> It is the Tibetan language, alright, and it means ...... Tibetan <br /> Government Chamber of Commerce.<br /> <br /> Read their response below:<br /> <br /> :Dear Ya Sam,&lt;br /&gt;<br /> :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?<br /> <br /> :Best wishes,<br /> <br /> :Sandy Belth&lt;br /&gt;<br /> :Tibetan Cultural Center<br /> <br /> Also of interest: the coin bears a striking 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:<br /> <br /> :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, &quot;The Doubloon&quot;)<br /> <br /> ==copyright page==<br /> 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 &quot;Penguin Press&quot; as the publisher, as could be expected, and it seems likely that the substitution of &quot;Penguin Press&quot; with &quot;Viking&quot; is one of many typographical errors in the book (see [[errata]]). <br /> 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: &quot;this was a copyediting mistake that will be corrected. There was never a Viking contract for this book.&quot;<br /> <br /> ==Dedication==<br /> Most of Pynchon's novels contain dedications-- ''Mason &amp; Dixon'' (&quot;For Melanie, and for Jackson&quot;) , ''Vineland'' (&quot;For my mother and father&quot;), and ''Gravity's Rainbow'' (&quot;For Richard Fariña&quot;)-- but not so ''Against the Day,'' as published. Advance reading copies of the book did contain the words &quot;Dedication TK&quot; in italics, but this is simply [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/To_Come publisher-speak] for &quot;dedication to come.&quot; 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. <br /> <br /> ==Epigraph==<br /> &quot;It's always night, or we wouldn't need light.&quot; - Thelonious Monk&lt;br&gt;<br /> 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 &quot;God&quot;; 2) the character McClintic Sphere in ''V''. takes Monk's middle name, Sphere; and 3) &quot;It's always night, or we wouldn't need light&quot; 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]]: &quot;...daylit America ... its steadfast denial of night.&quot; <br /> <br /> ==Page 1==<br /> <br /> '''The Light Over the Ranges'''&lt;br&gt; <br /> &quot;Range&quot; is defined in the ''Oxford American Dictionary'' as &quot;a line or series of mountains or hills : the coastal ranges of the northwest,&quot; so &quot;range&quot; or &quot;ranges&quot; can be used to denote a number of mountains.&lt;br&gt;<br /> <br /> 'Ranges' may also refer to farms, homesteads and ranches in 1893 America. America was predominantly that in 1893. Cf. &quot;Home, home on the range&quot;.<br /> <br /> &quot;celebrating in song the wider range of life...&quot; Thomas Pynchon on<br /> [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Helen_Waddell Helen Waddell's]<br /> ''The Wandering Scholars'', p. 8, Introduction to[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Slow_Learner ''Slow Learner], 1984.<br /> <br /> A range is also a group of diverse objects.<br /> <br /> A-and &quot;range&quot; is a word full of its own meaning. [[Range|A partial list of definitions of &quot;range&quot;...]]&lt;br&gt;<br /> Range as diversity---lost---may be a major theme of AtD.<br /> <br /> ==Page 3==<br /> <br /> '''&quot;Now single up all lines!&quot;'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Pynchon was in the Navy for a spell and &quot;single up all lines&quot; 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 &quot;single up all lines&quot; is to remove the redundant second lines in preparation to make way.<br /> <br /> But the opening line has many possible connotations. <br /> :The Modern Word's Quail [http://www.themodernword.com/reviews/pynchon_atd.html writes] that &quot;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.&quot; <br /> <br /> :&quot;single up all lines&quot; 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 &amp; Dixon'', pp.258 and 260]. Perhaps we can understand this &quot;line&quot; as a text-string linking Pynchon's novels together (all but ''Vineland''?) &amp;#151; in preparation for a voyage to...?<br /> <br /> Also, in the very first sentence, Pynchon introduces the concept of doubling &amp;#151; &quot;single up all lines&quot; as a call to journey, to movement and expansion, a beginning. Then, on [[#Page_10|page 10]]: &quot;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.&quot; Thus, a progressive singling or reduction of all lines/paths, a rationalization/routinization unto death. ''See also'' [[ATD_557-587#Page_585|annotation, page 585]] and more on [[Routinization of Charisma]].<br /> <br /> '''&quot;Cheerly now...handsomely...very well!!&quot;'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Cheerly means &quot;heartily,&quot; and was traditionally used as cry of encouragement among sailors. Handsomely (in nautical context): carefully, in good order, unhurriedly.<br /> <br /> :Pynchon served in the Navy and uses nautical language in most of his novels. ''Mason &amp; Dixon'': &quot;Cheerly. Cheerly, then, Lads...&quot; (54).<br /> <br /> '''&quot;Windy City, here we come!&quot;'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> The nickname for Chicago, of course, but in 1893 the use meant city of braggarts more than it did wind. The earliest known references to the &quot;Windy City&quot; are from 1876, and involve Chicago's rivalry with Cincinnati. A popular myth states that &quot;Windy City&quot; was first used by New York Sun editor Charles Dana in the bidding for the 1893 Columbian Exposition. The popularity of the nickname has endured, even after the Cincinnati rivalry and the Columbian Exposition both ended. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Windy_City,_Origin_of_Name_(Chicago)| Origin of name &quot;Windy City&quot; at Wikipedia]<br /> <br /> '''Randolph St. Cosmo, the ship commander'''&lt;br /&gt;<br /> [[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 &quot;randy&quot; St. Cosmo, aka the &quot;modern Priapus,&quot; and the saintly martyred St. Cosmo of Church lore. Pynchon, it seems, is connecting Randolph St. Cosmo to the former. &quot;Randy,&quot; as astute observers will note, is an adjective which means, well, &quot;horny.&quot; 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...]]) &amp;#151; a-and Heartsease, St. Cosmo's mate, is the first to get pregnant! &amp;#151; 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]<br /> <br /> In [http://masondixon.pynchonwiki.com/wiki/index.php?title=V#veery ''Mason &amp; Dixon''], Pynchon has the Veery brothers, Cosmo and Damian, who are professional effigy makes in Philadelphia! And, just to make it interesting, &quot;He's a rare Wax Artist, our Cosmo is.&quot; (p. 290) (Note: Wax phallus effigies were offered by the women to St. Cosmo at the festivals held in his name, as shown above.)<br /> <br /> '''Now secure the Special Sky Detail'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> 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 &quot;Now set the Special Sea Detail.&quot;] ''Inconvenience'' is run along fairly strict naval lines—given the age of the officers and crew, you might say she is a tot ship—and the beginning of the book was preceded by an analogous &quot;Now set the Special Sky Detail.&quot; Once the ship is aloft and clear of ground obstructions, the command comes, &quot;Now secure the Special Sky Detail,&quot; meaning disband the team for the time being and all return to regular duties. The language, tasks and customs aboard the skyship will show parallels to navy usage throughout the book.<br /> <br /> '''summer uniform of red-and-white-striped blazer and trousers of sky blue'''&lt;br /&gt;<br /> Calls to mind the color scheme of Ned Land's (Kirk Douglas) costume in Disney's 1954 film version of ''20,000 Leagues under the Sea''.&lt;br&gt;<br /> <br /> Also calls to mind the colors of the American flag.<br /> <br /> '''&quot;scuttlebutt&quot; . . . thousand . . . wonders'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> 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 &quot;Book of the Fair&quot; by Hubert Bancroft, 1893.<br /> :&quot;Scuttlebutt&quot; is a very close equivalent to &quot;water-cooler gossip.&quot; [http://www.jacksjoint.com/sailor_terminology.htm Here is a glossary] of nautical terms with some of the etymologies.<br /> <br /> '''''Inconvenience'''''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Pynchon's fictional navy includes the USS Scaffold 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. Impulsive is the name of the ship Ploy, who loses all his teeth in V., gets transferred to.<br /> Inconvenience is an apt name for the Chums' adventures in 'reality'. They are an inconvenience; they are inconvenienced. (In having to take on Chick Counterfly, for example).&lt;br&gt;<br /> <br /> Pynchon uses the word ''inconvenience'' in a possibly thematic, connected way in ''Mason &amp; Dixon'' and in ''Gravity's Rainbow''. In ''Mason &amp; Dixon'', the word is applied to the difficulties of an Other, other human beings as we act, interact. See citations at the ''M &amp; D'' wiki. Here is the clearest relevant use for understanding for the Chums' airship, perhaps: from ''Gravity's Rainbow'': &quot;the gift of Daedalus that allowed him [Pokler] to put as much labyrinth as required between himself and the<br /> ''inconveniences of caring''. [Italics mine] They had sold him convenience, so much of it, all on credit, and now They were collecting.&quot;<br /> page 435, Penguin paperback edition with the Frank Miller cover. <br /> <br /> In addition, if we take the Latinate roots of in-con-ven-(ience) and willfully misread the &quot;in&quot; as adverbial &quot;in&quot; (as e.g. &quot;in-come&quot;) rather than the privative &quot;not&quot; (as e.g. &quot;in-cred-ible&quot;), we get &quot;the arriving-in-together&quot;; the &quot;inconvenience&quot;, then, is essentially a tongue-in-cheek &quot;vehicle&quot;.&lt;br&gt;<br /> I do not think it illuminating to &quot;willfully misread&quot;!?! We are trying to<br /> willfully read possible meanings and resonances. [[User:MKOHUT|MKOHUT]] 06:01, 2 August 2007 (PDT)<br /> <br /> Also, recall Fender-Belly Bodine, in [http://masondixon.pynchonwiki.com/wiki/index.php?title=I#inconvenience ''Mason &amp; Dixon'']: &quot;Back on old H.M.S. ''Inconvenience'', we wasted many a Day and Night watching that fancy Counter get smaller by the minute...&quot; (p.28)<br /> <br /> '''patriotic bunting'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> TRP reminds again that this is a very American skyship.&lt;br&gt;<br /> AtD has many echoes of Doctorow's &quot;Ragtime&quot;: Doctorow fictionalises the same era, including anarchists, bombings, and early Hollywood. <br /> <br /> '''aeronautics'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> 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]<br /> <br /> '''five-lad crew'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Randolph St. Cosmo (ship commander), Lindsay Noseworth (master-at-arms), Miles Blundell (handyman apprentice), Darby Suckling (factotum and mascot), and Chick Counterfly. The commander's name evokes Randolph St., a main thoroughfare in Chicago. Perhaps also saint(liness) and cosmos?<br /> <br /> '''The [[Chums of Chance]]'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> To be chummy with chance might mean lucky, fond of gambling, fond of chaos, irrational, or anarchist. Or maybe they became chums by accident. The &quot;chance&quot; may also be that of the winds that carry them in directions not always intended.<br /> :The American philospher Charles Sanders Peirce, who set down his most important ideas in the late 1800's, argued that 'Chance' was a feature of the universe that can refute all determinisms.<br /> <br /> &quot;The certainty of chance&quot; is a Surrealist slogan. We learned from ''Slow Learner'' that Pynchon was influenced early by Surrealism. <br /> The slogan is quoted in this obit of a real life<br /> character out of Pynchon, George Melly, Jazz singer, writer, anarchist and polymorphous lover.[http://www.economist.com/search/search.cfm?rv=2&amp;qr=melly&amp;area=1&amp;x=6&amp;y=7]<br /> <br /> 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, &quot;The Boys.&quot;<br /> <br /> [[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. &quot;The Explorigator&quot; 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'' ran for 14 weeks in 1908 and made an impression for its imaginative and visual creativity. [[The Explorigator|More on ''The Explorigator'']] &lt;ref&gt;[http://lambiek.net/artists/d/dart_harry_grant.htm Lambiek Comiclopedia]&lt;/ref&gt;<br /> <br /> 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]. <br /> <br /> The creativity of Pynchon's naming of the Chums, as other characters, shows yet again his Dickensian influence.<br /> <br /> Note that there's five Chums, the number of chapters of the book (a-and the number of letters in &quot;Chums&quot;!). <br /> <br /> '''Chicago'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> It has been suggested that Pynchon relied on the [http://www.1911encyclopedia.org/ 1911 Edition of the Encyclopaedia Britannica] as a major reference for his treatment of 1890s Chicago. [http://www.1911encyclopedia.org/Chicago 1911 Britannica entry on Chicago]<br /> <br /> Also, The band Chicago's third hit song &quot;Does Anybody Really Know What Time It Is?&quot; deals with how one faces living in a world under constraints of time [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Does_Anybody_Really_Know_What_Time_It_Is%3F]. The opening lyrics are: <br /> <br /> Does anybody really know what time it is?<br /> Does anybody really care?<br /> About Time... <br /> <br /> '''World's Columbian Exposition'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> 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. &quot;The thousand or more such wonders which awaited [the Chums] there.&quot; p.3<br /> <br /> '''lifelines'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Called &quot;manropes&quot; 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.<br /> <br /> '''as my faithful readers will remember'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Pynchon here is immediately inserting this story into a larger canon of Chums of Chance fictions, titles of which are mentioned in subsequent pages.<br /> <br /> '''mascotte'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> The English word 'mascot' has its origin in the late 19th cent.: from French mascotte. The spelling may also be a tribute to the Dutch brand of rolling papers. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mascotte_%28rolling_papers%29 [Wikipedia]]<br /> <br /> ==Page 4==<br /> <br /> '''Professor'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Randolph St. Cosmo is called Professor.<br /> &quot;Professor&quot; was a common title for early hot-air balloonists. [EC]<br /> <br /> '''&quot;Turn to&quot;'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Evokes the &quot;Go to!&quot; of Majistral and compatriots, ''V.'', chapter eleven. &quot;Turn to&quot; is also a shipboard expression, &quot;put your back into it&quot; or something of the kind.<br /> <br /> '''Perhaps its familiarity... rendered it temporarily invisible to you.&quot;&lt;br&gt;<br /> Perhaps an admonition from the author that familiar things will be easily overlooked?<br /> 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.<br /> <br /> '''&quot;for Miles, while possessed of good intentions and the kindest heart in the little band, suffered at times from a confusion in his motor processes, often producing lively results, yet as frequently compromising the crew's physical safety.'''&quot;&lt;br&gt;<br /> Talk about Filles de Kilimanjaro and Miles post-quintet years, a prolonged effect on survivors after the bombings of 1945 and in the arts of Japan’s exploding subculture.<br /> <br /> '''Chick Counterfly'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Three possibilities: (1) A counter fly is an annoyance in (say) the butcher's shop. (2) Chick always speaks &quot;counter&quot; to anyone else's &quot;flight&quot; of imagery. (3) The only non-''AtD''-related uses of this word that I've found came in patents describing mechanisms; &quot;the counterfly direction&quot; means contrary to the direction everything else is flying in, hence this character counters the flying of the craft?<br /> <br /> He is the only Chum we know who was &quot;rescued&quot; from the &quot;real&quot; 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<br /> on a different &quot;earth&quot; happens.<br /> <br /> Like Suckling's name suggesting a relationship to another Pynchon character (Pig Bodine), Pynchon winks at a relationship between Counterfly and Tyrone Slothrop. In Counterfly´s first utterance in the book, “Ha ha,” cried young Counterfly, “say, but if you ain’t the most slob-footed chap I ever seen!” you can derive &quot;Tyrone Slothrop&quot; from an anagram of Counterfly and &quot;slob-footed chap.&quot;<br /> <br /> :Huh? That's a pretty sloppy anagram, ain't it? What about that &quot;b&quot; and that&quot;d&quot; ... this is ''way'' too much of a stretch. There's something to these names, perhaps, but I don't think you're close here, friend.<br /> <br /> ==Page 5==<br /> <br /> '''&quot;all tableware with Chums of Chance Insignia is Organizational property&quot;'''&lt;br /&gt;<br /> The organization in question is the Chums of Chance themselves, here considered as an institution rather than as a collection of individuals.<br /> <br /> '''picklesome'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Having the nature of a pickle, i.e, a boy who is inclined to mischief.<br /> <br /> A word not much seen since the nineteenth century.<br /> <br /> '''Pugnax'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> I suspect that, in keeping with a very strong [[Birds|&quot;bird&quot; 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 &quot;utterance&quot; is &quot;Rr Rff-rff Rr-rr-rff-rrf-rrf&quot;...<br /> <br /> There are a number of characters named after birds or bird sounds: Linnet Dawes, &quot;Pert&quot; Chirpingdon-Groin (there is a pert bird), and Wren Provenance immediately come to mind, but I'm sure there are others, and there are myriad bird references and metaphors (the Sodality of Ǣtheronauts and their mechanical wings); I just haven't had the time to explore it deeply, but others may... (Just read [[Birds|the bit about birds]] from ''Homage to Pythagoras''... <br /> <br /> 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)]].<br /> <br /> The name meaning, in Latin, &quot;likes to fight&quot; (i.e. one who is pugnacious). Pugnax's fantastic intelligence recalls another intelligent Pynchon dog, the Learned English Dog in ''Mason &amp; Dixon''. His manner of speech is somewhat reminiscent of the mystery-solving cartoon dog Scooby-Doo, and [http://waste.org/mail/?list=pynchon-l&amp;month=0612&amp;msg=112507&amp;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.<br /> <br /> Could this name be an homage to the dog in the Asterix comics, Idéfix in French; Dogmatix in English? Many of the character in the Asterix comics have names ending in &quot;x&quot;.<br /> <br /> '''&quot;...during a confidential assignment in Our Nation's Capitol (see ''The Chums of Chance and the Evil Halfwit'')...&quot;'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> 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 &quot;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.&quot;<br /> <br /> The Chums &quot;rescued Pugnax, then but a pup&quot;--an innocent, a child creature--&quot;from a furious encounter..between rival packs of the city's wild dogs&quot;.<br /> The wild dogs equal both political parties? <br /> <br /> '''lavatorial assaults'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> &quot;from the sky, which no one can &quot;begin to try to record, much less coordinate reports of&quot; recall the V-2 rockets which are linked to Slothrop's erections in ''Gravity's Rainbow''. That is, pee from the sky is &quot;folklore, superstition, or perhaps...the religious&quot; in ATD compared to rockets screaming across the sky and the destruction in GR.<br /> <br /> This also recalls jokes and urban legends regarding frozen waste from leaky airplane lavatories (i.e., &quot;you can still be hit by an icy B.M.&quot;)<br /> <br /> ==Page 6==<br /> <br /> '''''Princess Casamassima'''''&lt;br /&gt;<br /> ''The Princess Casamassima'' is a novel by Henry James, first published as a serial in ''The Atlantic Monthly'' in 1885-1886 and then as a book in 1886. 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 &amp;#151; admiration for the beautiful if imperfect world vs. a desire to change it through terrorism &amp;#151; will seem all too familiar to contemporary readers. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Princess_Casamassima Wikipedia] [[Princess Casamassima|Discussion of ''The Princess Casamassima'']]<br /> <br /> '''Placing . . . an emphasis'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Lapse of authorial control? Surely the creator of the ''Chums'' novels would not write such a Pynchonian sentence fragment!<br /> <br /> '''Pugnax sniffed . . . as always this scent eluded him'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> If Pugnax doesn't detect a human scent, that suggests Lindsay is not human. Not human, Master-at-Arms, speaks in hyper-constructed prose, has a notably short fuse . . . he's Lieutenant Worf of ''Star Trek, the Next Generation.''<br /> <br /> '''''Krakatoa'''''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Erupted 1883. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Krakatoa Wikipedia entry.]<br /> <br /> '''Heino Vanderjuice of New Haven'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Scientist who designed the ''Inconvenience's'' hydrogen engine. &quot;Vanderjuice&quot; suggests both &quot;wonder juice&quot; and &quot;wander juice,&quot; fitting since his engine allows the Chums to wander and is wondrous insofar as it apparently violates the [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Second_law_of_thermodynamics second law of thermodynamics]. &quot;Heino&quot; (HIE-no) is a man's given name [http://www.behindthename.com/php/view.php?name=heino meaning 'home'] in German, Finnish, and Estonian. Perhaps an allusion to the German pop star, [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Heino Heino].<br /> <br /> :Um, a quibble: ''Vanderjuice'' is some kind of corrupted Dutch, and in Dutch the name Heino would be pronounced HAY-no. He is not an immigrant, though, and American speakers no doubt say HIGH-no.<br /> <br /> Jules Verne influence? Vanderjuice a red herring, pointing to Dutch origin and electrical (&quot;juice&quot;) background? Or does one try to parse the name into eg &quot;Fond O' Juice&quot;?<br /> <br /> '''no better than a perpetual-motion machine'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> 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 (&quot;secret free energy source the government doesn't want you to know about&quot;) or mistakes. The hydrogen generator/engine is neither, which is why the disdainful phrase &quot;no better than&quot; is crucial.<br /> <br /> 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?<br /> <br /> '''Miles, with his marginal gifts of coördination, and Chick, with a want of alacrity fully as perceptible'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Like the old gag: The food in this restaurant isn't any good, but the service is awful.<br /> <br /> '''ratlines and shrouds'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> ''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.<br /> <br /> '''&quot;. . . anemometer of the Robinson's type&quot;'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Cup anemometer 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]<br /> <br /> '''how rapidly the ship was proceeding'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> 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.<br /> <br /> ==Page 7==<br /> <br /> '''Porfirio Díaz'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> President of Mexico 1876-1880, 1884-1911. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Porfirio_D%C3%ADaz Wikipedia]<br /> <br /> 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?<br /> <br /> '''&quot;beside a black-water river of the Deep South&quot;.&lt;br&gt;<br /> Blackwater River is in lower central Florida, pretty deep south; but there are numerous rivers in swampy areas that run black with organic matter.&lt;br&gt;<br /> 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]<br /> Thousands of news stories in September/October 2007.<br /> <br /> '''a bitter and unresolved &quot;piece of business&quot;'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Rather than give a proper reason for the Chums to be in the Deep South, the narrator cops out by pleading that it's &quot;not advisable&quot; to specify.<br /> <br /> '''&quot;the Rebellion of thirty years previous&quot;'''&lt;br /&gt;<br /> The Civil War was not called such during the time it was occurring; the South called it &quot;the war between the states&quot; to emphasize both their right to secede from the union and that this was a war between sovereign states; the North called it &quot;the Rebellion of 1861&quot; or, after termination of hostilities, &quot;the Rebellion of 1861-1865,&quot; appellations that did not recognize the South's right to secede.<br /> <br /> '''&quot;one still not advisable to set upon one's page&quot;'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> The American Civil War, that &quot;rebellion of thirty years previous,&quot; has not yet become a suitable subject for an adventure tale such as the Chums'.<br /> <br /> '''absquatulated'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Means to move away quickly, usually to avoid capture. Apparently a mock-Latinate formation, &quot;to go off and squat somewhere else.&quot; [http://www.worldwidewords.org/weirdwords/ww-abs1.htm A brief article] on the history and etymology of &quot;absquatulate.&quot;&lt;br&gt;<br /> The word is used in Vineland.<br /> <br /> '''&quot;Crackerjack!&quot; exclaimed Chick.'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> 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: &quot;Crackerjack&quot; entered English first as a noun referring to &quot;a person or thing of marked excellence,&quot; 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 &quot;crackerjack&quot; 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.<br /> <br /> '''to approach the gates of the Penitentiary'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> 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 &quot;never know how many Republicans were compelled to approach the gates of the penitentiary to make him president.&quot;<br /> <br /> '''posse comitatus'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> What Western movie fans know as a &quot;posse,&quot; 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.<br /> <br /> ==Page 8==<br /> <br /> '''a pocketful of specie'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Specie means coins as opposed to paper money.<br /> <br /> '''the town of Thick Bush'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Aside from whether this phrase might apply to some political figure of the past or present, &quot;thick bush&quot; is the literal meaning of the Spanish Matagorda, the name of many towns in Latin America and one on the Gulf Coast of Texas.<br /> <br /> '''&quot;which directs us never to interfere with legal customs of any locality down at which we may happen to have touched&quot;'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> 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 &quot;This is the kind of carping criticism up with which I will not put.&quot;<br /> <br /> '''legal customs'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Legal = pertaining to law, in this case lynch law. The Chums are interpreting their Prime Directive pretty broadly here.<br /> <br /> '''Katie bar the door'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> 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.)<br /> <br /> '''Ku Klux Klan'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Reminiscent of the [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ku_Klux_Klan Klan] encounter scenes in the Coen Brothers' ''O Brother, Where Art Thou''. <br /> <br /> '''tupelo, cypress, and hickory'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> The trees are no help in locating the town; all three kinds like bottom land and grow all over the South.<br /> <br /> '''speed . . . made it nearly invisible from the ground'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> 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.<br /> <br /> ''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 &quot;clear&quot; 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.<br /> <br /> '''way better than a mile a minute'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> The Chums' point of departure is unknown, but they arrived in Chicago after catching a southerly wind (pg 3), southerly meaning &quot;wind blowing from the south.&quot; 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.)<br /> <br /> ==Page 9==<br /> <br /> '''locker'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> On board ship, any cabinet with a door or lid.<br /> <br /> '''&quot;Do not imagine, that in coming aboard ''Inconvenience'' you have escaped into any realm of the counterfactual...&quot;'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> This may be Pynchon directly addressing the reader. Given that his [[Against_the_Day_description|book description]] proclaims the world of AtD as &quot;what the world might be with a minor adjustment or two,&quot; 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.&lt;br&gt;<br /> 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.<br /> <br /> A-and it must mean, coming from the commander, that all aboard the ''Inconvenience'' are also subjects to the 'facts' of the world. &quot;The World is All that is the Case&quot;, from Wittgenstein, quoted in ''V.''<br /> (in the original German)<br /> <br /> '''&quot;Going up is like going north.&quot;'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> 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.<br /> <br /> North is not a positive place in Pynchon's world. It is associated with anti-life---coldness as here---compared to the South.<br /> <br /> ==Page 11==<br /> <br /> '''plummet'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> 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.<br /> <br /> '''bear a hand'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Nautical: help out.<br /> <br /> ==Page 12==<br /> <br /> '''Liverpool Kiss'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> A head butt.<br /> <br /> '''Herr Riemann'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> 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].<br /> <br /> '''''Mr.'' Noseworth'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Lindsay insisting on proper naval forms: an ensign, lieutenant (junior grade), lieutenant or lieutenant commander in the U.S. navy is correctly addressed as &quot;Mister Surname.&quot;<br /> <br /> '''&quot;topological genius&quot;'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Riemann's differential geometry goes beyond the Cartesian grid. See conic sections and dimensionality above, page 10.<br /> <br /> ==Page 13==<br /> <br /> '''There was an &quot;eager stampede&quot; to the rail''' &lt;br&gt;<br /> 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?<br /> : 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) <br /> <br /> :insightfully true, I suspect, but it still shows 'narratorial knowingness', yes?<br /> <br /> : Cf. Flaubert's use of quotations in ''Madame Bovary'' to isolate what he deemed the contemptible argot of the bourgeoisie.<br /> <br /> ::Apparently not a cliche: [http://books.google.com//books?num=100&amp;q=eager.stampede&amp;as_brr=0 GoogleBooks]<br /> <br /> '''&quot;...among the brighter star-shapes of exploded ballast bags...&quot;''' &lt;br&gt;<br /> Recalls the opening line of ''Mason &amp; Dixon'': &quot;Snow-Balls have flown their Arcs, starr‘d the Sides of Outbuildings, as of Cousins...&quot;<br /> <br /> '''&quot;...quite as if were some giant eyeball, perhaps that of Society itself, ever scrutinizing from above, in a spirit of constructive censure.&quot;'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> 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&amp;page_number=4&amp;template_id=1&amp;sort_order=1 At MoMa's Online Collection]<br /> Notice that society = censure, if constructive. Gamboling nude on a summer day was OK until the ''Inconvenience'', as eyeball, appeared.<br /> <br /> :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.<br /> <br /> ==Page 14==<br /> <br /> '''charmed into docility'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> 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.<br /> <br /> '''Jacob's-ladder'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Used here as &quot;a marine ladder of rope or chain with wooden or iron rungs&quot; (Webster's Third New International Dictionary, Unabridged) but is suggestive of Jacob's ladder in Genesis:<br /> <br /> 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)<br /> <br /> '''a giant sack of soiled laundry'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Perhaps ''freshly'' soiled during the great hydrogen valve disaster.<br /> <br /> '''''vol-à-voile'''''&lt;br&gt;<br /> The narrator has turned the French phrase ''vol-à-voiles'' (gliding) into a verb (removing the ''s'').<br /> <br /> '''gold-beaters' skin'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> 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.<br /> <br /> '''Evening Quarters'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Naval practice of mustering the crew at the end of the day's work.<br /> <br /> ==Page 15==<br /> <br /> '''ukulelist'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Ukuleles also appear in ''Gravity's Rainbow'', ''Vineland'', and ''Mason &amp; Dixon''. According to Jules Siegel's article, &quot;Who is Thomas Pynchon, and why did he take off with my wife?&quot;, Pynchon himself played the ukulele in college.<br /> <br /> '''Vagabonds of the Void'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> 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.&lt;br&gt;<br /> <br /> [[image:Macassar-Oil.jpg|thumb|175px|''Macassar Oil. An Oily Puff for Soft Heads''|right]]'''Beaufort Scale'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> A scale for measuring wind strength, developed 1805.<br /> <br /> '''&quot;Let the lightning lash ~ And the thunder trash&quot;&lt;br&gt;<br /> Again, the Chums are rock stars, the coolest cats in town.<br /> <br /> '''&quot;...forty-four buttons...one for each State of the Union.&quot;&lt;br&gt;<br /> Wyoming was the 44th state admitted to the union in 1890.<br /> <br /> '''port section of the crew'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> The half of the crew permitted to go freely ashore this time. The other half tomorrow. &quot;Port&quot; and &quot;starboard&quot;: are these simply either/or words that sailors remember easily?<br /> <br /> '''Macassar oil'''&lt;br /&gt;<br /> 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]<br /> <br /> ==Page 16==<br /> <br /> '''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.'''&lt;br/&gt;<br /> 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 &lt;i&gt;The Devil In The White City&lt;/i&gt; by Erik Larson and &lt;i&gt;Depraved&lt;/i&gt; 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]<br /> <br /> '''tension of the gas'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> I.e., the pressure in the bag.<br /> <br /> ==Page 17==<br /> <br /> '''&quot;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&quot;'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> 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.<br /> <br /> '''&quot;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.&quot;'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Is this just a metaphor from the narrator to describe what it is like for Darby, or is it also self-referential to<br /> all the adventures of the Chums?. Another Q: Is the Commandant of Earthly Days the invisible presence from whom the chums get their orders? &lt;br&gt;<br /> :Related Q: Do the Chums receive their orders from the author of their books?<br /> <br /> '''we were usually out the door and on the main road'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Dick and Chick knew the judge was more likely to order them out of town than into the lockup.<br /> <br /> '''Chinese foofooraw'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Also spelled foofaraw, a great deal of fuss, or useless frills. Cf folderol. However, why Chinese? <br /> :Chick's father tried to sell Mississippi to a Chinese syndicate.<br /> <br /> '''cubeb'''&lt;br /&gt;<br /> 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.<br /> <br /> '''&quot;...goldurn Keeley Cure&quot;'''&lt;br /&gt;<br /> A treatment for alcohol, nicotine and narcotic addiction involving injections of &quot;bichloride&quot; or &quot;double chloride&quot; of gold, and also known as the &quot;gold cure&quot;. 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.<br /> <br /> ==Page 18==<br /> <br /> '''headgear'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Description vaguely reminiscent of &quot;Madame Bovary&quot;. [http://robotwisdom.com/flaubert/bovary/bovary1.html [notes]]<br /> <br /> '''eclipse green'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Apparently an actual shade. [http://encyclopedia.jrank.org/DIO_DRO/DIRECT.html [cite]]<br /> <br /> '''Bindlestiffs of the Blue A.C.'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Bindlestiff means hobo; hence, the Hoboes of the Sky Aeronautical Club.<br /> <br /> '''(&quot;Penny&quot;) Black'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> 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]]<br /> <br /> '''Tzigane'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> French for &quot;gypsy&quot;. Also a piece by Ravel. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tzigane_(Ravel) [Wikipedia]]<br /> <br /> '''Egypt'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> 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 &quot;Egypt,&quot; especially in the 19th century. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Little_Egypt_(region) [Wikipedia]]<br /> <br /> ==Page 19==<br /> <br /> '''goin all blue from the light of that electric fluid'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> 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.<br /> <br /> '''Voices calling out together'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> 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.<br /> <br /> [[image:balloons-paris.jpg|thumb|200px|Garçons de '71|right]]'''Garçons de '71'''&lt;br /&gt;<br /> 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...]]<br /> <br /> '''a condition of ''permanent siege'''''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Surely no one has failed to notice what a &quot;wartime president&quot; is allowed to get away with. &quot;No reference to the present day is intended or should be inferred.&quot;<br /> <br /> '''pétroleurs de Paris'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> An early form of Molotov cocktail thrower during the Siege of Paris. There were pétroleurs and pétroleuses.<br /> <br /> ==Page 20==<br /> <br /> '''they'll fly wherever they're needed'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> While the Chums obey orders from above, the Garçons de '71 follow a different imperative.<br /> <br /> '''energy we could feel, directed personally at us'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Someone may be trying to influence what the Bindlestiffs do, or keep them away from the Garçons' work of mercy.<br /> <br /> ==Page 21==<br /> <br /> '''admissions gate'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Apparently a break in the fence, capitalized on by freelance impresarios.<br /> <br /> '''fifty-cent pieces'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> 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.<br /> <br /> ==Page 22==<br /> <br /> '''Kodaks'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> The word Kodak was trademarked in 1888, and the first Kodak camera was sold with the slogan, &quot;You press the button - we do the rest.&quot; 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.<br /> <br /> '''half-light . . . in the interests of mercy . . . the safety of the lights'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Interesting contrast suggesting a tradeoff between comfort/solace in the shadows and safety in the bright light.<br /> <br /> '''Isandhlwana'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> 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 &quot;military&quot; and &quot;blunders&quot; in the title.<br /> <br /> ==Page 23==<br /> <br /> '''Tarahumara'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> 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]]<br /> <br /> '''&quot;geek&quot;'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> 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 &quot;Fear Factor,&quot; but sad rather than stultifying.<br /> <br /> '''monte'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Three-card monte.<br /> <br /> ==Page 24==<br /> <br /> '''the curse of Scotland'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> 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]]<br /> <br /> '''like the electricity coming on... how everything fits together, connects. It doesn't last long, though.'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> 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. <br /> <br /> 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, Miles is also said to suffer from &quot;confusion in his motor processes&quot;, which may be related.<br /> <br /> '''Cracker Jack'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> First sold at the at the first Chicago World's Fair in 1893. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cracker_Jack [Wikipedia]]<br /> <br /> '''New Levee district'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Chicago's redlight district c1890. [http://www.ipsn.org/genesis.htm [cite]]<br /> <br /> '''Epworth League'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> A Methodist youth organization founded in 1889. [http://www.southernmethodistchurch.org/id48.htm [cite]]<br /> <br /> ==Page 25==<br /> <br /> '''Haymarket bomb'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> 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 &quot;a bomb-throwing anarchist.&quot; 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].<br /> <br /> '''if the Governor decides to pardon that gang of anarchistic murderers'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> 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 &lt;i&gt;The Haymarket Tragedy&lt;/i&gt; by Paul Avrich and &lt;i&gt;Death In The Haymarket&lt;/i&gt; by James Green.<br /> <br /> '''mixture of contempt and pity'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> This is ''definitely'' not from one of the Chums' adventure stories.<br /> <br /> '''embonpoint'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Convexity of body; what used to be called a &quot;prosperous&quot; look.<br /> <br /> '''duck soup'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Meaning &quot;an easy task,&quot; 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.<br /> <br /> ==References==<br /> &lt;references /&gt;<br /> <br /> ==Annotation Index==<br /> {{ATD PbP}}</div>

MKOHUT https://against-the-day.pynchonwiki.com/wiki/index.php?title=ATD_1-25&diff=14160 2007-10-28T14:29:00Z

<p>MKOHUT: /* Page 9 */</p> <hr /> <div>:'''&lt;big&gt;Please keep these annotations SPOILER-FREE by not revealing information from later pages in the novel.&lt;/big&gt;'''&lt;p&gt;&lt;br&gt;<br /> <br /> ==cover text==<br /> The black text and its drop shadows are in different typefaces. It may be worth noting, from a conceptual point of view, that we can infer from the angle of the drop shadows that the light source is any individual holding the book—that is, the reader or a potential reader.<br /> <br /> ==cover seal==<br /> The seal appears to be written in Tibetan language, according to somebody who posts regularly to Pynchon-l under the name &quot;Ya Sam&quot;, who reports:<br /> <br /> I contacted the Tibetan Cultural Centre with the request to translate <br /> the mysterious legend on the AtD seal. They were kind enough to forward my <br /> request to the Tibetan tranlsator Tenzin Namgyal to whose generosity we <br /> owe the solution of one more ATD related mystery.<br /> <br /> It is the Tibetan language, alright, and it means ...... Tibetan <br /> Government Chamber of Commerce.<br /> <br /> Read their response below:<br /> <br /> :Dear Ya Sam,&lt;br /&gt;<br /> :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?<br /> <br /> :Best wishes,<br /> <br /> :Sandy Belth&lt;br /&gt;<br /> :Tibetan Cultural Center<br /> <br /> Also of interest: the coin bears a striking 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:<br /> <br /> :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, &quot;The Doubloon&quot;)<br /> <br /> ==copyright page==<br /> 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 &quot;Penguin Press&quot; as the publisher, as could be expected, and it seems likely that the substitution of &quot;Penguin Press&quot; with &quot;Viking&quot; is one of many typographical errors in the book (see [[errata]]). <br /> 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: &quot;this was a copyediting mistake that will be corrected. There was never a Viking contract for this book.&quot;<br /> <br /> ==Dedication==<br /> Most of Pynchon's novels contain dedications-- ''Mason &amp; Dixon'' (&quot;For Melanie, and for Jackson&quot;) , ''Vineland'' (&quot;For my mother and father&quot;), and ''Gravity's Rainbow'' (&quot;For Richard Fariña&quot;)-- but not so ''Against the Day,'' as published. Advance reading copies of the book did contain the words &quot;Dedication TK&quot; in italics, but this is simply [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/To_Come publisher-speak] for &quot;dedication to come.&quot; 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. <br /> <br /> ==Epigraph==<br /> &quot;It's always night, or we wouldn't need light.&quot; - Thelonious Monk&lt;br&gt;<br /> 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 &quot;God&quot;; 2) the character McClintic Sphere in ''V''. takes Monk's middle name, Sphere; and 3) &quot;It's always night, or we wouldn't need light&quot; 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]]: &quot;...daylit America ... its steadfast denial of night.&quot; <br /> <br /> ==Page 1==<br /> <br /> '''The Light Over the Ranges'''&lt;br&gt; <br /> &quot;Range&quot; is defined in the ''Oxford American Dictionary'' as &quot;a line or series of mountains or hills : the coastal ranges of the northwest,&quot; so &quot;range&quot; or &quot;ranges&quot; can be used to denote a number of mountains.&lt;br&gt;<br /> <br /> 'Ranges' may also refer to farms, homesteads and ranches in 1893 America. America was predominantly that in 1893. Cf. &quot;Home, home on the range&quot;.<br /> <br /> &quot;celebrating in song the wider range of life...&quot; Thomas Pynchon on<br /> [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Helen_Waddell Helen Waddell's]<br /> ''The Wandering Scholars'', p. 8, Introduction to[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Slow_Learner ''Slow Learner], 1984.<br /> <br /> A range is also a group of diverse objects.<br /> <br /> A-and &quot;range&quot; is a word full of its own meaning. [[Range|A partial list of definitions of &quot;range&quot;...]]&lt;br&gt;<br /> Range as diversity---lost---may be a major theme of AtD.<br /> <br /> ==Page 3==<br /> <br /> '''&quot;Now single up all lines!&quot;'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Pynchon was in the Navy for a spell and &quot;single up all lines&quot; 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 &quot;single up all lines&quot; is to remove the redundant second lines in preparation to make way.<br /> <br /> But the opening line has many possible connotations. <br /> :The Modern Word's Quail [http://www.themodernword.com/reviews/pynchon_atd.html writes] that &quot;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.&quot; <br /> <br /> :&quot;single up all lines&quot; 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 &amp; Dixon'', pp.258 and 260]. Perhaps we can understand this &quot;line&quot; as a text-string linking Pynchon's novels together (all but ''Vineland''?) &amp;#151; in preparation for a voyage to...?<br /> <br /> Also, in the very first sentence, Pynchon introduces the concept of doubling &amp;#151; &quot;single up all lines&quot; as a call to journey, to movement and expansion, a beginning. Then, on [[#Page_10|page 10]]: &quot;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.&quot; Thus, a progressive singling or reduction of all lines/paths, a rationalization/routinization unto death. ''See also'' [[ATD_557-587#Page_585|annotation, page 585]] and more on [[Routinization of Charisma]].<br /> <br /> '''&quot;Cheerly now...handsomely...very well!!&quot;'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Cheerly means &quot;heartily,&quot; and was traditionally used as cry of encouragement among sailors. Handsomely (in nautical context): carefully, in good order, unhurriedly.<br /> <br /> :Pynchon served in the Navy and uses nautical language in most of his novels. ''Mason &amp; Dixon'': &quot;Cheerly. Cheerly, then, Lads...&quot; (54).<br /> <br /> '''&quot;Windy City, here we come!&quot;'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> The nickname for Chicago, of course, but in 1893 the use meant city of braggarts more than it did wind. The earliest known references to the &quot;Windy City&quot; are from 1876, and involve Chicago's rivalry with Cincinnati. A popular myth states that &quot;Windy City&quot; was first used by New York Sun editor Charles Dana in the bidding for the 1893 Columbian Exposition. The popularity of the nickname has endured, even after the Cincinnati rivalry and the Columbian Exposition both ended. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Windy_City,_Origin_of_Name_(Chicago)| Origin of name &quot;Windy City&quot; at Wikipedia]<br /> <br /> '''Randolph St. Cosmo, the ship commander'''&lt;br /&gt;<br /> [[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 &quot;randy&quot; St. Cosmo, aka the &quot;modern Priapus,&quot; and the saintly martyred St. Cosmo of Church lore. Pynchon, it seems, is connecting Randolph St. Cosmo to the former. &quot;Randy,&quot; as astute observers will note, is an adjective which means, well, &quot;horny.&quot; 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...]]) &amp;#151; a-and Heartsease, St. Cosmo's mate, is the first to get pregnant! &amp;#151; 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]<br /> <br /> In [http://masondixon.pynchonwiki.com/wiki/index.php?title=V#veery ''Mason &amp; Dixon''], Pynchon has the Veery brothers, Cosmo and Damian, who are professional effigy makes in Philadelphia! And, just to make it interesting, &quot;He's a rare Wax Artist, our Cosmo is.&quot; (p. 290) (Note: Wax phallus effigies were offered by the women to St. Cosmo at the festivals held in his name, as shown above.)<br /> <br /> '''Now secure the Special Sky Detail'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> 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 &quot;Now set the Special Sea Detail.&quot;] ''Inconvenience'' is run along fairly strict naval lines—given the age of the officers and crew, you might say she is a tot ship—and the beginning of the book was preceded by an analogous &quot;Now set the Special Sky Detail.&quot; Once the ship is aloft and clear of ground obstructions, the command comes, &quot;Now secure the Special Sky Detail,&quot; meaning disband the team for the time being and all return to regular duties. The language, tasks and customs aboard the skyship will show parallels to navy usage throughout the book.<br /> <br /> '''summer uniform of red-and-white-striped blazer and trousers of sky blue'''&lt;br /&gt;<br /> Calls to mind the color scheme of Ned Land's (Kirk Douglas) costume in Disney's 1954 film version of ''20,000 Leagues under the Sea''.&lt;br&gt;<br /> <br /> Also calls to mind the colors of the American flag.<br /> <br /> '''&quot;scuttlebutt&quot; . . . thousand . . . wonders'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> 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 &quot;Book of the Fair&quot; by Hubert Bancroft, 1893.<br /> :&quot;Scuttlebutt&quot; is a very close equivalent to &quot;water-cooler gossip.&quot; [http://www.jacksjoint.com/sailor_terminology.htm Here is a glossary] of nautical terms with some of the etymologies.<br /> <br /> '''''Inconvenience'''''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Pynchon's fictional navy includes the USS Scaffold 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. Impulsive is the name of the ship Ploy, who loses all his teeth in V., gets transferred to.<br /> Inconvenience is an apt name for the Chums' adventures in 'reality'. They are an inconvenience; they are inconvenienced. (In having to take on Chick Counterfly, for example).&lt;br&gt;<br /> <br /> Pynchon uses the word ''inconvenience'' in a possibly thematic, connected way in ''Mason &amp; Dixon'' and in ''Gravity's Rainbow''. In ''Mason &amp; Dixon'', the word is applied to the difficulties of an Other, other human beings as we act, interact. See citations at the ''M &amp; D'' wiki. Here is the clearest relevant use for understanding for the Chums' airship, perhaps: from ''Gravity's Rainbow'': &quot;the gift of Daedalus that allowed him [Pokler] to put as much labyrinth as required between himself and the<br /> ''inconveniences of caring''. [Italics mine] They had sold him convenience, so much of it, all on credit, and now They were collecting.&quot;<br /> page 435, Penguin paperback edition with the Frank Miller cover. <br /> <br /> In addition, if we take the Latinate roots of in-con-ven-(ience) and willfully misread the &quot;in&quot; as adverbial &quot;in&quot; (as e.g. &quot;in-come&quot;) rather than the privative &quot;not&quot; (as e.g. &quot;in-cred-ible&quot;), we get &quot;the arriving-in-together&quot;; the &quot;inconvenience&quot;, then, is essentially a tongue-in-cheek &quot;vehicle&quot;.&lt;br&gt;<br /> I do not think it illuminating to &quot;willfully misread&quot;!?! We are trying to<br /> willfully read possible meanings and resonances. [[User:MKOHUT|MKOHUT]] 06:01, 2 August 2007 (PDT)<br /> <br /> Also, recall Fender-Belly Bodine, in [http://masondixon.pynchonwiki.com/wiki/index.php?title=I#inconvenience ''Mason &amp; Dixon'']: &quot;Back on old H.M.S. ''Inconvenience'', we wasted many a Day and Night watching that fancy Counter get smaller by the minute...&quot; (p.28)<br /> <br /> '''patriotic bunting'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> TRP reminds again that this is a very American skyship.&lt;br&gt;<br /> AtD has many echoes of Doctorow's &quot;Ragtime&quot;: Doctorow fictionalises the same era, including anarchists, bombings, and early Hollywood. <br /> <br /> '''aeronautics'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> 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]<br /> <br /> '''five-lad crew'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Randolph St. Cosmo (ship commander), Lindsay Noseworth (master-at-arms), Miles Blundell (handyman apprentice), Darby Suckling (factotum and mascot), and Chick Counterfly. The commander's name evokes Randolph St., a main thoroughfare in Chicago. Perhaps also saint(liness) and cosmos?<br /> <br /> '''The [[Chums of Chance]]'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> To be chummy with chance might mean lucky, fond of gambling, fond of chaos, irrational, or anarchist. Or maybe they became chums by accident. The &quot;chance&quot; may also be that of the winds that carry them in directions not always intended.<br /> :The American philospher Charles Sanders Peirce, who set down his most important ideas in the late 1800's, argued that 'Chance' was a feature of the universe that can refute all determinisms.<br /> <br /> &quot;The certainty of chance&quot; is a Surrealist slogan. We learned from ''Slow Learner'' that Pynchon was influenced early by Surrealism. <br /> The slogan is quoted in this obit of a real life<br /> character out of Pynchon, George Melly, Jazz singer, writer, anarchist and polymorphous lover.[http://www.economist.com/search/search.cfm?rv=2&amp;qr=melly&amp;area=1&amp;x=6&amp;y=7]<br /> <br /> 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, &quot;The Boys.&quot;<br /> <br /> [[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. &quot;The Explorigator&quot; 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'' ran for 14 weeks in 1908 and made an impression for its imaginative and visual creativity. [[The Explorigator|More on ''The Explorigator'']] &lt;ref&gt;[http://lambiek.net/artists/d/dart_harry_grant.htm Lambiek Comiclopedia]&lt;/ref&gt;<br /> <br /> 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]. <br /> <br /> The creativity of Pynchon's naming of the Chums, as other characters, shows yet again his Dickensian influence.<br /> <br /> Note that there's five Chums, the number of chapters of the book (a-and the number of letters in &quot;Chums&quot;!). <br /> <br /> '''Chicago'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> It has been suggested that Pynchon relied on the [http://www.1911encyclopedia.org/ 1911 Edition of the Encyclopaedia Britannica] as a major reference for his treatment of 1890s Chicago. [http://www.1911encyclopedia.org/Chicago 1911 Britannica entry on Chicago]<br /> <br /> Also, The band Chicago's third hit song &quot;Does Anybody Really Know What Time It Is?&quot; deals with how one faces living in a world under constraints of time [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Does_Anybody_Really_Know_What_Time_It_Is%3F]. The opening lyrics are: <br /> <br /> Does anybody really know what time it is?<br /> Does anybody really care?<br /> About Time... <br /> <br /> '''World's Columbian Exposition'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> 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. &quot;The thousand or more such wonders which awaited [the Chums] there.&quot; p.3<br /> <br /> '''lifelines'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Called &quot;manropes&quot; 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.<br /> <br /> '''as my faithful readers will remember'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Pynchon here is immediately inserting this story into a larger canon of Chums of Chance fictions, titles of which are mentioned in subsequent pages.<br /> <br /> '''mascotte'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> The English word 'mascot' has its origin in the late 19th cent.: from French mascotte. The spelling may also be a tribute to the Dutch brand of rolling papers. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mascotte_%28rolling_papers%29 [Wikipedia]]<br /> <br /> ==Page 4==<br /> <br /> '''Professor'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Randolph St. Cosmo is called Professor.<br /> &quot;Professor&quot; was a common title for early hot-air balloonists. [EC]<br /> <br /> '''&quot;Turn to&quot;'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Evokes the &quot;Go to!&quot; of Majistral and compatriots, ''V.'', chapter eleven. &quot;Turn to&quot; is also a shipboard expression, &quot;put your back into it&quot; or something of the kind.<br /> <br /> '''Perhaps its familiarity... rendered it temporarily invisible to you.&quot;&lt;br&gt;<br /> Perhaps an admonition from the author that familiar things will be easily overlooked?<br /> 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.<br /> <br /> '''&quot;for Miles, while possessed of good intentions and the kindest heart in the little band, suffered at times from a confusion in his motor processes, often producing lively results, yet as frequently compromising the crew's physical safety.'''&quot;&lt;br&gt;<br /> Talk about Filles de Kilimanjaro and Miles post-quintet years, a prolonged effect on survivors after the bombings of 1945 and in the arts of Japan’s exploding subculture.<br /> <br /> '''Chick Counterfly'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Three possibilities: (1) A counter fly is an annoyance in (say) the butcher's shop. (2) Chick always speaks &quot;counter&quot; to anyone else's &quot;flight&quot; of imagery. (3) The only non-''AtD''-related uses of this word that I've found came in patents describing mechanisms; &quot;the counterfly direction&quot; means contrary to the direction everything else is flying in, hence this character counters the flying of the craft?<br /> <br /> He is the only Chum we know who was &quot;rescued&quot; from the &quot;real&quot; 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<br /> on a different &quot;earth&quot; happens.<br /> <br /> Like Suckling's name suggesting a relationship to another Pynchon character (Pig Bodine), Pynchon winks at a relationship between Counterfly and Tyrone Slothrop. In Counterfly´s first utterance in the book, “Ha ha,” cried young Counterfly, “say, but if you ain’t the most slob-footed chap I ever seen!” you can derive &quot;Tyrone Slothrop&quot; from an anagram of Counterfly and &quot;slob-footed chap.&quot;<br /> <br /> :Huh? That's a pretty sloppy anagram, ain't it? What about that &quot;b&quot; and that&quot;d&quot; ... this is ''way'' too much of a stretch. There's something to these names, perhaps, but I don't think you're close here, friend.<br /> <br /> ==Page 5==<br /> <br /> '''&quot;all tableware with Chums of Chance Insignia is Organizational property&quot;'''&lt;br /&gt;<br /> The organization in question is the Chums of Chance themselves, here considered as an institution rather than as a collection of individuals.<br /> <br /> '''picklesome'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Having the nature of a pickle, i.e, a boy who is inclined to mischief.<br /> <br /> A word not much seen since the nineteenth century.<br /> <br /> '''Pugnax'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> I suspect that, in keeping with a very strong [[Birds|&quot;bird&quot; 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 &quot;utterance&quot; is &quot;Rr Rff-rff Rr-rr-rff-rrf-rrf&quot;...<br /> <br /> There are a number of characters named after birds or bird sounds: Linnet Dawes, &quot;Pert&quot; Chirpingdon-Groin (there is a pert bird), and Wren Provenance immediately come to mind, but I'm sure there are others, and there are myriad bird references and metaphors (the Sodality of Ǣtheronauts and their mechanical wings); I just haven't had the time to explore it deeply, but others may... (Just read [[Birds|the bit about birds]] from ''Homage to Pythagoras''... <br /> <br /> 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)]].<br /> <br /> The name meaning, in Latin, &quot;likes to fight&quot; (i.e. one who is pugnacious). Pugnax's fantastic intelligence recalls another intelligent Pynchon dog, the Learned English Dog in ''Mason &amp; Dixon''. His manner of speech is somewhat reminiscent of the mystery-solving cartoon dog Scooby-Doo, and [http://waste.org/mail/?list=pynchon-l&amp;month=0612&amp;msg=112507&amp;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.<br /> <br /> Could this name be an homage to the dog in the Asterix comics, Idéfix in French; Dogmatix in English? Many of the character in the Asterix comics have names ending in &quot;x&quot;.<br /> <br /> '''&quot;...during a confidential assignment in Our Nation's Capitol (see ''The Chums of Chance and the Evil Halfwit'')...&quot;'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> 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 &quot;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.&quot;<br /> <br /> The Chums &quot;rescued Pugnax, then but a pup&quot;--an innocent, a child creature--&quot;from a furious encounter..between rival packs of the city's wild dogs&quot;.<br /> The wild dogs equal both political parties? <br /> <br /> '''lavatorial assaults'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> &quot;from the sky, which no one can &quot;begin to try to record, much less coordinate reports of&quot; recall the V-2 rockets which are linked to Slothrop's erections in ''Gravity's Rainbow''. That is, pee from the sky is &quot;folklore, superstition, or perhaps...the religious&quot; in ATD compared to rockets screaming across the sky and the destruction in GR.<br /> <br /> This also recalls jokes and urban legends regarding frozen waste from leaky airplane lavatories (i.e., &quot;you can still be hit by an icy B.M.&quot;)<br /> <br /> ==Page 6==<br /> <br /> '''''Princess Casamassima'''''&lt;br /&gt;<br /> ''The Princess Casamassima'' is a novel by Henry James, first published as a serial in ''The Atlantic Monthly'' in 1885-1886 and then as a book in 1886. 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 &amp;#151; admiration for the beautiful if imperfect world vs. a desire to change it through terrorism &amp;#151; will seem all too familiar to contemporary readers. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Princess_Casamassima Wikipedia] [[Princess Casamassima|Discussion of ''The Princess Casamassima'']]<br /> <br /> '''Placing . . . an emphasis'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Lapse of authorial control? Surely the creator of the ''Chums'' novels would not write such a Pynchonian sentence fragment!<br /> <br /> '''Pugnax sniffed . . . as always this scent eluded him'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> If Pugnax doesn't detect a human scent, that suggests Lindsay is not human. Not human, Master-at-Arms, speaks in hyper-constructed prose, has a notably short fuse . . . he's Lieutenant Worf of ''Star Trek, the Next Generation.''<br /> <br /> '''''Krakatoa'''''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Erupted 1883. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Krakatoa Wikipedia entry.]<br /> <br /> '''Heino Vanderjuice of New Haven'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Scientist who designed the ''Inconvenience's'' hydrogen engine. &quot;Vanderjuice&quot; suggests both &quot;wonder juice&quot; and &quot;wander juice,&quot; fitting since his engine allows the Chums to wander and is wondrous insofar as it apparently violates the [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Second_law_of_thermodynamics second law of thermodynamics]. &quot;Heino&quot; (HIE-no) is a man's given name [http://www.behindthename.com/php/view.php?name=heino meaning 'home'] in German, Finnish, and Estonian. Perhaps an allusion to the German pop star, [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Heino Heino].<br /> <br /> :Um, a quibble: ''Vanderjuice'' is some kind of corrupted Dutch, and in Dutch the name Heino would be pronounced HAY-no. He is not an immigrant, though, and American speakers no doubt say HIGH-no.<br /> <br /> Jules Verne influence? Vanderjuice a red herring, pointing to Dutch origin and electrical (&quot;juice&quot;) background? Or does one try to parse the name into eg &quot;Fond O' Juice&quot;?<br /> <br /> '''no better than a perpetual-motion machine'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> 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 (&quot;secret free energy source the government doesn't want you to know about&quot;) or mistakes. The hydrogen generator/engine is neither, which is why the disdainful phrase &quot;no better than&quot; is crucial.<br /> <br /> 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?<br /> <br /> '''Miles, with his marginal gifts of coördination, and Chick, with a want of alacrity fully as perceptible'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Like the old gag: The food in this restaurant isn't any good, but the service is awful.<br /> <br /> '''ratlines and shrouds'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> ''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.<br /> <br /> '''&quot;. . . anemometer of the Robinson's type&quot;'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Cup anemometer 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]<br /> <br /> '''how rapidly the ship was proceeding'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> 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.<br /> <br /> ==Page 7==<br /> <br /> '''Porfirio Díaz'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> President of Mexico 1876-1880, 1884-1911. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Porfirio_D%C3%ADaz Wikipedia]<br /> <br /> 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?<br /> <br /> '''&quot;beside a black-water river of the Deep South&quot;.&lt;br&gt;<br /> Blackwater River is in lower central Florida, pretty deep south; but there are numerous rivers in swampy areas that run black with organic matter.&lt;br&gt;<br /> 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]<br /> Thousands of news stories in September/October 2007.<br /> <br /> '''a bitter and unresolved &quot;piece of business&quot;'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Rather than give a proper reason for the Chums to be in the Deep South, the narrator cops out by pleading that it's &quot;not advisable&quot; to specify.<br /> <br /> '''&quot;the Rebellion of thirty years previous&quot;'''&lt;br /&gt;<br /> The Civil War was not called such during the time it was occurring; the South called it &quot;the war between the states&quot; to emphasize both their right to secede from the union and that this was a war between sovereign states; the North called it &quot;the Rebellion of 1861&quot; or, after termination of hostilities, &quot;the Rebellion of 1861-1865,&quot; appellations that did not recognize the South's right to secede.<br /> <br /> '''&quot;one still not advisable to set upon one's page&quot;'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> The American Civil War, that &quot;rebellion of thirty years previous,&quot; has not yet become a suitable subject for an adventure tale such as the Chums'.<br /> <br /> '''absquatulated'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Means to move away quickly, usually to avoid capture. Apparently a mock-Latinate formation, &quot;to go off and squat somewhere else.&quot; [http://www.worldwidewords.org/weirdwords/ww-abs1.htm A brief article] on the history and etymology of &quot;absquatulate.&quot;&lt;br&gt;<br /> The word is used in Vineland.<br /> <br /> '''&quot;Crackerjack!&quot; exclaimed Chick.'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> 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: &quot;Crackerjack&quot; entered English first as a noun referring to &quot;a person or thing of marked excellence,&quot; 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 &quot;crackerjack&quot; 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.<br /> <br /> '''to approach the gates of the Penitentiary'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> 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 &quot;never know how many Republicans were compelled to approach the gates of the penitentiary to make him president.&quot;<br /> <br /> '''posse comitatus'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> What Western movie fans know as a &quot;posse,&quot; 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. <br /> <br /> '''&quot;Crackerjack!&quot; exclaimed Chick.'''&lt;br&gt; As one word here, it is not the candy.<br /> <br /> ==Page 8==<br /> <br /> '''a pocketful of specie'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Specie means coins as opposed to paper money.<br /> <br /> '''the town of Thick Bush'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Aside from whether this phrase might apply to some political figure of the past or present, &quot;thick bush&quot; is the literal meaning of the Spanish Matagorda, the name of many towns in Latin America and one on the Gulf Coast of Texas.<br /> <br /> '''&quot;which directs us never to interfere with legal customs of any locality down at which we may happen to have touched&quot;'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> 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 &quot;This is the kind of carping criticism up with which I will not put.&quot;<br /> <br /> '''legal customs'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Legal = pertaining to law, in this case lynch law. The Chums are interpreting their Prime Directive pretty broadly here.<br /> <br /> '''Katie bar the door'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> 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.)<br /> <br /> '''Ku Klux Klan'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Reminiscent of the [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ku_Klux_Klan Klan] encounter scenes in the Coen Brothers' ''O Brother, Where Art Thou''. <br /> <br /> '''tupelo, cypress, and hickory'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> The trees are no help in locating the town; all three kinds like bottom land and grow all over the South.<br /> <br /> '''speed . . . made it nearly invisible from the ground'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> 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.<br /> <br /> ''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 &quot;clear&quot; 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.<br /> <br /> '''way better than a mile a minute'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> The Chums' point of departure is unknown, but they arrived in Chicago after catching a southerly wind (pg 3), southerly meaning &quot;wind blowing from the south.&quot; 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.)<br /> <br /> ==Page 9==<br /> <br /> '''locker'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> On board ship, any cabinet with a door or lid.<br /> <br /> '''&quot;Do not imagine, that in coming aboard ''Inconvenience'' you have escaped into any realm of the counterfactual...&quot;'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> This may be Pynchon directly addressing the reader. Given that his [[Against_the_Day_description|book description]] proclaims the world of AtD as &quot;what the world might be with a minor adjustment or two,&quot; 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.&lt;br&gt;<br /> 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.<br /> <br /> A-and it must mean, coming from the commander, that all aboard the ''Inconvenience'' are also subjects to the 'facts' of the world. &quot;The World is All that is the Case&quot;, from Wittgenstein, quoted in ''V.''<br /> (in the original German)<br /> <br /> '''&quot;Going up is like going north.&quot;'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> 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.<br /> <br /> North is not a positive place in Pynchon's world. It is associated with anti-life---coldness as here---compared to the South.<br /> <br /> ==Page 11==<br /> <br /> '''plummet'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> 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.<br /> <br /> '''bear a hand'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Nautical: help out.<br /> <br /> ==Page 12==<br /> <br /> '''Liverpool Kiss'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> A head butt.<br /> <br /> '''Herr Riemann'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> 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].<br /> <br /> '''''Mr.'' Noseworth'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Lindsay insisting on proper naval forms: an ensign, lieutenant (junior grade), lieutenant or lieutenant commander in the U.S. navy is correctly addressed as &quot;Mister Surname.&quot;<br /> <br /> '''&quot;topological genius&quot;'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Riemann's differential geometry goes beyond the Cartesian grid. See conic sections and dimensionality above, page 10.<br /> <br /> ==Page 13==<br /> <br /> '''There was an &quot;eager stampede&quot; to the rail''' &lt;br&gt;<br /> 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?<br /> : 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) <br /> <br /> :insightfully true, I suspect, but it still shows 'narratorial knowingness', yes?<br /> <br /> : Cf. Flaubert's use of quotations in ''Madame Bovary'' to isolate what he deemed the contemptible argot of the bourgeoisie.<br /> <br /> ::Apparently not a cliche: [http://books.google.com//books?num=100&amp;q=eager.stampede&amp;as_brr=0 GoogleBooks]<br /> <br /> '''&quot;...among the brighter star-shapes of exploded ballast bags...&quot;''' &lt;br&gt;<br /> Recalls the opening line of ''Mason &amp; Dixon'': &quot;Snow-Balls have flown their Arcs, starr‘d the Sides of Outbuildings, as of Cousins...&quot;<br /> <br /> '''&quot;...quite as if were some giant eyeball, perhaps that of Society itself, ever scrutinizing from above, in a spirit of constructive censure.&quot;'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> 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&amp;page_number=4&amp;template_id=1&amp;sort_order=1 At MoMa's Online Collection]<br /> Notice that society = censure, if constructive. Gamboling nude on a summer day was OK until the ''Inconvenience'', as eyeball, appeared.<br /> <br /> :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.<br /> <br /> ==Page 14==<br /> <br /> '''charmed into docility'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> 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.<br /> <br /> '''Jacob's-ladder'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Used here as &quot;a marine ladder of rope or chain with wooden or iron rungs&quot; (Webster's Third New International Dictionary, Unabridged) but is suggestive of Jacob's ladder in Genesis:<br /> <br /> 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)<br /> <br /> '''a giant sack of soiled laundry'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Perhaps ''freshly'' soiled during the great hydrogen valve disaster.<br /> <br /> '''''vol-à-voile'''''&lt;br&gt;<br /> The narrator has turned the French phrase ''vol-à-voiles'' (gliding) into a verb (removing the ''s'').<br /> <br /> '''gold-beaters' skin'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> 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.<br /> <br /> '''Evening Quarters'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Naval practice of mustering the crew at the end of the day's work.<br /> <br /> ==Page 15==<br /> <br /> '''ukulelist'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Ukuleles also appear in ''Gravity's Rainbow'', ''Vineland'', and ''Mason &amp; Dixon''. According to Jules Siegel's article, &quot;Who is Thomas Pynchon, and why did he take off with my wife?&quot;, Pynchon himself played the ukulele in college.<br /> <br /> '''Vagabonds of the Void'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> 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.&lt;br&gt;<br /> <br /> [[image:Macassar-Oil.jpg|thumb|175px|''Macassar Oil. An Oily Puff for Soft Heads''|right]]'''Beaufort Scale'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> A scale for measuring wind strength, developed 1805.<br /> <br /> '''&quot;Let the lightning lash ~ And the thunder trash&quot;&lt;br&gt;<br /> Again, the Chums are rock stars, the coolest cats in town.<br /> <br /> '''&quot;...forty-four buttons...one for each State of the Union.&quot;&lt;br&gt;<br /> Wyoming was the 44th state admitted to the union in 1890.<br /> <br /> '''port section of the crew'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> The half of the crew permitted to go freely ashore this time. The other half tomorrow. &quot;Port&quot; and &quot;starboard&quot;: are these simply either/or words that sailors remember easily?<br /> <br /> '''Macassar oil'''&lt;br /&gt;<br /> 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]<br /> <br /> ==Page 16==<br /> <br /> '''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.'''&lt;br/&gt;<br /> 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 &lt;i&gt;The Devil In The White City&lt;/i&gt; by Erik Larson and &lt;i&gt;Depraved&lt;/i&gt; 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]<br /> <br /> '''tension of the gas'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> I.e., the pressure in the bag.<br /> <br /> ==Page 17==<br /> <br /> '''&quot;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&quot;'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> 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.<br /> <br /> '''&quot;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.&quot;'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Is this just a metaphor from the narrator to describe what it is like for Darby, or is it also self-referential to<br /> all the adventures of the Chums?. Another Q: Is the Commandant of Earthly Days the invisible presence from whom the chums get their orders? &lt;br&gt;<br /> :Related Q: Do the Chums receive their orders from the author of their books?<br /> <br /> '''we were usually out the door and on the main road'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Dick and Chick knew the judge was more likely to order them out of town than into the lockup.<br /> <br /> '''Chinese foofooraw'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Also spelled foofaraw, a great deal of fuss, or useless frills. Cf folderol. However, why Chinese? <br /> :Chick's father tried to sell Mississippi to a Chinese syndicate.<br /> <br /> '''cubeb'''&lt;br /&gt;<br /> 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.<br /> <br /> '''&quot;...goldurn Keeley Cure&quot;'''&lt;br /&gt;<br /> A treatment for alcohol, nicotine and narcotic addiction involving injections of &quot;bichloride&quot; or &quot;double chloride&quot; of gold, and also known as the &quot;gold cure&quot;. 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.<br /> <br /> ==Page 18==<br /> <br /> '''headgear'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Description vaguely reminiscent of &quot;Madame Bovary&quot;. [http://robotwisdom.com/flaubert/bovary/bovary1.html [notes]]<br /> <br /> '''eclipse green'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Apparently an actual shade. [http://encyclopedia.jrank.org/DIO_DRO/DIRECT.html [cite]]<br /> <br /> '''Bindlestiffs of the Blue A.C.'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Bindlestiff means hobo; hence, the Hoboes of the Sky Aeronautical Club.<br /> <br /> '''(&quot;Penny&quot;) Black'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> 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]]<br /> <br /> '''Tzigane'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> French for &quot;gypsy&quot;. Also a piece by Ravel. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tzigane_(Ravel) [Wikipedia]]<br /> <br /> '''Egypt'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> 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 &quot;Egypt,&quot; especially in the 19th century. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Little_Egypt_(region) [Wikipedia]]<br /> <br /> ==Page 19==<br /> <br /> '''goin all blue from the light of that electric fluid'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> 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.<br /> <br /> '''Voices calling out together'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> 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.<br /> <br /> [[image:balloons-paris.jpg|thumb|200px|Garçons de '71|right]]'''Garçons de '71'''&lt;br /&gt;<br /> 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...]]<br /> <br /> '''a condition of ''permanent siege'''''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Surely no one has failed to notice what a &quot;wartime president&quot; is allowed to get away with. &quot;No reference to the present day is intended or should be inferred.&quot;<br /> <br /> '''pétroleurs de Paris'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> An early form of Molotov cocktail thrower during the Siege of Paris. There were pétroleurs and pétroleuses.<br /> <br /> ==Page 20==<br /> <br /> '''they'll fly wherever they're needed'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> While the Chums obey orders from above, the Garçons de '71 follow a different imperative.<br /> <br /> '''energy we could feel, directed personally at us'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Someone may be trying to influence what the Bindlestiffs do, or keep them away from the Garçons' work of mercy.<br /> <br /> ==Page 21==<br /> <br /> '''admissions gate'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Apparently a break in the fence, capitalized on by freelance impresarios.<br /> <br /> '''fifty-cent pieces'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> 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.<br /> <br /> ==Page 22==<br /> <br /> '''Kodaks'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> The word Kodak was trademarked in 1888, and the first Kodak camera was sold with the slogan, &quot;You press the button - we do the rest.&quot; 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.<br /> <br /> '''half-light . . . in the interests of mercy . . . the safety of the lights'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Interesting contrast suggesting a tradeoff between comfort/solace in the shadows and safety in the bright light.<br /> <br /> '''Isandhlwana'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> 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 &quot;military&quot; and &quot;blunders&quot; in the title.<br /> <br /> ==Page 23==<br /> <br /> '''Tarahumara'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> 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]]<br /> <br /> '''&quot;geek&quot;'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> 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 &quot;Fear Factor,&quot; but sad rather than stultifying.<br /> <br /> '''monte'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Three-card monte.<br /> <br /> ==Page 24==<br /> <br /> '''the curse of Scotland'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> 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]]<br /> <br /> '''like the electricity coming on... how everything fits together, connects. It doesn't last long, though.'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> 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. <br /> <br /> 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, Miles is also said to suffer from &quot;confusion in his motor processes&quot;, which may be related.<br /> <br /> '''Cracker Jack'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> First sold at the at the first Chicago World's Fair in 1893. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cracker_Jack [Wikipedia]]<br /> <br /> '''New Levee district'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Chicago's redlight district c1890. [http://www.ipsn.org/genesis.htm [cite]]<br /> <br /> '''Epworth League'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> A Methodist youth organization founded in 1889. [http://www.southernmethodistchurch.org/id48.htm [cite]]<br /> <br /> ==Page 25==<br /> <br /> '''Haymarket bomb'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> 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 &quot;a bomb-throwing anarchist.&quot; 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].<br /> <br /> '''if the Governor decides to pardon that gang of anarchistic murderers'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> 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 &lt;i&gt;The Haymarket Tragedy&lt;/i&gt; by Paul Avrich and &lt;i&gt;Death In The Haymarket&lt;/i&gt; by James Green.<br /> <br /> '''mixture of contempt and pity'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> This is ''definitely'' not from one of the Chums' adventure stories.<br /> <br /> '''embonpoint'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Convexity of body; what used to be called a &quot;prosperous&quot; look.<br /> <br /> '''duck soup'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Meaning &quot;an easy task,&quot; 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.<br /> <br /> ==References==<br /> &lt;references /&gt;<br /> <br /> ==Annotation Index==<br /> {{ATD PbP}}</div>

MKOHUT https://against-the-day.pynchonwiki.com/wiki/index.php?title=ATD_57-80&diff=14159 2007-10-28T14:23:01Z

<p>MKOHUT: </p> <hr /> <div>:'''&lt;big&gt;Please keep these annotations SPOILER-FREE by not revealing information from later pages in the novel.&lt;/big&gt;'''&lt;p&gt;&lt;br&gt;<br /> <br /> ==Page 57==<br /> <br /> '''&quot;Her name was never far from the discourse of the day.&quot;'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Another reference of something w.r.t. ''the day''.<br /> <br /> ==Page 58==<br /> <br /> '''The &quot;lumeniferous AEther&quot;'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> This passage recalls Pynchon's discussion of the &quot;soniferous aether&quot; in ''Gravity's Rainbow'' (695).<br /> <br /> '''&quot;a couple of professors at the Case Institute in Cleveland, who were planning an experiment&quot;'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> The Michelson–Morley experiment, one of the most important and famous experiments in the history of physics, was performed in 1887 by Albert Michelson and Edward Morley at what is now Case Western Reserve University, and is generally considered to be the first strong evidence against the theory of a luminiferous aether. Primarily for this work, Albert Michelson was awarded the Nobel Prize in 1907. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Michelson-Morley_experiment Wikipedia entry]<br /> <br /> '''Particle or Wave? &quot;...one finds in the devout aetherist a propensity of character evertoward the continuous as against the discrete&quot;'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Aether is the medium that light would move in, if it were a wave. This enters the question of whether light is a particle or a wave into the discussion. Pynchon sets up the dichotomy: (aether/wave/continuous vs. empty space/particle/discrete) (also, see page 61)<br /> <br /> '''[[T%C3%B6pler_influence_machine|Töpler influence machine]]'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> A machine for producing electrical charges. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/August_Toepler [Wikipedia]]<br /> <br /> '''in Berlin'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> 1881.<br /> <br /> ==Page 59==<br /> <br /> '''Ohio'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Harks back to M&amp;D's visit with George Washington.<br /> <br /> '''Northern Ohio Insane Asylum'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Full of light enthusiastes who invented light-powered bicycles (see p 76,) believe light to have consciousness and personality, and who eat light.<br /> <br /> &quot;Originally known as the Northern Ohio Lunatic Asylum, this was the second of 6 public asylums established in Ohio in the 1850's. In later years it was commonly known as Newburgh State Hospital because it was located in Newburgh Township as recompense for Cleveland having been awarded the location of Cuyahoga County Seat. The main building, containing 100 beds,was completed in 1855 on land in Newburgh donated by the Garfield family.&quot; [http://www.rootsweb.com/~asylums/cleveland_oh/index.html [1]]<br /> <br /> ==Page 60==<br /> <br /> '''Aether reports'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Associations of light with &quot;wind.&quot;<br /> <br /> '''Roswell Bounce'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> GR includes a character named Hillary Bounce.<br /> <br /> The mentions of cosmic space, balloons, a US Bureau &quot;in charge of reporting,&quot; and his occupation as a photograper seem to allude to the 1947 Roswell UFO incident, an alleged alien crash that the US government insisted was a downed weather balloon. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Roswell_UFO_incident Wikipedia entry]<br /> <br /> ==Page 61==<br /> <br /> '''&quot;Somehow Merle got the idea in his head that the Michelson-Morley experiment and the Blinky Morgan manhunt were connected.&quot;'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Vaguely recalls the use of John Dillinger in ''Gravity's Rainbow'' (741), insofar as they both read a surprising amount of metaphysical meaning into the death or final apprehension of a notorious criminal.<br /> It also ties the criminal underground (out of the light) with the properties of light. <br /> <br /> '''&quot;Blinky&quot; a &quot;walking interferometer&quot;'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Interferometry#Interferometer Wikipedia entry on Interferometers]<br /> <br /> '''box job'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Safecracking. [http://www.skepticfiles.org/faq/twists.htm [cite]]<br /> <br /> ==Page 62==<br /> <br /> Blinky &quot;emerges from invisibility&quot; thus dooming the existence of aether. Aether is then &quot;Against the Day&quot; undetectable, unknowable, invisible.<br /> <br /> ==Page 63==<br /> <br /> '''O.D. Chandrasekhar'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Perhaps a nod to [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chandrasekhar Subrahmanyan Chandrasekhar] (1910-1995), an Indian-American physicist, astrophysicist and mathematician, known to the world as Chandra, who was awarded the 1983 Nobel Prize in Physics. He calculated and discovered the [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chandrasekharlimit Chandrasekhar Limit] which is the maximum mass possible for a white dwarf star (one of the end stages of stars that have exhausted their fuel) supported by electron degeneracy pressure, and is approximately 3 × 1030 kg, around 1.44 times the mass of the Sun.<br /> The initials O.D.C. refer to the novel &quot;2001: A space odyssey&quot; by Arthur C. Clarke, where [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dr._Chandra Chandra] is the inventor of the HAL computer system.<br /> In ATD p. 63 O.D.Chandrasekhar mentions akasa as the solution for the problems the aetherists have discussing implications of the Michelson-Morley experiment, akasa referring to [http://ignca.nic.in/ps_05013.htm space]in hindu cosmology ,alas O.D. is proposing space itself here as the medium for light.<br /> <br /> '''out, it'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Typo: missing opening double-quote.<br /> <br /> ==Page 64==<br /> <br /> '''Photography'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Light tied to silver and chemistry.<br /> <br /> ==Page 66==<br /> <br /> '''murders in Ravenna'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> There is a Ravenna, Ohio. TRP may have trimmed the explanation from an earlier draft?<br /> <br /> '''Lorain County'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Greater Cleveland. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lorain_County%2C_Ohio [Wikipedia]]<br /> <br /> ==Page 67==<br /> <br /> '''Beast Without Shame'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Inexplicably recalls the epithet earlier used to denounce Lew Basnight on [[ATD_26-56#Page_36|page 36]]: &quot;the Upstate-Downstate Beast.&quot;<br /> <br /> Merle's backstory probably got rewritten very late in the game (see also pp30, 58, 64, and 75).<br /> <br /> '''Merle and Dally'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Merle's family situation (single father, smart aleck daughter, mother who took off) is identical to that of ''Vineland's'' protagonist Zoyd Wheeler.<br /> <br /> ==Page 68==<br /> <br /> '''&quot;...have you ever felt that you wished to suddenly disappear...?'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> While Merle is getting obsessed with revealing images from darkrooms and chemicals, Zombini comes and makes Erlys &quot;disappear.&quot;<br /> <br /> ==Page 69==<br /> <br /> '''&quot;some larger plan&quot;'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> May be talking about writing ''Against the Day'' itself.<br /> <br /> ==Page 70==<br /> <br /> ''''seng'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Ginseng. ''Panax sp.'' The [http://www.wfbf.com/media_center/photo_gallery/ginseng%20closeup.jpg &quot;red berries&quot;] Merle refers to.&lt;br&gt;<br /> [http://memory.loc.gov/ammem/collections/tending/essay1c.html American Ginseng and the Idea of the Commons] at the LOC.<br /> <br /> ==Page 71==<br /> <br /> '''Ottumwa'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> City in Iowa. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ottumwa,_Iowa [Wikipedia]]<br /> <br /> '''Albert Lea'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> City in Minnesota. Hometown of Seaman Bodine from ''Gravity's Rainbow'' (710).<br /> <br /> ==Page 72==<br /> <br /> '''&quot;brightly lit against the stormy days&quot;'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> <br /> '''&quot;thorned helixes&quot;'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> An allusion to Thurn and Taxis?<br /> <br /> '''Premo'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> 1903. [http://westfordcomp.com/classics/filmpackhawkeye/index.htm [cite]]<br /> <br /> '''Brownie'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> 1900.<br /> <br /> '''&quot;calm as a sharpshooter&quot;'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Allusion of camera as a gun.<br /> <br /> '''&quot;There was always plenty of bell-hanger work&quot;'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> In this and the subsequent pages we see Merle getting involved, apart from his usual ''light-related'' job (photography), to ''sound-related'' and ''electricity-related'' jobs.<br /> <br /> ==Page 73==<br /> <br /> '''frog-bonding'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Can mean a technique in brick masonry. [http://au.answers.yahoo.com/question/index.php?qid=20061106081517AAscjfG [source]], but when referring to streetcars, &quot;frogs&quot; are the heavy metal flangeways that connect track to switches, diamonds, cross-overs and other track structures. Frogs guide wheels from one track structure to another. Pynchon may be confusing the term.<br /> <br /> '''Skip'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Obviously recalls Byron the sentient lightbulb from ''Gravity's Rainbow''. Also possibly the movie &quot;Ghostbusters&quot;.<br /> Also recalls Insane Asylum where he is told light has &quot;consciousness and personality.&quot;<br /> But Merle's &quot;hitch as a lightning-rod salesman&quot; also may be read as Pynchon's<br /> tip-of-the-hat (or the copper rod) to a certain nineteenth-century American<br /> predecessor, the author of a story called &quot;The Lightning Rod Man&quot; (1854).<br /> Come to think of it, Pynchon may be the one contemporary author able to match<br /> Melville in whimsy, satire, melancholia, encryption, Jehovah-like ambition, and periodic<br /> sentences that are light on their feet yet labyrinthine. Cf. M&amp;D's link to Melville's<br /> ''Israel Potter'' (now, sadly, unread), or GR's line trailing back toward that book about a whale.... Cf. ATD, p. 123.<br /> This 'Skip' episode is not to be skipped or skimmed; it sets ATD's readers briefly aglow with sweetness and light--and sadness.<br /> <br /> ==Page 74==<br /> <br /> '''two bits'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> The equivalent of an absurdly generous $5 in today's money. [http://www.measuringworth.com/calculators/ppowerus/ [calculator]]<br /> <br /> ==Page 75==<br /> <br /> '''&quot;She watched the invisible force at work&quot;'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> This subchapter, in which we have watched Merle getting involved in jobs about ''sound'' and ''electricity'', on top of his usual job about ''light'', closes with an image of the blowing ''wind'', the &quot;invisible force&quot;. A couple of lines back, we have Merle saying &quot;There's your gold, Dahlia&quot;, pointing to the wind &quot;blowing in the high Indian grass&quot; and Dally thinking &quot;what an ''alchemist'' [he] was&quot; (italics mine). It is the first allusion of Merle as an alchemist.<br /> <br /> '''San Juans'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> [http://www.americansouthwest.net/colorado/san_juan_mountains/index.html [map]]<br /> <br /> ==Page 76==<br /> <br /> '''Electric Generator hooked to an old bicycle'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Don't know if this is that important, but similar to Insane Asylum light-bicycle.<br /> <br /> '''&quot;photographer's or, if you like, alchemist's stuff&quot;'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Second allusion of Merle as an alchemist (see also previous and next page).<br /> <br /> ==Page 77==<br /> <br /> '''Webb Traverse'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> The character is introduced mere paragraphs after the description of spiderwebs &quot;that when the early daylight was right cause you to stand there just stupefied.&quot; As &quot;traverse&quot; means to travel across or through, perhaps the character's name signifies his ability to navigate the complicated webs off.. I dunno, society, the establishment or something?<br /> <br /> Traversing the WorldWideWeb is a common expression, eg by search engine 'spiders'.<br /> <br /> In law, to &quot;traverse&quot; means to deny, and a &quot;traverse&quot; to a pleading is a denial of its allegations. This appellation fits Webb Traverse, whose anarchism is a denial of industrial capitalism.<br /> <br /> '''&quot;alchemists keep tryin, it's what we do&quot;'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Photography as alchemy. Mercury and the Philosopher's stone<br /> [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Silver_fulminate Wikipedia entry on Silver Fulminate]<br /> <br /> ==Page 78==<br /> <br /> '''The Anti-Stone'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Probably anticipates the atom bomb. See page 79 on &quot;politics through chemistry&quot;....&quot;temples of Mammon all in smithereens&quot;.<br /> <br /> This statement that Anti-Stone, if it is an allusion to the atomic bomb, &quot;has another name that we'd just get into trouble saying out loud&quot; <br /> reminds of Oppenheimer and what he said about the detonation of the atomic bomb Trinity: &quot;We knew the world would not be the same. A few people laughed, a few people cried, most people were silent. I remembered the line from the Hindu scripture, the Bhagavad-Gita. Vishnu is trying to persuade the Prince that he should do his duty and to impress him takes on his multi-armed form and says, 'Now, I am become Death, the destroyer of worlds.' I suppose we all thought that one way or another.&quot;[11]<br /> <br /> '''&quot;breathin in those fumes&quot;'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Mercury fumes are what made hatters mad.<br /> <br /> ==Page 80==<br /> <br /> '''&quot;not the result of any idle drift but more of a secret imperative, like the force of gravity&quot;'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Ties into the central scientific metaphor of GR, that the laws of physics and fate are somehow connected.<br /> <br /> '''&quot;as if silver were alive, with a soul and a voice&quot;'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> ...like Skip the ball lightning.<br /> <br /> ==Annotation Index==<br /> {{ATD PbP}}</div>

MKOHUT https://against-the-day.pynchonwiki.com/wiki/index.php?title=ATD_1-25&diff=14158 2007-10-28T14:06:56Z

<p>MKOHUT: /* Page 17 */</p> <hr /> <div>:'''&lt;big&gt;Please keep these annotations SPOILER-FREE by not revealing information from later pages in the novel.&lt;/big&gt;'''&lt;p&gt;&lt;br&gt;<br /> <br /> ==cover text==<br /> The black text and its drop shadows are in different typefaces. It may be worth noting, from a conceptual point of view, that we can infer from the angle of the drop shadows that the light source is any individual holding the book—that is, the reader or a potential reader.<br /> <br /> ==cover seal==<br /> The seal appears to be written in Tibetan language, according to somebody who posts regularly to Pynchon-l under the name &quot;Ya Sam&quot;, who reports:<br /> <br /> I contacted the Tibetan Cultural Centre with the request to translate <br /> the mysterious legend on the AtD seal. They were kind enough to forward my <br /> request to the Tibetan tranlsator Tenzin Namgyal to whose generosity we <br /> owe the solution of one more ATD related mystery.<br /> <br /> It is the Tibetan language, alright, and it means ...... Tibetan <br /> Government Chamber of Commerce.<br /> <br /> Read their response below:<br /> <br /> :Dear Ya Sam,&lt;br /&gt;<br /> :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?<br /> <br /> :Best wishes,<br /> <br /> :Sandy Belth&lt;br /&gt;<br /> :Tibetan Cultural Center<br /> <br /> Also of interest: the coin bears a striking 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:<br /> <br /> :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, &quot;The Doubloon&quot;)<br /> <br /> ==copyright page==<br /> 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 &quot;Penguin Press&quot; as the publisher, as could be expected, and it seems likely that the substitution of &quot;Penguin Press&quot; with &quot;Viking&quot; is one of many typographical errors in the book (see [[errata]]). <br /> 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: &quot;this was a copyediting mistake that will be corrected. There was never a Viking contract for this book.&quot;<br /> <br /> ==Dedication==<br /> Most of Pynchon's novels contain dedications-- ''Mason &amp; Dixon'' (&quot;For Melanie, and for Jackson&quot;) , ''Vineland'' (&quot;For my mother and father&quot;), and ''Gravity's Rainbow'' (&quot;For Richard Fariña&quot;)-- but not so ''Against the Day,'' as published. Advance reading copies of the book did contain the words &quot;Dedication TK&quot; in italics, but this is simply [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/To_Come publisher-speak] for &quot;dedication to come.&quot; 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. <br /> <br /> ==Epigraph==<br /> &quot;It's always night, or we wouldn't need light.&quot; - Thelonious Monk&lt;br&gt;<br /> 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 &quot;God&quot;; 2) the character McClintic Sphere in ''V''. takes Monk's middle name, Sphere; and 3) &quot;It's always night, or we wouldn't need light&quot; 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]]: &quot;...daylit America ... its steadfast denial of night.&quot; <br /> <br /> ==Page 1==<br /> <br /> '''The Light Over the Ranges'''&lt;br&gt; <br /> &quot;Range&quot; is defined in the ''Oxford American Dictionary'' as &quot;a line or series of mountains or hills : the coastal ranges of the northwest,&quot; so &quot;range&quot; or &quot;ranges&quot; can be used to denote a number of mountains.&lt;br&gt;<br /> <br /> 'Ranges' may also refer to farms, homesteads and ranches in 1893 America. America was predominantly that in 1893. Cf. &quot;Home, home on the range&quot;.<br /> <br /> &quot;celebrating in song the wider range of life...&quot; Thomas Pynchon on<br /> [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Helen_Waddell Helen Waddell's]<br /> ''The Wandering Scholars'', p. 8, Introduction to[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Slow_Learner ''Slow Learner], 1984.<br /> <br /> A range is also a group of diverse objects.<br /> <br /> A-and &quot;range&quot; is a word full of its own meaning. [[Range|A partial list of definitions of &quot;range&quot;...]]&lt;br&gt;<br /> Range as diversity---lost---may be a major theme of AtD.<br /> <br /> ==Page 3==<br /> <br /> '''&quot;Now single up all lines!&quot;'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Pynchon was in the Navy for a spell and &quot;single up all lines&quot; 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 &quot;single up all lines&quot; is to remove the redundant second lines in preparation to make way.<br /> <br /> But the opening line has many possible connotations. <br /> :The Modern Word's Quail [http://www.themodernword.com/reviews/pynchon_atd.html writes] that &quot;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.&quot; <br /> <br /> :&quot;single up all lines&quot; 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 &amp; Dixon'', pp.258 and 260]. Perhaps we can understand this &quot;line&quot; as a text-string linking Pynchon's novels together (all but ''Vineland''?) &amp;#151; in preparation for a voyage to...?<br /> <br /> Also, in the very first sentence, Pynchon introduces the concept of doubling &amp;#151; &quot;single up all lines&quot; as a call to journey, to movement and expansion, a beginning. Then, on [[#Page_10|page 10]]: &quot;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.&quot; Thus, a progressive singling or reduction of all lines/paths, a rationalization/routinization unto death. ''See also'' [[ATD_557-587#Page_585|annotation, page 585]] and more on [[Routinization of Charisma]].<br /> <br /> '''&quot;Cheerly now...handsomely...very well!!&quot;'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Cheerly means &quot;heartily,&quot; and was traditionally used as cry of encouragement among sailors. Handsomely (in nautical context): carefully, in good order, unhurriedly.<br /> <br /> :Pynchon served in the Navy and uses nautical language in most of his novels. ''Mason &amp; Dixon'': &quot;Cheerly. Cheerly, then, Lads...&quot; (54).<br /> <br /> '''&quot;Windy City, here we come!&quot;'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> The nickname for Chicago, of course, but in 1893 the use meant city of braggarts more than it did wind. The earliest known references to the &quot;Windy City&quot; are from 1876, and involve Chicago's rivalry with Cincinnati. A popular myth states that &quot;Windy City&quot; was first used by New York Sun editor Charles Dana in the bidding for the 1893 Columbian Exposition. The popularity of the nickname has endured, even after the Cincinnati rivalry and the Columbian Exposition both ended. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Windy_City,_Origin_of_Name_(Chicago)| Origin of name &quot;Windy City&quot; at Wikipedia]<br /> <br /> '''Randolph St. Cosmo, the ship commander'''&lt;br /&gt;<br /> [[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 &quot;randy&quot; St. Cosmo, aka the &quot;modern Priapus,&quot; and the saintly martyred St. Cosmo of Church lore. Pynchon, it seems, is connecting Randolph St. Cosmo to the former. &quot;Randy,&quot; as astute observers will note, is an adjective which means, well, &quot;horny.&quot; 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...]]) &amp;#151; a-and Heartsease, St. Cosmo's mate, is the first to get pregnant! &amp;#151; 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]<br /> <br /> In [http://masondixon.pynchonwiki.com/wiki/index.php?title=V#veery ''Mason &amp; Dixon''], Pynchon has the Veery brothers, Cosmo and Damian, who are professional effigy makes in Philadelphia! And, just to make it interesting, &quot;He's a rare Wax Artist, our Cosmo is.&quot; (p. 290) (Note: Wax phallus effigies were offered by the women to St. Cosmo at the festivals held in his name, as shown above.)<br /> <br /> '''Now secure the Special Sky Detail'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> 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 &quot;Now set the Special Sea Detail.&quot;] ''Inconvenience'' is run along fairly strict naval lines—given the age of the officers and crew, you might say she is a tot ship—and the beginning of the book was preceded by an analogous &quot;Now set the Special Sky Detail.&quot; Once the ship is aloft and clear of ground obstructions, the command comes, &quot;Now secure the Special Sky Detail,&quot; meaning disband the team for the time being and all return to regular duties. The language, tasks and customs aboard the skyship will show parallels to navy usage throughout the book.<br /> <br /> '''summer uniform of red-and-white-striped blazer and trousers of sky blue'''&lt;br /&gt;<br /> Calls to mind the color scheme of Ned Land's (Kirk Douglas) costume in Disney's 1954 film version of ''20,000 Leagues under the Sea''.&lt;br&gt;<br /> <br /> Also calls to mind the colors of the American flag.<br /> <br /> '''&quot;scuttlebutt&quot; . . . thousand . . . wonders'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> 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 &quot;Book of the Fair&quot; by Hubert Bancroft, 1893.<br /> :&quot;Scuttlebutt&quot; is a very close equivalent to &quot;water-cooler gossip.&quot; [http://www.jacksjoint.com/sailor_terminology.htm Here is a glossary] of nautical terms with some of the etymologies.<br /> <br /> '''''Inconvenience'''''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Pynchon's fictional navy includes the USS Scaffold 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. Impulsive is the name of the ship Ploy, who loses all his teeth in V., gets transferred to.<br /> Inconvenience is an apt name for the Chums' adventures in 'reality'. They are an inconvenience; they are inconvenienced. (In having to take on Chick Counterfly, for example).&lt;br&gt;<br /> <br /> Pynchon uses the word ''inconvenience'' in a possibly thematic, connected way in ''Mason &amp; Dixon'' and in ''Gravity's Rainbow''. In ''Mason &amp; Dixon'', the word is applied to the difficulties of an Other, other human beings as we act, interact. See citations at the ''M &amp; D'' wiki. Here is the clearest relevant use for understanding for the Chums' airship, perhaps: from ''Gravity's Rainbow'': &quot;the gift of Daedalus that allowed him [Pokler] to put as much labyrinth as required between himself and the<br /> ''inconveniences of caring''. [Italics mine] They had sold him convenience, so much of it, all on credit, and now They were collecting.&quot;<br /> page 435, Penguin paperback edition with the Frank Miller cover. <br /> <br /> In addition, if we take the Latinate roots of in-con-ven-(ience) and willfully misread the &quot;in&quot; as adverbial &quot;in&quot; (as e.g. &quot;in-come&quot;) rather than the privative &quot;not&quot; (as e.g. &quot;in-cred-ible&quot;), we get &quot;the arriving-in-together&quot;; the &quot;inconvenience&quot;, then, is essentially a tongue-in-cheek &quot;vehicle&quot;.&lt;br&gt;<br /> I do not think it illuminating to &quot;willfully misread&quot;!?! We are trying to<br /> willfully read possible meanings and resonances. [[User:MKOHUT|MKOHUT]] 06:01, 2 August 2007 (PDT)<br /> <br /> Also, recall Fender-Belly Bodine, in [http://masondixon.pynchonwiki.com/wiki/index.php?title=I#inconvenience ''Mason &amp; Dixon'']: &quot;Back on old H.M.S. ''Inconvenience'', we wasted many a Day and Night watching that fancy Counter get smaller by the minute...&quot; (p.28)<br /> <br /> '''patriotic bunting'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> TRP reminds again that this is a very American skyship.&lt;br&gt;<br /> AtD has many echoes of Doctorow's &quot;Ragtime&quot;: Doctorow fictionalises the same era, including anarchists, bombings, and early Hollywood. <br /> <br /> '''aeronautics'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> 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]<br /> <br /> '''five-lad crew'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Randolph St. Cosmo (ship commander), Lindsay Noseworth (master-at-arms), Miles Blundell (handyman apprentice), Darby Suckling (factotum and mascot), and Chick Counterfly. The commander's name evokes Randolph St., a main thoroughfare in Chicago. Perhaps also saint(liness) and cosmos?<br /> <br /> '''The [[Chums of Chance]]'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> To be chummy with chance might mean lucky, fond of gambling, fond of chaos, irrational, or anarchist. Or maybe they became chums by accident. The &quot;chance&quot; may also be that of the winds that carry them in directions not always intended.<br /> :The American philospher Charles Sanders Peirce, who set down his most important ideas in the late 1800's, argued that 'Chance' was a feature of the universe that can refute all determinisms.<br /> <br /> &quot;The certainty of chance&quot; is a Surrealist slogan. We learned from ''Slow Learner'' that Pynchon was influenced early by Surrealism. <br /> The slogan is quoted in this obit of a real life<br /> character out of Pynchon, George Melly, Jazz singer, writer, anarchist and polymorphous lover.[http://www.economist.com/search/search.cfm?rv=2&amp;qr=melly&amp;area=1&amp;x=6&amp;y=7]<br /> <br /> 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, &quot;The Boys.&quot;<br /> <br /> [[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. &quot;The Explorigator&quot; 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'' ran for 14 weeks in 1908 and made an impression for its imaginative and visual creativity. [[The Explorigator|More on ''The Explorigator'']] &lt;ref&gt;[http://lambiek.net/artists/d/dart_harry_grant.htm Lambiek Comiclopedia]&lt;/ref&gt;<br /> <br /> 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]. <br /> <br /> The creativity of Pynchon's naming of the Chums, as other characters, shows yet again his Dickensian influence.<br /> <br /> Note that there's five Chums, the number of chapters of the book (a-and the number of letters in &quot;Chums&quot;!). <br /> <br /> '''Chicago'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> It has been suggested that Pynchon relied on the [http://www.1911encyclopedia.org/ 1911 Edition of the Encyclopaedia Britannica] as a major reference for his treatment of 1890s Chicago. [http://www.1911encyclopedia.org/Chicago 1911 Britannica entry on Chicago]<br /> <br /> Also, The band Chicago's third hit song &quot;Does Anybody Really Know What Time It Is?&quot; deals with how one faces living in a world under constraints of time [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Does_Anybody_Really_Know_What_Time_It_Is%3F]. The opening lyrics are: <br /> <br /> Does anybody really know what time it is?<br /> Does anybody really care?<br /> About Time... <br /> <br /> '''World's Columbian Exposition'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> 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. &quot;The thousand or more such wonders which awaited [the Chums] there.&quot; p.3<br /> <br /> '''lifelines'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Called &quot;manropes&quot; 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.<br /> <br /> '''as my faithful readers will remember'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Pynchon here is immediately inserting this story into a larger canon of Chums of Chance fictions, titles of which are mentioned in subsequent pages.<br /> <br /> '''mascotte'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> The English word 'mascot' has its origin in the late 19th cent.: from French mascotte. The spelling may also be a tribute to the Dutch brand of rolling papers. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mascotte_%28rolling_papers%29 [Wikipedia]]<br /> <br /> ==Page 4==<br /> <br /> '''Professor'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Randolph St. Cosmo is called Professor.<br /> &quot;Professor&quot; was a common title for early hot-air balloonists. [EC]<br /> <br /> '''&quot;Turn to&quot;'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Evokes the &quot;Go to!&quot; of Majistral and compatriots, ''V.'', chapter eleven. &quot;Turn to&quot; is also a shipboard expression, &quot;put your back into it&quot; or something of the kind.<br /> <br /> '''Perhaps its familiarity... rendered it temporarily invisible to you.&quot;&lt;br&gt;<br /> Perhaps an admonition from the author that familiar things will be easily overlooked?<br /> 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.<br /> <br /> '''&quot;for Miles, while possessed of good intentions and the kindest heart in the little band, suffered at times from a confusion in his motor processes, often producing lively results, yet as frequently compromising the crew's physical safety.'''&quot;&lt;br&gt;<br /> Talk about Filles de Kilimanjaro and Miles post-quintet years, a prolonged effect on survivors after the bombings of 1945 and in the arts of Japan’s exploding subculture.<br /> <br /> '''Chick Counterfly'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Three possibilities: (1) A counter fly is an annoyance in (say) the butcher's shop. (2) Chick always speaks &quot;counter&quot; to anyone else's &quot;flight&quot; of imagery. (3) The only non-''AtD''-related uses of this word that I've found came in patents describing mechanisms; &quot;the counterfly direction&quot; means contrary to the direction everything else is flying in, hence this character counters the flying of the craft?<br /> <br /> He is the only Chum we know who was &quot;rescued&quot; from the &quot;real&quot; 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<br /> on a different &quot;earth&quot; happens.<br /> <br /> Like Suckling's name suggesting a relationship to another Pynchon character (Pig Bodine), Pynchon winks at a relationship between Counterfly and Tyrone Slothrop. In Counterfly´s first utterance in the book, “Ha ha,” cried young Counterfly, “say, but if you ain’t the most slob-footed chap I ever seen!” you can derive &quot;Tyrone Slothrop&quot; from an anagram of Counterfly and &quot;slob-footed chap.&quot;<br /> <br /> :Huh? That's a pretty sloppy anagram, ain't it? What about that &quot;b&quot; and that&quot;d&quot; ... this is ''way'' too much of a stretch. There's something to these names, perhaps, but I don't think you're close here, friend.<br /> <br /> ==Page 5==<br /> <br /> '''&quot;all tableware with Chums of Chance Insignia is Organizational property&quot;'''&lt;br /&gt;<br /> The organization in question is the Chums of Chance themselves, here considered as an institution rather than as a collection of individuals.<br /> <br /> '''picklesome'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Having the nature of a pickle, i.e, a boy who is inclined to mischief.<br /> <br /> A word not much seen since the nineteenth century.<br /> <br /> '''Pugnax'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> I suspect that, in keeping with a very strong [[Birds|&quot;bird&quot; 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 &quot;utterance&quot; is &quot;Rr Rff-rff Rr-rr-rff-rrf-rrf&quot;...<br /> <br /> There are a number of characters named after birds or bird sounds: Linnet Dawes, &quot;Pert&quot; Chirpingdon-Groin (there is a pert bird), and Wren Provenance immediately come to mind, but I'm sure there are others, and there are myriad bird references and metaphors (the Sodality of Ǣtheronauts and their mechanical wings); I just haven't had the time to explore it deeply, but others may... (Just read [[Birds|the bit about birds]] from ''Homage to Pythagoras''... <br /> <br /> 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)]].<br /> <br /> The name meaning, in Latin, &quot;likes to fight&quot; (i.e. one who is pugnacious). Pugnax's fantastic intelligence recalls another intelligent Pynchon dog, the Learned English Dog in ''Mason &amp; Dixon''. His manner of speech is somewhat reminiscent of the mystery-solving cartoon dog Scooby-Doo, and [http://waste.org/mail/?list=pynchon-l&amp;month=0612&amp;msg=112507&amp;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.<br /> <br /> Could this name be an homage to the dog in the Asterix comics, Idéfix in French; Dogmatix in English? Many of the character in the Asterix comics have names ending in &quot;x&quot;.<br /> <br /> '''&quot;...during a confidential assignment in Our Nation's Capitol (see ''The Chums of Chance and the Evil Halfwit'')...&quot;'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> 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 &quot;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.&quot;<br /> <br /> The Chums &quot;rescued Pugnax, then but a pup&quot;--an innocent, a child creature--&quot;from a furious encounter..between rival packs of the city's wild dogs&quot;.<br /> The wild dogs equal both political parties? <br /> <br /> '''lavatorial assaults'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> &quot;from the sky, which no one can &quot;begin to try to record, much less coordinate reports of&quot; recall the V-2 rockets which are linked to Slothrop's erections in ''Gravity's Rainbow''. That is, pee from the sky is &quot;folklore, superstition, or perhaps...the religious&quot; in ATD compared to rockets screaming across the sky and the destruction in GR.<br /> <br /> This also recalls jokes and urban legends regarding frozen waste from leaky airplane lavatories (i.e., &quot;you can still be hit by an icy B.M.&quot;)<br /> <br /> ==Page 6==<br /> <br /> '''''Princess Casamassima'''''&lt;br /&gt;<br /> ''The Princess Casamassima'' is a novel by Henry James, first published as a serial in ''The Atlantic Monthly'' in 1885-1886 and then as a book in 1886. 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 &amp;#151; admiration for the beautiful if imperfect world vs. a desire to change it through terrorism &amp;#151; will seem all too familiar to contemporary readers. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Princess_Casamassima Wikipedia] [[Princess Casamassima|Discussion of ''The Princess Casamassima'']]<br /> <br /> '''Placing . . . an emphasis'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Lapse of authorial control? Surely the creator of the ''Chums'' novels would not write such a Pynchonian sentence fragment!<br /> <br /> '''Pugnax sniffed . . . as always this scent eluded him'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> If Pugnax doesn't detect a human scent, that suggests Lindsay is not human. Not human, Master-at-Arms, speaks in hyper-constructed prose, has a notably short fuse . . . he's Lieutenant Worf of ''Star Trek, the Next Generation.''<br /> <br /> '''''Krakatoa'''''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Erupted 1883. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Krakatoa Wikipedia entry.]<br /> <br /> '''Heino Vanderjuice of New Haven'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Scientist who designed the ''Inconvenience's'' hydrogen engine. &quot;Vanderjuice&quot; suggests both &quot;wonder juice&quot; and &quot;wander juice,&quot; fitting since his engine allows the Chums to wander and is wondrous insofar as it apparently violates the [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Second_law_of_thermodynamics second law of thermodynamics]. &quot;Heino&quot; (HIE-no) is a man's given name [http://www.behindthename.com/php/view.php?name=heino meaning 'home'] in German, Finnish, and Estonian. Perhaps an allusion to the German pop star, [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Heino Heino].<br /> <br /> :Um, a quibble: ''Vanderjuice'' is some kind of corrupted Dutch, and in Dutch the name Heino would be pronounced HAY-no. He is not an immigrant, though, and American speakers no doubt say HIGH-no.<br /> <br /> Jules Verne influence? Vanderjuice a red herring, pointing to Dutch origin and electrical (&quot;juice&quot;) background? Or does one try to parse the name into eg &quot;Fond O' Juice&quot;?<br /> <br /> '''no better than a perpetual-motion machine'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> 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 (&quot;secret free energy source the government doesn't want you to know about&quot;) or mistakes. The hydrogen generator/engine is neither, which is why the disdainful phrase &quot;no better than&quot; is crucial.<br /> <br /> 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?<br /> <br /> '''Miles, with his marginal gifts of coördination, and Chick, with a want of alacrity fully as perceptible'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Like the old gag: The food in this restaurant isn't any good, but the service is awful.<br /> <br /> '''ratlines and shrouds'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> ''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.<br /> <br /> '''&quot;. . . anemometer of the Robinson's type&quot;'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Cup anemometer 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]<br /> <br /> '''how rapidly the ship was proceeding'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> 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.<br /> <br /> ==Page 7==<br /> <br /> '''Porfirio Díaz'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> President of Mexico 1876-1880, 1884-1911. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Porfirio_D%C3%ADaz Wikipedia]<br /> <br /> 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?<br /> <br /> '''&quot;beside a black-water river of the Deep South&quot;.&lt;br&gt;<br /> Blackwater River is in lower central Florida, pretty deep south; but there are numerous rivers in swampy areas that run black with organic matter.&lt;br&gt;<br /> 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]<br /> Thousands of news stories in September/October 2007.<br /> <br /> '''a bitter and unresolved &quot;piece of business&quot;'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Rather than give a proper reason for the Chums to be in the Deep South, the narrator cops out by pleading that it's &quot;not advisable&quot; to specify.<br /> <br /> '''&quot;the Rebellion of thirty years previous&quot;'''&lt;br /&gt;<br /> The Civil War was not called such during the time it was occurring; the South called it &quot;the war between the states&quot; to emphasize both their right to secede from the union and that this was a war between sovereign states; the North called it &quot;the Rebellion of 1861&quot; or, after termination of hostilities, &quot;the Rebellion of 1861-1865,&quot; appellations that did not recognize the South's right to secede.<br /> <br /> '''&quot;one still not advisable to set upon one's page&quot;'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> The American Civil War, that &quot;rebellion of thirty years previous,&quot; has not yet become a suitable subject for an adventure tale such as the Chums'.<br /> <br /> '''absquatulated'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Means to move away quickly, usually to avoid capture. Apparently a mock-Latinate formation, &quot;to go off and squat somewhere else.&quot; [http://www.worldwidewords.org/weirdwords/ww-abs1.htm A brief article] on the history and etymology of &quot;absquatulate.&quot;&lt;br&gt;<br /> The word is used in Vineland.<br /> <br /> '''&quot;Crackerjack!&quot; exclaimed Chick.'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> 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: &quot;Crackerjack&quot; entered English first as a noun referring to &quot;a person or thing of marked excellence,&quot; 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 &quot;crackerjack&quot; 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.<br /> <br /> '''to approach the gates of the Penitentiary'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> 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 &quot;never know how many Republicans were compelled to approach the gates of the penitentiary to make him president.&quot;<br /> <br /> '''posse comitatus'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> What Western movie fans know as a &quot;posse,&quot; 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. <br /> <br /> '''&quot;Crackerjack!&quot; exclaimed Chick.'''&lt;br&gt; As one word here, it is not the candy.<br /> <br /> ==Page 8==<br /> <br /> '''a pocketful of specie'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Specie means coins as opposed to paper money.<br /> <br /> '''the town of Thick Bush'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Aside from whether this phrase might apply to some political figure of the past or present, &quot;thick bush&quot; is the literal meaning of the Spanish Matagorda, the name of many towns in Latin America and one on the Gulf Coast of Texas.<br /> <br /> '''&quot;which directs us never to interfere with legal customs of any locality down at which we may happen to have touched&quot;'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> 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 &quot;This is the kind of carping criticism up with which I will not put.&quot;<br /> <br /> '''legal customs'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Legal = pertaining to law, in this case lynch law. The Chums are interpreting their Prime Directive pretty broadly here.<br /> <br /> '''Katie bar the door'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> 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.)<br /> <br /> '''Ku Klux Klan'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Reminiscent of the [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ku_Klux_Klan Klan] encounter scenes in the Coen Brothers' ''O Brother, Where Art Thou''. <br /> <br /> '''tupelo, cypress, and hickory'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> The trees are no help in locating the town; all three kinds like bottom land and grow all over the South.<br /> <br /> '''speed . . . made it nearly invisible from the ground'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> 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.<br /> <br /> ''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 &quot;clear&quot; 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.<br /> <br /> '''way better than a mile a minute'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> The Chums' point of departure is unknown, but they arrived in Chicago after catching a southerly wind (pg 3), southerly meaning &quot;wind blowing from the south.&quot; 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.)<br /> <br /> ==Page 9==<br /> <br /> '''locker'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> On board ship, any cabinet with a door or lid.<br /> <br /> '''&quot;Do not imagine, that in coming aboard ''Inconvenience'' you have escaped into any realm of the counterfactual...&quot;'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> This may be Pynchon directly addressing the reader. Given that his [[Against_the_Day_description|book description]] proclaims the world of AtD as &quot;what the world might be with a minor adjustment or two,&quot; 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.&lt;br&gt;<br /> 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.<br /> <br /> A-and it must mean, coming from the commander, that all aboard the ''Inconvenience'' are also subjects to the 'facts' of the world. &quot;The World is All that is the Case&quot;, from Wittgenstein, quoted in V.<br /> (in the original German)<br /> <br /> '''&quot;Going up is like going north.&quot;'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> 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.<br /> <br /> North is not a positive place in Pynchon's world. It is associated with anti-life---coldness as here---compared to the South, a place of light and warmth, such as the tropics. See GR.<br /> <br /> ==Page 11==<br /> <br /> '''plummet'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> 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.<br /> <br /> '''bear a hand'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Nautical: help out.<br /> <br /> ==Page 12==<br /> <br /> '''Liverpool Kiss'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> A head butt.<br /> <br /> '''Herr Riemann'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> 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].<br /> <br /> '''''Mr.'' Noseworth'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Lindsay insisting on proper naval forms: an ensign, lieutenant (junior grade), lieutenant or lieutenant commander in the U.S. navy is correctly addressed as &quot;Mister Surname.&quot;<br /> <br /> '''&quot;topological genius&quot;'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Riemann's differential geometry goes beyond the Cartesian grid. See conic sections and dimensionality above, page 10.<br /> <br /> ==Page 13==<br /> <br /> '''There was an &quot;eager stampede&quot; to the rail''' &lt;br&gt;<br /> 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?<br /> : 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) <br /> <br /> :insightfully true, I suspect, but it still shows 'narratorial knowingness', yes?<br /> <br /> : Cf. Flaubert's use of quotations in ''Madame Bovary'' to isolate what he deemed the contemptible argot of the bourgeoisie.<br /> <br /> ::Apparently not a cliche: [http://books.google.com//books?num=100&amp;q=eager.stampede&amp;as_brr=0 GoogleBooks]<br /> <br /> '''&quot;...among the brighter star-shapes of exploded ballast bags...&quot;''' &lt;br&gt;<br /> Recalls the opening line of ''Mason &amp; Dixon'': &quot;Snow-Balls have flown their Arcs, starr‘d the Sides of Outbuildings, as of Cousins...&quot;<br /> <br /> '''&quot;...quite as if were some giant eyeball, perhaps that of Society itself, ever scrutinizing from above, in a spirit of constructive censure.&quot;'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> 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&amp;page_number=4&amp;template_id=1&amp;sort_order=1 At MoMa's Online Collection]<br /> Notice that society = censure, if constructive. Gamboling nude on a summer day was OK until the ''Inconvenience'', as eyeball, appeared.<br /> <br /> :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.<br /> <br /> ==Page 14==<br /> <br /> '''charmed into docility'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> 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.<br /> <br /> '''Jacob's-ladder'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Used here as &quot;a marine ladder of rope or chain with wooden or iron rungs&quot; (Webster's Third New International Dictionary, Unabridged) but is suggestive of Jacob's ladder in Genesis:<br /> <br /> 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)<br /> <br /> '''a giant sack of soiled laundry'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Perhaps ''freshly'' soiled during the great hydrogen valve disaster.<br /> <br /> '''''vol-à-voile'''''&lt;br&gt;<br /> The narrator has turned the French phrase ''vol-à-voiles'' (gliding) into a verb (removing the ''s'').<br /> <br /> '''gold-beaters' skin'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> 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.<br /> <br /> '''Evening Quarters'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Naval practice of mustering the crew at the end of the day's work.<br /> <br /> ==Page 15==<br /> <br /> '''ukulelist'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Ukuleles also appear in ''Gravity's Rainbow'', ''Vineland'', and ''Mason &amp; Dixon''. According to Jules Siegel's article, &quot;Who is Thomas Pynchon, and why did he take off with my wife?&quot;, Pynchon himself played the ukulele in college.<br /> <br /> '''Vagabonds of the Void'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> 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.&lt;br&gt;<br /> <br /> [[image:Macassar-Oil.jpg|thumb|175px|''Macassar Oil. An Oily Puff for Soft Heads''|right]]'''Beaufort Scale'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> A scale for measuring wind strength, developed 1805.<br /> <br /> '''&quot;Let the lightning lash ~ And the thunder trash&quot;&lt;br&gt;<br /> Again, the Chums are rock stars, the coolest cats in town.<br /> <br /> '''&quot;...forty-four buttons...one for each State of the Union.&quot;&lt;br&gt;<br /> Wyoming was the 44th state admitted to the union in 1890.<br /> <br /> '''port section of the crew'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> The half of the crew permitted to go freely ashore this time. The other half tomorrow. &quot;Port&quot; and &quot;starboard&quot;: are these simply either/or words that sailors remember easily?<br /> <br /> '''Macassar oil'''&lt;br /&gt;<br /> 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]<br /> <br /> ==Page 16==<br /> <br /> '''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.'''&lt;br/&gt;<br /> 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 &lt;i&gt;The Devil In The White City&lt;/i&gt; by Erik Larson and &lt;i&gt;Depraved&lt;/i&gt; 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]<br /> <br /> '''tension of the gas'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> I.e., the pressure in the bag.<br /> <br /> ==Page 17==<br /> <br /> '''&quot;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&quot;'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> 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.<br /> <br /> '''&quot;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.&quot;'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Is this just a metaphor from the narrator to describe what it is like for Darby, or is it also self-referential to<br /> all the adventures of the Chums?. Another Q: Is the Commandant of Earthly Days the invisible presence from whom the chums get their orders? &lt;br&gt;<br /> :Related Q: Do the Chums receive their orders from the author of their books?<br /> <br /> '''we were usually out the door and on the main road'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Dick and Chick knew the judge was more likely to order them out of town than into the lockup.<br /> <br /> '''Chinese foofooraw'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Also spelled foofaraw, a great deal of fuss, or useless frills. Cf folderol. However, why Chinese? <br /> :Chick's father tried to sell Mississippi to a Chinese syndicate.<br /> <br /> '''cubeb'''&lt;br /&gt;<br /> 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.<br /> <br /> '''&quot;...goldurn Keeley Cure&quot;'''&lt;br /&gt;<br /> A treatment for alcohol, nicotine and narcotic addiction involving injections of &quot;bichloride&quot; or &quot;double chloride&quot; of gold, and also known as the &quot;gold cure&quot;. 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.<br /> <br /> ==Page 18==<br /> <br /> '''headgear'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Description vaguely reminiscent of &quot;Madame Bovary&quot;. [http://robotwisdom.com/flaubert/bovary/bovary1.html [notes]]<br /> <br /> '''eclipse green'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Apparently an actual shade. [http://encyclopedia.jrank.org/DIO_DRO/DIRECT.html [cite]]<br /> <br /> '''Bindlestiffs of the Blue A.C.'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Bindlestiff means hobo; hence, the Hoboes of the Sky Aeronautical Club.<br /> <br /> '''(&quot;Penny&quot;) Black'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> 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]]<br /> <br /> '''Tzigane'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> French for &quot;gypsy&quot;. Also a piece by Ravel. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tzigane_(Ravel) [Wikipedia]]<br /> <br /> '''Egypt'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> 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 &quot;Egypt,&quot; especially in the 19th century. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Little_Egypt_(region) [Wikipedia]]<br /> <br /> ==Page 19==<br /> <br /> '''goin all blue from the light of that electric fluid'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> 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.<br /> <br /> '''Voices calling out together'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> 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.<br /> <br /> [[image:balloons-paris.jpg|thumb|200px|Garçons de '71|right]]'''Garçons de '71'''&lt;br /&gt;<br /> 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...]]<br /> <br /> '''a condition of ''permanent siege'''''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Surely no one has failed to notice what a &quot;wartime president&quot; is allowed to get away with. &quot;No reference to the present day is intended or should be inferred.&quot;<br /> <br /> '''pétroleurs de Paris'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> An early form of Molotov cocktail thrower during the Siege of Paris. There were pétroleurs and pétroleuses.<br /> <br /> ==Page 20==<br /> <br /> '''they'll fly wherever they're needed'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> While the Chums obey orders from above, the Garçons de '71 follow a different imperative.<br /> <br /> '''energy we could feel, directed personally at us'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Someone may be trying to influence what the Bindlestiffs do, or keep them away from the Garçons' work of mercy.<br /> <br /> ==Page 21==<br /> <br /> '''admissions gate'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Apparently a break in the fence, capitalized on by freelance impresarios.<br /> <br /> '''fifty-cent pieces'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> 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.<br /> <br /> ==Page 22==<br /> <br /> '''Kodaks'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> The word Kodak was trademarked in 1888, and the first Kodak camera was sold with the slogan, &quot;You press the button - we do the rest.&quot; 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.<br /> <br /> '''half-light . . . in the interests of mercy . . . the safety of the lights'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Interesting contrast suggesting a tradeoff between comfort/solace in the shadows and safety in the bright light.<br /> <br /> '''Isandhlwana'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> 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 &quot;military&quot; and &quot;blunders&quot; in the title.<br /> <br /> ==Page 23==<br /> <br /> '''Tarahumara'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> 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]]<br /> <br /> '''&quot;geek&quot;'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> 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 &quot;Fear Factor,&quot; but sad rather than stultifying.<br /> <br /> '''monte'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Three-card monte.<br /> <br /> ==Page 24==<br /> <br /> '''the curse of Scotland'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> 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]]<br /> <br /> '''like the electricity coming on... how everything fits together, connects. It doesn't last long, though.'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> 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. <br /> <br /> 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, Miles is also said to suffer from &quot;confusion in his motor processes&quot;, which may be related.<br /> <br /> '''Cracker Jack'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> First sold at the at the first Chicago World's Fair in 1893. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cracker_Jack [Wikipedia]]<br /> <br /> '''New Levee district'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Chicago's redlight district c1890. [http://www.ipsn.org/genesis.htm [cite]]<br /> <br /> '''Epworth League'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> A Methodist youth organization founded in 1889. [http://www.southernmethodistchurch.org/id48.htm [cite]]<br /> <br /> ==Page 25==<br /> <br /> '''Haymarket bomb'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> 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 &quot;a bomb-throwing anarchist.&quot; 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].<br /> <br /> '''if the Governor decides to pardon that gang of anarchistic murderers'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> 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 &lt;i&gt;The Haymarket Tragedy&lt;/i&gt; by Paul Avrich and &lt;i&gt;Death In The Haymarket&lt;/i&gt; by James Green.<br /> <br /> '''mixture of contempt and pity'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> This is ''definitely'' not from one of the Chums' adventure stories.<br /> <br /> '''embonpoint'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Convexity of body; what used to be called a &quot;prosperous&quot; look.<br /> <br /> '''duck soup'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Meaning &quot;an easy task,&quot; 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.<br /> <br /> ==References==<br /> &lt;references /&gt;<br /> <br /> ==Annotation Index==<br /> {{ATD PbP}}</div>

MKOHUT https://against-the-day.pynchonwiki.com/wiki/index.php?title=ATD_1-25&diff=14156 2007-10-28T03:56:57Z

<p>MKOHUT: /* Page 7 */</p> <hr /> <div>:'''&lt;big&gt;Please keep these annotations SPOILER-FREE by not revealing information from later pages in the novel.&lt;/big&gt;'''&lt;p&gt;&lt;br&gt;<br /> <br /> '''cover seal'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> The seal appears to be written in Tibetan language, according to somebody who posts regularly to Pynchon-l under the name &quot;Ya Sam&quot;, who reports:<br /> <br /> I contacted the Tibetan Cultural Centre with the request to translate <br /> the mysterious legend on the AtD seal. They were kind enough to forward my <br /> request to the Tibetan tranlsator Tenzin Namgyal to whose generosity we <br /> owe the solution of one more ATD related mystery.<br /> <br /> It is the Tibetan language, alright, and it means ...... Tibetan <br /> Government Chamber of Commerce.<br /> <br /> Read their response below:<br /> <br /> :Dear Ya Sam,&lt;br /&gt;<br /> :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?<br /> <br /> :Best wishes,<br /> <br /> :Sandy Belth&lt;br /&gt;<br /> :Tibetan Cultural Center<br /> <br /> Also of interest: the coin bears a striking 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:<br /> <br /> :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, &quot;The Doubloon&quot;)<br /> <br /> '''Copyright page'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> 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 &quot;Penguin Press&quot; as the publisher, as could be expected, and it seems likely that the substitution of &quot;Penguin Press&quot; with &quot;Viking&quot; is one of many typographical errors in the book (see [[errata]]). <br /> 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: &quot;this was a copyediting mistake that will be corrected. There was never a Viking contract for this book.&quot;<br /> <br /> <br /> '''Dedication'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Most of Pynchon's novels contain dedications-- ''Mason &amp; Dixon'' (&quot;For Melanie, and for Jackson&quot;) , ''Vineland'' (&quot;For my mother and father&quot;), and ''Gravity's Rainbow'' (&quot;For Richard Fariña&quot;)-- but not so ''Against the Day,'' as published. Advance reading copies of the book did contain the words &quot;Dedication TK&quot; in italics, but this is simply [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/To_Come publisher-speak] for &quot;dedication to come.&quot; 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. <br /> <br /> '''&quot;It's always night, or we wouldn't need light.&quot;'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Epigraph by 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 &quot;God&quot;; 2) the character McClintick Sphere in ''V''. takes Monk's middle name, Sphere; and 3) &quot;It's always night, or we wouldn't need light&quot; was apparently something Monk was given to saying, rather than something he once said. For more on McClintick Sphere and Monk, see Charles Hollander's [http://www.howardm.net/tsmonk/pynchon.php essay]. <br /> <br /> ==Page 1==<br /> <br /> '''The Light Over the Ranges'''&lt;br&gt; <br /> The singular 'range' seems called for-- so why plural here?<br /> :Range is defined in the Oxford American Dictionary as &quot;a line or series of mountains or hills : the coastal ranges of the northwest,&quot; so perhaps &quot;range&quot; or &quot;ranges&quot; can be used to denote a number of mountains.<br /> <br /> It seems likely that 'ranges' refers to farms, homesteads and ranches in 1893 America. America was predominantly that in 1893. Cf. &quot;Home, home on the range&quot;. <br /> <br /> ==Page 3==<br /> <br /> '''&quot;Now single up all lines!&quot;'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Docked ships normally use doubled lines, then remove them in two stages when leaving the port. Pynchon was in the Navy for a spell and &quot;single up all lines&quot; is a common enough nautical term: Ships are docked with lines doubled -- that is, with two sets of ropes or chains holding the vessel to the dock. To &quot;single up all lines&quot; is to remove the redundant second lines in preparation to make way. <br /> <br /> But the opening line has many possible connotations. <br /> :The Modern Word's Quail [http://www.themodernword.com/reviews/pynchon_atd.html writes] that &quot;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.&quot; <br /> <br /> :&quot;Single up all lines&quot; is used in its normal nautical context in ''V.'', 11; ''COL49'', 31; ''Gravity's Rainbow'', 489; and ''Mason &amp; Dixon'', 258, 260. Perhaps we can understand this &quot;line&quot; as a text-string linking Pynchon's novels together (all but ''Vineland''?)--in preparation for a voyage to . . . .?<br /> <br /> :For more on lines, see page 146. One may also want to pay attention to sections on 'vectors' (represented by arrows).<br /> <br /> '''&quot;Cheerly now...handsomely...very well!!&quot;'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Cheerly means cheerily. Just as 'single up all lines' is used in nautical context in ''V.'', so 'cheerly' appears on page 54 of ''Mason &amp; Dixon'' (&quot;Cheerly. Cheerly, then, Lads...&quot;). The Chumps of Choice blog [http://chumpsofchoice.blogspot.com/2006/12/now-single-up-all-lines.html suggests] that Patrick O'Brian, who makes an appearance in ''Mason &amp; Dixon'' as &quot;the finest yarn-spinner in all the Fleets,&quot; may also be an inspiration for the nautical language here.<br /> <br /> '''&quot;Windy City, here we come!&quot; The nickname for Chicago, of course, but in 1893 the use meant city of braggarts more than it did wind. Of course, the Columbian Exposition to which the Chums are heading is, according to 'scuttlebutt', a fabled &quot; White City&quot;...and full of &quot;wonders&quot;--line 19---all bragged about, so to speak, by the City's leaders in winning the World's Fair in intense competition with other major cities.<br /> <br /> '''''Inconvenience'''''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Pynchon's fictional navy includes the USS Scaffold 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.<br /> Impulsive is the name of the ship Ploy, who loses all his teeth in V., gets transferred to.<br /> Inconvenience is an apt name for the Chums' adventures in 'reality'. They<br /> are an inconvenience; they are inconvenienced. (In having to take on Chick Counterfly, for example).<br /> <br /> '''patriotic bunting'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> AtD has many echoes of Doctorow's &quot;Ragtime&quot;: Doctorow fictionalises the same era, including anarchists, bombings, and early Hollywood. <br /> The Chums are dressed in red-and-white striped blazer and sky blue trousers. Hello Columbus, America, everything suggests and says.<br /> <br /> '''five-lad crew'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Randolph St. Cosmo (ship commander), Lindsay Noseworth (master-at-arms), Miles Blundell (handyman apprentice), Darby Suckling (factotum and mascot), and Chick Counterfly. 'Lad' suggests all are under 18 years old. <br /> : &quot;lad&quot; can also mean a young man (not necessarily under 18) and, in general, be used by a commanding officer toward his underlings of many ages.<br /> The commander's name evokes Randolph St., a main thoroughfare in the city they are bound for.<br /> The commander's name also invokes Saint(liness)? And Cosmo = cosmos?<br /> <br /> <br /> '''The Chums of Chance'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> To be chummy with chance might mean lucky, fond of gambling, fond of chaos, irrational, or anarchist. Or maybe they became chums by accident. <br /> A philosopher Pynchon seems to be familiar with, America's greatest, Charles Sanders Pierce, who set down his most important ideas in the late 1800's, and was still alive in 1893, argued that 'Chance' was a feature of the universe. Pierce's notion can still refute all determinisms, many think.<br /> <br /> 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, &quot;The Boys.&quot; 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 Chums of Choice blog]. <br /> <br /> '''World's Columbian Exposition'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> 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].<br /> This World's Fair was enveloped in optimism for the future. &quot;The thousand or more such wonders which awaited [the Chums] there.&quot; p.3<br /> <br /> '''mascotte'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> The English word 'mascot' has its origin in the late 19th cent.: from French mascotte. The spelling may also a tribute to the Dutch brand of rolling papers. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mascotte_%28rolling_papers%29 [Wikipedia]]<br /> <br /> ==Page 4==<br /> <br /> Randolph St. Cosmos is called Professor. Professor of flight as some early aeronauts were called?<br /> <br /> <br /> ==Page 5==<br /> <br /> '''&quot;Organizational property&quot;= all tableware with Chums of Chance Insignia.<br /> What Organization are they part of?<br /> <br /> '''Pugnax'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> The name meaning, in Latin, &quot;likes to fight.&quot; Pugnax's fantastic intelligence recalls another intelligent dog, the Learned English Dog in ''Mason &amp; Dixon''. His manner of speech is also reminiscent of the mystery-solving cartoon dog Scooby-Doo, and [http://waste.org/mail/?list=pynchon-l&amp;month=0612&amp;msg=112507&amp;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.<br /> <br /> '''&quot;...during a confidential assignment in Our Nation's Capitol (see ''The Chums of Chance and the Evil Halfwit'')...&quot;'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> This could be seen as a criticism of American Presidents present or past, or perhaps the Vietnam War, which Pynchon himself opposed. The Chums &quot;rescued Pugnax, then but a pup&quot;--an innocent, a child creature--&quot;from a furious encounter..between rival packs of the city's wild dogs&quot;.<br /> The wild dogs equal both political parties? <br /> <br /> Pugnax and the crew pee over the gondola. These &quot;lavatorial assaults&quot; from the sky,which no one can &quot;begin to try to record, much less coordinate reports of&quot; seem to be an allusion to the V-2 rockets which<br /> are linked to Slothrop's erections in Gravity's Rainbow. That is, pee from the sky is &quot;folklore, superstition, or perhaps...the religious&quot; in ATD compared to rockets screaming across the sky and the destruction in GR.<br /> <br /> May also refer to President Bush, considering the Pynchon-authored [[Against the Day description|Amazon.com book description]] which included &quot;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.&quot;<br /> <br /> ==Page 6==<br /> <br /> '''''Princess Casamassima'''''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Published 1886. [http://www.henryjames.org.uk/pcasa/home.htm etext] That Pugnax is reading this novel is no accident. It is one of only three major classics dealing with terrorists, anarchists, bombings of before the<br /> late 20th Century. It is the only Henry James novel in which he takes on such overtly political subjects. The only one which deals with such human violence--such extremes of behavior, one might argue. Pugnax preferred in his reading &quot;sentimental tales about his own species [rather]than those exhibiting extremes of human behavior, which he appeared to find a bit lurid&quot;. As many who have had dogs know, often when raised from puppyhood<br /> with loving owners, they 'think they are human'. Pugnax learns where to pee off the gondola--a pretty natural function for a dog---&quot;like the rest of the crew&quot;. <br /> <br /> Pynchon may be commenting here that Henry James did not 'get' terrorism despite his genius. That even Princess Casamassima is a &quot;sentimental tale&quot;. <br /> <br /> Or: it is a theme in GR, that the book, writing itself, is an abstraction from experience and not, of course, the thing itself. Noseworth, &quot;who placed upon the word 'book'..contempt&quot; did, however, know the subject matter of 'Princess Casamassima'. He, Noseworth,hoped they would &quot;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.&quot; It matters that the Chums ARE also characters in books of their adventures. <br /> <br /> The Chums have 'orders' to proceed to Chicago. From whom? <br /> <br /> '''''Krakatoa'''''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Erupted 1883.<br /> <br /> '''Heino Vanderjuice'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Hey no wonderjuice???<br /> <br /> '''&quot;...anemometer of the Robinson's type&quot;'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Cup anemometer invented in 1846 by 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.<br /> <br /> ==Page 7==<br /> <br /> '''Porfirio Diaz'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> President of Mexico 1876-1880, 1884-1911. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Porfirio_D%C3%ADaz Wikipedia]<br /> <br /> '''&quot;beside a black-water river of the Deep South&quot;. Blackwater River is in lower central Florida, pretty deep south. <br /> <br /> '''&quot;the Rebellion of thirty years previous&quot;'''&lt;br /&gt;<br /> The Civil War was not called such during the time it was occurring; the South called it &quot;the war between the states&quot; to emphasize both their right to secede from the union and that this was a war between sovereign states; the North called it &quot;the Rebellion of 1861&quot; or, after termination of hostilities, &quot;the Rebellion of 1861-1865,&quot; appellations that did not recognize the South's right to secede.<br /> <br /> '''&quot;one still not advisable to set upon one's page&quot;--The American Civil War, that &quot;rebellion of thirty years previous&quot;-- has happened [to the Chums?] yet has not become an adventure tale such as others we have been learning of. Too bad to record so far? For later in this work or in Pynchon's next? <br /> <br /> '''&quot;'Dick' Counterfly had absquatulated....&quot;'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Means to move away quickly, usually to avoid capture. Apparently a mock-Latinate formation, &quot;to go off and squat somewhere else.&quot; Great verb!<br /> <br /> '''&quot;Crackerjack!&quot; exclaimed Chick.'''&lt;br&gt; As one word here, it is not the candy.<br /> <br /> ==Page 8==<br /> <br /> '''&quot;which directs us never to interfere with legal customs of any locality down at which we may happen to have touched&quot;'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Like the Prime Directive in ''Star Trek''.<br /> <br /> '''Ku Klux Klan'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Reminiscent of the Klan encounter scenes in the Coen Brothers' &quot;O Brother, Where Art Thou&quot;.<br /> <br /> '''way better than a mile a minute'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> The Chum's point of departure is unknown, but they arrived in Chicago after catching a southerly wind (pg 3), southerly meaning &quot;wind blowing from the south.&quot; 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.)<br /> <br /> ==Page 9==<br /> <br /> '''&quot;Do not imagine, that in coming aboard ''Inconvenience'' you have escaped into any realm of the counterfactual...&quot;'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> This may be Pynchon directly addressing the reader. Given that his introductory blurb 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.<br /> <br /> '''&quot;Going up is like going north.&quot;'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> 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.<br /> <br /> North is not a positive place in Pynchon's world. It is associated with anti-life---coldness as here---compared to the South, a place of light and warmth, such as the tropics. See GR.<br /> <br /> ==Page 11==<br /> <br /> '''plummet'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Bad physics here&amp;mdash;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.<br /> <br /> ==Page 12==<br /> <br /> '''Liverpool Kiss'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> A head butt.<br /> <br /> '''Herr Riemann'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> 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].<br /> <br /> ==Page 13==<br /> '''&quot;...quite as if were some giant eyeball, perhaps that of Society itself, ever scrutinizing from above, in a spirit of constructive censure.&quot;'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> 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&amp;page_number=4&amp;template_id=1&amp;sort_order=1 At MoMa's Online Collection]<br /> <br /> Reference also to ATD Pg. 51 and &quot;The Unsleeping Eye&quot;, an apparent reference to Pinkerton's competing PI agency.<br /> <br /> ==Page 14==<br /> <br /> '''Jacob's-ladder'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Used here as &quot;a marine ladder of rope or chain with wooden or iron rungs&quot; (Webster's Third New International Dictionary, Unabridged) but is suggestive of Jacob's ladder in Genesis:<br /> <br /> 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)<br /> <br /> ==Page 15==<br /> <br /> '''ukulelist'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Ukuleles also appear in ''Gravity's Rainbow'' and ''Vineland''. According to Jules Siegel's article, &quot;Who is Thomas Pynchon, and why did he take off with my wife?&quot;, Pynchon himself played the ukulele in college.<br /> <br /> '''Beaufort Scale'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Developed 1805.<br /> <br /> ==Page 17==<br /> <br /> '''cubeb'''&lt;br /&gt;<br /> 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 a catarrh remedy. The oil is used medicinally and also in soap manufacture. The masticated roots of kava, ''P. methysticum,'' widely grown in its native Pacific islands, are made into a beverage called kavakava, which contains soporific alkaloids. It is an integral part of religious and social life there. A preparation of kava for commerce, also called kavakava, is sold widely as an herbal remedy for anxiety and insomnia. -- From [http://columbia.thefreedictionary.com/pepper The Free Dictionary] Also appears in ''Gravity's Rainbow,'' page 118.<br /> <br /> '''&quot;...goldurn Keeley Cure&quot;'''&lt;br /&gt;<br /> A treatment for alcohol, nicotine and narcotic addiction involving injections of &quot;bichloride&quot; or &quot;double chloride&quot; of gold, and also known as the &quot;gold cure&quot;. Named for Dr. Leslie E. Keeley, who opened the first of many Keeley Institutes in 1879.<br /> <br /> ==Page 18==<br /> <br /> '''headgear'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Description vaguely reminiscent of &quot;Madame Bovary&quot;. [http://robotwisdom.com/flaubert/bovary/bovary1.html [notes]]<br /> <br /> '''eclipse green'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Apparently an actual shade. [http://encyclopedia.jrank.org/DIO_DRO/DIRECT.html [cite]]<br /> <br /> '''A.C.'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Athletic Club.<br /> <br /> '''(&quot;Penny&quot;) Black'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> The first postage stamp (1840) [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Penny_Black [Wikipedia]]<br /> <br /> '''Tzigane'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Meaning &quot;gypsy&quot;. Also a piece by Ravel. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tzigane_(Ravel) [Wikipedia]]<br /> <br /> '''Egypt'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Or Little Egypt. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Little_Egypt_(region) [Wikipedia]]<br /> <br /> ==Page 22==<br /> <br /> '''Isandhlwana'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> 1879 battle. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Isandhlwana [Wikipedia]]<br /> <br /> ==Page 23==<br /> <br /> '''Tarahumara'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Indian tribe of Northern New Mexico, in the Sierra Madres; [[Tarahumare_Indians|About the Tarahumara]]. See also page 388ff. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tarahumara [Wikipedia]]<br /> <br /> ==Page 24==<br /> <br /> '''the curse of Scotland'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Dates from 1710. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Curse_of_Scotland [Wikipedia]]<br /> <br /> '''Cracker Jack'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Introduced at 1893 Expo. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cracker_Jack [Wikipedia]]<br /> <br /> '''New Levee district'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Chicago's redlight district c1890. [http://www.ipsn.org/genesis.htm [cite]]<br /> <br /> '''Epworth League'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> A Methodist youth organization founded in 1889. [http://www.southernmethodistchurch.org/id48.htm [cite]]<br /> <br /> ==Page 25==<br /> <br /> '''Haymarket bomb'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> 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 &quot;a bomb-throwing anarchist.&quot; 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].<br /> <br /> '''duck soup'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Meaning &quot;an easy task,&quot; but also the name of a Marx Bros. movie. Perhaps relevant, given the cameo by Groucho promised on the book sleeve.<br /> <br /> ==Annotation Index==<br /> {{ATD PbP}}</div>

MKOHUT https://against-the-day.pynchonwiki.com/wiki/index.php?title=ATD_1-25&diff=14155 2007-10-28T03:47:06Z

<p>MKOHUT: </p> <hr /> <div>:'''&lt;big&gt;Please keep these annotations SPOILER-FREE by not revealing information from later pages in the novel.&lt;/big&gt;'''&lt;p&gt;&lt;br&gt;<br /> <br /> '''cover seal'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> The seal appears to be written in Tibetan language, according to somebody who posts regularly to Pynchon-l under the name &quot;Ya Sam&quot;, who reports:<br /> <br /> I contacted the Tibetan Cultural Centre with the request to translate <br /> the mysterious legend on the AtD seal. They were kind enough to forward my <br /> request to the Tibetan tranlsator Tenzin Namgyal to whose generosity we <br /> owe the solution of one more ATD related mystery.<br /> <br /> It is the Tibetan language, alright, and it means ...... Tibetan <br /> Government Chamber of Commerce.<br /> <br /> Read their response below:<br /> <br /> :Dear Ya Sam,&lt;br /&gt;<br /> :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?<br /> <br /> :Best wishes,<br /> <br /> :Sandy Belth&lt;br /&gt;<br /> :Tibetan Cultural Center<br /> <br /> Also of interest: the coin bears a striking 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:<br /> <br /> :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, &quot;The Doubloon&quot;)<br /> <br /> '''Copyright page'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> 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 &quot;Penguin Press&quot; as the publisher, as could be expected, and it seems likely that the substitution of &quot;Penguin Press&quot; with &quot;Viking&quot; is one of many typographical errors in the book (see [[errata]]). <br /> 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: &quot;this was a copyediting mistake that will be corrected. There was never a Viking contract for this book.&quot;<br /> <br /> <br /> '''Dedication'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Most of Pynchon's novels contain dedications-- ''Mason &amp; Dixon'' (&quot;For Melanie, and for Jackson&quot;) , ''Vineland'' (&quot;For my mother and father&quot;), and ''Gravity's Rainbow'' (&quot;For Richard Fariña&quot;)-- but not so ''Against the Day,'' as published. Advance reading copies of the book did contain the words &quot;Dedication TK&quot; in italics, but this is simply [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/To_Come publisher-speak] for &quot;dedication to come.&quot; 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. <br /> <br /> '''&quot;It's always night, or we wouldn't need light.&quot;'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Epigraph by 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 &quot;God&quot;; 2) the character McClintick Sphere in ''V''. takes Monk's middle name, Sphere; and 3) &quot;It's always night, or we wouldn't need light&quot; was apparently something Monk was given to saying, rather than something he once said. For more on McClintick Sphere and Monk, see Charles Hollander's [http://www.howardm.net/tsmonk/pynchon.php essay]. <br /> <br /> ==Page 1==<br /> <br /> '''The Light Over the Ranges'''&lt;br&gt; <br /> The singular 'range' seems called for-- so why plural here?<br /> :Range is defined in the Oxford American Dictionary as &quot;a line or series of mountains or hills : the coastal ranges of the northwest,&quot; so perhaps &quot;range&quot; or &quot;ranges&quot; can be used to denote a number of mountains.<br /> <br /> It seems likely that 'ranges' refers to farms, homesteads and ranches in 1893 America. America was predominantly that in 1893. Cf. &quot;Home, home on the range&quot;. <br /> <br /> ==Page 3==<br /> <br /> '''&quot;Now single up all lines!&quot;'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Docked ships normally use doubled lines, then remove them in two stages when leaving the port. Pynchon was in the Navy for a spell and &quot;single up all lines&quot; is a common enough nautical term: Ships are docked with lines doubled -- that is, with two sets of ropes or chains holding the vessel to the dock. To &quot;single up all lines&quot; is to remove the redundant second lines in preparation to make way. <br /> <br /> But the opening line has many possible connotations. <br /> :The Modern Word's Quail [http://www.themodernword.com/reviews/pynchon_atd.html writes] that &quot;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.&quot; <br /> <br /> :&quot;Single up all lines&quot; is used in its normal nautical context in ''V.'', 11; ''COL49'', 31; ''Gravity's Rainbow'', 489; and ''Mason &amp; Dixon'', 258, 260. Perhaps we can understand this &quot;line&quot; as a text-string linking Pynchon's novels together (all but ''Vineland''?)--in preparation for a voyage to . . . .?<br /> <br /> :For more on lines, see page 146. One may also want to pay attention to sections on 'vectors' (represented by arrows).<br /> <br /> '''&quot;Cheerly now...handsomely...very well!!&quot;'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Cheerly means cheerily. Just as 'single up all lines' is used in nautical context in ''V.'', so 'cheerly' appears on page 54 of ''Mason &amp; Dixon'' (&quot;Cheerly. Cheerly, then, Lads...&quot;). The Chumps of Choice blog [http://chumpsofchoice.blogspot.com/2006/12/now-single-up-all-lines.html suggests] that Patrick O'Brian, who makes an appearance in ''Mason &amp; Dixon'' as &quot;the finest yarn-spinner in all the Fleets,&quot; may also be an inspiration for the nautical language here.<br /> <br /> '''&quot;Windy City, here we come!&quot; The nickname for Chicago, of course, but in 1893 the use meant city of braggarts more than it did wind. Of course, the Columbian Exposition to which the Chums are heading is, according to 'scuttlebutt', a fabled &quot; White City&quot;...and full of &quot;wonders&quot;--line 19---all bragged about, so to speak, by the City's leaders in winning the World's Fair in intense competition with other major cities.<br /> <br /> '''''Inconvenience'''''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Pynchon's fictional navy includes the USS Scaffold 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.<br /> Impulsive is the name of the ship Ploy, who loses all his teeth in V., gets transferred to.<br /> Inconvenience is an apt name for the Chums' adventures in 'reality'. They<br /> are an inconvenience; they are inconvenienced. (In having to take on Chick Counterfly, for example).<br /> <br /> '''patriotic bunting'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> AtD has many echoes of Doctorow's &quot;Ragtime&quot;: Doctorow fictionalises the same era, including anarchists, bombings, and early Hollywood. <br /> The Chums are dressed in red-and-white striped blazer and sky blue trousers. Hello Columbus, America, everything suggests and says.<br /> <br /> '''five-lad crew'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Randolph St. Cosmo (ship commander), Lindsay Noseworth (master-at-arms), Miles Blundell (handyman apprentice), Darby Suckling (factotum and mascot), and Chick Counterfly. 'Lad' suggests all are under 18 years old. <br /> : &quot;lad&quot; can also mean a young man (not necessarily under 18) and, in general, be used by a commanding officer toward his underlings of many ages.<br /> The commander's name evokes Randolph St., a main thoroughfare in the city they are bound for.<br /> The commander's name also invokes Saint(liness)? And Cosmo = cosmos?<br /> <br /> <br /> '''The Chums of Chance'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> To be chummy with chance might mean lucky, fond of gambling, fond of chaos, irrational, or anarchist. Or maybe they became chums by accident. <br /> A philosopher Pynchon seems to be familiar with, America's greatest, Charles Sanders Pierce, who set down his most important ideas in the late 1800's, and was still alive in 1893, argued that 'Chance' was a feature of the universe. Pierce's notion can still refute all determinisms, many think.<br /> <br /> 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, &quot;The Boys.&quot; 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 Chums of Choice blog]. <br /> <br /> '''World's Columbian Exposition'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> 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].<br /> This World's Fair was enveloped in optimism for the future. &quot;The thousand or more such wonders which awaited [the Chums] there.&quot; p.3<br /> <br /> '''mascotte'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> The English word 'mascot' has its origin in the late 19th cent.: from French mascotte. The spelling may also a tribute to the Dutch brand of rolling papers. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mascotte_%28rolling_papers%29 [Wikipedia]]<br /> <br /> ==Page 4==<br /> <br /> Randolph St. Cosmos is called Professor. Professor of flight as some early aeronauts were called?<br /> <br /> <br /> ==Page 5==<br /> <br /> '''&quot;Organizational property&quot;= all tableware with Chums of Chance Insignia.<br /> What Organization are they part of?<br /> <br /> '''Pugnax'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> The name meaning, in Latin, &quot;likes to fight.&quot; Pugnax's fantastic intelligence recalls another intelligent dog, the Learned English Dog in ''Mason &amp; Dixon''. His manner of speech is also reminiscent of the mystery-solving cartoon dog Scooby-Doo, and [http://waste.org/mail/?list=pynchon-l&amp;month=0612&amp;msg=112507&amp;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.<br /> <br /> '''&quot;...during a confidential assignment in Our Nation's Capitol (see ''The Chums of Chance and the Evil Halfwit'')...&quot;'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> This could be seen as a criticism of American Presidents present or past, or perhaps the Vietnam War, which Pynchon himself opposed. The Chums &quot;rescued Pugnax, then but a pup&quot;--an innocent, a child creature--&quot;from a furious encounter..between rival packs of the city's wild dogs&quot;.<br /> The wild dogs equal both political parties? <br /> <br /> Pugnax and the crew pee over the gondola. These &quot;lavatorial assaults&quot; from the sky,which no one can &quot;begin to try to record, much less coordinate reports of&quot; seem to be an allusion to the V-2 rockets which<br /> are linked to Slothrop's erections in Gravity's Rainbow. That is, pee from the sky is &quot;folklore, superstition, or perhaps...the religious&quot; in ATD compared to rockets screaming across the sky and the destruction in GR.<br /> <br /> May also refer to President Bush, considering the Pynchon-authored [[Against the Day description|Amazon.com book description]] which included &quot;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.&quot;<br /> <br /> ==Page 6==<br /> <br /> '''''Princess Casamassima'''''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Published 1886. [http://www.henryjames.org.uk/pcasa/home.htm etext] That Pugnax is reading this novel is no accident. It is one of only three major classics dealing with terrorists, anarchists, bombings of before the<br /> late 20th Century. It is the only Henry James novel in which he takes on such overtly political subjects. The only one which deals with such human violence--such extremes of behavior, one might argue. Pugnax preferred in his reading &quot;sentimental tales about his own species [rather]than those exhibiting extremes of human behavior, which he appeared to find a bit lurid&quot;. As many who have had dogs know, often when raised from puppyhood<br /> with loving owners, they 'think they are human'. Pugnax learns where to pee off the gondola--a pretty natural function for a dog---&quot;like the rest of the crew&quot;. <br /> <br /> Pynchon may be commenting here that Henry James did not 'get' terrorism despite his genius. That even Princess Casamassima is a &quot;sentimental tale&quot;. <br /> <br /> Or: it is a theme in GR, that the book, writing itself, is an abstraction from experience and not, of course, the thing itself. Noseworth, &quot;who placed upon the word 'book'..contempt&quot; did, however, know the subject matter of 'Princess Casamassima'. He, Noseworth,hoped they would &quot;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.&quot; It matters that the Chums ARE also characters in books of their adventures. <br /> <br /> The Chums have 'orders' to proceed to Chicago. From whom? <br /> <br /> '''''Krakatoa'''''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Erupted 1883.<br /> <br /> '''Heino Vanderjuice'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Hey no wonderjuice???<br /> <br /> '''&quot;...anemometer of the Robinson's type&quot;'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Cup anemometer invented in 1846 by 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.<br /> <br /> ==Page 7==<br /> <br /> '''Porfirio Diaz'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> President of Mexico 1876-1880, 1884-1911. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Porfirio_D%C3%ADaz Wikipedia]<br /> <br /> '''&quot;beside a black-water river of the Deep South&quot;. Blackwater River is in lower central Florida, pretty deep south. <br /> <br /> '''&quot;the Rebellion of thirty years previous&quot;'''&lt;br /&gt;<br /> The Civil War was not called such during the time it was occurring; the South called it &quot;the war between the states&quot; to emphasize both their right to secede from the union and that this was a war between sovereign states; the North called it &quot;the Rebellion of 1861&quot; or, after termination of hostilities, &quot;the Rebellion of 1861-1865,&quot; appellations that did not recognize the South's right to secede.<br /> <br /> '''&quot;one still not advisable to set upon one's page&quot;--The American Civil War, that &quot;rebellion of thirty years previous&quot;-- has happened [to the Chums?] yet has not become an adventure tale such as others we have been learning of. Too bad to record so far? For later in this work or in Pynchon's next? <br /> <br /> '''&quot;'Dick' Counterfly had absquatulated....&quot;'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Means to move away quickly, usually to avoid capture. Apparently a mock-Latinate formation, &quot;to go off and squat somewhere else.&quot; Great verb!<br /> <br /> '''&quot;Crackerjack!&quot; exclaimed Chick. As one word here, it is not the candy.<br /> See Alpha Index.<br /> <br /> ==Page 8==<br /> <br /> '''&quot;which directs us never to interfere with legal customs of any locality down at which we may happen to have touched&quot;'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Like the Prime Directive in ''Star Trek''.<br /> <br /> '''Ku Klux Klan'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Reminiscent of the Klan encounter scenes in the Coen Brothers' &quot;O Brother, Where Art Thou&quot;.<br /> <br /> '''way better than a mile a minute'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> The Chum's point of departure is unknown, but they arrived in Chicago after catching a southerly wind (pg 3), southerly meaning &quot;wind blowing from the south.&quot; 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.)<br /> <br /> ==Page 9==<br /> <br /> '''&quot;Do not imagine, that in coming aboard ''Inconvenience'' you have escaped into any realm of the counterfactual...&quot;'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> This may be Pynchon directly addressing the reader. Given that his introductory blurb 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.<br /> <br /> '''&quot;Going up is like going north.&quot;'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> 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.<br /> <br /> North is not a positive place in Pynchon's world. It is associated with anti-life---coldness as here---compared to the South, a place of light and warmth, such as the tropics. See GR.<br /> <br /> ==Page 11==<br /> <br /> '''plummet'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Bad physics here&amp;mdash;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.<br /> <br /> ==Page 12==<br /> <br /> '''Liverpool Kiss'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> A head butt.<br /> <br /> '''Herr Riemann'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> 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].<br /> <br /> ==Page 13==<br /> '''&quot;...quite as if were some giant eyeball, perhaps that of Society itself, ever scrutinizing from above, in a spirit of constructive censure.&quot;'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> 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&amp;page_number=4&amp;template_id=1&amp;sort_order=1 At MoMa's Online Collection]<br /> <br /> Reference also to ATD Pg. 51 and &quot;The Unsleeping Eye&quot;, an apparent reference to Pinkerton's competing PI agency.<br /> <br /> ==Page 14==<br /> <br /> '''Jacob's-ladder'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Used here as &quot;a marine ladder of rope or chain with wooden or iron rungs&quot; (Webster's Third New International Dictionary, Unabridged) but is suggestive of Jacob's ladder in Genesis:<br /> <br /> 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)<br /> <br /> ==Page 15==<br /> <br /> '''ukulelist'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Ukuleles also appear in ''Gravity's Rainbow'' and ''Vineland''. According to Jules Siegel's article, &quot;Who is Thomas Pynchon, and why did he take off with my wife?&quot;, Pynchon himself played the ukulele in college.<br /> <br /> '''Beaufort Scale'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Developed 1805.<br /> <br /> ==Page 17==<br /> <br /> '''cubeb'''&lt;br /&gt;<br /> 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 a catarrh remedy. The oil is used medicinally and also in soap manufacture. The masticated roots of kava, ''P. methysticum,'' widely grown in its native Pacific islands, are made into a beverage called kavakava, which contains soporific alkaloids. It is an integral part of religious and social life there. A preparation of kava for commerce, also called kavakava, is sold widely as an herbal remedy for anxiety and insomnia. -- From [http://columbia.thefreedictionary.com/pepper The Free Dictionary] Also appears in ''Gravity's Rainbow,'' page 118.<br /> <br /> '''&quot;...goldurn Keeley Cure&quot;'''&lt;br /&gt;<br /> A treatment for alcohol, nicotine and narcotic addiction involving injections of &quot;bichloride&quot; or &quot;double chloride&quot; of gold, and also known as the &quot;gold cure&quot;. Named for Dr. Leslie E. Keeley, who opened the first of many Keeley Institutes in 1879.<br /> <br /> ==Page 18==<br /> <br /> '''headgear'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Description vaguely reminiscent of &quot;Madame Bovary&quot;. [http://robotwisdom.com/flaubert/bovary/bovary1.html [notes]]<br /> <br /> '''eclipse green'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Apparently an actual shade. [http://encyclopedia.jrank.org/DIO_DRO/DIRECT.html [cite]]<br /> <br /> '''A.C.'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Athletic Club.<br /> <br /> '''(&quot;Penny&quot;) Black'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> The first postage stamp (1840) [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Penny_Black [Wikipedia]]<br /> <br /> '''Tzigane'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Meaning &quot;gypsy&quot;. Also a piece by Ravel. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tzigane_(Ravel) [Wikipedia]]<br /> <br /> '''Egypt'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Or Little Egypt. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Little_Egypt_(region) [Wikipedia]]<br /> <br /> ==Page 22==<br /> <br /> '''Isandhlwana'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> 1879 battle. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Isandhlwana [Wikipedia]]<br /> <br /> ==Page 23==<br /> <br /> '''Tarahumara'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Indian tribe of Northern New Mexico, in the Sierra Madres; [[Tarahumare_Indians|About the Tarahumara]]. See also page 388ff. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tarahumara [Wikipedia]]<br /> <br /> ==Page 24==<br /> <br /> '''the curse of Scotland'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Dates from 1710. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Curse_of_Scotland [Wikipedia]]<br /> <br /> '''Cracker Jack'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Introduced at 1893 Expo. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cracker_Jack [Wikipedia]]<br /> <br /> '''New Levee district'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Chicago's redlight district c1890. [http://www.ipsn.org/genesis.htm [cite]]<br /> <br /> '''Epworth League'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> A Methodist youth organization founded in 1889. [http://www.southernmethodistchurch.org/id48.htm [cite]]<br /> <br /> ==Page 25==<br /> <br /> '''Haymarket bomb'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> 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 &quot;a bomb-throwing anarchist.&quot; 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].<br /> <br /> '''duck soup'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Meaning &quot;an easy task,&quot; but also the name of a Marx Bros. movie. Perhaps relevant, given the cameo by Groucho promised on the book sleeve.<br /> <br /> ==Annotation Index==<br /> {{ATD PbP}}</div>

MKOHUT https://against-the-day.pynchonwiki.com/wiki/index.php?title=ATD_1-25&diff=14154 2007-10-28T03:46:48Z

<p>MKOHUT: </p> <hr /> <div>:'''&lt;big&gt;Please keep these annotations SPOILER-FREE by not revealing information from later pages in the novel.&lt;/big&gt;'''&lt;p&gt;&lt;br&gt;<br /> <br /> '''cover seal'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> The seal appears to be written in Tibetan language, according to somebody who posts regularly to Pynchon-l under the name &quot;Ya Sam&quot;, who reports:<br /> <br /> I contacted the Tibetan Cultural Centre with the request to translate <br /> the mysterious legend on the AtD seal. They were kind enough to forward my <br /> request to the Tibetan tranlsator Tenzin Namgyal to whose generosity we <br /> owe the solution of one more ATD related mystery.<br /> <br /> It is the Tibetan language, alright, and it means ...... Tibetan <br /> Government Chamber of Commerce.<br /> <br /> Read their response below:<br /> <br /> :Dear Ya Sam,&lt;br /&gt;<br /> :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?<br /> <br /> :Best wishes,<br /> <br /> :Sandy Belth&lt;br /&gt;<br /> :Tibetan Cultural Center<br /> <br /> Also of interest: the coin bears a striking 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:<br /> <br /> :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, &quot;The Doubloon&quot;)<br /> <br /> '''Copyright page'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> 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 &quot;Penguin Press&quot; as the publisher, as could be expected, and it seems likely that the substitution of &quot;Penguin Press&quot; with &quot;Viking&quot; is one of many typographical errors in the book (see [[errata]]). <br /> 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: &quot;this was a copyediting mistake that will be corrected. There was never a Viking contract for this book.&quot;<br /> <br /> <br /> '''Dedication'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Most of Pynchon's novels contain dedications-- ''Mason &amp; Dixon'' (&quot;For Melanie, and for Jackson&quot;) , ''Vineland'' (&quot;For my mother and father&quot;), and ''Gravity's Rainbow'' (&quot;For Richard Fariña&quot;)-- but not so ''Against the Day,'' as published. Advance reading copies of the book did contain the words &quot;Dedication TK&quot; in italics, but this is simply [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/To_Come publisher-speak] for &quot;dedication to come.&quot; 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. <br /> <br /> '''&quot;It's always night, or we wouldn't need light.&quot;'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Epigraph by 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 &quot;God&quot;; 2) the character McClintick Sphere in ''V''. takes Monk's middle name, Sphere; and 3) &quot;It's always night, or we wouldn't need light&quot; was apparently something Monk was given to saying, rather than something he once said. For more on McClintick Sphere and Monk, see Charles Hollander's [http://www.howardm.net/tsmonk/pynchon.php essay]. <br /> <br /> ==Page 1==<br /> <br /> '''The Light Over the Ranges'''&lt;br&gt; <br /> The singular 'range' seems called for-- so why plural here?<br /> :Range is defined in the Oxford American Dictionary as &quot;a line or series of mountains or hills : the coastal ranges of the northwest,&quot; so perhaps &quot;range&quot; or &quot;ranges&quot; can be used to denote a number of mountains.<br /> <br /> It seems likely that 'ranges' refers to farms, homesteads and ranches in 1893 America. America was predominantly that in 1893. Cf. &quot;Home, home on the range&quot;. <br /> <br /> ==Page 3==<br /> <br /> '''&quot;Now single up all lines!&quot;'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Docked ships normally use doubled lines, then remove them in two stages when leaving the port. Pynchon was in the Navy for a spell and &quot;single up all lines&quot; is a common enough nautical term: Ships are docked with lines doubled -- that is, with two sets of ropes or chains holding the vessel to the dock. To &quot;single up all lines&quot; is to remove the redundant second lines in preparation to make way. <br /> <br /> But the opening line has many possible connotations. <br /> :The Modern Word's Quail [http://www.themodernword.com/reviews/pynchon_atd.html writes] that &quot;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.&quot; <br /> <br /> :&quot;Single up all lines&quot; is used in its normal nautical context in ''V.'', 11; ''COL49'', 31; ''Gravity's Rainbow'', 489; and ''Mason &amp; Dixon'', 258, 260. Perhaps we can understand this &quot;line&quot; as a text-string linking Pynchon's novels together (all but ''Vineland''?)--in preparation for a voyage to . . . .?<br /> <br /> :For more on lines, see page 146. One may also want to pay attention to sections on 'vectors' (represented by arrows).<br /> <br /> '''&quot;Cheerly now...handsomely...very well!!&quot;'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Cheerly means cheerily. Just as 'single up all lines' is used in nautical context in ''V.'', so 'cheerly' appears on page 54 of ''Mason &amp; Dixon'' (&quot;Cheerly. Cheerly, then, Lads...&quot;). The Chumps of Choice blog [http://chumpsofchoice.blogspot.com/2006/12/now-single-up-all-lines.html suggests] that Patrick O'Brian, who makes an appearance in ''Mason &amp; Dixon'' as &quot;the finest yarn-spinner in all the Fleets,&quot; may also be an inspiration for the nautical language here.<br /> <br /> '''&quot;Windy City, here we come!&quot; The nickname for Chicago, of course, but in 1893 the use meant city of braggarts more than it did wind. Of course, the Columbian Exposition to which the Chums are heading is, according to 'scuttlebutt', a fabled &quot; White City&quot;...and full of &quot;wonders&quot;--line 19---all bragged about, so to speak, by the City's leaders in winning the World's Fair in intense competition with other major cities.<br /> <br /> '''''Inconvenience'''''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Pynchon's fictional navy includes the USS Scaffold 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.<br /> Impulsive is the name of the ship Ploy, who loses all his teeth in V., gets transferred to.<br /> Inconvenience is an apt name for the Chums' adventures in 'reality'. They<br /> are an inconvenience; they are inconvenienced. (In having to take on Chick Counterfly, for example).<br /> <br /> '''patriotic bunting'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> AtD has many echoes of Doctorow's &quot;Ragtime&quot;: Doctorow fictionalises the same era, including anarchists, bombings, and early Hollywood. <br /> The Chums are dressed in red-and-white striped blazer and sky blue trousers. Hello Columbus, America, everything suggests and says.<br /> <br /> '''five-lad crew'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Randolph St. Cosmo (ship commander), Lindsay Noseworth (master-at-arms), Miles Blundell (handyman apprentice), Darby Suckling (factotum and mascot), and Chick Counterfly. 'Lad' suggests all are under 18 years old. <br /> : &quot;lad&quot; can also mean a young man (not necessarily under 18) and, in general, be used by a commanding officer toward his underlings of many ages.<br /> The commander's name evokes Randolph St., a main thoroughfare in the city they are bound for.<br /> The commander's name also invokes Saint(liness)? And Cosmo = cosmos?<br /> <br /> <br /> '''The Chums of Chance'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> To be chummy with chance might mean lucky, fond of gambling, fond of chaos, irrational, or anarchist. Or maybe they became chums by accident. <br /> A philosopher Pynchon seems to be familiar with, America's greatest, Charles Sanders Pierce, who set down his most important ideas in the late 1800's, and was still alive in 1893, argued that 'Chance' was a feature of the universe. Pierce's notion can still refute all determinisms, many think.<br /> <br /> 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, &quot;The Boys.&quot; 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 Chums of Choice blog]. <br /> <br /> '''World's Columbian Exposition'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> 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].<br /> This World's Fair was enveloped in optimism for the future. &quot;The thousand or more such wonders which awaited [the Chums] there.&quot; p.3<br /> <br /> '''mascotte'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> The English word 'mascot' has its origin in the late 19th cent.: from French mascotte. The spelling may also a tribute to the Dutch brand of rolling papers. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mascotte_%28rolling_papers%29 [Wikipedia]]<br /> <br /> ==Page 4==<br /> <br /> Randolph St. Cosmos is called Professor. Professor of flight as some early aeronauts were called?<br /> <br /> <br /> ==Page 5==<br /> <br /> '''&quot;Organizational property&quot;= all tableware with Chums of Chance Insignia.<br /> What Organization are they part of?<br /> <br /> '''Pugnax'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> The name meaning, in Latin, &quot;likes to fight.&quot; Pugnax's fantastic intelligence recalls another intelligent dog, the Learned English Dog in ''Mason &amp; Dixon''. His manner of speech is also reminiscent of the mystery-solving cartoon dog Scooby-Doo, and [http://waste.org/mail/?list=pynchon-l&amp;month=0612&amp;msg=112507&amp;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.<br /> <br /> '''&quot;...during a confidential assignment in Our Nation's Capitol (see ''The Chums of Chance and the Evil Halfwit'')...&quot;'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> This could be seen as a criticism of American Presidents present or past, or perhaps the Vietnam War, which Pynchon himself opposed. The Chums &quot;rescued Pugnax, then but a pup&quot;--an innocent, a child creature--&quot;from a furious encounter..between rival packs of the city's wild dogs&quot;.<br /> The wild dogs equal both political parties? <br /> <br /> Pugnax and the crew pee over the gondola. These &quot;lavatorial assaults&quot; from the sky,which no one can &quot;begin to try to record, much less coordinate reports of&quot; seem to be an allusion to the V-2 rockets which<br /> are linked to Slothrop's erections in Gravity's Rainbow. That is, pee from the sky is &quot;folklore, superstition, or perhaps...the religious&quot; in ATD compared to rockets screaming across the sky and the destruction in GR.<br /> <br /> May also refer to President Bush, considering the Pynchon-authored [[Against the Day description|Amazon.com book description]] which included &quot;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.&quot;<br /> <br /> ==Page 6==<br /> <br /> '''''Princess Casamassima'''''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Published 1886. [http://www.henryjames.org.uk/pcasa/home.htm etext] That Pugnax is reading this novel is no accident. It is one of only three major classics dealing with terrorists, anarchists, bombings of before the<br /> late 20th Century. It is the only Henry James novel in which he takes on such overtly political subjects. The only one which deals with such human violence--such extremes of behavior, one might argue. Pugnax preferred in his reading &quot;sentimental tales about his own species [rather]than those exhibiting extremes of human behavior, which he appeared to find a bit lurid&quot;. As many who have had dogs know, often when raised from puppyhood<br /> with loving owners, they 'think they are human'. Pugnax learns where to pee off the gondola--a pretty natural function for a dog---&quot;like the rest of the crew&quot;. <br /> <br /> Pynchon may be commenting here that Henry James did not 'get' terrorism despite his genius. That even Princess Casamassima is a &quot;sentimental tale&quot;. <br /> <br /> Or: it is a theme in GR, that the book, writing itself, is an abstraction from experience and not, of course, the thing itself. Noseworth, &quot;who placed upon the word 'book'..contempt&quot; did, however, know the subject matter of 'Princess Casamassima'. He, Noseworth,hoped they would &quot;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.&quot; It matters that the Chums ARE also characters in books of their adventures. <br /> <br /> The Chums have 'orders' to proceed to Chicago. From whom? <br /> <br /> '''''Krakatoa'''''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Erupted 1883.<br /> <br /> '''Heino Vanderjuice'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Hey no wonderjuice???<br /> <br /> '''&quot;...anemometer of the Robinson's type&quot;'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Cup anemometer invented in 1846 by 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.<br /> <br /> ==Page 7==<br /> <br /> '''Porfirio Diaz'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> President of Mexico 1876-1880, 1884-1911. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Porfirio_D%C3%ADaz Wikipedia]<br /> <br /> '''&quot;beside a black-water river of the Deep South&quot;. Blackwater River is in lower central Florida, pretty deep south. <br /> <br /> '''&quot;the Rebellion of thirty years previous&quot;'''&lt;br /&gt;<br /> The Civil War was not called such during the time it was occurring; the South called it &quot;the war between the states&quot; to emphasize both their right to secede from the union and that this was a war between sovereign states; the North called it &quot;the Rebellion of 1861&quot; or, after termination of hostilities, &quot;the Rebellion of 1861-1865,&quot; appellations that did not recognize the South's right to secede.<br /> <br /> '''&quot;one still not advisable to set upon one's page&quot;--The American Civil War, that &quot;rebellion of thirty years previous&quot;-- has happened [to the Chums?] yet has not become an adventure tale such as others we have been learning of. Too bad to record so far? For later in this work or in Pynchon's next? <br /> <br /> '''&quot;'Dick' Counterfly had absquatulated....&quot;'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Means to move away quickly, usually to avoid capture. Apparently a mock-Latinate formation, &quot;to go off and squat somewhere else.&quot; Great verb!<br /> <br /> '''&quot;Crackerjack!&quot; exclaimed Chick. As one word here, it is not the candy.<br /> See Alpha Index.<br /> <br /> ==Page 8==<br /> <br /> '''&quot;which directs us never to interfere with legal customs of any locality down at which we may happen to have touched&quot;'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Like the Prime Directive in ''Star Trek''.<br /> <br /> '''Ku Klux Klan'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Reminiscent of the Klan encounter scenes in the Coen Brothers' &quot;O Brother, Where Art Thou&quot;.<br /> <br /> '''way better than a mile a minute'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> The Chum's point of departure is unknown, but they arrived in Chicago after catching a southerly wind (pg 3), southerly meaning &quot;wind blowing from the south.&quot; 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.)<br /> <br /> ==Page 9==<br /> <br /> '''&quot;Do not imagine, that in coming aboard ''Inconvenience'' you have escaped into any realm of the counterfactual...&quot;'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> This may be Pynchon directly addressing the reader. Given that his introductory blurb 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.<br /> <br /> '''&quot;Going up is like going north.&quot;'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> 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.<br /> <br /> North is not a positive place in Pynchon's world. It is associated with anti-life---coldness as here---compared to the South.<br /> <br /> ==Page 11==<br /> <br /> '''plummet'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Bad physics here&amp;mdash;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.<br /> <br /> ==Page 12==<br /> <br /> '''Liverpool Kiss'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> A head butt.<br /> <br /> '''Herr Riemann'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> 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].<br /> <br /> ==Page 13==<br /> '''&quot;...quite as if were some giant eyeball, perhaps that of Society itself, ever scrutinizing from above, in a spirit of constructive censure.&quot;'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> 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&amp;page_number=4&amp;template_id=1&amp;sort_order=1 At MoMa's Online Collection]<br /> <br /> Reference also to ATD Pg. 51 and &quot;The Unsleeping Eye&quot;, an apparent reference to Pinkerton's competing PI agency.<br /> <br /> ==Page 14==<br /> <br /> '''Jacob's-ladder'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Used here as &quot;a marine ladder of rope or chain with wooden or iron rungs&quot; (Webster's Third New International Dictionary, Unabridged) but is suggestive of Jacob's ladder in Genesis:<br /> <br /> 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)<br /> <br /> ==Page 15==<br /> <br /> '''ukulelist'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Ukuleles also appear in ''Gravity's Rainbow'' and ''Vineland''. According to Jules Siegel's article, &quot;Who is Thomas Pynchon, and why did he take off with my wife?&quot;, Pynchon himself played the ukulele in college.<br /> <br /> '''Beaufort Scale'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Developed 1805.<br /> <br /> ==Page 17==<br /> <br /> '''cubeb'''&lt;br /&gt;<br /> 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 a catarrh remedy. The oil is used medicinally and also in soap manufacture. The masticated roots of kava, ''P. methysticum,'' widely grown in its native Pacific islands, are made into a beverage called kavakava, which contains soporific alkaloids. It is an integral part of religious and social life there. A preparation of kava for commerce, also called kavakava, is sold widely as an herbal remedy for anxiety and insomnia. -- From [http://columbia.thefreedictionary.com/pepper The Free Dictionary] Also appears in ''Gravity's Rainbow,'' page 118.<br /> <br /> '''&quot;...goldurn Keeley Cure&quot;'''&lt;br /&gt;<br /> A treatment for alcohol, nicotine and narcotic addiction involving injections of &quot;bichloride&quot; or &quot;double chloride&quot; of gold, and also known as the &quot;gold cure&quot;. Named for Dr. Leslie E. Keeley, who opened the first of many Keeley Institutes in 1879.<br /> <br /> ==Page 18==<br /> <br /> '''headgear'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Description vaguely reminiscent of &quot;Madame Bovary&quot;. [http://robotwisdom.com/flaubert/bovary/bovary1.html [notes]]<br /> <br /> '''eclipse green'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Apparently an actual shade. [http://encyclopedia.jrank.org/DIO_DRO/DIRECT.html [cite]]<br /> <br /> '''A.C.'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Athletic Club.<br /> <br /> '''(&quot;Penny&quot;) Black'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> The first postage stamp (1840) [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Penny_Black [Wikipedia]]<br /> <br /> '''Tzigane'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Meaning &quot;gypsy&quot;. Also a piece by Ravel. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tzigane_(Ravel) [Wikipedia]]<br /> <br /> '''Egypt'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Or Little Egypt. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Little_Egypt_(region) [Wikipedia]]<br /> <br /> ==Page 22==<br /> <br /> '''Isandhlwana'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> 1879 battle. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Isandhlwana [Wikipedia]]<br /> <br /> ==Page 23==<br /> <br /> '''Tarahumara'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Indian tribe of Northern New Mexico, in the Sierra Madres; [[Tarahumare_Indians|About the Tarahumara]]. See also page 388ff. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tarahumara [Wikipedia]]<br /> <br /> ==Page 24==<br /> <br /> '''the curse of Scotland'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Dates from 1710. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Curse_of_Scotland [Wikipedia]]<br /> <br /> '''Cracker Jack'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Introduced at 1893 Expo. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cracker_Jack [Wikipedia]]<br /> <br /> '''New Levee district'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Chicago's redlight district c1890. [http://www.ipsn.org/genesis.htm [cite]]<br /> <br /> '''Epworth League'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> A Methodist youth organization founded in 1889. [http://www.southernmethodistchurch.org/id48.htm [cite]]<br /> <br /> ==Page 25==<br /> <br /> '''Haymarket bomb'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> 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 &quot;a bomb-throwing anarchist.&quot; 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].<br /> <br /> '''duck soup'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Meaning &quot;an easy task,&quot; but also the name of a Marx Bros. movie. Perhaps relevant, given the cameo by Groucho promised on the book sleeve.<br /> <br /> ==Annotation Index==<br /> {{ATD PbP}}</div>

MKOHUT https://against-the-day.pynchonwiki.com/wiki/index.php?title=C&diff=14153 2007-10-28T03:40:49Z

<p>MKOHUT: </p> <hr /> <div>'''Calderara, Mario (1879-1944)'''&lt;br /&gt;<br /> 912; Italian ace pilot designing his own machine for airshows in Brescia; [http://www.earlyaviators.com/ecaldera.htm Early Aviators website]<br /> <br /> '''California Peg'''&lt;br /&gt;<br /> 303; ''sous-ma&amp;icirc;tresse'' of the Silver Orchid in Telluride;<br /> <br /> '''''camera lucida'''''&lt;br /&gt;<br /> 141; A camera lucida is an optical device used as a drawing aid by artists. It was patented in 1806 by William Hyde Wollaston; [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Camera_lucida Wikipedia entry]<br /> <br /> '''Camp, Walter (1859-1925)'''&lt;br /&gt;<br /> 159; sports writer and football coach known as the &quot;Father of American Football&quot;. Along with John Heisman, Amos Alonzo Stagg, and Glenn Scobey Warner, and George Halas, Camp was one of the most significant person in the history of American football. He attended Yale from 1876-1890; [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Walter_Camp Wikipedia entry]<br /> <br /> '''Campanile'''&lt;br /&gt;<br /> 257; St. Mark's Campanile is the bell tower of St Mark's Basilica in Venice, located in the square (piazza) of the same name. On July 14, 1902, the campanile collapsed completely, also demolishing the logetta. Remarkably no one was killed, except for the caretaker's cat; 454; [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/St_Mark%27s_Campanile Wikipedia entry]<br /> <br /> '''Campas, Don Emilio'''&lt;br /&gt;<br /> 984; &quot;taking some people south [in Mexico]&quot;<br /> <br /> '''Campbell-Bannerman, Sir Henry (1836-1908)'''&lt;br /&gt;<br /> 448; British Liberal statesman who served as Prime Minister from December 5, 1905 until resigning due to ill health on April 3, 1908. No previous First Lord of the Treasury had been officially called &quot;Prime Minister&quot;; this term only came into official usage after he took office; [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Henry_Campbell-Bannerman Wikipedia entry]<br /> <br /> '''Canaletto (1697-1768)'''&lt;br /&gt;<br /> 576; Giovanni Antonio Canale, better known as Canaletto, was a Venetian artist famous for his landscapes, or ''vedute'' of Venice. He was a son of the painter Bernardo Canale, hence his nickname Canaletto. His nephew Bernardo Bellotto was also a landscape painter; he sometimes used the name of Canaletto to further his own career; [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Canaletto Wikipedia entry]<br /> <br /> '''Candlebrow, Mr. Gideon'''&lt;br /&gt;<br /> 406; &quot;of Grossdale, Illinois, who had made his bundle back during the great Lard Scandal of the '80s&quot; who subsidized the yearly Candlebrow Conferences at Candelbrow U.<br /> <br /> '''Candlebrow University'''&lt;br /&gt;<br /> 130, Dr Vormance on sabbatical; 405; &quot;institute of higher learning in the heartland&quot;; 451;<br /> <br /> [[image:ex-voti-isernia.jpg|thumb|175px|''Ex Voti'' of Wax, from Isernia|right]]What ''is'' a &quot;candlebrow&quot;? Consider those [[St. Cosmo|phallic ''ex voti'' candles offered up to St. Cosmo]]. The head of the candle-phallus, brow shaped, sits atop the cylindrical candle-shaft and is, metaphorically, the candle's brow. And, natch, Gideon Candlebrow made the bucks necessary to fund Candlebrow U. with the miracle product &quot;Smegmo,&quot; the &quot;Messiah of kitchen fats&quot; &amp;#151; and we all know what [http://www.google.com/search?q=define%3Asmegma&amp;start=0&amp;ie=utf-8&amp;oe=utf-8&amp;client=firefox-a&amp;rls=org.mozilla:en-US:official smegma] is...<br /> <br /> Pynchon consistently calls it Candlebrow '''U.''' &amp;#151; instead of simply Candlebrow or Candlebrow University &amp;#151; because the letter's ''shape'', like the inverted-vagina shape of the Tetractys, echoes its phallic connotation. Pynchon similarly emphasizes the phallic by using &quot;Dick&quot; Counterfly (''with'' the quotes) instead of simply Dick. <br /> <br /> Or, heck, maybe it's just Pynchon's oblique way of saying &quot;fuck you&quot;...<br /> <br /> And, of course, this is all connected with how [[St. Cosmo|that Randy St. Cosmo]] got his name...<br /> <br /> '''Canon City'''&lt;br /&gt;<br /> 261; site of the Colorado State Penitentiary <br /> <br /> '''Canteloube, Marie-Joseph (1879-1957)'''&lt;br /&gt;<br /> 941; a French composer, Canteloube was born in Annonay in the Ardèche, and died at Grigny in Essonne (a part of the Auvergne region.) He is best known for his collection of orchestrated folk songs from the Auvergne region, ''Chants d’Auvergne'' (&quot;Songs of the Auvergne&quot;). [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Joseph_Canteloube Wikipedia entry]<br /> <br /> '''Cantor, Georg (1845-1918)'''&lt;br /&gt;<br /> 250; 593-94; German mathematician who is best known as the creator of set theory. Cantor established the importance of one-to-one correspondence between sets, defined infinite and well-ordered sets, and proved that the real numbers are &quot;more numerous&quot; than the natural numbers. In fact, Cantor's theorem implies the existence of an &quot;infinity of infinities.&quot; He defined the cardinal and ordinal numbers, and their arithmetic. Cantor's work is of great philosophical interest, a fact of which he was well aware. After his father's death in 1863, Cantor shifted his studies to the University of Berlin, attending lectures by Weierstrass, Kummer, and Kronecker, and befriending his fellow student Hermann Schwarz. He spent a summer at the University of Göttingen, then and later a very important center for mathematical research. In 1867, Berlin granted him the Ph.D. for a thesis on number theory, De aequationibus secundi gradus indeterminatis. After teaching one year in a Berlin girls' school, Cantor took up a position at the University of Halle, where he spent his entire career; &quot;the ''Beast of Halle''&quot; 624;<br /> <br /> '''Capitalism'''&lt;br /&gt;<br /> 79; and modern chemistry; and the Tsar, 83; 147; collapse of, 415; 419; &quot;mills of Capital,&quot; 455; &quot;If it doesn't work with gold, the next step will be lead&quot; 618; [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Capitalism Wikipedia entry]<br /> <br /> '''Capsheaf'''&lt;br /&gt;<br /> 492; pal of Cyprian Latewood<br /> <br /> '''Capunizer'''&lt;br /&gt;<br /> 698; a &quot;caponizer&quot; would be a castrator;<br /> <br /> '''Carnal, Reverend Lube'''&lt;br /&gt;<br /> 210; &quot;of the Second Lutheran (Missouri Synod) Church&quot;<br /> <br /> '''Carnegie, Andrew (1835-1919)'''&lt;br /&gt;<br /> 734; Andrew Carnegie (November 25, 1835 – August 11, 1919) was a Scottish-American businessman, a major and widely respected philanthropist, and the founder of the Carnegie Steel Company which later became U.S. Steel. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Andrew_Carnegie Wikipedia entry]<br /> <br /> '''Carnesalve'''&lt;br /&gt;<br /> 880; &quot;the secret counter-Carnevale&quot;;<br /> <br /> '''carnival theory'''&lt;br /&gt;<br /> 184-185;<br /> <br /> '''Cartesian'''&lt;br /&gt;<br /> [[ATD-D#descarte|See Descarte, Ren&amp;eacute;]]<br /> <br /> '''Case Institute'''&lt;br /&gt;<br /> 58; in Cleveland<br /> <br /> '''Casas Grandes'''&lt;br /&gt;<br /> 923; Casas Grandes (or Paquimé) was a large, influential capital city of the Casas Grandes polity in the state of Chihuahua, northern Mexico (very close to the southern borders of Arizona and New Mexico), considered the third great regional state (the others are Aztec and Toltec) of the American southwest, from about AD 1150-1450. The site of Paquimé is also the largest pueblo known in the US southwest and Mexico, including more than 2000 rooms. [[Casas Grandes|More about Casas Grandes]]<br /> <br /> '''Ca' Spongiatosta'''&lt;br /&gt;<br /> 728; where Dally Rideout is boarding in Rome;<br /> <br /> '''Cassidy, Butch (1866-1908?)'''&lt;br /&gt;<br /> 172; a notorious train and bank robber.; 180; [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Butch_Cassidy Wikipedia entry]<br /> <br /> '''Cathedral of the Prefiguration'''&lt;br /&gt;<br /> 153;<br /> <br /> '''Cavi'''&lt;br /&gt;<br /> 758; &quot;ate the sausage at Kabul&quot;;<br /> <br /> '''Celluloid'''&lt;br /&gt;<br /> 86; a thermoplastic compound of cellulose nitrate and camphor, originally developed and patented by [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Wesley_Hyatt John Wesley Hyatt] as a substitute for ivory in billiard balls. It was later used as the film base for photosensitive emulsion, seminal in the use of photographic plates and especially in motion pictures. Nowadays, it is found principally in ping-pong balls and in some guitar (perhaps also ukelele?) picks and pickguards. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Celluloid Wikipedia entry]; 103; 570;<br /> <br /> '''Center of the Earth'''&lt;br /&gt;<br /> 41; [[G#gravity|See also '''Gravity''']]<br /> <br /> '''C.F.I. Office'''&lt;br /&gt;<br /> 1004; Colorado Fuel and Iron; The Colorado Fuel and Iron (CF&amp;I) steel mill on the south side of town was the main industry in Pueblo, Colorado for most of its history. Over the course of its history, the company has had several major labor disputes. The most famous of these culminated in the famous Ludlow Massacre at one of its coal mines in 1914; [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Colorado_Fuel_and_Iron Wikipedia entry]<br /> <br /> '''Chandrasekhar, O.D.'''&lt;br /&gt;<br /> 63; from Bombay, India; Perhaps a nod to Subrahmanyan Chandrasekhar (1910-1995), an Indian-American physicist, astrophysicist and mathematician, known to the world as Chandra, who was awarded the 1983 Nobel Prize in Physics. He calculated and discovered the Chandrasekhar Limit which is the maximum mass possible for a white dwarf star (one of the end stages of stars that have exhausted their fuel) supported by electron degeneracy pressure, and is approximately 3 × 1030 kg, around 1.44 times the mass of the Sun.<br /> The initials O.D.C. refer to the novel &quot;2001: A space odyssey&quot; by Arthur C. Clarke, where [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dr._Chandra Chandra] is the inventor of the HAL computer system.<br /> In ATD p. 63 O.D.Chandrasekhar mentions akasa as the solution for the problems the aetherists have discussing implications of the Michelson-Morley experiment, akasa referring to [http://ignca.nic.in/ps_05013.htm space]in hindu cosmology ,alas O.D. is proposing space itself here as the medium for light.<br /> <br /> '''Chaos Theory/Fractals'''&lt;br /&gt;<br /> 961; self-similarity and death;<br /> <br /> '''charabanc'''&lt;br /&gt;<br /> 53; bus: a vehicle carrying many passengers; used for public transport; [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Charabanc Wikipedia entry]<br /> <br /> '''Chase, Ed'''&lt;br /&gt;<br /> 176; &quot;boss of the redlight district&quot; in Denver; 465;<br /> <br /> '''Chase, John'''&lt;br /&gt;<br /> 1007; &quot;Colorado Fuel and Iron stooge&quot;<br /> <br /> '''Chavalito, Se&amp;ntilde;or'''&lt;br /&gt;<br /> 387; what El &amp;Ntilde;ato calls Frank<br /> <br /> '''Cheesely, Thrapston III'''&lt;br /&gt;<br /> 367; Reef Traverse's alter-ego - &quot;East Coast nerve case&quot;<br /> <br /> '''Chegomistas'''&lt;br /&gt;<br /> 988; participants in the Chegomista Rebellion in Juchitan, Mexico, 1911-1912<br /> <br /> '''Chess'''&lt;br /&gt;<br /> 543; &quot;war in miniature&quot;; 558; 594; 689;<br /> <br /> &lt;div id=&quot;chicagofair&quot;&gt;&lt;/div&gt;'''Chicago World's Fair'''&lt;br /&gt;<br /> 21; held in Chicago in 1893 to celebrate the 400th anniversary of Columbus's &quot;discovery&quot; of America; eulogy, 56; 476; 503; [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/World%27s_Columbian_Exposition Wikipedia entry]<br /> <br /> '''Chinchito'''&lt;br /&gt;<br /> 350; &quot;jumped-up circus midget&quot; on the Bowery stage, at R. W. Vibe's party;<br /> <br /> '''Chinese Gong Effect'''&lt;br /&gt;<br /> 356;<br /> <br /> '''Chingiz'''&lt;br /&gt;<br /> 756; Prokladka's ''denshchik'';<br /> <br /> [[image:chini-vase.jpg|thumb|Chini Vase|100px|right]]'''Chini, Galileo (1873-1956)'''&lt;br /&gt;<br /> 867; italian painter and cheramist, was born in Florence, Italy. His style is grandiloquent and measured at the same time, between neo-Renaissance Symbolism, Decadentism and Art Deco. [http://www.tuscany-charming.it/en/culture/galileochini.asp] <br /> <br /> '''Chiquita'''&lt;br /&gt;<br /> 994; &quot;fandango girl&quot; in San Antonio; a fandango is a provocative Spanish courtship dance in triple time; performed by a man and a woman playing castanets; a fandango girl is also, I believe, a dancing girl at a fandango which is a Mexican celebration or party;<br /> <br /> &lt;div id=&quot;chirpingdon-groin&quot;&gt;&lt;/div&gt;'''Chirpingdon-Groin, Ruperta (&quot;Pert&quot;)'''&lt;br /&gt;<br /> 367; &quot;touring English woman&quot; in Denver; in New Orleans, 368; in Austria, 656; levitation during performance of new work by Ralph Vaughan Williams, 896;<br /> <br /> &lt;div id=&quot;chisholm&quot;&gt;&lt;/div&gt;'''Chisholm, Grace'''&lt;br /&gt;<br /> 490; Grace Chisholm (1868-1944), an English mathematician. She went to Girton College, Cambridge in 1889 to study mathematics. Since no women were accepted to graduate schools in England, after graduation She went to the University of Göttingen to continue her mathematics education and received her PhD there in 1895. The following year she married '''William Young''' (1863-1942), one of her tutors at Girton and also a mathematician. (''romances with one's tutors à la . . .'') Grace Chisholm and Will Young formed a mathematical married partnetship of real significance. Husband and wife played a major role in set theory research. Between them they wrote 214 mathematical articles and several books, including one on geometry and one on set theory. [http://www.agnesscott.edu/LRIDDLE/WOMEN/young.htm Grace Chisholm] and [http://www-history.mcs.st-andrews.ac.uk/history/Biographies/Young.html William Young].<br /> <br /> '''chloral hydrate'''&lt;br /&gt;<br /> 621; drug of choice at University of Göttingen - ''Mickifests'' - chloralomania<br /> <br /> '''Chong'''&lt;br /&gt;<br /> 602; Theosophoid at Göttingen<br /> <br /> '''Christianity'''&lt;br /&gt;<br /> &quot;Christian faith,&quot; 334; &quot;Christmas-pudding controversy,&quot; 406; Genesis 14:10, 441; &quot;biblically lurid yellow-gray,&quot; 452; 453; born-again, 675; transfiguration of Christ, 960;<br /> <br /> '''Chthonica, Princess of Plutonia'''&lt;br /&gt;<br /> 117; chthonic = &quot;dwelling in or under the earth; also, pertaining to the underworld&quot;; <br /> Plutonia? Well, TNT and Plutonia are two &quot;alternate&quot; versions of DooM 2, i.e. they have the same story line as DooM 2, but completely different level designs, and some new music and textures; alternately, there's the Plutonia Dilemma: an eccentric trillionaire gathers 20 people together, and tells them that if one and only one of them sends him a telegram (reverse charges) by noon the next day, that person will receive a billion dollars. If he receives more than one telegram, or none at all, no-one will get any money, and cooperation between players is forbidden. In this situation, the superrational thing to do is to send a telegram with probability 1/20.<br /> <br /> '''Chuck'''&lt;br /&gt;<br /> 347; harpist at Smokefoot's<br /> <br /> &lt;div id=&quot;chums&quot;&gt;'''Chums of Chance'''&lt;/div&gt;<br /> 3; &quot;celebrated aeronautics club&quot;; 6, 7; 54; observing the impact of Tesla's Colorado experiments from the Indian Ocean, 107; intercepting the Vormance Expedition, 114-149; &quot;agents of ''extrahuman'' justice&quot; 215; in Murano, 243; retirement, 254; in the Arsenale battle with Padzy, 254; [[Campanile|toppling the Campanile]], 257; in New York City, 397; Upper Command (aka Hierarchy), 398, 407; at Candlebrow University, 407; &quot;You are not aware that each of your mission assignments is intended to prevent some attempt of our [the Trespassers] own to enter your time-regime?&quot; 415; infiltrated by Trespassers, 418; their &quot;Tesla machine&quot; 425; under the sand, 434; in Brussels, 548; recalled, in Venice, 575; witnessing Tunguska and Shambhala, 792; size of their airship (with ''Bol'shaia Igra'' takes one-fourth of the sky), 794; no longer work for the American government, 795; disaffiliated from The National Office, 1018; in Switzerland, 1026; on counter-Earth, 1021; rescue Vanderjuice, 1079;<br /> <br /> '''Chums of Chance books'''&lt;br /&gt;<br /> ''Chums of Chance and The Evil Halfwit'', 5; ''Chums of Chance and The Curse of the Great Kahuna'', 5; ''Chums of Chance at Krakatoa'', 6; ''Chums of Chance Search for Atlantis'', 6; ''Chums of Chance in Old Mexico'', 7; ''Chums of Chance and the Bowels of the Earth'', 117; ''The Chums of Chance and the Ice Pirates'', 123; ''The Chums of Chance Nearly Crash into the Kremlin'', 123; ''Chums of Chance at the Ends of the Earth'', read by Reef Traverse, 214; ''Chums of Chance and the Caged Women of Yokahama'', 411; ''Chums of Chance and the Wrath of the Yellow Fang'', 1019;<br /> <br /> '''Chunxton Crescent'''&lt;br /&gt;<br /> 219; where T.W.I.T. is headquarted<br /> :in that ambiguous stretch north of Hyde Park known then as Tyburnia, in a mansion attributed to Sir John Soane, which during its latest tenancy, dating roughly from the departure of Madam Blavatsky from the material plane, had become a resort for all manner of sandaled pilgrims, tweed-smocked visionaries, and devotees of the nut cutlet.<br /> <br /> A fictitious location. &quot;Crescent&quot; is a female symbol in many mythologies and cultures, and it reinforces T.W.I.T.'s association with the female sex.<br /> :The moon is seen as a female symbol, and was worshipped in ancient times as a powerful force. It is believed to be linked to the unconscious and our feminine side. The sacredness of the moon has been connected with the basic cyclic rhythms of life. The changing phases of the moon were linked to the death and rebirth seen in crops and the seasons, and also to the female monthly cycle that controls human fertility. The moon calendar is still important and many festivals exist around the lunar phases. [http://www.new-age.co.uk/moon-dates.htm]<br /> <br /> '''Cinema / Film'''&lt;br /&gt;<br /> &quot;Dreamtime Movy&quot; (theater), 450; and Time, 451; &quot;movie audience and crowds at tent-meetings,&quot; 450; 456-57;<br /> <br /> '''Circassian slave'''&lt;br/&gt;<br /> 797; &quot;in old Araby&quot;; possible reference to ''The Circassian Slave: or, The Sultan's Favorite'', a novella by Lieutenant Murray, 1851, the action of which takes place in Turkey, &quot;the world bordering on the Black Sea, the Sea of<br /> Marmora, and the Bosphorus&quot;; Circassian beauties were allegedly women of the Circassian people of the Caucasus mountain range in Circassia neighboring Ukraine and Georgia. A fairly extensive literary history suggests that Circassian women were unusually beautiful and spirited and very elegant and as such were desirable as slave concubines; [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Circassian_beauties Wikipedia entry]<br /> <br /> '''City'''&lt;br /&gt;<br /> &quot;mythic cities at the horizon,&quot; 394;<br /> <br /> '''Clarabella'''&lt;br /&gt;<br /> 249; Dally's doll<br /> <br /> '''Clementia, Sister'''&lt;br /&gt;<br /> 1007; with Stray in Ludlow<br /> <br /> '''Cleveland'''&lt;br /&gt;<br /> 455; <br /> <br /> '''Clifford'''&lt;br /&gt;<br /> 632; invisible<br /> <br /> '''climber'''&lt;br /&gt;<br /> 131; 167; &quot;cringers and&quot; 779; <br /> <br /> &lt;div id=&quot;vlado&quot;&gt;'''Clissan, Vlado'''&lt;/div&gt;<br /> 810; &quot;neo-Uskok chap&quot; in Trieste; looking after Yashmeen, 813; sex with Yashmeen, 815; entrusts Yashmeen with &quot;green schoolboy's copybook&quot; called ''The Book of the Masked'', 853;<br /> <br /> '''Clothilda'''&lt;br /&gt;<br /> 893; Ruperta Chirpingdon-Groin's four-year-old niece;<br /> <br /> '''Cobianchi, Mario (1885-1944)'''&lt;br /&gt;<br /> 912; Italian ace pilot [http://www.earlyaviators.com/ecobianc.htm Early Aviators Website]<br /> <br /> '''coconut-shy'''&lt;br /&gt;<br /> 806; A coconut shy (or coconut shie) is a traditional game frequently found as a sidestall at funfairs and fêtes. The game consists of throwing wooden balls at a row of coconuts balanced on posts. Typically a player buys three balls and wins each coconut successfully dislodged. In some cases other prizes may be won instead of the coconuts. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Coconut_shy Wikipedia entry]<br /> <br /> '''Coeur d'Alene'''&lt;br /&gt;<br /> 333; 362; 463;&lt;br /&gt;<br /> History of miners' disputes in:<br /> [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Coeur_d%27Alene_miners%27_dispute Wikipedia entry]&lt;br /&gt;<br /> <br /> '''Coffee'''&lt;br /&gt;<br /> 102; 103; 144; 235; 394; 464;<br /> <br /> '''Cold Harbor'''&lt;br /&gt;<br /> 101; 335;<br /> <br /> '''Cohen, The'''&lt;br /&gt;<br /> 720; [[G#grandcohen|See the Grand Cohen]]<br /> <br /> '''Coleman Smith, Pamela (1878-1951)'''&lt;br /&gt;<br /> 186;225; artist, illustrator, and writer best known for designing the Rider-Waite deck (also known as the Rider-Waite-Smith, Waite-Smith, Waite-Colman Smith or Rider deck) of tarot cards for Arthur Edward Waite in 1910. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pamela_Colman_Smith Wikipedia entry]<br /> <br /> &lt;div id=&quot;buffalo&quot;&gt;&lt;/div&gt;'''Cody, Buffalo Bill (1845-1917)'''&lt;br /&gt;<br /> 22; William Frederick &quot;Buffalo Bill&quot; Cody was an American soldier, buffalo hunter and showman. He was born in the American state of Iowa, near Le Claire. He was one of the most colorful figures of the Old West, and mostly famous for the shows he organized with cowboy themes; [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Buffalo_Bill Wikipedia entry]; 53;<br /> <br /> 718; Colney Hatch Lunatic Asylum (or Friern Hospital) was a hospital located in Colney Hatch in what is now the London Borough of Barnet. It was in operation from 1851 to 1993. At its height the asylum was home to 3,500 mental patients and had the longest corridor in Britain, and hence, its name was synonymous among Londoners with any mental institution. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Colney_Hatch_Lunatic_Asylum Wikipedia entry]<br /> <br /> '''Colonel, the'''&lt;br /&gt;<br /> 699; in Leopoldstadt, in the Jewish quarter north of the Prater, in Vienna; solicits Sado-Masochistic sex from Cyprian Latewood; 704; surveilled by the Russians, 711;<br /> <br /> '''Colonialism'''&lt;br /&gt;<br /> 527; in the Belgian Congo;<br /> <br /> '''color'''&lt;br /&gt;<br /> &quot;summer uniform of red-and-white striped blazer and trousers of sky-blue,&quot; &quot;'White City,'&quot; &quot;green,&quot; 3; &quot;yellow,&quot; 9; &quot;sepia,&quot; 10; &quot;eclipse green,&quot; 18; &quot;vivid magenta,&quot; 26; &quot;attractive little girl of four or five with flaming red hair&quot; (Dally), 27; &quot;orange phosphate,&quot; 47; &quot;flowers in bells and clusters, purple and white or yellow as butter,&quot; &quot;red berries,&quot; 70; &quot;Red Mountain Pass,&quot; 81; &quot;colorless,&quot; 109; &quot;pale blue radiance,&quot; 115; Northern Lights' &quot;heavenwide pulses of color,&quot; 121; &quot;red as a cursed ruby,&quot; &quot;Blue Ivory,&quot; 125; &quot;green ice,&quot; &quot;sheer green walls of ice, the greenness nearest the water,&quot; &quot;green and yellow,&quot; &quot;gray slatework,&quot; 127; &quot;vivid cream,&quot; &quot;Payne's gray and Naples yellow,&quot; &quot;an unfaded spectrum of tropical colors,&quot; 129; &quot;silver-gray,&quot; &quot;sky was more neutral-density gray than blue,&quot; &quot;shadowless green ... sea-green sea, the ice-green, glass-green sea,&quot; 134; &quot;seas more emerald,&quot; &quot;pale grasses, failing by a visible margin to be green,&quot; 137; &quot;glowing a different primary color,&quot; &quot;blue chalk-dust,&quot; 140; &quot;&quot;various colors and intensities,&quot; &quot;strange yellowish green,&quot; 141; &quot;yellowed glare,&quot; 142; &quot;red Zouave-style hats and trousers,&quot; &quot;fire-reddened light,&quot; 145; &quot;sombre brown landscapes of north Canada,&quot; 149; &quot;levels of gray,&quot; &quot;color, not the fashionable shades of daytime but blood reds, morgue yellows, poison greens,&quot; &quot;accuracy of colors,&quot; 153; &quot;an abstract array of moving multicolored lights against a blue, somehow maritime, darkness,&quot; 154; &quot;rust-red and yellowish,&quot; 155; &quot;rival school hues,&quot; 156; &quot;'crimson' is cognate with 'worm,'&quot; 157; 160; &quot;colors of doubtful taste,&quot; &quot;Scarsdale's in gray tones, Edwarda's in mauve. Puce sometimes,&quot; 162; &quot;screamin Red threat,&quot; &quot;a range of colors,&quot; 182; &quot;red liquor,&quot; 196; &quot;red adobe towers,&quot; 198; &quot;valley fog the same color as the snow,&quot; &quot;luminous shades of gray,&quot; 200; &quot;country was so red that the sagebrush appeared to float above it as in a stereopticon view, almost colorless, pale as a cloud, luminous day and night,&quot; 209; &quot;blue laws,&quot; 210; &quot;disturbing ''colors'',&quot; &quot;daytime blue,&quot; &quot;aquamarine and mauve,&quot; 211; &quot;dark, blood-red wall,&quot; 214; &quot;mossy greens,&quot; &quot;the Order of the Golden Dawn;&quot; 219; &quot;mauve,&quot; &quot;pale blue&quot;, 226; &quot;silver-streaked,&quot; 227; &quot;'pinky,'&quot; 233; &quot;queer purple liquid that Lew could swear was glowing,&quot;,&quot; 234; &quot;violet dusk,&quot; &quot;luminous green liquids,&quot; 235; &quot;purple,&quot; &quot;logwood,&quot; &quot;vivid, unmistakable turquoise,&quot; 236; &quot;red-clay chimneys,&quot; &quot;ancient sepia...more optimistic red,&quot; 243; &quot;'Purple Thanksgiving,'&quot; &quot;white and red vini frizzanti,&quot; &quot;'Red blood,'&quot; 247; &quot;pale blue albatross cloth,&quot; 266; &quot;Sloat was partial to the color green,&quot; &quot;shade of green,&quot; &quot;'never could see green, bein a mauve man myself,'&quot; &quot;blood-red dirt,&quot; 269; &quot;vivid red,&quot; 297; &quot;multicolored flashes of light,&quot; 322; &quot;lighter colors,&quot; 337; &quot;aquamarine,&quot; 340; &quot;suit of acid magenta and saffron&quot; 342; Erlys? 347; &quot;wine-colored plush,&quot; &quot;orange Tiffany orchid brooches vivid as flames,&quot; 348; &quot;Congo violet&quot; 349; &quot;gray,&quot; &quot;Red&quot; (nickname for Dally), &quot;blindingly pomaded gray hair and a gigantic emerald ring on his pinky,&quot; 350; &quot;perfect black velvet and multicolored silk brocade,&quot; 351; &quot;Sunsets tended to be purple firestorms, with blinding orange streaks running through,&quot; 364; &quot;Madame Aubergine,&quot; &quot;scarlet&quot;, 367; &quot;silver and lapis,&quot; 368; &quot;the Red Onion,&quot; &quot;the red-light district,&quot; 371; &quot;green volcanic islands,&quot; 372; &quot;red-brown mountainside,&quot; 377; &quot;brown,&quot; 380; &quot;silver,&quot; 381; &quot;earth tones,&quot; 384; &quot;indigo,&quot; 386; &quot;red bandannas,&quot; 390; &quot;peculiar colors,&quot; 392; &quot;whirling colors including magenta, low-brilliancy turquoise, and a peculiarly pale, wriggling violet,&quot; 394; &quot;checked in indigo and custard yellow, topped off with pearl-gray bowlers,&quot; 399; &quot;bluish electric lights blooming,&quot; 401; &quot;violent blue sparks,&quot; 402; &quot;color-coded tickets of identification,&quot; &quot;patriotically colored Smegmo crock,&quot; &quot;dark brown light,&quot; 408; &quot;reddish liquid,&quot; &quot;magenta-and-green aura,&quot; 410; &quot;apricot and aquamarine,&quot; 412; &quot;Chinese red and indigo,&quot; 418; &quot;sunny verdigris campus,&quot; &quot;green mist of budding,&quot; &quot;closely maintained white mustache and gold teeth,&quot; &quot;red sweatshirts bearing the golden crest of the Academy,&quot; 421; &quot;green fields,&quot; &quot;moistly violet,&quot; 422; &quot;'don't be blue, pal,'&quot; 424; &quot;succession of colors,&quot; 434; &quot;red-brown color,&quot; 439; &quot;unearthly green,&quot; 443; &quot;shiny green suit,&quot; 445; &quot;yellow,&quot; &quot;lemon-white neon,&quot; &quot;purple clover,&quot; 451; &quot;biblically lurid yellow-gray,&quot; 452; yellowish, 455; &quot;red whiskey,&quot; 462; &quot;blue Excelsior,&quot; 464; heliotrope, 493; green, white and mauve, 501; Coronation Red, 497; claret and blue, 503; indigoes and aquas, 526; Chinese red, 526; blue, taupe, Chinese red, 532; &quot;analine teal and a bright though sour orange&quot; 533; 537; pale violet, 544; taupe and damaged rose, 551; 568; duck-green, 574; Jesus, 580; 584; 585; orpiment yellow, scarlet vermilion, N&amp;uuml;rnberg violet, 586; 608; Foley Walker's suit, 619; 625; green and magenta, 633; 689; 715; 742; 795; 796; &quot;seaweed-green suit&quot; 833; &quot;black that rests at the heart of all color&quot; 835; 846; &quot;some shade of heliotrope&quot; 867; primaries, 924; fuschia, 1042; acid-yellow, 1073;<br /> <br /> :See also, N. Katherine Hayles and Mary B. Eiser's article, &quot;Coloring ''Gravity's Rainbow'',&quot; originally published in ''Pynchon Notes'', Vol. 16, available as a free, downloadable .pdf file [http://www.ham.muohio.edu/~krafftjm/pn/pn016.pdf here].<br /> <br /> '''Colorado'''&lt;br /&gt;<br /> 83; commenting on its shape;<br /> <br /> '''Columbian Exposition of 1893'''&lt;br /&gt;<br /> 3; See [[#chicagofair|Chicago World's Fair]]; 10; 397;<br /> <br /> '''Combermere Bridge'''&lt;br /&gt;<br /> 758; The Combermere Bridge on the mall is the oldest British landmark of [[S#simla|Shimla]]. In the words of Captain Mundy, A.D.C. to lord Combermere (1928),&quot;Lord Combermere amused himself, and benefitted the public by superintending the formation of a fine, broad,level road round the mount Jakhu, [Combermere Bridge] about three miles in length...worked entirely by Hill men...and skillfully done..and when finished, will be a great acquisition to the loungers of Shimla. This is the present Jakhu round, a favourite woody walk around JakhuHill.&quot; Across a deep ravine, a quarter of mile from the town, his lordship erected neat ''Sangah'', or a mountain bridge of pines; and under it a capacious stone tank was constructed to obviate the great scarcity of water.&quot; The bridge still bears the name of Combermere and it was the first step towards the improvement of Simla. [http://hpshimla.nic.in/sml_heritage.htm]<br /> <br /> '''Commandant of Earthly Days'''&lt;br /&gt;<br /> 17; a &quot;potent though invisible&quot; entity that dictates human behavior<br /> <br /> '''Committee of Union and Progress (C.U.P.)'''&lt;br /&gt;<br /> 911; a political organization, established by Bahaeddin Sakir initially among Young Turks in 1906, during the dissolution period of the Ottoman Empire. It came to power between 1908 and 1918. At the end of World War I most of its members were court-martialled by the sultan Mehmed VI and imprisoned. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Committee_of_Union_and_Progress Wikipedia entry]<br /> <br /> '''&quot;commonwealth of toil that is to be&quot;'''&lt;br /&gt;<br /> 361; from the song &quot;The Commonwealth of Toil&quot; written by Ralph Chaplin in 1905 and included in the International Workers of the World Little Red Songbook - [[The Commonwealth of Toil|The Lyrics...]] [http://staff.science.uva.nl/~sgenseme/music/RedPlanet/commonwe.mp3 A recording...]<br /> <br /> '''Compagnie Internationale des Wagons-Lits'''&lt;br /&gt;<br /> 567; Carlson Wagonlit is a chain of travel agencies. The company was founded in Belgium in 1876 by Georges Nagelmackers as the Compagnie Internationale des Wagons-Lits (the International Sleeping-Car Company). Originally, the company deployed sleeping- and dining-cars in Europe. In 1883 the company started with a service to Constantinople, now Istanbul in Turkey, called the Orient Express; [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Compagnie_Internationale_des_Wagons-Lits Wikipedia entry]<br /> <br /> '''Compassionate'''&lt;br /&gt;<br /> 749; &quot;a great skyborne town, a small band of serious young people, dedicated to resisting death and tyranny&quot; (reminiscent of The Counterforce from [http://gravitys-rainbow.pynchonwiki.com/wiki/ ''Gravity's Rainbow''], and describing the Chums of Change?; in Corfu, 973;<br /> <br /> '''''Comptes Rendus'''''&lt;br /&gt;<br /> 532; ''Comptes rendus de l'Académie des sciences'', or simply ''Comptes rendus'', is a French scientific journal which has been published since 1835. It is the proceedings of the French Academy of Sciences. It is currently split into seven sections, published by the Academy and Elsevier: Mathematique, Mecanique, Physique, Geoscience, Palevol, Chimie, and Biologies; [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Comptes_rendus Wikipedia entry]<br /> <br /> '''Cone Amor'''&lt;br /&gt;<br /> 468; Mayva's ice-cream parlor, a quite common name for ice-cream parlors, as it turns out, being a pun on ''con amor'', Spanish for &quot;with love&quot;...<br /> <br /> '''Consequential Pictures'''&lt;br /&gt;<br /> 1053; in Los Angeles where Deuce Kindred works<br /> <br /> '''Consuelo'''&lt;br /&gt;<br /> 161; ''bandida'' in ''Mischief in Mexico''<br /> <br /> '''Control'''&lt;br /&gt;<br /> 34; Rational Systems of; <br /> <br /> '''Cooper'''&lt;br /&gt;<br /> 202; at Stray's, courting Sage<br /> <br /> '''Cosmas of Jerusalem (8th Century CE)'''&lt;br /&gt;<br /> 960; ''canone'' of; Saint Cosmas (8th century) was a hymn-writer of the Eastern Church and the foster-brother of Saint John of Damascus. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Saint_Cosmas Wikipedia entry]<br /> <br /> '''Counter'''&lt;br /&gt;<br /> &quot;counterfactual,&quot; 9; Igor Padzhitnoff, &quot;Randolph's mysterious Russian counterpart,&quot; 123; &quot;counterfactual,&quot; 304; &quot;counter-Crusade,&quot; 437; &quot;counter-time,&quot; 454; &quot;counter-City,&quot; 585; <br /> :See also '''Counterfly, Chick''' and '''Counterfly, Richard &quot;Dick,&quot;''' below.<br /> <br /> '''Counterfly, Chick'''&lt;br /&gt;<br /> 4; member of the Chums of Chance; the name of Gravity’s Rainbow’s dissipational rocket-eroticist, Tyrone Slothrop, anagramatically appears in the letters “Counterfly” and his first spoken sentence in the book, in which he calls fellow Chum Miles a “Slob-footed chap,” &lt;ref&gt;[http://blog.brian-fitzgerald.net?p=156 Brian Fitzgerald]&lt;/ref&gt;108; now &quot;Dr. Counterfly&quot;, 139; <br /> <br /> '''Counterfly, Richard &quot;Dick&quot;'''&lt;br /&gt;<br /> 7; father of Chick Counterfly; 17; 1034;<br /> <br /> '''Counterfly, Treacle'''&lt;br /&gt;<br /> 1034; Dick's third wife;<br /> <br /> '''couple-three'''&lt;br /&gt;<br /> 193; a mid-Southern US colloquialism meaning more than two but less than &quot;a few&quot;; 206; 511;<br /> <br /> '''''Courage'', Camille'''&lt;br /&gt;<br /> 345; &quot;Courage Camille&quot; is a game in which three players are required. Two of the players face each other and lock hands. The third person stiffens and falls backwards into their arms. This should be done several times, with the person falling farther backwards each time (the players locking their hands should lower them each time). Other players can then try.<br /> <br /> Also, a line masterfully delivered by Bob Hope as radio personality and craven muckraker Lawrence Lawrence Lawrence in the 1940 horror-comedy [http://eric.b.olsen.tripod.com/break.html ''The Ghost Breakers''].<br /> <br /> '''Cowboy poets'''&lt;br /&gt;<br /> 463<br /> <br /> '''Cowboy's Christmas'''&lt;br /&gt;<br /> 81; a loose term that describes the time that begins (unofficially) after the Reno Rodeo in Nevada and runs through the 4th of July weekend (or through most of July, depending on who you ask). It's affectionately called Christmas Time by cowboys and cowgirls because of all the rodeos taking place (34 or so just in the holiday week!) and the tremendous amount of money to be won. It's extremely important in the quest to make it to the Wrangler NFR, because a good run during Cowboy Christmas can potentially make or break a cowboys chances to enter the top 15 at years end. [http://rodeo.about.com/od/faqs/f/cowboychristmas.htm]<br /> <br /> '''Coxey's Army'''&lt;br /&gt;<br /> 79; Coxey's Army was a protest march by unemployed workers from the United States, led by the populist Jacob Coxey. They marched on Washington D.C. in 1894, the second year of a four-year economic depression that was the worst in United States history to that time. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Coxey's_Army Wikipedia entry]<br /> <br /> '''Crack of Doom'''&lt;br /&gt;<br /> 12; The phrase at the crack of doom, meaning &quot;at the striking of the fateful hour&quot;, is derived from Macbeth by William Shakespeare and has entered common usage. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Crack_of_Doom Wikipedia entry]<br /> <br /> '''Cracker Jack'''&lt;br /&gt;<br /> 24; caramel-coated popcorn and peanuts. Trademarked to describe this kind of popcorn from the 1890's.&quot;Jack&quot; has been used for &quot;man&quot; since the mid-1500s, as in &quot;jack-of-all-trades.&quot; &quot;Crackerjack&quot; entered English first as a noun referring to &quot;a person or thing of marked excellence,&quot; then as an adjective.&lt;br&gt; <br /> In 1893, according to legend, a unique popcorn, peanuts and molasses confection which was the forerunner to Cracker Jack caramel coated popcorn and peanuts was introduced by F.W. Rueckheim and Brother, at the World's Columbian Exposition, Chicago's first World's Fair. [http://www.crackerjack.com/history.php] and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cracker_Jack]<br /> <br /> '''Crayke'''&lt;br /&gt;<br /> 492; fond of Shetland ponies<br /> <br /> '''Creation'''<br /> 457; <br /> <br /> '''Creede'''&lt;br /&gt;<br /> 650;<br /> <br /> '''Cricket'''&lt;br /&gt;<br /> Read Peter Vernon's excellent paper, [[Cricket_in_Against_the_Day|&quot;It’s Just Not Cricket: Cricket as Metaphor in Thomas Pynchon’s ''Against the Day''&quot;]]<br /> <br /> '''Cripple Creek'''&lt;br /&gt;<br /> 82; in Colorado - strike for an 8-hour day;<br /> <br /> '''Crookes, Sir William (1832-1919)'''&lt;br /&gt;<br /> 228; English chemist and physicist. Sir William attended the Royal College of Chemistry, in London, and worked on spectroscopy; [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/William_Crookes Wikipedia entry]<br /> <br /> '''Crouchmas, Clive'''&lt;br /&gt;<br /> 228; T.W.I.T. neophyte, consultant for Renfrew and Werfner, 237; 899; suitor of Dally's in London; in Caporetta, 1067;<br /> <br /> '''Crusades'''&lt;br /&gt;<br /> 436; counter-Crusades, 437;<br /> <br /> '''Crystal'''&lt;br /&gt;<br /> 473; 565;<br /> <br /> '''cubeb'''&lt;br /&gt;<br /> 17; 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 a catarrh remedy. The oil is used medicinally and also in soap manufacture. The masticated roots of kava, P. methysticum, widely grown in its native Pacific islands, are made into a beverage called kavakava, which contains soporific alkaloids. It is an integral part of religious and social life there. A preparation of kava for commerce, also called kavakava, is sold widely as an herbal remedy for anxiety and insomnia. From [http://columbia.thefreedictionary.com/pepper The Free Dictionary]<br /> <br /> And let us not forget, part of the Disgusting English Candy Drill: &quot;turns out to be luscious pepsin–flavored nougat, chock–full of tangy candied cubeb berries, and a chewy camphor–gum center&quot; (''GR'', 118)<br /> <br /> [[image:cucujo-beetle.jpg|thumb|125px|Cucujo Beetle|right]]'''''cucuji'''''&lt;br /&gt;<br /> 991; The cucujo &amp;#151; ''Pyrophorus noctilucus'' (Coleoptera: Elateridae) &amp;#151; is a very large bioluminescent insect, with a brightness of 45 millilamberts. This insect is also known as the Jamaican Click Beetle and the “Cucujo” or fire beetle of the Mexico and the West Indies.<br /> <br /> '''Culpepper, Madge and Mia'''&lt;br /&gt;<br /> 60; worked at the Hamilton Street establishment of Nelly Lowry; 66;<br /> <br /> '''Curly'''&lt;br /&gt;<br /> 183; Waiter at a Chicago hotel;<br /> <br /> '''Custozza'''&lt;br /&gt;<br /> 661; the summer of;<br /> <br /> '''Cyclomite'''&lt;br /&gt;<br /> 182-185; combo of cyclopropane plus dynamite, and psychotropic; &quot;reality-modifying explosive&quot; 233; 683;[[Cyclomite|DISCUSSION]]<br /> <br /> '''Cyprienne'''&lt;br /&gt;<br /> 815; Yashmeen's cat<br /> <br /> '''Czolgosz, Leon (1873-1901)'''&lt;br /&gt;<br /> 372; assassin of President McKinley; <br /> Leon Czolgosz As a young man, Leon Czolgosz worked in a wire mill in Cleveland, Ohio. He was a good employee, retaining his job even through an economic depression. In 1898 he suffered a breakdown, and returned to the family farm. He made trips to hear the anarchist leader Emma Goldman speak, and approached several anarchist groups, who rebuffed him. In 1901, Czolgosz moved to Buffalo, New York, site of the Pan American Exposition. There, in a receiving line on September 6, he shot President McKinley two times. Czolgosz &amp;#151; who gave his name to police as Fred Nieman, or Fred Nobody &amp;#151; later stated in reference to his decision to assassinate McKinley, &quot;I didn't believe one man should have so much service, and another man have none.&quot; After a brief trial, Czolgosz was convicted. He was executed on October 29, 1901. <br /> <br /> ==References==<br /> &lt;references /&gt;<br /> <br /> {{ATD_Alpha_Nav}}</div>

MKOHUT https://against-the-day.pynchonwiki.com/wiki/index.php?title=ATD_1-25&diff=14146 2007-10-24T14:27:30Z

<p>MKOHUT: /* Page 6 */</p> <hr /> <div>:'''&lt;big&gt;Please keep these annotations SPOILER-FREE by not revealing information from later pages in the novel.&lt;/big&gt;'''&lt;p&gt;&lt;br&gt;<br /> <br /> ==cover text==<br /> The black text and its drop shadows are in different typefaces. It may be worth noting, from a conceptual point of view, that we can infer from the angle of the drop shadows that the light source is any individual holding the book—that is, the reader or a potential reader.<br /> <br /> ==cover seal==<br /> The seal appears to be written in Tibetan language, according to somebody who posts regularly to Pynchon-l under the name &quot;Ya Sam&quot;, who reports:<br /> <br /> I contacted the Tibetan Cultural Centre with the request to translate <br /> the mysterious legend on the AtD seal. They were kind enough to forward my <br /> request to the Tibetan tranlsator Tenzin Namgyal to whose generosity we <br /> owe the solution of one more ATD related mystery.<br /> <br /> It is the Tibetan language, alright, and it means ...... Tibetan <br /> Government Chamber of Commerce.<br /> <br /> Read their response below:<br /> <br /> :Dear Ya Sam,&lt;br /&gt;<br /> :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?<br /> <br /> :Best wishes,<br /> <br /> :Sandy Belth&lt;br /&gt;<br /> :Tibetan Cultural Center<br /> <br /> Also of interest: the coin bears a striking 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:<br /> <br /> :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, &quot;The Doubloon&quot;)<br /> <br /> ==copyright page==<br /> 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 &quot;Penguin Press&quot; as the publisher, as could be expected, and it seems likely that the substitution of &quot;Penguin Press&quot; with &quot;Viking&quot; is one of many typographical errors in the book (see [[errata]]). <br /> 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: &quot;this was a copyediting mistake that will be corrected. There was never a Viking contract for this book.&quot;<br /> <br /> ==Dedication==<br /> Most of Pynchon's novels contain dedications-- ''Mason &amp; Dixon'' (&quot;For Melanie, and for Jackson&quot;) , ''Vineland'' (&quot;For my mother and father&quot;), and ''Gravity's Rainbow'' (&quot;For Richard Fariña&quot;)-- but not so ''Against the Day,'' as published. Advance reading copies of the book did contain the words &quot;Dedication TK&quot; in italics, but this is simply [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/To_Come publisher-speak] for &quot;dedication to come.&quot; 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. <br /> <br /> ==Epigraph==<br /> &quot;It's always night, or we wouldn't need light.&quot; - Thelonious Monk&lt;br&gt;<br /> 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 &quot;God&quot;; 2) the character McClintic Sphere in ''V''. takes Monk's middle name, Sphere; and 3) &quot;It's always night, or we wouldn't need light&quot; 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]]: &quot;...daylit America ... its steadfast denial of night.&quot; <br /> <br /> ==Page 1==<br /> <br /> '''The Light Over the Ranges'''&lt;br&gt; <br /> &quot;Range&quot; is defined in the ''Oxford American Dictionary'' as &quot;a line or series of mountains or hills : the coastal ranges of the northwest,&quot; so &quot;range&quot; or &quot;ranges&quot; can be used to denote a number of mountains.&lt;br&gt;<br /> <br /> 'Ranges' may also refer to farms, homesteads and ranches in 1893 America. America was predominantly that in 1893. Cf. &quot;Home, home on the range&quot;.<br /> <br /> &quot;celebrating in song the wider range of life...&quot; Thomas Pynchon on<br /> [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Helen_Waddell Helen Waddell's]<br /> ''The Wandering Scholars'', p. 8, Introduction to[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Slow_Learner ''Slow Learner], 1984.<br /> <br /> A range is also a group of diverse objects.<br /> <br /> A-and &quot;range&quot; is a word full of its own meaning. [[Range|A partial list of definitions of &quot;range&quot;...]]&lt;br&gt;<br /> Range as diversity---lost---may be a major theme of AtD.<br /> <br /> ==Page 3==<br /> <br /> '''&quot;Now single up all lines!&quot;'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Pynchon was in the Navy for a spell and &quot;single up all lines&quot; 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 &quot;single up all lines&quot; is to remove the redundant second lines in preparation to make way.<br /> <br /> But the opening line has many possible connotations. <br /> :The Modern Word's Quail [http://www.themodernword.com/reviews/pynchon_atd.html writes] that &quot;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.&quot; <br /> <br /> :&quot;single up all lines&quot; 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 &amp; Dixon'', pp.258 and 260]. Perhaps we can understand this &quot;line&quot; as a text-string linking Pynchon's novels together (all but ''Vineland''?) &amp;#151; in preparation for a voyage to...?<br /> <br /> Also, in the very first sentence, Pynchon introduces the concept of doubling &amp;#151; &quot;single up all lines&quot; as a call to journey, to movement and expansion, a beginning. Then, on [[#Page_10|page 10]]: &quot;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.&quot; Thus, a progressive singling or reduction of all lines/paths, a rationalization/routinization unto death. ''See also'' [[ATD_557-587#Page_585|annotation, page 585]] and more on [[Routinization of Charisma]].<br /> <br /> '''&quot;Cheerly now...handsomely...very well!!&quot;'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Cheerly means &quot;heartily,&quot; and was traditionally used as cry of encouragement among sailors. Handsomely (in nautical context): carefully, in good order, unhurriedly.<br /> <br /> :Pynchon served in the Navy and uses nautical language in most of his novels. ''Mason &amp; Dixon'': &quot;Cheerly. Cheerly, then, Lads...&quot; (54).<br /> <br /> '''&quot;Windy City, here we come!&quot;'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> The nickname for Chicago, of course, but in 1893 the use meant city of braggarts more than it did wind. The earliest known references to the &quot;Windy City&quot; are from 1876, and involve Chicago's rivalry with Cincinnati. A popular myth states that &quot;Windy City&quot; was first used by New York Sun editor Charles Dana in the bidding for the 1893 Columbian Exposition. The popularity of the nickname has endured, even after the Cincinnati rivalry and the Columbian Exposition both ended. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Windy_City,_Origin_of_Name_(Chicago)| Origin of name &quot;Windy City&quot; at Wikipedia]<br /> <br /> '''Randolph St. Cosmo, the ship commander'''&lt;br /&gt;<br /> [[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 &quot;randy&quot; St. Cosmo, aka the &quot;modern Priapus,&quot; and the saintly martyred St. Cosmo of Church lore. Pynchon, it seems, is connecting Randolph St. Cosmo to the former. &quot;Randy,&quot; as astute observers will note, is an adjective which means, well, &quot;horny.&quot; 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...]]) &amp;#151; a-and Heartsease, St. Cosmo's mate, is the first to get pregnant! &amp;#151; 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]<br /> <br /> In [http://masondixon.pynchonwiki.com/wiki/index.php?title=V#veery ''Mason &amp; Dixon''], Pynchon has the Veery brothers, Cosmo and Damian, who are professional effigy makes in Philadelphia! And, just to make it interesting, &quot;He's a rare Wax Artist, our Cosmo is.&quot; (p. 290) (Note: Wax phallus effigies were offered by the women to St. Cosmo at the festivals held in his name, as shown above.)<br /> <br /> '''Now secure the Special Sky Detail'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> 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 &quot;Now set the Special Sea Detail.&quot;] ''Inconvenience'' is run along fairly strict naval lines—given the age of the officers and crew, you might say she is a tot ship—and the beginning of the book was preceded by an analogous &quot;Now set the Special Sky Detail.&quot; Once the ship is aloft and clear of ground obstructions, the command comes, &quot;Now secure the Special Sky Detail,&quot; meaning disband the team for the time being and all return to regular duties. The language, tasks and customs aboard the skyship will show parallels to navy usage throughout the book.<br /> <br /> '''summer uniform of red-and-white-striped blazer and trousers of sky blue'''&lt;br /&gt;<br /> Calls to mind the color scheme of Ned Land's (Kirk Douglas) costume in Disney's 1954 film version of ''20,000 Leagues under the Sea''.&lt;br&gt;<br /> <br /> Also calls to mind the colors of the American flag.<br /> <br /> '''&quot;scuttlebutt&quot; . . . thousand . . . wonders'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> 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 &quot;Book of the Fair&quot; by Hubert Bancroft, 1893.<br /> :&quot;Scuttlebutt&quot; is a very close equivalent to &quot;water-cooler gossip.&quot; [http://www.jacksjoint.com/sailor_terminology.htm Here is a glossary] of nautical terms with some of the etymologies.<br /> <br /> '''''Inconvenience'''''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Pynchon's fictional navy includes the USS Scaffold 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. Impulsive is the name of the ship Ploy, who loses all his teeth in V., gets transferred to.<br /> Inconvenience is an apt name for the Chums' adventures in 'reality'. They are an inconvenience; they are inconvenienced. (In having to take on Chick Counterfly, for example).&lt;br&gt;<br /> <br /> Pynchon uses the word ''inconvenience'' in a possibly thematic, connected way in ''Mason &amp; Dixon'' and in ''Gravity's Rainbow''. In ''Mason &amp; Dixon'', the word is applied to the difficulties of an Other, other human beings as we act, interact. See citations at the ''M &amp; D'' wiki. Here is the clearest relevant use for understanding for the Chums' airship, perhaps: from ''Gravity's Rainbow'': &quot;the gift of Daedalus that allowed him [Pokler] to put as much labyrinth as required between himself and the<br /> ''inconveniences of caring''. [Italics mine] They had sold him convenience, so much of it, all on credit, and now They were collecting.&quot;<br /> page 435, Penguin paperback edition with the Frank Miller cover. <br /> <br /> In addition, if we take the Latinate roots of in-con-ven-(ience) and willfully misread the &quot;in&quot; as adverbial &quot;in&quot; (as e.g. &quot;in-come&quot;) rather than the privative &quot;not&quot; (as e.g. &quot;in-cred-ible&quot;), we get &quot;the arriving-in-together&quot;; the &quot;inconvenience&quot;, then, is essentially a tongue-in-cheek &quot;vehicle&quot;.&lt;br&gt;<br /> I do not think it illuminating to &quot;willfully misread&quot;!?! We are trying to<br /> willfully read possible meanings and resonances. [[User:MKOHUT|MKOHUT]] 06:01, 2 August 2007 (PDT)<br /> <br /> Also, recall Fender-Belly Bodine, in [http://masondixon.pynchonwiki.com/wiki/index.php?title=I#inconvenience ''Mason &amp; Dixon'']: &quot;Back on old H.M.S. ''Inconvenience'', we wasted many a Day and Night watching that fancy Counter get smaller by the minute...&quot; (p.28)<br /> <br /> '''patriotic bunting'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> TRP reminds again that this is a very American skyship.&lt;br&gt;<br /> AtD has many echoes of Doctorow's &quot;Ragtime&quot;: Doctorow fictionalises the same era, including anarchists, bombings, and early Hollywood. <br /> <br /> '''aeronautics'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> 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]<br /> <br /> '''five-lad crew'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Randolph St. Cosmo (ship commander), Lindsay Noseworth (master-at-arms), Miles Blundell (handyman apprentice), Darby Suckling (factotum and mascot), and Chick Counterfly. The commander's name evokes Randolph St., a main thoroughfare in Chicago. Perhaps also saint(liness) and cosmos?<br /> <br /> '''The [[Chums of Chance]]'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> To be chummy with chance might mean lucky, fond of gambling, fond of chaos, irrational, or anarchist. Or maybe they became chums by accident. The &quot;chance&quot; may also be that of the winds that carry them in directions not always intended.<br /> :The American philospher Charles Sanders Peirce, who set down his most important ideas in the late 1800's, argued that 'Chance' was a feature of the universe that can refute all determinisms.<br /> <br /> &quot;The certainty of chance&quot; is a Surrealist slogan. We learned from ''Slow Learner'' that Pynchon was influenced early by Surrealism. <br /> The slogan is quoted in this obit of a real life<br /> character out of Pynchon, George Melly, Jazz singer, writer, anarchist and polymorphous lover.[http://www.economist.com/search/search.cfm?rv=2&amp;qr=melly&amp;area=1&amp;x=6&amp;y=7]<br /> <br /> 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, &quot;The Boys.&quot;<br /> <br /> [[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. &quot;The Explorigator&quot; 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'' ran for 14 weeks in 1908 and made an impression for its imaginative and visual creativity. [[The Explorigator|More on ''The Explorigator'']] &lt;ref&gt;[http://lambiek.net/artists/d/dart_harry_grant.htm Lambiek Comiclopedia]&lt;/ref&gt;<br /> <br /> 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]. <br /> <br /> The creativity of Pynchon's naming of the Chums, as other characters, shows yet again his Dickensian influence.<br /> <br /> Note that there's five Chums, the number of chapters of the book (a-and the number of letters in &quot;Chums&quot;!). <br /> <br /> '''Chicago'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> It has been suggested that Pynchon relied on the [http://www.1911encyclopedia.org/ 1911 Edition of the Encyclopaedia Britannica] as a major reference for his treatment of 1890s Chicago. [http://www.1911encyclopedia.org/Chicago 1911 Britannica entry on Chicago]<br /> <br /> Also, The band Chicago's third hit song &quot;Does Anybody Really Know What Time It Is?&quot; deals with how one faces living in a world under constraints of time [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Does_Anybody_Really_Know_What_Time_It_Is%3F]. The opening lyrics are: <br /> <br /> Does anybody really know what time it is?<br /> Does anybody really care?<br /> About Time... <br /> <br /> '''World's Columbian Exposition'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> 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. &quot;The thousand or more such wonders which awaited [the Chums] there.&quot; p.3<br /> <br /> '''lifelines'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Called &quot;manropes&quot; 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.<br /> <br /> '''as my faithful readers will remember'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Pynchon here is immediately inserting this story into a larger canon of Chums of Chance fictions, titles of which are mentioned in subsequent pages.<br /> <br /> '''mascotte'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> The English word 'mascot' has its origin in the late 19th cent.: from French mascotte. The spelling may also be a tribute to the Dutch brand of rolling papers. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mascotte_%28rolling_papers%29 [Wikipedia]]<br /> <br /> ==Page 4==<br /> <br /> '''Professor'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Randolph St. Cosmo is called Professor.<br /> &quot;Professor&quot; was a common title for early hot-air balloonists. [EC]<br /> <br /> '''&quot;Turn to&quot;'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Evokes the &quot;Go to!&quot; of Majistral and compatriots, ''V.'', chapter eleven. &quot;Turn to&quot; is also a shipboard expression, &quot;put your back into it&quot; or something of the kind.<br /> <br /> '''Perhaps its familiarity... rendered it temporarily invisible to you.&quot;&lt;br&gt;<br /> Perhaps an admonition from the author that familiar things will be easily overlooked?<br /> 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.<br /> <br /> '''&quot;for Miles, while possessed of good intentions and the kindest heart in the little band, suffered at times from a confusion in his motor processes, often producing lively results, yet as frequently compromising the crew's physical safety.'''&quot;&lt;br&gt;<br /> Talk about Filles de Kilimanjaro and Miles post-quintet years, a prolonged effect on survivors after the bombings of 1945 and in the arts of Japan’s exploding subculture.<br /> <br /> '''Chick Counterfly'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Three possibilities: (1) A counter fly is an annoyance in (say) the butcher's shop. (2) Chick always speaks &quot;counter&quot; to anyone else's &quot;flight&quot; of imagery. (3) The only non-''AtD''-related uses of this word that I've found came in patents describing mechanisms; &quot;the counterfly direction&quot; means contrary to the direction everything else is flying in, hence this character counters the flying of the craft?<br /> <br /> He is the only Chum we know who was &quot;rescued&quot; from the &quot;real&quot; 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<br /> on a different &quot;earth&quot; happens.<br /> <br /> Like Suckling's name suggesting a relationship to another Pynchon character (Pig Bodine), Pynchon winks at a relationship between Counterfly and Tyrone Slothrop. In Counterfly´s first utterance in the book, “Ha ha,” cried young Counterfly, “say, but if you ain’t the most slob-footed chap I ever seen!” you can derive &quot;Tyrone Slothrop&quot; from an anagram of Counterfly and &quot;slob-footed chap.&quot;<br /> <br /> :Huh? That's a pretty sloppy anagram, ain't it? What about that &quot;b&quot; and that&quot;d&quot; ... this is ''way'' too much of a stretch. There's something to these names, perhaps, but I don't think you're close here, friend.<br /> <br /> ==Page 5==<br /> <br /> '''&quot;all tableware with Chums of Chance Insignia is Organizational property&quot;'''&lt;br /&gt;<br /> The organization in question is the Chums of Chance themselves, here considered as an institution rather than as a collection of individuals.<br /> <br /> '''picklesome'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Having the nature of a pickle, i.e, a boy who is inclined to mischief.<br /> <br /> A word not much seen since the nineteenth century.<br /> <br /> '''Pugnax'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> I suspect that, in keeping with a very strong [[Birds|&quot;bird&quot; 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 &quot;utterance&quot; is &quot;Rr Rff-rff Rr-rr-rff-rrf-rrf&quot;...<br /> <br /> There are a number of characters named after birds or bird sounds: Linnet Dawes, &quot;Pert&quot; Chirpingdon-Groin (there is a pert bird), and Wren Provenance immediately come to mind, but I'm sure there are others, and there are myriad bird references and metaphors (the Sodality of Ǣtheronauts and their mechanical wings); I just haven't had the time to explore it deeply, but others may... (Just read [[Birds|the bit about birds]] from ''Homage to Pythagoras''... <br /> <br /> 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)]].<br /> <br /> The name meaning, in Latin, &quot;likes to fight&quot; (i.e. one who is pugnacious). Pugnax's fantastic intelligence recalls another intelligent Pynchon dog, the Learned English Dog in ''Mason &amp; Dixon''. His manner of speech is somewhat reminiscent of the mystery-solving cartoon dog Scooby-Doo, and [http://waste.org/mail/?list=pynchon-l&amp;month=0612&amp;msg=112507&amp;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.<br /> <br /> Could this name be an homage to the dog in the Asterix comics, Idéfix in French; Dogmatix in English? Many of the character in the Asterix comics have names ending in &quot;x&quot;.<br /> <br /> '''&quot;...during a confidential assignment in Our Nation's Capitol (see ''The Chums of Chance and the Evil Halfwit'')...&quot;'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> 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 &quot;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.&quot;<br /> <br /> The Chums &quot;rescued Pugnax, then but a pup&quot;--an innocent, a child creature--&quot;from a furious encounter..between rival packs of the city's wild dogs&quot;.<br /> The wild dogs equal both political parties? <br /> <br /> '''lavatorial assaults'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> &quot;from the sky, which no one can &quot;begin to try to record, much less coordinate reports of&quot; recall the V-2 rockets which are linked to Slothrop's erections in ''Gravity's Rainbow''. That is, pee from the sky is &quot;folklore, superstition, or perhaps...the religious&quot; in ATD compared to rockets screaming across the sky and the destruction in GR.<br /> <br /> This also recalls jokes and urban legends regarding frozen waste from leaky airplane lavatories (i.e., &quot;you can still be hit by an icy B.M.&quot;)<br /> <br /> ==Page 6==<br /> <br /> '''''Princess Casamassima'''''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Published 1886 (James had published two others by 1893), a classic dealing with terrorists, anarchists, and bombings. [http://www.henryjames.org.uk/pcasa/home.htm Full text] Sequel to &quot;Roderick Hudson&quot;. 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.&lt;br&gt;<br /> :Thematically, it's reactionary, the opposite of AtD.&lt;br&gt; <br /> :ATD is not reactionary but also not the opposite of ''The Princess Casamassima'' thematically, it can be easily argued. <br /> <br /> Pugnax prefers in his reading &quot;sentimental tales about his own species [rather] than those exhibiting extremes of human behavior, which he appeared to find a bit lurid.&quot; 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'!&lt;br&gt; 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 - &quot;like the rest of the crew&quot;. <br /> <br /> Or: it is a theme in GR, that the book, writing itself, is an abstraction from experience and not, of course, the thing itself. Noseworth, &quot;who placed upon the word 'book' . . . contempt&quot; did, however, know the subject matter of ''The Princess Casamassima''. He, Noseworth, hopes they will &quot;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.&quot; It matters that the Chums ARE also characters in books of their adventures. <br /> <br /> 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.<br /> <br /> '''Placing . . . an emphasis'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Lapse of authorial control? Surely the creator of the ''Chums'' novels would not write such a Pynchonian sentence fragment!<br /> <br /> '''Pugnax sniffed . . . as always this scent eluded him'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> If Pugnax doesn't detect a human scent, that suggests Lindsay is not human. Not human, Master-at-Arms, speaks in hyper-constructed prose, has a notably short fuse . . . he's Lieutenant Worf of ''Star Trek, the Next Generation.''<br /> <br /> '''''Krakatoa'''''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Erupted 1883. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Krakatoa Wikipedia entry.]<br /> <br /> '''Heino Vanderjuice of New Haven'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Scientist who designed the ''Inconvenience's'' hydrogen engine. &quot;Vanderjuice&quot; suggests both &quot;wonder juice&quot; and &quot;wander juice,&quot; fitting since his engine allows the Chums to wander and is wondrous insofar as it apparently violates the [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Second_law_of_thermodynamics second law of thermodynamics]. &quot;Heino&quot; (HIE-no) is a man's given name [http://www.behindthename.com/php/view.php?name=heino meaning 'home'] in German, Finnish, and Estonian. Perhaps an allusion to the German pop star, [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Heino Heino].<br /> <br /> :Um, a quibble: ''Vanderjuice'' is some kind of corrupted Dutch, and in Dutch the name Heino would be pronounced HAY-no. He is not an immigrant, though, and American speakers no doubt say HIGH-no.<br /> <br /> Jules Verne influence? Vanderjuice a red herring, pointing to Dutch origin and electrical (&quot;juice&quot;) background? Or does one try to parse the name into eg &quot;Fond O' Juice&quot;?<br /> <br /> '''no better than a perpetual-motion machine'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> 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 (&quot;secret free energy source the government doesn't want you to know about&quot;) or mistakes. The hydrogen generator/engine is neither, which is why the disdainful phrase &quot;no better than&quot; is crucial.<br /> <br /> 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?<br /> <br /> '''Miles, with his marginal gifts of coördination, and Chick, with a want of alacrity fully as perceptible'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Like the old gag: The food in this restaurant isn't any good, but the service is awful.<br /> <br /> '''ratlines and shrouds'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> ''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.<br /> <br /> '''&quot;. . . anemometer of the Robinson's type&quot;'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Cup anemometer 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]<br /> <br /> '''how rapidly the ship was proceeding'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> 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.<br /> <br /> ==Page 7==<br /> <br /> '''Porfirio Díaz'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> President of Mexico 1876-1880, 1884-1911. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Porfirio_D%C3%ADaz Wikipedia]<br /> <br /> 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?<br /> <br /> '''&quot;beside a black-water river of the Deep South&quot;.&lt;br&gt;<br /> Blackwater River is in lower central Florida, pretty deep south; but there are numerous rivers in swampy areas that run black with organic matter.&lt;br&gt;<br /> 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]<br /> Thousands of news stories in September/October 2007.<br /> <br /> '''a bitter and unresolved &quot;piece of business&quot;'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Rather than give a proper reason for the Chums to be in the Deep South, the narrator cops out by pleading that it's &quot;not advisable&quot; to specify.<br /> <br /> '''&quot;the Rebellion of thirty years previous&quot;'''&lt;br /&gt;<br /> The Civil War was not called such during the time it was occurring; the South called it &quot;the war between the states&quot; to emphasize both their right to secede from the union and that this was a war between sovereign states; the North called it &quot;the Rebellion of 1861&quot; or, after termination of hostilities, &quot;the Rebellion of 1861-1865,&quot; appellations that did not recognize the South's right to secede.<br /> <br /> '''&quot;one still not advisable to set upon one's page&quot;'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> The American Civil War, that &quot;rebellion of thirty years previous,&quot; has not yet become a suitable subject for an adventure tale such as the Chums'.<br /> <br /> '''absquatulated'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Means to move away quickly, usually to avoid capture. Apparently a mock-Latinate formation, &quot;to go off and squat somewhere else.&quot; [http://www.worldwidewords.org/weirdwords/ww-abs1.htm A brief article] on the history and etymology of &quot;absquatulate.&quot;&lt;br&gt;<br /> The word is used in Vineland.<br /> <br /> '''&quot;Crackerjack!&quot; exclaimed Chick.'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> 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: &quot;Crackerjack&quot; entered English first as a noun referring to &quot;a person or thing of marked excellence,&quot; 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 &quot;crackerjack&quot; 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.<br /> <br /> '''to approach the gates of the Penitentiary'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> 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 &quot;never know how many Republicans were compelled to approach the gates of the penitentiary to make him president.&quot;<br /> <br /> '''posse comitatus'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> What Western movie fans know as a &quot;posse,&quot; 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. <br /> <br /> In the 1980s, a radical, violent, right-wing and anti-government movement adopted the name &quot;Posse Comitatus.&quot;<br /> <br /> ==Page 8==<br /> <br /> '''a pocketful of specie'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Specie means coins as opposed to paper money.<br /> <br /> '''the town of Thick Bush'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Aside from whether this phrase might apply to some political figure of the past or present, &quot;thick bush&quot; is the literal meaning of the Spanish Matagorda, the name of many towns in Latin America and one on the Gulf Coast of Texas.<br /> <br /> '''&quot;which directs us never to interfere with legal customs of any locality down at which we may happen to have touched&quot;'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> 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 &quot;This is the kind of carping criticism up with which I will not put.&quot;<br /> <br /> '''legal customs'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Legal = pertaining to law, in this case lynch law. The Chums are interpreting their Prime Directive pretty broadly here.<br /> <br /> '''Katie bar the door'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> 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.)<br /> <br /> '''Ku Klux Klan'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Reminiscent of the [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ku_Klux_Klan Klan] encounter scenes in the Coen Brothers' ''O Brother, Where Art Thou''. <br /> <br /> '''tupelo, cypress, and hickory'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> The trees are no help in locating the town; all three kinds like bottom land and grow all over the South.<br /> <br /> '''speed . . . made it nearly invisible from the ground'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> 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.<br /> <br /> ''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 &quot;clear&quot; 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.<br /> <br /> '''way better than a mile a minute'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> The Chums' point of departure is unknown, but they arrived in Chicago after catching a southerly wind (pg 3), southerly meaning &quot;wind blowing from the south.&quot; 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.)<br /> <br /> ==Page 9==<br /> <br /> '''locker'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> On board ship, any cabinet with a door or lid.<br /> <br /> '''&quot;Do not imagine, that in coming aboard ''Inconvenience'' you have escaped into any realm of the counterfactual...&quot;'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> This may be Pynchon directly addressing the reader. Given that his [[Against_the_Day_description|book description]] proclaims the world of AtD as &quot;what the world might be with a minor adjustment or two,&quot; 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.&lt;br&gt;<br /> 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.<br /> <br /> A-and it must mean, coming from the commander, that all aboard the ''Inconvenience'' are also subjects to the 'facts' of the world. &quot;The World is All that is the Case&quot;, from Wittgenstein, quoted in V.<br /> (in the original German)<br /> <br /> '''&quot;Going up is like going north.&quot;'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> 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.<br /> <br /> :North is not a positive place in Pynchon's world. It is associated with anti-life---coldness as here---compared to the South, a place of light and warmth, such as the tropics. See GR.<br /> <br /> :But to go far enough north means heading south again, observes Chick Counterfly--is this one meaning of his name? Then one would be &quot;approaching the surface of another planet, maybe?&quot; asks Chick.<br /> <br /> &quot;Not exactly&quot; [answers Randolph] &quot;No. Another 'surface', but an earthly one&quot;<br /> &quot;You'll see. In time, of course&quot;. Time is earthly?<br /> <br /> '''&quot;Another 'surface'&quot;'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> In ancient conics the cone is formed by taking a line through a point (the vertex) at a particular angle to a plane and then inscribing a circle on the plane. Two conic surfaces are made by the motion of this line, one below this point and one above. The three conic sections (hyperbola, parabola, and ellipse) are created by slicing the conic surface(s) at different angles.<br /> :huh?[[User:Bleakhaus|Bleakhaus]] 12:38, 15 January 2007 (PST)<br /> :If you read this for plain meaning, then it's true (or Randolph believes) that there's another earthly surface, to which you can descend by ascending far enough above this one. Surely it is pertinent here that Pynchon's dear friend Richard Fariña (1937-66) titled his novel ''Been Down So Long It Looks Like Up to Me.''<br /> <br /> ==Page 10==<br /> <br /> '''Stockyards'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Chicago was, at the time, the meat-packing and slaughtering capital of the United States. The stench from the stockyards below must have been memorable.<br /> <br /> '''...looked up at the airship in wonder...&quot;&lt;br&gt;<br /> The sight of any airship in 1893 must have been rare indeed.&lt;br&gt;<br /> Our history reports that the first practical airships were built in 1898; [[ATD_429-459#Page_454|the idea or icon was around by 1896, though.]]<br /> <br /> '''Beneath the rubbernecking Chums of Chance wheeled streets and alleyways'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Optical illusion. As you fly over a grid of streets, you perceive a landmark far away to move slowly while the lateral streets near you just whip past. Your brain interprets that the same way as hub and spokes, i.e., the motion of a wheel. Interesting question, though: If the ''Chums'' author was just making this stuff up, how did he know about the illusion?<br /> <br /> '''Cartesian grid'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> From Rene Descartes, 17th century philosopher and mathematician; see Wikipedia entry, whose most famous argument, &quot;I think therefore I am&quot; and mathematical studies have often lead him to be seen as the first modern philosopher of ultra-rationality. Geometry has 'the Cartesian coordinant system, a grid. Chicago's streets are laid out in a very rational grid arrangement. <br /> <br /> Pynchon is reputed to have written [http://gravitys-rainbow.pynchonwiki.com/wiki/ ''Gravity's Rainbow''] on engineer's grid paper.<br /> <br /> In modern mathematics, curves are described only in relation to the two dimensional grid (see previous page). If conic sections are not specifically being thought of here, the theme of dimensionality, at least, is already at play. <br /> <br /> '''that unshaped freedom being rationalized into movement only in straight lines'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Rationalization is a key sociological concept and a prominent theme in [http://gravitys-rainbow.pynchonwiki.com/wiki/index.php?title=R#routinization ''Gravity's Rainbow''] &amp;#151; a spontaneous and charismatic source of authority is eventually &quot;rationalized&quot; and brought under the control of processes and rules. In Pynchon's view, it is a movement toward Death and thematically related to entropy &amp;#151; a prominent theme in [http://v.pynchonwiki.com/wiki/index.php?title=E#entropy ''V.''] &amp;#151; and, in [http://masondixon.pynchonwiki.com/wiki/index.php?title=F#fengshui ''Mason &amp; Dixon''], bad ''Feng Shui'' and the reduction of the fuzzy boundaries between Pennsylvania and Maryland into a straight line.<br /> <br /> From the [http://bitbucket.icaap.org/dict.pl Online Dictionary of Social Science]:<br /> <br /> :This term has two specific meanings in sociology. (1) The concept was developed by German sociologist Max Weber (1864-1920) who used it in two ways. First, it was the process through which magical, supernatural and religious ideas lose cultural importance in a society and ideas based on science and practical calculation become dominant. For example, in modern societies science has rationalized our understanding of weather patterns. Science explains weather patterns as a result of interaction between physical elements like wind-speed and direction, air and water temperatures, humidity, etc. In some other cultures, weather is thought to express the pleasure or displeasure of gods, or spirits of ancestors. One explanation is rationalized and scientific, the other mysterious and magical. Rationalization also involves the development of forms of social organization devoted to the achievement of precise goals by efficient means. It is this type of rationalization that we see in the development of modern business corporations and of bureaucracy. These are organizations dedicated to the pursuit of defined goals by calculated, systematically administered means. (2) Within symbolic interactionism, rationalization is used more in the everyday sense of the word to refer to providing justifications or excuses for one's actions.<br /> <br /> [[ATD_557-587#Page_585|''See also'' annotation on p.585]]<br /> <br /> [[Routinization of Charisma|Read more on this...]]<br /> <br /> '''&quot;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.&quot;'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> From innocent bovines to ...the world? &quot;Single up all lines&quot;....<br /> Stockyards were organized in such a way that the cattle would proceed through a series of chutes and passages, until they arrived alone at the point of death.<br /> <br /> &quot;Progressive reduction of choices&quot; also occurred in [http://masondixon.pynchonwiki.com/wiki/ ''Mason &amp; Dixon''] &amp;#151; there were infinitely many wildernesses out to the west until Mason and Dixon ran the line and rationalized the boundaries into Maryland and Pennsylvania.<br /> <br /> ==Page 11==<br /> <br /> '''plummet'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> 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.<br /> <br /> '''bear a hand'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Nautical: help out.<br /> <br /> ==Page 12==<br /> <br /> '''Liverpool Kiss'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> A head butt.<br /> <br /> '''Herr Riemann'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> 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].<br /> <br /> '''''Mr.'' Noseworth'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Lindsay insisting on proper naval forms: an ensign, lieutenant (junior grade), lieutenant or lieutenant commander in the U.S. navy is correctly addressed as &quot;Mister Surname.&quot;<br /> <br /> '''&quot;topological genius&quot;'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Riemann's differential geometry goes beyond the Cartesian grid. See conic sections and dimensionality above, page 10.<br /> <br /> ==Page 13==<br /> <br /> '''There was an &quot;eager stampede&quot; to the rail''' &lt;br&gt;<br /> 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?<br /> : 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) <br /> <br /> :insightfully true, I suspect, but it still shows 'narratorial knowingness', yes?<br /> <br /> : Cf. Flaubert's use of quotations in ''Madame Bovary'' to isolate what he deemed the contemptible argot of the bourgeoisie.<br /> <br /> ::Apparently not a cliche: [http://books.google.com//books?num=100&amp;q=eager.stampede&amp;as_brr=0 GoogleBooks]<br /> <br /> '''&quot;...among the brighter star-shapes of exploded ballast bags...&quot;''' &lt;br&gt;<br /> Recalls the opening line of ''Mason &amp; Dixon'': &quot;Snow-Balls have flown their Arcs, starr‘d the Sides of Outbuildings, as of Cousins...&quot;<br /> <br /> '''&quot;...quite as if were some giant eyeball, perhaps that of Society itself, ever scrutinizing from above, in a spirit of constructive censure.&quot;'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> 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&amp;page_number=4&amp;template_id=1&amp;sort_order=1 At MoMa's Online Collection]<br /> Notice that society = censure, if constructive. Gamboling nude on a summer day was OK until the ''Inconvenience'', as eyeball, appeared.<br /> <br /> :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.<br /> <br /> ==Page 14==<br /> <br /> '''charmed into docility'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> 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.<br /> <br /> '''Jacob's-ladder'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Used here as &quot;a marine ladder of rope or chain with wooden or iron rungs&quot; (Webster's Third New International Dictionary, Unabridged) but is suggestive of Jacob's ladder in Genesis:<br /> <br /> 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)<br /> <br /> '''a giant sack of soiled laundry'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Perhaps ''freshly'' soiled during the great hydrogen valve disaster.<br /> <br /> '''''vol-à-voile'''''&lt;br&gt;<br /> The narrator has turned the French phrase ''vol-à-voiles'' (gliding) into a verb (removing the ''s'').<br /> <br /> '''gold-beaters' skin'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> 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.<br /> <br /> '''Evening Quarters'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Naval practice of mustering the crew at the end of the day's work.<br /> <br /> ==Page 15==<br /> <br /> '''ukulelist'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Ukuleles also appear in ''Gravity's Rainbow'', ''Vineland'', and ''Mason &amp; Dixon''. According to Jules Siegel's article, &quot;Who is Thomas Pynchon, and why did he take off with my wife?&quot;, Pynchon himself played the ukulele in college.<br /> <br /> '''Vagabonds of the Void'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> 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.&lt;br&gt;<br /> <br /> [[image:Macassar-Oil.jpg|thumb|175px|''Macassar Oil. An Oily Puff for Soft Heads''|right]]'''Beaufort Scale'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> A scale for measuring wind strength, developed 1805.<br /> <br /> '''&quot;Let the lightning lash ~ And the thunder trash&quot;&lt;br&gt;<br /> Again, the Chums are rock stars, the coolest cats in town.<br /> <br /> '''&quot;...forty-four buttons...one for each State of the Union.&quot;&lt;br&gt;<br /> Wyoming was the 44th state admitted to the union in 1890.<br /> <br /> '''port section of the crew'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> The half of the crew permitted to go freely ashore this time. The other half tomorrow. &quot;Port&quot; and &quot;starboard&quot;: are these simply either/or words that sailors remember easily?<br /> <br /> '''Macassar oil'''&lt;br /&gt;<br /> 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]<br /> <br /> ==Page 16==<br /> <br /> '''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.'''&lt;br/&gt;<br /> 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 &lt;i&gt;The Devil In The White City&lt;/i&gt; by Erik Larson and &lt;i&gt;Depraved&lt;/i&gt; 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]<br /> <br /> '''tension of the gas'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> I.e., the pressure in the bag.<br /> <br /> ==Page 17==<br /> <br /> '''&quot;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&quot;'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> 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...as is this book, ATD?...Again a Pynchonian theme: no book is the reality.<br /> <br /> '''&quot;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.&quot;'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Is this just a metaphor from the narrator to describe what it is like for Darby, or is it also self-referential to<br /> all the adventures of the Chums?. Another Q: Is the Commandant of Earthly Days the invisible presence from whom the chums get their orders? Cf. earthly surface, p.9<br /> :Related Q: Do the Chums receive their orders from the author of their books?<br /> <br /> '''we were usually out the door and on the main road'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Dick and Chick knew the judge was more likely to order them out of town than into the lockup.<br /> <br /> '''Chinese foofooraw'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Also spelled foofaraw, a great deal of fuss, or useless frills. Cf folderol. However, why Chinese? <br /> :Chick's father tried to sell Mississippi to a Chinese syndicate.<br /> <br /> '''cubeb'''&lt;br /&gt;<br /> 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.<br /> <br /> '''&quot;...goldurn Keeley Cure&quot;'''&lt;br /&gt;<br /> A treatment for alcohol, nicotine and narcotic addiction involving injections of &quot;bichloride&quot; or &quot;double chloride&quot; of gold, and also known as the &quot;gold cure&quot;. 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.<br /> <br /> ==Page 18==<br /> <br /> '''headgear'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Description vaguely reminiscent of &quot;Madame Bovary&quot;. [http://robotwisdom.com/flaubert/bovary/bovary1.html [notes]]<br /> <br /> '''eclipse green'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Apparently an actual shade. [http://encyclopedia.jrank.org/DIO_DRO/DIRECT.html [cite]]<br /> <br /> '''Bindlestiffs of the Blue A.C.'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Bindlestiff means hobo; hence, the Hoboes of the Sky Aeronautical Club.<br /> <br /> '''(&quot;Penny&quot;) Black'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> 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]]<br /> <br /> '''Tzigane'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> French for &quot;gypsy&quot;. Also a piece by Ravel. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tzigane_(Ravel) [Wikipedia]]<br /> <br /> '''Egypt'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> 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 &quot;Egypt,&quot; especially in the 19th century. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Little_Egypt_(region) [Wikipedia]]<br /> <br /> ==Page 19==<br /> <br /> '''goin all blue from the light of that electric fluid'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> 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.<br /> <br /> '''Voices calling out together'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> 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.<br /> <br /> [[image:balloons-paris.jpg|thumb|200px|Garçons de '71|right]]'''Garçons de '71'''&lt;br /&gt;<br /> 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...]]<br /> <br /> '''a condition of ''permanent siege'''''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Surely no one has failed to notice what a &quot;wartime president&quot; is allowed to get away with. &quot;No reference to the present day is intended or should be inferred.&quot;<br /> <br /> '''pétroleurs de Paris'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> An early form of Molotov cocktail thrower during the Siege of Paris. There were pétroleurs and pétroleuses.<br /> <br /> ==Page 20==<br /> <br /> '''they'll fly wherever they're needed'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> While the Chums obey orders from above, the Garçons de '71 follow a different imperative.<br /> <br /> '''energy we could feel, directed personally at us'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Someone may be trying to influence what the Bindlestiffs do, or keep them away from the Garçons' work of mercy.<br /> <br /> ==Page 21==<br /> <br /> '''admissions gate'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Apparently a break in the fence, capitalized on by freelance impresarios.<br /> <br /> '''fifty-cent pieces'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> 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.<br /> <br /> ==Page 22==<br /> <br /> '''Kodaks'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> The word Kodak was trademarked in 1888, and the first Kodak camera was sold with the slogan, &quot;You press the button - we do the rest.&quot; 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.<br /> <br /> '''half-light . . . in the interests of mercy . . . the safety of the lights'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Interesting contrast suggesting a tradeoff between comfort/solace in the shadows and safety in the bright light.<br /> <br /> '''Isandhlwana'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> 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 &quot;military&quot; and &quot;blunders&quot; in the title.<br /> <br /> ==Page 23==<br /> <br /> '''Tarahumara'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> 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]]<br /> <br /> '''&quot;geek&quot;'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> 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 &quot;Fear Factor,&quot; but sad rather than stultifying.<br /> <br /> '''monte'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Three-card monte.<br /> <br /> ==Page 24==<br /> <br /> '''the curse of Scotland'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> 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]]<br /> <br /> '''like the electricity coming on... how everything fits together, connects. It doesn't last long, though.'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> 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. <br /> <br /> 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, Miles is also said to suffer from &quot;confusion in his motor processes&quot;, which may be related.<br /> <br /> '''Cracker Jack'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> First sold at the at the first Chicago World's Fair in 1893. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cracker_Jack [Wikipedia]]<br /> <br /> '''New Levee district'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Chicago's redlight district c1890. [http://www.ipsn.org/genesis.htm [cite]]<br /> <br /> '''Epworth League'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> A Methodist youth organization founded in 1889. [http://www.southernmethodistchurch.org/id48.htm [cite]]<br /> <br /> ==Page 25==<br /> <br /> '''Haymarket bomb'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> 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 &quot;a bomb-throwing anarchist.&quot; 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].<br /> <br /> '''if the Governor decides to pardon that gang of anarchistic murderers'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> 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 &lt;i&gt;The Haymarket Tragedy&lt;/i&gt; by Paul Avrich and &lt;i&gt;Death In The Haymarket&lt;/i&gt; by James Green.<br /> <br /> '''mixture of contempt and pity'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> This is ''definitely'' not from one of the Chums' adventure stories.<br /> <br /> '''embonpoint'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Convexity of body; what used to be called a &quot;prosperous&quot; look.<br /> <br /> '''duck soup'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Meaning &quot;an easy task,&quot; 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.<br /> <br /> ==References==<br /> &lt;references /&gt;<br /> <br /> ==Annotation Index==<br /> {{ATD PbP}}</div>

MKOHUT https://against-the-day.pynchonwiki.com/wiki/index.php?title=ATD_1-25&diff=14142 2007-10-22T00:59:14Z

<p>MKOHUT: /* Page 6 */</p> <hr /> <div>:'''&lt;big&gt;Please keep these annotations SPOILER-FREE by not revealing information from later pages in the novel.&lt;/big&gt;'''&lt;p&gt;&lt;br&gt;<br /> <br /> ==cover text==<br /> The black text and its drop shadows are in different typefaces. It may be worth noting, from a conceptual point of view, that we can infer from the angle of the drop shadows that the light source is any individual holding the book—that is, the reader or a potential reader.<br /> <br /> ==cover seal==<br /> The seal appears to be written in Tibetan language, according to somebody who posts regularly to Pynchon-l under the name &quot;Ya Sam&quot;, who reports:<br /> <br /> I contacted the Tibetan Cultural Centre with the request to translate <br /> the mysterious legend on the AtD seal. They were kind enough to forward my <br /> request to the Tibetan tranlsator Tenzin Namgyal to whose generosity we <br /> owe the solution of one more ATD related mystery.<br /> <br /> It is the Tibetan language, alright, and it means ...... Tibetan <br /> Government Chamber of Commerce.<br /> <br /> Read their response below:<br /> <br /> :Dear Ya Sam,&lt;br /&gt;<br /> :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?<br /> <br /> :Best wishes,<br /> <br /> :Sandy Belth&lt;br /&gt;<br /> :Tibetan Cultural Center<br /> <br /> Also of interest: the coin bears a striking 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:<br /> <br /> :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, &quot;The Doubloon&quot;)<br /> <br /> ==copyright page==<br /> 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 &quot;Penguin Press&quot; as the publisher, as could be expected, and it seems likely that the substitution of &quot;Penguin Press&quot; with &quot;Viking&quot; is one of many typographical errors in the book (see [[errata]]). <br /> 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: &quot;this was a copyediting mistake that will be corrected. There was never a Viking contract for this book.&quot;<br /> <br /> ==Dedication==<br /> Most of Pynchon's novels contain dedications-- ''Mason &amp; Dixon'' (&quot;For Melanie, and for Jackson&quot;) , ''Vineland'' (&quot;For my mother and father&quot;), and ''Gravity's Rainbow'' (&quot;For Richard Fariña&quot;)-- but not so ''Against the Day,'' as published. Advance reading copies of the book did contain the words &quot;Dedication TK&quot; in italics, but this is simply [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/To_Come publisher-speak] for &quot;dedication to come.&quot; 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. <br /> <br /> ==Epigraph==<br /> &quot;It's always night, or we wouldn't need light.&quot; - Thelonious Monk&lt;br&gt;<br /> 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 &quot;God&quot;; 2) the character McClintic Sphere in ''V''. takes Monk's middle name, Sphere; and 3) &quot;It's always night, or we wouldn't need light&quot; 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]]: &quot;...daylit America ... its steadfast denial of night.&quot; <br /> <br /> ==Page 1==<br /> <br /> '''The Light Over the Ranges'''&lt;br&gt; <br /> &quot;Range&quot; is defined in the ''Oxford American Dictionary'' as &quot;a line or series of mountains or hills : the coastal ranges of the northwest,&quot; so &quot;range&quot; or &quot;ranges&quot; can be used to denote a number of mountains.&lt;br&gt;<br /> <br /> 'Ranges' may also refer to farms, homesteads and ranches in 1893 America. America was predominantly that in 1893. Cf. &quot;Home, home on the range&quot;.<br /> <br /> &quot;celebrating in song the wider range of life...&quot; Thomas Pynchon on<br /> [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Helen_Waddell Helen Waddell's]<br /> ''The Wandering Scholars'', p. 8, Introduction to[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Slow_Learner ''Slow Learner], 1984.<br /> <br /> A range is also a group of diverse objects.<br /> <br /> A-and &quot;range&quot; is a word full of its own meaning. [[Range|A partial list of definitions of &quot;range&quot;...]]&lt;br&gt;<br /> Range as diversity---lost---may be a major theme of AtD.<br /> <br /> ==Page 3==<br /> <br /> '''&quot;Now single up all lines!&quot;'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Pynchon was in the Navy for a spell and &quot;single up all lines&quot; 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 &quot;single up all lines&quot; is to remove the redundant second lines in preparation to make way.<br /> <br /> But the opening line has many possible connotations. <br /> :The Modern Word's Quail [http://www.themodernword.com/reviews/pynchon_atd.html writes] that &quot;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.&quot; <br /> <br /> :&quot;single up all lines&quot; 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 &amp; Dixon'', pp.258 and 260]. Perhaps we can understand this &quot;line&quot; as a text-string linking Pynchon's novels together (all but ''Vineland''?) &amp;#151; in preparation for a voyage to...?<br /> <br /> Also, in the very first sentence, Pynchon introduces the concept of doubling &amp;#151; &quot;single up all lines&quot; as a call to journey, to movement and expansion, a beginning. Then, on [[#Page_10|page 10]]: &quot;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.&quot; Thus, a progressive singling or reduction of all lines/paths, a rationalization/routinization unto death. ''See also'' [[ATD_557-587#Page_585|annotation, page 585]] and more on [[Routinization of Charisma]].<br /> <br /> '''&quot;Cheerly now...handsomely...very well!!&quot;'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Cheerly means &quot;heartily,&quot; and was traditionally used as cry of encouragement among sailors. Handsomely (in nautical context): carefully, in good order, unhurriedly.<br /> <br /> :Pynchon served in the Navy and uses nautical language in most of his novels. ''Mason &amp; Dixon'': &quot;Cheerly. Cheerly, then, Lads...&quot; (54).<br /> <br /> '''&quot;Windy City, here we come!&quot;'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> The nickname for Chicago, of course, but in 1893 the use meant city of braggarts more than it did wind. The earliest known references to the &quot;Windy City&quot; are from 1876, and involve Chicago's rivalry with Cincinnati. A popular myth states that &quot;Windy City&quot; was first used by New York Sun editor Charles Dana in the bidding for the 1893 Columbian Exposition. The popularity of the nickname has endured, even after the Cincinnati rivalry and the Columbian Exposition both ended. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Windy_City,_Origin_of_Name_(Chicago)| Origin of name &quot;Windy City&quot; at Wikipedia]<br /> <br /> '''Randolph St. Cosmo, the ship commander'''&lt;br /&gt;<br /> [[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 &quot;randy&quot; St. Cosmo, aka the &quot;modern Priapus,&quot; and the saintly martyred St. Cosmo of Church lore. Pynchon, it seems, is connecting Randolph St. Cosmo to the former. &quot;Randy,&quot; as astute observers will note, is an adjective which means, well, &quot;horny.&quot; 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...]]) &amp;#151; a-and Heartsease, St. Cosmo's mate, is the first to get pregnant! &amp;#151; 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]<br /> <br /> In [http://masondixon.pynchonwiki.com/wiki/index.php?title=V#veery ''Mason &amp; Dixon''], Pynchon has the Veery brothers, Cosmo and Damian, who are professional effigy makes in Philadelphia! And, just to make it interesting, &quot;He's a rare Wax Artist, our Cosmo is.&quot; (p. 290) (Note: Wax phallus effigies were offered by the women to St. Cosmo at the festivals held in his name, as shown above.)<br /> <br /> '''Now secure the Special Sky Detail'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> 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 &quot;Now set the Special Sea Detail.&quot;] ''Inconvenience'' is run along fairly strict naval lines—given the age of the officers and crew, you might say she is a tot ship—and the beginning of the book was preceded by an analogous &quot;Now set the Special Sky Detail.&quot; Once the ship is aloft and clear of ground obstructions, the command comes, &quot;Now secure the Special Sky Detail,&quot; meaning disband the team for the time being and all return to regular duties. The language, tasks and customs aboard the skyship will show parallels to navy usage throughout the book.<br /> <br /> '''summer uniform of red-and-white-striped blazer and trousers of sky blue'''&lt;br /&gt;<br /> Calls to mind the color scheme of Ned Land's (Kirk Douglas) costume in Disney's 1954 film version of ''20,000 Leagues under the Sea''.&lt;br&gt;<br /> <br /> Also calls to mind the colors of the American flag.<br /> <br /> '''&quot;scuttlebutt&quot; . . . thousand . . . wonders'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> 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 &quot;Book of the Fair&quot; by Hubert Bancroft, 1893.<br /> :&quot;Scuttlebutt&quot; is a very close equivalent to &quot;water-cooler gossip.&quot; [http://www.jacksjoint.com/sailor_terminology.htm Here is a glossary] of nautical terms with some of the etymologies.<br /> <br /> '''''Inconvenience'''''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Pynchon's fictional navy includes the USS Scaffold 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. Impulsive is the name of the ship Ploy, who loses all his teeth in V., gets transferred to.<br /> Inconvenience is an apt name for the Chums' adventures in 'reality'. They are an inconvenience; they are inconvenienced. (In having to take on Chick Counterfly, for example).&lt;br&gt;<br /> <br /> Pynchon uses the word ''inconvenience'' in a possibly thematic, connected way in ''Mason &amp; Dixon'' and in ''Gravity's Rainbow''. In ''Mason &amp; Dixon'', the word is applied to the difficulties of an Other, other human beings as we act, interact. See citations at the ''M &amp; D'' wiki. Here is the clearest relevant use for understanding for the Chums' airship, perhaps: from ''Gravity's Rainbow'': &quot;the gift of Daedalus that allowed him [Pokler] to put as much labyrinth as required between himself and the<br /> ''inconveniences of caring''. [Italics mine] They had sold him convenience, so much of it, all on credit, and now They were collecting.&quot;<br /> page 435, Penguin paperback edition with the Frank Miller cover. <br /> <br /> In addition, if we take the Latinate roots of in-con-ven-(ience) and willfully misread the &quot;in&quot; as adverbial &quot;in&quot; (as e.g. &quot;in-come&quot;) rather than the privative &quot;not&quot; (as e.g. &quot;in-cred-ible&quot;), we get &quot;the arriving-in-together&quot;; the &quot;inconvenience&quot;, then, is essentially a tongue-in-cheek &quot;vehicle&quot;.&lt;br&gt;<br /> I do not think it illuminating to &quot;willfully misread&quot;!?! We are trying to<br /> willfully read possible meanings and resonances. [[User:MKOHUT|MKOHUT]] 06:01, 2 August 2007 (PDT)<br /> <br /> Also, recall Fender-Belly Bodine, in [http://masondixon.pynchonwiki.com/wiki/index.php?title=I#inconvenience ''Mason &amp; Dixon'']: &quot;Back on old H.M.S. ''Inconvenience'', we wasted many a Day and Night watching that fancy Counter get smaller by the minute...&quot; (p.28)<br /> <br /> '''patriotic bunting'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> TRP reminds again that this is a very American skyship.&lt;br&gt;<br /> AtD has many echoes of Doctorow's &quot;Ragtime&quot;: Doctorow fictionalises the same era, including anarchists, bombings, and early Hollywood. <br /> <br /> '''aeronautics'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> 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]<br /> <br /> '''five-lad crew'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Randolph St. Cosmo (ship commander), Lindsay Noseworth (master-at-arms), Miles Blundell (handyman apprentice), Darby Suckling (factotum and mascot), and Chick Counterfly. The commander's name evokes Randolph St., a main thoroughfare in Chicago. Perhaps also saint(liness) and cosmos?<br /> <br /> '''The [[Chums of Chance]]'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> To be chummy with chance might mean lucky, fond of gambling, fond of chaos, irrational, or anarchist. Or maybe they became chums by accident. The &quot;chance&quot; may also be that of the winds that carry them in directions not always intended.<br /> :The American philospher Charles Sanders Peirce, who set down his most important ideas in the late 1800's, argued that 'Chance' was a feature of the universe that can refute all determinisms.<br /> <br /> &quot;The certainty of chance&quot; is a Surrealist slogan. We learned from ''Slow Learner'' that Pynchon was influenced early by Surrealism. <br /> The slogan is quoted in this obit of a real life<br /> character out of Pynchon, George Melly, Jazz singer, writer, anarchist and polymorphous lover.[http://www.economist.com/search/search.cfm?rv=2&amp;qr=melly&amp;area=1&amp;x=6&amp;y=7]<br /> <br /> 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, &quot;The Boys.&quot;<br /> <br /> [[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. &quot;The Explorigator&quot; 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'' ran for 14 weeks in 1908 and made an impression for its imaginative and visual creativity. [[The Explorigator|More on ''The Explorigator'']] &lt;ref&gt;[http://lambiek.net/artists/d/dart_harry_grant.htm Lambiek Comiclopedia]&lt;/ref&gt;<br /> <br /> 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]. <br /> <br /> The creativity of Pynchon's naming of the Chums, as other characters, shows yet again his Dickensian influence.<br /> <br /> Note that there's five Chums, the number of chapters of the book (a-and the number of letters in &quot;Chums&quot;!). <br /> <br /> '''Chicago'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> It has been suggested that Pynchon relied on the [http://www.1911encyclopedia.org/ 1911 Edition of the Encyclopaedia Britannica] as a major reference for his treatment of 1890s Chicago. [http://www.1911encyclopedia.org/Chicago 1911 Britannica entry on Chicago]<br /> <br /> Also, The band Chicago's third hit song &quot;Does Anybody Really Know What Time It Is?&quot; deals with how one faces living in a world under constraints of time [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Does_Anybody_Really_Know_What_Time_It_Is%3F]. The opening lyrics are: <br /> <br /> Does anybody really know what time it is?<br /> Does anybody really care?<br /> About Time... <br /> <br /> '''World's Columbian Exposition'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> 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. &quot;The thousand or more such wonders which awaited [the Chums] there.&quot; p.3<br /> <br /> '''lifelines'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Called &quot;manropes&quot; 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.<br /> <br /> '''as my faithful readers will remember'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Pynchon here is immediately inserting this story into a larger canon of Chums of Chance fictions, titles of which are mentioned in subsequent pages.<br /> <br /> '''mascotte'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> The English word 'mascot' has its origin in the late 19th cent.: from French mascotte. The spelling may also be a tribute to the Dutch brand of rolling papers. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mascotte_%28rolling_papers%29 [Wikipedia]]<br /> <br /> ==Page 4==<br /> <br /> '''Professor'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Randolph St. Cosmo is called Professor.<br /> &quot;Professor&quot; was a common title for early hot-air balloonists. [EC]<br /> <br /> '''&quot;Turn to&quot;'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Evokes the &quot;Go to!&quot; of Majistral and compatriots, ''V.'', chapter eleven. &quot;Turn to&quot; is also a shipboard expression, &quot;put your back into it&quot; or something of the kind.<br /> <br /> '''Perhaps its familiarity... rendered it temporarily invisible to you.&quot;&lt;br&gt;<br /> Perhaps an admonition from the author that familiar things will be easily overlooked?<br /> 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.<br /> <br /> '''&quot;for Miles, while possessed of good intentions and the kindest heart in the little band, suffered at times from a confusion in his motor processes, often producing lively results, yet as frequently compromising the crew's physical safety.'''&quot;&lt;br&gt;<br /> Talk about Filles de Kilimanjaro and Miles post-quintet years, a prolonged effect on survivors after the bombings of 1945 and in the arts of Japan’s exploding subculture.<br /> <br /> '''Chick Counterfly'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Three possibilities: (1) A counter fly is an annoyance in (say) the butcher's shop. (2) Chick always speaks &quot;counter&quot; to anyone else's &quot;flight&quot; of imagery. (3) The only non-''AtD''-related uses of this word that I've found came in patents describing mechanisms; &quot;the counterfly direction&quot; means contrary to the direction everything else is flying in, hence this character counters the flying of the craft?<br /> <br /> He is the only Chum we know who was &quot;rescued&quot; from the &quot;real&quot; 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<br /> on a different &quot;earth&quot; happens.<br /> <br /> Like Suckling's name suggesting a relationship to another Pynchon character (Pig Bodine), Pynchon winks at a relationship between Counterfly and Tyrone Slothrop. In Counterfly´s first utterance in the book, “Ha ha,” cried young Counterfly, “say, but if you ain’t the most slob-footed chap I ever seen!” you can derive &quot;Tyrone Slothrop&quot; from an anagram of Counterfly and &quot;slob-footed chap.&quot;<br /> <br /> :Huh? That's a pretty sloppy anagram, ain't it? What about that &quot;b&quot; and that&quot;d&quot; ... this is ''way'' too much of a stretch. There's something to these names, perhaps, but I don't think you're close here, friend.<br /> <br /> ==Page 5==<br /> <br /> '''&quot;all tableware with Chums of Chance Insignia is Organizational property&quot;'''&lt;br /&gt;<br /> The organization in question is the Chums of Chance themselves, here considered as an institution rather than as a collection of individuals.<br /> <br /> '''picklesome'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Having the nature of a pickle, i.e, a boy who is inclined to mischief.<br /> <br /> A word not much seen since the nineteenth century.<br /> <br /> '''Pugnax'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> I suspect that, in keeping with a very strong [[Birds|&quot;bird&quot; 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 &quot;utterance&quot; is &quot;Rr Rff-rff Rr-rr-rff-rrf-rrf&quot;...<br /> <br /> There are a number of characters named after birds or bird sounds: Linnet Dawes, &quot;Pert&quot; Chirpingdon-Groin (there is a pert bird), and Wren Provenance immediately come to mind, but I'm sure there are others, and there are myriad bird references and metaphors (the Sodality of Ǣtheronauts and their mechanical wings); I just haven't had the time to explore it deeply, but others may... (Just read [[Birds|the bit about birds]] from ''Homage to Pythagoras''... <br /> <br /> 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)]].<br /> <br /> The name meaning, in Latin, &quot;likes to fight&quot; (i.e. one who is pugnacious). Pugnax's fantastic intelligence recalls another intelligent Pynchon dog, the Learned English Dog in ''Mason &amp; Dixon''. His manner of speech is somewhat reminiscent of the mystery-solving cartoon dog Scooby-Doo, and [http://waste.org/mail/?list=pynchon-l&amp;month=0612&amp;msg=112507&amp;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.<br /> <br /> Could this name be an homage to the dog in the Asterix comics, Idéfix in French; Dogmatix in English? Many of the character in the Asterix comics have names ending in &quot;x&quot;.<br /> <br /> '''&quot;...during a confidential assignment in Our Nation's Capitol (see ''The Chums of Chance and the Evil Halfwit'')...&quot;'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> 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 &quot;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.&quot;<br /> <br /> The Chums &quot;rescued Pugnax, then but a pup&quot;--an innocent, a child creature--&quot;from a furious encounter..between rival packs of the city's wild dogs&quot;.<br /> The wild dogs equal both political parties? <br /> <br /> '''lavatorial assaults'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> &quot;from the sky, which no one can &quot;begin to try to record, much less coordinate reports of&quot; recall the V-2 rockets which are linked to Slothrop's erections in ''Gravity's Rainbow''. That is, pee from the sky is &quot;folklore, superstition, or perhaps...the religious&quot; in ATD compared to rockets screaming across the sky and the destruction in GR.<br /> <br /> This also recalls jokes and urban legends regarding frozen waste from leaky airplane lavatories (i.e., &quot;you can still be hit by an icy B.M.&quot;)<br /> <br /> ==Page 6==<br /> <br /> '''''Princess Casamassima'''''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Published 1886 (James had published two others by 1893), a classic dealing with terrorists, anarchists, and bombings. [http://www.henryjames.org.uk/pcasa/home.htm Full text] Sequel to &quot;Roderick Hudson&quot;. 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.&lt;br&gt;<br /> :Thematically, it's reactionary, the opposite of AtD.&lt;br&gt; <br /> :ATD is not reactionary but also not the opposite of Princess Casamassima thematically, it can be easily argued. <br /> <br /> Pugnax prefers in his reading &quot;sentimental tales about his own species [rather] than those exhibiting extremes of human behavior, which he appeared to find a bit lurid.&quot; It seems Pynchon is slyly commenting on James' Princess Casamassima here in that that James novel DID deal with 'extremes of human behaviour' yet Pugnax prefers 'sentimental tales'!&lt;br&gt; 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 - &quot;like the rest of the crew&quot;. <br /> <br /> Or: it is a theme in GR, that the book, writing itself, is an abstraction from experience and not, of course, the thing itself. Noseworth, &quot;who placed upon the word 'book' . . . contempt&quot; did, however, know the subject matter of ''Princess Casamassima''. He, Noseworth, hopes they will &quot;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.&quot; It matters that the Chums ARE also characters in books of their adventures. <br /> <br /> It should also be noted that ''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.<br /> <br /> '''Placing . . . an emphasis'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Lapse of authorial control? Surely the creator of the ''Chums'' novels would not write such a Pynchonian sentence fragment!<br /> <br /> '''Pugnax sniffed . . . as always this scent eluded him'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> If Pugnax doesn't detect a human scent, that suggests Lindsay is not human. Not human, Master-at-Arms, speaks in hyper-constructed prose, has a notably short fuse . . . he's Lieutenant Worf of ''Star Trek, the Next Generation.''<br /> <br /> '''''Krakatoa'''''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Erupted 1883. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Krakatoa Wikipedia entry.]<br /> <br /> '''Heino Vanderjuice of New Haven'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Scientist who designed the ''Inconvenience's'' hydrogen engine. &quot;Vanderjuice&quot; suggests both &quot;wonder juice&quot; and &quot;wander juice,&quot; fitting since his engine allows the Chums to wander and is wondrous insofar as it apparently violates the [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Second_law_of_thermodynamics second law of thermodynamics]. &quot;Heino&quot; (HIE-no) is a man's given name [http://www.behindthename.com/php/view.php?name=heino meaning 'home'] in German, Finnish, and Estonian. Perhaps an allusion to the German pop star, [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Heino Heino].<br /> <br /> :Um, a quibble: ''Vanderjuice'' is some kind of corrupted Dutch, and in Dutch the name Heino would be pronounced HAY-no. He is not an immigrant, though, and American speakers no doubt say HIGH-no.<br /> <br /> Jules Verne influence? Vanderjuice a red herring, pointing to Dutch origin and electrical (&quot;juice&quot;) background? Or does one try to parse the name into eg &quot;Fond O' Juice&quot;?<br /> <br /> '''no better than a perpetual-motion machine'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> 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 (&quot;secret free energy source the government doesn't want you to know about&quot;) or mistakes. The hydrogen generator/engine is neither, which is why the disdainful phrase &quot;no better than&quot; is crucial.<br /> <br /> 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?<br /> <br /> '''Miles, with his marginal gifts of coördination, and Chick, with a want of alacrity fully as perceptible'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Like the old gag: The food in this restaurant isn't any good, but the service is awful.<br /> <br /> '''ratlines and shrouds'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> ''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.<br /> <br /> '''&quot;. . . anemometer of the Robinson's type&quot;'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Cup anemometer 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]<br /> <br /> '''how rapidly the ship was proceeding'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> 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.<br /> <br /> ==Page 7==<br /> <br /> '''Porfirio Díaz'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> President of Mexico 1876-1880, 1884-1911. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Porfirio_D%C3%ADaz Wikipedia]<br /> <br /> 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?<br /> <br /> '''&quot;beside a black-water river of the Deep South&quot;.&lt;br&gt;<br /> Blackwater River is in lower central Florida, pretty deep south; but there are numerous rivers in swampy areas that run black with organic matter.&lt;br&gt;<br /> 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]<br /> Thousands of news stories in September/October 2007.<br /> <br /> '''a bitter and unresolved &quot;piece of business&quot;'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Rather than give a proper reason for the Chums to be in the Deep South, the narrator cops out by pleading that it's &quot;not advisable&quot; to specify.<br /> <br /> '''&quot;the Rebellion of thirty years previous&quot;'''&lt;br /&gt;<br /> The Civil War was not called such during the time it was occurring; the South called it &quot;the war between the states&quot; to emphasize both their right to secede from the union and that this was a war between sovereign states; the North called it &quot;the Rebellion of 1861&quot; or, after termination of hostilities, &quot;the Rebellion of 1861-1865,&quot; appellations that did not recognize the South's right to secede.<br /> <br /> '''&quot;one still not advisable to set upon one's page&quot;'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> The American Civil War, that &quot;rebellion of thirty years previous,&quot; has not yet become a suitable subject for an adventure tale such as the Chums'.<br /> <br /> '''absquatulated'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Means to move away quickly, usually to avoid capture. Apparently a mock-Latinate formation, &quot;to go off and squat somewhere else.&quot; [http://www.worldwidewords.org/weirdwords/ww-abs1.htm A brief article] on the history and etymology of &quot;absquatulate.&quot;&lt;br&gt;<br /> The word is used in Vineland.<br /> <br /> '''&quot;Crackerjack!&quot; exclaimed Chick.'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> 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: &quot;Crackerjack&quot; entered English first as a noun referring to &quot;a person or thing of marked excellence,&quot; 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 &quot;crackerjack&quot; 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.<br /> <br /> '''to approach the gates of the Penitentiary'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> 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 &quot;never know how many Republicans were compelled to approach the gates of the penitentiary to make him president.&quot;<br /> <br /> '''posse comitatus'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> What Western movie fans know as a &quot;posse,&quot; 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. <br /> <br /> In the 1980s, a radical, violent, right-wing and anti-government movement adopted the name &quot;Posse Comitatus.&quot;<br /> <br /> ==Page 8==<br /> <br /> '''a pocketful of specie'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Specie means coins as opposed to paper money.<br /> <br /> '''the town of Thick Bush'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Aside from whether this phrase might apply to some political figure of the past or present, &quot;thick bush&quot; is the literal meaning of the Spanish Matagorda, the name of many towns in Latin America and one on the Gulf Coast of Texas.<br /> <br /> '''&quot;which directs us never to interfere with legal customs of any locality down at which we may happen to have touched&quot;'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> 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 &quot;This is the kind of carping criticism up with which I will not put.&quot;<br /> <br /> '''legal customs'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Legal = pertaining to law, in this case lynch law. The Chums are interpreting their Prime Directive pretty broadly here.<br /> <br /> '''Katie bar the door'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> 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.)<br /> <br /> '''Ku Klux Klan'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Reminiscent of the [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ku_Klux_Klan Klan] encounter scenes in the Coen Brothers' ''O Brother, Where Art Thou''. <br /> <br /> '''tupelo, cypress, and hickory'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> The trees are no help in locating the town; all three kinds like bottom land and grow all over the South.<br /> <br /> '''speed . . . made it nearly invisible from the ground'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> 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.<br /> <br /> ''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 &quot;clear&quot; 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.<br /> <br /> '''way better than a mile a minute'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> The Chums' point of departure is unknown, but they arrived in Chicago after catching a southerly wind (pg 3), southerly meaning &quot;wind blowing from the south.&quot; 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.)<br /> <br /> ==Page 9==<br /> <br /> '''locker'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> On board ship, any cabinet with a door or lid.<br /> <br /> '''&quot;Do not imagine, that in coming aboard ''Inconvenience'' you have escaped into any realm of the counterfactual...&quot;'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> This may be Pynchon directly addressing the reader. Given that his [[Against_the_Day_description|book description]] proclaims the world of AtD as &quot;what the world might be with a minor adjustment or two,&quot; 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.&lt;br&gt;<br /> 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.<br /> <br /> A-and it must mean, coming from the commander, that all aboard the ''Inconvenience'' are also subjects to the 'facts' of the world. &quot;The World is All that is the Case&quot;, from Wittgenstein, quoted in V.<br /> (in the original German)<br /> <br /> '''&quot;Going up is like going north.&quot;'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> 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.<br /> <br /> :North is not a positive place in Pynchon's world. It is associated with anti-life---coldness as here---compared to the South, a place of light and warmth, such as the tropics. See GR.<br /> <br /> :But to go far enough north means heading south again, observes Chick Counterfly--is this one meaning of his name? Then one would be &quot;approaching the surface of another planet, maybe?&quot; asks Chick.<br /> <br /> &quot;Not exactly&quot; [answers Randolph] &quot;No. Another 'surface', but an earthly one&quot;<br /> &quot;You'll see. In time, of course&quot;. Time is earthly?<br /> <br /> '''&quot;Another 'surface'&quot;'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> In ancient conics the cone is formed by taking a line through a point (the vertex) at a particular angle to a plane and then inscribing a circle on the plane. Two conic surfaces are made by the motion of this line, one below this point and one above. The three conic sections (hyperbola, parabola, and ellipse) are created by slicing the conic surface(s) at different angles.<br /> :huh?[[User:Bleakhaus|Bleakhaus]] 12:38, 15 January 2007 (PST)<br /> :If you read this for plain meaning, then it's true (or Randolph believes) that there's another earthly surface, to which you can descend by ascending far enough above this one. Surely it is pertinent here that Pynchon's dear friend Richard Fariña (1937-66) titled his novel ''Been Down So Long It Looks Like Up to Me.''<br /> <br /> ==Page 10==<br /> <br /> '''Stockyards'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Chicago was, at the time, the meat-packing and slaughtering capital of the United States. The stench from the stockyards below must have been memorable.<br /> <br /> '''...looked up at the airship in wonder...&quot;&lt;br&gt;<br /> The sight of any airship in 1893 must have been rare indeed.&lt;br&gt;<br /> Our history reports that the first practical airships were built in 1898; [[ATD_429-459#Page_454|the idea or icon was around by 1896, though.]]<br /> <br /> '''Beneath the rubbernecking Chums of Chance wheeled streets and alleyways'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Optical illusion. As you fly over a grid of streets, you perceive a landmark far away to move slowly while the lateral streets near you just whip past. Your brain interprets that the same way as hub and spokes, i.e., the motion of a wheel. Interesting question, though: If the ''Chums'' author was just making this stuff up, how did he know about the illusion?<br /> <br /> '''Cartesian grid'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> From Rene Descartes, 17th century philosopher and mathematician; see Wikipedia entry, whose most famous argument, &quot;I think therefore I am&quot; and mathematical studies have often lead him to be seen as the first modern philosopher of ultra-rationality. Geometry has 'the Cartesian coordinant system, a grid. Chicago's streets are laid out in a very rational grid arrangement. <br /> <br /> Pynchon is reputed to have written [http://gravitys-rainbow.pynchonwiki.com/wiki/ ''Gravity's Rainbow''] on engineer's grid paper.<br /> <br /> In modern mathematics, curves are described only in relation to the two dimensional grid (see previous page). If conic sections are not specifically being thought of here, the theme of dimensionality, at least, is already at play. <br /> <br /> '''that unshaped freedom being rationalized into movement only in straight lines'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Rationalization is a key sociological concept and a prominent theme in [http://gravitys-rainbow.pynchonwiki.com/wiki/index.php?title=R#routinization ''Gravity's Rainbow''] &amp;#151; a spontaneous and charismatic source of authority is eventually &quot;rationalized&quot; and brought under the control of processes and rules. In Pynchon's view, it is a movement toward Death and thematically related to entropy &amp;#151; a prominent theme in [http://v.pynchonwiki.com/wiki/index.php?title=E#entropy ''V.''] &amp;#151; and, in [http://masondixon.pynchonwiki.com/wiki/index.php?title=F#fengshui ''Mason &amp; Dixon''], bad ''Feng Shui'' and the reduction of the fuzzy boundaries between Pennsylvania and Maryland into a straight line.<br /> <br /> From the [http://bitbucket.icaap.org/dict.pl Online Dictionary of Social Science]:<br /> <br /> :This term has two specific meanings in sociology. (1) The concept was developed by German sociologist Max Weber (1864-1920) who used it in two ways. First, it was the process through which magical, supernatural and religious ideas lose cultural importance in a society and ideas based on science and practical calculation become dominant. For example, in modern societies science has rationalized our understanding of weather patterns. Science explains weather patterns as a result of interaction between physical elements like wind-speed and direction, air and water temperatures, humidity, etc. In some other cultures, weather is thought to express the pleasure or displeasure of gods, or spirits of ancestors. One explanation is rationalized and scientific, the other mysterious and magical. Rationalization also involves the development of forms of social organization devoted to the achievement of precise goals by efficient means. It is this type of rationalization that we see in the development of modern business corporations and of bureaucracy. These are organizations dedicated to the pursuit of defined goals by calculated, systematically administered means. (2) Within symbolic interactionism, rationalization is used more in the everyday sense of the word to refer to providing justifications or excuses for one's actions.<br /> <br /> [[ATD_557-587#Page_585|''See also'' annotation on p.585]]<br /> <br /> [[Routinization of Charisma|Read more on this...]]<br /> <br /> '''&quot;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.&quot;'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> From innocent bovines to ...the world? &quot;Single up all lines&quot;....<br /> Stockyards were organized in such a way that the cattle would proceed through a series of chutes and passages, until they arrived alone at the point of death.<br /> <br /> &quot;Progressive reduction of choices&quot; also occurred in [http://masondixon.pynchonwiki.com/wiki/ ''Mason &amp; Dixon''] &amp;#151; there were infinitely many wildernesses out to the west until Mason and Dixon ran the line and rationalized the boundaries into Maryland and Pennsylvania.<br /> <br /> ==Page 11==<br /> <br /> '''plummet'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> 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.<br /> <br /> '''bear a hand'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Nautical: help out.<br /> <br /> ==Page 12==<br /> <br /> '''Liverpool Kiss'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> A head butt.<br /> <br /> '''Herr Riemann'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> 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].<br /> <br /> '''''Mr.'' Noseworth'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Lindsay insisting on proper naval forms: an ensign, lieutenant (junior grade), lieutenant or lieutenant commander in the U.S. navy is correctly addressed as &quot;Mister Surname.&quot;<br /> <br /> '''&quot;topological genius&quot;'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Riemann's differential geometry goes beyond the Cartesian grid. See conic sections and dimensionality above, page 10.<br /> <br /> ==Page 13==<br /> <br /> '''There was an &quot;eager stampede&quot; to the rail''' &lt;br&gt;<br /> 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?<br /> : 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) <br /> <br /> :insightfully true, I suspect, but it still shows 'narratorial knowingness', yes?<br /> <br /> : Cf. Flaubert's use of quotations in ''Madame Bovary'' to isolate what he deemed the contemptible argot of the bourgeoisie.<br /> <br /> ::Apparently not a cliche: [http://books.google.com//books?num=100&amp;q=eager.stampede&amp;as_brr=0 GoogleBooks]<br /> <br /> '''&quot;...among the brighter star-shapes of exploded ballast bags...&quot;''' &lt;br&gt;<br /> Recalls the opening line of ''Mason &amp; Dixon'': &quot;Snow-Balls have flown their Arcs, starr‘d the Sides of Outbuildings, as of Cousins...&quot;<br /> <br /> '''&quot;...quite as if were some giant eyeball, perhaps that of Society itself, ever scrutinizing from above, in a spirit of constructive censure.&quot;'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> 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&amp;page_number=4&amp;template_id=1&amp;sort_order=1 At MoMa's Online Collection]<br /> Notice that society = censure, if constructive. Gamboling nude on a summer day was OK until the ''Inconvenience'', as eyeball, appeared.<br /> <br /> :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.<br /> <br /> ==Page 14==<br /> <br /> '''charmed into docility'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> 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.<br /> <br /> '''Jacob's-ladder'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Used here as &quot;a marine ladder of rope or chain with wooden or iron rungs&quot; (Webster's Third New International Dictionary, Unabridged) but is suggestive of Jacob's ladder in Genesis:<br /> <br /> 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)<br /> <br /> '''a giant sack of soiled laundry'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Perhaps ''freshly'' soiled during the great hydrogen valve disaster.<br /> <br /> '''''vol-à-voile'''''&lt;br&gt;<br /> The narrator has turned the French phrase ''vol-à-voiles'' (gliding) into a verb (removing the ''s'').<br /> <br /> '''gold-beaters' skin'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> 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.<br /> <br /> '''Evening Quarters'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Naval practice of mustering the crew at the end of the day's work.<br /> <br /> ==Page 15==<br /> <br /> '''ukulelist'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Ukuleles also appear in ''Gravity's Rainbow'', ''Vineland'', and ''Mason &amp; Dixon''. According to Jules Siegel's article, &quot;Who is Thomas Pynchon, and why did he take off with my wife?&quot;, Pynchon himself played the ukulele in college.<br /> <br /> '''Vagabonds of the Void'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> 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.&lt;br&gt;<br /> <br /> [[image:Macassar-Oil.jpg|thumb|175px|''Macassar Oil. An Oily Puff for Soft Heads''|right]]'''Beaufort Scale'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> A scale for measuring wind strength, developed 1805.<br /> <br /> '''&quot;Let the lightning lash ~ And the thunder trash&quot;&lt;br&gt;<br /> Again, the Chums are rock stars, the coolest cats in town.<br /> <br /> '''&quot;...forty-four buttons...one for each State of the Union.&quot;&lt;br&gt;<br /> Wyoming was the 44th state admitted to the union in 1890.<br /> <br /> '''port section of the crew'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> The half of the crew permitted to go freely ashore this time. The other half tomorrow. &quot;Port&quot; and &quot;starboard&quot;: are these simply either/or words that sailors remember easily?<br /> <br /> '''Macassar oil'''&lt;br /&gt;<br /> 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]<br /> <br /> ==Page 16==<br /> <br /> '''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.'''&lt;br/&gt;<br /> 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 &lt;i&gt;The Devil In The White City&lt;/i&gt; by Erik Larson and &lt;i&gt;Depraved&lt;/i&gt; 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]<br /> <br /> '''tension of the gas'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> I.e., the pressure in the bag.<br /> <br /> ==Page 17==<br /> <br /> '''&quot;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&quot;'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> 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...as is this book, ATD?...Again a Pynchonian theme: no book is the reality.<br /> <br /> '''&quot;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.&quot;'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Is this just a metaphor from the narrator to describe what it is like for Darby, or is it also self-referential to<br /> all the adventures of the Chums?. Another Q: Is the Commandant of Earthly Days the invisible presence from whom the chums get their orders? Cf. earthly surface, p.9<br /> :Related Q: Do the Chums receive their orders from the author of their books?<br /> <br /> '''we were usually out the door and on the main road'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Dick and Chick knew the judge was more likely to order them out of town than into the lockup.<br /> <br /> '''Chinese foofooraw'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Also spelled foofaraw, a great deal of fuss, or useless frills. Cf folderol. However, why Chinese? <br /> :Chick's father tried to sell Mississippi to a Chinese syndicate.<br /> <br /> '''cubeb'''&lt;br /&gt;<br /> 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.<br /> <br /> '''&quot;...goldurn Keeley Cure&quot;'''&lt;br /&gt;<br /> A treatment for alcohol, nicotine and narcotic addiction involving injections of &quot;bichloride&quot; or &quot;double chloride&quot; of gold, and also known as the &quot;gold cure&quot;. 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.<br /> <br /> ==Page 18==<br /> <br /> '''headgear'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Description vaguely reminiscent of &quot;Madame Bovary&quot;. [http://robotwisdom.com/flaubert/bovary/bovary1.html [notes]]<br /> <br /> '''eclipse green'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Apparently an actual shade. [http://encyclopedia.jrank.org/DIO_DRO/DIRECT.html [cite]]<br /> <br /> '''Bindlestiffs of the Blue A.C.'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Bindlestiff means hobo; hence, the Hoboes of the Sky Aeronautical Club.<br /> <br /> '''(&quot;Penny&quot;) Black'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> 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]]<br /> <br /> '''Tzigane'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> French for &quot;gypsy&quot;. Also a piece by Ravel. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tzigane_(Ravel) [Wikipedia]]<br /> <br /> '''Egypt'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> 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 &quot;Egypt,&quot; especially in the 19th century. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Little_Egypt_(region) [Wikipedia]]<br /> <br /> ==Page 19==<br /> <br /> '''goin all blue from the light of that electric fluid'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> 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.<br /> <br /> '''Voices calling out together'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> 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.<br /> <br /> [[image:balloons-paris.jpg|thumb|200px|Garçons de '71|right]]'''Garçons de '71'''&lt;br /&gt;<br /> 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...]]<br /> <br /> '''a condition of ''permanent siege'''''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Surely no one has failed to notice what a &quot;wartime president&quot; is allowed to get away with. &quot;No reference to the present day is intended or should be inferred.&quot;<br /> <br /> '''pétroleurs de Paris'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> An early form of Molotov cocktail thrower during the Siege of Paris. There were pétroleurs and pétroleuses.<br /> <br /> ==Page 20==<br /> <br /> '''they'll fly wherever they're needed'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> While the Chums obey orders from above, the Garçons de '71 follow a different imperative.<br /> <br /> '''energy we could feel, directed personally at us'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Someone may be trying to influence what the Bindlestiffs do, or keep them away from the Garçons' work of mercy.<br /> <br /> ==Page 21==<br /> <br /> '''admissions gate'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Apparently a break in the fence, capitalized on by freelance impresarios.<br /> <br /> '''fifty-cent pieces'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> 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.<br /> <br /> ==Page 22==<br /> <br /> '''Kodaks'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> The word Kodak was trademarked in 1888, and the first Kodak camera was sold with the slogan, &quot;You press the button - we do the rest.&quot; 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.<br /> <br /> '''half-light . . . in the interests of mercy . . . the safety of the lights'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Interesting contrast suggesting a tradeoff between comfort/solace in the shadows and safety in the bright light.<br /> <br /> '''Isandhlwana'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> 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 &quot;military&quot; and &quot;blunders&quot; in the title.<br /> <br /> ==Page 23==<br /> <br /> '''Tarahumara'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> 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]]<br /> <br /> '''&quot;geek&quot;'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> 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 &quot;Fear Factor,&quot; but sad rather than stultifying.<br /> <br /> '''monte'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Three-card monte.<br /> <br /> ==Page 24==<br /> <br /> '''the curse of Scotland'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> 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]]<br /> <br /> '''like the electricity coming on... how everything fits together, connects. It doesn't last long, though.'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> 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. <br /> <br /> 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, Miles is also said to suffer from &quot;confusion in his motor processes&quot;, which may be related.<br /> <br /> '''Cracker Jack'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> First sold at the at the first Chicago World's Fair in 1893. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cracker_Jack [Wikipedia]]<br /> <br /> '''New Levee district'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Chicago's redlight district c1890. [http://www.ipsn.org/genesis.htm [cite]]<br /> <br /> '''Epworth League'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> A Methodist youth organization founded in 1889. [http://www.southernmethodistchurch.org/id48.htm [cite]]<br /> <br /> ==Page 25==<br /> <br /> '''Haymarket bomb'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> 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 &quot;a bomb-throwing anarchist.&quot; 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].<br /> <br /> '''if the Governor decides to pardon that gang of anarchistic murderers'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> 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 &lt;i&gt;The Haymarket Tragedy&lt;/i&gt; by Paul Avrich and &lt;i&gt;Death In The Haymarket&lt;/i&gt; by James Green.<br /> <br /> '''mixture of contempt and pity'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> This is ''definitely'' not from one of the Chums' adventure stories.<br /> <br /> '''embonpoint'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Convexity of body; what used to be called a &quot;prosperous&quot; look.<br /> <br /> '''duck soup'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Meaning &quot;an easy task,&quot; 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.<br /> <br /> ==References==<br /> &lt;references /&gt;<br /> <br /> ==Annotation Index==<br /> {{ATD PbP}}</div>

MKOHUT https://against-the-day.pynchonwiki.com/wiki/index.php?title=ATD_1-25&diff=14141 2007-10-22T00:51:51Z

<p>MKOHUT: /* Page 1 */</p> <hr /> <div>:'''&lt;big&gt;Please keep these annotations SPOILER-FREE by not revealing information from later pages in the novel.&lt;/big&gt;'''&lt;p&gt;&lt;br&gt;<br /> <br /> ==cover text==<br /> The black text and its drop shadows are in different typefaces. It may be worth noting, from a conceptual point of view, that we can infer from the angle of the drop shadows that the light source is any individual holding the book—that is, the reader or a potential reader.<br /> <br /> ==cover seal==<br /> The seal appears to be written in Tibetan language, according to somebody who posts regularly to Pynchon-l under the name &quot;Ya Sam&quot;, who reports:<br /> <br /> I contacted the Tibetan Cultural Centre with the request to translate <br /> the mysterious legend on the AtD seal. They were kind enough to forward my <br /> request to the Tibetan tranlsator Tenzin Namgyal to whose generosity we <br /> owe the solution of one more ATD related mystery.<br /> <br /> It is the Tibetan language, alright, and it means ...... Tibetan <br /> Government Chamber of Commerce.<br /> <br /> Read their response below:<br /> <br /> :Dear Ya Sam,&lt;br /&gt;<br /> :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?<br /> <br /> :Best wishes,<br /> <br /> :Sandy Belth&lt;br /&gt;<br /> :Tibetan Cultural Center<br /> <br /> Also of interest: the coin bears a striking 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:<br /> <br /> :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, &quot;The Doubloon&quot;)<br /> <br /> ==copyright page==<br /> 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 &quot;Penguin Press&quot; as the publisher, as could be expected, and it seems likely that the substitution of &quot;Penguin Press&quot; with &quot;Viking&quot; is one of many typographical errors in the book (see [[errata]]). <br /> 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: &quot;this was a copyediting mistake that will be corrected. There was never a Viking contract for this book.&quot;<br /> <br /> ==Dedication==<br /> Most of Pynchon's novels contain dedications-- ''Mason &amp; Dixon'' (&quot;For Melanie, and for Jackson&quot;) , ''Vineland'' (&quot;For my mother and father&quot;), and ''Gravity's Rainbow'' (&quot;For Richard Fariña&quot;)-- but not so ''Against the Day,'' as published. Advance reading copies of the book did contain the words &quot;Dedication TK&quot; in italics, but this is simply [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/To_Come publisher-speak] for &quot;dedication to come.&quot; 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. <br /> <br /> ==Epigraph==<br /> &quot;It's always night, or we wouldn't need light.&quot; - Thelonious Monk&lt;br&gt;<br /> 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 &quot;God&quot;; 2) the character McClintic Sphere in ''V''. takes Monk's middle name, Sphere; and 3) &quot;It's always night, or we wouldn't need light&quot; 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]]: &quot;...daylit America ... its steadfast denial of night.&quot; <br /> <br /> ==Page 1==<br /> <br /> '''The Light Over the Ranges'''&lt;br&gt; <br /> &quot;Range&quot; is defined in the ''Oxford American Dictionary'' as &quot;a line or series of mountains or hills : the coastal ranges of the northwest,&quot; so &quot;range&quot; or &quot;ranges&quot; can be used to denote a number of mountains.&lt;br&gt;<br /> <br /> 'Ranges' may also refer to farms, homesteads and ranches in 1893 America. America was predominantly that in 1893. Cf. &quot;Home, home on the range&quot;.<br /> <br /> &quot;celebrating in song the wider range of life...&quot; Thomas Pynchon on<br /> [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Helen_Waddell Helen Waddell's]<br /> ''The Wandering Scholars'', p. 8, Introduction to[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Slow_Learner ''Slow Learner], 1984.<br /> <br /> A range is also a group of diverse objects.<br /> <br /> A-and &quot;range&quot; is a word full of its own meaning. [[Range|A partial list of definitions of &quot;range&quot;...]]&lt;br&gt;<br /> Range as diversity---lost---may be a major theme of AtD.<br /> <br /> ==Page 3==<br /> <br /> '''&quot;Now single up all lines!&quot;'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Pynchon was in the Navy for a spell and &quot;single up all lines&quot; 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 &quot;single up all lines&quot; is to remove the redundant second lines in preparation to make way.<br /> <br /> But the opening line has many possible connotations. <br /> :The Modern Word's Quail [http://www.themodernword.com/reviews/pynchon_atd.html writes] that &quot;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.&quot; <br /> <br /> :&quot;single up all lines&quot; 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 &amp; Dixon'', pp.258 and 260]. Perhaps we can understand this &quot;line&quot; as a text-string linking Pynchon's novels together (all but ''Vineland''?) &amp;#151; in preparation for a voyage to...?<br /> <br /> Also, in the very first sentence, Pynchon introduces the concept of doubling &amp;#151; &quot;single up all lines&quot; as a call to journey, to movement and expansion, a beginning. Then, on [[#Page_10|page 10]]: &quot;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.&quot; Thus, a progressive singling or reduction of all lines/paths, a rationalization/routinization unto death. ''See also'' [[ATD_557-587#Page_585|annotation, page 585]] and more on [[Routinization of Charisma]].<br /> <br /> '''&quot;Cheerly now...handsomely...very well!!&quot;'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Cheerly means &quot;heartily,&quot; and was traditionally used as cry of encouragement among sailors. Handsomely (in nautical context): carefully, in good order, unhurriedly.<br /> <br /> :Pynchon served in the Navy and uses nautical language in most of his novels. ''Mason &amp; Dixon'': &quot;Cheerly. Cheerly, then, Lads...&quot; (54).<br /> <br /> '''&quot;Windy City, here we come!&quot;'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> The nickname for Chicago, of course, but in 1893 the use meant city of braggarts more than it did wind. The earliest known references to the &quot;Windy City&quot; are from 1876, and involve Chicago's rivalry with Cincinnati. A popular myth states that &quot;Windy City&quot; was first used by New York Sun editor Charles Dana in the bidding for the 1893 Columbian Exposition. The popularity of the nickname has endured, even after the Cincinnati rivalry and the Columbian Exposition both ended. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Windy_City,_Origin_of_Name_(Chicago)| Origin of name &quot;Windy City&quot; at Wikipedia]<br /> <br /> '''Randolph St. Cosmo, the ship commander'''&lt;br /&gt;<br /> [[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 &quot;randy&quot; St. Cosmo, aka the &quot;modern Priapus,&quot; and the saintly martyred St. Cosmo of Church lore. Pynchon, it seems, is connecting Randolph St. Cosmo to the former. &quot;Randy,&quot; as astute observers will note, is an adjective which means, well, &quot;horny.&quot; 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...]]) &amp;#151; a-and Heartsease, St. Cosmo's mate, is the first to get pregnant! &amp;#151; 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]<br /> <br /> In [http://masondixon.pynchonwiki.com/wiki/index.php?title=V#veery ''Mason &amp; Dixon''], Pynchon has the Veery brothers, Cosmo and Damian, who are professional effigy makes in Philadelphia! And, just to make it interesting, &quot;He's a rare Wax Artist, our Cosmo is.&quot; (p. 290) (Note: Wax phallus effigies were offered by the women to St. Cosmo at the festivals held in his name, as shown above.)<br /> <br /> '''Now secure the Special Sky Detail'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> 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 &quot;Now set the Special Sea Detail.&quot;] ''Inconvenience'' is run along fairly strict naval lines—given the age of the officers and crew, you might say she is a tot ship—and the beginning of the book was preceded by an analogous &quot;Now set the Special Sky Detail.&quot; Once the ship is aloft and clear of ground obstructions, the command comes, &quot;Now secure the Special Sky Detail,&quot; meaning disband the team for the time being and all return to regular duties. The language, tasks and customs aboard the skyship will show parallels to navy usage throughout the book.<br /> <br /> '''summer uniform of red-and-white-striped blazer and trousers of sky blue'''&lt;br /&gt;<br /> Calls to mind the color scheme of Ned Land's (Kirk Douglas) costume in Disney's 1954 film version of ''20,000 Leagues under the Sea''.&lt;br&gt;<br /> <br /> Also calls to mind the colors of the American flag.<br /> <br /> '''&quot;scuttlebutt&quot; . . . thousand . . . wonders'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> 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 &quot;Book of the Fair&quot; by Hubert Bancroft, 1893.<br /> :&quot;Scuttlebutt&quot; is a very close equivalent to &quot;water-cooler gossip.&quot; [http://www.jacksjoint.com/sailor_terminology.htm Here is a glossary] of nautical terms with some of the etymologies.<br /> <br /> '''''Inconvenience'''''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Pynchon's fictional navy includes the USS Scaffold 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. Impulsive is the name of the ship Ploy, who loses all his teeth in V., gets transferred to.<br /> Inconvenience is an apt name for the Chums' adventures in 'reality'. They are an inconvenience; they are inconvenienced. (In having to take on Chick Counterfly, for example).&lt;br&gt;<br /> <br /> Pynchon uses the word ''inconvenience'' in a possibly thematic, connected way in ''Mason &amp; Dixon'' and in ''Gravity's Rainbow''. In ''Mason &amp; Dixon'', the word is applied to the difficulties of an Other, other human beings as we act, interact. See citations at the ''M &amp; D'' wiki. Here is the clearest relevant use for understanding for the Chums' airship, perhaps: from ''Gravity's Rainbow'': &quot;the gift of Daedalus that allowed him [Pokler] to put as much labyrinth as required between himself and the<br /> ''inconveniences of caring''. [Italics mine] They had sold him convenience, so much of it, all on credit, and now They were collecting.&quot;<br /> page 435, Penguin paperback edition with the Frank Miller cover. <br /> <br /> In addition, if we take the Latinate roots of in-con-ven-(ience) and willfully misread the &quot;in&quot; as adverbial &quot;in&quot; (as e.g. &quot;in-come&quot;) rather than the privative &quot;not&quot; (as e.g. &quot;in-cred-ible&quot;), we get &quot;the arriving-in-together&quot;; the &quot;inconvenience&quot;, then, is essentially a tongue-in-cheek &quot;vehicle&quot;.&lt;br&gt;<br /> I do not think it illuminating to &quot;willfully misread&quot;!?! We are trying to<br /> willfully read possible meanings and resonances. [[User:MKOHUT|MKOHUT]] 06:01, 2 August 2007 (PDT)<br /> <br /> Also, recall Fender-Belly Bodine, in [http://masondixon.pynchonwiki.com/wiki/index.php?title=I#inconvenience ''Mason &amp; Dixon'']: &quot;Back on old H.M.S. ''Inconvenience'', we wasted many a Day and Night watching that fancy Counter get smaller by the minute...&quot; (p.28)<br /> <br /> '''patriotic bunting'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> TRP reminds again that this is a very American skyship.&lt;br&gt;<br /> AtD has many echoes of Doctorow's &quot;Ragtime&quot;: Doctorow fictionalises the same era, including anarchists, bombings, and early Hollywood. <br /> <br /> '''aeronautics'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> 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]<br /> <br /> '''five-lad crew'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Randolph St. Cosmo (ship commander), Lindsay Noseworth (master-at-arms), Miles Blundell (handyman apprentice), Darby Suckling (factotum and mascot), and Chick Counterfly. The commander's name evokes Randolph St., a main thoroughfare in Chicago. Perhaps also saint(liness) and cosmos?<br /> <br /> '''The [[Chums of Chance]]'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> To be chummy with chance might mean lucky, fond of gambling, fond of chaos, irrational, or anarchist. Or maybe they became chums by accident. The &quot;chance&quot; may also be that of the winds that carry them in directions not always intended.<br /> :The American philospher Charles Sanders Peirce, who set down his most important ideas in the late 1800's, argued that 'Chance' was a feature of the universe that can refute all determinisms.<br /> <br /> &quot;The certainty of chance&quot; is a Surrealist slogan. We learned from ''Slow Learner'' that Pynchon was influenced early by Surrealism. <br /> The slogan is quoted in this obit of a real life<br /> character out of Pynchon, George Melly, Jazz singer, writer, anarchist and polymorphous lover.[http://www.economist.com/search/search.cfm?rv=2&amp;qr=melly&amp;area=1&amp;x=6&amp;y=7]<br /> <br /> 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, &quot;The Boys.&quot;<br /> <br /> [[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. &quot;The Explorigator&quot; 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'' ran for 14 weeks in 1908 and made an impression for its imaginative and visual creativity. [[The Explorigator|More on ''The Explorigator'']] &lt;ref&gt;[http://lambiek.net/artists/d/dart_harry_grant.htm Lambiek Comiclopedia]&lt;/ref&gt;<br /> <br /> 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]. <br /> <br /> The creativity of Pynchon's naming of the Chums, as other characters, shows yet again his Dickensian influence.<br /> <br /> Note that there's five Chums, the number of chapters of the book (a-and the number of letters in &quot;Chums&quot;!). <br /> <br /> '''Chicago'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> It has been suggested that Pynchon relied on the [http://www.1911encyclopedia.org/ 1911 Edition of the Encyclopaedia Britannica] as a major reference for his treatment of 1890s Chicago. [http://www.1911encyclopedia.org/Chicago 1911 Britannica entry on Chicago]<br /> <br /> Also, The band Chicago's third hit song &quot;Does Anybody Really Know What Time It Is?&quot; deals with how one faces living in a world under constraints of time [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Does_Anybody_Really_Know_What_Time_It_Is%3F]. The opening lyrics are: <br /> <br /> Does anybody really know what time it is?<br /> Does anybody really care?<br /> About Time... <br /> <br /> '''World's Columbian Exposition'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> 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. &quot;The thousand or more such wonders which awaited [the Chums] there.&quot; p.3<br /> <br /> '''lifelines'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Called &quot;manropes&quot; 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.<br /> <br /> '''as my faithful readers will remember'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Pynchon here is immediately inserting this story into a larger canon of Chums of Chance fictions, titles of which are mentioned in subsequent pages.<br /> <br /> '''mascotte'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> The English word 'mascot' has its origin in the late 19th cent.: from French mascotte. The spelling may also be a tribute to the Dutch brand of rolling papers. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mascotte_%28rolling_papers%29 [Wikipedia]]<br /> <br /> ==Page 4==<br /> <br /> '''Professor'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Randolph St. Cosmo is called Professor.<br /> &quot;Professor&quot; was a common title for early hot-air balloonists. [EC]<br /> <br /> '''&quot;Turn to&quot;'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Evokes the &quot;Go to!&quot; of Majistral and compatriots, ''V.'', chapter eleven. &quot;Turn to&quot; is also a shipboard expression, &quot;put your back into it&quot; or something of the kind.<br /> <br /> '''Perhaps its familiarity... rendered it temporarily invisible to you.&quot;&lt;br&gt;<br /> Perhaps an admonition from the author that familiar things will be easily overlooked?<br /> 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.<br /> <br /> '''&quot;for Miles, while possessed of good intentions and the kindest heart in the little band, suffered at times from a confusion in his motor processes, often producing lively results, yet as frequently compromising the crew's physical safety.'''&quot;&lt;br&gt;<br /> Talk about Filles de Kilimanjaro and Miles post-quintet years, a prolonged effect on survivors after the bombings of 1945 and in the arts of Japan’s exploding subculture.<br /> <br /> '''Chick Counterfly'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Three possibilities: (1) A counter fly is an annoyance in (say) the butcher's shop. (2) Chick always speaks &quot;counter&quot; to anyone else's &quot;flight&quot; of imagery. (3) The only non-''AtD''-related uses of this word that I've found came in patents describing mechanisms; &quot;the counterfly direction&quot; means contrary to the direction everything else is flying in, hence this character counters the flying of the craft?<br /> <br /> He is the only Chum we know who was &quot;rescued&quot; from the &quot;real&quot; 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<br /> on a different &quot;earth&quot; happens.<br /> <br /> Like Suckling's name suggesting a relationship to another Pynchon character (Pig Bodine), Pynchon winks at a relationship between Counterfly and Tyrone Slothrop. In Counterfly´s first utterance in the book, “Ha ha,” cried young Counterfly, “say, but if you ain’t the most slob-footed chap I ever seen!” you can derive &quot;Tyrone Slothrop&quot; from an anagram of Counterfly and &quot;slob-footed chap.&quot;<br /> <br /> :Huh? That's a pretty sloppy anagram, ain't it? What about that &quot;b&quot; and that&quot;d&quot; ... this is ''way'' too much of a stretch. There's something to these names, perhaps, but I don't think you're close here, friend.<br /> <br /> ==Page 5==<br /> <br /> '''&quot;all tableware with Chums of Chance Insignia is Organizational property&quot;'''&lt;br /&gt;<br /> The organization in question is the Chums of Chance themselves, here considered as an institution rather than as a collection of individuals.<br /> <br /> '''picklesome'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Having the nature of a pickle, i.e, a boy who is inclined to mischief.<br /> <br /> A word not much seen since the nineteenth century.<br /> <br /> '''Pugnax'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> I suspect that, in keeping with a very strong [[Birds|&quot;bird&quot; 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 &quot;utterance&quot; is &quot;Rr Rff-rff Rr-rr-rff-rrf-rrf&quot;...<br /> <br /> There are a number of characters named after birds or bird sounds: Linnet Dawes, &quot;Pert&quot; Chirpingdon-Groin (there is a pert bird), and Wren Provenance immediately come to mind, but I'm sure there are others, and there are myriad bird references and metaphors (the Sodality of Ǣtheronauts and their mechanical wings); I just haven't had the time to explore it deeply, but others may... (Just read [[Birds|the bit about birds]] from ''Homage to Pythagoras''... <br /> <br /> 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)]].<br /> <br /> The name meaning, in Latin, &quot;likes to fight&quot; (i.e. one who is pugnacious). Pugnax's fantastic intelligence recalls another intelligent Pynchon dog, the Learned English Dog in ''Mason &amp; Dixon''. His manner of speech is somewhat reminiscent of the mystery-solving cartoon dog Scooby-Doo, and [http://waste.org/mail/?list=pynchon-l&amp;month=0612&amp;msg=112507&amp;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.<br /> <br /> Could this name be an homage to the dog in the Asterix comics, Idéfix in French; Dogmatix in English? Many of the character in the Asterix comics have names ending in &quot;x&quot;.<br /> <br /> '''&quot;...during a confidential assignment in Our Nation's Capitol (see ''The Chums of Chance and the Evil Halfwit'')...&quot;'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> 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 &quot;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.&quot;<br /> <br /> The Chums &quot;rescued Pugnax, then but a pup&quot;--an innocent, a child creature--&quot;from a furious encounter..between rival packs of the city's wild dogs&quot;.<br /> The wild dogs equal both political parties? <br /> <br /> '''lavatorial assaults'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> &quot;from the sky, which no one can &quot;begin to try to record, much less coordinate reports of&quot; recall the V-2 rockets which are linked to Slothrop's erections in ''Gravity's Rainbow''. That is, pee from the sky is &quot;folklore, superstition, or perhaps...the religious&quot; in ATD compared to rockets screaming across the sky and the destruction in GR.<br /> <br /> This also recalls jokes and urban legends regarding frozen waste from leaky airplane lavatories (i.e., &quot;you can still be hit by an icy B.M.&quot;)<br /> <br /> ==Page 6==<br /> <br /> '''''Princess Casamassima'''''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Published 1886 (James had published two others by 1893), a classic dealing with terrorists, anarchists, and bombings. [http://www.henryjames.org.uk/pcasa/home.htm Full text] Sequel to &quot;Roderick Hudson&quot;. 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.&lt;br&gt;<br /> :Thematically, it's reactionary, the opposite of AtD.&lt;br&gt; <br /> :ATD is not reactionary but also not the opposite of Princess Casamassima thematically, it can be easily argued. <br /> <br /> Pugnax prefers in his reading &quot;sentimental tales about his own species [rather] than those exhibiting extremes of human behavior, which he appeared to find a bit lurid.&quot; It seems Pynchon is slyly commenting on James' Princess Casamassima here in that that James novel DID deal with 'extremes of human behaviour' yet Pugnax prefers 'sentimental tales'!&lt;br&gt; 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 - &quot;like the rest of the crew&quot;. <br /> <br /> Or: it is a theme in GR, that the book, writing itself, is an abstraction from experience and not, of course, the thing itself. Noseworth, &quot;who placed upon the word 'book' . . . contempt&quot; did, however, know the subject matter of 'Princess Casamassima.' He, Noseworth, hopes they will &quot;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.&quot; It matters that the Chums ARE also characters in books of their adventures. <br /> <br /> 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.<br /> <br /> '''Placing . . . an emphasis'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Lapse of authorial control? Surely the creator of the ''Chums'' novels would not write such a Pynchonian sentence fragment!<br /> <br /> '''Pugnax sniffed . . . as always this scent eluded him'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> If Pugnax doesn't detect a human scent, that suggests Lindsay is not human. Not human, Master-at-Arms, speaks in hyper-constructed prose, has a notably short fuse . . . he's Lieutenant Worf of ''Star Trek, the Next Generation.''<br /> <br /> '''''Krakatoa'''''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Erupted 1883. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Krakatoa Wikipedia entry.]<br /> <br /> '''Heino Vanderjuice of New Haven'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Scientist who designed the ''Inconvenience's'' hydrogen engine. &quot;Vanderjuice&quot; suggests both &quot;wonder juice&quot; and &quot;wander juice,&quot; fitting since his engine allows the Chums to wander and is wondrous insofar as it apparently violates the [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Second_law_of_thermodynamics second law of thermodynamics]. &quot;Heino&quot; (HIE-no) is a man's given name [http://www.behindthename.com/php/view.php?name=heino meaning 'home'] in German, Finnish, and Estonian. Perhaps an allusion to the German pop star, [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Heino Heino].<br /> <br /> :Um, a quibble: ''Vanderjuice'' is some kind of corrupted Dutch, and in Dutch the name Heino would be pronounced HAY-no. He is not an immigrant, though, and American speakers no doubt say HIGH-no.<br /> <br /> Jules Verne influence? Vanderjuice a red herring, pointing to Dutch origin and electrical (&quot;juice&quot;) background? Or does one try to parse the name into eg &quot;Fond O' Juice&quot;?<br /> <br /> '''no better than a perpetual-motion machine'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> 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 (&quot;secret free energy source the government doesn't want you to know about&quot;) or mistakes. The hydrogen generator/engine is neither, which is why the disdainful phrase &quot;no better than&quot; is crucial.<br /> <br /> 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?<br /> <br /> '''Miles, with his marginal gifts of coördination, and Chick, with a want of alacrity fully as perceptible'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Like the old gag: The food in this restaurant isn't any good, but the service is awful.<br /> <br /> '''ratlines and shrouds'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> ''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.<br /> <br /> '''&quot;. . . anemometer of the Robinson's type&quot;'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Cup anemometer 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]<br /> <br /> '''how rapidly the ship was proceeding'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> 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.<br /> <br /> ==Page 7==<br /> <br /> '''Porfirio Díaz'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> President of Mexico 1876-1880, 1884-1911. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Porfirio_D%C3%ADaz Wikipedia]<br /> <br /> 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?<br /> <br /> '''&quot;beside a black-water river of the Deep South&quot;.&lt;br&gt;<br /> Blackwater River is in lower central Florida, pretty deep south; but there are numerous rivers in swampy areas that run black with organic matter.&lt;br&gt;<br /> 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]<br /> Thousands of news stories in September/October 2007.<br /> <br /> '''a bitter and unresolved &quot;piece of business&quot;'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Rather than give a proper reason for the Chums to be in the Deep South, the narrator cops out by pleading that it's &quot;not advisable&quot; to specify.<br /> <br /> '''&quot;the Rebellion of thirty years previous&quot;'''&lt;br /&gt;<br /> The Civil War was not called such during the time it was occurring; the South called it &quot;the war between the states&quot; to emphasize both their right to secede from the union and that this was a war between sovereign states; the North called it &quot;the Rebellion of 1861&quot; or, after termination of hostilities, &quot;the Rebellion of 1861-1865,&quot; appellations that did not recognize the South's right to secede.<br /> <br /> '''&quot;one still not advisable to set upon one's page&quot;'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> The American Civil War, that &quot;rebellion of thirty years previous,&quot; has not yet become a suitable subject for an adventure tale such as the Chums'.<br /> <br /> '''absquatulated'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Means to move away quickly, usually to avoid capture. Apparently a mock-Latinate formation, &quot;to go off and squat somewhere else.&quot; [http://www.worldwidewords.org/weirdwords/ww-abs1.htm A brief article] on the history and etymology of &quot;absquatulate.&quot;&lt;br&gt;<br /> The word is used in Vineland.<br /> <br /> '''&quot;Crackerjack!&quot; exclaimed Chick.'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> 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: &quot;Crackerjack&quot; entered English first as a noun referring to &quot;a person or thing of marked excellence,&quot; 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 &quot;crackerjack&quot; 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.<br /> <br /> '''to approach the gates of the Penitentiary'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> 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 &quot;never know how many Republicans were compelled to approach the gates of the penitentiary to make him president.&quot;<br /> <br /> '''posse comitatus'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> What Western movie fans know as a &quot;posse,&quot; 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. <br /> <br /> In the 1980s, a radical, violent, right-wing and anti-government movement adopted the name &quot;Posse Comitatus.&quot;<br /> <br /> ==Page 8==<br /> <br /> '''a pocketful of specie'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Specie means coins as opposed to paper money.<br /> <br /> '''the town of Thick Bush'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Aside from whether this phrase might apply to some political figure of the past or present, &quot;thick bush&quot; is the literal meaning of the Spanish Matagorda, the name of many towns in Latin America and one on the Gulf Coast of Texas.<br /> <br /> '''&quot;which directs us never to interfere with legal customs of any locality down at which we may happen to have touched&quot;'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> 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 &quot;This is the kind of carping criticism up with which I will not put.&quot;<br /> <br /> '''legal customs'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Legal = pertaining to law, in this case lynch law. The Chums are interpreting their Prime Directive pretty broadly here.<br /> <br /> '''Katie bar the door'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> 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.)<br /> <br /> '''Ku Klux Klan'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Reminiscent of the [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ku_Klux_Klan Klan] encounter scenes in the Coen Brothers' ''O Brother, Where Art Thou''. <br /> <br /> '''tupelo, cypress, and hickory'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> The trees are no help in locating the town; all three kinds like bottom land and grow all over the South.<br /> <br /> '''speed . . . made it nearly invisible from the ground'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> 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.<br /> <br /> ''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 &quot;clear&quot; 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.<br /> <br /> '''way better than a mile a minute'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> The Chums' point of departure is unknown, but they arrived in Chicago after catching a southerly wind (pg 3), southerly meaning &quot;wind blowing from the south.&quot; 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.)<br /> <br /> ==Page 9==<br /> <br /> '''locker'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> On board ship, any cabinet with a door or lid.<br /> <br /> '''&quot;Do not imagine, that in coming aboard ''Inconvenience'' you have escaped into any realm of the counterfactual...&quot;'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> This may be Pynchon directly addressing the reader. Given that his [[Against_the_Day_description|book description]] proclaims the world of AtD as &quot;what the world might be with a minor adjustment or two,&quot; 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.&lt;br&gt;<br /> 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.<br /> <br /> A-and it must mean, coming from the commander, that all aboard the ''Inconvenience'' are also subjects to the 'facts' of the world. &quot;The World is All that is the Case&quot;, from Wittgenstein, quoted in V.<br /> (in the original German)<br /> <br /> '''&quot;Going up is like going north.&quot;'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> 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.<br /> <br /> :North is not a positive place in Pynchon's world. It is associated with anti-life---coldness as here---compared to the South, a place of light and warmth, such as the tropics. See GR.<br /> <br /> :But to go far enough north means heading south again, observes Chick Counterfly--is this one meaning of his name? Then one would be &quot;approaching the surface of another planet, maybe?&quot; asks Chick.<br /> <br /> &quot;Not exactly&quot; [answers Randolph] &quot;No. Another 'surface', but an earthly one&quot;<br /> &quot;You'll see. In time, of course&quot;. Time is earthly?<br /> <br /> '''&quot;Another 'surface'&quot;'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> In ancient conics the cone is formed by taking a line through a point (the vertex) at a particular angle to a plane and then inscribing a circle on the plane. Two conic surfaces are made by the motion of this line, one below this point and one above. The three conic sections (hyperbola, parabola, and ellipse) are created by slicing the conic surface(s) at different angles.<br /> :huh?[[User:Bleakhaus|Bleakhaus]] 12:38, 15 January 2007 (PST)<br /> :If you read this for plain meaning, then it's true (or Randolph believes) that there's another earthly surface, to which you can descend by ascending far enough above this one. Surely it is pertinent here that Pynchon's dear friend Richard Fariña (1937-66) titled his novel ''Been Down So Long It Looks Like Up to Me.''<br /> <br /> ==Page 10==<br /> <br /> '''Stockyards'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Chicago was, at the time, the meat-packing and slaughtering capital of the United States. The stench from the stockyards below must have been memorable.<br /> <br /> '''...looked up at the airship in wonder...&quot;&lt;br&gt;<br /> The sight of any airship in 1893 must have been rare indeed.&lt;br&gt;<br /> Our history reports that the first practical airships were built in 1898; [[ATD_429-459#Page_454|the idea or icon was around by 1896, though.]]<br /> <br /> '''Beneath the rubbernecking Chums of Chance wheeled streets and alleyways'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Optical illusion. As you fly over a grid of streets, you perceive a landmark far away to move slowly while the lateral streets near you just whip past. Your brain interprets that the same way as hub and spokes, i.e., the motion of a wheel. Interesting question, though: If the ''Chums'' author was just making this stuff up, how did he know about the illusion?<br /> <br /> '''Cartesian grid'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> From Rene Descartes, 17th century philosopher and mathematician; see Wikipedia entry, whose most famous argument, &quot;I think therefore I am&quot; and mathematical studies have often lead him to be seen as the first modern philosopher of ultra-rationality. Geometry has 'the Cartesian coordinant system, a grid. Chicago's streets are laid out in a very rational grid arrangement. <br /> <br /> Pynchon is reputed to have written [http://gravitys-rainbow.pynchonwiki.com/wiki/ ''Gravity's Rainbow''] on engineer's grid paper.<br /> <br /> In modern mathematics, curves are described only in relation to the two dimensional grid (see previous page). If conic sections are not specifically being thought of here, the theme of dimensionality, at least, is already at play. <br /> <br /> '''that unshaped freedom being rationalized into movement only in straight lines'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Rationalization is a key sociological concept and a prominent theme in [http://gravitys-rainbow.pynchonwiki.com/wiki/index.php?title=R#routinization ''Gravity's Rainbow''] &amp;#151; a spontaneous and charismatic source of authority is eventually &quot;rationalized&quot; and brought under the control of processes and rules. In Pynchon's view, it is a movement toward Death and thematically related to entropy &amp;#151; a prominent theme in [http://v.pynchonwiki.com/wiki/index.php?title=E#entropy ''V.''] &amp;#151; and, in [http://masondixon.pynchonwiki.com/wiki/index.php?title=F#fengshui ''Mason &amp; Dixon''], bad ''Feng Shui'' and the reduction of the fuzzy boundaries between Pennsylvania and Maryland into a straight line.<br /> <br /> From the [http://bitbucket.icaap.org/dict.pl Online Dictionary of Social Science]:<br /> <br /> :This term has two specific meanings in sociology. (1) The concept was developed by German sociologist Max Weber (1864-1920) who used it in two ways. First, it was the process through which magical, supernatural and religious ideas lose cultural importance in a society and ideas based on science and practical calculation become dominant. For example, in modern societies science has rationalized our understanding of weather patterns. Science explains weather patterns as a result of interaction between physical elements like wind-speed and direction, air and water temperatures, humidity, etc. In some other cultures, weather is thought to express the pleasure or displeasure of gods, or spirits of ancestors. One explanation is rationalized and scientific, the other mysterious and magical. Rationalization also involves the development of forms of social organization devoted to the achievement of precise goals by efficient means. It is this type of rationalization that we see in the development of modern business corporations and of bureaucracy. These are organizations dedicated to the pursuit of defined goals by calculated, systematically administered means. (2) Within symbolic interactionism, rationalization is used more in the everyday sense of the word to refer to providing justifications or excuses for one's actions.<br /> <br /> [[ATD_557-587#Page_585|''See also'' annotation on p.585]]<br /> <br /> [[Routinization of Charisma|Read more on this...]]<br /> <br /> '''&quot;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.&quot;'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> From innocent bovines to ...the world? &quot;Single up all lines&quot;....<br /> Stockyards were organized in such a way that the cattle would proceed through a series of chutes and passages, until they arrived alone at the point of death.<br /> <br /> &quot;Progressive reduction of choices&quot; also occurred in [http://masondixon.pynchonwiki.com/wiki/ ''Mason &amp; Dixon''] &amp;#151; there were infinitely many wildernesses out to the west until Mason and Dixon ran the line and rationalized the boundaries into Maryland and Pennsylvania.<br /> <br /> ==Page 11==<br /> <br /> '''plummet'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> 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.<br /> <br /> '''bear a hand'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Nautical: help out.<br /> <br /> ==Page 12==<br /> <br /> '''Liverpool Kiss'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> A head butt.<br /> <br /> '''Herr Riemann'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> 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].<br /> <br /> '''''Mr.'' Noseworth'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Lindsay insisting on proper naval forms: an ensign, lieutenant (junior grade), lieutenant or lieutenant commander in the U.S. navy is correctly addressed as &quot;Mister Surname.&quot;<br /> <br /> '''&quot;topological genius&quot;'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Riemann's differential geometry goes beyond the Cartesian grid. See conic sections and dimensionality above, page 10.<br /> <br /> ==Page 13==<br /> <br /> '''There was an &quot;eager stampede&quot; to the rail''' &lt;br&gt;<br /> 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?<br /> : 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) <br /> <br /> :insightfully true, I suspect, but it still shows 'narratorial knowingness', yes?<br /> <br /> : Cf. Flaubert's use of quotations in ''Madame Bovary'' to isolate what he deemed the contemptible argot of the bourgeoisie.<br /> <br /> ::Apparently not a cliche: [http://books.google.com//books?num=100&amp;q=eager.stampede&amp;as_brr=0 GoogleBooks]<br /> <br /> '''&quot;...among the brighter star-shapes of exploded ballast bags...&quot;''' &lt;br&gt;<br /> Recalls the opening line of ''Mason &amp; Dixon'': &quot;Snow-Balls have flown their Arcs, starr‘d the Sides of Outbuildings, as of Cousins...&quot;<br /> <br /> '''&quot;...quite as if were some giant eyeball, perhaps that of Society itself, ever scrutinizing from above, in a spirit of constructive censure.&quot;'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> 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&amp;page_number=4&amp;template_id=1&amp;sort_order=1 At MoMa's Online Collection]<br /> Notice that society = censure, if constructive. Gamboling nude on a summer day was OK until the ''Inconvenience'', as eyeball, appeared.<br /> <br /> :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.<br /> <br /> ==Page 14==<br /> <br /> '''charmed into docility'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> 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.<br /> <br /> '''Jacob's-ladder'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Used here as &quot;a marine ladder of rope or chain with wooden or iron rungs&quot; (Webster's Third New International Dictionary, Unabridged) but is suggestive of Jacob's ladder in Genesis:<br /> <br /> 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)<br /> <br /> '''a giant sack of soiled laundry'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Perhaps ''freshly'' soiled during the great hydrogen valve disaster.<br /> <br /> '''''vol-à-voile'''''&lt;br&gt;<br /> The narrator has turned the French phrase ''vol-à-voiles'' (gliding) into a verb (removing the ''s'').<br /> <br /> '''gold-beaters' skin'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> 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.<br /> <br /> '''Evening Quarters'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Naval practice of mustering the crew at the end of the day's work.<br /> <br /> ==Page 15==<br /> <br /> '''ukulelist'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Ukuleles also appear in ''Gravity's Rainbow'', ''Vineland'', and ''Mason &amp; Dixon''. According to Jules Siegel's article, &quot;Who is Thomas Pynchon, and why did he take off with my wife?&quot;, Pynchon himself played the ukulele in college.<br /> <br /> '''Vagabonds of the Void'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> 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.&lt;br&gt;<br /> <br /> [[image:Macassar-Oil.jpg|thumb|175px|''Macassar Oil. An Oily Puff for Soft Heads''|right]]'''Beaufort Scale'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> A scale for measuring wind strength, developed 1805.<br /> <br /> '''&quot;Let the lightning lash ~ And the thunder trash&quot;&lt;br&gt;<br /> Again, the Chums are rock stars, the coolest cats in town.<br /> <br /> '''&quot;...forty-four buttons...one for each State of the Union.&quot;&lt;br&gt;<br /> Wyoming was the 44th state admitted to the union in 1890.<br /> <br /> '''port section of the crew'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> The half of the crew permitted to go freely ashore this time. The other half tomorrow. &quot;Port&quot; and &quot;starboard&quot;: are these simply either/or words that sailors remember easily?<br /> <br /> '''Macassar oil'''&lt;br /&gt;<br /> 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]<br /> <br /> ==Page 16==<br /> <br /> '''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.'''&lt;br/&gt;<br /> 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 &lt;i&gt;The Devil In The White City&lt;/i&gt; by Erik Larson and &lt;i&gt;Depraved&lt;/i&gt; 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]<br /> <br /> '''tension of the gas'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> I.e., the pressure in the bag.<br /> <br /> ==Page 17==<br /> <br /> '''&quot;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&quot;'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> 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...as is this book, ATD?...Again a Pynchonian theme: no book is the reality.<br /> <br /> '''&quot;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.&quot;'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Is this just a metaphor from the narrator to describe what it is like for Darby, or is it also self-referential to<br /> all the adventures of the Chums?. Another Q: Is the Commandant of Earthly Days the invisible presence from whom the chums get their orders? Cf. earthly surface, p.9<br /> :Related Q: Do the Chums receive their orders from the author of their books?<br /> <br /> '''we were usually out the door and on the main road'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Dick and Chick knew the judge was more likely to order them out of town than into the lockup.<br /> <br /> '''Chinese foofooraw'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Also spelled foofaraw, a great deal of fuss, or useless frills. Cf folderol. However, why Chinese? <br /> :Chick's father tried to sell Mississippi to a Chinese syndicate.<br /> <br /> '''cubeb'''&lt;br /&gt;<br /> 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.<br /> <br /> '''&quot;...goldurn Keeley Cure&quot;'''&lt;br /&gt;<br /> A treatment for alcohol, nicotine and narcotic addiction involving injections of &quot;bichloride&quot; or &quot;double chloride&quot; of gold, and also known as the &quot;gold cure&quot;. 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.<br /> <br /> ==Page 18==<br /> <br /> '''headgear'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Description vaguely reminiscent of &quot;Madame Bovary&quot;. [http://robotwisdom.com/flaubert/bovary/bovary1.html [notes]]<br /> <br /> '''eclipse green'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Apparently an actual shade. [http://encyclopedia.jrank.org/DIO_DRO/DIRECT.html [cite]]<br /> <br /> '''Bindlestiffs of the Blue A.C.'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Bindlestiff means hobo; hence, the Hoboes of the Sky Aeronautical Club.<br /> <br /> '''(&quot;Penny&quot;) Black'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> 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]]<br /> <br /> '''Tzigane'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> French for &quot;gypsy&quot;. Also a piece by Ravel. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tzigane_(Ravel) [Wikipedia]]<br /> <br /> '''Egypt'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> 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 &quot;Egypt,&quot; especially in the 19th century. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Little_Egypt_(region) [Wikipedia]]<br /> <br /> ==Page 19==<br /> <br /> '''goin all blue from the light of that electric fluid'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> 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.<br /> <br /> '''Voices calling out together'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> 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.<br /> <br /> [[image:balloons-paris.jpg|thumb|200px|Garçons de '71|right]]'''Garçons de '71'''&lt;br /&gt;<br /> 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...]]<br /> <br /> '''a condition of ''permanent siege'''''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Surely no one has failed to notice what a &quot;wartime president&quot; is allowed to get away with. &quot;No reference to the present day is intended or should be inferred.&quot;<br /> <br /> '''pétroleurs de Paris'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> An early form of Molotov cocktail thrower during the Siege of Paris. There were pétroleurs and pétroleuses.<br /> <br /> ==Page 20==<br /> <br /> '''they'll fly wherever they're needed'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> While the Chums obey orders from above, the Garçons de '71 follow a different imperative.<br /> <br /> '''energy we could feel, directed personally at us'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Someone may be trying to influence what the Bindlestiffs do, or keep them away from the Garçons' work of mercy.<br /> <br /> ==Page 21==<br /> <br /> '''admissions gate'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Apparently a break in the fence, capitalized on by freelance impresarios.<br /> <br /> '''fifty-cent pieces'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> 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.<br /> <br /> ==Page 22==<br /> <br /> '''Kodaks'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> The word Kodak was trademarked in 1888, and the first Kodak camera was sold with the slogan, &quot;You press the button - we do the rest.&quot; 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.<br /> <br /> '''half-light . . . in the interests of mercy . . . the safety of the lights'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Interesting contrast suggesting a tradeoff between comfort/solace in the shadows and safety in the bright light.<br /> <br /> '''Isandhlwana'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> 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 &quot;military&quot; and &quot;blunders&quot; in the title.<br /> <br /> ==Page 23==<br /> <br /> '''Tarahumara'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> 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]]<br /> <br /> '''&quot;geek&quot;'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> 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 &quot;Fear Factor,&quot; but sad rather than stultifying.<br /> <br /> '''monte'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Three-card monte.<br /> <br /> ==Page 24==<br /> <br /> '''the curse of Scotland'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> 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]]<br /> <br /> '''like the electricity coming on... how everything fits together, connects. It doesn't last long, though.'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> 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. <br /> <br /> 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, Miles is also said to suffer from &quot;confusion in his motor processes&quot;, which may be related.<br /> <br /> '''Cracker Jack'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> First sold at the at the first Chicago World's Fair in 1893. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cracker_Jack [Wikipedia]]<br /> <br /> '''New Levee district'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Chicago's redlight district c1890. [http://www.ipsn.org/genesis.htm [cite]]<br /> <br /> '''Epworth League'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> A Methodist youth organization founded in 1889. [http://www.southernmethodistchurch.org/id48.htm [cite]]<br /> <br /> ==Page 25==<br /> <br /> '''Haymarket bomb'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> 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 &quot;a bomb-throwing anarchist.&quot; 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].<br /> <br /> '''if the Governor decides to pardon that gang of anarchistic murderers'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> 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 &lt;i&gt;The Haymarket Tragedy&lt;/i&gt; by Paul Avrich and &lt;i&gt;Death In The Haymarket&lt;/i&gt; by James Green.<br /> <br /> '''mixture of contempt and pity'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> This is ''definitely'' not from one of the Chums' adventure stories.<br /> <br /> '''embonpoint'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Convexity of body; what used to be called a &quot;prosperous&quot; look.<br /> <br /> '''duck soup'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Meaning &quot;an easy task,&quot; 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.<br /> <br /> ==References==<br /> &lt;references /&gt;<br /> <br /> ==Annotation Index==<br /> {{ATD PbP}}</div>

MKOHUT https://against-the-day.pynchonwiki.com/wiki/index.php?title=Pagination_Blues&diff=14140 2007-10-22T00:23:34Z

<p>MKOHUT: </p> <hr /> <div>[[image:atd_uk-paperback.jpg|caption|UK Paperback|thumb|175px]][[image:atd_usa-paperback.jpg|caption|USA Paperback|thumb|175px|right]]Apparently, the soon-to-be-published UK edition of ''Against the Day'' will be paginated very differently from the hardback edition. The USA/Penguin paperback edition will, thankfully, retain the pagination of the original hardback edition.<br /> <br /> Thanks to Dr. Basileios Drolias, proprietor of the [http://againsttheday.wordpress.com ''Against the Day'' blog] for this info.<br /> <br /> I suppose worst-case scenario is that readers who want to take full advantage of this wiki will have to get themselves the original hardback or one of the many contributors will devise a page-conversion equation.<br /> <br /> [[User:WikiAdmin|WikiAdmin]] 08:01, 7 October 2007 (PDT)<br /> <br /> ==The UK Paperback Pagination==<br /> <br /> Basileios Drolias has sent along the differences in pagination between the UK and USA hardback editions and the forthcoming UK paperback. The first entry is the hardback edition; the second is the UK paperback edition. He also includes a first pass estimated formula for converting page numbers:<br /> <br /> :Part 1 page 1 | page 1<br /> :Part 2 page 119 | page 133<br /> :Part 3 page 429 | page 483<br /> :Part 4 page 695 | page 781 <br /> :Part 5 page 1063 | page 1195<br /> :last page: page 1085 | page 1220<br /> <br /> :The best factor for translating from one page to the other seems to be close to 1.1237. Still not 100% accurate. <br /> <br /> [[User:WikiAdmin|WikiAdmin]] 07:11, 9 October 2007 (PDT)<br /> <br /> ==Random House UK Explains==<br /> <br /> I emailed Random House UK Marketing's Tom Avery, asking why they changed the pagination for the paperback edition. His reply:<br /> <br /> :I’m afraid the decision to alter the pagination was made from a practical perspective – as we are publishing in B format, retaining the same page size would render the text microscopic.<br /> <br /> FYI: &quot;Paperback (B format)&quot; means that the size of the book is 198mm x 129mm (7.8&quot; x 5&quot;). You may also see paperback editions of books advertised as &quot;A format.&quot; This means that the size of the book is 178mm x 110mm (7&quot; x 4.3&quot;).<br /> <br /> Interestingly, both the Penguin and Jonathan Cape (Random House UK) ARCs of ''Against the Day'' were printed in &quot;C format&quot; (235mm x 153mm / 9.25&quot; x 6&quot;) aka &quot;Royal Octavo.&quot;<br /> <br /> [http://www.wildandwoolley.com.au/self_publish/getting_started More on publishing formats...]<br /> <br /> [[User:WikiAdmin|WikiAdmin]] 08:18, 11 October 2007 (PDT)<br /> <br /> ==Further Discussion==<br /> Well, let's stop blaming Penguin before we actually have the paperback in our hands. Based on the evidence so far, I do belive that the US paperback will have the same pagination as the first edition: Amazon as well as Penguin's own website state that the paperback runs to 1104 pages. In all likelihood, this page count shouldn't be regarded as the number of numbered pages, but as the total number of pages in the book. Thus, many websites originally listed the page count of the first edition at 1104 pages, and if you include the unnumbered pages of the front and back matter of the first edition, it does in fact run to 1104 pages.<br /> <br /> This doesn't necessarily mean, of course, that the US paperback will end up with the stated number of pages. The stated page count of the first edition changed back and forth a number of times in the months leading up to publication, and the page count of the US paperback can still be changed. If it stays at 1104 pages, though, I think it likely that this translates into 1085 numbered pages.<br /> <br /> I've also got my hands on a copy of the UK paperback, and it is correct that this edition has a different page count. Amazon.co.uk lists the page count as 1234 pages, but the actual number of numbered pages is 1220 (again, note the difference between the total number of pages and the numbered pages). The good news is that most of the many typos from the first edition have been corrected in this edition. The bad news is that the print is vanishingly small - practically unreadble - and, of course, that the page count differs from the first edition.<br /> <br /> So let's hope that the page count of the US paperback remains at 1104/1085, and that the many errors have been corrected here as well. Then we would have a decent standard text from which to proceed.<br /> <br /> [[User:Torerye|Torerye]] 00:48, 9 October 2007 (PDT)<br /> <br /> <br /> Pagination is determined by type size, font and page set-up as well as the height and width size of the book. Given those choices, the pagination of the book becomes mathematical.&lt;br&gt;<br /> <br /> And, although I do not believe in buying 'used' books for authors I would like to get whatever not-usually-enough royalties they deserve, there are many 'used' hardcover AtDs available very cheap.&lt;br&gt;<br /> [Buy new for Jackson is my motto] [[User:MKOHUT|MKOHUT]] 17:23, 21 October 2007 (PDT)<br /> <br /> Re: publishing formats:&lt;br&gt;<br /> Although I am not fully familiar with American book production lingo, in my time in publishing, I never heard paperback formats referred to as A-B-C, etc. A-and there seem to be more size possibilities in American houses, sizes referred to in inches, of course; most common sizes being 5.5 x 8.5 and 6 x 9.&lt;br&gt;</div>

MKOHUT https://against-the-day.pynchonwiki.com/wiki/index.php?title=ATD_557-587&diff=14138 2007-10-21T19:39:10Z

<p>MKOHUT: /* Page 585 */</p> <hr /> <div>:'''&lt;big&gt;Please keep these annotations SPOILER-FREE by not revealing information from later pages in the novel.&lt;/big&gt;'''&lt;p&gt;&lt;br&gt;<br /> <br /> ==Page 557==<br /> <br /> '''Viktor Mulciber'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Well, no benign associations with &quot;Mulciber&quot;! Mulciber is an alternative name of the Roman god Vulcan, the god of fire and volcanoes, and the manufacturer of art, arms, iron, and armor for gods and heroes. Mulciber is also the name of a character in John Milton's ''Paradise Lost'', the architect of the demon city of Pandemonium. When Pynchon was alluded to on The John Larroquette Show [80s or 90s], the book he was said to be working on was called ''Pandemonium of the Sun''.&lt;br&gt;<br /> In the Harry Potter books, Mulciber is a Death Eater, a minor Dark Wizard.<br /> <br /> '''bespoke'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> made to order, hence hand-made and expensive. Somewhere in the novel is a reference to 1 Savile Row, the address of Gieves and Hawkes, a very traditional English tailor.<br /> <br /> '''Basil Zaharoff'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Sir Basil Zaharoff, originally Zacharias Basileios, (1849, Muğla, Turkey - 1936, Monte Carlo, Monaco) was a Greek arms trader and financier, the director and chairman of the Vickers munitions firm during World War I [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zaharoff_Basil]. He also turns up as an international arms dealer in Reilly, Ace of Spies.<br /> <br /> In addition to the arms-dealing and being semi-fictionalized, Zaharoff is also notable for bribing the Japanese Admiral, helping to incorporate the company that eventually became British Petroleum, and through his association with Louis II of Monaco, the purchase of the Société des Bains de Mer, which ran the famous Monte Carlo casino.<br /> <br /> '''trains of history... run'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Karl Marx, in ''Das Kapital'', referred to wars as the &quot;express trains of history&quot; because they can spark societal or national crises, marking a historical turning point, and they can release economic, social, and moral forces of unforeseen power and dimensions, making any return to the status quo impossible.<br /> Also notice TRP's steady referencing of 'railroads' in a negative way. <br /> <br /> '''Q-weapon'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Possible allusion to Professor Kokintz's &quot;Q-bomb&quot; in ''The Mouse That Roared'' (1959) or to James Bond's master armorer Q. It could also be an allusion to the character &quot;Q&quot; in Star Trek where the name &quot;Q&quot; is also shared by other members of the Q Continuum. Q is a mischievous omnipotent being who has taken an interest in humans. He also has a flair for the dramatic, with a mercurial personality that switches between a joking, camp style and a more ominous and even dangerous manner. While he is boastful, condescending and threatening, he arguably has humanity's best interests at heart. In the episode &quot;The Q and the Gray&quot; (''Star Trek: Voyager'' - 3rd season), Q weapons are provided to the crew of the Voyager to free Q and Janeway, who have been captured by rebels. [http://www.answers.com/topic/the-q-and-the-grey Synopsis]; [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Q_(Star_Trek) Wikipedia]. Looney Tunes character Marvin the Martian possesses an earth-destroying weapon known as the Illudium Q-36 Explosive Space Modulator.<br /> <br /> In this context, the Q stands for &quot;Quaternion.&quot; See under Q in the alphabetical index.<br /> <br /> '''Balkan ''komitadji'''''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Originally, members of the rebel gangs (&quot;committees&quot;), controlled from Sofia, who made forays into Macedonia, the chief object of Bulgarian expansionism before WWI. The word was also commonly used for Serbian irregular fighters.<br /> <br /> :See this slightly different [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Komitadji Komitadji].<br /> <br /> '''waybill'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Ancestor of what Fedex and UPS call &quot;shipping document&quot;; it identifies the article shipped and contains necessary addresses and instructions.<br /> <br /> '''metamorphosed into an American Negro'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Cf honorary Negro (Frank above).<br /> <br /> '''Nipponese'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Japanese<br /> <br /> '''peach'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Plum, actually.<br /> <br /> '''Hertzian'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Electromagnetic waves, first demonstrated by [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Heinrich_Rudolf_Hertz Heinrich Hertz] (Cf [[ATD_318-335#Page 318|page 318:Hertz]]).<br /> <br /> '''they cannot strictly . . . longitudinal as well as transverse'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Hertz's theory and Maxwell's equations describe ''transverse'' waves in which the electric and magnetic fields are perpendicular to the direction of travel; no longitudinal waves--with vibrations parallel to the direction of travel--are permitted. In air, sound waves are longitudinal; what's suggested here is a new wave that does not fit the Hertz-Maxwell paradigm.<br /> <br /> ==Page 558==<br /> <br /> '''scalar part'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Quaternion equivalent of the real part.&lt;br&gt;<br /> A scalar quantity in geometry has magnitude but not direction. The length of a line segment is a scalar.&lt;br&gt;<br /> Time is a scalar term. <br /> <br /> '''baritone in a barbershop quartet'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> [http://www.barbershop.org/web/groups/public/documents/pages/pub_id_000827.hcsp Quote]:Technically speaking, barbershop harmony is a style of unaccompanied singing with three voices harmonizing to the melody. The lead usually sings the melody, with the tenor harmonizing above the lead. The bass sings the lowest harmonizing notes and the baritone provides in-between notes, either above or below the lead to make chords (specifically, dominant-type or &quot;barbershop&quot; sevenths) that give barbershop its distinctive, &quot;full&quot; sound.<br /> <br /> '''viola in a string quartet'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Two violins, a viola, and a violoncello make up a string quartet. The viola is between the others in pitch and is generally considered to have been given the least interesting parts in Classical and Romantic music for string quartet.<br /> <br /> '''Further Term'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> The three parts of a quaternion that are multiples of '''i''', '''j''' and '''k''' (Cf [[ATD_525-556#Page 525|page 525: Quaternions]].)<br /> <br /> '''the fulfiller of the Trinity'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> the name of the first atom bomb detonated at Los Alamos. Alluded to earlier as the &quot;Anti-Stone&quot; (Webb and Merle, p.78). The origin of the name Trinity for this event is uncertain. It is commonly thought that Robert Oppenheimer provided the name, which would seem logical, but even this is not definitely known. A leading theory is that Oppenheimer did select it, and that he did so with reference to the divine Hindu trinity of Brahma (the Creator), Vishnu (the Preserver), and Shiva (the Destroyer). Oppenheimer had an avid interest in Sanskrit literature (which he had taught himself to read), and following the Trinity test is reported to have recited a passage from the Bhagavad-Gita that is quoted earlier in this wiki.&lt;br&gt;<br /> <br /> The usage of the Tibetan Mount Kailash, the holy dwelling place of Shiva, God of destruction and regeneration, on p. 437 seems to support this.<br /> <br /> Also, a religious allusion to the three-person Godhead in Christian theology. &lt;br&gt;<br /> Also, third ATD meaning!, a college in Dublin mentioned on page 560.<br /> <br /> Also,&quot;the Destroyer, the fulfiller of the trinity&quot; recalls the Destroyer on page 154, the meteorite, and thus relates ''that'' passage to the Anti-Stone.<br /> <br /> Also, in Jungian Psychology the 'fulfiller' of the trinity, making it a complete four-aspect entity, is the 'shadow', or traditionally, the devil (the force always excluded and seen as bad in Christian theology). Cf. C. G. Jung, &quot;Versuch einer psychologischen Deutung des Trinitätsdogmas&quot;, Gesammelte Werke 11, especially p.179-94. Interestingly, Jung uses the term 'quaternarisch' for this. More Q-talk, then.<br /> <br /> '''the pulselessness of salvation'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> salvation lies outside of time?<br /> <br /> '''A weapon based on Time'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Time is why there is entropy, that key Pynchonian term. Pynchon has created a brilliant metaphor that uses the concept uniquely. The Q-weapon, at the heart of which lies &quot;a crystal about the size of a human eyeball&quot; is based on Time. What becomes of the Q-weapon after Umeki (possibly) gives it to Halfcourt in Constantinople? ([[ATD_1018-1039#Page 1036|See page 1036...]])<br /> <br /> '''&quot;...you could become the most feared person in history.&quot; ... &quot;I'd rather be loved,&quot; said Root.'''&lt;br &gt;<br /> Echoes Machiavelli's famous aphorism, &quot;It is much safer to be feared than loved.&quot;<br /> <br /> '''laterite'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> A mineral structure formed by erosion, see [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Laterite Wikipedia]. Laterite is typically rich in metal oxides and poor in organic matter.<br /> <br /> '''Ostend'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Cf [[ATD_525-556#Page 525|page 525:Ostend]]. Ostend (Dutch: Oostende, French &amp; German: Ostende) is a Belgian municipality located in the Flemish province of West Flanders. It comprises the villages of Mariakerke, Stene and Zandvoorde, and the city of Ostend proper – the largest at the Belgian coast. Wikipedia.<br /> <br /> '''Inner Boulevards'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> streets in Brussels.&quot;In spite of the competition of the Central or Inner Boulevards, the Montagne de la Cour still remains the principal street for shopping in Brussels.&quot; &quot;Brussels&quot;, Antiques Digest, 1904.<br /> <br /> '''Gare du Midi'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> The largest railway station in Brussels and a haunt of prostitutes.<br /> <br /> &lt;div id=&quot;gevaert&quot;&gt;&lt;/div&gt;'''Edouard Gevaert'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> It seems this gentleman is fictional. although there are some interesting, but tenuous, connections. Agfa-Gevaert is the current owner of the [[W#wardenclyffe|Wardenclyffe Tower]] facility which housed the Tesla Tower. [http://www.maerlant.be/photherel/student/nvgevaert.htm Lieven Gevaert] (1868-1935) was a Belgian industrialist who founded Gevaert &amp; Co. which produced photographic paper, in 1894. The company specialized in &quot;daylight&quot; paper, which relies on the event of exposure of the positive image through daylight, as opposed to development paper which is based on a process of special manipulation with chemicals. (Are photographs &quot;stolen goods&quot;? &quot;Unworldy go-betweens&quot;? Is the Q-Weapon a ... camera? No. It unlocks Time, animating the photograph - [[ATD_1018-1039#Page 1036|See page 1036]]) Agfa (Actien-Gesellschaft für Anilin-Fabrikation) was founded in 1864 as a manufacturer of dies and stains. In World War II, it became part of IG Farben (prominent in [http://gravitys-rainbow.pynchonwiki.com/wiki/index.php?title=IG_Farben_References ''Gravity's Rainbow'']. The Allies broke up IG Farben after the war and Agfa emerged as an individual company. And, well, there ''was'' a Dutch arms dealer named Edouard de Beaumont (1841-1895) who has a rifle named after him. Yes, a stretch... Upon further reflection, I believe &quot;Edouard&quot; may refer to [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Muybridge Eadweard Muybridge] (Edouard was a variant spelling he earlier used) and his photographic experiments with ''freezing'' motion/Time.<br /> <br /> ==Page 559==<br /> <br /> '''Krupp field-piece'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> The Krupps are an ancient German family, famous for making weapons. A field-piece is a light-cannon.<br /> <br /> '''vaguely glandular'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Describes Belgium, it seems.<br /> <br /> '''''ostinato'''''&lt;br&gt;<br /> A continually repeated musical phrase or rhythm.<br /> <br /> '''poleaxed'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Stunned, brought to a mental standstill. (A poleaxe was used in slaughterhouses.)<br /> <br /> '''lost to silence'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> (Not silent, or very?)Very<br /> <br /> ==Page 560==<br /> <br /> '''Wellington Hippodrome'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> A race track in Ostend. (Cf [[ATD_525-556#Page 528|page 528:Hippodrome]].)<br /> <br /> '''Estacade'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> :A dike of piles in the sea, a river, etc., to check the approach of an enemy. [http://www.thefreedictionary.com/Estacade]<br /> <br /> '''''mousmée... mouchard'''''&lt;br&gt;<br /> French: a young Japanese woman; a police spy.<br /> :When Henry James revised ''The Princess Casamassima'' for the 1909 New York edition, the phrase &quot;middle-class spy&quot; in the 1886 text became ''mouchard''. Source: note by Patricia Crick in Penguin Classics edition.<br /> <br /> '''always lead an irregular life'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Cf GR.<br /> <br /> '''Maria Bayley Hamilton'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Hamilton's wife !!!<br /> <br /> '''council meeting'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> ???<br /> <br /> ==Page 561==<br /> <br /> '''Brougham Bridge'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> It was on this site that the [[H#hamilton|mathematician William Rowan Hamilton]], in a flash of genius, came upon the formula for Quaternions and scratched it into the stone of the bridge.<br /> <br /> About the bridge, the carving, photos of them, a couple of mathematicians' impression of the bridge, etc, see [http://math.ucr.edu/home/baez/octonions/node24.html Brougham Bridge].<br /> <br /> '''on the stone'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> The bridge is evidently a stone bridge. Stone, a natural thing, is a good for Pynchon. Hamilton's action is metaphorically a deeply religious moment. &quot;Pentecostal&quot; wherein the Quaternions 'descend' to earth [in the thoughts of men].<br /> <br /> '''''i² = j² = k² = ijk = –1'''''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Cf [[ATD_525-556#Page 525|page 525:Quaternion]].<br /> <br /> '''Pentecostal'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Pentecost (&lt; Greek πεντηκοστή [ἡμέρα], pentekostē [hēmera], &quot;the fiftieth day&quot;) is the fiftieth day after Easter Sunday, which corresponds to the tenth day after Ascension Thursday. It is a feast in the Christian liturgical calendar — symbolically related to the Jewish festival of Shavuot — that commemorates the descent of the Holy Spirit upon the Apostles and the followers of Jesus on that day, as described in the Book of Acts, Chapter 2. Pentecost is also called &quot;Whitsunday&quot; (deriving from &quot;Wit Sunday&quot;) in UK and other English-speaking areas.<br /> <br /> Almost needless to say, the Pentecostal revelation is what is supposed to happen at the end of &quot;Lot 49&quot;.<br /> <br /> '''official Mischief Opportunity'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> like 'shore leave', it seems. To leave the rules of the Organization and create mischief.<br /> <br /> '''absinthe spoons'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> absinthe spoons have slits whereon are placed sugar cubes through which one pours the absinthe<br /> <br /> '''cravats'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> A cravat is the neckband forerunner of the modern, tailored necktie. From the end of the 16th century, the term &quot;band&quot; applied to any long-strip neckcloth that was not a &quot;ruff&quot;; the ruff—a starched, pleated white linen strip—started its fashion career earlier in the 16th century as neckcloth that could be changed-a-fresh to keep the neck of a doublet from becoming too-soiled or as a bib or a napkin. A &quot;band&quot; could indicate a plain, attached shirt collar or a detachable &quot;falling band&quot; that draped over the doublet collar.&lt;br&gt;<br /> Necktie fashions have changed over time. The modern cravat originated in the 1630s when Western Europeans saw Croats wearing extravagant neck scarves; the French word ''cravate'' means &quot;Croatian cavalryman.&quot;<br /> <br /> '''&quot;four-door farce&quot;'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> (See eg Bogdanovich's &quot;What's Up, Doc?&quot;)<br /> This is also a pun on the name of Georges Feydeau, French writer of farces who was writing when Pynchon's novel is set. One of the recurring physical jokes involves sets with many doors and people coming in and out, just missing each other....<br /> <br /> The ranking of farces by door number is mostly jocular. Neil Simon's ''Rumors'' is a fine example of a seven-door farce.<br /> <br /> ==Page 562==<br /> <br /> '''Minque'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> the fish auction house.<br /> <br /> '''Bruges'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> A city about 18 miles east of Ostende, Cf [[ATD_525-556#Page 531|page 531:Bruges]].<br /> <br /> '''Ghent'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> A city about 40 miles southeast by east from Ostend, Cf [[ATD_525-556#Page 531|page 531:Ghent]].<br /> <br /> '''carillons . . . carillonneur'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> The [http://www.gcna.org/crlnexp.html carillon] was popular in Belgium before it caught on in most other places. It comprises a set of bells, matched in character, forming a scale (a couple of chromatic octaves or even more), with the beaters or clappers mechanically linked to a keyboard. A later development replaced muscle power with electromechanical linkages. In a still later &quot;advance,&quot; the carillon was automated with music-box-like control. The American practice of playing recorded bells through loudspeakers is a shamefully cheap way to imitate carillon music.&lt;br&gt;<br /> The carillonneur is the master at the keyboard.&lt;br&gt;<br /> English-style bell ringing is a totally different pursuit, using (often imperfectly) tuned bells actuated in nonmelodic sequences. The bells, not the clappers, are swung with ropes. The effect of an eight-bell &quot;peal&quot; and a team of ringers with plenty of time on their hands—as heard by this American contributor in Bristol one spring Sunday—is perfectly charming.&lt;br&gt;<br /> By the way: The word &quot;carillon&quot; is derived from the Latin &quot;quaternio&quot; (= consisting of four elements)...<br /> <br /> '''Hanseatic'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> The Hansa or Hanseatic League (definitely a creation of &quot;the Christian North,&quot; next paragraph) was a great mercantile system that held itself above national rule.<br /> <br /> '''burghers'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> middle-class married men<br /> <br /> '''silted up'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> backed up, underwater, with mud; i.e. neglected, because replaced by railroads. -As it silted up &quot;back in the 1400s&quot; we can safely exclude the influence of railroads.<br /> <br /> '''Damme and Sluis'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Port cities near Bruges, heavily dependent on them from the 14th Century.&lt;br&gt;<br /> See [http://www.damme-online.com/gb/communities/damme.htm Damme] and [http://www.damme-online.com/gb/arounddamme/sluis.htm Sluis]. For an overview map, showing cannals, roads etc, of the general area around Bruges-Damme-Sluis see [http://www.damme-online.com/gb/maps/generaloverview.htm Bruges-Damme-Sluis]<br /> <br /> ==Page 563==<br /> <br /> '''trusted his intuitiveness'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Woevre is a natural killer.<br /> <br /> '''''&quot;Jou moerskont!&quot;''... Afrikaans'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Possibly &quot;you horse's ass&quot;? --More likely something like &quot;mother's cunt&quot;.<br /> <br /> ==Page 564==<br /> <br /> '''voices of everyone he had ever put to death had been ... scored for some immense choir'''&lt;br /&gt;<br /> A possible reference to ''Star Wars'': Obi-wan experiences the obliteration of an entire planet as &quot;a great disturbance in the Force, as if millions of voices suddenly cried out in terror and were suddenly silenced.&quot; [http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0076759/quotes]<br /> <br /> Also another potentially time-less event, all of Woevre's murders collapsed into a single moment.<br /> <br /> The &quot;choir&quot; image occurs several times in ''AtD.'' [[ATD_1-25#Page_19|One example.]]<br /> <br /> '''&quot;I cannot bear it ... this terrible light...&quot;'''&lt;br /&gt;<br /> Shades of the Kirghiz Light in [http://gravitys-rainbow.pynchonwiki.com/wiki/index.php?title=The_Kirghiz_Light ''Gravity's Rainbow'']<br /> <br /> '''''Voetsak'''''&lt;br /&gt;<br /> Afrikaans (maybe Dutch too): Go away! Also spelled ''voertsek'' or ''voetsek.''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Borrowed in English with the spelling ''footsack.'' The Urban Dictionary, which often excites skepticism, has [http://www.urbandictionary.com/define.php?term=footsack a useful entry] with a marginally plausible etymology. In [http://www.worldwideschool.org/library/books/lit/drama/Finished/chap5.html ''Finished'' (1916),] novelist H. Rider Haggard glossed it this way: &quot;Among Europeans he rejoiced in the name of Footsack, a Boer Dutch term which is generally addressed to troublesome dogs and means 'Get out.'&quot; And in a defective 1943 book for young readers, ''Great Caesar's Ghost'' (by Manning Coles, creator of gentleman op Tommy Hambledon), an English merchant seaman says, &quot;Get out, 'op it, vamoose, footsack, imshi, or I'll—&quot; [http://www.absp.org.uk/words/interjections.html ''Imshi''] is British service slang for &quot;go.&quot;<br /> <br /> '''starers'''&lt;br /&gt;<br /> Those who stared at Kit earlier.<br /> <br /> '''dramatic performance'''&lt;br /&gt;<br /> referring to 'No'?<br /> <br /> '''tobacco-stricken'''&lt;br /&gt;<br /> A smoker's deep or gritty voice.<br /> <br /> '''half-silvering'''&lt;br /&gt;<br /> A design for an optical [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Beam_splitter beam splitter] that causes half of the incident light to be transmitted and the other half to be reflected.<br /> <br /> '''the fatal number four&amp;#8212;to a Japanese mind'''&lt;br /&gt;<br /> Japanese character for number &quot;four&quot; has the same pronunciation as that of character &quot;death&quot;.&lt;br /&gt;<br /> Cf [[ATD_243-272#Page 258|page 258:Japanese character for &quot;four&quot;]].<br /> <br /> '''four cusps... index-surface'''&lt;br /&gt;<br /> ???<br /> <br /> '''co-conscious'''&lt;br /&gt;<br /> Cf [[ATD_525-556#Page 527|page 527:co-conscious]]. Repeat here: &quot;mental processes outside the main stream of consciousness but sometimes available to it - from Merriam-Webster's Medical Dictionary.&quot;<br /> <br /> Third use, I think. Who/what is co-conscious here? (First time, page 478; then page 527.)<br /> <br /> Could it be the dimly perceived consciousness of one's double in the adjacent, alternate world? Or one's consciousness of that world?<br /> <br /> ==Page 565==<br /> <br /> '''true icosahedron'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Probably an regular icosahedron, where the sides are formed by 20 equilateral triangles. For a picture see [http://mathworld.wolfram.com/Icosahedron.html Icosahedron].<br /> <br /> '''12+8... pyrites'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Pyrite crystals form a structure that can be decomposed into unit cells that contain (part of) 12 sulphur atoms and 8 iron atoms.<br /> <br /> '''Riemann sphere'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Riemann_sphere Wikipedia]<br /> <br /> '''Felix Klein'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> German mathematician ([http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Felix_Klein Wikipedia])<br /> <br /> '''ebonite'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> An early plastic([http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ebonite Wikipedia])<br /> <br /> '''Ohmic Drift Compensator'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> ohm = the practical meter-kilogram-second unit of electric resistance equal to the resistance of a circuit in which a potential difference of one volt produces a current of one ampere; The Ohmic Drift Compensator &amp;#151; a key component of the Q-weapon &amp;#151; &quot;regulates how much light is allowed to enter the silvering of the mirror! Special kind of refraction! Calibrated against imaginary index! Dangerous! Of the essence!'&quot; See also [[ATD 525-556#Page 541|Page 541]]. <br /> <br /> '''speed of the earth . . . kinetic energy'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Einstein in 1905 showed most of this argument to be nonsense, but if Lorentz's paper is still recent (next entry) the shift in thinking may not have happened yet.&lt;br&gt;<br /> :Since the earth's mean orbital speed ( ~ 30 km/s) is rather small in comparison with the speed of light ( ~ 300,000 km/s), no relativistic correction is needed in calculating earth's orbital kinetic energy. And in a reference frame anchored on the Sun, the earth's kinetic eneregy, ''E = ½ m v²'', where ''m'' is the earth mass and ''v'' it's orbital speed, still holds. Einstein showed only that it is no longer true against the nonexistent stationary ''æther''. Of course, it is irrelevant to an earthbound weapon tried to make use of this energy against a person who is standing on the earth.<br /> <br /> '''Recently Lorentz's paper'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Lorentz's 1904 &quot;Electromagnetic phenomena in a system moving with any velocity less than that of light&quot; ([http://www.soso.ch/wissen/hist/SRT/L-1904.pdf PDF])<br /> <br /> '''Lorentz . . . Fitzgerald . . . along the axis of motion'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> It was the phenomenon of the Lorentz-Fitzgerald contraction, together with the abolition of the æther by Michelson and Morley, that led Einstein to his theory of special relativity.<br /> :Michelson and Morley did NOT abolish the æther. Their experiement (1887), attempting to detect the light speed change due to the effect of the æther wind, was a total failure, and they could not explain the negative result.<br /> ::OK, would you accept &quot;the abolition of the æther hypothesis in consequence of Michelson and Morley's work&quot;? In fact, that negative result—replicated many times since—did render the notion of the luminiferous æther untenable, as the next two paragraphs make clear.<br /> :The Lorentz-Fitzgerald contraction hypothesis was proposed to explain the &quot;null&quot; result of the Michelson-Morley experiment but still keeping the æther. (see paragraph 8 of Lorentz's 1904 paper above). Lorentz considered the contraction was not physically real but a device to explain the Michelson-Morley experiment. ([http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lorentz_Fitzgerald_contraction_hypothesis Lorentz_Fitzgerald Contraction]).<br /> <br /> :Einstein (1905) derived the Lorentz contraction directly, without assuming the existence of the æther, from the ''Principle of Relativity'' (ie different observers moving at a constant speed with respect to each other find the laws of physics to be identical and find the speed of light to be the same), and proved that Lorentz-Fitzgerald contraction hypothesis had been &quot;ad-hoc&quot;. And Einstein explain the failure of Michelson-Morley experiment by abolishing the æther !<br /> <br /> '''Lord Rayleigh'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> British physicist ([http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lord_Rayleigh Wikipedia])<br /> <br /> ==Page 566==<br /> <br /> '''In a dream...'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> <br /> This passage, describing Kit's dream of Umeki and the message it conveys, pulls together many of the main themes of ''Against the Day'', tying things together in a way that Pynchon seldom does, almost as if he's providing a rather large piece of the puzzle to help the reader understand the novel:<br /> <br /> :&quot;Deep among the equations describing the behavor of light, field equations, Vector and Quaternion equations, lies a set of directions, an intinerary, a map to a hidden space. Double refraction appears again and again as a key element, permitting a view into a Creation set just to the side of this one, so close as to overlap, where the membrane between the worlds, in many places, has become too frail, too permeable, for safety.... Within the mirror, with the scalar term, within the daylit and obvious and taken-for-granted has always lain, as if in wait, the dark intinerary, the corrupted pilgrim's guide, the nameless Station before the first, in the lightless uncreated, where salvation does not yet exist.&quot;<br /> <br /> This is rather a good description of ''AtD'' itself. It is a (inevitably) &quot;corrupted pilgrim's guide&quot;, but is the guide corrupted, or the pilgrim?<br /> <br /> '''analogies'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> (Pynchonian heuristics.)<br /> <br /> '''the corrupted pilgrim's guide, the nameless Station before the first'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Cf. p. 436 '''holy pilgrimages. One defines a destination, proceeds through a series of stations...<br /> <br /> <br /> '''lightless uncreated'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> (Gnostic heresy?)<br /> <br /> '''...within the daylit and obvious and taken-for-granted has always lain, as if in wait, the dark itinerary, the corrupted pilgrim's guide, the names Station before the first, in the lightless uncreated, where salvation does not yet exist.'''&lt;br /&gt;<br /> Compare with &quot;daylit America . . . its steadfast denial of night&quot; ([[ATD_724-747#Page 732|page 732]]), ''AtD'' epigraph, Thelonious Monk's &quot;It's always night, or we wouldn't need light.&quot; '''and''' &quot;the boys expressed wonder at how much more infected with light the night-time terrains passing below them had become [...] they felt themselves in uneasy witness to some final conquest, a triumph over night whose motive none could quite grasp&quot; ([[ATD 1018-1039#Page 1032|p. 1032]]); <br /> <br /> '''stuffed sinus'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> sinus/nasal congestion. It is like looking out onto a new world when one's sinus finally clears after days of congestion.<br /> <br /> '''''Konichiwa'''''&lt;br&gt;<br /> ''sic'' for &quot;Konnichiwa / Kon nichi wa&quot; -- Japanese greeting.<br /> <br /> ==Page 567==<br /> <br /> '''new Puccini opera'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Obviously, [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Madame_Butterfly Madame Butterfly]<br /> <br /> '''[Americans] can't ever die of shame'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> shameless, unlike the Japanese<br /> <br /> '''Kimura-san'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Kimura ( &quot;tree village&quot;) is the 18th most common Japanese surname.<br /> -san is used as a courtesy title in Japanese-speaking areas as a suffix to the given name, surname, or title of the person being addressed, regardless of age or gender: Yamamoto san; sensei-san.&lt;br&gt;<br /> Chimera-san?<br /> <br /> '''Borel-Clerc... &quot;La Matchiche&quot;'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Popular vaudeville song from 1903. &quot;La Matchiche&quot; is French for the Brazilian dance Maxixe.<br /> <br /> '''western anchor'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> What about France, Spain, Portugal? Belgium is a port country with a highly developed transportation system into all of these countries. .....it was the first country to industrialize in Europe....Wikipedia. <br /> <br /> In addition, Ostend is the westernmost port. It remains today a major Continental ferry terminus for North Sea crossings, including the fastest surface route, the hydrofoil.<br /> <br /> '''the Orient Express'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> The first [http://mikes.railhistory.railfan.net/r045.html Orient Express] (1883-1914), connecting the English Channel with the Black Sea, is one of the most famous trains in Europe. It ran from Calais and Paris to Bucharest (Romania), passing through Strasbourg (France), Munich (Germany), Vienna (Austria), Bratislava (Czechoslovakia), Budapest (Hungary). From Bucharest it went through Bulgaria and then, by ferry, to Istanbul of Turkey. The original Orient Express was operated by Compaignie Internationale des Wagons-Lits. Ever since the original Orient Express started operation, the name has become synonymous with luxury travel. After World I there were various railway routes had the name of Orient Express. The current one is from Paris to Vienna, to be discontinue on June 9, 2007.<br /> <br /> '''the Trans-Siberian'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> The [http://www.transsib.ru/Eng/history-phases.htm Trans-Siberian] is a railway route connecting Moscow (Europe) to Vladivostok (Far East Asia). Taking a journey by the Trans-Siberian Railway has long been considered an experience with mythological proportions. It is the longest continuous rail line on earth - about 6,000 miles over one third of the globe. In 1891, Czar Alexander III drew up planes for the Trans-Siberian and initiated its construction, and a more or less continuous route was completed in 1905. It took many more years to make the route smoothly operative.<br /> <br /> '''the Berlin-to-Baghdad'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> The [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Baghdad_Railway Berlin-Baghdad (also Basra) Railway] was the route of German's expansion from Europe to the Persian Gulf, from which trade goods and supplies could be directly exchanged with the farthest of the German colonies and the world. It could also supply German industry directly with oil. Its conception (1888) and completion a couple of years later engendered great opposition from Russia, France and England as part of the &quot;Great Game&quot;.<br /> <br /> '''World-Island'''&lt;br /&gt;<br /> [[ATD 429-459#Page_433|See annotation at page 433]]<br /> <br /> '''Compaignie Internationale des Wagons-Lits'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> &quot;International Sleeping-Car Company&quot;, [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Carlson_Wagonlit Wikipedia]<br /> <br /> '''two hundred francs'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> &quot;None of that, Hakkabut. Hold your tongue.&quot; And, turning to Rosette, the captain said, &quot;If, sir, I understand right, you require some silver five-franc pieces for your operation?&quot;<br /> &quot;Forty,&quot; said Rosette, surlily.<br /> &quot;Two hundred francs!&quot; whined Hakkabut.-- On a Comet, Jules Verne<br /> <br /> '''theory of sets'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Set theory is the mathematical theory of sets, which represent collections of abstract objects. It encompasses the everyday notions, introduced in primary school, of collections of objects, and the elements of, and membership in, such collections. In most modern mathematical formalisms, set theory provides the language in which mathematical objects are described. It is (along with logic and the predicate calculus) one of the axiomatic foundations for mathematics, allowing mathematical objects to be constructed formally from the undefined terms of &quot;set&quot; and &quot;set membership&quot;. It is in its own right a branch of mathematics and an active field of mathematical research. Wikipedia&lt;br&gt;<br /> :The members of a set can be, say, [Mike, Mary, Jack, Richard, Ron, Umeki, . . . . . .], the employees of a company, or the passengers of the train leaving the station; they need NOT be abstract. Cf [[ATD_525-556#Page 535|page 525:set theory]].<br /> <br /> '''Bruges Canal'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Belgium: Bruges canal. For a picture of the canal see [http://cruises.about.com/library/pictures/baltic/blbruges19.htm Bruges Canal].<br /> <br /> ==Page 568==<br /> <br /> '''vaporetto'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> A Venetian water-bus.<br /> <br /> '''Grand Canal'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> The main canal that runs through the heart of Venice and down past San Marco, the city's main square.<br /> <br /> '''San Marco end'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> See above. This is where Florian's (appears in the novel) is situated.<br /> <br /> '''Piazzetta'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> ??? A small piazza. The large square in front of St Mark's is the Piazza San Marco. The smaller side square running beside the Palazzo Ducale down to the canal is the Piazzetta San Marco.<br /> <br /> '''San Giorgio Maggiore'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> A rather over-ornate church on the Grand Canal opposite San Marco.<br /> <br /> '''spreading... cloak'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Cliche/allusion?<br /> <br /> '''live here forever'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Pynchon special-pleading that Dally isn't just another tourist.<br /> Or is this just a typical reaction of the tourist? And a Pynchonesque longing for home?<br /> <br /> '''Teatro Verdi in Trieste'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> A 1200+ seat theatre built in late-eighteenth century in Trieste for classical music, opera and ballet ([http://selectitaly.com/events.php?product_id=27&amp;city_id=122 Teatro Verdi]). With its stately columns, elaborate adornments and lush elegance it is rather an unlikely venue for magic show. Another unlikely venue for magic show is Teatro Malibran in Venice (next page).<br /> <br /> ==Page 569==<br /> <br /> '''Malibran... Polo's house'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> The Teatro Malibran, built at the site of Marco Polo's house, which was destroyed in 1596.<br /> :It is still there ! Cf [[ATD_336-357#Page 355|page 355:Teatro Malibran]] and the external link (for photos, etc) listed there.<br /> <br /> '''&quot;pincette&quot; pass'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Probably from the [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pincer_movement pincer movement] of military strategy.<br /> :Professor Hoffman's ''Modern Magic'' (1876) describes three &quot;passes with coins,&quot; La Pincette, Le Tourniquet and La Coulée. Amazon has the book for sale if anyone wants to look up the details.<br /> <br /> '''profondes'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> &quot;Large pockets in tail coats which can be used for vanishes or productions&quot;, [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_conjuring_terms Wikipedia]<br /> <br /> '''Vincenzo Miserere'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> ??? Misero means poor, pitiful, miserable, etc. Psalm 51 (sometimes numbered as 50) is known as the Miserere because it begins (in Latin) Miserere mei Deus (Have mercy on me, God).<br /> <br /> '''train to Trieste'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> ???Venice and Trieste are on the opposite sides (about 70 miles apart) of the same gulf : Gulf of Venice. Taking a train from Venice to Trieste would mean taking a route several times lengthier than a ferry.<br /> <br /> '''Svegli'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> The fictional professor's name comes from the Italian ''sveglio'' for &quot;clever, dextrous, skillful.&quot;<br /> <br /> '''shark leather'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Different from sharkskin?<br /> <br /> '''''Specchiere'''''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Mirror-maker<br /> <br /> '''glassmakers on Murano'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Murano Wikipedia]<br /> <br /> '''today'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> When is that?<br /> <br /> '''''guaglion'''''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Naples dialect: ''guaglione'' is boy. (It first appeared on page 531).<br /> <br /> ==Page 570==<br /> <br /> '''another one of his stories'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> (Jackson Pynchon should highlight all the AtD passages that originated as bedtime stories.)<br /> <br /> '''TERAPIA'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Italian, &quot;therapy&quot;<br /> <br /> '''San Servolo'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> An island in the Venetian archipelago, [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/San_Servolo Wikipedia], [http://maps.google.com/maps?f=q&amp;hl=en&amp;q=45.418654+N,+12.35698+E&amp;ie=UTF8&amp;z=17&amp;ll=45.418651,12.35698&amp;spn=0.006891,0.010793&amp;t=k&amp;om=1&amp;iwloc=addr Google Maps]<br /> <br /> '''Palazzo Ducale'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> The Ducal Palace in Venice, residence of the Doge. It's by San Marco.<br /> <br /> '''''manicomio'''''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Italian, &quot;madhouse&quot;<br /> <br /> '''''paramorfico'''''&lt;br&gt;<br /> paramorphic - see the entry for [[P|Paramorphoscope]]<br /> <br /> '''uterine vellum'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vellum Vellum] produced from the skin of an unborn calf<br /> <br /> '''pitch, rouge'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Products used in the grinding of lenses and mirrors.<br /> <br /> ==Page 571==<br /> <br /> '''La Doppiatrice'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Italian: the Doubler. <br /> <br /> Perhaps an analogue of the diffraction grating that splits the electron into two &quot;alternate&quot; electrons in Schrodinger's thought experiment on quantum effects, source here of a sort of human quantum splitting, an alternate universe creator. <br /> <br /> '''Ettore Sananzolo'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> ???<br /> <br /> '''Maskelyne cabinet'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> After Neville Maskelyne, from ''Mason and Dixon.'' Maskelyne was sent at the same time as M and D to record the Transit of Venus on St. Helena. He became Astronomer Royal while they were in America.<br /> <br /> While Maskelyne is indeed a real person, the name is very suggestive of mescaline. The two do not seem to be &quot;related.&quot;<br /> <br /> More likely a descendant, [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Nevil_Maskelyne John Nevil Maskelyne.] --[[User:Jeffersonista|Jordan]] 13:46, 25 January 2007 (PST)<br /> <br /> ==Page 572==<br /> <br /> '''smoke back into a cigar'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Time's arrow/ entropy motif.<br /> <br /> '''hard-as-a-rock black cigar'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> The quality of a cigar is usually higher with dark, more tightly-wrapped tobacco. Vincenzo has a fine one, it seems. <br /> <br /> '''thumping'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> sound/feeling of a water-bus?<br /> <br /> '''''salso'''''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Longest river in Sicily.Its small deltaic system there is dominated by marine processes rather than fluvial ones. It is a seasonal torrent, with brief but violent floods during the winter rains (from November to February), Is this what riding the salso in and back out again means? Riding the floods from the winter rains?<br /> <br /> Hardly. 'Salso' (ital.) means 'salty', so this is probably a poetical word for 'the sea'.<br /> <br /> '''''sandoli'''''&lt;br&gt;<br /> ??? The sandolo is a type of boat used in Venice, similar to a gondola but (I believe) larger.<br /> <br /> '''trains pulling in'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Famous early film.<br /> <br /> ==Page 573==<br /> <br /> '''San Polo'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> It is one of the six districts (sestieri) of Venice. (The other five are: Cannaregio, Dorsoduro, Santa Croce, San Marco, and Castello.) It (with Santa Croce and Dorsoduro) is located at the south side of the Grand Canal just across the Rialto bridge from San Marco. The San Polo district is the second most important area of Venice in terms of historical immportance and attractions for the tourists. It is the home to the Rialto market, the old artisan quarters of Venice, and the stunning Frari church.<br /> <br /> '''Cannareggio'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> It is commonly spelled Cannaregio. It is located north of the Grand Canal, and is one of the few parts of the city where Venetians still live in great numbers. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cannaregio Canaregio].<br /> <br /> ==Page 574==<br /> <br /> '''thirty years older'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> About 65yo?<br /> <br /> '''that day'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> In NYC when Dally showed up.<br /> <br /> '''when she was born'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Cf Pretenders/Chryssie Hynde.<br /> <br /> '''Stronzo'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Italian curse word, roughly &quot;asshole&quot;<br /> <br /> '''''In bocc' al lupo!'''''&lt;br&gt;<br /> From the Roman dialect, in which the Italians – including Rocco and Pino – seem to speak. Meaning, literally, &quot;In the <br /> mouth of the wolf,&quot; and idiomatically, &quot;Good luck.&quot; <br /> <br /> Specifically, as supported by the show business context, the good-luck wish among actors: &quot;Break a leg!&quot;<br /> <br /> '''''campielli'''''&lt;br&gt;<br /> ??? Small squares. A campo is literally a field and by extension a large square in a town. A campiello is a small square. I believe Venice has only one Piazza (San Marco) and the other squares are campi and campielli.<br /> <br /> '''impersonation of itself'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> echoes &quot;the mountains had become geometrical impersonations of themselves&quot;, p. 394<br /> <br /> ==Page 575==<br /> <br /> '''Riva'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> ??? Probably Riva del Vin by the Grand Canal; a great tourist attraction from where one can view the historical Rialto Bridge. (The word ''riva'' itself means ''river bank''). [http://arglist.com/cgi-bin/image?gallery=venice&amp;name=20050525-025 Riva del Vin] and[http://www.altravistavenezia.it/_VirtualTours/VA/Rialto_Riva_del_Vin/rialto_riva_del_vin.html Rialto-Riva del Vin]<br /> <br /> '''middy blouses'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> In the style of a midshipman's blouse (shirt).<br /> <br /> '''not yet been rebuilt'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Remember p256.<br /> <br /> '''''lucciole'''''&lt;br&gt;<br /> prostitutes<br /> <br /> '''''fondamenta'''''&lt;br&gt;<br /> A waterside street in Venice<br /> <br /> '''''ombreta'''''&lt;br&gt;<br /> ??? A local wine produced in the hills north of Venice.&lt;br /&gt;<br /> Well, actually ''ombreta de vin'' means &quot;a glass of wine&quot; in Venetian dialect.<br /> <br /> '''light's good here'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Old joke about drunk looking for car keys under streetlight though he dropped them somewhere else.<br /> <br /> '''inside that labyrinth . . . microcosm of all Venice'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> A hologram has this property, that a little chip broken off it contains the entire image. This is, however, a specific reference to Fractal &amp;#151; non-Euclidian &amp;#151; Geometry ... self-similarity over scale. A fractal is an object or quantity that displays self-similarity, in a somewhat technical sense, on all scales. The object need not exhibit exactly the same structure at all scales, but the same &quot;type&quot; of structures must appear on all scales. A plot of the quantity on a log-log graph versus scale then gives a straight line, whose slope is said to be the fractal dimension. The prototypical example for a fractal is the length of a coastline measured with different length rulers. The shorter the ruler, the longer the length measured, a paradox known as the coastline paradox, mentioned by Pynchon on [[ATD_821-848#Page_821|page 821: coastline approaching infinite length]].<br /> :Good argument for the fractal reference, better than the original one for the hologram metaphor. Hunter is not making smaller and smaller paintings (&quot;chips&quot;) but rather exploiting an observation about scale.<br /> <br /> ==Page 576==<br /> <br /> '''''rio'''''&lt;br&gt;<br /> narrow waterway in Venice (Cf [[ATD_243-272#Page 245|page 245:''rio'']].)<br /> <br /> '''twelve soldi'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> ??? A soldo is a small coin.<br /> <br /> '''franc... ten francs'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> ???<br /> <br /> '''Santos-Dumont style'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Cf [[ATD_525-556#Page 529|page 529:Monsieur Santos-Dumont]]<br /> <br /> '''Canaletto'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Real name: [http://www.wga.hu/bio/c/canalett/biograph.html Zuane Antonio Canal] (1697-1768), a well-known scenery painter at the time. He went to England in 1746 and returned to Venice in 1755.&lt;br&gt;<br /> Venetian landscape painter, 1697-1768, famous for his paintings of Venice ([http://www.artericerca.com/ven_set/Canaletto/canaletto.htm Italian website]).<br /> <br /> As described, Penhallow's pictures are reminiscent, in spirit and in some ways content, of John Singer Sargent's Venetian paintings. Sargent also later painted one of the most haunting images of World War I, [http://jssgallery.org/Paintings/Gassed/Gassed.htm &quot;Gassed&quot;], showing a column of men blinded by mustard gas feeling their way to an aid station.<br /> <br /> '''Beppo'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Allusion to Byron's poem &quot;Beppo - A Venetian Story&quot;. Beppo is a husband who's been away for many years and then, returning, reclaims his wife from another man.<br /> <br /> Beppo = Mouse, diminutive of Giuseppi. There is also Beppo Levi (born on May 14, 1875 in Turin, Italy, died on August 28, 1961 in Rosario, Argentina) Italian mathematician, director of the Mathematics Institute of the National University of the Littoral from 1939 to 1961. His work included the mathematics of alternative spaces[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Beppo_Levi].<br /> <br /> '''pitch'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> From Merriam-Webster Dictionary: ''chiefly British: an outdoor site (as for camping or doing business).<br /> <br /> '''Bauer-Grünwald'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> An expensive hotel near San Marco in Venice.<br /> <br /> '''demobilized from a war that nobody knew about . . . seeking refuge from time'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Hunter Penhallow, one of the Trespassers?<br /> <br /> ==Page 577==<br /> <br /> '''a time-traveler from the future'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Hunter Penhallow IS a Trespasser.<br /> <br /> ''''Safe''''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Recent art-movie title? I think safe here means safe without allusion.<br /> <br /> '''neutral hour?'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Is any moment in Time apolitical?<br /> <br /> '''Castello'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Castello is the largest of the six sestieri of Venice. The district grew up from the thirteenth century around a naval dockyard on what was originally the Isole Gemini.<br /> <br /> Not sure on the derivation of Isole Gemini; but Gemini, like Pisces (cf. Fomalhaut, the brightest star in the Pisces constellation) and Sagittarius, are the dual signs of western astrology in keeping with &quot;bi-locations,&quot; Deuce Kindred, Renfrew/Werfner, mirrors, etc. <br /> <br /> Jyotisha (Indian astrology) includes Virgo as a dual sign or dvisvabha rashis -- thus forming a Quaternity (4 signs or rashis)of Duality. It's interesting that Pynchon does not say Gemini and Pisces directly, but alludes to them behind Castello and Fomalhaut. Be on the lookout for twins, fish, virgins and centaurs!<br /> <br /> '''Evening Gun'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> &quot;At reveille the morning gun goes off; and at retreat, the evening&quot;. From <br /> a history description. Here is a site with picture.http://www.ziplink.net/~edkreutz/1f.html<br /> <br /> '''Dr. Grace'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Renowned, full-bearded 19th-century English cricket player.<br /> <br /> '''Charing Cross'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Charing Cross Railway Station, London. The original station was opened on 11 January 1864 by the South East Railway. Now, over 37 million people pass through Charing Cross every year. Situated on the forecourt of the stations is the Eleanor Cross, from which point road distances from London are measured. For more see [http://www.networkrail.co.uk/aspx/795.aspx#history Charing Cross].<br /> <br /> ==Page 578==<br /> <br /> '''Dorsoduro'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> An area of Venice. The Dorsoduro district is a relatively central area of the city, located on the opposie side of the Grand Canal from the San Marco district. But, at the smae time it offers the visitor a chance to explore a delightful part of the city free from the crowds of San Marco.<br /> The Accademia Gallery, Peggy Gugggenheim Museum, and the Santa della Maria Salute Church (one of the most famous landmarks of Venice) are all located here. [http://www.tours-italy.com/venice/guide_dorsoduro.htm Dorsoduro].<br /> <br /> '''''pensione'''''&lt;br&gt;<br /> A cheap Italian hotel, like a bed and breakfast.<br /> <br /> '''La Calcina'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> A historical hotel. La Calcina means ''The Lime House'', because the hotel was built on a 17th-century lime production site. It is located on the Zattere promenade, at the foot of the Calcina Bridge. Various Bohemian artists frequented the Café of the hotel, and John Ruskin indeed stayed at the hotel from February 13 to May 23, 1877. For the historical background of the hotel see [http://www.lacalcina.com/HTML/en/calcina_storia_en.html La Calcina].<br /> <br /> '''eminent ghosts, Turner and Whistler, Ruskin, Browning....'''<br /> <br /> Evokes Lytton Strachey's ''Eminent Victorians'' and this Quaternity of artists were eminent indeed (though not the subject of Strachey's book). All had a conection to Venice, and the note on Ruskin at the La Calcina above could be true of the other three as well. <br /> <br /> Robert Browning became a ghost in Venice in 1887. Of particular historic significance, Browning was the first person to ever have his voice heard after his death. Thomas Edison recorded Browning reading his poem &quot;How They Brought Good News from Ghent to Aix&quot; including the poet's apologies for forgetting the words. The recording was first played in Venice in 1890.<br /> <br /> '''''&quot;traces of conciousness&quot;. Psychical Research beginning to open these matters..streaming by'''''&lt;br&gt;<br /> <br /> Possible allusion to Joyce's &quot;stream of conciousness&quot;. Ulysses is also set in 1904, the year Joyce met his wife. <br /> <br /> But that is not the stream of consciousness refered to here, and it is the wrong &quot;James.&quot; William James actually coined the term &quot;stream of consciousness.&quot; Joyce was not the first to use it as a literary technique either -- he just perfected it in a way not seen before -- except perhaps in Proust.<br /> <br /> Considering the context in AtD concerns ghosts and the very next sentence begins with a mention of Psychical Research, &quot;traces of consciousness&quot; is not so much stream of consciousness as a trailing vapor or whisp of consciousness that streams by as a &quot;kind of ghost.&quot; Think in terms of thought transference, ESP, mediums, hypnosis, hallucinations, ghosts. More than a few characters in this novel are involved in these things.<br /> <br /> In order to study these phenomena, three dons of Trinity College, Cambridge founded The Society for Psychical Research in 1882. William James helped to found the American branch and was president of the group for a while. <br /> <br /> There are recurring parallels in AtD to a famous James quote from ''Varieties of Religious Experience'': <br /> <br /> Our normal waking consciousness . . . is but one special type of consciousness, whilst all about it, parted from it by the flimsiest of screens, there lie potential forms of consciousness entirely different. We may go through life without suspecting their existence; but apply the requisite stimulus and at a touch they are all there in all their completeness . . . No account of the universe in its totality can be final which leaves these other forms of consciousness quite disregarded. <br /> <br /> <br /> '''Zattere'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> An area of wide waterfront pavements in Venice.<br /> <br /> '''''...in hotels, the way your dreams are often, alarmingly, not your own?'''''&lt;br&gt;<br /> One more possible allusion to Proust, including also the following paragraph. At the beginning of the ''Recherche'', the main character, Marcel, spends a sleepless night in a hotel room, surrounded by memories he can't make sense of. <br /> <br /> In ''Lot 49'' Oedipa Maas considers all the dreams and memories stored in the mattresses of transients' hotels, and of the information destroyed when they burned.<br /> <br /> '''''cimici'''''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Latin: bedbug.<br /> <br /> '''to pick up traces of the dreams of whoever slept there just before them'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Cf. the Tom Waits song &quot;9th &amp; Hennepin&quot;: &quot;And all the rooms they smell like diesel / And you take on the dreams of the ones who have slept there&quot;. [http://www.tomwaitslibrary.com/lyrics/raindogs/9thandhennepin.html Lyrics]<br /> <br /> '''bora'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> a regional wind, blowing each winter.<br /> <br /> ==Page 579==<br /> <br /> '''vino forte'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> strong wine.<br /> <br /> '''Brindisi, Squinzano, . . . Brletta'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> They are the cities in Puglia (Apula) region of southeast Italy, ie. at the &quot;heel of the Italian Boot&quot;.<br /> <br /> '''Tintoretto's ''Abduction . . .'''''&lt;br&gt;<br /> See [http://www.egypttoday.com/article.aspx?ArticleID=3374 here]<br /> <br /> Tintoretto (1518-94), Venetian painter. Originally named Jacopo Robusti, because of his father's profession of ''tintore'' (dye) he was nicknamed as [http://www.wga.hu/bio/t/tintoret/biograph.html Tintoretto]. The most successful painter of Venetian school in the generation after Titian. His drawings, unlike Michelangelo's detailed life studies, are brilliant, rapid notations, bristling with energy, and his color is more somber and mystical than Titian's. For a better, can be enlarged, view of his [http://www.wga.hu/index1.html ''Abduction of the Body of St. Mark (1562-66)''].<br /> <br /> '''Accademia'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> The major art-gallery in Dorsoduro, Venice<br /> <br /> '''Titian'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> 16th century Venetian painter.&lt;br&gt;<br /> Vecellio Tiziano (1490-1576), better known as Titian, the greatest painter of the Venetain School and the leading light of the Italian Renaissance. Titian was recognized as a towering genius in his own time and his reputation as one of the giants of art has never been seriously questioned. He was supreme in every branch of painting and his achievements were so varied — ranging &quot;from the joyous evocation of pagan antiquity . . . to the depths of tragedy in his late religious paintings&quot; — that he has been an inspiration to artists of very different character. In many subjects, above all in portraiture, he set patterns that were followed by generations of artists. For more and Titian's paintings [http://www.wga.hu/bio/t/tiziano/biograph.html Titian].<br /> <br /> '''Infancy Gospel of Thomas'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> One of the apocryphal scriptures. The Infancy Gospel of Thomas relates the miraculous deeds of Jesus before he turned twelve. [http://www.earlychristianwritings.com/infancythomas.html 1] [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gospel_of_Thomas Wikipedia on the Gospel of Thomas]<br /> <br /> →Actually, The Infancy Gospel of Thomas is not the same as the Gospel of Thomas. The former is a brief summary of Jesus' misadventures as a child (as AtD notes, Jesus really is described as a hell-raiser and although at one point he brings a child named Zenon back from death, the Infancy Gospel mostly just makes a shallow exhibition of Jesus' miraculous powers). The latter is a Gnostic text and a &quot;collection of sayings, prophecies, proverbs, and parables of Jesus&quot; (Willis Barnstone, &quot;The Other Bible&quot; p. 299).<br /> <br /> Also, I read through the whole Infancy Gospel of Thomas and could not find the particular parable that Pynchon describes. However, Pynchon's parable is in keeping with the style of this Gospel. Jesus gets in trouble--making adults irate--and then sets everything straight. This particular parable also does not appear in The Infancy Gospel of James, The Infacy Gospel of Pseudo-Matthew, or The Arabic Infancy Gospel.<br /> <br /> The reference to this Gospel is a double+ play on the twins/double/mirror motif. First, as can be seen in this posting, there is confusion between the Gospel of Thomas and the Infancy Gospel of Thomas. The two gospels appear to be the same, but they are different. Second, the name ''Thomas'' means ''twin''. Also(+), Thomas is the doubting Thomas.<br /> To doubt is to be &quot;of two minds.&quot; The historic and theological significance of Thomas is loaded with themes relevant to this novel.<br /> <br /> ==Page 580==<br /> <br /> '''Pentecost story in Acts'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Pentecost is a Christian holiday commemorating the descent of the Holy Spirit on Jesus' followers and the beginning of the Christian church. Pentecost is celebrated by many (but not all) Christians on the Sunday 50 days after Easter. It often falls in early June. [[Acts II|Read the Biblical passages in Acts II...]]<br /> <br /> '''Galilean dialect'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Of Aramaic.<br /> <br /> '''Yes, well, it's redemption, isn't it, you expect chaos, you get order instead'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> In the Infancy Gospel of Thomas and the Pentecost, first Jesus, then the Holy Ghost, act as Maxwell's Demon [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Maxwell%27s_Demon]. In the Infancy Gospel story, Jesus sorts the randomly mixed dye molecules so that each garment comes out one color; in the Pentecost story the Holy Ghost causes a single language, just random noise to all but Galileans, to be heard as the many different languages of the listeners. Taking the two stories together, thermodynamic entropy is reversed, but the entropy of information is increased. This is the crux of ''Lot 49''; here it is another &quot;secular miracle&quot;; order emerges from chaos. The mathemateicians, artists and similar seekers may bring forth a similar miracle, the ability to experience other dimensions, to understand the universe (See Kit's dream, P.566).<br /> <br /> '''''rii'''''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Plural of ''rio''.<br /> <br /> ==Page 581==<br /> <br /> '''''sotopòrteghi'''''&lt;br&gt;<br /> An open doorway for public access. (Cf [[ATD_243-272#Page 246|page 246:sotopòrteghi]].)<br /> <br /> '''Bodeo 10.4 mm'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> A mass-produced Italian-made service revolver, initially made around 1889. Demand for them as guns was low, causing thousands of the weapons to be converted to table lamps. An interesting Pynchonian connection between light, manufacture, weapons, and war.<br /> <br /> ==Page 582==<br /> <br /> '''''foschetta'''''&lt;br&gt;<br /> ''Foschia'' in Italian means &quot;fog&quot;. ''Foschetta'' is a term for &quot;light fog&quot;.<br /> <br /> '''''masègni'''''&lt;br&gt;<br /> ???<br /> :blocks of Euganean trachyte used for paving, often marked off by bands of Istrian stone<br /> <br /> '''''patrone'''''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Probably meaning ''padrone'', &quot;master&quot;. -- blicero2<br /> :or female saint? not referring to Tonio but just as an expression.<br /> <br /> '''wine trains up from Puglia'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> ???Puglia region is in southeast of Italy (at the &quot;heel of the Italian Boot&quot;). From page 578-579: &quot;In September, when the vino forte arrived from Brindis, Squinzano, and Barletta . . .&quot; These three cities are in Puglia. Cf [[ATD_557-587#Page 579|page 579:vino forte]] and [[ATD_557-587#Page 579|page 579:Brindisi, Squinzano, . . . Barletta]].<br /> <br /> '''Winter'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> 1904-1905?<br /> <br /> '''''osterie'''''&lt;br&gt;<br /> tavern?<br /> <br /> '''Principessa Spongiatosta'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Is Pugnax's book from p6 at all relevant here?<br /> :Yes! [[Princess_Casamassima,_The|''The Princess Casamassima'']] has several resonances with ''AtD.''<br /> <br /> '''Ca''''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Abbreviated form of &quot;Casa,&quot; Italian for &quot;house.&quot;<br /> <br /> Which appears to be multidimensional, or at any rate non-Euclidean, reminiscent of Zombini's cabinet.<br /> <br /> '''Roman Composite order'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> A classical order (style of building design) dating from late Roman times, formed by superimposing Ionic volute (volute = a spiral scroll ornament) on a Corinthian capital (capital = the head or crowning feature of a column). ([http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Composite_order Composite order]).<br /> <br /> '''japonica'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Japanese honeysuckle.<br /> <br /> ==Page 583==<br /> <br /> '''Iron Bridge'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> The Ponte dell’Accademia - connecting the Venetian quarters (sestieri) San Marco and Dorsoduro - was constructed during the Austrian occupation in 1854. This steel construction got replaced ca. 1933 by a wooden bridge (which was replaced by yet another wooden bridge in 1985) [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ponte_dell'Accademia Wikipedia]<br /> <br /> '''Le Havre'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> French port city on the Atlantic (English Channel).<br /> <br /> '''''ma via'''''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Meaning &quot;come on!&quot;, in Italian. -- blicero2<br /> <br /> '''third eyes touching'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> The third eye, as existing on some reptiles is a dorsal organ that is receptive to light, otherwise known as the ''pineal eye''. Since the two half-sisters are obviously not reptiles, this reference might allude to the figurative third eye, or the eye of the mind, heart or soul. When the two touch foreheads, they are able to peer into each other consciences, by way of these third eyes. [http://www.thefreedictionary.com/third+eye /Dictionary Entry]<br /> <br /> ==Page 584==<br /> <br /> '''&quot;Swiss insurance salesman. Wolf. No, Putzi.&quot;'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Bria's had so many beaux she gets them confused? One was a wolf; the other a putz?<br /> :''Wolf'' is an uncommon given name but also a diminutive of Wolfgang. ''Putzi'' does not come from a given name; it's like &quot;sweetiepie,&quot; a nickname for a cute boy.<br /> <br /> '''''topo'''''&lt;br&gt;<br /> A topo is a guide for a crag or climbing area.<br /> <br /> '''Dogana'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Custom House, built on a wedge of land called ''Punta della Dogana'' (Custom Point). This wedge of land is at the entrance of the Grand Canal, as described in the text: &quot;where the Grand Canal and the Lagoon meet&quot;. The original 14th-century customs tower was replaced by a colonnaded building named the ''Dogana de Mare'' (Sea Customs Post). See picture [http://uk.encarta.msn.com/media_1041505867_761562189_-1_1/Punta_della_Dogana_Venice.html Punta della Dogana]<br /> <br /> '''Andrea Tancredi'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> An artist and acquaintence made by Hunter Penhallow in Venice. His name is likely derived from the Gioacchino Rossini opera ''Tancredi'' or the Voltaire play by the same name. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tancredi Wikipedia Entry]&lt;br /&gt;<br /> Tancredi, restored, is a tragedy. the soldier Tancredi and his family have been stripped of their estates and inheritances, and he himself has been banished since his youth. Two more noble families — headed by Argirio and Orbazzano — have been warring for years. Wikipedia.<br /> Tancredi presides in exile...he is mortally wounded at the end after learning the person he thought betrayed the heroine did not. <br /> <br /> :Actually, per [[T#tancredi|my entry in the Alpha index]], more likely the name connects with Tancredi, the time-traveling character in ''City of Death'', a four-part serial in the British science fiction television series ''Dr. Who'' which involves time travel and bilocation. Tancredi is the sole survivor of the Jagaroth race, an evil people who destroyed themselves in a war some 400 million years ago. Tancredi explains that a few escaped in a dilapidated spacecraft and found Earth in a primeval, lifeless stage of its development. The ship disintegrated upon takeoff and [[Scaroth]] tells of how he was fractured in time, splinters of his being were scattered across time and space, all identical, none complete. Whereas, in ''City of Death'', Tancredi, one of the Scaroff &quot;splinters&quot; living in Renaissance Italy, is plotting to create multiple Mona Lisa's for fraudulent purposes, ''Against the Day'''s Tancredi is fighting art fraud. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/City_of_Death Read the synopsis of ''City of Death'']; The name &quot;Andrea&quot; ''could'' be a reference to the protagonist Andrea Marsh, a time-traveler in the 1889 novel, ''Timeless Love'' by Judy Hinson ([[Timeless Love|synopsis]]).<br /> <br /> '''Seurat and Signac'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> George Seurat (1859-1891) and Paul Signac (1863-1935), French painters who developed pointillism. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pointillism Wikipedia entry].<br /> <br /> '''Divisionism'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Term invented by Paul Signac to describe the Neo-Impressionist separation of colour into dots or patches applied directly to the canvas. From Grove Dictionary of Art. <br /> <br /> <br /> '''Marinetti'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> The Italian poet Filippo Tommaso Marinetti was the first among [the Futurists] to produce a manifesto of their artistic philosophy in his Manifesto of Futurism (1909)(see below).<br /> <br /> '''&quot;Futurists&quot;'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Practitioners or followers of Futurism, an early 20th century art movement that is considered the genesis of Cubism, Dada and Art Deco. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Futurism_%28art%29 Wikipedia entry].Marinetti summed up the major principles of the Futurists, including a passionate loathing of ideas from the past, especially political and artistic traditions. He and others also espoused a love of speed, technology and violence. The car, the plane, the industrial town were all legendary for the Futurists, because they represented the technological triumph of man over nature.<br /> <br /> <br /> '''brutalism'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> See above and The Futurists were often condemned as fascistic in their manifestos and outlook. <br /> <br /> '''Torcello'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> A lonely Venetian island: very peaceful and beautiful with a church and little else.<br /> <br /> '''primitivo'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> A kind of red wine (same as the original Zinfandel, actually).<br /> <br /> ==Page 585==<br /> <br /> '''green-and-lavender'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Another clashing color scheme.<br /> <br /> '''sirocco'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> A hot dust-laden wind from the Libyan deserts that blows on the northern Mediterranean coast chiefly in Italy, Malta, and Sicily. &lt;br&gt;<br /> The correct spelling in Italian is ''Scirocco''. <br /> <br /> '''San Michele'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> San Michele, nicknamed The Island of the Dead, is the cemetery island of Venice. It is associated with the sestiere of Cannaregio from which it lies a short distance north east. <br /> Walls of San Michele.Along with neighbouring San Cristoforo della Pace, the island was a popular place for local travellers and fishermen to land. Mauro Codussi's Chiesa di San Michele in Isola of 1469, the first Renaissance church in Venice, and a monastery lie on the island.<br /> <br /> '''futuristic vehicle'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> See p. 155 [[ATD_149-170#Pages_154-155|and annotations.]] Of course, the machine-inspired Futurists would remind Hunter of this vehicle that 'had borne him to safety'!<br /> <br /> Why? Hunter isn't the Futurist here and doesn't seem to share the same naive faith in Progress that Tancredi does.<br /> <br /> '''the chill, comfortless faith in science and rationality...'''&lt;br /&gt;<br /> [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Max_Weber Max Weber's] concept of rationality, and the [[Routinization of Charisma|routinization/rationalization of charisma]], is a prominent theme in [http://gravitys-rainbow.pynchonwiki.com/wiki/index.php?title=R#routinization ''Gravity's Rainbow''] &amp;#151; a spontaneous and charismatic source of authority is eventually &quot;rationalized&quot; and brought under the control of processes and rules. In Pynchon's view, it is a movement toward Death and thematically related to entropy &amp;#151; a prominent theme in [http://v.pynchonwiki.com/wiki/index.php?title=E#entropy ''V.''] &amp;#151; and, in [http://masondixon.pynchonwiki.com/wiki/index.php?title=F#fengshui ''Mason &amp; Dixon''], bad ''Feng Shui'' and the reduction of the fuzzy boundaries between Pennsylvania and Maryland into a straight line.<br /> <br /> '''''Preliminary Studies...'''''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Artists often do 'preliminary studies'..'infernal machine' comes out of Futurism's ideas.<br /> <br /> ==Page 586==<br /> <br /> '''Always with us.'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Gospel of Matthew. &quot;The poor you will always have with you&quot;. Here reference is to born-again Christers.<br /> <br /> '''''vero?'''''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Literally meaning ''true'' in Italian, here it is used as you would use: &quot;Are you talking of an infernal machine, ''aren't you'' ?&quot;<br /> <br /> '''We desire transformation'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Aligns the explosion-loving Tancredi with the Rilke-quoting Blicero from Gravity's Rainbow. '&quot;Want the Change,&quot; Rilke said, &quot;O be inspired by the Flame!&quot;' (GR p.97)<br /> <br /> It also might be helpful to recall that Shiva, who has been referred to implicitly numerous times already in ATD, is the transformative/destructive deity of the Hindi Trimurti.<br /> <br /> This section also sets up Tancredi as an opposite of Hunter, who on p.577 wants to find a &quot;neutral hour&quot;, that &quot;goes neither forwards or back&quot;, and on the same page &quot;felt no desire to join in, quite the opposite.&quot; Hunter himself is much like Katje from GR. Page 97 again: &quot;But not Katje: No mothlike plunge. He must conclude that secretly she fears the change...&quot;<br /> <br /> '''orpiment yellow'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> A yellow color pigment ([http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Orpiment Wikipedia])<br /> <br /> '''Nürnberg violet'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> An artificial color pigment discovered in 1868 in the city of Nuremberg<br /> <br /> ==Page 587==<br /> <br /> '''&quot;The energies of motion, the grammatical tyrannies of becoming, in divisionismo we discover how to break them apart into their component frequencies . . . we define a smallest element, a dot of color which becomes the basic unit of reality . . . .'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> This seems to describe both the kind of painting done by Tancredi and atomic research. Breaking material into its atomic unit, the basic unit of reality, is literally part of the &quot;energies of motion.&quot;<br /> This also describes how a television set works. The screen is composed of millions of tiny dots that, taken together, create moving pictures. <br /> <br /> <br /> '''Brownian movement'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Also called Brownian motion. It is the irregular motion of small particles suspended in a liquid or a gas, caused by the bombardment of the particles by molecules of the medium<br /> first divscovered by botanist Robert Brown (1773-1858) in 1827. Einstein in one of his four ''Annus Mirabilis Papers'' of 1905 explained the random motion using molecular kinetic theory of heat. Cf [[ATD_397-428#Page 412|page 412:young Einstein]].<br /> <br /> '''I really love the old dump'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> For the same reason Dally does: Venice has what Pynchon called (in ''V.'') &quot;Temporal Bandwidth&quot;: a life in a depth of time, a simultaneous humane immersion in past, present and future. The canals of industrialized Belgium are silted up, the connections to its Hanse past lost, paved and tracked over. This has not, and cannot, happen to Venice; even a Futurist painter cannot carry out the appaling modernization he describes. Venice is a place to hide from the future; indeed, in terms of physical destruction, the world wars barely touched La Serenisima.<br /> <br /> '''''nebbia, nebbietta, foschia, caligo, sfumato'''''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Varieties of fog.<br /> <br /> '''speed of sound'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Air temperature is more important that density.<br /> <br /> '''''La Velocità del Suono'''''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Italian, &quot;speed of sound&quot;<br /> <br /> ==Annotation Index==<br /> {{ATD PbP}}</div>

MKOHUT https://against-the-day.pynchonwiki.com/wiki/index.php?title=ATD_557-587&diff=14137 2007-10-21T19:37:56Z

<p>MKOHUT: /* Page 585 */</p> <hr /> <div>:'''&lt;big&gt;Please keep these annotations SPOILER-FREE by not revealing information from later pages in the novel.&lt;/big&gt;'''&lt;p&gt;&lt;br&gt;<br /> <br /> ==Page 557==<br /> <br /> '''Viktor Mulciber'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Well, no benign associations with &quot;Mulciber&quot;! Mulciber is an alternative name of the Roman god Vulcan, the god of fire and volcanoes, and the manufacturer of art, arms, iron, and armor for gods and heroes. Mulciber is also the name of a character in John Milton's ''Paradise Lost'', the architect of the demon city of Pandemonium. When Pynchon was alluded to on The John Larroquette Show [80s or 90s], the book he was said to be working on was called ''Pandemonium of the Sun''.&lt;br&gt;<br /> In the Harry Potter books, Mulciber is a Death Eater, a minor Dark Wizard.<br /> <br /> '''bespoke'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> made to order, hence hand-made and expensive. Somewhere in the novel is a reference to 1 Savile Row, the address of Gieves and Hawkes, a very traditional English tailor.<br /> <br /> '''Basil Zaharoff'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Sir Basil Zaharoff, originally Zacharias Basileios, (1849, Muğla, Turkey - 1936, Monte Carlo, Monaco) was a Greek arms trader and financier, the director and chairman of the Vickers munitions firm during World War I [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zaharoff_Basil]. He also turns up as an international arms dealer in Reilly, Ace of Spies.<br /> <br /> In addition to the arms-dealing and being semi-fictionalized, Zaharoff is also notable for bribing the Japanese Admiral, helping to incorporate the company that eventually became British Petroleum, and through his association with Louis II of Monaco, the purchase of the Société des Bains de Mer, which ran the famous Monte Carlo casino.<br /> <br /> '''trains of history... run'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Karl Marx, in ''Das Kapital'', referred to wars as the &quot;express trains of history&quot; because they can spark societal or national crises, marking a historical turning point, and they can release economic, social, and moral forces of unforeseen power and dimensions, making any return to the status quo impossible.<br /> Also notice TRP's steady referencing of 'railroads' in a negative way. <br /> <br /> '''Q-weapon'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Possible allusion to Professor Kokintz's &quot;Q-bomb&quot; in ''The Mouse That Roared'' (1959) or to James Bond's master armorer Q. It could also be an allusion to the character &quot;Q&quot; in Star Trek where the name &quot;Q&quot; is also shared by other members of the Q Continuum. Q is a mischievous omnipotent being who has taken an interest in humans. He also has a flair for the dramatic, with a mercurial personality that switches between a joking, camp style and a more ominous and even dangerous manner. While he is boastful, condescending and threatening, he arguably has humanity's best interests at heart. In the episode &quot;The Q and the Gray&quot; (''Star Trek: Voyager'' - 3rd season), Q weapons are provided to the crew of the Voyager to free Q and Janeway, who have been captured by rebels. [http://www.answers.com/topic/the-q-and-the-grey Synopsis]; [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Q_(Star_Trek) Wikipedia]. Looney Tunes character Marvin the Martian possesses an earth-destroying weapon known as the Illudium Q-36 Explosive Space Modulator.<br /> <br /> In this context, the Q stands for &quot;Quaternion.&quot; See under Q in the alphabetical index.<br /> <br /> '''Balkan ''komitadji'''''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Originally, members of the rebel gangs (&quot;committees&quot;), controlled from Sofia, who made forays into Macedonia, the chief object of Bulgarian expansionism before WWI. The word was also commonly used for Serbian irregular fighters.<br /> <br /> :See this slightly different [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Komitadji Komitadji].<br /> <br /> '''waybill'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Ancestor of what Fedex and UPS call &quot;shipping document&quot;; it identifies the article shipped and contains necessary addresses and instructions.<br /> <br /> '''metamorphosed into an American Negro'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Cf honorary Negro (Frank above).<br /> <br /> '''Nipponese'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Japanese<br /> <br /> '''peach'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Plum, actually.<br /> <br /> '''Hertzian'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Electromagnetic waves, first demonstrated by [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Heinrich_Rudolf_Hertz Heinrich Hertz] (Cf [[ATD_318-335#Page 318|page 318:Hertz]]).<br /> <br /> '''they cannot strictly . . . longitudinal as well as transverse'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Hertz's theory and Maxwell's equations describe ''transverse'' waves in which the electric and magnetic fields are perpendicular to the direction of travel; no longitudinal waves--with vibrations parallel to the direction of travel--are permitted. In air, sound waves are longitudinal; what's suggested here is a new wave that does not fit the Hertz-Maxwell paradigm.<br /> <br /> ==Page 558==<br /> <br /> '''scalar part'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Quaternion equivalent of the real part.&lt;br&gt;<br /> A scalar quantity in geometry has magnitude but not direction. The length of a line segment is a scalar.&lt;br&gt;<br /> Time is a scalar term. <br /> <br /> '''baritone in a barbershop quartet'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> [http://www.barbershop.org/web/groups/public/documents/pages/pub_id_000827.hcsp Quote]:Technically speaking, barbershop harmony is a style of unaccompanied singing with three voices harmonizing to the melody. The lead usually sings the melody, with the tenor harmonizing above the lead. The bass sings the lowest harmonizing notes and the baritone provides in-between notes, either above or below the lead to make chords (specifically, dominant-type or &quot;barbershop&quot; sevenths) that give barbershop its distinctive, &quot;full&quot; sound.<br /> <br /> '''viola in a string quartet'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Two violins, a viola, and a violoncello make up a string quartet. The viola is between the others in pitch and is generally considered to have been given the least interesting parts in Classical and Romantic music for string quartet.<br /> <br /> '''Further Term'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> The three parts of a quaternion that are multiples of '''i''', '''j''' and '''k''' (Cf [[ATD_525-556#Page 525|page 525: Quaternions]].)<br /> <br /> '''the fulfiller of the Trinity'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> the name of the first atom bomb detonated at Los Alamos. Alluded to earlier as the &quot;Anti-Stone&quot; (Webb and Merle, p.78). The origin of the name Trinity for this event is uncertain. It is commonly thought that Robert Oppenheimer provided the name, which would seem logical, but even this is not definitely known. A leading theory is that Oppenheimer did select it, and that he did so with reference to the divine Hindu trinity of Brahma (the Creator), Vishnu (the Preserver), and Shiva (the Destroyer). Oppenheimer had an avid interest in Sanskrit literature (which he had taught himself to read), and following the Trinity test is reported to have recited a passage from the Bhagavad-Gita that is quoted earlier in this wiki.&lt;br&gt;<br /> <br /> The usage of the Tibetan Mount Kailash, the holy dwelling place of Shiva, God of destruction and regeneration, on p. 437 seems to support this.<br /> <br /> Also, a religious allusion to the three-person Godhead in Christian theology. &lt;br&gt;<br /> Also, third ATD meaning!, a college in Dublin mentioned on page 560.<br /> <br /> Also,&quot;the Destroyer, the fulfiller of the trinity&quot; recalls the Destroyer on page 154, the meteorite, and thus relates ''that'' passage to the Anti-Stone.<br /> <br /> Also, in Jungian Psychology the 'fulfiller' of the trinity, making it a complete four-aspect entity, is the 'shadow', or traditionally, the devil (the force always excluded and seen as bad in Christian theology). Cf. C. G. Jung, &quot;Versuch einer psychologischen Deutung des Trinitätsdogmas&quot;, Gesammelte Werke 11, especially p.179-94. Interestingly, Jung uses the term 'quaternarisch' for this. More Q-talk, then.<br /> <br /> '''the pulselessness of salvation'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> salvation lies outside of time?<br /> <br /> '''A weapon based on Time'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Time is why there is entropy, that key Pynchonian term. Pynchon has created a brilliant metaphor that uses the concept uniquely. The Q-weapon, at the heart of which lies &quot;a crystal about the size of a human eyeball&quot; is based on Time. What becomes of the Q-weapon after Umeki (possibly) gives it to Halfcourt in Constantinople? ([[ATD_1018-1039#Page 1036|See page 1036...]])<br /> <br /> '''&quot;...you could become the most feared person in history.&quot; ... &quot;I'd rather be loved,&quot; said Root.'''&lt;br &gt;<br /> Echoes Machiavelli's famous aphorism, &quot;It is much safer to be feared than loved.&quot;<br /> <br /> '''laterite'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> A mineral structure formed by erosion, see [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Laterite Wikipedia]. Laterite is typically rich in metal oxides and poor in organic matter.<br /> <br /> '''Ostend'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Cf [[ATD_525-556#Page 525|page 525:Ostend]]. Ostend (Dutch: Oostende, French &amp; German: Ostende) is a Belgian municipality located in the Flemish province of West Flanders. It comprises the villages of Mariakerke, Stene and Zandvoorde, and the city of Ostend proper – the largest at the Belgian coast. Wikipedia.<br /> <br /> '''Inner Boulevards'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> streets in Brussels.&quot;In spite of the competition of the Central or Inner Boulevards, the Montagne de la Cour still remains the principal street for shopping in Brussels.&quot; &quot;Brussels&quot;, Antiques Digest, 1904.<br /> <br /> '''Gare du Midi'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> The largest railway station in Brussels and a haunt of prostitutes.<br /> <br /> &lt;div id=&quot;gevaert&quot;&gt;&lt;/div&gt;'''Edouard Gevaert'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> It seems this gentleman is fictional. although there are some interesting, but tenuous, connections. Agfa-Gevaert is the current owner of the [[W#wardenclyffe|Wardenclyffe Tower]] facility which housed the Tesla Tower. [http://www.maerlant.be/photherel/student/nvgevaert.htm Lieven Gevaert] (1868-1935) was a Belgian industrialist who founded Gevaert &amp; Co. which produced photographic paper, in 1894. The company specialized in &quot;daylight&quot; paper, which relies on the event of exposure of the positive image through daylight, as opposed to development paper which is based on a process of special manipulation with chemicals. (Are photographs &quot;stolen goods&quot;? &quot;Unworldy go-betweens&quot;? Is the Q-Weapon a ... camera? No. It unlocks Time, animating the photograph - [[ATD_1018-1039#Page 1036|See page 1036]]) Agfa (Actien-Gesellschaft für Anilin-Fabrikation) was founded in 1864 as a manufacturer of dies and stains. In World War II, it became part of IG Farben (prominent in [http://gravitys-rainbow.pynchonwiki.com/wiki/index.php?title=IG_Farben_References ''Gravity's Rainbow'']. The Allies broke up IG Farben after the war and Agfa emerged as an individual company. And, well, there ''was'' a Dutch arms dealer named Edouard de Beaumont (1841-1895) who has a rifle named after him. Yes, a stretch... Upon further reflection, I believe &quot;Edouard&quot; may refer to [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Muybridge Eadweard Muybridge] (Edouard was a variant spelling he earlier used) and his photographic experiments with ''freezing'' motion/Time.<br /> <br /> ==Page 559==<br /> <br /> '''Krupp field-piece'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> The Krupps are an ancient German family, famous for making weapons. A field-piece is a light-cannon.<br /> <br /> '''vaguely glandular'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Describes Belgium, it seems.<br /> <br /> '''''ostinato'''''&lt;br&gt;<br /> A continually repeated musical phrase or rhythm.<br /> <br /> '''poleaxed'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Stunned, brought to a mental standstill. (A poleaxe was used in slaughterhouses.)<br /> <br /> '''lost to silence'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> (Not silent, or very?)Very<br /> <br /> ==Page 560==<br /> <br /> '''Wellington Hippodrome'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> A race track in Ostend. (Cf [[ATD_525-556#Page 528|page 528:Hippodrome]].)<br /> <br /> '''Estacade'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> :A dike of piles in the sea, a river, etc., to check the approach of an enemy. [http://www.thefreedictionary.com/Estacade]<br /> <br /> '''''mousmée... mouchard'''''&lt;br&gt;<br /> French: a young Japanese woman; a police spy.<br /> :When Henry James revised ''The Princess Casamassima'' for the 1909 New York edition, the phrase &quot;middle-class spy&quot; in the 1886 text became ''mouchard''. Source: note by Patricia Crick in Penguin Classics edition.<br /> <br /> '''always lead an irregular life'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Cf GR.<br /> <br /> '''Maria Bayley Hamilton'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Hamilton's wife !!!<br /> <br /> '''council meeting'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> ???<br /> <br /> ==Page 561==<br /> <br /> '''Brougham Bridge'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> It was on this site that the [[H#hamilton|mathematician William Rowan Hamilton]], in a flash of genius, came upon the formula for Quaternions and scratched it into the stone of the bridge.<br /> <br /> About the bridge, the carving, photos of them, a couple of mathematicians' impression of the bridge, etc, see [http://math.ucr.edu/home/baez/octonions/node24.html Brougham Bridge].<br /> <br /> '''on the stone'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> The bridge is evidently a stone bridge. Stone, a natural thing, is a good for Pynchon. Hamilton's action is metaphorically a deeply religious moment. &quot;Pentecostal&quot; wherein the Quaternions 'descend' to earth [in the thoughts of men].<br /> <br /> '''''i² = j² = k² = ijk = –1'''''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Cf [[ATD_525-556#Page 525|page 525:Quaternion]].<br /> <br /> '''Pentecostal'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Pentecost (&lt; Greek πεντηκοστή [ἡμέρα], pentekostē [hēmera], &quot;the fiftieth day&quot;) is the fiftieth day after Easter Sunday, which corresponds to the tenth day after Ascension Thursday. It is a feast in the Christian liturgical calendar — symbolically related to the Jewish festival of Shavuot — that commemorates the descent of the Holy Spirit upon the Apostles and the followers of Jesus on that day, as described in the Book of Acts, Chapter 2. Pentecost is also called &quot;Whitsunday&quot; (deriving from &quot;Wit Sunday&quot;) in UK and other English-speaking areas.<br /> <br /> Almost needless to say, the Pentecostal revelation is what is supposed to happen at the end of &quot;Lot 49&quot;.<br /> <br /> '''official Mischief Opportunity'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> like 'shore leave', it seems. To leave the rules of the Organization and create mischief.<br /> <br /> '''absinthe spoons'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> absinthe spoons have slits whereon are placed sugar cubes through which one pours the absinthe<br /> <br /> '''cravats'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> A cravat is the neckband forerunner of the modern, tailored necktie. From the end of the 16th century, the term &quot;band&quot; applied to any long-strip neckcloth that was not a &quot;ruff&quot;; the ruff—a starched, pleated white linen strip—started its fashion career earlier in the 16th century as neckcloth that could be changed-a-fresh to keep the neck of a doublet from becoming too-soiled or as a bib or a napkin. A &quot;band&quot; could indicate a plain, attached shirt collar or a detachable &quot;falling band&quot; that draped over the doublet collar.&lt;br&gt;<br /> Necktie fashions have changed over time. The modern cravat originated in the 1630s when Western Europeans saw Croats wearing extravagant neck scarves; the French word ''cravate'' means &quot;Croatian cavalryman.&quot;<br /> <br /> '''&quot;four-door farce&quot;'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> (See eg Bogdanovich's &quot;What's Up, Doc?&quot;)<br /> This is also a pun on the name of Georges Feydeau, French writer of farces who was writing when Pynchon's novel is set. One of the recurring physical jokes involves sets with many doors and people coming in and out, just missing each other....<br /> <br /> The ranking of farces by door number is mostly jocular. Neil Simon's ''Rumors'' is a fine example of a seven-door farce.<br /> <br /> ==Page 562==<br /> <br /> '''Minque'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> the fish auction house.<br /> <br /> '''Bruges'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> A city about 18 miles east of Ostende, Cf [[ATD_525-556#Page 531|page 531:Bruges]].<br /> <br /> '''Ghent'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> A city about 40 miles southeast by east from Ostend, Cf [[ATD_525-556#Page 531|page 531:Ghent]].<br /> <br /> '''carillons . . . carillonneur'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> The [http://www.gcna.org/crlnexp.html carillon] was popular in Belgium before it caught on in most other places. It comprises a set of bells, matched in character, forming a scale (a couple of chromatic octaves or even more), with the beaters or clappers mechanically linked to a keyboard. A later development replaced muscle power with electromechanical linkages. In a still later &quot;advance,&quot; the carillon was automated with music-box-like control. The American practice of playing recorded bells through loudspeakers is a shamefully cheap way to imitate carillon music.&lt;br&gt;<br /> The carillonneur is the master at the keyboard.&lt;br&gt;<br /> English-style bell ringing is a totally different pursuit, using (often imperfectly) tuned bells actuated in nonmelodic sequences. The bells, not the clappers, are swung with ropes. The effect of an eight-bell &quot;peal&quot; and a team of ringers with plenty of time on their hands—as heard by this American contributor in Bristol one spring Sunday—is perfectly charming.&lt;br&gt;<br /> By the way: The word &quot;carillon&quot; is derived from the Latin &quot;quaternio&quot; (= consisting of four elements)...<br /> <br /> '''Hanseatic'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> The Hansa or Hanseatic League (definitely a creation of &quot;the Christian North,&quot; next paragraph) was a great mercantile system that held itself above national rule.<br /> <br /> '''burghers'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> middle-class married men<br /> <br /> '''silted up'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> backed up, underwater, with mud; i.e. neglected, because replaced by railroads. -As it silted up &quot;back in the 1400s&quot; we can safely exclude the influence of railroads.<br /> <br /> '''Damme and Sluis'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Port cities near Bruges, heavily dependent on them from the 14th Century.&lt;br&gt;<br /> See [http://www.damme-online.com/gb/communities/damme.htm Damme] and [http://www.damme-online.com/gb/arounddamme/sluis.htm Sluis]. For an overview map, showing cannals, roads etc, of the general area around Bruges-Damme-Sluis see [http://www.damme-online.com/gb/maps/generaloverview.htm Bruges-Damme-Sluis]<br /> <br /> ==Page 563==<br /> <br /> '''trusted his intuitiveness'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Woevre is a natural killer.<br /> <br /> '''''&quot;Jou moerskont!&quot;''... Afrikaans'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Possibly &quot;you horse's ass&quot;? --More likely something like &quot;mother's cunt&quot;.<br /> <br /> ==Page 564==<br /> <br /> '''voices of everyone he had ever put to death had been ... scored for some immense choir'''&lt;br /&gt;<br /> A possible reference to ''Star Wars'': Obi-wan experiences the obliteration of an entire planet as &quot;a great disturbance in the Force, as if millions of voices suddenly cried out in terror and were suddenly silenced.&quot; [http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0076759/quotes]<br /> <br /> Also another potentially time-less event, all of Woevre's murders collapsed into a single moment.<br /> <br /> The &quot;choir&quot; image occurs several times in ''AtD.'' [[ATD_1-25#Page_19|One example.]]<br /> <br /> '''&quot;I cannot bear it ... this terrible light...&quot;'''&lt;br /&gt;<br /> Shades of the Kirghiz Light in [http://gravitys-rainbow.pynchonwiki.com/wiki/index.php?title=The_Kirghiz_Light ''Gravity's Rainbow'']<br /> <br /> '''''Voetsak'''''&lt;br /&gt;<br /> Afrikaans (maybe Dutch too): Go away! Also spelled ''voertsek'' or ''voetsek.''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Borrowed in English with the spelling ''footsack.'' The Urban Dictionary, which often excites skepticism, has [http://www.urbandictionary.com/define.php?term=footsack a useful entry] with a marginally plausible etymology. In [http://www.worldwideschool.org/library/books/lit/drama/Finished/chap5.html ''Finished'' (1916),] novelist H. Rider Haggard glossed it this way: &quot;Among Europeans he rejoiced in the name of Footsack, a Boer Dutch term which is generally addressed to troublesome dogs and means 'Get out.'&quot; And in a defective 1943 book for young readers, ''Great Caesar's Ghost'' (by Manning Coles, creator of gentleman op Tommy Hambledon), an English merchant seaman says, &quot;Get out, 'op it, vamoose, footsack, imshi, or I'll—&quot; [http://www.absp.org.uk/words/interjections.html ''Imshi''] is British service slang for &quot;go.&quot;<br /> <br /> '''starers'''&lt;br /&gt;<br /> Those who stared at Kit earlier.<br /> <br /> '''dramatic performance'''&lt;br /&gt;<br /> referring to 'No'?<br /> <br /> '''tobacco-stricken'''&lt;br /&gt;<br /> A smoker's deep or gritty voice.<br /> <br /> '''half-silvering'''&lt;br /&gt;<br /> A design for an optical [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Beam_splitter beam splitter] that causes half of the incident light to be transmitted and the other half to be reflected.<br /> <br /> '''the fatal number four&amp;#8212;to a Japanese mind'''&lt;br /&gt;<br /> Japanese character for number &quot;four&quot; has the same pronunciation as that of character &quot;death&quot;.&lt;br /&gt;<br /> Cf [[ATD_243-272#Page 258|page 258:Japanese character for &quot;four&quot;]].<br /> <br /> '''four cusps... index-surface'''&lt;br /&gt;<br /> ???<br /> <br /> '''co-conscious'''&lt;br /&gt;<br /> Cf [[ATD_525-556#Page 527|page 527:co-conscious]]. Repeat here: &quot;mental processes outside the main stream of consciousness but sometimes available to it - from Merriam-Webster's Medical Dictionary.&quot;<br /> <br /> Third use, I think. Who/what is co-conscious here? (First time, page 478; then page 527.)<br /> <br /> Could it be the dimly perceived consciousness of one's double in the adjacent, alternate world? Or one's consciousness of that world?<br /> <br /> ==Page 565==<br /> <br /> '''true icosahedron'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Probably an regular icosahedron, where the sides are formed by 20 equilateral triangles. For a picture see [http://mathworld.wolfram.com/Icosahedron.html Icosahedron].<br /> <br /> '''12+8... pyrites'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Pyrite crystals form a structure that can be decomposed into unit cells that contain (part of) 12 sulphur atoms and 8 iron atoms.<br /> <br /> '''Riemann sphere'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Riemann_sphere Wikipedia]<br /> <br /> '''Felix Klein'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> German mathematician ([http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Felix_Klein Wikipedia])<br /> <br /> '''ebonite'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> An early plastic([http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ebonite Wikipedia])<br /> <br /> '''Ohmic Drift Compensator'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> ohm = the practical meter-kilogram-second unit of electric resistance equal to the resistance of a circuit in which a potential difference of one volt produces a current of one ampere; The Ohmic Drift Compensator &amp;#151; a key component of the Q-weapon &amp;#151; &quot;regulates how much light is allowed to enter the silvering of the mirror! Special kind of refraction! Calibrated against imaginary index! Dangerous! Of the essence!'&quot; See also [[ATD 525-556#Page 541|Page 541]]. <br /> <br /> '''speed of the earth . . . kinetic energy'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Einstein in 1905 showed most of this argument to be nonsense, but if Lorentz's paper is still recent (next entry) the shift in thinking may not have happened yet.&lt;br&gt;<br /> :Since the earth's mean orbital speed ( ~ 30 km/s) is rather small in comparison with the speed of light ( ~ 300,000 km/s), no relativistic correction is needed in calculating earth's orbital kinetic energy. And in a reference frame anchored on the Sun, the earth's kinetic eneregy, ''E = ½ m v²'', where ''m'' is the earth mass and ''v'' it's orbital speed, still holds. Einstein showed only that it is no longer true against the nonexistent stationary ''æther''. Of course, it is irrelevant to an earthbound weapon tried to make use of this energy against a person who is standing on the earth.<br /> <br /> '''Recently Lorentz's paper'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Lorentz's 1904 &quot;Electromagnetic phenomena in a system moving with any velocity less than that of light&quot; ([http://www.soso.ch/wissen/hist/SRT/L-1904.pdf PDF])<br /> <br /> '''Lorentz . . . Fitzgerald . . . along the axis of motion'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> It was the phenomenon of the Lorentz-Fitzgerald contraction, together with the abolition of the æther by Michelson and Morley, that led Einstein to his theory of special relativity.<br /> :Michelson and Morley did NOT abolish the æther. Their experiement (1887), attempting to detect the light speed change due to the effect of the æther wind, was a total failure, and they could not explain the negative result.<br /> ::OK, would you accept &quot;the abolition of the æther hypothesis in consequence of Michelson and Morley's work&quot;? In fact, that negative result—replicated many times since—did render the notion of the luminiferous æther untenable, as the next two paragraphs make clear.<br /> :The Lorentz-Fitzgerald contraction hypothesis was proposed to explain the &quot;null&quot; result of the Michelson-Morley experiment but still keeping the æther. (see paragraph 8 of Lorentz's 1904 paper above). Lorentz considered the contraction was not physically real but a device to explain the Michelson-Morley experiment. ([http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lorentz_Fitzgerald_contraction_hypothesis Lorentz_Fitzgerald Contraction]).<br /> <br /> :Einstein (1905) derived the Lorentz contraction directly, without assuming the existence of the æther, from the ''Principle of Relativity'' (ie different observers moving at a constant speed with respect to each other find the laws of physics to be identical and find the speed of light to be the same), and proved that Lorentz-Fitzgerald contraction hypothesis had been &quot;ad-hoc&quot;. And Einstein explain the failure of Michelson-Morley experiment by abolishing the æther !<br /> <br /> '''Lord Rayleigh'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> British physicist ([http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lord_Rayleigh Wikipedia])<br /> <br /> ==Page 566==<br /> <br /> '''In a dream...'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> <br /> This passage, describing Kit's dream of Umeki and the message it conveys, pulls together many of the main themes of ''Against the Day'', tying things together in a way that Pynchon seldom does, almost as if he's providing a rather large piece of the puzzle to help the reader understand the novel:<br /> <br /> :&quot;Deep among the equations describing the behavor of light, field equations, Vector and Quaternion equations, lies a set of directions, an intinerary, a map to a hidden space. Double refraction appears again and again as a key element, permitting a view into a Creation set just to the side of this one, so close as to overlap, where the membrane between the worlds, in many places, has become too frail, too permeable, for safety.... Within the mirror, with the scalar term, within the daylit and obvious and taken-for-granted has always lain, as if in wait, the dark intinerary, the corrupted pilgrim's guide, the nameless Station before the first, in the lightless uncreated, where salvation does not yet exist.&quot;<br /> <br /> This is rather a good description of ''AtD'' itself. It is a (inevitably) &quot;corrupted pilgrim's guide&quot;, but is the guide corrupted, or the pilgrim?<br /> <br /> '''analogies'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> (Pynchonian heuristics.)<br /> <br /> '''the corrupted pilgrim's guide, the nameless Station before the first'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Cf. p. 436 '''holy pilgrimages. One defines a destination, proceeds through a series of stations...<br /> <br /> <br /> '''lightless uncreated'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> (Gnostic heresy?)<br /> <br /> '''...within the daylit and obvious and taken-for-granted has always lain, as if in wait, the dark itinerary, the corrupted pilgrim's guide, the names Station before the first, in the lightless uncreated, where salvation does not yet exist.'''&lt;br /&gt;<br /> Compare with &quot;daylit America . . . its steadfast denial of night&quot; ([[ATD_724-747#Page 732|page 732]]), ''AtD'' epigraph, Thelonious Monk's &quot;It's always night, or we wouldn't need light.&quot; '''and''' &quot;the boys expressed wonder at how much more infected with light the night-time terrains passing below them had become [...] they felt themselves in uneasy witness to some final conquest, a triumph over night whose motive none could quite grasp&quot; ([[ATD 1018-1039#Page 1032|p. 1032]]); <br /> <br /> '''stuffed sinus'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> sinus/nasal congestion. It is like looking out onto a new world when one's sinus finally clears after days of congestion.<br /> <br /> '''''Konichiwa'''''&lt;br&gt;<br /> ''sic'' for &quot;Konnichiwa / Kon nichi wa&quot; -- Japanese greeting.<br /> <br /> ==Page 567==<br /> <br /> '''new Puccini opera'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Obviously, [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Madame_Butterfly Madame Butterfly]<br /> <br /> '''[Americans] can't ever die of shame'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> shameless, unlike the Japanese<br /> <br /> '''Kimura-san'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Kimura ( &quot;tree village&quot;) is the 18th most common Japanese surname.<br /> -san is used as a courtesy title in Japanese-speaking areas as a suffix to the given name, surname, or title of the person being addressed, regardless of age or gender: Yamamoto san; sensei-san.&lt;br&gt;<br /> Chimera-san?<br /> <br /> '''Borel-Clerc... &quot;La Matchiche&quot;'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Popular vaudeville song from 1903. &quot;La Matchiche&quot; is French for the Brazilian dance Maxixe.<br /> <br /> '''western anchor'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> What about France, Spain, Portugal? Belgium is a port country with a highly developed transportation system into all of these countries. .....it was the first country to industrialize in Europe....Wikipedia. <br /> <br /> In addition, Ostend is the westernmost port. It remains today a major Continental ferry terminus for North Sea crossings, including the fastest surface route, the hydrofoil.<br /> <br /> '''the Orient Express'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> The first [http://mikes.railhistory.railfan.net/r045.html Orient Express] (1883-1914), connecting the English Channel with the Black Sea, is one of the most famous trains in Europe. It ran from Calais and Paris to Bucharest (Romania), passing through Strasbourg (France), Munich (Germany), Vienna (Austria), Bratislava (Czechoslovakia), Budapest (Hungary). From Bucharest it went through Bulgaria and then, by ferry, to Istanbul of Turkey. The original Orient Express was operated by Compaignie Internationale des Wagons-Lits. Ever since the original Orient Express started operation, the name has become synonymous with luxury travel. After World I there were various railway routes had the name of Orient Express. The current one is from Paris to Vienna, to be discontinue on June 9, 2007.<br /> <br /> '''the Trans-Siberian'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> The [http://www.transsib.ru/Eng/history-phases.htm Trans-Siberian] is a railway route connecting Moscow (Europe) to Vladivostok (Far East Asia). Taking a journey by the Trans-Siberian Railway has long been considered an experience with mythological proportions. It is the longest continuous rail line on earth - about 6,000 miles over one third of the globe. In 1891, Czar Alexander III drew up planes for the Trans-Siberian and initiated its construction, and a more or less continuous route was completed in 1905. It took many more years to make the route smoothly operative.<br /> <br /> '''the Berlin-to-Baghdad'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> The [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Baghdad_Railway Berlin-Baghdad (also Basra) Railway] was the route of German's expansion from Europe to the Persian Gulf, from which trade goods and supplies could be directly exchanged with the farthest of the German colonies and the world. It could also supply German industry directly with oil. Its conception (1888) and completion a couple of years later engendered great opposition from Russia, France and England as part of the &quot;Great Game&quot;.<br /> <br /> '''World-Island'''&lt;br /&gt;<br /> [[ATD 429-459#Page_433|See annotation at page 433]]<br /> <br /> '''Compaignie Internationale des Wagons-Lits'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> &quot;International Sleeping-Car Company&quot;, [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Carlson_Wagonlit Wikipedia]<br /> <br /> '''two hundred francs'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> &quot;None of that, Hakkabut. Hold your tongue.&quot; And, turning to Rosette, the captain said, &quot;If, sir, I understand right, you require some silver five-franc pieces for your operation?&quot;<br /> &quot;Forty,&quot; said Rosette, surlily.<br /> &quot;Two hundred francs!&quot; whined Hakkabut.-- On a Comet, Jules Verne<br /> <br /> '''theory of sets'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Set theory is the mathematical theory of sets, which represent collections of abstract objects. It encompasses the everyday notions, introduced in primary school, of collections of objects, and the elements of, and membership in, such collections. In most modern mathematical formalisms, set theory provides the language in which mathematical objects are described. It is (along with logic and the predicate calculus) one of the axiomatic foundations for mathematics, allowing mathematical objects to be constructed formally from the undefined terms of &quot;set&quot; and &quot;set membership&quot;. It is in its own right a branch of mathematics and an active field of mathematical research. Wikipedia&lt;br&gt;<br /> :The members of a set can be, say, [Mike, Mary, Jack, Richard, Ron, Umeki, . . . . . .], the employees of a company, or the passengers of the train leaving the station; they need NOT be abstract. Cf [[ATD_525-556#Page 535|page 525:set theory]].<br /> <br /> '''Bruges Canal'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Belgium: Bruges canal. For a picture of the canal see [http://cruises.about.com/library/pictures/baltic/blbruges19.htm Bruges Canal].<br /> <br /> ==Page 568==<br /> <br /> '''vaporetto'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> A Venetian water-bus.<br /> <br /> '''Grand Canal'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> The main canal that runs through the heart of Venice and down past San Marco, the city's main square.<br /> <br /> '''San Marco end'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> See above. This is where Florian's (appears in the novel) is situated.<br /> <br /> '''Piazzetta'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> ??? A small piazza. The large square in front of St Mark's is the Piazza San Marco. The smaller side square running beside the Palazzo Ducale down to the canal is the Piazzetta San Marco.<br /> <br /> '''San Giorgio Maggiore'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> A rather over-ornate church on the Grand Canal opposite San Marco.<br /> <br /> '''spreading... cloak'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Cliche/allusion?<br /> <br /> '''live here forever'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Pynchon special-pleading that Dally isn't just another tourist.<br /> Or is this just a typical reaction of the tourist? And a Pynchonesque longing for home?<br /> <br /> '''Teatro Verdi in Trieste'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> A 1200+ seat theatre built in late-eighteenth century in Trieste for classical music, opera and ballet ([http://selectitaly.com/events.php?product_id=27&amp;city_id=122 Teatro Verdi]). With its stately columns, elaborate adornments and lush elegance it is rather an unlikely venue for magic show. Another unlikely venue for magic show is Teatro Malibran in Venice (next page).<br /> <br /> ==Page 569==<br /> <br /> '''Malibran... Polo's house'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> The Teatro Malibran, built at the site of Marco Polo's house, which was destroyed in 1596.<br /> :It is still there ! Cf [[ATD_336-357#Page 355|page 355:Teatro Malibran]] and the external link (for photos, etc) listed there.<br /> <br /> '''&quot;pincette&quot; pass'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Probably from the [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pincer_movement pincer movement] of military strategy.<br /> :Professor Hoffman's ''Modern Magic'' (1876) describes three &quot;passes with coins,&quot; La Pincette, Le Tourniquet and La Coulée. Amazon has the book for sale if anyone wants to look up the details.<br /> <br /> '''profondes'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> &quot;Large pockets in tail coats which can be used for vanishes or productions&quot;, [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_conjuring_terms Wikipedia]<br /> <br /> '''Vincenzo Miserere'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> ??? Misero means poor, pitiful, miserable, etc. Psalm 51 (sometimes numbered as 50) is known as the Miserere because it begins (in Latin) Miserere mei Deus (Have mercy on me, God).<br /> <br /> '''train to Trieste'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> ???Venice and Trieste are on the opposite sides (about 70 miles apart) of the same gulf : Gulf of Venice. Taking a train from Venice to Trieste would mean taking a route several times lengthier than a ferry.<br /> <br /> '''Svegli'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> The fictional professor's name comes from the Italian ''sveglio'' for &quot;clever, dextrous, skillful.&quot;<br /> <br /> '''shark leather'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Different from sharkskin?<br /> <br /> '''''Specchiere'''''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Mirror-maker<br /> <br /> '''glassmakers on Murano'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Murano Wikipedia]<br /> <br /> '''today'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> When is that?<br /> <br /> '''''guaglion'''''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Naples dialect: ''guaglione'' is boy. (It first appeared on page 531).<br /> <br /> ==Page 570==<br /> <br /> '''another one of his stories'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> (Jackson Pynchon should highlight all the AtD passages that originated as bedtime stories.)<br /> <br /> '''TERAPIA'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Italian, &quot;therapy&quot;<br /> <br /> '''San Servolo'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> An island in the Venetian archipelago, [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/San_Servolo Wikipedia], [http://maps.google.com/maps?f=q&amp;hl=en&amp;q=45.418654+N,+12.35698+E&amp;ie=UTF8&amp;z=17&amp;ll=45.418651,12.35698&amp;spn=0.006891,0.010793&amp;t=k&amp;om=1&amp;iwloc=addr Google Maps]<br /> <br /> '''Palazzo Ducale'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> The Ducal Palace in Venice, residence of the Doge. It's by San Marco.<br /> <br /> '''''manicomio'''''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Italian, &quot;madhouse&quot;<br /> <br /> '''''paramorfico'''''&lt;br&gt;<br /> paramorphic - see the entry for [[P|Paramorphoscope]]<br /> <br /> '''uterine vellum'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vellum Vellum] produced from the skin of an unborn calf<br /> <br /> '''pitch, rouge'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Products used in the grinding of lenses and mirrors.<br /> <br /> ==Page 571==<br /> <br /> '''La Doppiatrice'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Italian: the Doubler. <br /> <br /> Perhaps an analogue of the diffraction grating that splits the electron into two &quot;alternate&quot; electrons in Schrodinger's thought experiment on quantum effects, source here of a sort of human quantum splitting, an alternate universe creator. <br /> <br /> '''Ettore Sananzolo'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> ???<br /> <br /> '''Maskelyne cabinet'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> After Neville Maskelyne, from ''Mason and Dixon.'' Maskelyne was sent at the same time as M and D to record the Transit of Venus on St. Helena. He became Astronomer Royal while they were in America.<br /> <br /> While Maskelyne is indeed a real person, the name is very suggestive of mescaline. The two do not seem to be &quot;related.&quot;<br /> <br /> More likely a descendant, [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Nevil_Maskelyne John Nevil Maskelyne.] --[[User:Jeffersonista|Jordan]] 13:46, 25 January 2007 (PST)<br /> <br /> ==Page 572==<br /> <br /> '''smoke back into a cigar'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Time's arrow/ entropy motif.<br /> <br /> '''hard-as-a-rock black cigar'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> The quality of a cigar is usually higher with dark, more tightly-wrapped tobacco. Vincenzo has a fine one, it seems. <br /> <br /> '''thumping'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> sound/feeling of a water-bus?<br /> <br /> '''''salso'''''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Longest river in Sicily.Its small deltaic system there is dominated by marine processes rather than fluvial ones. It is a seasonal torrent, with brief but violent floods during the winter rains (from November to February), Is this what riding the salso in and back out again means? Riding the floods from the winter rains?<br /> <br /> Hardly. 'Salso' (ital.) means 'salty', so this is probably a poetical word for 'the sea'.<br /> <br /> '''''sandoli'''''&lt;br&gt;<br /> ??? The sandolo is a type of boat used in Venice, similar to a gondola but (I believe) larger.<br /> <br /> '''trains pulling in'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Famous early film.<br /> <br /> ==Page 573==<br /> <br /> '''San Polo'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> It is one of the six districts (sestieri) of Venice. (The other five are: Cannaregio, Dorsoduro, Santa Croce, San Marco, and Castello.) It (with Santa Croce and Dorsoduro) is located at the south side of the Grand Canal just across the Rialto bridge from San Marco. The San Polo district is the second most important area of Venice in terms of historical immportance and attractions for the tourists. It is the home to the Rialto market, the old artisan quarters of Venice, and the stunning Frari church.<br /> <br /> '''Cannareggio'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> It is commonly spelled Cannaregio. It is located north of the Grand Canal, and is one of the few parts of the city where Venetians still live in great numbers. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cannaregio Canaregio].<br /> <br /> ==Page 574==<br /> <br /> '''thirty years older'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> About 65yo?<br /> <br /> '''that day'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> In NYC when Dally showed up.<br /> <br /> '''when she was born'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Cf Pretenders/Chryssie Hynde.<br /> <br /> '''Stronzo'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Italian curse word, roughly &quot;asshole&quot;<br /> <br /> '''''In bocc' al lupo!'''''&lt;br&gt;<br /> From the Roman dialect, in which the Italians – including Rocco and Pino – seem to speak. Meaning, literally, &quot;In the <br /> mouth of the wolf,&quot; and idiomatically, &quot;Good luck.&quot; <br /> <br /> Specifically, as supported by the show business context, the good-luck wish among actors: &quot;Break a leg!&quot;<br /> <br /> '''''campielli'''''&lt;br&gt;<br /> ??? Small squares. A campo is literally a field and by extension a large square in a town. A campiello is a small square. I believe Venice has only one Piazza (San Marco) and the other squares are campi and campielli.<br /> <br /> '''impersonation of itself'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> echoes &quot;the mountains had become geometrical impersonations of themselves&quot;, p. 394<br /> <br /> ==Page 575==<br /> <br /> '''Riva'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> ??? Probably Riva del Vin by the Grand Canal; a great tourist attraction from where one can view the historical Rialto Bridge. (The word ''riva'' itself means ''river bank''). [http://arglist.com/cgi-bin/image?gallery=venice&amp;name=20050525-025 Riva del Vin] and[http://www.altravistavenezia.it/_VirtualTours/VA/Rialto_Riva_del_Vin/rialto_riva_del_vin.html Rialto-Riva del Vin]<br /> <br /> '''middy blouses'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> In the style of a midshipman's blouse (shirt).<br /> <br /> '''not yet been rebuilt'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Remember p256.<br /> <br /> '''''lucciole'''''&lt;br&gt;<br /> prostitutes<br /> <br /> '''''fondamenta'''''&lt;br&gt;<br /> A waterside street in Venice<br /> <br /> '''''ombreta'''''&lt;br&gt;<br /> ??? A local wine produced in the hills north of Venice.&lt;br /&gt;<br /> Well, actually ''ombreta de vin'' means &quot;a glass of wine&quot; in Venetian dialect.<br /> <br /> '''light's good here'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Old joke about drunk looking for car keys under streetlight though he dropped them somewhere else.<br /> <br /> '''inside that labyrinth . . . microcosm of all Venice'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> A hologram has this property, that a little chip broken off it contains the entire image. This is, however, a specific reference to Fractal &amp;#151; non-Euclidian &amp;#151; Geometry ... self-similarity over scale. A fractal is an object or quantity that displays self-similarity, in a somewhat technical sense, on all scales. The object need not exhibit exactly the same structure at all scales, but the same &quot;type&quot; of structures must appear on all scales. A plot of the quantity on a log-log graph versus scale then gives a straight line, whose slope is said to be the fractal dimension. The prototypical example for a fractal is the length of a coastline measured with different length rulers. The shorter the ruler, the longer the length measured, a paradox known as the coastline paradox, mentioned by Pynchon on [[ATD_821-848#Page_821|page 821: coastline approaching infinite length]].<br /> :Good argument for the fractal reference, better than the original one for the hologram metaphor. Hunter is not making smaller and smaller paintings (&quot;chips&quot;) but rather exploiting an observation about scale.<br /> <br /> ==Page 576==<br /> <br /> '''''rio'''''&lt;br&gt;<br /> narrow waterway in Venice (Cf [[ATD_243-272#Page 245|page 245:''rio'']].)<br /> <br /> '''twelve soldi'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> ??? A soldo is a small coin.<br /> <br /> '''franc... ten francs'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> ???<br /> <br /> '''Santos-Dumont style'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Cf [[ATD_525-556#Page 529|page 529:Monsieur Santos-Dumont]]<br /> <br /> '''Canaletto'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Real name: [http://www.wga.hu/bio/c/canalett/biograph.html Zuane Antonio Canal] (1697-1768), a well-known scenery painter at the time. He went to England in 1746 and returned to Venice in 1755.&lt;br&gt;<br /> Venetian landscape painter, 1697-1768, famous for his paintings of Venice ([http://www.artericerca.com/ven_set/Canaletto/canaletto.htm Italian website]).<br /> <br /> As described, Penhallow's pictures are reminiscent, in spirit and in some ways content, of John Singer Sargent's Venetian paintings. Sargent also later painted one of the most haunting images of World War I, [http://jssgallery.org/Paintings/Gassed/Gassed.htm &quot;Gassed&quot;], showing a column of men blinded by mustard gas feeling their way to an aid station.<br /> <br /> '''Beppo'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Allusion to Byron's poem &quot;Beppo - A Venetian Story&quot;. Beppo is a husband who's been away for many years and then, returning, reclaims his wife from another man.<br /> <br /> Beppo = Mouse, diminutive of Giuseppi. There is also Beppo Levi (born on May 14, 1875 in Turin, Italy, died on August 28, 1961 in Rosario, Argentina) Italian mathematician, director of the Mathematics Institute of the National University of the Littoral from 1939 to 1961. His work included the mathematics of alternative spaces[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Beppo_Levi].<br /> <br /> '''pitch'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> From Merriam-Webster Dictionary: ''chiefly British: an outdoor site (as for camping or doing business).<br /> <br /> '''Bauer-Grünwald'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> An expensive hotel near San Marco in Venice.<br /> <br /> '''demobilized from a war that nobody knew about . . . seeking refuge from time'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Hunter Penhallow, one of the Trespassers?<br /> <br /> ==Page 577==<br /> <br /> '''a time-traveler from the future'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Hunter Penhallow IS a Trespasser.<br /> <br /> ''''Safe''''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Recent art-movie title? I think safe here means safe without allusion.<br /> <br /> '''neutral hour?'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Is any moment in Time apolitical?<br /> <br /> '''Castello'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Castello is the largest of the six sestieri of Venice. The district grew up from the thirteenth century around a naval dockyard on what was originally the Isole Gemini.<br /> <br /> Not sure on the derivation of Isole Gemini; but Gemini, like Pisces (cf. Fomalhaut, the brightest star in the Pisces constellation) and Sagittarius, are the dual signs of western astrology in keeping with &quot;bi-locations,&quot; Deuce Kindred, Renfrew/Werfner, mirrors, etc. <br /> <br /> Jyotisha (Indian astrology) includes Virgo as a dual sign or dvisvabha rashis -- thus forming a Quaternity (4 signs or rashis)of Duality. It's interesting that Pynchon does not say Gemini and Pisces directly, but alludes to them behind Castello and Fomalhaut. Be on the lookout for twins, fish, virgins and centaurs!<br /> <br /> '''Evening Gun'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> &quot;At reveille the morning gun goes off; and at retreat, the evening&quot;. From <br /> a history description. Here is a site with picture.http://www.ziplink.net/~edkreutz/1f.html<br /> <br /> '''Dr. Grace'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Renowned, full-bearded 19th-century English cricket player.<br /> <br /> '''Charing Cross'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Charing Cross Railway Station, London. The original station was opened on 11 January 1864 by the South East Railway. Now, over 37 million people pass through Charing Cross every year. Situated on the forecourt of the stations is the Eleanor Cross, from which point road distances from London are measured. For more see [http://www.networkrail.co.uk/aspx/795.aspx#history Charing Cross].<br /> <br /> ==Page 578==<br /> <br /> '''Dorsoduro'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> An area of Venice. The Dorsoduro district is a relatively central area of the city, located on the opposie side of the Grand Canal from the San Marco district. But, at the smae time it offers the visitor a chance to explore a delightful part of the city free from the crowds of San Marco.<br /> The Accademia Gallery, Peggy Gugggenheim Museum, and the Santa della Maria Salute Church (one of the most famous landmarks of Venice) are all located here. [http://www.tours-italy.com/venice/guide_dorsoduro.htm Dorsoduro].<br /> <br /> '''''pensione'''''&lt;br&gt;<br /> A cheap Italian hotel, like a bed and breakfast.<br /> <br /> '''La Calcina'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> A historical hotel. La Calcina means ''The Lime House'', because the hotel was built on a 17th-century lime production site. It is located on the Zattere promenade, at the foot of the Calcina Bridge. Various Bohemian artists frequented the Café of the hotel, and John Ruskin indeed stayed at the hotel from February 13 to May 23, 1877. For the historical background of the hotel see [http://www.lacalcina.com/HTML/en/calcina_storia_en.html La Calcina].<br /> <br /> '''eminent ghosts, Turner and Whistler, Ruskin, Browning....'''<br /> <br /> Evokes Lytton Strachey's ''Eminent Victorians'' and this Quaternity of artists were eminent indeed (though not the subject of Strachey's book). All had a conection to Venice, and the note on Ruskin at the La Calcina above could be true of the other three as well. <br /> <br /> Robert Browning became a ghost in Venice in 1887. Of particular historic significance, Browning was the first person to ever have his voice heard after his death. Thomas Edison recorded Browning reading his poem &quot;How They Brought Good News from Ghent to Aix&quot; including the poet's apologies for forgetting the words. The recording was first played in Venice in 1890.<br /> <br /> '''''&quot;traces of conciousness&quot;. Psychical Research beginning to open these matters..streaming by'''''&lt;br&gt;<br /> <br /> Possible allusion to Joyce's &quot;stream of conciousness&quot;. Ulysses is also set in 1904, the year Joyce met his wife. <br /> <br /> But that is not the stream of consciousness refered to here, and it is the wrong &quot;James.&quot; William James actually coined the term &quot;stream of consciousness.&quot; Joyce was not the first to use it as a literary technique either -- he just perfected it in a way not seen before -- except perhaps in Proust.<br /> <br /> Considering the context in AtD concerns ghosts and the very next sentence begins with a mention of Psychical Research, &quot;traces of consciousness&quot; is not so much stream of consciousness as a trailing vapor or whisp of consciousness that streams by as a &quot;kind of ghost.&quot; Think in terms of thought transference, ESP, mediums, hypnosis, hallucinations, ghosts. More than a few characters in this novel are involved in these things.<br /> <br /> In order to study these phenomena, three dons of Trinity College, Cambridge founded The Society for Psychical Research in 1882. William James helped to found the American branch and was president of the group for a while. <br /> <br /> There are recurring parallels in AtD to a famous James quote from ''Varieties of Religious Experience'': <br /> <br /> Our normal waking consciousness . . . is but one special type of consciousness, whilst all about it, parted from it by the flimsiest of screens, there lie potential forms of consciousness entirely different. We may go through life without suspecting their existence; but apply the requisite stimulus and at a touch they are all there in all their completeness . . . No account of the universe in its totality can be final which leaves these other forms of consciousness quite disregarded. <br /> <br /> <br /> '''Zattere'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> An area of wide waterfront pavements in Venice.<br /> <br /> '''''...in hotels, the way your dreams are often, alarmingly, not your own?'''''&lt;br&gt;<br /> One more possible allusion to Proust, including also the following paragraph. At the beginning of the ''Recherche'', the main character, Marcel, spends a sleepless night in a hotel room, surrounded by memories he can't make sense of. <br /> <br /> In ''Lot 49'' Oedipa Maas considers all the dreams and memories stored in the mattresses of transients' hotels, and of the information destroyed when they burned.<br /> <br /> '''''cimici'''''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Latin: bedbug.<br /> <br /> '''to pick up traces of the dreams of whoever slept there just before them'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Cf. the Tom Waits song &quot;9th &amp; Hennepin&quot;: &quot;And all the rooms they smell like diesel / And you take on the dreams of the ones who have slept there&quot;. [http://www.tomwaitslibrary.com/lyrics/raindogs/9thandhennepin.html Lyrics]<br /> <br /> '''bora'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> a regional wind, blowing each winter.<br /> <br /> ==Page 579==<br /> <br /> '''vino forte'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> strong wine.<br /> <br /> '''Brindisi, Squinzano, . . . Brletta'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> They are the cities in Puglia (Apula) region of southeast Italy, ie. at the &quot;heel of the Italian Boot&quot;.<br /> <br /> '''Tintoretto's ''Abduction . . .'''''&lt;br&gt;<br /> See [http://www.egypttoday.com/article.aspx?ArticleID=3374 here]<br /> <br /> Tintoretto (1518-94), Venetian painter. Originally named Jacopo Robusti, because of his father's profession of ''tintore'' (dye) he was nicknamed as [http://www.wga.hu/bio/t/tintoret/biograph.html Tintoretto]. The most successful painter of Venetian school in the generation after Titian. His drawings, unlike Michelangelo's detailed life studies, are brilliant, rapid notations, bristling with energy, and his color is more somber and mystical than Titian's. For a better, can be enlarged, view of his [http://www.wga.hu/index1.html ''Abduction of the Body of St. Mark (1562-66)''].<br /> <br /> '''Accademia'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> The major art-gallery in Dorsoduro, Venice<br /> <br /> '''Titian'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> 16th century Venetian painter.&lt;br&gt;<br /> Vecellio Tiziano (1490-1576), better known as Titian, the greatest painter of the Venetain School and the leading light of the Italian Renaissance. Titian was recognized as a towering genius in his own time and his reputation as one of the giants of art has never been seriously questioned. He was supreme in every branch of painting and his achievements were so varied — ranging &quot;from the joyous evocation of pagan antiquity . . . to the depths of tragedy in his late religious paintings&quot; — that he has been an inspiration to artists of very different character. In many subjects, above all in portraiture, he set patterns that were followed by generations of artists. For more and Titian's paintings [http://www.wga.hu/bio/t/tiziano/biograph.html Titian].<br /> <br /> '''Infancy Gospel of Thomas'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> One of the apocryphal scriptures. The Infancy Gospel of Thomas relates the miraculous deeds of Jesus before he turned twelve. [http://www.earlychristianwritings.com/infancythomas.html 1] [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gospel_of_Thomas Wikipedia on the Gospel of Thomas]<br /> <br /> →Actually, The Infancy Gospel of Thomas is not the same as the Gospel of Thomas. The former is a brief summary of Jesus' misadventures as a child (as AtD notes, Jesus really is described as a hell-raiser and although at one point he brings a child named Zenon back from death, the Infancy Gospel mostly just makes a shallow exhibition of Jesus' miraculous powers). The latter is a Gnostic text and a &quot;collection of sayings, prophecies, proverbs, and parables of Jesus&quot; (Willis Barnstone, &quot;The Other Bible&quot; p. 299).<br /> <br /> Also, I read through the whole Infancy Gospel of Thomas and could not find the particular parable that Pynchon describes. However, Pynchon's parable is in keeping with the style of this Gospel. Jesus gets in trouble--making adults irate--and then sets everything straight. This particular parable also does not appear in The Infancy Gospel of James, The Infacy Gospel of Pseudo-Matthew, or The Arabic Infancy Gospel.<br /> <br /> The reference to this Gospel is a double+ play on the twins/double/mirror motif. First, as can be seen in this posting, there is confusion between the Gospel of Thomas and the Infancy Gospel of Thomas. The two gospels appear to be the same, but they are different. Second, the name ''Thomas'' means ''twin''. Also(+), Thomas is the doubting Thomas.<br /> To doubt is to be &quot;of two minds.&quot; The historic and theological significance of Thomas is loaded with themes relevant to this novel.<br /> <br /> ==Page 580==<br /> <br /> '''Pentecost story in Acts'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Pentecost is a Christian holiday commemorating the descent of the Holy Spirit on Jesus' followers and the beginning of the Christian church. Pentecost is celebrated by many (but not all) Christians on the Sunday 50 days after Easter. It often falls in early June. [[Acts II|Read the Biblical passages in Acts II...]]<br /> <br /> '''Galilean dialect'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Of Aramaic.<br /> <br /> '''Yes, well, it's redemption, isn't it, you expect chaos, you get order instead'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> In the Infancy Gospel of Thomas and the Pentecost, first Jesus, then the Holy Ghost, act as Maxwell's Demon [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Maxwell%27s_Demon]. In the Infancy Gospel story, Jesus sorts the randomly mixed dye molecules so that each garment comes out one color; in the Pentecost story the Holy Ghost causes a single language, just random noise to all but Galileans, to be heard as the many different languages of the listeners. Taking the two stories together, thermodynamic entropy is reversed, but the entropy of information is increased. This is the crux of ''Lot 49''; here it is another &quot;secular miracle&quot;; order emerges from chaos. The mathemateicians, artists and similar seekers may bring forth a similar miracle, the ability to experience other dimensions, to understand the universe (See Kit's dream, P.566).<br /> <br /> '''''rii'''''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Plural of ''rio''.<br /> <br /> ==Page 581==<br /> <br /> '''''sotopòrteghi'''''&lt;br&gt;<br /> An open doorway for public access. (Cf [[ATD_243-272#Page 246|page 246:sotopòrteghi]].)<br /> <br /> '''Bodeo 10.4 mm'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> A mass-produced Italian-made service revolver, initially made around 1889. Demand for them as guns was low, causing thousands of the weapons to be converted to table lamps. An interesting Pynchonian connection between light, manufacture, weapons, and war.<br /> <br /> ==Page 582==<br /> <br /> '''''foschetta'''''&lt;br&gt;<br /> ''Foschia'' in Italian means &quot;fog&quot;. ''Foschetta'' is a term for &quot;light fog&quot;.<br /> <br /> '''''masègni'''''&lt;br&gt;<br /> ???<br /> :blocks of Euganean trachyte used for paving, often marked off by bands of Istrian stone<br /> <br /> '''''patrone'''''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Probably meaning ''padrone'', &quot;master&quot;. -- blicero2<br /> :or female saint? not referring to Tonio but just as an expression.<br /> <br /> '''wine trains up from Puglia'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> ???Puglia region is in southeast of Italy (at the &quot;heel of the Italian Boot&quot;). From page 578-579: &quot;In September, when the vino forte arrived from Brindis, Squinzano, and Barletta . . .&quot; These three cities are in Puglia. Cf [[ATD_557-587#Page 579|page 579:vino forte]] and [[ATD_557-587#Page 579|page 579:Brindisi, Squinzano, . . . Barletta]].<br /> <br /> '''Winter'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> 1904-1905?<br /> <br /> '''''osterie'''''&lt;br&gt;<br /> tavern?<br /> <br /> '''Principessa Spongiatosta'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Is Pugnax's book from p6 at all relevant here?<br /> :Yes! [[Princess_Casamassima,_The|''The Princess Casamassima'']] has several resonances with ''AtD.''<br /> <br /> '''Ca''''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Abbreviated form of &quot;Casa,&quot; Italian for &quot;house.&quot;<br /> <br /> Which appears to be multidimensional, or at any rate non-Euclidean, reminiscent of Zombini's cabinet.<br /> <br /> '''Roman Composite order'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> A classical order (style of building design) dating from late Roman times, formed by superimposing Ionic volute (volute = a spiral scroll ornament) on a Corinthian capital (capital = the head or crowning feature of a column). ([http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Composite_order Composite order]).<br /> <br /> '''japonica'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Japanese honeysuckle.<br /> <br /> ==Page 583==<br /> <br /> '''Iron Bridge'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> The Ponte dell’Accademia - connecting the Venetian quarters (sestieri) San Marco and Dorsoduro - was constructed during the Austrian occupation in 1854. This steel construction got replaced ca. 1933 by a wooden bridge (which was replaced by yet another wooden bridge in 1985) [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ponte_dell'Accademia Wikipedia]<br /> <br /> '''Le Havre'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> French port city on the Atlantic (English Channel).<br /> <br /> '''''ma via'''''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Meaning &quot;come on!&quot;, in Italian. -- blicero2<br /> <br /> '''third eyes touching'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> The third eye, as existing on some reptiles is a dorsal organ that is receptive to light, otherwise known as the ''pineal eye''. Since the two half-sisters are obviously not reptiles, this reference might allude to the figurative third eye, or the eye of the mind, heart or soul. When the two touch foreheads, they are able to peer into each other consciences, by way of these third eyes. [http://www.thefreedictionary.com/third+eye /Dictionary Entry]<br /> <br /> ==Page 584==<br /> <br /> '''&quot;Swiss insurance salesman. Wolf. No, Putzi.&quot;'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Bria's had so many beaux she gets them confused? One was a wolf; the other a putz?<br /> :''Wolf'' is an uncommon given name but also a diminutive of Wolfgang. ''Putzi'' does not come from a given name; it's like &quot;sweetiepie,&quot; a nickname for a cute boy.<br /> <br /> '''''topo'''''&lt;br&gt;<br /> A topo is a guide for a crag or climbing area.<br /> <br /> '''Dogana'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Custom House, built on a wedge of land called ''Punta della Dogana'' (Custom Point). This wedge of land is at the entrance of the Grand Canal, as described in the text: &quot;where the Grand Canal and the Lagoon meet&quot;. The original 14th-century customs tower was replaced by a colonnaded building named the ''Dogana de Mare'' (Sea Customs Post). See picture [http://uk.encarta.msn.com/media_1041505867_761562189_-1_1/Punta_della_Dogana_Venice.html Punta della Dogana]<br /> <br /> '''Andrea Tancredi'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> An artist and acquaintence made by Hunter Penhallow in Venice. His name is likely derived from the Gioacchino Rossini opera ''Tancredi'' or the Voltaire play by the same name. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tancredi Wikipedia Entry]&lt;br /&gt;<br /> Tancredi, restored, is a tragedy. the soldier Tancredi and his family have been stripped of their estates and inheritances, and he himself has been banished since his youth. Two more noble families — headed by Argirio and Orbazzano — have been warring for years. Wikipedia.<br /> Tancredi presides in exile...he is mortally wounded at the end after learning the person he thought betrayed the heroine did not. <br /> <br /> :Actually, per [[T#tancredi|my entry in the Alpha index]], more likely the name connects with Tancredi, the time-traveling character in ''City of Death'', a four-part serial in the British science fiction television series ''Dr. Who'' which involves time travel and bilocation. Tancredi is the sole survivor of the Jagaroth race, an evil people who destroyed themselves in a war some 400 million years ago. Tancredi explains that a few escaped in a dilapidated spacecraft and found Earth in a primeval, lifeless stage of its development. The ship disintegrated upon takeoff and [[Scaroth]] tells of how he was fractured in time, splinters of his being were scattered across time and space, all identical, none complete. Whereas, in ''City of Death'', Tancredi, one of the Scaroff &quot;splinters&quot; living in Renaissance Italy, is plotting to create multiple Mona Lisa's for fraudulent purposes, ''Against the Day'''s Tancredi is fighting art fraud. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/City_of_Death Read the synopsis of ''City of Death'']; The name &quot;Andrea&quot; ''could'' be a reference to the protagonist Andrea Marsh, a time-traveler in the 1889 novel, ''Timeless Love'' by Judy Hinson ([[Timeless Love|synopsis]]).<br /> <br /> '''Seurat and Signac'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> George Seurat (1859-1891) and Paul Signac (1863-1935), French painters who developed pointillism. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pointillism Wikipedia entry].<br /> <br /> '''Divisionism'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Term invented by Paul Signac to describe the Neo-Impressionist separation of colour into dots or patches applied directly to the canvas. From Grove Dictionary of Art. <br /> <br /> <br /> '''Marinetti'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> The Italian poet Filippo Tommaso Marinetti was the first among [the Futurists] to produce a manifesto of their artistic philosophy in his Manifesto of Futurism (1909)(see below).<br /> <br /> '''&quot;Futurists&quot;'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Practitioners or followers of Futurism, an early 20th century art movement that is considered the genesis of Cubism, Dada and Art Deco. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Futurism_%28art%29 Wikipedia entry].Marinetti summed up the major principles of the Futurists, including a passionate loathing of ideas from the past, especially political and artistic traditions. He and others also espoused a love of speed, technology and violence. The car, the plane, the industrial town were all legendary for the Futurists, because they represented the technological triumph of man over nature.<br /> <br /> <br /> '''brutalism'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> See above and The Futurists were often condemned as fascistic in their manifestos and outlook. <br /> <br /> '''Torcello'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> A lonely Venetian island: very peaceful and beautiful with a church and little else.<br /> <br /> '''primitivo'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> A kind of red wine (same as the original Zinfandel, actually).<br /> <br /> ==Page 585==<br /> <br /> '''green-and-lavender'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Another clashing color scheme.<br /> <br /> '''sirocco'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> A hot dust-laden wind from the Libyan deserts that blows on the northern Mediterranean coast chiefly in Italy, Malta, and Sicily. &lt;br&gt;<br /> The correct spelling in Italian is ''Scirocco''. <br /> <br /> '''San Michele'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> San Michele, nicknamed The Island of the Dead, is the cemetery island of Venice. It is associated with the sestiere of Cannaregio from which it lies a short distance north east. <br /> Walls of San Michele.Along with neighbouring San Cristoforo della Pace, the island was a popular place for local travellers and fishermen to land. Mauro Codussi's Chiesa di San Michele in Isola of 1469, the first Renaissance church in Venice, and a monastery lie on the island.<br /> <br /> '''futuristic vehicle'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> See p. 155 [[ATD_149-170#Pages_154-155|and annotations.]] Of course, the machine-inspired Futurists would remind Hunter of this vehicle that 'had borne him to safety'!<br /> <br /> Why? Hunter isn't the Futurist here and doesn't seem to share the same naive faith in Progress that Tancredi does.<br /> <br /> '''the chill, comfortless faith in science and rationality...'''&lt;br /&gt;<br /> [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Max_Weber Max Weber's] concept of rationality, and the [[Routinization of Charisma|routinization/rationalization of charisma]], is a prominent theme in [http://gravitys-rainbow.pynchonwiki.com/wiki/index.php?title=R#routinization ''Gravity's Rainbow''] &amp;#151; a spontaneous and charismatic source of authority is eventually &quot;rationalized&quot; and brought under the control of processes and rules. In Pynchon's view, it is a movement toward Death and thematically related to entropy &amp;#151; a prominent theme in [http://v.pynchonwiki.com/wiki/index.php?title=E#entropy ''V.''] &amp;#151; and, in [http://masondixon.pynchonwiki.com/wiki/index.php?title=F#fengshui ''Mason &amp; Dixon''], bad ''Feng Shui'' and the reduction of the fuzzy boundaries between Pennsylvania and Maryland into a straight line.<br /> <br /> <br /> '''''Preliminary Studies...'''''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Artists often do 'preliminary studies'..'infernal machine' comes out of Futurism's ideas.<br /> <br /> ==Page 586==<br /> <br /> '''Always with us.'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Gospel of Matthew. &quot;The poor you will always have with you&quot;. Here reference is to born-again Christers.<br /> <br /> '''''vero?'''''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Literally meaning ''true'' in Italian, here it is used as you would use: &quot;Are you talking of an infernal machine, ''aren't you'' ?&quot;<br /> <br /> '''We desire transformation'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Aligns the explosion-loving Tancredi with the Rilke-quoting Blicero from Gravity's Rainbow. '&quot;Want the Change,&quot; Rilke said, &quot;O be inspired by the Flame!&quot;' (GR p.97)<br /> <br /> It also might be helpful to recall that Shiva, who has been referred to implicitly numerous times already in ATD, is the transformative/destructive deity of the Hindi Trimurti.<br /> <br /> This section also sets up Tancredi as an opposite of Hunter, who on p.577 wants to find a &quot;neutral hour&quot;, that &quot;goes neither forwards or back&quot;, and on the same page &quot;felt no desire to join in, quite the opposite.&quot; Hunter himself is much like Katje from GR. Page 97 again: &quot;But not Katje: No mothlike plunge. He must conclude that secretly she fears the change...&quot;<br /> <br /> '''orpiment yellow'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> A yellow color pigment ([http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Orpiment Wikipedia])<br /> <br /> '''Nürnberg violet'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> An artificial color pigment discovered in 1868 in the city of Nuremberg<br /> <br /> ==Page 587==<br /> <br /> '''&quot;The energies of motion, the grammatical tyrannies of becoming, in divisionismo we discover how to break them apart into their component frequencies . . . we define a smallest element, a dot of color which becomes the basic unit of reality . . . .'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> This seems to describe both the kind of painting done by Tancredi and atomic research. Breaking material into its atomic unit, the basic unit of reality, is literally part of the &quot;energies of motion.&quot;<br /> This also describes how a television set works. The screen is composed of millions of tiny dots that, taken together, create moving pictures. <br /> <br /> <br /> '''Brownian movement'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Also called Brownian motion. It is the irregular motion of small particles suspended in a liquid or a gas, caused by the bombardment of the particles by molecules of the medium<br /> first divscovered by botanist Robert Brown (1773-1858) in 1827. Einstein in one of his four ''Annus Mirabilis Papers'' of 1905 explained the random motion using molecular kinetic theory of heat. Cf [[ATD_397-428#Page 412|page 412:young Einstein]].<br /> <br /> '''I really love the old dump'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> For the same reason Dally does: Venice has what Pynchon called (in ''V.'') &quot;Temporal Bandwidth&quot;: a life in a depth of time, a simultaneous humane immersion in past, present and future. The canals of industrialized Belgium are silted up, the connections to its Hanse past lost, paved and tracked over. This has not, and cannot, happen to Venice; even a Futurist painter cannot carry out the appaling modernization he describes. Venice is a place to hide from the future; indeed, in terms of physical destruction, the world wars barely touched La Serenisima.<br /> <br /> '''''nebbia, nebbietta, foschia, caligo, sfumato'''''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Varieties of fog.<br /> <br /> '''speed of sound'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Air temperature is more important that density.<br /> <br /> '''''La Velocità del Suono'''''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Italian, &quot;speed of sound&quot;<br /> <br /> ==Annotation Index==<br /> {{ATD PbP}}</div>

MKOHUT https://against-the-day.pynchonwiki.com/wiki/index.php?title=ATD_557-587&diff=14136 2007-10-21T18:48:40Z

<p>MKOHUT: /* Page 560 */</p> <hr /> <div>:'''&lt;big&gt;Please keep these annotations SPOILER-FREE by not revealing information from later pages in the novel.&lt;/big&gt;'''&lt;p&gt;&lt;br&gt;<br /> <br /> ==Page 557==<br /> <br /> '''Viktor Mulciber'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Well, no benign associations with &quot;Mulciber&quot;! Mulciber is an alternative name of the Roman god Vulcan, the god of fire and volcanoes, and the manufacturer of art, arms, iron, and armor for gods and heroes. Mulciber is also the name of a character in John Milton's ''Paradise Lost'', the architect of the demon city of Pandemonium. When Pynchon was alluded to on The John Larroquette Show [80s or 90s], the book he was said to be working on was called ''Pandemonium of the Sun''.&lt;br&gt;<br /> In the Harry Potter books, Mulciber is a Death Eater, a minor Dark Wizard.<br /> <br /> '''bespoke'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> made to order, hence hand-made and expensive. Somewhere in the novel is a reference to 1 Savile Row, the address of Gieves and Hawkes, a very traditional English tailor.<br /> <br /> '''Basil Zaharoff'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Sir Basil Zaharoff, originally Zacharias Basileios, (1849, Muğla, Turkey - 1936, Monte Carlo, Monaco) was a Greek arms trader and financier, the director and chairman of the Vickers munitions firm during World War I [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zaharoff_Basil]. He also turns up as an international arms dealer in Reilly, Ace of Spies.<br /> <br /> In addition to the arms-dealing and being semi-fictionalized, Zaharoff is also notable for bribing the Japanese Admiral, helping to incorporate the company that eventually became British Petroleum, and through his association with Louis II of Monaco, the purchase of the Société des Bains de Mer, which ran the famous Monte Carlo casino.<br /> <br /> '''trains of history... run'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Karl Marx, in ''Das Kapital'', referred to wars as the &quot;express trains of history&quot; because they can spark societal or national crises, marking a historical turning point, and they can release economic, social, and moral forces of unforeseen power and dimensions, making any return to the status quo impossible.<br /> Also notice TRP's steady referencing of 'railroads' in a negative way. <br /> <br /> '''Q-weapon'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Possible allusion to Professor Kokintz's &quot;Q-bomb&quot; in ''The Mouse That Roared'' (1959) or to James Bond's master armorer Q. It could also be an allusion to the character &quot;Q&quot; in Star Trek where the name &quot;Q&quot; is also shared by other members of the Q Continuum. Q is a mischievous omnipotent being who has taken an interest in humans. He also has a flair for the dramatic, with a mercurial personality that switches between a joking, camp style and a more ominous and even dangerous manner. While he is boastful, condescending and threatening, he arguably has humanity's best interests at heart. In the episode &quot;The Q and the Gray&quot; (''Star Trek: Voyager'' - 3rd season), Q weapons are provided to the crew of the Voyager to free Q and Janeway, who have been captured by rebels. [http://www.answers.com/topic/the-q-and-the-grey Synopsis]; [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Q_(Star_Trek) Wikipedia]. Looney Tunes character Marvin the Martian possesses an earth-destroying weapon known as the Illudium Q-36 Explosive Space Modulator.<br /> <br /> In this context, the Q stands for &quot;Quaternion.&quot; See under Q in the alphabetical index.<br /> <br /> '''Balkan ''komitadji'''''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Originally, members of the rebel gangs (&quot;committees&quot;), controlled from Sofia, who made forays into Macedonia, the chief object of Bulgarian expansionism before WWI. The word was also commonly used for Serbian irregular fighters.<br /> <br /> :See this slightly different [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Komitadji Komitadji].<br /> <br /> '''waybill'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Ancestor of what Fedex and UPS call &quot;shipping document&quot;; it identifies the article shipped and contains necessary addresses and instructions.<br /> <br /> '''metamorphosed into an American Negro'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Cf honorary Negro (Frank above).<br /> <br /> '''Nipponese'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Japanese<br /> <br /> '''peach'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Plum, actually.<br /> <br /> '''Hertzian'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Electromagnetic waves, first demonstrated by [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Heinrich_Rudolf_Hertz Heinrich Hertz] (Cf [[ATD_318-335#Page 318|page 318:Hertz]]).<br /> <br /> '''they cannot strictly . . . longitudinal as well as transverse'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Hertz's theory and Maxwell's equations describe ''transverse'' waves in which the electric and magnetic fields are perpendicular to the direction of travel; no longitudinal waves--with vibrations parallel to the direction of travel--are permitted. In air, sound waves are longitudinal; what's suggested here is a new wave that does not fit the Hertz-Maxwell paradigm.<br /> <br /> ==Page 558==<br /> <br /> '''scalar part'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Quaternion equivalent of the real part.&lt;br&gt;<br /> A scalar quantity in geometry has magnitude but not direction. The length of a line segment is a scalar.&lt;br&gt;<br /> Time is a scalar term. <br /> <br /> '''baritone in a barbershop quartet'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> [http://www.barbershop.org/web/groups/public/documents/pages/pub_id_000827.hcsp Quote]:Technically speaking, barbershop harmony is a style of unaccompanied singing with three voices harmonizing to the melody. The lead usually sings the melody, with the tenor harmonizing above the lead. The bass sings the lowest harmonizing notes and the baritone provides in-between notes, either above or below the lead to make chords (specifically, dominant-type or &quot;barbershop&quot; sevenths) that give barbershop its distinctive, &quot;full&quot; sound.<br /> <br /> '''viola in a string quartet'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Two violins, a viola, and a violoncello make up a string quartet. The viola is between the others in pitch and is generally considered to have been given the least interesting parts in Classical and Romantic music for string quartet.<br /> <br /> '''Further Term'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> The three parts of a quaternion that are multiples of '''i''', '''j''' and '''k''' (Cf [[ATD_525-556#Page 525|page 525: Quaternions]].)<br /> <br /> '''the fulfiller of the Trinity'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> the name of the first atom bomb detonated at Los Alamos. Alluded to earlier as the &quot;Anti-Stone&quot; (Webb and Merle, p.78). The origin of the name Trinity for this event is uncertain. It is commonly thought that Robert Oppenheimer provided the name, which would seem logical, but even this is not definitely known. A leading theory is that Oppenheimer did select it, and that he did so with reference to the divine Hindu trinity of Brahma (the Creator), Vishnu (the Preserver), and Shiva (the Destroyer). Oppenheimer had an avid interest in Sanskrit literature (which he had taught himself to read), and following the Trinity test is reported to have recited a passage from the Bhagavad-Gita that is quoted earlier in this wiki.&lt;br&gt;<br /> <br /> The usage of the Tibetan Mount Kailash, the holy dwelling place of Shiva, God of destruction and regeneration, on p. 437 seems to support this.<br /> <br /> Also, a religious allusion to the three-person Godhead in Christian theology. &lt;br&gt;<br /> Also, third ATD meaning!, a college in Dublin mentioned on page 560.<br /> <br /> Also,&quot;the Destroyer, the fulfiller of the trinity&quot; recalls the Destroyer on page 154, the meteorite, and thus relates ''that'' passage to the Anti-Stone.<br /> <br /> Also, in Jungian Psychology the 'fulfiller' of the trinity, making it a complete four-aspect entity, is the 'shadow', or traditionally, the devil (the force always excluded and seen as bad in Christian theology). Cf. C. G. Jung, &quot;Versuch einer psychologischen Deutung des Trinitätsdogmas&quot;, Gesammelte Werke 11, especially p.179-94. Interestingly, Jung uses the term 'quaternarisch' for this. More Q-talk, then.<br /> <br /> '''the pulselessness of salvation'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> salvation lies outside of time?<br /> <br /> '''A weapon based on Time'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Time is why there is entropy, that key Pynchonian term. Pynchon has created a brilliant metaphor that uses the concept uniquely. The Q-weapon, at the heart of which lies &quot;a crystal about the size of a human eyeball&quot; is based on Time. What becomes of the Q-weapon after Umeki (possibly) gives it to Halfcourt in Constantinople? ([[ATD_1018-1039#Page 1036|See page 1036...]])<br /> <br /> '''&quot;...you could become the most feared person in history.&quot; ... &quot;I'd rather be loved,&quot; said Root.'''&lt;br &gt;<br /> Echoes Machiavelli's famous aphorism, &quot;It is much safer to be feared than loved.&quot;<br /> <br /> '''laterite'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> A mineral structure formed by erosion, see [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Laterite Wikipedia]. Laterite is typically rich in metal oxides and poor in organic matter.<br /> <br /> '''Ostend'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Cf [[ATD_525-556#Page 525|page 525:Ostend]]. Ostend (Dutch: Oostende, French &amp; German: Ostende) is a Belgian municipality located in the Flemish province of West Flanders. It comprises the villages of Mariakerke, Stene and Zandvoorde, and the city of Ostend proper – the largest at the Belgian coast. Wikipedia.<br /> <br /> '''Inner Boulevards'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> streets in Brussels.&quot;In spite of the competition of the Central or Inner Boulevards, the Montagne de la Cour still remains the principal street for shopping in Brussels.&quot; &quot;Brussels&quot;, Antiques Digest, 1904.<br /> <br /> '''Gare du Midi'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> The largest railway station in Brussels and a haunt of prostitutes.<br /> <br /> &lt;div id=&quot;gevaert&quot;&gt;&lt;/div&gt;'''Edouard Gevaert'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> It seems this gentleman is fictional. although there are some interesting, but tenuous, connections. Agfa-Gevaert is the current owner of the [[W#wardenclyffe|Wardenclyffe Tower]] facility which housed the Tesla Tower. [http://www.maerlant.be/photherel/student/nvgevaert.htm Lieven Gevaert] (1868-1935) was a Belgian industrialist who founded Gevaert &amp; Co. which produced photographic paper, in 1894. The company specialized in &quot;daylight&quot; paper, which relies on the event of exposure of the positive image through daylight, as opposed to development paper which is based on a process of special manipulation with chemicals. (Are photographs &quot;stolen goods&quot;? &quot;Unworldy go-betweens&quot;? Is the Q-Weapon a ... camera? No. It unlocks Time, animating the photograph - [[ATD_1018-1039#Page 1036|See page 1036]]) Agfa (Actien-Gesellschaft für Anilin-Fabrikation) was founded in 1864 as a manufacturer of dies and stains. In World War II, it became part of IG Farben (prominent in [http://gravitys-rainbow.pynchonwiki.com/wiki/index.php?title=IG_Farben_References ''Gravity's Rainbow'']. The Allies broke up IG Farben after the war and Agfa emerged as an individual company. And, well, there ''was'' a Dutch arms dealer named Edouard de Beaumont (1841-1895) who has a rifle named after him. Yes, a stretch... Upon further reflection, I believe &quot;Edouard&quot; may refer to [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Muybridge Eadweard Muybridge] (Edouard was a variant spelling he earlier used) and his photographic experiments with ''freezing'' motion/Time.<br /> <br /> ==Page 559==<br /> <br /> '''Krupp field-piece'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> The Krupps are an ancient German family, famous for making weapons. A field-piece is a light-cannon.<br /> <br /> '''vaguely glandular'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Describes Belgium, it seems.<br /> <br /> '''''ostinato'''''&lt;br&gt;<br /> A continually repeated musical phrase or rhythm.<br /> <br /> '''poleaxed'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Stunned, brought to a mental standstill. (A poleaxe was used in slaughterhouses.)<br /> <br /> '''lost to silence'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> (Not silent, or very?)Very<br /> <br /> ==Page 560==<br /> <br /> '''Wellington Hippodrome'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> A race track in Ostend. (Cf [[ATD_525-556#Page 528|page 528:Hippodrome]].)<br /> <br /> '''Estacade'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> :A dike of piles in the sea, a river, etc., to check the approach of an enemy. [http://www.thefreedictionary.com/Estacade]<br /> <br /> '''''mousmée... mouchard'''''&lt;br&gt;<br /> French: a young Japanese woman; a police spy.<br /> :When Henry James revised ''The Princess Casamassima'' for the 1909 New York edition, the phrase &quot;middle-class spy&quot; in the 1886 text became ''mouchard''. Source: note by Patricia Crick in Penguin Classics edition.<br /> <br /> '''always lead an irregular life'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Cf GR.<br /> <br /> '''Maria Bayley Hamilton'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Hamilton's wife !!!<br /> <br /> '''council meeting'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> ???<br /> <br /> ==Page 561==<br /> <br /> '''Brougham Bridge'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> It was on this site that the [[H#hamilton|mathematician William Rowan Hamilton]], in a flash of genius, came upon the formula for Quaternions and scratched it into the stone of the bridge.<br /> <br /> About the bridge, the carving, photos of them, a couple of mathematicians' impression of the bridge, etc, see [http://math.ucr.edu/home/baez/octonions/node24.html Brougham Bridge].<br /> <br /> '''on the stone'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> The bridge is evidently a stone bridge. Stone, a natural thing, is a good for Pynchon. Hamilton's action is metaphorically a deeply religious moment. &quot;Pentecostal&quot; wherein the Quaternions 'descend' to earth [in the thoughts of men].<br /> <br /> '''''i² = j² = k² = ijk = –1'''''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Cf [[ATD_525-556#Page 525|page 525:Quaternion]].<br /> <br /> '''Pentecostal'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Pentecost (&lt; Greek πεντηκοστή [ἡμέρα], pentekostē [hēmera], &quot;the fiftieth day&quot;) is the fiftieth day after Easter Sunday, which corresponds to the tenth day after Ascension Thursday. It is a feast in the Christian liturgical calendar — symbolically related to the Jewish festival of Shavuot — that commemorates the descent of the Holy Spirit upon the Apostles and the followers of Jesus on that day, as described in the Book of Acts, Chapter 2. Pentecost is also called &quot;Whitsunday&quot; (deriving from &quot;Wit Sunday&quot;) in UK and other English-speaking areas.<br /> <br /> Almost needless to say, the Pentecostal revelation is what is supposed to happen at the end of &quot;Lot 49&quot;.<br /> <br /> '''official Mischief Opportunity'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> like 'shore leave', it seems. To leave the rules of the Organization and create mischief.<br /> <br /> '''absinthe spoons'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> absinthe spoons have slits whereon are placed sugar cubes through which one pours the absinthe<br /> <br /> '''cravats'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> A cravat is the neckband forerunner of the modern, tailored necktie. From the end of the 16th century, the term &quot;band&quot; applied to any long-strip neckcloth that was not a &quot;ruff&quot;; the ruff—a starched, pleated white linen strip—started its fashion career earlier in the 16th century as neckcloth that could be changed-a-fresh to keep the neck of a doublet from becoming too-soiled or as a bib or a napkin. A &quot;band&quot; could indicate a plain, attached shirt collar or a detachable &quot;falling band&quot; that draped over the doublet collar.&lt;br&gt;<br /> Necktie fashions have changed over time. The modern cravat originated in the 1630s when Western Europeans saw Croats wearing extravagant neck scarves; the French word ''cravate'' means &quot;Croatian cavalryman.&quot;<br /> <br /> '''&quot;four-door farce&quot;'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> (See eg Bogdanovich's &quot;What's Up, Doc?&quot;)<br /> This is also a pun on the name of Georges Feydeau, French writer of farces who was writing when Pynchon's novel is set. One of the recurring physical jokes involves sets with many doors and people coming in and out, just missing each other....<br /> <br /> The ranking of farces by door number is mostly jocular. Neil Simon's ''Rumors'' is a fine example of a seven-door farce.<br /> <br /> ==Page 562==<br /> <br /> '''Minque'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> the fish auction house.<br /> <br /> '''Bruges'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> A city about 18 miles east of Ostende, Cf [[ATD_525-556#Page 531|page 531:Bruges]].<br /> <br /> '''Ghent'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> A city about 40 miles southeast by east from Ostend, Cf [[ATD_525-556#Page 531|page 531:Ghent]].<br /> <br /> '''carillons . . . carillonneur'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> The [http://www.gcna.org/crlnexp.html carillon] was popular in Belgium before it caught on in most other places. It comprises a set of bells, matched in character, forming a scale (a couple of chromatic octaves or even more), with the beaters or clappers mechanically linked to a keyboard. A later development replaced muscle power with electromechanical linkages. In a still later &quot;advance,&quot; the carillon was automated with music-box-like control. The American practice of playing recorded bells through loudspeakers is a shamefully cheap way to imitate carillon music.&lt;br&gt;<br /> The carillonneur is the master at the keyboard.&lt;br&gt;<br /> English-style bell ringing is a totally different pursuit, using (often imperfectly) tuned bells actuated in nonmelodic sequences. The bells, not the clappers, are swung with ropes. The effect of an eight-bell &quot;peal&quot; and a team of ringers with plenty of time on their hands—as heard by this American contributor in Bristol one spring Sunday—is perfectly charming.&lt;br&gt;<br /> By the way: The word &quot;carillon&quot; is derived from the Latin &quot;quaternio&quot; (= consisting of four elements)...<br /> <br /> '''Hanseatic'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> The Hansa or Hanseatic League (definitely a creation of &quot;the Christian North,&quot; next paragraph) was a great mercantile system that held itself above national rule.<br /> <br /> '''burghers'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> middle-class married men<br /> <br /> '''silted up'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> backed up, underwater, with mud; i.e. neglected, because replaced by railroads. -As it silted up &quot;back in the 1400s&quot; we can safely exclude the influence of railroads.<br /> <br /> '''Damme and Sluis'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Port cities near Bruges, heavily dependent on them from the 14th Century.&lt;br&gt;<br /> See [http://www.damme-online.com/gb/communities/damme.htm Damme] and [http://www.damme-online.com/gb/arounddamme/sluis.htm Sluis]. For an overview map, showing cannals, roads etc, of the general area around Bruges-Damme-Sluis see [http://www.damme-online.com/gb/maps/generaloverview.htm Bruges-Damme-Sluis]<br /> <br /> ==Page 563==<br /> <br /> '''trusted his intuitiveness'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Woevre is a natural killer.<br /> <br /> '''''&quot;Jou moerskont!&quot;''... Afrikaans'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Possibly &quot;you horse's ass&quot;? --More likely something like &quot;mother's cunt&quot;.<br /> <br /> ==Page 564==<br /> <br /> '''voices of everyone he had ever put to death had been ... scored for some immense choir'''&lt;br /&gt;<br /> A possible reference to ''Star Wars'': Obi-wan experiences the obliteration of an entire planet as &quot;a great disturbance in the Force, as if millions of voices suddenly cried out in terror and were suddenly silenced.&quot; [http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0076759/quotes]<br /> <br /> Also another potentially time-less event, all of Woevre's murders collapsed into a single moment.<br /> <br /> The &quot;choir&quot; image occurs several times in ''AtD.'' [[ATD_1-25#Page_19|One example.]]<br /> <br /> '''&quot;I cannot bear it ... this terrible light...&quot;'''&lt;br /&gt;<br /> Shades of the Kirghiz Light in [http://gravitys-rainbow.pynchonwiki.com/wiki/index.php?title=The_Kirghiz_Light ''Gravity's Rainbow'']<br /> <br /> '''''Voetsak'''''&lt;br /&gt;<br /> Afrikaans (maybe Dutch too): Go away! Also spelled ''voertsek'' or ''voetsek.''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Borrowed in English with the spelling ''footsack.'' The Urban Dictionary, which often excites skepticism, has [http://www.urbandictionary.com/define.php?term=footsack a useful entry] with a marginally plausible etymology. In [http://www.worldwideschool.org/library/books/lit/drama/Finished/chap5.html ''Finished'' (1916),] novelist H. Rider Haggard glossed it this way: &quot;Among Europeans he rejoiced in the name of Footsack, a Boer Dutch term which is generally addressed to troublesome dogs and means 'Get out.'&quot; And in a defective 1943 book for young readers, ''Great Caesar's Ghost'' (by Manning Coles, creator of gentleman op Tommy Hambledon), an English merchant seaman says, &quot;Get out, 'op it, vamoose, footsack, imshi, or I'll—&quot; [http://www.absp.org.uk/words/interjections.html ''Imshi''] is British service slang for &quot;go.&quot;<br /> <br /> '''starers'''&lt;br /&gt;<br /> Those who stared at Kit earlier.<br /> <br /> '''dramatic performance'''&lt;br /&gt;<br /> referring to 'No'?<br /> <br /> '''tobacco-stricken'''&lt;br /&gt;<br /> A smoker's deep or gritty voice.<br /> <br /> '''half-silvering'''&lt;br /&gt;<br /> A design for an optical [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Beam_splitter beam splitter] that causes half of the incident light to be transmitted and the other half to be reflected.<br /> <br /> '''the fatal number four&amp;#8212;to a Japanese mind'''&lt;br /&gt;<br /> Japanese character for number &quot;four&quot; has the same pronunciation as that of character &quot;death&quot;.&lt;br /&gt;<br /> Cf [[ATD_243-272#Page 258|page 258:Japanese character for &quot;four&quot;]].<br /> <br /> '''four cusps... index-surface'''&lt;br /&gt;<br /> ???<br /> <br /> '''co-conscious'''&lt;br /&gt;<br /> Cf [[ATD_525-556#Page 527|page 527:co-conscious]]. Repeat here: &quot;mental processes outside the main stream of consciousness but sometimes available to it - from Merriam-Webster's Medical Dictionary.&quot;<br /> <br /> Third use, I think. Who/what is co-conscious here? (First time, page 478; then page 527.)<br /> <br /> Could it be the dimly perceived consciousness of one's double in the adjacent, alternate world? Or one's consciousness of that world?<br /> <br /> ==Page 565==<br /> <br /> '''true icosahedron'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Probably an regular icosahedron, where the sides are formed by 20 equilateral triangles. For a picture see [http://mathworld.wolfram.com/Icosahedron.html Icosahedron].<br /> <br /> '''12+8... pyrites'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Pyrite crystals form a structure that can be decomposed into unit cells that contain (part of) 12 sulphur atoms and 8 iron atoms.<br /> <br /> '''Riemann sphere'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Riemann_sphere Wikipedia]<br /> <br /> '''Felix Klein'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> German mathematician ([http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Felix_Klein Wikipedia])<br /> <br /> '''ebonite'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> An early plastic([http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ebonite Wikipedia])<br /> <br /> '''Ohmic Drift Compensator'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> ohm = the practical meter-kilogram-second unit of electric resistance equal to the resistance of a circuit in which a potential difference of one volt produces a current of one ampere; The Ohmic Drift Compensator &amp;#151; a key component of the Q-weapon &amp;#151; &quot;regulates how much light is allowed to enter the silvering of the mirror! Special kind of refraction! Calibrated against imaginary index! Dangerous! Of the essence!'&quot; See also [[ATD 525-556#Page 541|Page 541]]. <br /> <br /> '''speed of the earth . . . kinetic energy'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Einstein in 1905 showed most of this argument to be nonsense, but if Lorentz's paper is still recent (next entry) the shift in thinking may not have happened yet.&lt;br&gt;<br /> :Since the earth's mean orbital speed ( ~ 30 km/s) is rather small in comparison with the speed of light ( ~ 300,000 km/s), no relativistic correction is needed in calculating earth's orbital kinetic energy. And in a reference frame anchored on the Sun, the earth's kinetic eneregy, ''E = ½ m v²'', where ''m'' is the earth mass and ''v'' it's orbital speed, still holds. Einstein showed only that it is no longer true against the nonexistent stationary ''æther''. Of course, it is irrelevant to an earthbound weapon tried to make use of this energy against a person who is standing on the earth.<br /> <br /> '''Recently Lorentz's paper'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Lorentz's 1904 &quot;Electromagnetic phenomena in a system moving with any velocity less than that of light&quot; ([http://www.soso.ch/wissen/hist/SRT/L-1904.pdf PDF])<br /> <br /> '''Lorentz . . . Fitzgerald . . . along the axis of motion'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> It was the phenomenon of the Lorentz-Fitzgerald contraction, together with the abolition of the æther by Michelson and Morley, that led Einstein to his theory of special relativity.<br /> :Michelson and Morley did NOT abolish the æther. Their experiement (1887), attempting to detect the light speed change due to the effect of the æther wind, was a total failure, and they could not explain the negative result.<br /> ::OK, would you accept &quot;the abolition of the æther hypothesis in consequence of Michelson and Morley's work&quot;? In fact, that negative result—replicated many times since—did render the notion of the luminiferous æther untenable, as the next two paragraphs make clear.<br /> :The Lorentz-Fitzgerald contraction hypothesis was proposed to explain the &quot;null&quot; result of the Michelson-Morley experiment but still keeping the æther. (see paragraph 8 of Lorentz's 1904 paper above). Lorentz considered the contraction was not physically real but a device to explain the Michelson-Morley experiment. ([http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lorentz_Fitzgerald_contraction_hypothesis Lorentz_Fitzgerald Contraction]).<br /> <br /> :Einstein (1905) derived the Lorentz contraction directly, without assuming the existence of the æther, from the ''Principle of Relativity'' (ie different observers moving at a constant speed with respect to each other find the laws of physics to be identical and find the speed of light to be the same), and proved that Lorentz-Fitzgerald contraction hypothesis had been &quot;ad-hoc&quot;. And Einstein explain the failure of Michelson-Morley experiment by abolishing the æther !<br /> <br /> '''Lord Rayleigh'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> British physicist ([http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lord_Rayleigh Wikipedia])<br /> <br /> ==Page 566==<br /> <br /> '''In a dream...'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> <br /> This passage, describing Kit's dream of Umeki and the message it conveys, pulls together many of the main themes of ''Against the Day'', tying things together in a way that Pynchon seldom does, almost as if he's providing a rather large piece of the puzzle to help the reader understand the novel:<br /> <br /> :&quot;Deep among the equations describing the behavor of light, field equations, Vector and Quaternion equations, lies a set of directions, an intinerary, a map to a hidden space. Double refraction appears again and again as a key element, permitting a view into a Creation set just to the side of this one, so close as to overlap, where the membrane between the worlds, in many places, has become too frail, too permeable, for safety.... Within the mirror, with the scalar term, within the daylit and obvious and taken-for-granted has always lain, as if in wait, the dark intinerary, the corrupted pilgrim's guide, the nameless Station before the first, in the lightless uncreated, where salvation does not yet exist.&quot;<br /> <br /> This is rather a good description of ''AtD'' itself. It is a (inevitably) &quot;corrupted pilgrim's guide&quot;, but is the guide corrupted, or the pilgrim?<br /> <br /> '''analogies'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> (Pynchonian heuristics.)<br /> <br /> '''the corrupted pilgrim's guide, the nameless Station before the first'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Cf. p. 436 '''holy pilgrimages. One defines a destination, proceeds through a series of stations...<br /> <br /> <br /> '''lightless uncreated'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> (Gnostic heresy?)<br /> <br /> '''...within the daylit and obvious and taken-for-granted has always lain, as if in wait, the dark itinerary, the corrupted pilgrim's guide, the names Station before the first, in the lightless uncreated, where salvation does not yet exist.'''&lt;br /&gt;<br /> Compare with &quot;daylit America . . . its steadfast denial of night&quot; ([[ATD_724-747#Page 732|page 732]]), ''AtD'' epigraph, Thelonious Monk's &quot;It's always night, or we wouldn't need light.&quot; '''and''' &quot;the boys expressed wonder at how much more infected with light the night-time terrains passing below them had become [...] they felt themselves in uneasy witness to some final conquest, a triumph over night whose motive none could quite grasp&quot; ([[ATD 1018-1039#Page 1032|p. 1032]]); <br /> <br /> '''stuffed sinus'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> sinus/nasal congestion. It is like looking out onto a new world when one's sinus finally clears after days of congestion.<br /> <br /> '''''Konichiwa'''''&lt;br&gt;<br /> ''sic'' for &quot;Konnichiwa / Kon nichi wa&quot; -- Japanese greeting.<br /> <br /> ==Page 567==<br /> <br /> '''new Puccini opera'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Obviously, [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Madame_Butterfly Madame Butterfly]<br /> <br /> '''[Americans] can't ever die of shame'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> shameless, unlike the Japanese<br /> <br /> '''Kimura-san'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Kimura ( &quot;tree village&quot;) is the 18th most common Japanese surname.<br /> -san is used as a courtesy title in Japanese-speaking areas as a suffix to the given name, surname, or title of the person being addressed, regardless of age or gender: Yamamoto san; sensei-san.&lt;br&gt;<br /> Chimera-san?<br /> <br /> '''Borel-Clerc... &quot;La Matchiche&quot;'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Popular vaudeville song from 1903. &quot;La Matchiche&quot; is French for the Brazilian dance Maxixe.<br /> <br /> '''western anchor'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> What about France, Spain, Portugal? Belgium is a port country with a highly developed transportation system into all of these countries. .....it was the first country to industrialize in Europe....Wikipedia. <br /> <br /> In addition, Ostend is the westernmost port. It remains today a major Continental ferry terminus for North Sea crossings, including the fastest surface route, the hydrofoil.<br /> <br /> '''the Orient Express'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> The first [http://mikes.railhistory.railfan.net/r045.html Orient Express] (1883-1914), connecting the English Channel with the Black Sea, is one of the most famous trains in Europe. It ran from Calais and Paris to Bucharest (Romania), passing through Strasbourg (France), Munich (Germany), Vienna (Austria), Bratislava (Czechoslovakia), Budapest (Hungary). From Bucharest it went through Bulgaria and then, by ferry, to Istanbul of Turkey. The original Orient Express was operated by Compaignie Internationale des Wagons-Lits. Ever since the original Orient Express started operation, the name has become synonymous with luxury travel. After World I there were various railway routes had the name of Orient Express. The current one is from Paris to Vienna, to be discontinue on June 9, 2007.<br /> <br /> '''the Trans-Siberian'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> The [http://www.transsib.ru/Eng/history-phases.htm Trans-Siberian] is a railway route connecting Moscow (Europe) to Vladivostok (Far East Asia). Taking a journey by the Trans-Siberian Railway has long been considered an experience with mythological proportions. It is the longest continuous rail line on earth - about 6,000 miles over one third of the globe. In 1891, Czar Alexander III drew up planes for the Trans-Siberian and initiated its construction, and a more or less continuous route was completed in 1905. It took many more years to make the route smoothly operative.<br /> <br /> '''the Berlin-to-Baghdad'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> The [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Baghdad_Railway Berlin-Baghdad (also Basra) Railway] was the route of German's expansion from Europe to the Persian Gulf, from which trade goods and supplies could be directly exchanged with the farthest of the German colonies and the world. It could also supply German industry directly with oil. Its conception (1888) and completion a couple of years later engendered great opposition from Russia, France and England as part of the &quot;Great Game&quot;.<br /> <br /> '''World-Island'''&lt;br /&gt;<br /> [[ATD 429-459#Page_433|See annotation at page 433]]<br /> <br /> '''Compaignie Internationale des Wagons-Lits'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> &quot;International Sleeping-Car Company&quot;, [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Carlson_Wagonlit Wikipedia]<br /> <br /> '''two hundred francs'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> &quot;None of that, Hakkabut. Hold your tongue.&quot; And, turning to Rosette, the captain said, &quot;If, sir, I understand right, you require some silver five-franc pieces for your operation?&quot;<br /> &quot;Forty,&quot; said Rosette, surlily.<br /> &quot;Two hundred francs!&quot; whined Hakkabut.-- On a Comet, Jules Verne<br /> <br /> '''theory of sets'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Set theory is the mathematical theory of sets, which represent collections of abstract objects. It encompasses the everyday notions, introduced in primary school, of collections of objects, and the elements of, and membership in, such collections. In most modern mathematical formalisms, set theory provides the language in which mathematical objects are described. It is (along with logic and the predicate calculus) one of the axiomatic foundations for mathematics, allowing mathematical objects to be constructed formally from the undefined terms of &quot;set&quot; and &quot;set membership&quot;. It is in its own right a branch of mathematics and an active field of mathematical research. Wikipedia&lt;br&gt;<br /> :The members of a set can be, say, [Mike, Mary, Jack, Richard, Ron, Umeki, . . . . . .], the employees of a company, or the passengers of the train leaving the station; they need NOT be abstract. Cf [[ATD_525-556#Page 535|page 525:set theory]].<br /> <br /> '''Bruges Canal'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Belgium: Bruges canal. For a picture of the canal see [http://cruises.about.com/library/pictures/baltic/blbruges19.htm Bruges Canal].<br /> <br /> ==Page 568==<br /> <br /> '''vaporetto'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> A Venetian water-bus.<br /> <br /> '''Grand Canal'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> The main canal that runs through the heart of Venice and down past San Marco, the city's main square.<br /> <br /> '''San Marco end'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> See above. This is where Florian's (appears in the novel) is situated.<br /> <br /> '''Piazzetta'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> ??? A small piazza. The large square in front of St Mark's is the Piazza San Marco. The smaller side square running beside the Palazzo Ducale down to the canal is the Piazzetta San Marco.<br /> <br /> '''San Giorgio Maggiore'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> A rather over-ornate church on the Grand Canal opposite San Marco.<br /> <br /> '''spreading... cloak'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Cliche/allusion?<br /> <br /> '''live here forever'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Pynchon special-pleading that Dally isn't just another tourist.<br /> Or is this just a typical reaction of the tourist? And a Pynchonesque longing for home?<br /> <br /> '''Teatro Verdi in Trieste'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> A 1200+ seat theatre built in late-eighteenth century in Trieste for classical music, opera and ballet ([http://selectitaly.com/events.php?product_id=27&amp;city_id=122 Teatro Verdi]). With its stately columns, elaborate adornments and lush elegance it is rather an unlikely venue for magic show. Another unlikely venue for magic show is Teatro Malibran in Venice (next page).<br /> <br /> ==Page 569==<br /> <br /> '''Malibran... Polo's house'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> The Teatro Malibran, built at the site of Marco Polo's house, which was destroyed in 1596.<br /> :It is still there ! Cf [[ATD_336-357#Page 355|page 355:Teatro Malibran]] and the external link (for photos, etc) listed there.<br /> <br /> '''&quot;pincette&quot; pass'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Probably from the [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pincer_movement pincer movement] of military strategy.<br /> :Professor Hoffman's ''Modern Magic'' (1876) describes three &quot;passes with coins,&quot; La Pincette, Le Tourniquet and La Coulée. Amazon has the book for sale if anyone wants to look up the details.<br /> <br /> '''profondes'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> &quot;Large pockets in tail coats which can be used for vanishes or productions&quot;, [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_conjuring_terms Wikipedia]<br /> <br /> '''Vincenzo Miserere'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> ??? Misero means poor, pitiful, miserable, etc. Psalm 51 (sometimes numbered as 50) is known as the Miserere because it begins (in Latin) Miserere mei Deus (Have mercy on me, God).<br /> <br /> '''train to Trieste'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> ???Venice and Trieste are on the opposite sides (about 70 miles apart) of the same gulf : Gulf of Venice. Taking a train from Venice to Trieste would mean taking a route several times lengthier than a ferry.<br /> <br /> '''Svegli'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> The fictional professor's name comes from the Italian ''sveglio'' for &quot;clever, dextrous, skillful.&quot;<br /> <br /> '''shark leather'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Different from sharkskin?<br /> <br /> '''''Specchiere'''''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Mirror-maker<br /> <br /> '''glassmakers on Murano'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Murano Wikipedia]<br /> <br /> '''today'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> When is that?<br /> <br /> '''''guaglion'''''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Naples dialect: ''guaglione'' is boy. (It first appeared on page 531).<br /> <br /> ==Page 570==<br /> <br /> '''another one of his stories'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> (Jackson Pynchon should highlight all the AtD passages that originated as bedtime stories.)<br /> <br /> '''TERAPIA'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Italian, &quot;therapy&quot;<br /> <br /> '''San Servolo'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> An island in the Venetian archipelago, [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/San_Servolo Wikipedia], [http://maps.google.com/maps?f=q&amp;hl=en&amp;q=45.418654+N,+12.35698+E&amp;ie=UTF8&amp;z=17&amp;ll=45.418651,12.35698&amp;spn=0.006891,0.010793&amp;t=k&amp;om=1&amp;iwloc=addr Google Maps]<br /> <br /> '''Palazzo Ducale'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> The Ducal Palace in Venice, residence of the Doge. It's by San Marco.<br /> <br /> '''''manicomio'''''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Italian, &quot;madhouse&quot;<br /> <br /> '''''paramorfico'''''&lt;br&gt;<br /> paramorphic - see the entry for [[P|Paramorphoscope]]<br /> <br /> '''uterine vellum'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vellum Vellum] produced from the skin of an unborn calf<br /> <br /> '''pitch, rouge'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Products used in the grinding of lenses and mirrors.<br /> <br /> ==Page 571==<br /> <br /> '''La Doppiatrice'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Italian: the Doubler. <br /> <br /> Perhaps an analogue of the diffraction grating that splits the electron into two &quot;alternate&quot; electrons in Schrodinger's thought experiment on quantum effects, source here of a sort of human quantum splitting, an alternate universe creator. <br /> <br /> '''Ettore Sananzolo'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> ???<br /> <br /> '''Maskelyne cabinet'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> After Neville Maskelyne, from ''Mason and Dixon.'' Maskelyne was sent at the same time as M and D to record the Transit of Venus on St. Helena. He became Astronomer Royal while they were in America.<br /> <br /> While Maskelyne is indeed a real person, the name is very suggestive of mescaline. The two do not seem to be &quot;related.&quot;<br /> <br /> More likely a descendant, [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Nevil_Maskelyne John Nevil Maskelyne.] --[[User:Jeffersonista|Jordan]] 13:46, 25 January 2007 (PST)<br /> <br /> ==Page 572==<br /> <br /> '''smoke back into a cigar'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Time's arrow/ entropy motif.<br /> <br /> '''hard-as-a-rock black cigar'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> The quality of a cigar is usually higher with dark, more tightly-wrapped tobacco. Vincenzo has a fine one, it seems. <br /> <br /> '''thumping'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> sound/feeling of a water-bus?<br /> <br /> '''''salso'''''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Longest river in Sicily.Its small deltaic system there is dominated by marine processes rather than fluvial ones. It is a seasonal torrent, with brief but violent floods during the winter rains (from November to February), Is this what riding the salso in and back out again means? Riding the floods from the winter rains?<br /> <br /> Hardly. 'Salso' (ital.) means 'salty', so this is probably a poetical word for 'the sea'.<br /> <br /> '''''sandoli'''''&lt;br&gt;<br /> ??? The sandolo is a type of boat used in Venice, similar to a gondola but (I believe) larger.<br /> <br /> '''trains pulling in'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Famous early film.<br /> <br /> ==Page 573==<br /> <br /> '''San Polo'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> It is one of the six districts (sestieri) of Venice. (The other five are: Cannaregio, Dorsoduro, Santa Croce, San Marco, and Castello.) It (with Santa Croce and Dorsoduro) is located at the south side of the Grand Canal just across the Rialto bridge from San Marco. The San Polo district is the second most important area of Venice in terms of historical immportance and attractions for the tourists. It is the home to the Rialto market, the old artisan quarters of Venice, and the stunning Frari church.<br /> <br /> '''Cannareggio'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> It is commonly spelled Cannaregio. It is located north of the Grand Canal, and is one of the few parts of the city where Venetians still live in great numbers. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cannaregio Canaregio].<br /> <br /> ==Page 574==<br /> <br /> '''thirty years older'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> About 65yo?<br /> <br /> '''that day'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> In NYC when Dally showed up.<br /> <br /> '''when she was born'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Cf Pretenders/Chryssie Hynde.<br /> <br /> '''Stronzo'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Italian curse word, roughly &quot;asshole&quot;<br /> <br /> '''''In bocc' al lupo!'''''&lt;br&gt;<br /> From the Roman dialect, in which the Italians – including Rocco and Pino – seem to speak. Meaning, literally, &quot;In the <br /> mouth of the wolf,&quot; and idiomatically, &quot;Good luck.&quot; <br /> <br /> Specifically, as supported by the show business context, the good-luck wish among actors: &quot;Break a leg!&quot;<br /> <br /> '''''campielli'''''&lt;br&gt;<br /> ??? Small squares. A campo is literally a field and by extension a large square in a town. A campiello is a small square. I believe Venice has only one Piazza (San Marco) and the other squares are campi and campielli.<br /> <br /> '''impersonation of itself'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> echoes &quot;the mountains had become geometrical impersonations of themselves&quot;, p. 394<br /> <br /> ==Page 575==<br /> <br /> '''Riva'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> ??? Probably Riva del Vin by the Grand Canal; a great tourist attraction from where one can view the historical Rialto Bridge. (The word ''riva'' itself means ''river bank''). [http://arglist.com/cgi-bin/image?gallery=venice&amp;name=20050525-025 Riva del Vin] and[http://www.altravistavenezia.it/_VirtualTours/VA/Rialto_Riva_del_Vin/rialto_riva_del_vin.html Rialto-Riva del Vin]<br /> <br /> '''middy blouses'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> In the style of a midshipman's blouse (shirt).<br /> <br /> '''not yet been rebuilt'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Remember p256.<br /> <br /> '''''lucciole'''''&lt;br&gt;<br /> prostitutes<br /> <br /> '''''fondamenta'''''&lt;br&gt;<br /> A waterside street in Venice<br /> <br /> '''''ombreta'''''&lt;br&gt;<br /> ??? A local wine produced in the hills north of Venice.&lt;br /&gt;<br /> Well, actually ''ombreta de vin'' means &quot;a glass of wine&quot; in Venetian dialect.<br /> <br /> '''light's good here'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Old joke about drunk looking for car keys under streetlight though he dropped them somewhere else.<br /> <br /> '''inside that labyrinth . . . microcosm of all Venice'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> A hologram has this property, that a little chip broken off it contains the entire image. This is, however, a specific reference to Fractal &amp;#151; non-Euclidian &amp;#151; Geometry ... self-similarity over scale. A fractal is an object or quantity that displays self-similarity, in a somewhat technical sense, on all scales. The object need not exhibit exactly the same structure at all scales, but the same &quot;type&quot; of structures must appear on all scales. A plot of the quantity on a log-log graph versus scale then gives a straight line, whose slope is said to be the fractal dimension. The prototypical example for a fractal is the length of a coastline measured with different length rulers. The shorter the ruler, the longer the length measured, a paradox known as the coastline paradox, mentioned by Pynchon on [[ATD_821-848#Page_821|page 821: coastline approaching infinite length]].<br /> :Good argument for the fractal reference, better than the original one for the hologram metaphor. Hunter is not making smaller and smaller paintings (&quot;chips&quot;) but rather exploiting an observation about scale.<br /> <br /> ==Page 576==<br /> <br /> '''''rio'''''&lt;br&gt;<br /> narrow waterway in Venice (Cf [[ATD_243-272#Page 245|page 245:''rio'']].)<br /> <br /> '''twelve soldi'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> ??? A soldo is a small coin.<br /> <br /> '''franc... ten francs'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> ???<br /> <br /> '''Santos-Dumont style'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Cf [[ATD_525-556#Page 529|page 529:Monsieur Santos-Dumont]]<br /> <br /> '''Canaletto'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Real name: [http://www.wga.hu/bio/c/canalett/biograph.html Zuane Antonio Canal] (1697-1768), a well-known scenery painter at the time. He went to England in 1746 and returned to Venice in 1755.&lt;br&gt;<br /> Venetian landscape painter, 1697-1768, famous for his paintings of Venice ([http://www.artericerca.com/ven_set/Canaletto/canaletto.htm Italian website]).<br /> <br /> As described, Penhallow's pictures are reminiscent, in spirit and in some ways content, of John Singer Sargent's Venetian paintings. Sargent also later painted one of the most haunting images of World War I, [http://jssgallery.org/Paintings/Gassed/Gassed.htm &quot;Gassed&quot;], showing a column of men blinded by mustard gas feeling their way to an aid station.<br /> <br /> '''Beppo'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Allusion to Byron's poem &quot;Beppo - A Venetian Story&quot;. Beppo is a husband who's been away for many years and then, returning, reclaims his wife from another man.<br /> <br /> Beppo = Mouse, diminutive of Giuseppi. There is also Beppo Levi (born on May 14, 1875 in Turin, Italy, died on August 28, 1961 in Rosario, Argentina) Italian mathematician, director of the Mathematics Institute of the National University of the Littoral from 1939 to 1961. His work included the mathematics of alternative spaces[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Beppo_Levi].<br /> <br /> '''pitch'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> From Merriam-Webster Dictionary: ''chiefly British: an outdoor site (as for camping or doing business).<br /> <br /> '''Bauer-Grünwald'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> An expensive hotel near San Marco in Venice.<br /> <br /> '''demobilized from a war that nobody knew about . . . seeking refuge from time'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Hunter Penhallow, one of the Trespassers?<br /> <br /> ==Page 577==<br /> <br /> '''a time-traveler from the future'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Hunter Penhallow IS a Trespasser.<br /> <br /> ''''Safe''''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Recent art-movie title? I think safe here means safe without allusion.<br /> <br /> '''neutral hour?'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Is any moment in Time apolitical?<br /> <br /> '''Castello'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Castello is the largest of the six sestieri of Venice. The district grew up from the thirteenth century around a naval dockyard on what was originally the Isole Gemini.<br /> <br /> Not sure on the derivation of Isole Gemini; but Gemini, like Pisces (cf. Fomalhaut, the brightest star in the Pisces constellation) and Sagittarius, are the dual signs of western astrology in keeping with &quot;bi-locations,&quot; Deuce Kindred, Renfrew/Werfner, mirrors, etc. <br /> <br /> Jyotisha (Indian astrology) includes Virgo as a dual sign or dvisvabha rashis -- thus forming a Quaternity (4 signs or rashis)of Duality. It's interesting that Pynchon does not say Gemini and Pisces directly, but alludes to them behind Castello and Fomalhaut. Be on the lookout for twins, fish, virgins and centaurs!<br /> <br /> '''Evening Gun'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> &quot;At reveille the morning gun goes off; and at retreat, the evening&quot;. From <br /> a history description. Here is a site with picture.http://www.ziplink.net/~edkreutz/1f.html<br /> <br /> '''Dr. Grace'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Renowned, full-bearded 19th-century English cricket player.<br /> <br /> '''Charing Cross'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Charing Cross Railway Station, London. The original station was opened on 11 January 1864 by the South East Railway. Now, over 37 million people pass through Charing Cross every year. Situated on the forecourt of the stations is the Eleanor Cross, from which point road distances from London are measured. For more see [http://www.networkrail.co.uk/aspx/795.aspx#history Charing Cross].<br /> <br /> ==Page 578==<br /> <br /> '''Dorsoduro'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> An area of Venice. The Dorsoduro district is a relatively central area of the city, located on the opposie side of the Grand Canal from the San Marco district. But, at the smae time it offers the visitor a chance to explore a delightful part of the city free from the crowds of San Marco.<br /> The Accademia Gallery, Peggy Gugggenheim Museum, and the Santa della Maria Salute Church (one of the most famous landmarks of Venice) are all located here. [http://www.tours-italy.com/venice/guide_dorsoduro.htm Dorsoduro].<br /> <br /> '''''pensione'''''&lt;br&gt;<br /> A cheap Italian hotel, like a bed and breakfast.<br /> <br /> '''La Calcina'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> A historical hotel. La Calcina means ''The Lime House'', because the hotel was built on a 17th-century lime production site. It is located on the Zattere promenade, at the foot of the Calcina Bridge. Various Bohemian artists frequented the Café of the hotel, and John Ruskin indeed stayed at the hotel from February 13 to May 23, 1877. For the historical background of the hotel see [http://www.lacalcina.com/HTML/en/calcina_storia_en.html La Calcina].<br /> <br /> '''eminent ghosts, Turner and Whistler, Ruskin, Browning....'''<br /> <br /> Evokes Lytton Strachey's ''Eminent Victorians'' and this Quaternity of artists were eminent indeed (though not the subject of Strachey's book). All had a conection to Venice, and the note on Ruskin at the La Calcina above could be true of the other three as well. <br /> <br /> Robert Browning became a ghost in Venice in 1887. Of particular historic significance, Browning was the first person to ever have his voice heard after his death. Thomas Edison recorded Browning reading his poem &quot;How They Brought Good News from Ghent to Aix&quot; including the poet's apologies for forgetting the words. The recording was first played in Venice in 1890.<br /> <br /> '''''&quot;traces of conciousness&quot;. Psychical Research beginning to open these matters..streaming by'''''&lt;br&gt;<br /> <br /> Possible allusion to Joyce's &quot;stream of conciousness&quot;. Ulysses is also set in 1904, the year Joyce met his wife. <br /> <br /> But that is not the stream of consciousness refered to here, and it is the wrong &quot;James.&quot; William James actually coined the term &quot;stream of consciousness.&quot; Joyce was not the first to use it as a literary technique either -- he just perfected it in a way not seen before -- except perhaps in Proust.<br /> <br /> Considering the context in AtD concerns ghosts and the very next sentence begins with a mention of Psychical Research, &quot;traces of consciousness&quot; is not so much stream of consciousness as a trailing vapor or whisp of consciousness that streams by as a &quot;kind of ghost.&quot; Think in terms of thought transference, ESP, mediums, hypnosis, hallucinations, ghosts. More than a few characters in this novel are involved in these things.<br /> <br /> In order to study these phenomena, three dons of Trinity College, Cambridge founded The Society for Psychical Research in 1882. William James helped to found the American branch and was president of the group for a while. <br /> <br /> There are recurring parallels in AtD to a famous James quote from ''Varieties of Religious Experience'': <br /> <br /> Our normal waking consciousness . . . is but one special type of consciousness, whilst all about it, parted from it by the flimsiest of screens, there lie potential forms of consciousness entirely different. We may go through life without suspecting their existence; but apply the requisite stimulus and at a touch they are all there in all their completeness . . . No account of the universe in its totality can be final which leaves these other forms of consciousness quite disregarded. <br /> <br /> <br /> '''Zattere'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> An area of wide waterfront pavements in Venice.<br /> <br /> '''''...in hotels, the way your dreams are often, alarmingly, not your own?'''''&lt;br&gt;<br /> One more possible allusion to Proust, including also the following paragraph. At the beginning of the ''Recherche'', the main character, Marcel, spends a sleepless night in a hotel room, surrounded by memories he can't make sense of. <br /> <br /> In ''Lot 49'' Oedipa Maas considers all the dreams and memories stored in the mattresses of transients' hotels, and of the information destroyed when they burned.<br /> <br /> '''''cimici'''''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Latin: bedbug.<br /> <br /> '''to pick up traces of the dreams of whoever slept there just before them'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Cf. the Tom Waits song &quot;9th &amp; Hennepin&quot;: &quot;And all the rooms they smell like diesel / And you take on the dreams of the ones who have slept there&quot;. [http://www.tomwaitslibrary.com/lyrics/raindogs/9thandhennepin.html Lyrics]<br /> <br /> '''bora'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> a regional wind, blowing each winter.<br /> <br /> ==Page 579==<br /> <br /> '''vino forte'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> strong wine.<br /> <br /> '''Brindisi, Squinzano, . . . Brletta'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> They are the cities in Puglia (Apula) region of southeast Italy, ie. at the &quot;heel of the Italian Boot&quot;.<br /> <br /> '''Tintoretto's ''Abduction . . .'''''&lt;br&gt;<br /> See [http://www.egypttoday.com/article.aspx?ArticleID=3374 here]<br /> <br /> Tintoretto (1518-94), Venetian painter. Originally named Jacopo Robusti, because of his father's profession of ''tintore'' (dye) he was nicknamed as [http://www.wga.hu/bio/t/tintoret/biograph.html Tintoretto]. The most successful painter of Venetian school in the generation after Titian. His drawings, unlike Michelangelo's detailed life studies, are brilliant, rapid notations, bristling with energy, and his color is more somber and mystical than Titian's. For a better, can be enlarged, view of his [http://www.wga.hu/index1.html ''Abduction of the Body of St. Mark (1562-66)''].<br /> <br /> '''Accademia'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> The major art-gallery in Dorsoduro, Venice<br /> <br /> '''Titian'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> 16th century Venetian painter.&lt;br&gt;<br /> Vecellio Tiziano (1490-1576), better known as Titian, the greatest painter of the Venetain School and the leading light of the Italian Renaissance. Titian was recognized as a towering genius in his own time and his reputation as one of the giants of art has never been seriously questioned. He was supreme in every branch of painting and his achievements were so varied — ranging &quot;from the joyous evocation of pagan antiquity . . . to the depths of tragedy in his late religious paintings&quot; — that he has been an inspiration to artists of very different character. In many subjects, above all in portraiture, he set patterns that were followed by generations of artists. For more and Titian's paintings [http://www.wga.hu/bio/t/tiziano/biograph.html Titian].<br /> <br /> '''Infancy Gospel of Thomas'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> One of the apocryphal scriptures. The Infancy Gospel of Thomas relates the miraculous deeds of Jesus before he turned twelve. [http://www.earlychristianwritings.com/infancythomas.html 1] [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gospel_of_Thomas Wikipedia on the Gospel of Thomas]<br /> <br /> →Actually, The Infancy Gospel of Thomas is not the same as the Gospel of Thomas. The former is a brief summary of Jesus' misadventures as a child (as AtD notes, Jesus really is described as a hell-raiser and although at one point he brings a child named Zenon back from death, the Infancy Gospel mostly just makes a shallow exhibition of Jesus' miraculous powers). The latter is a Gnostic text and a &quot;collection of sayings, prophecies, proverbs, and parables of Jesus&quot; (Willis Barnstone, &quot;The Other Bible&quot; p. 299).<br /> <br /> Also, I read through the whole Infancy Gospel of Thomas and could not find the particular parable that Pynchon describes. However, Pynchon's parable is in keeping with the style of this Gospel. Jesus gets in trouble--making adults irate--and then sets everything straight. This particular parable also does not appear in The Infancy Gospel of James, The Infacy Gospel of Pseudo-Matthew, or The Arabic Infancy Gospel.<br /> <br /> The reference to this Gospel is a double+ play on the twins/double/mirror motif. First, as can be seen in this posting, there is confusion between the Gospel of Thomas and the Infancy Gospel of Thomas. The two gospels appear to be the same, but they are different. Second, the name ''Thomas'' means ''twin''. Also(+), Thomas is the doubting Thomas.<br /> To doubt is to be &quot;of two minds.&quot; The historic and theological significance of Thomas is loaded with themes relevant to this novel.<br /> <br /> ==Page 580==<br /> <br /> '''Pentecost story in Acts'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Pentecost is a Christian holiday commemorating the descent of the Holy Spirit on Jesus' followers and the beginning of the Christian church. Pentecost is celebrated by many (but not all) Christians on the Sunday 50 days after Easter. It often falls in early June. [[Acts II|Read the Biblical passages in Acts II...]]<br /> <br /> '''Galilean dialect'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Of Aramaic.<br /> <br /> '''Yes, well, it's redemption, isn't it, you expect chaos, you get order instead'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> In the Infancy Gospel of Thomas and the Pentecost, first Jesus, then the Holy Ghost, act as Maxwell's Demon [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Maxwell%27s_Demon]. In the Infancy Gospel story, Jesus sorts the randomly mixed dye molecules so that each garment comes out one color; in the Pentecost story the Holy Ghost causes a single language, just random noise to all but Galileans, to be heard as the many different languages of the listeners. Taking the two stories together, thermodynamic entropy is reversed, but the entropy of information is increased. This is the crux of ''Lot 49''; here it is another &quot;secular miracle&quot;; order emerges from chaos. The mathemateicians, artists and similar seekers may bring forth a similar miracle, the ability to experience other dimensions, to understand the universe (See Kit's dream, P.566).<br /> <br /> '''''rii'''''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Plural of ''rio''.<br /> <br /> ==Page 581==<br /> <br /> '''''sotopòrteghi'''''&lt;br&gt;<br /> An open doorway for public access. (Cf [[ATD_243-272#Page 246|page 246:sotopòrteghi]].)<br /> <br /> '''Bodeo 10.4 mm'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> A mass-produced Italian-made service revolver, initially made around 1889. Demand for them as guns was low, causing thousands of the weapons to be converted to table lamps. An interesting Pynchonian connection between light, manufacture, weapons, and war.<br /> <br /> ==Page 582==<br /> <br /> '''''foschetta'''''&lt;br&gt;<br /> ''Foschia'' in Italian means &quot;fog&quot;. ''Foschetta'' is a term for &quot;light fog&quot;.<br /> <br /> '''''masègni'''''&lt;br&gt;<br /> ???<br /> :blocks of Euganean trachyte used for paving, often marked off by bands of Istrian stone<br /> <br /> '''''patrone'''''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Probably meaning ''padrone'', &quot;master&quot;. -- blicero2<br /> :or female saint? not referring to Tonio but just as an expression.<br /> <br /> '''wine trains up from Puglia'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> ???Puglia region is in southeast of Italy (at the &quot;heel of the Italian Boot&quot;). From page 578-579: &quot;In September, when the vino forte arrived from Brindis, Squinzano, and Barletta . . .&quot; These three cities are in Puglia. Cf [[ATD_557-587#Page 579|page 579:vino forte]] and [[ATD_557-587#Page 579|page 579:Brindisi, Squinzano, . . . Barletta]].<br /> <br /> '''Winter'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> 1904-1905?<br /> <br /> '''''osterie'''''&lt;br&gt;<br /> tavern?<br /> <br /> '''Principessa Spongiatosta'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Is Pugnax's book from p6 at all relevant here?<br /> :Yes! [[Princess_Casamassima,_The|''The Princess Casamassima'']] has several resonances with ''AtD.''<br /> <br /> '''Ca''''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Abbreviated form of &quot;Casa,&quot; Italian for &quot;house.&quot;<br /> <br /> Which appears to be multidimensional, or at any rate non-Euclidean, reminiscent of Zombini's cabinet.<br /> <br /> '''Roman Composite order'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> A classical order (style of building design) dating from late Roman times, formed by superimposing Ionic volute (volute = a spiral scroll ornament) on a Corinthian capital (capital = the head or crowning feature of a column). ([http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Composite_order Composite order]).<br /> <br /> '''japonica'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Japanese honeysuckle.<br /> <br /> ==Page 583==<br /> <br /> '''Iron Bridge'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> The Ponte dell’Accademia - connecting the Venetian quarters (sestieri) San Marco and Dorsoduro - was constructed during the Austrian occupation in 1854. This steel construction got replaced ca. 1933 by a wooden bridge (which was replaced by yet another wooden bridge in 1985) [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ponte_dell'Accademia Wikipedia]<br /> <br /> '''Le Havre'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> French port city on the Atlantic (English Channel).<br /> <br /> '''''ma via'''''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Meaning &quot;come on!&quot;, in Italian. -- blicero2<br /> <br /> '''third eyes touching'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> The third eye, as existing on some reptiles is a dorsal organ that is receptive to light, otherwise known as the ''pineal eye''. Since the two half-sisters are obviously not reptiles, this reference might allude to the figurative third eye, or the eye of the mind, heart or soul. When the two touch foreheads, they are able to peer into each other consciences, by way of these third eyes. [http://www.thefreedictionary.com/third+eye /Dictionary Entry]<br /> <br /> ==Page 584==<br /> <br /> '''&quot;Swiss insurance salesman. Wolf. No, Putzi.&quot;'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Bria's had so many beaux she gets them confused? One was a wolf; the other a putz?<br /> :''Wolf'' is an uncommon given name but also a diminutive of Wolfgang. ''Putzi'' does not come from a given name; it's like &quot;sweetiepie,&quot; a nickname for a cute boy.<br /> <br /> '''''topo'''''&lt;br&gt;<br /> A topo is a guide for a crag or climbing area.<br /> <br /> '''Dogana'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Custom House, built on a wedge of land called ''Punta della Dogana'' (Custom Point). This wedge of land is at the entrance of the Grand Canal, as described in the text: &quot;where the Grand Canal and the Lagoon meet&quot;. The original 14th-century customs tower was replaced by a colonnaded building named the ''Dogana de Mare'' (Sea Customs Post). See picture [http://uk.encarta.msn.com/media_1041505867_761562189_-1_1/Punta_della_Dogana_Venice.html Punta della Dogana]<br /> <br /> '''Andrea Tancredi'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> An artist and acquaintence made by Hunter Penhallow in Venice. His name is likely derived from the Gioacchino Rossini opera ''Tancredi'' or the Voltaire play by the same name. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tancredi Wikipedia Entry]&lt;br /&gt;<br /> Tancredi, restored, is a tragedy. the soldier Tancredi and his family have been stripped of their estates and inheritances, and he himself has been banished since his youth. Two more noble families — headed by Argirio and Orbazzano — have been warring for years. Wikipedia.<br /> Tancredi presides in exile...he is mortally wounded at the end after learning the person he thought betrayed the heroine did not. <br /> <br /> :Actually, per [[T#tancredi|my entry in the Alpha index]], more likely the name connects with Tancredi, the time-traveling character in ''City of Death'', a four-part serial in the British science fiction television series ''Dr. Who'' which involves time travel and bilocation. Tancredi is the sole survivor of the Jagaroth race, an evil people who destroyed themselves in a war some 400 million years ago. Tancredi explains that a few escaped in a dilapidated spacecraft and found Earth in a primeval, lifeless stage of its development. The ship disintegrated upon takeoff and [[Scaroth]] tells of how he was fractured in time, splinters of his being were scattered across time and space, all identical, none complete. Whereas, in ''City of Death'', Tancredi, one of the Scaroff &quot;splinters&quot; living in Renaissance Italy, is plotting to create multiple Mona Lisa's for fraudulent purposes, ''Against the Day'''s Tancredi is fighting art fraud. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/City_of_Death Read the synopsis of ''City of Death'']; The name &quot;Andrea&quot; ''could'' be a reference to the protagonist Andrea Marsh, a time-traveler in the 1889 novel, ''Timeless Love'' by Judy Hinson ([[Timeless Love|synopsis]]).<br /> <br /> '''Seurat and Signac'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> George Seurat (1859-1891) and Paul Signac (1863-1935), French painters who developed pointillism. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pointillism Wikipedia entry].<br /> <br /> '''Divisionism'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Term invented by Paul Signac to describe the Neo-Impressionist separation of colour into dots or patches applied directly to the canvas. From Grove Dictionary of Art. <br /> <br /> <br /> '''Marinetti'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> The Italian poet Filippo Tommaso Marinetti was the first among [the Futurists] to produce a manifesto of their artistic philosophy in his Manifesto of Futurism (1909)(see below).<br /> <br /> '''&quot;Futurists&quot;'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Practitioners or followers of Futurism, an early 20th century art movement that is considered the genesis of Cubism, Dada and Art Deco. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Futurism_%28art%29 Wikipedia entry].Marinetti summed up the major principles of the Futurists, including a passionate loathing of ideas from the past, especially political and artistic traditions. He and others also espoused a love of speed, technology and violence. The car, the plane, the industrial town were all legendary for the Futurists, because they represented the technological triumph of man over nature.<br /> <br /> <br /> '''brutalism'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> See above and The Futurists were often condemned as fascistic in their manifestos and outlook. <br /> <br /> '''Torcello'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> A lonely Venetian island: very peaceful and beautiful with a church and little else.<br /> <br /> '''primitivo'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> A kind of red wine (same as the original Zinfandel, actually).<br /> <br /> ==Page 585==<br /> <br /> '''green-and-lavender'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Another clashing color scheme.<br /> <br /> '''sirocco'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> A hot dust-laden wind from the Libyan deserts that blows on the northern Mediterranean coast chiefly in Italy, Malta, and Sicily. &lt;br&gt;<br /> The correct spelling in Italian is ''Scirocco''. <br /> <br /> '''San Michele'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> San Michele, nicknamed The Island of the Dead, is the cemetery island of Venice. It is associated with the sestiere of Cannaregio from which it lies a short distance north east. <br /> Walls of San Michele.Along with neighbouring San Cristoforo della Pace, the island was a popular place for local travellers and fishermen to land. Mauro Codussi's Chiesa di San Michele in Isola of 1469, the first Renaissance church in Venice, and a monastery lie on the island.<br /> <br /> '''futuristic vehicle'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> See p. 155 [[ATD_149-170#Pages_154-155|and annotations.]] Of course, the machine-inspired Futurists would remind Hunter of this vehicle that 'had borne him to safety'!<br /> <br /> Why? Hunter isn't the Futurist here and doesn't seem to share the same naive faith in Progress that Tancredi does.<br /> <br /> '''the chill, comfortless faith in science and rationality...'''&lt;br /&gt;<br /> [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Max_Weber Max Weber's] concept of rationality, and the [[Routinization of Charisma|routinization/rationalization of charisma]], is a prominent theme in [http://gravitys-rainbow.pynchonwiki.com/wiki/index.php?title=R#routinization ''Gravity's Rainbow''] &amp;#151; a spontaneous and charismatic source of authority is eventually &quot;rationalized&quot; and brought under the control of processes and rules. In Pynchon's view, it is a movement toward Death and thematically related to entropy &amp;#151; a prominent theme in [http://v.pynchonwiki.com/wiki/index.php?title=E#entropy ''V.''] &amp;#151; and, in [http://masondixon.pynchonwiki.com/wiki/index.php?title=F#fengshui ''Mason &amp; Dixon''], bad ''Feng Shui'' and the reduction of the fuzzy boundaries between Pennsylvania and Maryland into a straight line.<br /> <br /> In the April 1957 issue of ''The Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists'', Cornell University Professor of Philosophy, E.A. Burtt, author of the classic ''Metaphysical Foundations of Modern Science'', called for a 'revolutionary' change in the way we viewed science and the scientific method. The article was entitled ''Critique of &quot;Pure&quot; Science''.&lt;br&gt; &quot;Briefly, [Burtt] challenges the assumption that science is progressively unveiling a picture of the 'real' world---a world which, as its character becomes clearer, human beings will have to adjust to, whatever that character turns out to be.&quot;[http://www.manasjournal.org/pdf_library/VolumeX_1957/X-17.pdf]<br /> <br /> '''''Preliminary Studies...'''''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Artists often do 'preliminary studies'..'infernal machine' comes out of Futurism's ideas.<br /> <br /> ==Page 586==<br /> <br /> '''Always with us.'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Gospel of Matthew. &quot;The poor you will always have with you&quot;. Here reference is to born-again Christers.<br /> <br /> '''''vero?'''''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Literally meaning ''true'' in Italian, here it is used as you would use: &quot;Are you talking of an infernal machine, ''aren't you'' ?&quot;<br /> <br /> '''We desire transformation'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Aligns the explosion-loving Tancredi with the Rilke-quoting Blicero from Gravity's Rainbow. '&quot;Want the Change,&quot; Rilke said, &quot;O be inspired by the Flame!&quot;' (GR p.97)<br /> <br /> It also might be helpful to recall that Shiva, who has been referred to implicitly numerous times already in ATD, is the transformative/destructive deity of the Hindi Trimurti.<br /> <br /> This section also sets up Tancredi as an opposite of Hunter, who on p.577 wants to find a &quot;neutral hour&quot;, that &quot;goes neither forwards or back&quot;, and on the same page &quot;felt no desire to join in, quite the opposite.&quot; Hunter himself is much like Katje from GR. Page 97 again: &quot;But not Katje: No mothlike plunge. He must conclude that secretly she fears the change...&quot;<br /> <br /> '''orpiment yellow'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> A yellow color pigment ([http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Orpiment Wikipedia])<br /> <br /> '''Nürnberg violet'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> An artificial color pigment discovered in 1868 in the city of Nuremberg<br /> <br /> ==Page 587==<br /> <br /> '''&quot;The energies of motion, the grammatical tyrannies of becoming, in divisionismo we discover how to break them apart into their component frequencies . . . we define a smallest element, a dot of color which becomes the basic unit of reality . . . .'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> This seems to describe both the kind of painting done by Tancredi and atomic research. Breaking material into its atomic unit, the basic unit of reality, is literally part of the &quot;energies of motion.&quot;<br /> This also describes how a television set works. The screen is composed of millions of tiny dots that, taken together, create moving pictures. <br /> <br /> <br /> '''Brownian movement'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Also called Brownian motion. It is the irregular motion of small particles suspended in a liquid or a gas, caused by the bombardment of the particles by molecules of the medium<br /> first divscovered by botanist Robert Brown (1773-1858) in 1827. Einstein in one of his four ''Annus Mirabilis Papers'' of 1905 explained the random motion using molecular kinetic theory of heat. Cf [[ATD_397-428#Page 412|page 412:young Einstein]].<br /> <br /> '''I really love the old dump'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> For the same reason Dally does: Venice has what Pynchon called (in ''V.'') &quot;Temporal Bandwidth&quot;: a life in a depth of time, a simultaneous humane immersion in past, present and future. The canals of industrialized Belgium are silted up, the connections to its Hanse past lost, paved and tracked over. This has not, and cannot, happen to Venice; even a Futurist painter cannot carry out the appaling modernization he describes. Venice is a place to hide from the future; indeed, in terms of physical destruction, the world wars barely touched La Serenisima.<br /> <br /> '''''nebbia, nebbietta, foschia, caligo, sfumato'''''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Varieties of fog.<br /> <br /> '''speed of sound'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Air temperature is more important that density.<br /> <br /> '''''La Velocità del Suono'''''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Italian, &quot;speed of sound&quot;<br /> <br /> ==Annotation Index==<br /> {{ATD PbP}}</div>

MKOHUT https://against-the-day.pynchonwiki.com/wiki/index.php?title=ATD_525-556&diff=14135 2007-10-21T18:42:52Z

<p>MKOHUT: /* Page 551 */</p> <hr /> <div>:'''&lt;big&gt;Please keep these annotations SPOILER-FREE by not revealing information from later pages in the novel.&lt;/big&gt;'''&lt;p&gt;&lt;br&gt;<br /> <br /> ==Page 525==<br /> <br /> '''Ostend'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Cf [[ATD_489-524#Page 521|page 521:Ostend]], a seaport in northwest Belgium. Among English-speaking tourists, Ostend (or Ostende) is best known as a ferry port. Ships have shuttled between Dover and Ostend for more than 150 years, and today's high-speed catamarans move hundreds of passengers and vehicles between these two ports in just two hours. But this thousand-year-old city is a popular beach resort with Belgians, who flock to Ostend for sun, surfing, sailing and the ''Kursaal'' (Casino). The fishing harbor and old town draw many visitors. Ostend is the only Belgian coastal resort that is as lively in the summer as in the winter. For more and pictures [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ostend Ostend].<br /> <br /> '''Fishermen's Quai'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Fishermen's Quay, also called De Trap. The shrimp boats come home here from the sea in the morning. Along the quay many stands sell lots of seafoods.<br /> <br /> '''Boulevard van Isenghem'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> A major thoroughfare in Ostend, locally called ''Van Iseghemlaan'', extending diagonally from seafront southwest through the city.<br /> <br /> '''street-plausible'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Presentable.<br /> <br /> '''Quai de l'empereur'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Since Ostende is in the Flemish part of Belgium this should be the Keizerskaai, a street along the old part of the harbour, 1919 renamed Vindictivelaan.<br /> <br /> '''estaminet'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> According to the OED - A café in which smoking is allowed. Now, any small establishment selling alcoholic liquor. <br /> <br /> '''twelve-centime'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> one centime is the French eqivalent of one cent. A twelve-centime beer would cost 12/100 of a franc.<br /> <br /> '''Quaternions'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Cf [[ATD_119-148#Page 130|page 130:Quaternions]]. Quaternions are a non-communtative extension of complex numbers (Hamilton, 1843).&lt;br&gt;<br /> <br /> Analogy with the complex numbers (Cf [[ATD_119-148#Page 132|page 132:complex number]]) being represented as a sum of real and imaginary parts, a + b''i'', where ''i''² = −1, a quaternion is defined as a combination a + b''i'' + c''j'' + d''k'', where ''i''² = ''j''² = ''k''² = ''i j k'' = −1, and a, b, c, d are ''four'' explicit real numbers. The non-commutative property refers to ''i j = −j i = k; j k = −k j = i; k i = −i k = j''. (i.e. ''i j ≠ j i; j k ≠ k j; k i ≠ i k''; etc.) The using of ''i, j, k'', the imaginary numbers (Cf [[ATD_119-148#Page 133|page 133:imaginary number]]), led to the phrases of &quot;the ''ijk'' lot&quot; of page 533 and &quot;creature of ''i-j-k''&quot; of page 534.<br /> <br /> '''Kellner'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> German: waiter, barman. Use of the German word would be insulting to the Belgian barman.<br /> <br /> '''''demi'''''&lt;br&gt;<br /> A half-pint glass (25 centilitres, actually).<br /> <br /> '''Lambic'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Pron. ''lahm-BEEK.'' Unique Belgian beer style, sour and often thin in body.<br /> <br /> '''skimmer'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Straw hat (&quot;Panama&quot;).<br /> <br /> ==Page 526==<br /> <br /> '''biquaternion'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Or &quot;octonion,&quot; an innovation of English mathematician W.K. Clifford, [[ATD_243-272#Page_249|referred to on p. 249.]]<br /> <br /> '''Barry Nebulay'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Pun on a term from heraldry, ''barry nebuly.'' Barry (rhymes with &quot;starry,&quot; not &quot;carry&quot;) refers to a shield divided into an even number of parts by horizontal lines. Nebuly signals that the lines are deformed into stylized &quot;cloud&quot; shapes. [http://www.rarebooks.nd.edu/digital/heraldry/partitions.html Here you can see an example.] If a ''British'' author had a character with a heraldic name, it would suggest a pseudonym.<br /> <br /> '''University of Dublin'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> The Alma Mater of Hamilton, the father of Quaternion. He studied, graduated and taught at Trinity College, the University of Dublin, Ireland's oldest university.<br /> <br /> If University College, Dublin, then Joyce had graduated in 1902.&lt;br&gt;<br /> <br /> '''Quaternioneers'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Quaternion believers.<br /> <br /> '''Gibbsian Vectors'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Vector Analysis (or Vector Calculus) developed by Willard Gibbs (Cf [[ATD_26-56#Page 29|page 29:Professor Gibbs]]) in 1881 and 1884. It is a branch of calculus that deals with vectors and process involving vectors. It is much more easily applied to phsics and other applied sciences than Hamilton's Quaternions (Cf [[ATD_525-556#Page 525|page 525:Quaternions]]).&lt;br&gt;<br /> A vector is defined by not only a magnitude but also a direction, such as a velocity vector, ''v'' is defined by ''v'' = a''i'' + b''j'' + c''k'',<br /> where a, b, and c are the magnitudes of the velocity components in directions of ''i, j'' and ''k'' which are unit vectors, (not imaginary numbers as in Quaternion), with magnitude of 1. In three dimensional cases and ''xyz'' coordinate system is used then ''i, j, k'' are related to ''x, y, z'' directions (&quot;''xyz'' people&quot; of page 533); but they, in general, may be used irrespective of the notation of the coordinates.<br /> Mathematical operations (addition, subtraction, multiplication), differentiation (''curl'' — Cf [[ATD_318-335#Page 326|page 326:Curl]] and p. 536, ''Laplacian'' — Cf [[ATD_318-335#Page 326|page 326:Laplacian]] and p. 536, etc) and integration can be applied to vectors. It is interesting to know that one of the two multiplication operations is called cross product; for unit vectors (''i, j, k'') perpendicular to each other, then, ''i × i = j × j = k × k = 0'', ''i × j = k'', ''j × i = -k'', etc. ([http://web.mit.edu/wwmath/vectorc/summary.html Vector Calculus]).&lt;br&gt;<br /> A simple vector anyalysis example here: if ''k'', the unit vector, stands for the direction upward and g is the gravitational acceleration, then the acceleration vector, ''a'', for a projectile, is defined for downward action, (the ''i'' and ''j'' directions have zero components):&lt;br&gt;<br /> :''a'' = -g ''k''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Integrating ''a'' would give the velocity vector, ''v''&lt;br&gt;<br /> :''v'' = -g t ''k''&lt;br&gt;<br /> for zero initial velocity case, and t standing for time.&lt;br&gt;<br /> And integrating ''v'' would yield the position vector, ''h'', for the projectile&lt;br&gt;<br /> :''h'' = -½ g t² ''k''&lt;br&gt;<br /> toward the sea level.<br /> <br /> '''Quaternionists'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Quaternion believers, same as Quaternioneers.<br /> <br /> '''Tasmania'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Tasmania is an island of the southern coast of Australia. Known for its relative isolation, it was a prison for English convicts in the 1800s<br /> <br /> '''Having been inseparable from the rise of the electromagnetic'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> In his 1865 work ''The Dynamical Theory of the Electromagnetic Field'', James Clerk Maxwell unified electricity and magnetism. He put forth twenty equations, with twenty unknowns, in vector form (though different in notation and form than the equations that now bear his name) that completely described all known electromagnetic phenomena. In his 1873 treatise on the subject, he expressed the equations in the mathematics of quaternions. It appears that the quaternion form of the equations remained popular even though, at the behest of his publisher, Maxwell reverted to the 1865 form in the second edition (1881)--though they remain scattered throughout. In 1892 Oliver Heaviside (On the Forces, Stresses, and Fluxes of Energy in the Electromagnetic Field. ''Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society of London.'' A, Vol. 183. pp423-480), while spewing scientific vitriol at the Quaternionists, reformulated Maxwell's original 1865 equations (Heaviside chose to remove the vector potential and scalar fields from the equations; the inclusion of these terms had served as Maxwell's justification for the use of quaternions), and provided the notation still in use today. See this [http://www.zpenergy.com/modules.php?name=Downloads&amp;d_op=getit&amp;lid=60 PDF] for the evolution of Maxwell's equations.<br /> <br /> '''Hamiltonian devotees'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> The Quaternion faction, after William Hamilton, who devised the scheme.<br /> <br /> '''Grand Hôtel de la Nouvelle Digue'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> There is a Hotel Digue in the Seychelles; this is a New Hotel Digue by Pynchon? <br /> <br /> Grand Hotel of New Dyke, may be a made up hotel name.<br /> <br /> '''anterooms of death'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> This metaphor is sometimes applied to concentration camps. Here the lyric &quot;feel like I'm fixin' to die&quot; seems more apposite.<br /> <br /> '''Belgian Art Nouveau'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Art Nouveau, 1890(or 80) to 1914, explores a new style in the visual arts and architecture that developed in Europe and North America at the end of the 19th century. At its height (~1907), Art Nouveau was a concerted attempt to create an international style based on decoration. It was developed by a brilliant and energetic generation of artists and desisgners, who sought to fashion an art form appropriate to the post-Industrial Revolution modern age.&lt;br&gt;<br /> Brussels was one of the Art Nouveau centers and represented different style from the others. The jewelers there, accepted as artists rahter than craftsmen, (together with those in Paris) defined Art Nouveau in jewelery and achieved the most renown. ([http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Art_Nouveau Art Nouveau]).<br /> <br /> ==Page 527==<br /> <br /> '''dossing'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> British slang for &quot;sleeping&quot;, &quot;staying overnight&quot;<br /> <br /> '''Russian nihilists'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> :The following four are local, Belgian, not Russian, nihilists !<br /> <br /> '''Eugénie'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Female. Possibly named for Empress Eugénie (1826-1920), consort of French Emperor Napoleon III. Ultimately for St. Eugenia, 3rd-century Roman martyr whose feast is celebrated on December 25.<br /> <br /> '''Fatou'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Female. A pseudonym? In view of the date of the action, certainly not named after [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fatou the mathematician Fatou] (1878-1929).<br /> <br /> '''Denis'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Male. Named for St. Denis or Dionysius, patron saint of Paris and of France, 3rd-century bishop of Paris, martyr, beheaded on the hill now called Montmartre. &quot;Montjoie St. Denis!&quot; was a warcry used by French troops in the Middle Ages. His intercession is effective against demonic possession and headache.<br /> <br /> '''Policarpe'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Male. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Polycarp Saint Polycarp] was a Christian bishop of Smyrna (now İzmir in Turkey) in the second century. He was stabbed and died a martyr after an attempt to burn him at the stake failed. His intercession is sought against earache and dysentery.<br /> <br /> '''Young Congo'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Probably in reference to the [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Young_Turks Young Turks], a Turkish revolutionary movement<br /> <br /> '''Garde Civique'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> A part of the Belgian army. According to the [http://www.1911encyclopedia.org/Belgium 1911 Britannica], &quot;the mass of the garde civique does not pretend to possess military value. It is a defence against sedition and socialism.&quot;<br /> <br /> '''French Second Bureau boys'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Deuxieme Bureau; French Intelligence.<br /> <br /> '''''phalange'''''&lt;br&gt;<br /> French: phalanx. A military (here mock-military) group ready for combat. &lt;br&gt;<br /> <br /> It also conjures up memories of the early 19th century utopian socialist <br /> Charles Fourier, who theorized that people should live communally in &quot;phalanxes&quot; of a specific number based upon their &quot;passions.&quot; His solid ideas included equality of the sexes, but he also taught wacky things such as the moon being made of lemonade. Of particular relevance is his rejection of industrial civilization. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Utopian_socialism]<br /> <br /> '''&quot;...until something had happened, something too terrible to remember...&quot;'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Again this theme of an unknowable past transgression, here invoked almost as if the unknown signifies the other 'lateral' (a word which has cropped up at least a dozen times already) 'vector'.<br /> <br /> '''the Digue'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> French for &quot;dyke&quot;<br /> <br /> '''Congo... Belgians'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> The Belgian colonisation of the Congo was, as Conrad's ''Heart of Darkness'' makes clear, notable for its greed and brutality.<br /> <br /> '''Leopold, King of the Belgians'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> 1835-1909, reigned 1865-1909. A man of almost Nixonian fiendishness. In the Congo he acted as sole proprietor and absolute ruler. The positive outcomes of his exploitation include ''Heart of Darkness'' and the phrase &quot;crime against humanity.&quot;<br /> <br /> '''co-conscious'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> mental processes outside the main stream of consciousness but sometimes available to it — from Merriam-Webster's Medical Dictionary.<br /> <br /> '''Force Publique'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Belgian armed forces operating in the Belgian Congo ([http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Force_Publique Wikipedia]). &quot;King Leopold's private army&quot; may be a more accurate description.<br /> <br /> '''rubber worker'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> See above: One of the early missions of the FP was to increase rubber export quotas through forced labor and related atrocities.<br /> <br /> ==Page 528==<br /> <br /> '''''khâgne'''''&lt;br&gt;<br /> an informal term used by French students for Classes Préparatoires Littéraires, the two-year cycle of classes taken after the Baccalaureat (taken at age 17-18), to prepare for the entrance examination to the Ecole Normale Supeieure. ([http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kh%C3%A2gne khâgne]).<br /> <br /> '''Reclus'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> J. J. Élisée Reclus (1830-1905), French geographer but mainly educated in Germany. Several times he was forced to leave France because of his political views; he traveled widely in Europe, the British Isles, the United States, and South America and for many years lived in Switzerland. He was professor of comparative geography at the University of Brussels from 1895 to 1905. He had quite an extensive connection with various socialist and anarchist circles (met Bakunin while in Florence).Once he was imprisoned in Versailles in 1871 for his part in the ''Paris Commune''. In 1882 he initiated the ''Anti-marriage movement'' while in Geneva. [[http://academic.reed.edu/formosa/texts/reclusbio.html Reclus]).<br /> <br /> '''Stirnerite'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Follower of Max Stirner, 19th century German philosopher and author of ''The Ego and Its Own,'' a work influential in anarchist thought. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Max_Stirner Wikipedia entry].<br /> <br /> ''Max Stirner'''s (1806-56) attacks on systematic philosophy, his denial of absulutes, and his rejection of abstract concepts of any kind often places him among the first philosophical nihilists. For Stirner, achieving individual freedom is the only law; and the state, which necvessarily imperils freedom, must be destroyed. Even beyond the oppression of the state, though, are the constraints imposed by others because their very existence is an obstable compromising individual freedom. Thus Stirner argues that existence is an endless &quot;war of each against all&quot; (1845). (taken from the paragraph about Max Stirner in [http://www.iep.utm.edu/n/nihilism.htm#H1 Nihilism])&lt;br&gt;<br /> Sourcing here? Much complexity in properly understanding Stirner, who has some Pynchon-like qualities, to say the least. From the Stanford Dictionary of Philosophy&lt;br&gt;<br /> His major work:<br /> The Ego and Its Own<br /> Much of Stirner's prose—which is crowded with aphorisms, italicisation, and hyperbole—appears calculated to disconcert. Most striking, perhaps, is the use of word play. Rather than reach a conclusion through the conventional use of argument, Stirner often approaches a claim that he wishes to endorse by exploiting words with related etymologies or formal similarities. For example, he associates words for property (such as ‘Eigentum’) with words connoting distinctive individual characteristics (such as ‘Eigenheit’) in order to promote the claim that property is expressive of selfhood. (Stirner's account of egoistic property—see below—gives this apparently orthodox Hegelian claim a distinctive twist.)<br /> <br /> This rejection of conventional forms of intellectual discussion is linked to Stirner's substantive views about language and rationality. His unusual style reflects a conviction that both language and rationality are human products which have come to constrain and oppress their creators. Stirner maintains that accepted meanings and traditional standards of argumentation are underpinned by a conception of truth as a privileged realm beyond individual control. As a result, individuals who accept this conception are abandoning a potential area of creative self-expression in favour of adopting a subordinate role as servants of truth. In stark contrast, Stirner insists that the only legitimate restriction on the form of our language, or on the structure of our arguments, is that they should serve our individual ends. It is the frequent failure of ordinary meanings and standard forms of argument to satisfy his interpretation of this criterion which underpins Stirner's remorselessly idiosyncratic style.<br /> <br /> The Ego and Its Own has an intelligible, but scarcely transparent, structure. It is organised around a tripartite account of human experience, initially introduced in a description of the stages of an individual life. The first stage in this developmental narrative is the realistic one of childhood, in which children are constrained by material and natural forces such as their parents. Liberation from these external constraints is achieved with what Stirner calls the self-discovery of mind, as children find the means to outwit those forces in their own determination and cunning. The idealistic stage of youth, however, contains new internal sources of constraint, as individuals once more become enslaved, this time to the spiritual forces of conscience and reason. Only with the adulthood of egoism do individuals escape both material (external) and spiritual (internal) constraints, learning to value their personal satisfaction above all other considerations.<br /> <br /> Stirner portrays this dialectic of individual growth as an analogue of historical development, and it is a tripartite account of the latter which structures the remainder of the book. Human history is reduced to successive epochs of realism (the ancient, or pre-Christian, world), idealism (the modern, or Christian, world), and egoism (the future world). <br /> <br /> What about these &quot;successive epochs&quot; in understanding ATD?<br /> <br /> Stirner's major work, The Ego and Its Own has been reissued in English a number of times in Pynchon's lifetime,from the 60s on. (Not that TRP could not have read it in German!)<br /> <br /> '''''Anarcho-individualiste'''''&lt;br&gt;<br /> i.e. he has doctrinal differernces with Stirnerism, strictly speaking; see P. 324, and &quot;Eigenheit&quot;.<br /> <br /> '''Leopold'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> See p. 527.<br /> <br /> '''going down lately'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Being assassinated.<br /> <br /> '''Sipido'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Jean-Baptiste Sipido (1884-1959), a Belgian socialist. Accusing the Prince of Wales of causing thousands of inocents were killed in the Boer War in South Africa, on April 5, 1900, Sipido leaped onto the foot board of the royal compartment right before the train left the North Railway Station (Gare du Nord), Brussel, and fired two (or one? as reported in ''The Manchester Guardian'', or four? as stated in the text here) shots through the window but missed everyone inside. He was arrested, tried and acquitted. The leader of the House of Commons called the acquittal a &quot;grave and most unfortunate miscarriage of justice.&quot; ([http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jean-Baptiste_Sipido Sipido]).<br /> <br /> '''Prince... of Wales'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> (Maud Gonne's husband claimed to have been involved in another such plot.)<br /> <br /> '''Hippodrome'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Hippodrome Wellington, a horse racing track in Ostend built in 1883. The facility hosts both harness and flat racing events. ([http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hippodrome_Wellington Hippodrome]).<br /> <br /> '''Royal Bathing Hut... twenty francs'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> A bathing machine ([http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bathing_machine bathing machine])? The King of Belgium certainly would not want to be seen in a swimsuit on a public beach... It seems unlikely, though, that such a royal bathing machine would be for hire.<br /> <br /> '''twenty francs'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> ???<br /> <br /> ==Page 529==<br /> <br /> '''picric family'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> The explosive picric acid (2,4,6-trinitrophenol) and its derivatives. For picric acid, Brugère's powder and Designolle's powder, [http://encyclopedia.jrank.org/PER_PIG/PICRIC_ACID_or_TRINITROPHENOL_C.html see this Britannica article.]<br /> <br /> '''Brugère's powder'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> See &quot;picric family&quot; above.<br /> <br /> '''Designolle's'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> See &quot;picric family&quot; above.<br /> <br /> '''Monsieur Santos-Dumont'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Alberto Santos-Dumont (1873-1932), a pioneer of aviation from Brasil. Check out [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alberto_Santos-Dumont Wikipedia] to get a look at the way he was wearing his &quot;trademark Panama hat&quot;. <br /> <br /> '''Green Hour''' and '''''l'heure vertigineuse'''''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Absinthe-drinking time. The liqueur is green. In French, ''l'heure verte,'' so ''vertigineuse'' (vertiginous, causing dizziness) is a pun on the word for &quot;green.&quot;<br /> <br /> '''Rocco and Pino'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Rabid Quaternionists and sudden friends of Kit Traverse.<br /> :No, they were not mathematicians at all, let alone Quaternionists, but two &quot;Italian naval renegades&quot; !!<br /> ::&quot;Rocco and Pino&quot; are, in temperament, something like the &quot;Mason and Dixon&quot; of manned-torpedoes... cf. the &quot;torpedo&quot; (i.e., &quot;Electrick-Eel&quot;) of ''Mason &amp; Dixon''.<br /> <br /> '''Whitehead works in Fiume'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Anticipating GR's V2 works.<br /> <br /> ''Robert Whitehead'' (1823-1905), an English engineer. He developed the first self-propelled torpedo in 1866. He attended Manchester's Mechanics Institute, worked in a shipyard in Toulon (1844), France, and as a consultant engineer in Milan (1847), Italy. Later he moved to Trieste and in 1856 became a manager of a company called ''Founderia Mettali'' (later, ''Stabilimento Tecnico di Fiume'') in Fiume producing ship steam boilers and engines which were the most advanced of that era. He also developed the first self-propelled torpedo which was very popular. Whitehead's torpedo was propelled by a compressed air engine, carried 18lbs dynamites and a self-regulating device which kept the torpedo cruising at a constant preset depth. [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Robert_Whitehead Whitehead]].<br /> <br /> ''Fiume'' is now Rijeka, Croatia. Trieste is on the northwestern edge of the Istra Peninsula, Rijeka is east of it. [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rijeka Fiume]].<br /> <br /> Interesting sidebar: Whitehead's fortune from Fiume and the torpedo went solely to his granddaughter Agatha Whitehead, who married Baron von Trapp. The Von Trapp money came from Robert Whitehead, and most of the von Trapp singers were his great-grandchildren.<br /> <br /> '''''Alberta'''''&lt;br&gt;<br /> The [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Royal_yacht Wikipedia] entry on royal yachts goes back to the 17th century but doesn't include ''Alberta.'' The craft does get a mention in [http://www.bouncing-balls.com/timeline/people/nr_leopoldmorel.htm this page on Leopold and the Congo.]<br /> <br /> '''Siluro Dirigibile a Lenta Corsa'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> or S.L.C. &quot;slow course torpedo&quot;, &quot;slow-running torpedo&quot;. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Manned_torpedo Wikipedia] Italy‘s Navy was among the first to experiment with manned torpedos. Though according to [http://web.ukonline.co.uk/chalcraft/sm/chariots.html this site] this did not happen until 1935, Italian frogmen as early as October 31, 1918 made it into the harbour of Pula with the help of a modified german torpedo and sank the former Austrian but by then since a few hours Croatian/Slovenian/Bosnian battleship SMS ''Viribus Unitis''. [http://www.geocities.com/tegetthoff66/viribus.html website]<br /> <br /> The Wikipedia entry linked above doesn't contain the Italian word ''dirigibile'' (steerable), which sets up the torpedo as a counterpart of the dirigible ''Inconvenience.''<br /> <br /> :I suspect there's a connection between the torpedo and &quot;Not the usual lateener, in fact appearing to have neither sails, masts, nor oars&quot; in Miles' reversed vision, [[ATD_243-272#Page_250|page 250.]] Needs work, though.<br /> <br /> ==Page 530==<br /> <br /> '''exfiltrate'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Make a surreptitious escape (as &quot;infiltrate&quot; means to make a surreptitious entrance).<br /> <br /> '''''Macchè'''''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Italian: certainly not, not a chance. And in Pynchon's Italian is used as an all-purpose exclamation.<br /> <br /> '''''Ehi, stu gazz', categoria'''''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Stu gazz' is a dialect representation of ''sto cazzo'', literally meaning ''this dick here''. Normally you could translate the sense of the sentence as: ''yeah, why not, a fucking category! ''. -- blicero2 - 2007.02.22<br /> <br /> '''''mezzogiornismo'''''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Denigrating the Italian South. Mezzogiorno means ''midday'' in Italian but refers generally to Southern Italy.<br /> <br /> ==Page 531==<br /> <br /> '''Bruges'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> An exceptionally beautiful Belgian town of canals which is thus one of several towns known as the 'Venice of the north'. In the 14th cettury Burges already became an international finanacial and trading center, but<br /> started to decline in the 15th century. In the 20th century, however, the city was discovered by the international tourism and the medieval heritage turned out to be a new source of wealth. A new harbor of Zeebrugge, 10 miles outside of Bruges at the North Sea coast, brought new developments and new industries to the region. For the city and its history see ([http://www.trabel.com/brugge.htm Bruges]).<br /> <br /> '''Raoul's Atelier de la Vitesse'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> French: Ralph's Speed Shop.<br /> <br /> '''Ghent'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Belgian city, less than 30 miles southeast of Bruges, on the rail line about halfway between Ostend and Brussels. It is the fourth largest city of Belgium. It is bigger than Bruges but not as famous as a tourist attraction. But the city is a showcase of medieval Flemish wealth and commercial success. See ([http://www.trabel.com/gent.htm Ghent]).<br /> <br /> '''Daimler six-cylinder'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> ???<br /> <br /> '''a hundred horsepower'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> ???<br /> <br /> '''''guaglion'''''&lt;br&gt;<br /> italian (dialectal) = boy, young person<br /> <br /> '''Umeki Tsurigane'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Umeki is typically made with some combination of the various kanji for &quot;plum&quot; (ume) and &quot;tree&quot; (ki), though one has the ki being the character for &quot;ghost/devil&quot; and one obscure reading that's entirely redundant, where ume is &quot;plant&quot; (usually read ue). There is one where ume is the kanji for &quot;buried or embedded&quot;. Tsurigane, means a &quot;temple bell&quot;, which can stand alone or be followed by the grass kanji to mean &quot;bellflower&quot; (lots of botanical stuff happening here, if that means anything; hardly the only example in ''AtD''). Given the search for Shambhala going on, &quot;Buried Temple Bell&quot; seems a likely translation, at least at this point; the botanical meanings could perhaps emerge later.<br /> <br /> Or, another terrible name-pun? &quot;You make [m]e sore again.&quot; See another on P. [[ATD_748-767#Page_757| 757]]<br /> <br /> '''Professor Knott'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Cargill Knott (1856-1922), professor of physics; seismologist. See his biography [http://www.penicuikcdt.org.uk/Cargill_Knott.html here].<br /> <br /> ==Page 532==<br /> <br /> '''Kimura'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Cf [[ATD_26-56#Page 29|page 29:Kimura]] and [[ATD_318-335#Page 318|page 318:Shunkichi Kimura]].<br /> <br /> '''drover's sombrero'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Cowboy hat.<br /> <br /> '''furoshiki'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Japanese all-purpose cloth. Can be worn, used as wrapping, or used as a bag.<br /> <br /> '''taupe'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> A brownish gray.<br /> <br /> '''boilermakers and their helpers'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> [[ATD_358-373#Page_360|See annotation to p. 360.]]<br /> <br /> '''Anharmonic Pencil'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> ''Pencil'' is a term commonly used in Synthetic Geometry. Straight lines incident with a plane - coplanar lines - and passing through a common point are said to be concurrent lines and the set of all such concurrent coplanar lines is called the ''pencil''. (Cf [[ATD_429-459#Page 456|page 456:Pencil]]). For a figure and a not quite precise definition see [http://mathworld.wolfram.com/Pencil.html pencil]. If a, b, c and d, are four distinct coplanar lines and their double ratio λ = (abcd) = -1, then a, b, c, d are called a harmonic quadruple of lines; they are said to constitute a ''harmonic pencil''. A ''pencil'' which is not harmonic then is known as ''anharmonic pencil''. See Pencil (lines 8-9), Double Ratio λ (lines 32-35) and Harmonic Pencil (line 39) of [http://ca.geocities.com/ingsaler6/mathworld.html Mathworld].<br /> <br /> '''''Comptes rendus'''''&lt;br&gt;<br /> ''Comptes rendus des séances hebdomadaires,'' Proceedings of the weekly sessions (of the Academy of Sciences), published from 1835, later (ca. 1935) retitled ''Comptes rendus de l'Académie des sciences,'' Proceedings of the Academy of Sciences. (Notice that the academy didn't see the need to specify &quot;French.&quot; Take that, Royal Society of London!) For about a century, one of two journals so universally circulated and recognized that bibliographies nearly always cited them in nickname form: ''C.R.'' The other was ''Ber.,'' short for ''Berichte der Deutschen Chemischen Gesellschaft,'' Reports of the German Chemical Society (from 1868).<br /> <br /> '''De Forest'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Cf [[ATD_26-56#Page 29|page 29:De Forest]].<br /> <br /> '''Gibbs'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Cf [[ATD_26-56#Page 29|page 29:Professor Gibbs]].<br /> <br /> '''Maxwell Equations'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Cf [[ATD_57-80#Page 58|page 58:Maxwell Field Equations]].<br /> <br /> ==Page 533==<br /> <br /> '''aniline teal'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> The wallpaper dye; aniline dyes were the first synthetic dyes, discovered by [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/William_Perkin William Perkin] in 1858. Their intense and fade-resistant colors were very fashionable at the end of the nineteenth century. The dyes are also significant in ''GR'' as the products of I.G. Farben.<br /> <br /> '''Heavisiders'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Oliver Heaviside (May 18, 1850 – February 3, 1925) was a self-taught English electrical engineer, mathematician and physicist who adapted complex numbers to the study of electrical circuits, developed techniques for applying Laplace transforms to the solution of differential equations, reformulated Maxwell's field equations in terms of electric and magnetic forces and energy flux, and independently co-formulated vector analysis. Although at odds with the scientific establishment for most of his life, Heaviside changed the face of mathematics and science for years to come.[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Heaviside].<br /> <br /> '''Grassmanniacs'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Nineteenth century German mathematician and linguist, essentially the inventor/discoverer of vector space. Grassmann showed that once geometry is put into the algebraic form he advocated, then the number three has no privileged role as the number of spatial dimensions; the number of possible dimensions is in fact unbounded.[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hermann_Grassmann].<br /> <br /> '''in the mood for a clambake'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Anachronistic Broadway show tune? If so, the clambake in ''Carousel'' turns into a brawl; the assmebled factions of mathematicians could be in the mood for either a party or a brawl, apparently. <br /> <br /> '''Monopole de la Maison'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Monopole of the House, a fanciful name of a fanciful drink.&lt;br&gt;<br /> There is, since 1898, a well known restaurant called ''Monopole Lunch &amp; Sea Grill'' in Plattsburgh of upper New York state. ([http://www.monopole.org Monopole Restaurant]).&lt;br&gt;<br /> Most probably, it's the Magnetic monopole being referred here. In physics, a monopole is a magnet with a net magnetic charge, i.e. there is only one pole instead of two (so no net magnetic charge) as usual. ([http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Magnetic_monopole Monopole]). It's existence had been theoretically predicted by various particle theories (superstring theory, etc) but never been proved experimentally. Proving the existence of a monopole would certainly earn a Nobel Prize.<br /> <br /> '''Idiom Neutral'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> An invented language, like Esperanto. Idiom Neutral dictionaries first appeared in 1902. It looks like a simplified Latinate language and it grew out of Volapuk, another &quot;auxiliary language.&quot; It was abandoned by the ''Akademi Internasional de Lingu Universal'' in 1908.<br /> <br /> For a list of all the invented languages that linguists are keeping track of, including Klingon, try [http://linguistlist.org/forms/langs/GetListOfConstructedLgs.html Eastern Michigan's Linguist List]. And don't forget to click on the link to &quot;Browse sites devoted to constructed languages.&quot;<br /> <br /> '''phatic'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Basically, small talk or chatter. Words used to convey fellow-feeling rather than to impart information.<br /> <br /> '''''Kampf ums Dasein'''''&lt;br&gt;<br /> German: struggle for existence.<br /> <br /> '''Q-brother'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Fellow Quaternioneer or Fellow Quaternionist.<br /> <br /> '''We are the Jews of mathematics, wandering out here in our diaspora--some destined for the past, others the future, even a few able to set out at unknown angles from the simple line of Time, upon journeys that no one can predict''' &lt;br&gt;<br /> In keeping with the analogy of Judaism, those &quot;few&quot; people within the Quaternionists &quot;able to set out at unknown angles&quot; are most likely being compared to Kabbalists who claim to partake in a mystic &quot;journey to the Throne of God through the mythological realm of the seven heavens&quot; (Armstrong, A History of God--p. 247). Throne Mysticism in Kabbalah is explored extensively in Gravity's Rainbow.<br /> <br /> Perhaps this is obvious to some, but these &quot;Jews of Mathematics&quot; worship the Hamiltonian Tetractys [http://www.math.ucr.edu/home/baez/dublin/]; those other Jews worshipped the Tetragrammatron. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tetragrammaton] The proliferation of 4s continues.<br /> <br /> ==Page 534==<br /> <br /> '''Poiret gown'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> A gown designed by Paul Poiret (1879-1944), a French fashion designer based in Paris. &quot;In the annals of fashion history, Paul Poiret is best remembered for freeing women from corsets and further liberating them through pantaloons . . . it was Poiret's remarkable innovations in the cut and construction of cloting . . . Working with fabric directly onto the body, Poiret helped to pioneer a radical approach to dressmakeing that relied more on the skills of drapery than on those of tailoring.&quot; (from [http://www.metmuseum.org/special/se_event.asp?OccurrenceId={0DC3D00F-4611-4F91-8DC2-CC3C1A5C48D5} MetMuseum], <br /> New York Metropolitan Museum's Special Exhibitions, ''Poiret: King of Fashion'', May 9, 2007 to August 5, 2007). For a picture of Poiret gown see [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Image:Poiretgown.jpg Poiret Gown]. ''The New York Times'' reported on February 1, 2007 that A Poiret Gown Brings $5,500 at [http://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html?res=9B07EFDA1538F93AA15756C0A967948260 Christie's Auction] - the gown was made in 1913 when Poiret was at the height of his career. For his bio see [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Paul_Poiret Poiret].<br /> <br /> '''''green and long'''''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Pickle, or... what?<br /> : A green and long ''gherkin'' (a small, immature fruit of a variety of cucumber used in pickling).<br /> <br /> ==Page 535==<br /> <br /> '''no-name wine'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> 1970s idiom for common European practice?<br /> <br /> '''set theory'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Set theory deals with the properties of well-defined collections, or ''sets'', of entities - the ''elements'' or ''members'' of the set - conceived as a whole. The elements may be of a mathematical nature or non-mathematical. The set theory grew out of the German mathematician Georg Cantor's (1845-1918) study of infinite sets of real numbers. <br /> <br /> The ''language of sets'' has become an important tool for all branches of mathematics, but is of very little relevance to the practice of mathematics in everyday life. As a source of metaphors, however, it's been quite productive; &quot;subset,&quot; &quot;superset,&quot; &quot;universe,&quot; &quot;intersection&quot; and &quot;Venn diagram&quot; have found varying degrees of acceptance. Recasting Aristotle's syllogisms in set-theoretic language also makes them easier for many people to understand.<br /> <br /> '''Hamilton . . . early genius'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Hamilton, according to ''Chambers Biographical Dictionary'', &quot;at fifteen knew thirteen languages, had read Newton's ''Principia'', and commenced original investigations&quot;. At twenty-two, &quot;while still an undergraduate, he was appointed professor of Astronomy at Dublin and Irish Astronomer-Royal&quot;; at thirty &quot;he was knighted&quot;.<br /> <br /> '''Hamilton . . . in the grip of a first love'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> ???&lt;br&gt;<br /> Pynchon probably didn't mean Quaternion was Hamilton's first love, but its effect on him was similar to that of a first love. In 1843 at the age of 38 Hamilton invented the Quaternion, the first non-communtative algebra to be studied. He felt this would revolutionise mathematical physics, and he spent the rest of his life working on it. In 1853 he published a large volume, ''Lectures on Quaternions'', on his grand invention. The last seven years of his life, Hamilton was writing an 800-page book ''Elements of Quaternions'' modeling on Euclid's ''Elements''. The last chapter of the book was completed by his son after his death.<br /> <br /> '''the Walt Whitman of English physics'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Whitman pops up again, last seen on [[ATD_489-524#Page_491|page 491]].<br /> <br /> ==Page 536==<br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> '''Oscar Wilde'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Note that Wilde's Dorian Gray also undergoes a kind of bilocation.<br /> <br /> '''Kursaal'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Spa. Casino ?<br /> <br /> '''vectors'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> For serious minds see Cf [[ATD_525-556#Page 526|page 526:Gibbsian Vectors]], but let's follow Pynchon's lighter mood, here is a non-mathematical definition by Kamen (1995):<br /> :''Many things have more than direction;''<br /> :''The magnitude is also a question.''<br /> :''With acceleration or force,''<br /> :''And many more things, of course,''<br /> :''It's vectors that make the connection.''<br /> <br /> '''Curls'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Cf [[ATD_318-335#Page 326|page 326:Curl]]: curl is a vector operator that shows a vector field's rate of rotation.<br /> <br /> '''Laplacians'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Pierre-Simon, Marquis de Laplace (March 23, 1749 – March 5, 1827); French mathematician and astronomer who summarized and extended the work of his predecessors in his five volume Mécanique Céleste (Celestial Mechanics) (1799-1825), translating the geometrical study of mechanics used by Isaac Newton to one based on calculus, known as physical mechanics.<br /> <br /> He is also the discoverer of Laplace's equation. Although the Laplace transform is named in honor of Laplace, who used the transform in his work on probability theory, the transform was discovered originally by Leonhard Euler. The Laplace transform appears in all branches of mathematical physics — a field he took a leading role in forming. The Laplacian differential operator, much relied-upon in applied mathematics, is likewise named after him. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Laplace].<br /> <br /> :Cf [[ATD_318-335#Page 326|page 326:Laplacian]]: Laplacian is a differential operator named after Laplace. The text here was talking about mathematical operations and operators — rates of change, rotations, partial differentials, Curls, ''Laplacians'', . . .<br /> <br /> '''scream'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Scream motif.<br /> <br /> '''beginning to appal'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> By 1905 there had been years of outrage at conditions in the Belgian Congo, King Leopold's private fief. Conrad's ''Heart of Darkness'' had been published as a serial in Blackwood's Magazine in 1899 and as a book in 1902. There were missionaries' accounts of the brutality, and newspaper reports. Leopold and his apologists published rebuttals. The Norton Critical Edition of ''Heart of Darkness'' contains an extensive collection of both.<br /> <br /> '''baize'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Baize is a coarse woolen felt.<br /> <br /> ==Page 537==<br /> <br /> '''broken symmetries'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Broken_symmetry Broken symmetry] is a concept used widely in mathematics and physics. For a simplest explanation (good enough for the text here), this term means that an object breaks either rotational symmetry or translational sysmetry - when one can only rotate an object in certain angles or when one is able to tell if the object has been shifted sideways. For a little bit more detailed explanation see [http://www.lassp.cornell.edu/sethna/OrderParameters/BrokenSymmetry.html Identify the Broken Symmetry]; or even more [http://scienceweek.com/2005/sw050708-6.htm On Broken Symmetry].<br /> <br /> '''''sphinxe Khnopffienne'''''&lt;br&gt;<br /> refers to the Belgian symbolist painter Fernand Khnopff (1858-1921), famous for his painting &quot;The Caress&quot;, in which a female sphinx erotically lures a young man. The painting can be seen in the [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fernand_Khnopff wikipedia entry]<br /> <br /> '''Pléiade Lafrisée'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> in French, &quot;friser&quot; means to curl or twist. &quot;La frisée&quot; could mean &quot;curled,&quot; by extension &quot;twisted.&quot; The Pleiades is a cluster of hundreds of stars, though only a few are visible, sometimes referred to as The Seven Sisters. If Pleiades are Sisters, Pléiade is ''one'' Sister, so her name means Twisted Sister!<br /> <br /> '''''Conseilleuse'''''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Female consultant?<br /> <br /> ==Page 538==<br /> <br /> '''retroversion matrix'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> ???<br /> <br /> '''''Ma foi'''''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Literally &quot;My faith&quot;, i.e. &quot;By my faith!&quot;, a mild exclamation of incredulity.<br /> <br /> '''ten thousand francs'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> <br /> Based on currency conversions relative to gold, this is equivalent to<br /> about $30,000 US today.<br /> <br /> '''piker'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Someone cheap or cautious, possibly named after people from PIke County, Missouri, who came to California in the 1800s, looking for work. They were poor, hence cheap.<br /> <br /> '''what is a Quaternino?'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Cf [[ATD_525-556#Page 525|page 525:Quaternions]] for a mathematical definition. From ''The Random House Dictionary of the English Languages'', The Unabridged Edition (1966): Quaternion is &quot;a quantity or operator expressed as the sum of a real number and three complex numbers, equivalent to the ''quotient of two vectors''. The field of quaternions is not commutative under multiplication.&quot;.<br /> <br /> '''Bertie ('Mad Dog') Russell'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> 'Mad Dog' seems to be used with heavy irony here. Bertrand Russell was known most for his rationalism, so to speak, his work in modern logic. <br /> He did little in his public roles (at this time in AtD) that would have <br /> him referred to as &quot;crazy', as we say, beyond the social norm, &quot;mad&quot;. <br /> It might be argued that his use of 'logic' against philosophers such as Hegel and McTaggart within ''Against the Day'' showed up their 'madness'.<br /> (Many did think McTaggart was a bit...different...for seriously not believing in Time.) McTaggart broke with Russell after an early influential friendship---Russell was the younger man and the influenced one. He said he was an Hegelian because of McTaggart--Russell wrote in his<br /> Autobiography that McTaggart said he no longer wanted to meet/talk with him bcause he could no longer stand Russell's opinions.<br /> <br /> [http://nobelprize.org/nobel_prizes/literature/laureates/1950/russell-bio.html Bertrand Russell] (1872-1970) was a British mathematician, philosopher, logician and social critic. Best known for his work in mathermatical logic and analytic philosophy. In late spring of 1901 he discovered the so-called [http://plato.stanford.edu/entries/russell-paradox/ Russell Paradox], &quot;the most famous of the logical or set-theoretical paradoxes. The paradox arises within naive set theory by considering the set of all sets that are not members of themselves. Such a set appears to be a member of itself if and only if it is not a member of itself, hence the paradox.&quot; (On-line Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy). He won the 1950 Nobel Prize in Literature in &quot;recognition of his varied and significant writings in which he champions humanitarian ideals and freedom of thought&quot;.<br /> <br /> '''Barry Nebulay'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> nebulae: formed from the diffusion of gas in galaxies or as exploded stars (or the last ember-like stage of a star)&lt;br&gt; <br /> Most nebulae can be described as diffuse nebulae, which means that they are extended and contain no well-defined boundaries.[1] In visible light these nebulae may be divided into emission nebulae and reflection nebulae, a categorization that depends on how the light we see is created.<br /> <br /> '''Hegel... puns'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Probably refers to the fact that quite a lot of Hegel's philosophy deals with the is-ness of the world as we know and experience it.<br /> <br /> On page 787 of Bertrand Russell's ''History of Western Philosophy'' is a summary, perhaps, of this remark about Hegel's puns: &quot;as a result of analysis of the concept &quot;existence&quot;, modern logic has proved this [Cartesianism, refuted by Kant, reinstated by Hegel] argument invalid.....&quot;<br /> <br /> We know from other places that TRP himself seems to 'not like' Cartesianism. See 'cartesian' citations within this wiki.<br /> <br /> ==Page 539==<br /> <br /> '''a vector quotient'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> The result of one vector divided by another. According to the English dictionary definition of previous page this is just a Quaternion.<br /> <br /> '''unit vector'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Unit vector is a vector with magnitude of one. The unit vectors in 3-dimensional space, ''i, j, k'', associated with ''x, y, z'' directions are used in defining a general 3D vector (Cf [[ATD_525-556#Page 526|page 526:Gibbsian Vectors]]).<br /> <br /> '''''square root of minus one'''''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Imaginary number (Cf [[ATD_119-148#Page 132|page 133:Imaginary Number]]). The imaginary numbers ''i, j, k'' are used in defining a Quaternion (Cf [[ATD_525-556#Page 525|page 525:Quaternions]]).<br /> <br /> ''''Triangle Asana''''&lt;br&gt;<br /> A basic yoga pose. <br /> <br /> [http://yoga.org.nz/postures/yoga_positions_images_page.htm Here are images of several basic poses.]<br /> <br /> ''''Dr Rao abruptly vanished''''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Might be a reference to [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Martin_Gardner Martin Gardner]'s<br /> [http://www.amazon.com/No-Sided-Professor-Fantasy-Mystery-Philosophy/dp/0879753900 &quot;No-Sided Professor&quot;]<br /> <br /> ''''Quadrantal Versor Asana''''&lt;br&gt;<br /> A triangle pose taken that extra dimension.<br /> <br /> '''''&quot;Uwe moer!&quot;'''''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Looks a lot like the Dutch &quot;Uw moeder!&quot; - a cry of astonishment (&quot;Your mother!&quot;), the equivalent to the black English &quot;yo mama&quot;.<br /> <br /> '''noncommutative'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> A term typical to mathematics. A commutative equation is one that can operate in exact reverse and still yield the same results. 'Noncommutative' then suggests unidirectionality. The ability to go from point A to point B, but not from B to A.<br /> <br /> '''reticule'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> A woman's drawstring handbag; usually made of net or beading or brocade; also: A system of lines forming a pattern of squares at the focal plane of a telescope, used in micrometers.<br /> [http://www.astunit.com/tutorials/glossary.htm] <br /> :Isn't that sort of a red herring? &quot;[P]roducing from her reticule a . . . watch&quot; doesn't really allow of that second meaning. &lt;br&gt;<br /> :It could be a pun, since a reticule/ handbag always shows its pattern of lines, and a watch (timepiece) is drawn from it. Remember that, e.g. railroad lines of tracks, are a sign of industrialism encroaching on the natural and the spiritual.<br /> <br /> '''Vacheron &amp; Constantin watch'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Made by a Swiss company founded in 1755. From 1819 to 1970 the name was as in the text, then the &amp; dropped out. See the [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vacheron_Constantin Wikipedia entry.]<br /> <br /> '''hunting-case'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> For a pocket watch, a case with a hinged metal cover. More often called &quot;hunter case&quot; (and such a watch a &quot;hunter&quot;).<br /> <br /> ==Page 540==<br /> <br /> '''&quot;haar rekening, ja?&quot;'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> The bill, yes? (Dutch)?<br /> <br /> ''Her'' bill, yes? I.e., give the check to the lady.<br /> <br /> Given the presence of Chris 'Kit' Traverse here, this very much suggests a reference to Christopher 'Kit' Marlowe, Elizabethan poet, playwright and contemporary of Shakespeare. Marlowe was stabbed to death in 1593, in murky circumstances, ostensibly over a bill or 'reckoning', though he was widely believed to have been involved in some form of espionage.<br /> <br /> Strictly speaking &quot;haar rekening&quot; means that the lady pays for herself only. If Root wanted to make sure that Pléiade pays for the whole company he would have to say &quot;de hele rekening voor de dame&quot;. <br /> <br /> '''Piet Woevre'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> The Woëvre is a natural region of Lorraine in north-east France. It forms part of Lorraine plateau and lies largely in the department of Meuse. During World War I, there was much fighting there due to vast mineral resources that had been discovered in the Briey basin or Eastern Woevre at the end of the 19th century. &quot;Piet&quot; is Dutch for &quot;rock&quot; or &quot;stone&quot; and is a fairly common Dutch name, the English equivalent being Peter.<br /> <br /> If the surname is pronounced as in Dutch, Woevre is another Pynchon villain with a &quot;V&quot;-name (Vond, Weissman, Vibe). <br /> <br /> '''Force Publique'''&lt;br /&gt;<br /> The Force Publique (FP) was the official armed force for what is now the Democratic Republic of the Congo from 1885, (when the territory was known as the Congo Free State), through the period of direct Belgian rule (1908-60), until the beginning of the Second Republic in 1965. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Force_Publique Wikipedia entry]<br /> <br /> '''made him reach'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Possible allusion to a famous line, &quot;When I hear the word culture I reach for my gun.&quot; From Hanns Johst's biographical play ''Schlageter''. The original line is slightly different: &quot;Wenn ich Kultur höre ... entsichere ich meinen Browning,&quot; &quot;Whenever I hear of culture... I release the safety-catch of my Browning!&quot; (Act 1, Scene 1). It is spoken by another character in conversation with the young Schlageter. In the scene Schlageter and his wartime comrade Friedrich Thiemann are studying for a college examination, but then start disputing whether it's worthwhile doing so when the nation is not free. <br /> <br /> The line is often misattributed to better-known Nazis and others [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hanns_Johst].<br /> <br /> *In Jean-Luc Godard's 1963 film [http://www.chicagoreader.com/movies/archives/0997/09057.html ''Le Mépris'' (''Contempt'')], Jack Palance's character &quot;Jeremy Prokosch,&quot; an American movie-producer, intones to Fritz Lang: &quot;Whenever I hear the word culture, I reach for my checkbook.&quot;<br /> <br /> '''not unambiguous'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Ie, ambiguous.<br /> <br /> '''''rastaquoueres'''''&lt;br&gt;<br /> 8???<br /> <br /> '''de Decker'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> In Dutch/Flemish, the name means &quot;roofer.&quot; (''De'' in these names almost never means &quot;of, from&quot; as in French; it's nearly always the definite article.)<br /> <br /> ==Page 541==<br /> <br /> '''''bobbejaan'''''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Afrikaans: baboon. (Afrikaans is the language spoken by descendants of Dutch colonists in present-day South Africa. Some items identified as Dutch or Flemish in this wiki may really be Afrikaans.)<br /> <br /> The South African song &quot;Bobbejaan klim die berg&quot; (&quot;Bobbejaan climbed the hill&quot;) is the source of the stage name of Belgium's most famous country and western musician, Bobbejaan Schoepen (b. 1925). In 1943 he was suppressed by the Nazis after performing a South African song, &quot;Mamma, 'k wil 'n man hê&quot; (&quot;Mama, I want a man&quot;), which contains the line &quot;No, Mama, I don't want a German, because I don't like pork.&quot; He founded the Bobbejaanland theme park in Belgium, where he still lives.<br /> <br /> '''MKIV/ODC... Mark Four'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> This would be the Mark IV Ohmic Drift Compensator ([[ATD 557-587#Page 565|Page 565]]), a key component of the Q-weapon, which &quot;regulates how much light is allowed to enter the silvering of the mirror! Special kind of refraction! Calibrated against imaginary index! Dangerous! Of the essence!'&quot;<br /> <br /> '''not part of your remit'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Not included in your job description, instructions, authorization. &quot;Remit&quot; (noun) is usually a British usage.<br /> <br /> '''''gatkruiper'''''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Dutch/Flemish: brownnose, ass-kisser.<br /> <br /> '''one on her wrist'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> All the bruises reflect some refinement or artistry except this one, which may have been inflicted crudely.<br /> <br /> '''over the day'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Title motif?<br /> <br /> ==Page 542==<br /> <br /> '''trans-horizontic'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Across the horizon -- &quot; a screaming comes across the sky&quot;<br /> <br /> '''Edmund Whittaker'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Edmund Whittaker (1873-1956), an English mathematician. He is best known for his work in numerical analysis. And he contributed widely to applied mathematics, mathematical physics and the theory of special functions. He also worked on celestial mechanics and the history of applied mathermatics and physics. ([http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/E._T._Whittaker Whittaker]).<br /> <br /> The Sir Edmund Whittaker Memorial Prize is awarded every four years by the Edinburgh Mathematical Society to an outstanding young mathematician having a specified connection with Scotland [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sir_Edmund_Whittaker_Memorial_Prize]. <br /> <br /> '''louche'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> The cloudy effect caused by the addition of water to absinthe. Dictionary definition: &quot;of questionable taste or morality; decadent.&quot;<br /> <br /> '''cheval-glass'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Standing mirror in a freestanding vertical frame.<br /> <br /> '''as if someone'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Sound-cancelling vs opacity-cancelling?<br /> <br /> ==Page 543==<br /> <br /> '''wraith of Pleiade Lafrisee'''<br /> <br /> Pleiade manifests one of her not-visible stars. Perhaps this sister has somehow twisted herself on an imaginary axis ala Dr. V. Ganesh Rao.<br /> <br /> '''monitory'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Warning, giving advice, by extension ominous or menacing.<br /> <br /> '''Against....the day....'''<br /> Note: this phrase happens at the exact halfway point of the novel: p.542.3<br /> <br /> '''He Who Must Come'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> The evil-doer who must come might be Adolf Hitler. It would make sense. The implication being that Europe is precipitating into a no-return situation. Capitalism cannot but end in WW2.&lt;br&gt;<br /> Ah, a lot more and less than capitalism going on here, especially if anyone specific like Hitler is meant. <br /> :When French writers use this phrase (''celui qui doit venir'') they '''do''' mean the Messiah . . . although a few devout quibblers point out that the Messiah has already come. It's rather tiresome Googling the phrase; the first 83 hits definitely refer to Christ and most of them quote the first verses of Matthew 11. But there's also a Camus reference (in English, I think) down at No. 90, if anyone has a JSTOR account:<br /> :links.jstor.org/sici?sici=0361-1299(1985)39%3A4%3C251%3ACFS%22M%3E2.0.CO%3B2-X <br /> <br /> Recalls Yeats' 'The Second Coming' once again: &quot;And what rough beast, its hour come round at last, Slouches towards Bethlehem to be born?&quot; [http://chumpsofchoice.blogspot.com/2007/05/casino-royale-in-flanders-field.html#c3637134446204467798 ]<br /> <br /> '''General Boulanger'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/General_Boulanger Georges Boulanger], French military man, and War Minister in the late 19th century. He was one of those men &quot;on a white horse&quot; that some conservatives looked to, as he urged an attack on Germany and the end of the French Republic with a return to monarchy. He was also notorious for his harsh reprisals against workers' demonstrations. &quot;'Boulangisme'&quot; threatened a coup in 1889, but the general's procrastination brought the crisis to an end.&lt;br&gt;<br /> In ''The Infernal Machine: A History of Terrorism''<br /> by Matthew Carr, 2007, Boulanger is called the &quot;father&quot; of fascism.<br /> <br /> '''what death and what transfiguration'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Allusion to Richard Strauss' tone poem &quot;Death and Transfiguration&quot; (''Tod und Verklärung''), premiered in 1890.<br /> <br /> '''''&quot;Zeker&quot;'''''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Dutch: certainly.<br /> <br /> '''''dead cert'''''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Dead certainty, sure thing.<br /> <br /> '''Von Schlieffen'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Alfred von Schlieffen was the author of a German war plan to win a two-front war against both France and Russia by quickly defeating France before Russian troops could be mobilized. The [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Schlieffen_Plan Schlieffen Plan] included an attack on France through Belgium, disregarding its neutrality.<br /> <br /> '''Wilhelm has offered Leopold part of France, the ancient Duchy of Burgundy'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> [http://www.crwflags.com/fotw/flags/fr-bg.html History of the duchy.] [http://www.freiburg-madison.de/freiburg_history/1386-1517_The%20Early%20Habsburgs.htm Map,] with portrait of Duke Charles the Rash.<br /> <br /> '''lowlands'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Title of Pynchon's first published story. Here, ass?<br /> <br /> ==Page 544==<br /> <br /> '''Place d'Armes'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Main square of Ostend; literally &quot;drill field&quot;.<br /> <br /> '''peau de soie'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> &quot;Skin of silk&quot; A heavy, smooth satin with very fine ribbing; somewhat dull in sheen compared with traditional silk finishes.<br /> <br /> '''Krafft-Ebing'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Richard Freiherr von Krafft-Ebing, Austro-German psychiatrist and author of ''Psychopathia Sexualis'' (1886), a pioneering study of deviant sexual behavior and fetishism. Coined both ''sadism'' and ''masochism'' as terms for these respective behaviors. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Richard_Freiherr_von_Krafft-Ebing Wikipedia entry].<br /> <br /> '''toque'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Toque here refers to a lady's hat, originally of fur but here in velvet, which is rather like a flattened chef's hat in shape.<br /> <br /> Proust: in ''À l'ombre des jeunes filles en fleurs'' the narrator first sees Albertine wearing a toque. There seem to be quite a few Proust themes and references running throughout the novel. Indeed '''Pliade''' is the French publisher of Proust's works. <br /> <br /> '''guipure'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Lace trim.<br /> <br /> '''midinette'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> A shopgirl or dressmakers apprentice. A milliner.<br /> <br /> '''Lambic'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> A distinctive Belgian style of beer. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lambic Wikipedia]<br /> <br /> '''sous'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> <br /> Coins. Originally Roman gold coins, latterly any kind of coin.<br /> <br /> Specifically small change. She is affecting modesty by claiming that a hat like hers can be had for pennies in any unpretentious shop. In France &quot;sou is used as slang for money, as in ''sans le sou''. 'I'm broke', 'without money'. It is also a slang term for the Canadian cent (standard French, cent).&quot; ([http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sou Wikipedia])<br /> <br /> '''mayonnaise'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Brautigan's &quot;Trout Fishing in America&quot; famously ends with the word mayonnaise. [http://books.google.com/books?vid=ISBN0395500761&amp;id=rbEjDovfyNMC&amp;pg=RA2-PA111&amp;lpg=RA2-PA111&amp;ots=ELKl5b_6Tx&amp;dq=mayonnaise+trout.fishing&amp;num=100&amp;sig=BiyXRqJXRGrMWbrBNgn8de2kpCo#PRA2-PA112,M1 GoogleBooks]<br /> <br /> '''ovoöleaginous'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Another Pynchonic word combination, here denoting the two main ingredients of mayonnaise: 1) eggs, and 2) oil. It's not &quot;fecoventilatory collision&quot; as seen in &quot;Vineland,&quot; but it's nice.<br /> <br /> '''Grenache'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Grape commonly used in Rhone Valley wines e.g. Chateauneuf du Pape.<br /> <br /> '''Chantilly'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> <br /> Region north of Paris.<br /> <br /> Here the reference is to crème chantilly otherwise known as whipped cream. Chantilly mayonnaise is made by incorporating the beaten egg whites for extra lightness.<br /> <br /> '''attainder'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Legislative act declaring that a person is guilty of a crime and setting punishment without the benefit of a formal trial. The Constitution forbids the federal government (Article I, Section 9, clause 3) and the state governments (Article I, Section 10, clause 1) from passing bills of attainder.<br /> [www.historycentral.com/Civics/B.html] <br /> <br /> ''''''Aux armes, citoyens''''''&lt;br&gt;<br /> ''To arms, citizens'', from the French national anthem, ''La Marseillaise'' (1792). Kit confused La Mayonnaise with La Marseillaise.&lt;br&gt;<br /> Not &quot;Le Marseillaise,&quot; you nitwit!<br /> <br /> '''Louis XV'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> King of France 1715-1774 [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Louis_XV]. <br /> <br /> '''Cléo de Mérode'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Glamorous French ballerina (1875-1966), later Follies Bergere dancer and famous beauty. Her reputed intimacy with King Leopold was only a rumor [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cleo_de_Merode]. The character Madame Leonora Armfeldt in Stephen Sondheim's ''A Little Night Music'' has some features in common with her.<br /> <br /> '''Marquise de Pompadour'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Mistress of Louis XV,once friend of Voltaire and a power behind official scenes.[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Madame_de_Pompadour].<br /> <br /> ==Page 545==<br /> <br /> '''duc de Richelieu'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Duc de Richelieu (1696-1788), marshal of France, was a grandnephew of Cardinal Richelieu, and born in Paris. Apart from his reputation as a man of exceptionally loose morals, he attained, in spite of a defective education, distinction as a diplomatist and general. ([http://www.1911encyclopedia.org/Louis_Francois_Armand_du_Plessis,_duc_de_Richelieu duc de Richelieu] and cf [[ATD_489-524#Page 490|page 490:duc de Richelieu]])<br /> <br /> '''dubious 'victory' in 1756'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> As part of the Seven Years' War (1756-1763), duc de Richelieu (1696-1788), a Marshal of France, won a victory in the Battle of Minorca (May 20, 1756) over John Byng (1704-1757), a British Admiral. In spring of 1756 John Byng was sent with a small and undermanned fleet to relieve the British ''Port Mahon'' on the Mediterranean island of Minorca. During the battle ensued, several British ships were badly damaged by the French squadron while others, including Byng's flagship, were still out of effective firing range. Instead of engaging the enemy directly, Byng decided to keep the formation, allowing the French fleet to get away undamaged. ([http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_Minorca Battle of Minorca]).<br /> <br /> '''the ill-fated Admiral Byng'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> John Byng, convicted by court-martial of failure &quot;to do his utmost&quot; in the battle, shot in 1757. Remembered because of (1) his being the last officer of flag rank to be put to death for conduct in battle and (2) Voltaire's gag in ''Candide:'' &quot;In this country it is good to kill an admiral from time to time in order to encourage the others.&quot;<br /> <br /> '''cantharides'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> &quot;Spanish fly,&quot; contact irritant sometimes ill-advisedly used as aphrodisiac.<br /> <br /> '''Sadean'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Pertaining to the Marquis de Sade. The acts the chef performs on the egg and oil have the same names as acts of Sadean sex. <br /> <br /> '''''n'est-ce pas?'''''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Right? (Isn't that so?)<br /> <br /> '''vetiver'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> A grass (Vetiveria zizanioides) of tropical India, cultivated for its aromatic roots that yield an oil used in perfumery.<br /> [www.answers.com/topic/vetiver]. So, a perfume with, llterallly, roots in India.<br /> <br /> Vetiver makes frequent appearances throughout ''À la recherche du temps perdu.''<br /> <br /> '''pip'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> A beaut; in current parlance, a hottie.<br /> <br /> '''Q.P. system'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Quaternion Probability, page 536.<br /> <br /> '''Usine Régionale'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> French: as translated in the text.<br /> <br /> ==Page 546==<br /> <br /> '''disjunctive effects of thunderstorms'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Folk wisdom says a thunderstorm will cause mayonnaise to separate (oil from yolks).<br /> <br /> '''cottonseed oil'''<br /> <br /> Mayonnaisse like Smegmo and Crisco is a hydrogenated fat; cottonseed oil is a common factor to all three. Indeed, the name Crisco derives from the intial sounds of &quot;'''crys'''tallized '''c'''ottonseed '''o'''il&quot;. Note in the next few pages a mention of Candlebrow -- underscoring a tie-in between Mayonnaisse and Smegmo. <br /> <br /> It may be of interest to note that hydrogenation may have a symbolic use for Pynchon. The process entails bubbling hydrogen through oil in the presence of a metal catalyst such as nickel, platinum, aluminum at 248 to 410 degrees. Remnants of these metals stay in the finished product, and when consumed can lead to an increase in heavy metals in the human body.<br /> <br /> Eating hydrogenated oils is like eating plastic. The body does not recognize that these molecules have been mutated and tries to use them as essential fatty acids. But they cannot perform the same function, and as a result hydrogenated oils can cause short circuits in the electrical flow that controls the heartbeat, nerve functions, cell division and mental balance. They also create free radicals (anarchists!) that are linked to cancers. Free radicals plus metal remnants are a major contributor to cancer, heart disease, immune system dysfunction, osteoporosis, depression, chronic fatigue, Alzheimers, and neurological diseases. It is estimated that over 200 million people have died prematurely because of the hydrogenated oils found in our diets. [http://www.drz.org/asp/newsletter/default.asp?xt2id=23] Not to mention innocent bystanders killed by mentally imbalanced people whose imbalance may stem from the ingestion of hydrogenated oils -- there may be some underlying reality to the &quot;Twinkie defense.&quot;<br /> <br /> '''lounge suit'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> A lounge suit is another name for business suit consisting of a matching jacket and trousers or skirt.<br /> <br /> '''congress shoes'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> ankle high shoes with elastic gussets in the sides (wordweb online)<br /> <br /> '''invisible hand'''<br /> <br /> Suggestive of Adam Smith's metaphor for market forces in economics.<br /> <br /> '''dripping-heads'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mayonnaise To make mayonnaise,] beat together egg yolks, salt, mustard and vinegar, then drip in oil while beating to form the emulsion. If you scale the process up for industrial production, you will automate the introduction of the oil, using nozzles that release it a drop at a time—but in a large vat you can have many such nozzles.<br /> <br /> '''''cuves d'agitation'''''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Vat or tank in which the mayonnaise is agitated or beaten.<br /> <br /> '''Clinique d'Urgence pour Sauvetage des Sauces'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> French: Emergency Clinic for Salvage of Sauces.<br /> <br /> ==Page 547==<br /> <br /> '''' ...engulfed in thick, slick, sour-smelling mayonnaise. ''''<br /> The whole Kit's experience in the mayonnaise factory is very much reminiscent to [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Roald_Dahl Roald Dahl]'s [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Charlie_and_the_Chocolate_Factory Charlie and the Chocolate Factory].<br /> <br /> '''''Cazzo, cretino'''''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Literally, &quot;Dick, cretin.&quot; ''Cazzo'' is a common Italian interjectionary obscenity, especially in the south. &quot;Cazzo, cretino,&quot; is akin to someone saying, &quot;Well shit, dummy,&quot; or &quot;F-ing moron!&quot;<br /> <br /> '''''È il cowboy!'''''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Italian: It's the cowboy!<br /> <br /> '''''vero?'''''&lt;br&gt;<br /> true? real?<br /> <br /> '''''Le bambole anarchiste, porca miseria'''''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Italian: Anarchist babes, oh boy.<br /> <br /> '''Oudenberg'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> A southeast suburb of Ostende.<br /> <br /> '''Quai de l'Entrepôt'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Warehouse Quay<br /> <br /> '''''ragazzi'''''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Italian: boys, guys.<br /> <br /> ==Page 548==<br /> <br /> '''General Boulanger'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> That the General was 'reactionary' and that the C of C bureaucracy had a 'defiant residue' of Boulangism, continues the characterization of the organization for which the Chums 'work'.&lt;br&gt;<br /> See p. 543 above, regarding a 2007 book in which Boulanger is called the 'father of fascism'.<br /> <br /> '''''timbres fictifs'''''&lt;br&gt;<br /> French: fictive postage stamps. Cf &quot;Lot 49&quot;.&lt;br&gt;<br /> Yes, stamps mean something in Pynchon's works; here, it seems important that these stamps are characterized as frauds.<br /> <br /> '''&quot;IIIb&quot;'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> As explained in the text.&lt;br&gt;<br /> &quot;Section IIIB (Intelligence) of the German High Command. After WWI, was funded by Alfred Hugenberg (financial backer of Nazi party)&quot;. From ''Sabotage'' by Sayers &amp; Kahn, 1942.[http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&amp;q=%22IIIB%27+%2B+INTELLIGENCE&amp;btnG=Search]. The authors state in the Forward, in 1942, &quot;that 'Nazi Germany' is the creation of spies and saboteurs&quot;. See ''V.'' &amp; ''Gravity's Rainbow'', of course. <br /> <br /> '''Germany might stand a better chance...'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> That is, if the French were to push into Alsace (per Boulanger) as the Germans executed the Schlieffen Plan [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Schlieffen_plan] for the encirclement of Paris, it would put the French at an even greater disadvantage...as actually happened in 1914. Had the Belgians and British not delayed the Germans in Flanders, and had the French railroads not performed speedily to bring the French troops back to the Marne, World War I could have had a very different outcome...an alternate history. <br /> <br /> '''revanchist'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Policies based on revenge, or a person following such policies. In General Boulanger's case, revenge against Germany for the Franco-Prussian War (that is, retaking Alsace, lost in 1871).<br /> <br /> '''the somewhat discomposed General'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Having died in 1891, the General by the time of the action is certainly somewhat '''de'''composed; brief biographies do not suggest he was ''non compos mentis,'' that is, mentally discomposed.<br /> <br /> ==Page 549==<br /> '''grow more and more invisible'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> What could be meant? Clearly, they inhabit bodies that people interact with?, as well as being characters in works of fiction.&lt;br&gt;<br /> Given what happens with the Chums as the story progresses [Spoiler bit, thematically], I suggest that their invisibility here<br /> means the entering of simple human life, to live out their lives 'anonymously' in history. I want to suggest this is largely a positive vision, indicated in other ways and places as well in TRPs work. Here is an overt bit of circumstantial evidence from Pynchon's introduction to Jim Dodge's novel ''Stone Junction'':&lt;br&gt;<br /> &quot;Equally difficult for those who might wish to proceed through life<br /> anonymously and without trace has been the continuing assault against<br /> the once-reliable refuge of the cash or non-plastic economy.&quot; [http://www.themodernword.com/pynchon/pynchon_essays_stone.html]<br /> <br /> '''cackled Darby'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> (When did he lose his innocence?)<br /> <br /> '''a modification of any salsician metaphor toward the diminutive'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Salsician: pertaining to sausage. Lindsay says Suckling's penis is better compared to a wiener than a knockwurst.<br /> <br /> '''&quot;Why you little–and I do mean 'little'–&quot;'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Another Simpsons reference? <br /> <br /> Noseworth, the Master-At-Arms of the Chums division of this organization with a defiant residue of 'fascism', who had no smell to Pugnax early on,<br /> is called out, either for real or in a sex-bashing putdown, for homosexuality. cf. homosexuality as a metaphor in ''Gravity's Rainbow''. <br /> <br /> '''dunes between Nieuport and Dunkirk'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Nieuport is a Belgian seaport about 10 miles southwest of Ostend. Dunkirk is a French port (less than 10 miles inside the French border) about 20 miles southwest of Nieuport. The latter was a site of one of the bloodest battle in World War I. The general area between Niewport and Dunkirk was the well traversed battle fields of two world wars. (Dunkirk was (in)famous for the British Army's escape from the Nazi German's assault in World War II.)<br /> <br /> '''power-receivers'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Not information, energy.<br /> <br /> ==Page 550==<br /> <br /> '''Lot's wife''' &lt;br&gt;<br /> Angels of God led Lot and his family out of Sodom as it was being destroyed and told them not to look back at the mayhem. Lot's wife, Edith, imprudently looked back and was transfigured into a pillar of salt.<br /> <br /> '''preference...for interiors'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> In [http://masondixon.pynchonwiki.com/wiki/index.php?title=Chapter_35:_349-361 Mason &amp; Dixon, p. 354] <br /> , the interiors of some coaches were larger than their exterior dimensions. Interiors have importance in Pynchon's worldview. Cf. &quot;invisibility&quot;, and a 'human life' above.&lt;br&gt;<br /> <br /> '''Italian grotto'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> an imitating recess or structure made to resemble a natural Italian grotto.<br /> <br /> '''a highly developed taste, moreover, for human blood'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Since Pugnax developed this taste in the Carpathians, home of Castle Dracula, this seems a clear reference to Bram Stoker's novel. <br /> <br /> '''Carpathians'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Major mountain range running northwest-southeast through Poland, Slovakia, western Ukraine and Romania.<br /> <br /> '''Uhlans'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Uhlan regiments belonged to the light cavalry. They wore splendid uniforms (model for some U.S. marching band uniforms). [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Uhlan Wikipedia article.]<br /> <br /> '''Temesvár'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Now Timişoara, extreme western Romania.<br /> <br /> ==Page 551==<br /> '''prefiguration...of the holy City'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> City of God, ala Augustine? ''The Heavenly City of the 18th Century Philosophers''[http://www.amazon.com/Heavenly-City-Eighteenth-Century-Philosophers/dp/0300101503]<br /> , as explored in the book Ian McEwan says he lent Pynchon? [citation needed]&lt;br&gt;<br /> <br /> '''...separated by only a slice of Time...'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Miles is beginning to experience Time almost as a spatial dimension, his personal vector as traversing (!) 4-dimensional space, or perhaps multidimensional space, the mathematics for which is being debated in Ostend.<br /> <br /> '''securing the mess decks'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> The Chums follow U.S. Navy idiom in orders (frequently prefixed with &quot;Now&quot;) and shipboard activities (&quot;secure&quot; meaning &quot;whatever you did before, undo it now,&quot; in this case put away the dishes and fold up the tables).<br /> <br /> '''Ryder Thorn'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Tolkienesque name? Or perhaps it's a nod to the Ryder-Waite Tarot deck and to Kevin Thorn (Kevin Matthew Fertig, 1977-), the American professional wrestler better known by his ring name Kevin Thorn who is currently signed to World Wrestling Entertainment wrestling on its ECW brand. He has appeared in vigniettes with Ariel (Shelly Martinez, 1980-), the tarot card reader, who spits blood at the camera while she &quot;predicted the future of ECW.&quot; Yup, a stretch...<br /> <br /> *The name also evokes the Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse.<br /> <br /> '''He was at Candlebrow.'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Presumably a 'trespasser.'<br /> <br /> '''the four-note chord in the context of timelessness'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> A melody is formed by notes following one another in time; a chord on the ukulele violates that practice by having all the notes sound at once. A really clever little passage.<br /> Note: Jazz musicians describe musical improvisations as horizontal (with the melody) or vertical (with the chord)<br /> <br /> ==Page 552==<br /> <br /> '''knuckle-duster'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Brass knuckles.<br /> <br /> '''Diksmuide'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> 20 kilometers south of Ostend (about halfway to Ypres).<br /> <br /> ==Page 553==<br /> <br /> '''The terrain was flat...lowlands'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Not, this time, a reference to Pynchon's ''Lowlands'', but to the two-dimensionality of Flanders, as in Edwin A. Abbott's ''Flatland'' [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Flatland]; most humans, like the inhabitants of Flanders and Abbott's Flatlanders, experience life in two dimensions. <br /> <br /> '''Somewhere up in the sky was Miles' home...'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Whereas Miles and the Chums of Chance, in contrast, live in three dimensions. The mathematicians gathered in Ostend are trying to calculate how to experience and use vectors to live in four dimensions; in a way, to experience Time as a kind of spatial dimension. Miles, on P. 551, is demonstrating the beginnings of an intuitive discovery of how to experience Time as an almost spatial dimension. Which would be a sort of &quot;time travel&quot;, or at least an expanded view of life and history.<br /> <br /> '''retted'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> soaked in water or exposed to moisture (as flax or hemp) to facilitate the removal of the fiber from the woody tissue by partial rotting.<br /> <br /> ==Page 554==<br /> <br /> '''Ypres and Menin'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Municipalities in West Flanders that were sites of some of the bloodiest battles of WWI. At the beginning of the war, the British and Belgian stand helped save Paris from encirclement by the Germans, and saved the Channel ports, but as Thorn points out, the area became the western anchor of the Western Front trench system. The several Battles of Ypres saw the first uses of poison gas (Mustard Gas, dichlorodiethylsulfide, was first called Yperite), the use of enormous mines, and the legendary mud of Passchendaele [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Passchendaele]. <br /> <br /> '''Ten years from now'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> (1914?) through 1918? and beyond?. Another paramorphic mirror--what do we now face. Whatever it is, it is nuclear.<br /> <br /> '''Bosch'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Hieronymous Bosch (1450-1516), Dutch painter of nightmares. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hieronymus_Bosch Wikipedia entry].<br /> <br /> '''Brueghel'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Pieter Brueghel the Elder(1525-1569), Flemish painter.[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pieter_Brueghel_the_Elder Wikipedia entry].<br /> <br /> '''League'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> League of Nations? The League of Nations was formed after WWI to prevent future wars. Didn't succeed.<br /> <br /> No. In this case a historical unit of length, approximately three miles - &quot;league on league&quot; = tremendous masses<br /> <br /> '''where the needles went and which way to rotate them'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> I.e., how to push Thorn's buttons; the image is from acupuncture.<br /> <br /> ==Page 555==<br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> '''simpletons at the fair'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Making Pynchon's metaphor explicit.<br /> <br /> '''Chopin E-minor Nocturne'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Frédéric Chopin (1810-49), a Polish pianist and composer ([http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fr%C3%A9d%C3%A9ric_Chopin Chopin]). He was born in Warsaw, Poland to a Polish morther and a French father. He went to Paris at the age of 20 and died there at the age of 39. He was widely regarded as one of the most famous and influential composers for the piano. From 1837-47 he had a 10-year stormy relationship with the French writer George Sand. His E-minor Nocturne is a 4-minute long Romantic style piano solo composed in 1827. (A ''nocturne'' is usually a musical composition that is inspired by, or evocative of, the night [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nocturne Nocturne].)<br /> <br /> '''owl-light'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> ???glimmering or imperfect light or twilight hours.<br /> <br /> ''''plasmic hysteresis''''&lt;br&gt;<br /> <br /> A coined term, apparently similar in meaning to Miles’ phrase “failure of physical translation.” Plasma would take an older meaning of “form” or “shape.&quot; Hysteresis, according to Webster's, refers to “a retardation in effect when the forces on an object are changed.” Hysteresis is used to describe magnetic phenomenon as well as plastic or elastic materials, that involve changes to a rest state that last beyond the forces that cause them. Examples include recordings on magnetic tape or a thumbprint slowly disappearing from putty. In the context of this passage, plasmic hysteresis appears to describe the lingering visage of someone who is no longer present – a hysteresis of form only and thus a failed physical translation. See [http://www.etymonline.com/index.php?search=plasma&amp;searchmode=none etymology of plasma] and this nifty explanation of [http://www.lassp.cornell.edu/sethna/hysteresis/WhatIsHysteresis.html hysteresis]. <br /> <br /> Hysteresis has also been used to refer to “loops” in time, certainly apropos in this case. I stumbled across an excellent example in a 1980 episode of Dr. Who, in which the eponymous Dr. is trapped in “chronic hysteresis,” an endless loop or return to a previous <br /> point in time – very similar to the situation of Ryder Thorn. [http://www.drwhoguide.com/who_5q.htm Check it out for yourself!] <br /> <br /> <br /> ==Annotation Index==<br /> {{ATD PbP}}</div>

MKOHUT https://against-the-day.pynchonwiki.com/wiki/index.php?title=ATD_557-587&diff=14134 2007-10-21T16:21:14Z

<p>MKOHUT: /* Page 585 */</p> <hr /> <div>:'''&lt;big&gt;Please keep these annotations SPOILER-FREE by not revealing information from later pages in the novel.&lt;/big&gt;'''&lt;p&gt;&lt;br&gt;<br /> <br /> ==Page 557==<br /> <br /> '''Viktor Mulciber'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Well, no benign associations with &quot;Mulciber&quot;! Mulciber is an alternative name of the Roman god Vulcan, the god of fire and volcanoes, and the manufacturer of art, arms, iron, and armor for gods and heroes. Mulciber is also the name of a character in John Milton's ''Paradise Lost'', the architect of the demon city of Pandemonium. When Pynchon was alluded to on The John Larroquette Show [80s or 90s], the book he was said to be working on was called ''Pandemonium of the Sun''.&lt;br&gt;<br /> In the Harry Potter books, Mulciber is a Death Eater, a minor Dark Wizard.<br /> <br /> '''bespoke'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> made to order, hence hand-made and expensive. Somewhere in the novel is a reference to 1 Savile Row, the address of Gieves and Hawkes, a very traditional English tailor.<br /> <br /> '''Basil Zaharoff'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Sir Basil Zaharoff, originally Zacharias Basileios, (1849, Muğla, Turkey - 1936, Monte Carlo, Monaco) was a Greek arms trader and financier, the director and chairman of the Vickers munitions firm during World War I [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zaharoff_Basil]. He also turns up as an international arms dealer in Reilly, Ace of Spies.<br /> <br /> In addition to the arms-dealing and being semi-fictionalized, Zaharoff is also notable for bribing the Japanese Admiral, helping to incorporate the company that eventually became British Petroleum, and through his association with Louis II of Monaco, the purchase of the Société des Bains de Mer, which ran the famous Monte Carlo casino.<br /> <br /> '''trains of history... run'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Karl Marx, in ''Das Kapital'', referred to wars as the &quot;express trains of history&quot; because they can spark societal or national crises, marking a historical turning point, and they can release economic, social, and moral forces of unforeseen power and dimensions, making any return to the status quo impossible.<br /> Also notice TRP's steady referencing of 'railroads' in a negative way. <br /> <br /> '''Q-weapon'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Possible allusion to Professor Kokintz's &quot;Q-bomb&quot; in ''The Mouse That Roared'' (1959) or to James Bond's master armorer Q. It could also be an allusion to the character &quot;Q&quot; in Star Trek where the name &quot;Q&quot; is also shared by other members of the Q Continuum. Q is a mischievous omnipotent being who has taken an interest in humans. He also has a flair for the dramatic, with a mercurial personality that switches between a joking, camp style and a more ominous and even dangerous manner. While he is boastful, condescending and threatening, he arguably has humanity's best interests at heart. In the episode &quot;The Q and the Gray&quot; (''Star Trek: Voyager'' - 3rd season), Q weapons are provided to the crew of the Voyager to free Q and Janeway, who have been captured by rebels. [http://www.answers.com/topic/the-q-and-the-grey Synopsis]; [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Q_(Star_Trek) Wikipedia]. Looney Tunes character Marvin the Martian possesses an earth-destroying weapon known as the Illudium Q-36 Explosive Space Modulator.<br /> <br /> In this context, the Q stands for &quot;Quaternion.&quot; See under Q in the alphabetical index.<br /> <br /> '''Balkan ''komitadji'''''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Originally, members of the rebel gangs (&quot;committees&quot;), controlled from Sofia, who made forays into Macedonia, the chief object of Bulgarian expansionism before WWI. The word was also commonly used for Serbian irregular fighters.<br /> <br /> :See this slightly different [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Komitadji Komitadji].<br /> <br /> '''waybill'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Ancestor of what Fedex and UPS call &quot;shipping document&quot;; it identifies the article shipped and contains necessary addresses and instructions.<br /> <br /> '''metamorphosed into an American Negro'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Cf honorary Negro (Frank above).<br /> <br /> '''Nipponese'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Japanese<br /> <br /> '''peach'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Plum, actually.<br /> <br /> '''Hertzian'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Electromagnetic waves, first demonstrated by [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Heinrich_Rudolf_Hertz Heinrich Hertz] (Cf [[ATD_318-335#Page 318|page 318:Hertz]]).<br /> <br /> '''they cannot strictly . . . longitudinal as well as transverse'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Hertz's theory and Maxwell's equations describe ''transverse'' waves in which the electric and magnetic fields are perpendicular to the direction of travel; no longitudinal waves--with vibrations parallel to the direction of travel--are permitted. In air, sound waves are longitudinal; what's suggested here is a new wave that does not fit the Hertz-Maxwell paradigm.<br /> <br /> ==Page 558==<br /> <br /> '''scalar part'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Quaternion equivalent of the real part.&lt;br&gt;<br /> A scalar quantity in geometry has magnitude but not direction. The length of a line segment is a scalar.&lt;br&gt;<br /> Time is a scalar term. <br /> <br /> '''baritone in a barbershop quartet'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> [http://www.barbershop.org/web/groups/public/documents/pages/pub_id_000827.hcsp Quote]:Technically speaking, barbershop harmony is a style of unaccompanied singing with three voices harmonizing to the melody. The lead usually sings the melody, with the tenor harmonizing above the lead. The bass sings the lowest harmonizing notes and the baritone provides in-between notes, either above or below the lead to make chords (specifically, dominant-type or &quot;barbershop&quot; sevenths) that give barbershop its distinctive, &quot;full&quot; sound.<br /> <br /> '''viola in a string quartet'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Two violins, a viola, and a violoncello make up a string quartet. The viola is between the others in pitch and is generally considered to have been given the least interesting parts in Classical and Romantic music for string quartet.<br /> <br /> '''Further Term'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> The three parts of a quaternion that are multiples of '''i''', '''j''' and '''k''' (Cf [[ATD_525-556#Page 525|page 525: Quaternions]].)<br /> <br /> '''the fulfiller of the Trinity'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> the name of the first atom bomb detonated at Los Alamos. Alluded to earlier as the &quot;Anti-Stone&quot; (Webb and Merle, p.78). The origin of the name Trinity for this event is uncertain. It is commonly thought that Robert Oppenheimer provided the name, which would seem logical, but even this is not definitely known. A leading theory is that Oppenheimer did select it, and that he did so with reference to the divine Hindu trinity of Brahma (the Creator), Vishnu (the Preserver), and Shiva (the Destroyer). Oppenheimer had an avid interest in Sanskrit literature (which he had taught himself to read), and following the Trinity test is reported to have recited a passage from the Bhagavad-Gita that is quoted earlier in this wiki.&lt;br&gt;<br /> <br /> The usage of the Tibetan Mount Kailash, the holy dwelling place of Shiva, God of destruction and regeneration, on p. 437 seems to support this.<br /> <br /> Also, a religious allusion to the three-person Godhead in Christian theology. &lt;br&gt;<br /> Also, third ATD meaning!, a college in Dublin mentioned on page 560.<br /> <br /> Also,&quot;the Destroyer, the fulfiller of the trinity&quot; recalls the Destroyer on page 154, the meteorite, and thus relates ''that'' passage to the Anti-Stone.<br /> <br /> Also, in Jungian Psychology the 'fulfiller' of the trinity, making it a complete four-aspect entity, is the 'shadow', or traditionally, the devil (the force always excluded and seen as bad in Christian theology). Cf. C. G. Jung, &quot;Versuch einer psychologischen Deutung des Trinitätsdogmas&quot;, Gesammelte Werke 11, especially p.179-94. Interestingly, Jung uses the term 'quaternarisch' for this. More Q-talk, then.<br /> <br /> '''the pulselessness of salvation'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> salvation lies outside of time?<br /> <br /> '''A weapon based on Time'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Time is why there is entropy, that key Pynchonian term. Pynchon has created a brilliant metaphor that uses the concept uniquely. The Q-weapon, at the heart of which lies &quot;a crystal about the size of a human eyeball&quot; is based on Time. What becomes of the Q-weapon after Umeki (possibly) gives it to Halfcourt in Constantinople? ([[ATD_1018-1039#Page 1036|See page 1036...]])<br /> <br /> '''&quot;...you could become the most feared person in history.&quot; ... &quot;I'd rather be loved,&quot; said Root.'''&lt;br &gt;<br /> Echoes Machiavelli's famous aphorism, &quot;It is much safer to be feared than loved.&quot;<br /> <br /> '''laterite'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> A mineral structure formed by erosion, see [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Laterite Wikipedia]. Laterite is typically rich in metal oxides and poor in organic matter.<br /> <br /> '''Ostend'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Cf [[ATD_525-556#Page 525|page 525:Ostend]]. Ostend (Dutch: Oostende, French &amp; German: Ostende) is a Belgian municipality located in the Flemish province of West Flanders. It comprises the villages of Mariakerke, Stene and Zandvoorde, and the city of Ostend proper – the largest at the Belgian coast. Wikipedia.<br /> <br /> '''Inner Boulevards'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> streets in Brussels.&quot;In spite of the competition of the Central or Inner Boulevards, the Montagne de la Cour still remains the principal street for shopping in Brussels.&quot; &quot;Brussels&quot;, Antiques Digest, 1904.<br /> <br /> '''Gare du Midi'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> The largest railway station in Brussels and a haunt of prostitutes.<br /> <br /> &lt;div id=&quot;gevaert&quot;&gt;&lt;/div&gt;'''Edouard Gevaert'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> It seems this gentleman is fictional. although there are some interesting, but tenuous, connections. Agfa-Gevaert is the current owner of the [[W#wardenclyffe|Wardenclyffe Tower]] facility which housed the Tesla Tower. [http://www.maerlant.be/photherel/student/nvgevaert.htm Lieven Gevaert] (1868-1935) was a Belgian industrialist who founded Gevaert &amp; Co. which produced photographic paper, in 1894. The company specialized in &quot;daylight&quot; paper, which relies on the event of exposure of the positive image through daylight, as opposed to development paper which is based on a process of special manipulation with chemicals. (Are photographs &quot;stolen goods&quot;? &quot;Unworldy go-betweens&quot;? Is the Q-Weapon a ... camera? No. It unlocks Time, animating the photograph - [[ATD_1018-1039#Page 1036|See page 1036]]) Agfa (Actien-Gesellschaft für Anilin-Fabrikation) was founded in 1864 as a manufacturer of dies and stains. In World War II, it became part of IG Farben (prominent in [http://gravitys-rainbow.pynchonwiki.com/wiki/index.php?title=IG_Farben_References ''Gravity's Rainbow'']. The Allies broke up IG Farben after the war and Agfa emerged as an individual company. And, well, there ''was'' a Dutch arms dealer named Edouard de Beaumont (1841-1895) who has a rifle named after him. Yes, a stretch... Upon further reflection, I believe &quot;Edouard&quot; may refer to [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Muybridge Eadweard Muybridge] (Edouard was a variant spelling he earlier used) and his photographic experiments with ''freezing'' motion/Time.<br /> <br /> ==Page 559==<br /> <br /> '''Krupp field-piece'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> The Krupps are an ancient German family, famous for making weapons. A field-piece is a light-cannon.<br /> <br /> '''vaguely glandular'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Describes Belgium, it seems.<br /> <br /> '''''ostinato'''''&lt;br&gt;<br /> A continually repeated musical phrase or rhythm.<br /> <br /> '''poleaxed'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Stunned, brought to a mental standstill. (A poleaxe was used in slaughterhouses.)<br /> <br /> '''lost to silence'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> (Not silent, or very?)Very<br /> <br /> ==Page 560==<br /> <br /> '''Wellington Hippodrome'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> A race track in Ostend. (Cf [[ATD_525-556#Page 528|page 528:Hippodrome]].)<br /> <br /> '''Estacade'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> ???<br /> :A dike of piles in the sea, a river, etc., to check the approach of an enemy. [http://www.thefreedictionary.com/Estacade]<br /> <br /> '''''mousmée... mouchard'''''&lt;br&gt;<br /> French: a young Japanese woman; a police spy.<br /> :When Henry James revised ''The Princess Casamassima'' for the 1909 New York edition, the phrase &quot;middle-class spy&quot; in the 1886 text became ''mouchard''. Source: note by Patricia Crick in Penguin Classics edition.<br /> <br /> '''always lead an irregular life'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Cf GR.<br /> <br /> '''Maria Bayley Hamilton'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> ???<br /> Hamilton's wife !!!<br /> <br /> '''council meeting'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> ???<br /> <br /> ==Page 561==<br /> <br /> '''Brougham Bridge'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> It was on this site that the [[H#hamilton|mathematician William Rowan Hamilton]], in a flash of genius, came upon the formula for Quaternions and scratched it into the stone of the bridge.<br /> <br /> About the bridge, the carving, photos of them, a couple of mathematicians' impression of the bridge, etc, see [http://math.ucr.edu/home/baez/octonions/node24.html Brougham Bridge].<br /> <br /> '''on the stone'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> The bridge is evidently a stone bridge. Stone, a natural thing, is a good for Pynchon. Hamilton's action is metaphorically a deeply religious moment. &quot;Pentecostal&quot; wherein the Quaternions 'descend' to earth [in the thoughts of men].<br /> <br /> '''''i² = j² = k² = ijk = –1'''''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Cf [[ATD_525-556#Page 525|page 525:Quaternion]].<br /> <br /> '''Pentecostal'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Pentecost (&lt; Greek πεντηκοστή [ἡμέρα], pentekostē [hēmera], &quot;the fiftieth day&quot;) is the fiftieth day after Easter Sunday, which corresponds to the tenth day after Ascension Thursday. It is a feast in the Christian liturgical calendar — symbolically related to the Jewish festival of Shavuot — that commemorates the descent of the Holy Spirit upon the Apostles and the followers of Jesus on that day, as described in the Book of Acts, Chapter 2. Pentecost is also called &quot;Whitsunday&quot; (deriving from &quot;Wit Sunday&quot;) in UK and other English-speaking areas.<br /> <br /> Almost needless to say, the Pentecostal revelation is what is supposed to happen at the end of &quot;Lot 49&quot;.<br /> <br /> '''official Mischief Opportunity'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> like 'shore leave', it seems. To leave the rules of the Organization and create mischief.<br /> <br /> '''absinthe spoons'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> absinthe spoons have slits whereon are placed sugar cubes through which one pours the absinthe<br /> <br /> '''cravats'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> A cravat is the neckband forerunner of the modern, tailored necktie. From the end of the 16th century, the term &quot;band&quot; applied to any long-strip neckcloth that was not a &quot;ruff&quot;; the ruff—a starched, pleated white linen strip—started its fashion career earlier in the 16th century as neckcloth that could be changed-a-fresh to keep the neck of a doublet from becoming too-soiled or as a bib or a napkin. A &quot;band&quot; could indicate a plain, attached shirt collar or a detachable &quot;falling band&quot; that draped over the doublet collar.&lt;br&gt;<br /> Necktie fashions have changed over time. The modern cravat originated in the 1630s when Western Europeans saw Croats wearing extravagant neck scarves; the French word ''cravate'' means &quot;Croatian cavalryman.&quot;<br /> <br /> '''&quot;four-door farce&quot;'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> (See eg Bogdanovich's &quot;What's Up, Doc?&quot;)<br /> This is also a pun on the name of Georges Feydeau, French writer of farces who was writing when Pynchon's novel is set. One of the recurring physical jokes involves sets with many doors and people coming in and out, just missing each other....<br /> <br /> The ranking of farces by door number is mostly jocular. Neil Simon's ''Rumors'' is a fine example of a seven-door farce.<br /> <br /> ==Page 562==<br /> <br /> '''Minque'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> the fish auction house.<br /> <br /> '''Bruges'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> A city about 18 miles east of Ostende, Cf [[ATD_525-556#Page 531|page 531:Bruges]].<br /> <br /> '''Ghent'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> A city about 40 miles southeast by east from Ostend, Cf [[ATD_525-556#Page 531|page 531:Ghent]].<br /> <br /> '''carillons . . . carillonneur'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> The [http://www.gcna.org/crlnexp.html carillon] was popular in Belgium before it caught on in most other places. It comprises a set of bells, matched in character, forming a scale (a couple of chromatic octaves or even more), with the beaters or clappers mechanically linked to a keyboard. A later development replaced muscle power with electromechanical linkages. In a still later &quot;advance,&quot; the carillon was automated with music-box-like control. The American practice of playing recorded bells through loudspeakers is a shamefully cheap way to imitate carillon music.&lt;br&gt;<br /> The carillonneur is the master at the keyboard.&lt;br&gt;<br /> English-style bell ringing is a totally different pursuit, using (often imperfectly) tuned bells actuated in nonmelodic sequences. The bells, not the clappers, are swung with ropes. The effect of an eight-bell &quot;peal&quot; and a team of ringers with plenty of time on their hands—as heard by this American contributor in Bristol one spring Sunday—is perfectly charming.&lt;br&gt;<br /> By the way: The word &quot;carillon&quot; is derived from the Latin &quot;quaternio&quot; (= consisting of four elements)...<br /> <br /> '''Hanseatic'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> The Hansa or Hanseatic League (definitely a creation of &quot;the Christian North,&quot; next paragraph) was a great mercantile system that held itself above national rule.<br /> <br /> '''burghers'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> middle-class married men<br /> <br /> '''silted up'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> backed up, underwater, with mud; i.e. neglected, because replaced by railroads. -As it silted up &quot;back in the 1400s&quot; we can safely exclude the influence of railroads.<br /> <br /> '''Damme and Sluis'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Port cities near Bruges, heavily dependent on them from the 14th Century.&lt;br&gt;<br /> See [http://www.damme-online.com/gb/communities/damme.htm Damme] and [http://www.damme-online.com/gb/arounddamme/sluis.htm Sluis]. For an overview map, showing cannals, roads etc, of the general area around Bruges-Damme-Sluis see [http://www.damme-online.com/gb/maps/generaloverview.htm Bruges-Damme-Sluis]<br /> <br /> ==Page 563==<br /> <br /> '''trusted his intuitiveness'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Woevre is a natural killer.<br /> <br /> '''''&quot;Jou moerskont!&quot;''... Afrikaans'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Possibly &quot;you horse's ass&quot;? --More likely something like &quot;mother's cunt&quot;.<br /> <br /> ==Page 564==<br /> <br /> '''voices of everyone he had ever put to death had been ... scored for some immense choir'''&lt;br /&gt;<br /> A possible reference to ''Star Wars'': Obi-wan experiences the obliteration of an entire planet as &quot;a great disturbance in the Force, as if millions of voices suddenly cried out in terror and were suddenly silenced.&quot; [http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0076759/quotes]<br /> <br /> Also another potentially time-less event, all of Woevre's murders collapsed into a single moment.<br /> <br /> The &quot;choir&quot; image occurs several times in ''AtD.'' [[ATD_1-25#Page_19|One example.]]<br /> <br /> '''&quot;I cannot bear it ... this terrible light...&quot;'''&lt;br /&gt;<br /> Shades of the Kirghiz Light in [http://gravitys-rainbow.pynchonwiki.com/wiki/index.php?title=The_Kirghiz_Light ''Gravity's Rainbow'']<br /> <br /> '''''Voetsak'''''&lt;br /&gt;<br /> Afrikaans (maybe Dutch too): Go away! Also spelled ''voertsek'' or ''voetsek.''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Borrowed in English with the spelling ''footsack.'' The Urban Dictionary, which often excites skepticism, has [http://www.urbandictionary.com/define.php?term=footsack a useful entry] with a marginally plausible etymology. In [http://www.worldwideschool.org/library/books/lit/drama/Finished/chap5.html ''Finished'' (1916),] novelist H. Rider Haggard glossed it this way: &quot;Among Europeans he rejoiced in the name of Footsack, a Boer Dutch term which is generally addressed to troublesome dogs and means 'Get out.'&quot; And in a defective 1943 book for young readers, ''Great Caesar's Ghost'' (by Manning Coles, creator of gentleman op Tommy Hambledon), an English merchant seaman says, &quot;Get out, 'op it, vamoose, footsack, imshi, or I'll—&quot; [http://www.absp.org.uk/words/interjections.html ''Imshi''] is British service slang for &quot;go.&quot;<br /> <br /> '''starers'''&lt;br /&gt;<br /> Those who stared at Kit earlier.<br /> <br /> '''dramatic performance'''&lt;br /&gt;<br /> referring to 'No'?<br /> <br /> '''tobacco-stricken'''&lt;br /&gt;<br /> A smoker's deep or gritty voice.<br /> <br /> '''half-silvering'''&lt;br /&gt;<br /> A design for an optical [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Beam_splitter beam splitter] that causes half of the incident light to be transmitted and the other half to be reflected.<br /> <br /> '''the fatal number four&amp;#8212;to a Japanese mind'''&lt;br /&gt;<br /> Japanese character for number &quot;four&quot; has the same pronunciation as that of character &quot;death&quot;.&lt;br /&gt;<br /> Cf [[ATD_243-272#Page 258|page 258:Japanese character for &quot;four&quot;]].<br /> <br /> '''four cusps... index-surface'''&lt;br /&gt;<br /> ???<br /> <br /> '''co-conscious'''&lt;br /&gt;<br /> Cf [[ATD_525-556#Page 527|page 527:co-conscious]]. Repeat here: &quot;mental processes outside the main stream of consciousness but sometimes available to it - from Merriam-Webster's Medical Dictionary.&quot;<br /> <br /> Third use, I think. Who/what is co-conscious here? (First time, page 478; then page 527.)<br /> <br /> Could it be the dimly perceived consciousness of one's double in the adjacent, alternate world? Or one's consciousness of that world?<br /> <br /> ==Page 565==<br /> <br /> '''true icosahedron'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Probably an regular icosahedron, where the sides are formed by 20 equilateral triangles. For a picture see [http://mathworld.wolfram.com/Icosahedron.html Icosahedron].<br /> <br /> '''12+8... pyrites'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Pyrite crystals form a structure that can be decomposed into unit cells that contain (part of) 12 sulphur atoms and 8 iron atoms.<br /> <br /> '''Riemann sphere'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Riemann_sphere Wikipedia]<br /> <br /> '''Felix Klein'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> German mathematician ([http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Felix_Klein Wikipedia])<br /> <br /> '''ebonite'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> An early plastic([http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ebonite Wikipedia])<br /> <br /> '''Ohmic Drift Compensator'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> ohm = the practical meter-kilogram-second unit of electric resistance equal to the resistance of a circuit in which a potential difference of one volt produces a current of one ampere; The Ohmic Drift Compensator &amp;#151; a key component of the Q-weapon &amp;#151; &quot;regulates how much light is allowed to enter the silvering of the mirror! Special kind of refraction! Calibrated against imaginary index! Dangerous! Of the essence!'&quot; See also [[ATD 525-556#Page 541|Page 541]]. <br /> <br /> '''speed of the earth . . . kinetic energy'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Einstein in 1905 showed most of this argument to be nonsense, but if Lorentz's paper is still recent (next entry) the shift in thinking may not have happened yet.&lt;br&gt;<br /> :Since the earth's mean orbital speed ( ~ 30 km/s) is rather small in comparison with the speed of light ( ~ 300,000 km/s), no relativistic correction is needed in calculating earth's orbital kinetic energy. And in a reference frame anchored on the Sun, the earth's kinetic eneregy, ''E = ½ m v²'', where ''m'' is the earth mass and ''v'' it's orbital speed, still holds. Einstein showed only that it is no longer true against the nonexistent stationary ''æther''. Of course, it is irrelevant to an earthbound weapon tried to make use of this energy against a person who is standing on the earth.<br /> <br /> '''Recently Lorentz's paper'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Lorentz's 1904 &quot;Electromagnetic phenomena in a system moving with any velocity less than that of light&quot; ([http://www.soso.ch/wissen/hist/SRT/L-1904.pdf PDF])<br /> <br /> '''Lorentz . . . Fitzgerald . . . along the axis of motion'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> It was the phenomenon of the Lorentz-Fitzgerald contraction, together with the abolition of the æther by Michelson and Morley, that led Einstein to his theory of special relativity.<br /> :Michelson and Morley did NOT abolish the æther. Their experiement (1887), attempting to detect the light speed change due to the effect of the æther wind, was a total failure, and they could not explain the negative result.<br /> ::OK, would you accept &quot;the abolition of the æther hypothesis in consequence of Michelson and Morley's work&quot;? In fact, that negative result—replicated many times since—did render the notion of the luminiferous æther untenable, as the next two paragraphs make clear.<br /> :The Lorentz-Fitzgerald contraction hypothesis was proposed to explain the &quot;null&quot; result of the Michelson-Morley experiment but still keeping the æther. (see paragraph 8 of Lorentz's 1904 paper above). Lorentz considered the contraction was not physically real but a device to explain the Michelson-Morley experiment. ([http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lorentz_Fitzgerald_contraction_hypothesis Lorentz_Fitzgerald Contraction]).<br /> <br /> :Einstein (1905) derived the Lorentz contraction directly, without assuming the existence of the æther, from the ''Principle of Relativity'' (ie different observers moving at a constant speed with respect to each other find the laws of physics to be identical and find the speed of light to be the same), and proved that Lorentz-Fitzgerald contraction hypothesis had been &quot;ad-hoc&quot;. And Einstein explain the failure of Michelson-Morley experiment by abolishing the æther !<br /> <br /> '''Lord Rayleigh'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> British physicist ([http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lord_Rayleigh Wikipedia])<br /> <br /> ==Page 566==<br /> <br /> '''In a dream...'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> <br /> This passage, describing Kit's dream of Umeki and the message it conveys, pulls together many of the main themes of ''Against the Day'', tying things together in a way that Pynchon seldom does, almost as if he's providing a rather large piece of the puzzle to help the reader understand the novel:<br /> <br /> :&quot;Deep among the equations describing the behavor of light, field equations, Vector and Quaternion equations, lies a set of directions, an intinerary, a map to a hidden space. Double refraction appears again and again as a key element, permitting a view into a Creation set just to the side of this one, so close as to overlap, where the membrane between the worlds, in many places, has become too frail, too permeable, for safety.... Within the mirror, with the scalar term, within the daylit and obvious and taken-for-granted has always lain, as if in wait, the dark intinerary, the corrupted pilgrim's guide, the nameless Station before the first, in the lightless uncreated, where salvation does not yet exist.&quot;<br /> <br /> This is rather a good description of ''AtD'' itself. It is a (inevitably) &quot;corrupted pilgrim's guide&quot;, but is the guide corrupted, or the pilgrim?<br /> <br /> '''analogies'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> (Pynchonian heuristics.)<br /> <br /> '''the corrupted pilgrim's guide, the nameless Station before the first'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Cf. p. 436 '''holy pilgrimages. One defines a destination, proceeds through a series of stations...<br /> <br /> <br /> '''lightless uncreated'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> (Gnostic heresy?)<br /> <br /> '''...within the daylit and obvious and taken-for-granted has always lain, as if in wait, the dark itinerary, the corrupted pilgrim's guide, the names Station before the first, in the lightless uncreated, where salvation does not yet exist.'''&lt;br /&gt;<br /> Compare with &quot;daylit America . . . its steadfast denial of night&quot; ([[ATD_724-747#Page 732|page 732]]), ''AtD'' epigraph, Thelonious Monk's &quot;It's always night, or we wouldn't need light.&quot; '''and''' &quot;the boys expressed wonder at how much more infected with light the night-time terrains passing below them had become [...] they felt themselves in uneasy witness to some final conquest, a triumph over night whose motive none could quite grasp&quot; ([[ATD 1018-1039#Page 1032|p. 1032]]); <br /> <br /> '''stuffed sinus'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> sinus/nasal congestion. It is like looking out onto a new world when one's sinus finally clears after days of congestion.<br /> <br /> '''''Konichiwa'''''&lt;br&gt;<br /> ''sic'' for &quot;Konnichiwa / Kon nichi wa&quot; -- Japanese greeting.<br /> <br /> ==Page 567==<br /> <br /> '''new Puccini opera'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Obviously, [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Madame_Butterfly Madame Butterfly]<br /> <br /> '''[Americans] can't ever die of shame'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> shameless, unlike the Japanese<br /> <br /> '''Kimura-san'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Kimura ( &quot;tree village&quot;) is the 18th most common Japanese surname.<br /> -san is used as a courtesy title in Japanese-speaking areas as a suffix to the given name, surname, or title of the person being addressed, regardless of age or gender: Yamamoto san; sensei-san.&lt;br&gt;<br /> Chimera-san?<br /> <br /> '''Borel-Clerc... &quot;La Matchiche&quot;'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Popular vaudeville song from 1903. &quot;La Matchiche&quot; is French for the Brazilian dance Maxixe.<br /> <br /> '''western anchor'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> What about France, Spain, Portugal? Belgium is a port country with a highly developed transportation system into all of these countries. .....it was the first country to industrialize in Europe....Wikipedia. <br /> <br /> In addition, Ostend is the westernmost port. It remains today a major Continental ferry terminus for North Sea crossings, including the fastest surface route, the hydrofoil.<br /> <br /> '''the Orient Express'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> The first [http://mikes.railhistory.railfan.net/r045.html Orient Express] (1883-1914), connecting the English Channel with the Black Sea, is one of the most famous trains in Europe. It ran from Calais and Paris to Bucharest (Romania), passing through Strasbourg (France), Munich (Germany), Vienna (Austria), Bratislava (Czechoslovakia), Budapest (Hungary). From Bucharest it went through Bulgaria and then, by ferry, to Istanbul of Turkey. The original Orient Express was operated by Compaignie Internationale des Wagons-Lits. Ever since the original Orient Express started operation, the name has become synonymous with luxury travel. After World I there were various railway routes had the name of Orient Express. The current one is from Paris to Vienna, to be discontinue on June 9, 2007.<br /> <br /> '''the Trans-Siberian'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> The [http://www.transsib.ru/Eng/history-phases.htm Trans-Siberian] is a railway route connecting Moscow (Europe) to Vladivostok (Far East Asia). Taking a journey by the Trans-Siberian Railway has long been considered an experience with mythological proportions. It is the longest continuous rail line on earth - about 6,000 miles over one third of the globe. In 1891, Czar Alexander III drew up planes for the Trans-Siberian and initiated its construction, and a more or less continuous route was completed in 1905. It took many more years to make the route smoothly operative.<br /> <br /> '''the Berlin-to-Baghdad'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> The [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Baghdad_Railway Berlin-Baghdad (also Basra) Railway] was the route of German's expansion from Europe to the Persian Gulf, from which trade goods and supplies could be directly exchanged with the farthest of the German colonies and the world. It could also supply German industry directly with oil. Its conception (1888) and completion a couple of years later engendered great opposition from Russia, France and England as part of the &quot;Great Game&quot;.<br /> <br /> '''World-Island'''&lt;br /&gt;<br /> [[ATD 429-459#Page_433|See annotation at page 433]]<br /> <br /> '''Compaignie Internationale des Wagons-Lits'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> &quot;International Sleeping-Car Company&quot;, [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Carlson_Wagonlit Wikipedia]<br /> <br /> '''two hundred francs'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> &quot;None of that, Hakkabut. Hold your tongue.&quot; And, turning to Rosette, the captain said, &quot;If, sir, I understand right, you require some silver five-franc pieces for your operation?&quot;<br /> &quot;Forty,&quot; said Rosette, surlily.<br /> &quot;Two hundred francs!&quot; whined Hakkabut.-- On a Comet, Jules Verne<br /> <br /> '''theory of sets'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Set theory is the mathematical theory of sets, which represent collections of abstract objects. It encompasses the everyday notions, introduced in primary school, of collections of objects, and the elements of, and membership in, such collections. In most modern mathematical formalisms, set theory provides the language in which mathematical objects are described. It is (along with logic and the predicate calculus) one of the axiomatic foundations for mathematics, allowing mathematical objects to be constructed formally from the undefined terms of &quot;set&quot; and &quot;set membership&quot;. It is in its own right a branch of mathematics and an active field of mathematical research. Wikipedia&lt;br&gt;<br /> :The members of a set can be, say, [Mike, Mary, Jack, Richard, Ron, Umeki, . . . . . .], the employees of a company, or the passengers of the train leaving the station; they need NOT be abstract. Cf [[ATD_525-556#Page 535|page 525:set theory]].<br /> <br /> '''Bruges Canal'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Belgium: Bruges canal. For a picture of the canal see [http://cruises.about.com/library/pictures/baltic/blbruges19.htm Bruges Canal].<br /> <br /> ==Page 568==<br /> <br /> '''vaporetto'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> A Venetian water-bus.<br /> <br /> '''Grand Canal'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> The main canal that runs through the heart of Venice and down past San Marco, the city's main square.<br /> <br /> '''San Marco end'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> See above. This is where Florian's (appears in the novel) is situated.<br /> <br /> '''Piazzetta'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> ??? A small piazza. The large square in front of St Mark's is the Piazza San Marco. The smaller side square running beside the Palazzo Ducale down to the canal is the Piazzetta San Marco.<br /> <br /> '''San Giorgio Maggiore'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> A rather over-ornate church on the Grand Canal opposite San Marco.<br /> <br /> '''spreading... cloak'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Cliche/allusion?<br /> <br /> '''live here forever'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Pynchon special-pleading that Dally isn't just another tourist.<br /> Or is this just a typical reaction of the tourist? And a Pynchonesque longing for home?<br /> <br /> '''Teatro Verdi in Trieste'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> A 1200+ seat theatre built in late-eighteenth century in Trieste for classical music, opera and ballet ([http://selectitaly.com/events.php?product_id=27&amp;city_id=122 Teatro Verdi]). With its stately columns, elaborate adornments and lush elegance it is rather an unlikely venue for magic show. Another unlikely venue for magic show is Teatro Malibran in Venice (next page).<br /> <br /> ==Page 569==<br /> <br /> '''Malibran... Polo's house'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> The Teatro Malibran, built at the site of Marco Polo's house, which was destroyed in 1596.<br /> :It is still there ! Cf [[ATD_336-357#Page 355|page 355:Teatro Malibran]] and the external link (for photos, etc) listed there.<br /> <br /> '''&quot;pincette&quot; pass'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Probably from the [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pincer_movement pincer movement] of military strategy.<br /> :Professor Hoffman's ''Modern Magic'' (1876) describes three &quot;passes with coins,&quot; La Pincette, Le Tourniquet and La Coulée. Amazon has the book for sale if anyone wants to look up the details.<br /> <br /> '''profondes'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> &quot;Large pockets in tail coats which can be used for vanishes or productions&quot;, [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_conjuring_terms Wikipedia]<br /> <br /> '''Vincenzo Miserere'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> ??? Misero means poor, pitiful, miserable, etc. Psalm 51 (sometimes numbered as 50) is known as the Miserere because it begins (in Latin) Miserere mei Deus (Have mercy on me, God).<br /> <br /> '''train to Trieste'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> ???Venice and Trieste are on the opposite sides (about 70 miles apart) of the same gulf : Gulf of Venice. Taking a train from Venice to Trieste would mean taking a route several times lengthier than a ferry.<br /> <br /> '''Svegli'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> The fictional professor's name comes from the Italian ''sveglio'' for &quot;clever, dextrous, skillful.&quot;<br /> <br /> '''shark leather'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Different from sharkskin?<br /> <br /> '''''Specchiere'''''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Mirror-maker<br /> <br /> '''glassmakers on Murano'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Murano Wikipedia]<br /> <br /> '''today'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> When is that?<br /> <br /> '''''guaglion'''''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Naples dialect: ''guaglione'' is boy. (It first appeared on page 531).<br /> <br /> ==Page 570==<br /> <br /> '''another one of his stories'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> (Jackson Pynchon should highlight all the AtD passages that originated as bedtime stories.)<br /> <br /> '''TERAPIA'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Italian, &quot;therapy&quot;<br /> <br /> '''San Servolo'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> An island in the Venetian archipelago, [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/San_Servolo Wikipedia], [http://maps.google.com/maps?f=q&amp;hl=en&amp;q=45.418654+N,+12.35698+E&amp;ie=UTF8&amp;z=17&amp;ll=45.418651,12.35698&amp;spn=0.006891,0.010793&amp;t=k&amp;om=1&amp;iwloc=addr Google Maps]<br /> <br /> '''Palazzo Ducale'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> The Ducal Palace in Venice, residence of the Doge. It's by San Marco.<br /> <br /> '''''manicomio'''''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Italian, &quot;madhouse&quot;<br /> <br /> '''''paramorfico'''''&lt;br&gt;<br /> paramorphic - see the entry for [[P|Paramorphoscope]]<br /> <br /> '''uterine vellum'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vellum Vellum] produced from the skin of an unborn calf<br /> <br /> '''pitch, rouge'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Products used in the grinding of lenses and mirrors.<br /> <br /> ==Page 571==<br /> <br /> '''La Doppiatrice'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Italian: the Doubler. <br /> <br /> Perhaps an analogue of the diffraction grating that splits the electron into two &quot;alternate&quot; electrons in Schrodinger's thought experiment on quantum effects, source here of a sort of human quantum splitting, an alternate universe creator. <br /> <br /> '''Ettore Sananzolo'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> ???<br /> <br /> '''Maskelyne cabinet'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> After Neville Maskelyne, from ''Mason and Dixon.'' Maskelyne was sent at the same time as M and D to record the Transit of Venus on St. Helena. He became Astronomer Royal while they were in America.<br /> <br /> While Maskelyne is indeed a real person, the name is very suggestive of mescaline. The two do not seem to be &quot;related.&quot;<br /> <br /> More likely a descendant, [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Nevil_Maskelyne John Nevil Maskelyne.] --[[User:Jeffersonista|Jordan]] 13:46, 25 January 2007 (PST)<br /> <br /> ==Page 572==<br /> <br /> '''smoke back into a cigar'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Time's arrow/ entropy motif.<br /> <br /> '''hard-as-a-rock black cigar'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> The quality of a cigar is usually higher with dark, more tightly-wrapped tobacco. Vincenzo has a fine one, it seems. <br /> <br /> '''thumping'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> sound/feeling of a water-bus?<br /> <br /> '''''salso'''''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Longest river in Sicily.Its small deltaic system there is dominated by marine processes rather than fluvial ones. It is a seasonal torrent, with brief but violent floods during the winter rains (from November to February), Is this what riding the salso in and back out again means? Riding the floods from the winter rains?<br /> <br /> Hardly. 'Salso' (ital.) means 'salty', so this is probably a poetical word for 'the sea'.<br /> <br /> '''''sandoli'''''&lt;br&gt;<br /> ??? The sandolo is a type of boat used in Venice, similar to a gondola but (I believe) larger.<br /> <br /> '''trains pulling in'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Famous early film.<br /> <br /> ==Page 573==<br /> <br /> '''San Polo'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> It is one of the six districts (sestieri) of Venice. (The other five are: Cannaregio, Dorsoduro, Santa Croce, San Marco, and Castello.) It (with Santa Croce and Dorsoduro) is located at the south side of the Grand Canal just across the Rialto bridge from San Marco. The San Polo district is the second most important area of Venice in terms of historical immportance and attractions for the tourists. It is the home to the Rialto market, the old artisan quarters of Venice, and the stunning Frari church.<br /> <br /> '''Cannareggio'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> It is commonly spelled Cannaregio. It is located north of the Grand Canal, and is one of the few parts of the city where Venetians still live in great numbers. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cannaregio Canaregio].<br /> <br /> ==Page 574==<br /> <br /> '''thirty years older'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> About 65yo?<br /> <br /> '''that day'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> In NYC when Dally showed up.<br /> <br /> '''when she was born'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Cf Pretenders/Chryssie Hynde.<br /> <br /> '''Stronzo'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Italian curse word, roughly &quot;asshole&quot;<br /> <br /> '''''In bocc' al lupo!'''''&lt;br&gt;<br /> From the Roman dialect, in which the Italians – including Rocco and Pino – seem to speak. Meaning, literally, &quot;In the <br /> mouth of the wolf,&quot; and idiomatically, &quot;Good luck.&quot; <br /> <br /> Specifically, as supported by the show business context, the good-luck wish among actors: &quot;Break a leg!&quot;<br /> <br /> '''''campielli'''''&lt;br&gt;<br /> ??? Small squares. A campo is literally a field and by extension a large square in a town. A campiello is a small square. I believe Venice has only one Piazza (San Marco) and the other squares are campi and campielli.<br /> <br /> '''impersonation of itself'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> echoes &quot;the mountains had become geometrical impersonations of themselves&quot;, p. 394<br /> <br /> ==Page 575==<br /> <br /> '''Riva'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> ??? Probably Riva del Vin by the Grand Canal; a great tourist attraction from where one can view the historical Rialto Bridge. (The word ''riva'' itself means ''river bank''). [http://arglist.com/cgi-bin/image?gallery=venice&amp;name=20050525-025 Riva del Vin] and[http://www.altravistavenezia.it/_VirtualTours/VA/Rialto_Riva_del_Vin/rialto_riva_del_vin.html Rialto-Riva del Vin]<br /> <br /> '''middy blouses'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> In the style of a midshipman's blouse (shirt).<br /> <br /> '''not yet been rebuilt'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Remember p256.<br /> <br /> '''''lucciole'''''&lt;br&gt;<br /> prostitutes<br /> <br /> '''''fondamenta'''''&lt;br&gt;<br /> A waterside street in Venice<br /> <br /> '''''ombreta'''''&lt;br&gt;<br /> ??? A local wine produced in the hills north of Venice.&lt;br /&gt;<br /> Well, actually ''ombreta de vin'' means &quot;a glass of wine&quot; in Venetian dialect.<br /> <br /> '''light's good here'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Old joke about drunk looking for car keys under streetlight though he dropped them somewhere else.<br /> <br /> '''inside that labyrinth . . . microcosm of all Venice'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> A hologram has this property, that a little chip broken off it contains the entire image. This is, however, a specific reference to Fractal &amp;#151; non-Euclidian &amp;#151; Geometry ... self-similarity over scale. A fractal is an object or quantity that displays self-similarity, in a somewhat technical sense, on all scales. The object need not exhibit exactly the same structure at all scales, but the same &quot;type&quot; of structures must appear on all scales. A plot of the quantity on a log-log graph versus scale then gives a straight line, whose slope is said to be the fractal dimension. The prototypical example for a fractal is the length of a coastline measured with different length rulers. The shorter the ruler, the longer the length measured, a paradox known as the coastline paradox, mentioned by Pynchon on [[ATD_821-848#Page_821|page 821: coastline approaching infinite length]].<br /> :Good argument for the fractal reference, better than the original one for the hologram metaphor. Hunter is not making smaller and smaller paintings (&quot;chips&quot;) but rather exploiting an observation about scale.<br /> <br /> ==Page 576==<br /> <br /> '''''rio'''''&lt;br&gt;<br /> narrow waterway in Venice (Cf [[ATD_243-272#Page 245|page 245:''rio'']].)<br /> <br /> '''twelve soldi'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> ??? A soldo is a small coin.<br /> <br /> '''franc... ten francs'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> ???<br /> <br /> '''Santos-Dumont style'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Cf [[ATD_525-556#Page 529|page 529:Monsieur Santos-Dumont]]<br /> <br /> '''Canaletto'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Real name: [http://www.wga.hu/bio/c/canalett/biograph.html Zuane Antonio Canal] (1697-1768), a well-known scenery painter at the time. He went to England in 1746 and returned to Venice in 1755.&lt;br&gt;<br /> Venetian landscape painter, 1697-1768, famous for his paintings of Venice ([http://www.artericerca.com/ven_set/Canaletto/canaletto.htm Italian website]).<br /> <br /> As described, Penhallow's pictures are reminiscent, in spirit and in some ways content, of John Singer Sargent's Venetian paintings. Sargent also later painted one of the most haunting images of World War I, [http://jssgallery.org/Paintings/Gassed/Gassed.htm &quot;Gassed&quot;], showing a column of men blinded by mustard gas feeling their way to an aid station.<br /> <br /> '''Beppo'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Allusion to Byron's poem &quot;Beppo - A Venetian Story&quot;. Beppo is a husband who's been away for many years and then, returning, reclaims his wife from another man.<br /> <br /> Beppo = Mouse, diminutive of Giuseppi. There is also Beppo Levi (born on May 14, 1875 in Turin, Italy, died on August 28, 1961 in Rosario, Argentina) Italian mathematician, director of the Mathematics Institute of the National University of the Littoral from 1939 to 1961. His work included the mathematics of alternative spaces[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Beppo_Levi].<br /> <br /> '''pitch'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> From Merriam-Webster Dictionary: ''chiefly British: an outdoor site (as for camping or doing business).<br /> <br /> '''Bauer-Grünwald'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> An expensive hotel near San Marco in Venice.<br /> <br /> '''demobilized from a war that nobody knew about . . . seeking refuge from time'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Hunter Penhallow, one of the Trespassers?<br /> <br /> ==Page 577==<br /> <br /> '''a time-traveler from the future'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Hunter Penhallow IS a Trespasser.<br /> <br /> ''''Safe''''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Recent art-movie title? I think safe here means safe without allusion.<br /> <br /> '''neutral hour?'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Is any moment in Time apolitical?<br /> <br /> '''Castello'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Castello is the largest of the six sestieri of Venice. The district grew up from the thirteenth century around a naval dockyard on what was originally the Isole Gemini.<br /> <br /> Not sure on the derivation of Isole Gemini; but Gemini, like Pisces (cf. Fomalhaut, the brightest star in the Pisces constellation) and Sagittarius, are the dual signs of western astrology in keeping with &quot;bi-locations,&quot; Deuce Kindred, Renfrew/Werfner, mirrors, etc. <br /> <br /> Jyotisha (Indian astrology) includes Virgo as a dual sign or dvisvabha rashis -- thus forming a Quaternity (4 signs or rashis)of Duality. It's interesting that Pynchon does not say Gemini and Pisces directly, but alludes to them behind Castello and Fomalhaut. Be on the lookout for twins, fish, virgins and centaurs!<br /> <br /> '''Evening Gun'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> &quot;At reveille the morning gun goes off; and at retreat, the evening&quot;. From <br /> a history description. Here is a site with picture.http://www.ziplink.net/~edkreutz/1f.html<br /> <br /> '''Dr. Grace'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Renowned, full-bearded 19th-century English cricket player.<br /> <br /> '''Charing Cross'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Charing Cross Railway Station, London. The original station was opened on 11 January 1864 by the South East Railway. Now, over 37 million people pass through Charing Cross every year. Situated on the forecourt of the stations is the Eleanor Cross, from which point road distances from London are measured. For more see [http://www.networkrail.co.uk/aspx/795.aspx#history Charing Cross].<br /> <br /> ==Page 578==<br /> <br /> '''Dorsoduro'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> An area of Venice. The Dorsoduro district is a relatively central area of the city, located on the opposie side of the Grand Canal from the San Marco district. But, at the smae time it offers the visitor a chance to explore a delightful part of the city free from the crowds of San Marco.<br /> The Accademia Gallery, Peggy Gugggenheim Museum, and the Santa della Maria Salute Church (one of the most famous landmarks of Venice) are all located here. [http://www.tours-italy.com/venice/guide_dorsoduro.htm Dorsoduro].<br /> <br /> '''''pensione'''''&lt;br&gt;<br /> A cheap Italian hotel, like a bed and breakfast.<br /> <br /> '''La Calcina'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> A historical hotel. La Calcina means ''The Lime House'', because the hotel was built on a 17th-century lime production site. It is located on the Zattere promenade, at the foot of the Calcina Bridge. Various Bohemian artists frequented the Café of the hotel, and John Ruskin indeed stayed at the hotel from February 13 to May 23, 1877. For the historical background of the hotel see [http://www.lacalcina.com/HTML/en/calcina_storia_en.html La Calcina].<br /> <br /> '''eminent ghosts, Turner and Whistler, Ruskin, Browning....'''<br /> <br /> Evokes Lytton Strachey's ''Eminent Victorians'' and this Quaternity of artists were eminent indeed (though not the subject of Strachey's book). All had a conection to Venice, and the note on Ruskin at the La Calcina above could be true of the other three as well. <br /> <br /> Robert Browning became a ghost in Venice in 1887. Of particular historic significance, Browning was the first person to ever have his voice heard after his death. Thomas Edison recorded Browning reading his poem &quot;How They Brought Good News from Ghent to Aix&quot; including the poet's apologies for forgetting the words. The recording was first played in Venice in 1890.<br /> <br /> '''''&quot;traces of conciousness&quot;. Psychical Research beginning to open these matters..streaming by'''''&lt;br&gt;<br /> <br /> Possible allusion to Joyce's &quot;stream of conciousness&quot;. Ulysses is also set in 1904, the year Joyce met his wife. <br /> <br /> But that is not the stream of consciousness refered to here, and it is the wrong &quot;James.&quot; William James actually coined the term &quot;stream of consciousness.&quot; Joyce was not the first to use it as a literary technique either -- he just perfected it in a way not seen before -- except perhaps in Proust.<br /> <br /> Considering the context in AtD concerns ghosts and the very next sentence begins with a mention of Psychical Research, &quot;traces of consciousness&quot; is not so much stream of consciousness as a trailing vapor or whisp of consciousness that streams by as a &quot;kind of ghost.&quot; Think in terms of thought transference, ESP, mediums, hypnosis, hallucinations, ghosts. More than a few characters in this novel are involved in these things.<br /> <br /> In order to study these phenomena, three dons of Trinity College, Cambridge founded The Society for Psychical Research in 1882. William James helped to found the American branch and was president of the group for a while. <br /> <br /> There are recurring parallels in AtD to a famous James quote from ''Varieties of Religious Experience'': <br /> <br /> Our normal waking consciousness . . . is but one special type of consciousness, whilst all about it, parted from it by the flimsiest of screens, there lie potential forms of consciousness entirely different. We may go through life without suspecting their existence; but apply the requisite stimulus and at a touch they are all there in all their completeness . . . No account of the universe in its totality can be final which leaves these other forms of consciousness quite disregarded. <br /> <br /> <br /> '''Zattere'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> An area of wide waterfront pavements in Venice.<br /> <br /> '''''...in hotels, the way your dreams are often, alarmingly, not your own?'''''&lt;br&gt;<br /> One more possible allusion to Proust, including also the following paragraph. At the beginning of the ''Recherche'', the main character, Marcel, spends a sleepless night in a hotel room, surrounded by memories he can't make sense of. <br /> <br /> In ''Lot 49'' Oedipa Maas considers all the dreams and memories stored in the mattresses of transients' hotels, and of the information destroyed when they burned.<br /> <br /> '''''cimici'''''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Latin: bedbug.<br /> <br /> '''to pick up traces of the dreams of whoever slept there just before them'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Cf. the Tom Waits song &quot;9th &amp; Hennepin&quot;: &quot;And all the rooms they smell like diesel / And you take on the dreams of the ones who have slept there&quot;. [http://www.tomwaitslibrary.com/lyrics/raindogs/9thandhennepin.html Lyrics]<br /> <br /> '''bora'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> a regional wind, blowing each winter.<br /> <br /> ==Page 579==<br /> <br /> '''vino forte'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> strong wine.<br /> <br /> '''Brindisi, Squinzano, . . . Brletta'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> They are the cities in Puglia (Apula) region of southeast Italy, ie. at the &quot;heel of the Italian Boot&quot;.<br /> <br /> '''Tintoretto's ''Abduction . . .'''''&lt;br&gt;<br /> See [http://www.egypttoday.com/article.aspx?ArticleID=3374 here]<br /> <br /> Tintoretto (1518-94), Venetian painter. Originally named Jacopo Robusti, because of his father's profession of ''tintore'' (dye) he was nicknamed as [http://www.wga.hu/bio/t/tintoret/biograph.html Tintoretto]. The most successful painter of Venetian school in the generation after Titian. His drawings, unlike Michelangelo's detailed life studies, are brilliant, rapid notations, bristling with energy, and his color is more somber and mystical than Titian's. For a better, can be enlarged, view of his [http://www.wga.hu/index1.html ''Abduction of the Body of St. Mark (1562-66)''].<br /> <br /> '''Accademia'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> The major art-gallery in Dorsoduro, Venice<br /> <br /> '''Titian'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> 16th century Venetian painter.&lt;br&gt;<br /> Vecellio Tiziano (1490-1576), better known as Titian, the greatest painter of the Venetain School and the leading light of the Italian Renaissance. Titian was recognized as a towering genius in his own time and his reputation as one of the giants of art has never been seriously questioned. He was supreme in every branch of painting and his achievements were so varied — ranging &quot;from the joyous evocation of pagan antiquity . . . to the depths of tragedy in his late religious paintings&quot; — that he has been an inspiration to artists of very different character. In many subjects, above all in portraiture, he set patterns that were followed by generations of artists. For more and Titian's paintings [http://www.wga.hu/bio/t/tiziano/biograph.html Titian].<br /> <br /> '''Infancy Gospel of Thomas'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> One of the apocryphal scriptures. The Infancy Gospel of Thomas relates the miraculous deeds of Jesus before he turned twelve. [http://www.earlychristianwritings.com/infancythomas.html 1] [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gospel_of_Thomas Wikipedia on the Gospel of Thomas]<br /> <br /> →Actually, The Infancy Gospel of Thomas is not the same as the Gospel of Thomas. The former is a brief summary of Jesus' misadventures as a child (as AtD notes, Jesus really is described as a hell-raiser and although at one point he brings a child named Zenon back from death, the Infancy Gospel mostly just makes a shallow exhibition of Jesus' miraculous powers). The latter is a Gnostic text and a &quot;collection of sayings, prophecies, proverbs, and parables of Jesus&quot; (Willis Barnstone, &quot;The Other Bible&quot; p. 299).<br /> <br /> Also, I read through the whole Infancy Gospel of Thomas and could not find the particular parable that Pynchon describes. However, Pynchon's parable is in keeping with the style of this Gospel. Jesus gets in trouble--making adults irate--and then sets everything straight. This particular parable also does not appear in The Infancy Gospel of James, The Infacy Gospel of Pseudo-Matthew, or The Arabic Infancy Gospel.<br /> <br /> The reference to this Gospel is a double+ play on the twins/double/mirror motif. First, as can be seen in this posting, there is confusion between the Gospel of Thomas and the Infancy Gospel of Thomas. The two gospels appear to be the same, but they are different. Second, the name ''Thomas'' means ''twin''. Also(+), Thomas is the doubting Thomas.<br /> To doubt is to be &quot;of two minds.&quot; The historic and theological significance of Thomas is loaded with themes relevant to this novel.<br /> <br /> ==Page 580==<br /> <br /> '''Pentecost story in Acts'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Pentecost is a Christian holiday commemorating the descent of the Holy Spirit on Jesus' followers and the beginning of the Christian church. Pentecost is celebrated by many (but not all) Christians on the Sunday 50 days after Easter. It often falls in early June. [[Acts II|Read the Biblical passages in Acts II...]]<br /> <br /> '''Galilean dialect'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Of Aramaic.<br /> <br /> '''Yes, well, it's redemption, isn't it, you expect chaos, you get order instead'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> In the Infancy Gospel of Thomas and the Pentecost, first Jesus, then the Holy Ghost, act as Maxwell's Demon [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Maxwell%27s_Demon]. In the Infancy Gospel story, Jesus sorts the randomly mixed dye molecules so that each garment comes out one color; in the Pentecost story the Holy Ghost causes a single language, just random noise to all but Galileans, to be heard as the many different languages of the listeners. Taking the two stories together, thermodynamic entropy is reversed, but the entropy of information is increased. This is the crux of ''Lot 49''; here it is another &quot;secular miracle&quot;; order emerges from chaos. The mathemateicians, artists and similar seekers may bring forth a similar miracle, the ability to experience other dimensions, to understand the universe (See Kit's dream, P.566).<br /> <br /> '''''rii'''''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Plural of ''rio''.<br /> <br /> ==Page 581==<br /> <br /> '''''sotopòrteghi'''''&lt;br&gt;<br /> An open doorway for public access. (Cf [[ATD_243-272#Page 246|page 246:sotopòrteghi]].)<br /> <br /> '''Bodeo 10.4 mm'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> A mass-produced Italian-made service revolver, initially made around 1889. Demand for them as guns was low, causing thousands of the weapons to be converted to table lamps. An interesting Pynchonian connection between light, manufacture, weapons, and war.<br /> <br /> ==Page 582==<br /> <br /> '''''foschetta'''''&lt;br&gt;<br /> ''Foschia'' in Italian means &quot;fog&quot;. ''Foschetta'' is a term for &quot;light fog&quot;.<br /> <br /> '''''masègni'''''&lt;br&gt;<br /> ???<br /> :blocks of Euganean trachyte used for paving, often marked off by bands of Istrian stone<br /> <br /> '''''patrone'''''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Probably meaning ''padrone'', &quot;master&quot;. -- blicero2<br /> :or female saint? not referring to Tonio but just as an expression.<br /> <br /> '''wine trains up from Puglia'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> ???Puglia region is in southeast of Italy (at the &quot;heel of the Italian Boot&quot;). From page 578-579: &quot;In September, when the vino forte arrived from Brindis, Squinzano, and Barletta . . .&quot; These three cities are in Puglia. Cf [[ATD_557-587#Page 579|page 579:vino forte]] and [[ATD_557-587#Page 579|page 579:Brindisi, Squinzano, . . . Barletta]].<br /> <br /> '''Winter'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> 1904-1905?<br /> <br /> '''''osterie'''''&lt;br&gt;<br /> tavern?<br /> <br /> '''Principessa Spongiatosta'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Is Pugnax's book from p6 at all relevant here?<br /> :Yes! [[Princess_Casamassima,_The|''The Princess Casamassima'']] has several resonances with ''AtD.''<br /> <br /> '''Ca''''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Abbreviated form of &quot;Casa,&quot; Italian for &quot;house.&quot;<br /> <br /> Which appears to be multidimensional, or at any rate non-Euclidean, reminiscent of Zombini's cabinet.<br /> <br /> '''Roman Composite order'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> A classical order (style of building design) dating from late Roman times, formed by superimposing Ionic volute (volute = a spiral scroll ornament) on a Corinthian capital (capital = the head or crowning feature of a column). ([http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Composite_order Composite order]).<br /> <br /> '''japonica'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Japanese honeysuckle.<br /> <br /> ==Page 583==<br /> <br /> '''Iron Bridge'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> The Ponte dell’Accademia - connecting the Venetian quarters (sestieri) San Marco and Dorsoduro - was constructed during the Austrian occupation in 1854. This steel construction got replaced ca. 1933 by a wooden bridge (which was replaced by yet another wooden bridge in 1985) [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ponte_dell'Accademia Wikipedia]<br /> <br /> '''Le Havre'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> French port city on the Atlantic (English Channel).<br /> <br /> '''''ma via'''''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Meaning &quot;come on!&quot;, in Italian. -- blicero2<br /> <br /> '''third eyes touching'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> The third eye, as existing on some reptiles is a dorsal organ that is receptive to light, otherwise known as the ''pineal eye''. Since the two half-sisters are obviously not reptiles, this reference might allude to the figurative third eye, or the eye of the mind, heart or soul. When the two touch foreheads, they are able to peer into each other consciences, by way of these third eyes. [http://www.thefreedictionary.com/third+eye /Dictionary Entry]<br /> <br /> ==Page 584==<br /> <br /> '''&quot;Swiss insurance salesman. Wolf. No, Putzi.&quot;'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Bria's had so many beaux she gets them confused? One was a wolf; the other a putz?<br /> :''Wolf'' is an uncommon given name but also a diminutive of Wolfgang. ''Putzi'' does not come from a given name; it's like &quot;sweetiepie,&quot; a nickname for a cute boy.<br /> <br /> '''''topo'''''&lt;br&gt;<br /> A topo is a guide for a crag or climbing area.<br /> <br /> '''Dogana'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Custom House, built on a wedge of land called ''Punta della Dogana'' (Custom Point). This wedge of land is at the entrance of the Grand Canal, as described in the text: &quot;where the Grand Canal and the Lagoon meet&quot;. The original 14th-century customs tower was replaced by a colonnaded building named the ''Dogana de Mare'' (Sea Customs Post). See picture [http://uk.encarta.msn.com/media_1041505867_761562189_-1_1/Punta_della_Dogana_Venice.html Punta della Dogana]<br /> <br /> '''Andrea Tancredi'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> An artist and acquaintence made by Hunter Penhallow in Venice. His name is likely derived from the Gioacchino Rossini opera ''Tancredi'' or the Voltaire play by the same name. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tancredi Wikipedia Entry]&lt;br /&gt;<br /> Tancredi, restored, is a tragedy. the soldier Tancredi and his family have been stripped of their estates and inheritances, and he himself has been banished since his youth. Two more noble families — headed by Argirio and Orbazzano — have been warring for years. Wikipedia.<br /> Tancredi presides in exile...he is mortally wounded at the end after learning the person he thought betrayed the heroine did not. <br /> <br /> :Actually, per [[T#tancredi|my entry in the Alpha index]], more likely the name connects with Tancredi, the time-traveling character in ''City of Death'', a four-part serial in the British science fiction television series ''Dr. Who'' which involves time travel and bilocation. Tancredi is the sole survivor of the Jagaroth race, an evil people who destroyed themselves in a war some 400 million years ago. Tancredi explains that a few escaped in a dilapidated spacecraft and found Earth in a primeval, lifeless stage of its development. The ship disintegrated upon takeoff and [[Scaroth]] tells of how he was fractured in time, splinters of his being were scattered across time and space, all identical, none complete. Whereas, in ''City of Death'', Tancredi, one of the Scaroff &quot;splinters&quot; living in Renaissance Italy, is plotting to create multiple Mona Lisa's for fraudulent purposes, ''Against the Day'''s Tancredi is fighting art fraud. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/City_of_Death Read the synopsis of ''City of Death'']; The name &quot;Andrea&quot; ''could'' be a reference to the protagonist Andrea Marsh, a time-traveler in the 1889 novel, ''Timeless Love'' by Judy Hinson ([[Timeless Love|synopsis]]).<br /> <br /> '''Seurat and Signac'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> George Seurat (1859-1891) and Paul Signac (1863-1935), French painters who developed pointillism. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pointillism Wikipedia entry].<br /> <br /> '''Divisionism'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Term invented by Paul Signac to describe the Neo-Impressionist separation of colour into dots or patches applied directly to the canvas. From Grove Dictionary of Art. <br /> <br /> <br /> '''Marinetti'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> The Italian poet Filippo Tommaso Marinetti was the first among [the Futurists] to produce a manifesto of their artistic philosophy in his Manifesto of Futurism (1909)(see below).<br /> <br /> '''&quot;Futurists&quot;'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Practitioners or followers of Futurism, an early 20th century art movement that is considered the genesis of Cubism, Dada and Art Deco. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Futurism_%28art%29 Wikipedia entry].Marinetti summed up the major principles of the Futurists, including a passionate loathing of ideas from the past, especially political and artistic traditions. He and others also espoused a love of speed, technology and violence. The car, the plane, the industrial town were all legendary for the Futurists, because they represented the technological triumph of man over nature.<br /> <br /> <br /> '''brutalism'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> See above and The Futurists were often condemned as fascistic in their manifestos and outlook. <br /> <br /> '''Torcello'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> A lonely Venetian island: very peaceful and beautiful with a church and little else.<br /> <br /> '''primitivo'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> A kind of red wine (same as the original Zinfandel, actually).<br /> <br /> ==Page 585==<br /> <br /> '''green-and-lavender'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Another clashing color scheme.<br /> <br /> '''sirocco'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> A hot dust-laden wind from the Libyan deserts that blows on the northern Mediterranean coast chiefly in Italy, Malta, and Sicily. &lt;br&gt;<br /> The correct spelling in Italian is ''Scirocco''. <br /> <br /> '''San Michele'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> San Michele, nicknamed The Island of the Dead, is the cemetery island of Venice. It is associated with the sestiere of Cannaregio from which it lies a short distance north east. <br /> Walls of San Michele.Along with neighbouring San Cristoforo della Pace, the island was a popular place for local travellers and fishermen to land. Mauro Codussi's Chiesa di San Michele in Isola of 1469, the first Renaissance church in Venice, and a monastery lie on the island.<br /> <br /> '''futuristic vehicle'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> See p. 155 [[ATD_149-170#Pages_154-155|and annotations.]] Of course, the machine-inspired Futurists would remind Hunter of this vehicle that 'had borne him to safety'!<br /> <br /> Why? Hunter isn't the Futurist here and doesn't seem to share the same naive faith in Progress that Tancredi does.<br /> <br /> '''the chill, comfortless faith in science and rationality...'''&lt;br /&gt;<br /> [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Max_Weber Max Weber's] concept of rationality, and the [[Routinization of Charisma|routinization/rationalization of charisma]], is a prominent theme in [http://gravitys-rainbow.pynchonwiki.com/wiki/index.php?title=R#routinization ''Gravity's Rainbow''] &amp;#151; a spontaneous and charismatic source of authority is eventually &quot;rationalized&quot; and brought under the control of processes and rules. In Pynchon's view, it is a movement toward Death and thematically related to entropy &amp;#151; a prominent theme in [http://v.pynchonwiki.com/wiki/index.php?title=E#entropy ''V.''] &amp;#151; and, in [http://masondixon.pynchonwiki.com/wiki/index.php?title=F#fengshui ''Mason &amp; Dixon''], bad ''Feng Shui'' and the reduction of the fuzzy boundaries between Pennsylvania and Maryland into a straight line.<br /> <br /> In the April 1957 issue of ''The Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists'', Cornell University Professor of Philosophy, E.A. Burtt, author of the classic ''Metaphysical Foundations of Modern Science'', called for a 'revolutionary' change in the way we viewed science and the scientific method. The article was entitled ''Critique of &quot;Pure&quot; Science''.&lt;br&gt; &quot;Briefly, [Burtt] challenges the assumption that science is progressively unveiling a picture of the 'real' world---a world which, as its character becomes clearer, human beings will have to adjust to, whatever that character turns out to be.&quot;[http://www.manasjournal.org/pdf_library/VolumeX_1957/X-17.pdf]<br /> <br /> '''''Preliminary Studies...'''''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Artists often do 'preliminary studies'..'infernal machine' comes out of Futurism's ideas.<br /> <br /> ==Page 586==<br /> <br /> '''Always with us.'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Gospel of Matthew. &quot;The poor you will always have with you&quot;. Here reference is to born-again Christers.<br /> <br /> '''''vero?'''''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Literally meaning ''true'' in Italian, here it is used as you would use: &quot;Are you talking of an infernal machine, ''aren't you'' ?&quot;<br /> <br /> '''We desire transformation'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Aligns the explosion-loving Tancredi with the Rilke-quoting Blicero from Gravity's Rainbow. '&quot;Want the Change,&quot; Rilke said, &quot;O be inspired by the Flame!&quot;' (GR p.97)<br /> <br /> It also might be helpful to recall that Shiva, who has been referred to implicitly numerous times already in ATD, is the transformative/destructive deity of the Hindi Trimurti.<br /> <br /> This section also sets up Tancredi as an opposite of Hunter, who on p.577 wants to find a &quot;neutral hour&quot;, that &quot;goes neither forwards or back&quot;, and on the same page &quot;felt no desire to join in, quite the opposite.&quot; Hunter himself is much like Katje from GR. Page 97 again: &quot;But not Katje: No mothlike plunge. He must conclude that secretly she fears the change...&quot;<br /> <br /> '''orpiment yellow'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> A yellow color pigment ([http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Orpiment Wikipedia])<br /> <br /> '''Nürnberg violet'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> An artificial color pigment discovered in 1868 in the city of Nuremberg<br /> <br /> ==Page 587==<br /> <br /> '''&quot;The energies of motion, the grammatical tyrannies of becoming, in divisionismo we discover how to break them apart into their component frequencies . . . we define a smallest element, a dot of color which becomes the basic unit of reality . . . .'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> This seems to describe both the kind of painting done by Tancredi and atomic research. Breaking material into its atomic unit, the basic unit of reality, is literally part of the &quot;energies of motion.&quot;<br /> This also describes how a television set works. The screen is composed of millions of tiny dots that, taken together, create moving pictures. <br /> <br /> <br /> '''Brownian movement'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Also called Brownian motion. It is the irregular motion of small particles suspended in a liquid or a gas, caused by the bombardment of the particles by molecules of the medium<br /> first divscovered by botanist Robert Brown (1773-1858) in 1827. Einstein in one of his four ''Annus Mirabilis Papers'' of 1905 explained the random motion using molecular kinetic theory of heat. Cf [[ATD_397-428#Page 412|page 412:young Einstein]].<br /> <br /> '''I really love the old dump'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> For the same reason Dally does: Venice has what Pynchon called (in ''V.'') &quot;Temporal Bandwidth&quot;: a life in a depth of time, a simultaneous humane immersion in past, present and future. The canals of industrialized Belgium are silted up, the connections to its Hanse past lost, paved and tracked over. This has not, and cannot, happen to Venice; even a Futurist painter cannot carry out the appaling modernization he describes. Venice is a place to hide from the future; indeed, in terms of physical destruction, the world wars barely touched La Serenisima.<br /> <br /> '''''nebbia, nebbietta, foschia, caligo, sfumato'''''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Varieties of fog.<br /> <br /> '''speed of sound'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Air temperature is more important that density.<br /> <br /> '''''La Velocità del Suono'''''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Italian, &quot;speed of sound&quot;<br /> <br /> ==Annotation Index==<br /> {{ATD PbP}}</div>

MKOHUT https://against-the-day.pynchonwiki.com/wiki/index.php?title=ATD_557-587&diff=14133 2007-10-21T16:12:26Z

<p>MKOHUT: /* Page 585 */</p> <hr /> <div>:'''&lt;big&gt;Please keep these annotations SPOILER-FREE by not revealing information from later pages in the novel.&lt;/big&gt;'''&lt;p&gt;&lt;br&gt;<br /> <br /> ==Page 557==<br /> <br /> '''Viktor Mulciber'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Well, no benign associations with &quot;Mulciber&quot;! Mulciber is an alternative name of the Roman god Vulcan, the god of fire and volcanoes, and the manufacturer of art, arms, iron, and armor for gods and heroes. Mulciber is also the name of a character in John Milton's ''Paradise Lost'', the architect of the demon city of Pandemonium. When Pynchon was alluded to on The John Larroquette Show [80s or 90s], the book he was said to be working on was called ''Pandemonium of the Sun''.&lt;br&gt;<br /> In the Harry Potter books, Mulciber is a Death Eater, a minor Dark Wizard.<br /> <br /> '''bespoke'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> made to order, hence hand-made and expensive. Somewhere in the novel is a reference to 1 Savile Row, the address of Gieves and Hawkes, a very traditional English tailor.<br /> <br /> '''Basil Zaharoff'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Sir Basil Zaharoff, originally Zacharias Basileios, (1849, Muğla, Turkey - 1936, Monte Carlo, Monaco) was a Greek arms trader and financier, the director and chairman of the Vickers munitions firm during World War I [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zaharoff_Basil]. He also turns up as an international arms dealer in Reilly, Ace of Spies.<br /> <br /> In addition to the arms-dealing and being semi-fictionalized, Zaharoff is also notable for bribing the Japanese Admiral, helping to incorporate the company that eventually became British Petroleum, and through his association with Louis II of Monaco, the purchase of the Société des Bains de Mer, which ran the famous Monte Carlo casino.<br /> <br /> '''trains of history... run'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Karl Marx, in ''Das Kapital'', referred to wars as the &quot;express trains of history&quot; because they can spark societal or national crises, marking a historical turning point, and they can release economic, social, and moral forces of unforeseen power and dimensions, making any return to the status quo impossible.<br /> Also notice TRP's steady referencing of 'railroads' in a negative way. <br /> <br /> '''Q-weapon'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Possible allusion to Professor Kokintz's &quot;Q-bomb&quot; in ''The Mouse That Roared'' (1959) or to James Bond's master armorer Q. It could also be an allusion to the character &quot;Q&quot; in Star Trek where the name &quot;Q&quot; is also shared by other members of the Q Continuum. Q is a mischievous omnipotent being who has taken an interest in humans. He also has a flair for the dramatic, with a mercurial personality that switches between a joking, camp style and a more ominous and even dangerous manner. While he is boastful, condescending and threatening, he arguably has humanity's best interests at heart. In the episode &quot;The Q and the Gray&quot; (''Star Trek: Voyager'' - 3rd season), Q weapons are provided to the crew of the Voyager to free Q and Janeway, who have been captured by rebels. [http://www.answers.com/topic/the-q-and-the-grey Synopsis]; [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Q_(Star_Trek) Wikipedia]. Looney Tunes character Marvin the Martian possesses an earth-destroying weapon known as the Illudium Q-36 Explosive Space Modulator.<br /> <br /> In this context, the Q stands for &quot;Quaternion.&quot; See under Q in the alphabetical index.<br /> <br /> '''Balkan ''komitadji'''''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Originally, members of the rebel gangs (&quot;committees&quot;), controlled from Sofia, who made forays into Macedonia, the chief object of Bulgarian expansionism before WWI. The word was also commonly used for Serbian irregular fighters.<br /> <br /> :See this slightly different [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Komitadji Komitadji].<br /> <br /> '''waybill'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Ancestor of what Fedex and UPS call &quot;shipping document&quot;; it identifies the article shipped and contains necessary addresses and instructions.<br /> <br /> '''metamorphosed into an American Negro'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Cf honorary Negro (Frank above).<br /> <br /> '''Nipponese'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Japanese<br /> <br /> '''peach'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Plum, actually.<br /> <br /> '''Hertzian'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Electromagnetic waves, first demonstrated by [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Heinrich_Rudolf_Hertz Heinrich Hertz] (Cf [[ATD_318-335#Page 318|page 318:Hertz]]).<br /> <br /> '''they cannot strictly . . . longitudinal as well as transverse'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Hertz's theory and Maxwell's equations describe ''transverse'' waves in which the electric and magnetic fields are perpendicular to the direction of travel; no longitudinal waves--with vibrations parallel to the direction of travel--are permitted. In air, sound waves are longitudinal; what's suggested here is a new wave that does not fit the Hertz-Maxwell paradigm.<br /> <br /> ==Page 558==<br /> <br /> '''scalar part'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Quaternion equivalent of the real part.&lt;br&gt;<br /> A scalar quantity in geometry has magnitude but not direction. The length of a line segment is a scalar.&lt;br&gt;<br /> Time is a scalar term. <br /> <br /> '''baritone in a barbershop quartet'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> [http://www.barbershop.org/web/groups/public/documents/pages/pub_id_000827.hcsp Quote]:Technically speaking, barbershop harmony is a style of unaccompanied singing with three voices harmonizing to the melody. The lead usually sings the melody, with the tenor harmonizing above the lead. The bass sings the lowest harmonizing notes and the baritone provides in-between notes, either above or below the lead to make chords (specifically, dominant-type or &quot;barbershop&quot; sevenths) that give barbershop its distinctive, &quot;full&quot; sound.<br /> <br /> '''viola in a string quartet'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Two violins, a viola, and a violoncello make up a string quartet. The viola is between the others in pitch and is generally considered to have been given the least interesting parts in Classical and Romantic music for string quartet.<br /> <br /> '''Further Term'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> The three parts of a quaternion that are multiples of '''i''', '''j''' and '''k''' (Cf [[ATD_525-556#Page 525|page 525: Quaternions]].)<br /> <br /> '''the fulfiller of the Trinity'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> the name of the first atom bomb detonated at Los Alamos. Alluded to earlier as the &quot;Anti-Stone&quot; (Webb and Merle, p.78). The origin of the name Trinity for this event is uncertain. It is commonly thought that Robert Oppenheimer provided the name, which would seem logical, but even this is not definitely known. A leading theory is that Oppenheimer did select it, and that he did so with reference to the divine Hindu trinity of Brahma (the Creator), Vishnu (the Preserver), and Shiva (the Destroyer). Oppenheimer had an avid interest in Sanskrit literature (which he had taught himself to read), and following the Trinity test is reported to have recited a passage from the Bhagavad-Gita that is quoted earlier in this wiki.&lt;br&gt;<br /> <br /> The usage of the Tibetan Mount Kailash, the holy dwelling place of Shiva, God of destruction and regeneration, on p. 437 seems to support this.<br /> <br /> Also, a religious allusion to the three-person Godhead in Christian theology. &lt;br&gt;<br /> Also, third ATD meaning!, a college in Dublin mentioned on page 560.<br /> <br /> Also,&quot;the Destroyer, the fulfiller of the trinity&quot; recalls the Destroyer on page 154, the meteorite, and thus relates ''that'' passage to the Anti-Stone.<br /> <br /> Also, in Jungian Psychology the 'fulfiller' of the trinity, making it a complete four-aspect entity, is the 'shadow', or traditionally, the devil (the force always excluded and seen as bad in Christian theology). Cf. C. G. Jung, &quot;Versuch einer psychologischen Deutung des Trinitätsdogmas&quot;, Gesammelte Werke 11, especially p.179-94. Interestingly, Jung uses the term 'quaternarisch' for this. More Q-talk, then.<br /> <br /> '''the pulselessness of salvation'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> salvation lies outside of time?<br /> <br /> '''A weapon based on Time'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Time is why there is entropy, that key Pynchonian term. Pynchon has created a brilliant metaphor that uses the concept uniquely. The Q-weapon, at the heart of which lies &quot;a crystal about the size of a human eyeball&quot; is based on Time. What becomes of the Q-weapon after Umeki (possibly) gives it to Halfcourt in Constantinople? ([[ATD_1018-1039#Page 1036|See page 1036...]])<br /> <br /> '''&quot;...you could become the most feared person in history.&quot; ... &quot;I'd rather be loved,&quot; said Root.'''&lt;br &gt;<br /> Echoes Machiavelli's famous aphorism, &quot;It is much safer to be feared than loved.&quot;<br /> <br /> '''laterite'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> A mineral structure formed by erosion, see [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Laterite Wikipedia]. Laterite is typically rich in metal oxides and poor in organic matter.<br /> <br /> '''Ostend'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Cf [[ATD_525-556#Page 525|page 525:Ostend]]. Ostend (Dutch: Oostende, French &amp; German: Ostende) is a Belgian municipality located in the Flemish province of West Flanders. It comprises the villages of Mariakerke, Stene and Zandvoorde, and the city of Ostend proper – the largest at the Belgian coast. Wikipedia.<br /> <br /> '''Inner Boulevards'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> streets in Brussels.&quot;In spite of the competition of the Central or Inner Boulevards, the Montagne de la Cour still remains the principal street for shopping in Brussels.&quot; &quot;Brussels&quot;, Antiques Digest, 1904.<br /> <br /> '''Gare du Midi'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> The largest railway station in Brussels and a haunt of prostitutes.<br /> <br /> &lt;div id=&quot;gevaert&quot;&gt;&lt;/div&gt;'''Edouard Gevaert'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> It seems this gentleman is fictional. although there are some interesting, but tenuous, connections. Agfa-Gevaert is the current owner of the [[W#wardenclyffe|Wardenclyffe Tower]] facility which housed the Tesla Tower. [http://www.maerlant.be/photherel/student/nvgevaert.htm Lieven Gevaert] (1868-1935) was a Belgian industrialist who founded Gevaert &amp; Co. which produced photographic paper, in 1894. The company specialized in &quot;daylight&quot; paper, which relies on the event of exposure of the positive image through daylight, as opposed to development paper which is based on a process of special manipulation with chemicals. (Are photographs &quot;stolen goods&quot;? &quot;Unworldy go-betweens&quot;? Is the Q-Weapon a ... camera? No. It unlocks Time, animating the photograph - [[ATD_1018-1039#Page 1036|See page 1036]]) Agfa (Actien-Gesellschaft für Anilin-Fabrikation) was founded in 1864 as a manufacturer of dies and stains. In World War II, it became part of IG Farben (prominent in [http://gravitys-rainbow.pynchonwiki.com/wiki/index.php?title=IG_Farben_References ''Gravity's Rainbow'']. The Allies broke up IG Farben after the war and Agfa emerged as an individual company. And, well, there ''was'' a Dutch arms dealer named Edouard de Beaumont (1841-1895) who has a rifle named after him. Yes, a stretch... Upon further reflection, I believe &quot;Edouard&quot; may refer to [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Muybridge Eadweard Muybridge] (Edouard was a variant spelling he earlier used) and his photographic experiments with ''freezing'' motion/Time.<br /> <br /> ==Page 559==<br /> <br /> '''Krupp field-piece'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> The Krupps are an ancient German family, famous for making weapons. A field-piece is a light-cannon.<br /> <br /> '''vaguely glandular'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Describes Belgium, it seems.<br /> <br /> '''''ostinato'''''&lt;br&gt;<br /> A continually repeated musical phrase or rhythm.<br /> <br /> '''poleaxed'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Stunned, brought to a mental standstill. (A poleaxe was used in slaughterhouses.)<br /> <br /> '''lost to silence'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> (Not silent, or very?)Very<br /> <br /> ==Page 560==<br /> <br /> '''Wellington Hippodrome'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> A race track in Ostend. (Cf [[ATD_525-556#Page 528|page 528:Hippodrome]].)<br /> <br /> '''Estacade'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> ???<br /> :A dike of piles in the sea, a river, etc., to check the approach of an enemy. [http://www.thefreedictionary.com/Estacade]<br /> <br /> '''''mousmée... mouchard'''''&lt;br&gt;<br /> French: a young Japanese woman; a police spy.<br /> :When Henry James revised ''The Princess Casamassima'' for the 1909 New York edition, the phrase &quot;middle-class spy&quot; in the 1886 text became ''mouchard''. Source: note by Patricia Crick in Penguin Classics edition.<br /> <br /> '''always lead an irregular life'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Cf GR.<br /> <br /> '''Maria Bayley Hamilton'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> ???<br /> Hamilton's wife !!!<br /> <br /> '''council meeting'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> ???<br /> <br /> ==Page 561==<br /> <br /> '''Brougham Bridge'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> It was on this site that the [[H#hamilton|mathematician William Rowan Hamilton]], in a flash of genius, came upon the formula for Quaternions and scratched it into the stone of the bridge.<br /> <br /> About the bridge, the carving, photos of them, a couple of mathematicians' impression of the bridge, etc, see [http://math.ucr.edu/home/baez/octonions/node24.html Brougham Bridge].<br /> <br /> '''on the stone'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> The bridge is evidently a stone bridge. Stone, a natural thing, is a good for Pynchon. Hamilton's action is metaphorically a deeply religious moment. &quot;Pentecostal&quot; wherein the Quaternions 'descend' to earth [in the thoughts of men].<br /> <br /> '''''i² = j² = k² = ijk = –1'''''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Cf [[ATD_525-556#Page 525|page 525:Quaternion]].<br /> <br /> '''Pentecostal'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Pentecost (&lt; Greek πεντηκοστή [ἡμέρα], pentekostē [hēmera], &quot;the fiftieth day&quot;) is the fiftieth day after Easter Sunday, which corresponds to the tenth day after Ascension Thursday. It is a feast in the Christian liturgical calendar — symbolically related to the Jewish festival of Shavuot — that commemorates the descent of the Holy Spirit upon the Apostles and the followers of Jesus on that day, as described in the Book of Acts, Chapter 2. Pentecost is also called &quot;Whitsunday&quot; (deriving from &quot;Wit Sunday&quot;) in UK and other English-speaking areas.<br /> <br /> Almost needless to say, the Pentecostal revelation is what is supposed to happen at the end of &quot;Lot 49&quot;.<br /> <br /> '''official Mischief Opportunity'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> like 'shore leave', it seems. To leave the rules of the Organization and create mischief.<br /> <br /> '''absinthe spoons'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> absinthe spoons have slits whereon are placed sugar cubes through which one pours the absinthe<br /> <br /> '''cravats'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> A cravat is the neckband forerunner of the modern, tailored necktie. From the end of the 16th century, the term &quot;band&quot; applied to any long-strip neckcloth that was not a &quot;ruff&quot;; the ruff—a starched, pleated white linen strip—started its fashion career earlier in the 16th century as neckcloth that could be changed-a-fresh to keep the neck of a doublet from becoming too-soiled or as a bib or a napkin. A &quot;band&quot; could indicate a plain, attached shirt collar or a detachable &quot;falling band&quot; that draped over the doublet collar.&lt;br&gt;<br /> Necktie fashions have changed over time. The modern cravat originated in the 1630s when Western Europeans saw Croats wearing extravagant neck scarves; the French word ''cravate'' means &quot;Croatian cavalryman.&quot;<br /> <br /> '''&quot;four-door farce&quot;'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> (See eg Bogdanovich's &quot;What's Up, Doc?&quot;)<br /> This is also a pun on the name of Georges Feydeau, French writer of farces who was writing when Pynchon's novel is set. One of the recurring physical jokes involves sets with many doors and people coming in and out, just missing each other....<br /> <br /> The ranking of farces by door number is mostly jocular. Neil Simon's ''Rumors'' is a fine example of a seven-door farce.<br /> <br /> ==Page 562==<br /> <br /> '''Minque'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> the fish auction house.<br /> <br /> '''Bruges'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> A city about 18 miles east of Ostende, Cf [[ATD_525-556#Page 531|page 531:Bruges]].<br /> <br /> '''Ghent'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> A city about 40 miles southeast by east from Ostend, Cf [[ATD_525-556#Page 531|page 531:Ghent]].<br /> <br /> '''carillons . . . carillonneur'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> The [http://www.gcna.org/crlnexp.html carillon] was popular in Belgium before it caught on in most other places. It comprises a set of bells, matched in character, forming a scale (a couple of chromatic octaves or even more), with the beaters or clappers mechanically linked to a keyboard. A later development replaced muscle power with electromechanical linkages. In a still later &quot;advance,&quot; the carillon was automated with music-box-like control. The American practice of playing recorded bells through loudspeakers is a shamefully cheap way to imitate carillon music.&lt;br&gt;<br /> The carillonneur is the master at the keyboard.&lt;br&gt;<br /> English-style bell ringing is a totally different pursuit, using (often imperfectly) tuned bells actuated in nonmelodic sequences. The bells, not the clappers, are swung with ropes. The effect of an eight-bell &quot;peal&quot; and a team of ringers with plenty of time on their hands—as heard by this American contributor in Bristol one spring Sunday—is perfectly charming.&lt;br&gt;<br /> By the way: The word &quot;carillon&quot; is derived from the Latin &quot;quaternio&quot; (= consisting of four elements)...<br /> <br /> '''Hanseatic'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> The Hansa or Hanseatic League (definitely a creation of &quot;the Christian North,&quot; next paragraph) was a great mercantile system that held itself above national rule.<br /> <br /> '''burghers'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> middle-class married men<br /> <br /> '''silted up'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> backed up, underwater, with mud; i.e. neglected, because replaced by railroads. -As it silted up &quot;back in the 1400s&quot; we can safely exclude the influence of railroads.<br /> <br /> '''Damme and Sluis'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Port cities near Bruges, heavily dependent on them from the 14th Century.&lt;br&gt;<br /> See [http://www.damme-online.com/gb/communities/damme.htm Damme] and [http://www.damme-online.com/gb/arounddamme/sluis.htm Sluis]. For an overview map, showing cannals, roads etc, of the general area around Bruges-Damme-Sluis see [http://www.damme-online.com/gb/maps/generaloverview.htm Bruges-Damme-Sluis]<br /> <br /> ==Page 563==<br /> <br /> '''trusted his intuitiveness'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Woevre is a natural killer.<br /> <br /> '''''&quot;Jou moerskont!&quot;''... Afrikaans'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Possibly &quot;you horse's ass&quot;? --More likely something like &quot;mother's cunt&quot;.<br /> <br /> ==Page 564==<br /> <br /> '''voices of everyone he had ever put to death had been ... scored for some immense choir'''&lt;br /&gt;<br /> A possible reference to ''Star Wars'': Obi-wan experiences the obliteration of an entire planet as &quot;a great disturbance in the Force, as if millions of voices suddenly cried out in terror and were suddenly silenced.&quot; [http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0076759/quotes]<br /> <br /> Also another potentially time-less event, all of Woevre's murders collapsed into a single moment.<br /> <br /> The &quot;choir&quot; image occurs several times in ''AtD.'' [[ATD_1-25#Page_19|One example.]]<br /> <br /> '''&quot;I cannot bear it ... this terrible light...&quot;'''&lt;br /&gt;<br /> Shades of the Kirghiz Light in [http://gravitys-rainbow.pynchonwiki.com/wiki/index.php?title=The_Kirghiz_Light ''Gravity's Rainbow'']<br /> <br /> '''''Voetsak'''''&lt;br /&gt;<br /> Afrikaans (maybe Dutch too): Go away! Also spelled ''voertsek'' or ''voetsek.''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Borrowed in English with the spelling ''footsack.'' The Urban Dictionary, which often excites skepticism, has [http://www.urbandictionary.com/define.php?term=footsack a useful entry] with a marginally plausible etymology. In [http://www.worldwideschool.org/library/books/lit/drama/Finished/chap5.html ''Finished'' (1916),] novelist H. Rider Haggard glossed it this way: &quot;Among Europeans he rejoiced in the name of Footsack, a Boer Dutch term which is generally addressed to troublesome dogs and means 'Get out.'&quot; And in a defective 1943 book for young readers, ''Great Caesar's Ghost'' (by Manning Coles, creator of gentleman op Tommy Hambledon), an English merchant seaman says, &quot;Get out, 'op it, vamoose, footsack, imshi, or I'll—&quot; [http://www.absp.org.uk/words/interjections.html ''Imshi''] is British service slang for &quot;go.&quot;<br /> <br /> '''starers'''&lt;br /&gt;<br /> Those who stared at Kit earlier.<br /> <br /> '''dramatic performance'''&lt;br /&gt;<br /> referring to 'No'?<br /> <br /> '''tobacco-stricken'''&lt;br /&gt;<br /> A smoker's deep or gritty voice.<br /> <br /> '''half-silvering'''&lt;br /&gt;<br /> A design for an optical [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Beam_splitter beam splitter] that causes half of the incident light to be transmitted and the other half to be reflected.<br /> <br /> '''the fatal number four&amp;#8212;to a Japanese mind'''&lt;br /&gt;<br /> Japanese character for number &quot;four&quot; has the same pronunciation as that of character &quot;death&quot;.&lt;br /&gt;<br /> Cf [[ATD_243-272#Page 258|page 258:Japanese character for &quot;four&quot;]].<br /> <br /> '''four cusps... index-surface'''&lt;br /&gt;<br /> ???<br /> <br /> '''co-conscious'''&lt;br /&gt;<br /> Cf [[ATD_525-556#Page 527|page 527:co-conscious]]. Repeat here: &quot;mental processes outside the main stream of consciousness but sometimes available to it - from Merriam-Webster's Medical Dictionary.&quot;<br /> <br /> Third use, I think. Who/what is co-conscious here? (First time, page 478; then page 527.)<br /> <br /> Could it be the dimly perceived consciousness of one's double in the adjacent, alternate world? Or one's consciousness of that world?<br /> <br /> ==Page 565==<br /> <br /> '''true icosahedron'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Probably an regular icosahedron, where the sides are formed by 20 equilateral triangles. For a picture see [http://mathworld.wolfram.com/Icosahedron.html Icosahedron].<br /> <br /> '''12+8... pyrites'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Pyrite crystals form a structure that can be decomposed into unit cells that contain (part of) 12 sulphur atoms and 8 iron atoms.<br /> <br /> '''Riemann sphere'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Riemann_sphere Wikipedia]<br /> <br /> '''Felix Klein'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> German mathematician ([http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Felix_Klein Wikipedia])<br /> <br /> '''ebonite'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> An early plastic([http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ebonite Wikipedia])<br /> <br /> '''Ohmic Drift Compensator'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> ohm = the practical meter-kilogram-second unit of electric resistance equal to the resistance of a circuit in which a potential difference of one volt produces a current of one ampere; The Ohmic Drift Compensator &amp;#151; a key component of the Q-weapon &amp;#151; &quot;regulates how much light is allowed to enter the silvering of the mirror! Special kind of refraction! Calibrated against imaginary index! Dangerous! Of the essence!'&quot; See also [[ATD 525-556#Page 541|Page 541]]. <br /> <br /> '''speed of the earth . . . kinetic energy'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Einstein in 1905 showed most of this argument to be nonsense, but if Lorentz's paper is still recent (next entry) the shift in thinking may not have happened yet.&lt;br&gt;<br /> :Since the earth's mean orbital speed ( ~ 30 km/s) is rather small in comparison with the speed of light ( ~ 300,000 km/s), no relativistic correction is needed in calculating earth's orbital kinetic energy. And in a reference frame anchored on the Sun, the earth's kinetic eneregy, ''E = ½ m v²'', where ''m'' is the earth mass and ''v'' it's orbital speed, still holds. Einstein showed only that it is no longer true against the nonexistent stationary ''æther''. Of course, it is irrelevant to an earthbound weapon tried to make use of this energy against a person who is standing on the earth.<br /> <br /> '''Recently Lorentz's paper'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Lorentz's 1904 &quot;Electromagnetic phenomena in a system moving with any velocity less than that of light&quot; ([http://www.soso.ch/wissen/hist/SRT/L-1904.pdf PDF])<br /> <br /> '''Lorentz . . . Fitzgerald . . . along the axis of motion'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> It was the phenomenon of the Lorentz-Fitzgerald contraction, together with the abolition of the æther by Michelson and Morley, that led Einstein to his theory of special relativity.<br /> :Michelson and Morley did NOT abolish the æther. Their experiement (1887), attempting to detect the light speed change due to the effect of the æther wind, was a total failure, and they could not explain the negative result.<br /> ::OK, would you accept &quot;the abolition of the æther hypothesis in consequence of Michelson and Morley's work&quot;? In fact, that negative result—replicated many times since—did render the notion of the luminiferous æther untenable, as the next two paragraphs make clear.<br /> :The Lorentz-Fitzgerald contraction hypothesis was proposed to explain the &quot;null&quot; result of the Michelson-Morley experiment but still keeping the æther. (see paragraph 8 of Lorentz's 1904 paper above). Lorentz considered the contraction was not physically real but a device to explain the Michelson-Morley experiment. ([http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lorentz_Fitzgerald_contraction_hypothesis Lorentz_Fitzgerald Contraction]).<br /> <br /> :Einstein (1905) derived the Lorentz contraction directly, without assuming the existence of the æther, from the ''Principle of Relativity'' (ie different observers moving at a constant speed with respect to each other find the laws of physics to be identical and find the speed of light to be the same), and proved that Lorentz-Fitzgerald contraction hypothesis had been &quot;ad-hoc&quot;. And Einstein explain the failure of Michelson-Morley experiment by abolishing the æther !<br /> <br /> '''Lord Rayleigh'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> British physicist ([http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lord_Rayleigh Wikipedia])<br /> <br /> ==Page 566==<br /> <br /> '''In a dream...'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> <br /> This passage, describing Kit's dream of Umeki and the message it conveys, pulls together many of the main themes of ''Against the Day'', tying things together in a way that Pynchon seldom does, almost as if he's providing a rather large piece of the puzzle to help the reader understand the novel:<br /> <br /> :&quot;Deep among the equations describing the behavor of light, field equations, Vector and Quaternion equations, lies a set of directions, an intinerary, a map to a hidden space. Double refraction appears again and again as a key element, permitting a view into a Creation set just to the side of this one, so close as to overlap, where the membrane between the worlds, in many places, has become too frail, too permeable, for safety.... Within the mirror, with the scalar term, within the daylit and obvious and taken-for-granted has always lain, as if in wait, the dark intinerary, the corrupted pilgrim's guide, the nameless Station before the first, in the lightless uncreated, where salvation does not yet exist.&quot;<br /> <br /> This is rather a good description of ''AtD'' itself. It is a (inevitably) &quot;corrupted pilgrim's guide&quot;, but is the guide corrupted, or the pilgrim?<br /> <br /> '''analogies'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> (Pynchonian heuristics.)<br /> <br /> '''the corrupted pilgrim's guide, the nameless Station before the first'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Cf. p. 436 '''holy pilgrimages. One defines a destination, proceeds through a series of stations...<br /> <br /> <br /> '''lightless uncreated'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> (Gnostic heresy?)<br /> <br /> '''...within the daylit and obvious and taken-for-granted has always lain, as if in wait, the dark itinerary, the corrupted pilgrim's guide, the names Station before the first, in the lightless uncreated, where salvation does not yet exist.'''&lt;br /&gt;<br /> Compare with &quot;daylit America . . . its steadfast denial of night&quot; ([[ATD_724-747#Page 732|page 732]]), ''AtD'' epigraph, Thelonious Monk's &quot;It's always night, or we wouldn't need light.&quot; '''and''' &quot;the boys expressed wonder at how much more infected with light the night-time terrains passing below them had become [...] they felt themselves in uneasy witness to some final conquest, a triumph over night whose motive none could quite grasp&quot; ([[ATD 1018-1039#Page 1032|p. 1032]]); <br /> <br /> '''stuffed sinus'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> sinus/nasal congestion. It is like looking out onto a new world when one's sinus finally clears after days of congestion.<br /> <br /> '''''Konichiwa'''''&lt;br&gt;<br /> ''sic'' for &quot;Konnichiwa / Kon nichi wa&quot; -- Japanese greeting.<br /> <br /> ==Page 567==<br /> <br /> '''new Puccini opera'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Obviously, [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Madame_Butterfly Madame Butterfly]<br /> <br /> '''[Americans] can't ever die of shame'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> shameless, unlike the Japanese<br /> <br /> '''Kimura-san'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Kimura ( &quot;tree village&quot;) is the 18th most common Japanese surname.<br /> -san is used as a courtesy title in Japanese-speaking areas as a suffix to the given name, surname, or title of the person being addressed, regardless of age or gender: Yamamoto san; sensei-san.&lt;br&gt;<br /> Chimera-san?<br /> <br /> '''Borel-Clerc... &quot;La Matchiche&quot;'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Popular vaudeville song from 1903. &quot;La Matchiche&quot; is French for the Brazilian dance Maxixe.<br /> <br /> '''western anchor'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> What about France, Spain, Portugal? Belgium is a port country with a highly developed transportation system into all of these countries. .....it was the first country to industrialize in Europe....Wikipedia. <br /> <br /> In addition, Ostend is the westernmost port. It remains today a major Continental ferry terminus for North Sea crossings, including the fastest surface route, the hydrofoil.<br /> <br /> '''the Orient Express'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> The first [http://mikes.railhistory.railfan.net/r045.html Orient Express] (1883-1914), connecting the English Channel with the Black Sea, is one of the most famous trains in Europe. It ran from Calais and Paris to Bucharest (Romania), passing through Strasbourg (France), Munich (Germany), Vienna (Austria), Bratislava (Czechoslovakia), Budapest (Hungary). From Bucharest it went through Bulgaria and then, by ferry, to Istanbul of Turkey. The original Orient Express was operated by Compaignie Internationale des Wagons-Lits. Ever since the original Orient Express started operation, the name has become synonymous with luxury travel. After World I there were various railway routes had the name of Orient Express. The current one is from Paris to Vienna, to be discontinue on June 9, 2007.<br /> <br /> '''the Trans-Siberian'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> The [http://www.transsib.ru/Eng/history-phases.htm Trans-Siberian] is a railway route connecting Moscow (Europe) to Vladivostok (Far East Asia). Taking a journey by the Trans-Siberian Railway has long been considered an experience with mythological proportions. It is the longest continuous rail line on earth - about 6,000 miles over one third of the globe. In 1891, Czar Alexander III drew up planes for the Trans-Siberian and initiated its construction, and a more or less continuous route was completed in 1905. It took many more years to make the route smoothly operative.<br /> <br /> '''the Berlin-to-Baghdad'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> The [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Baghdad_Railway Berlin-Baghdad (also Basra) Railway] was the route of German's expansion from Europe to the Persian Gulf, from which trade goods and supplies could be directly exchanged with the farthest of the German colonies and the world. It could also supply German industry directly with oil. Its conception (1888) and completion a couple of years later engendered great opposition from Russia, France and England as part of the &quot;Great Game&quot;.<br /> <br /> '''World-Island'''&lt;br /&gt;<br /> [[ATD 429-459#Page_433|See annotation at page 433]]<br /> <br /> '''Compaignie Internationale des Wagons-Lits'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> &quot;International Sleeping-Car Company&quot;, [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Carlson_Wagonlit Wikipedia]<br /> <br /> '''two hundred francs'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> &quot;None of that, Hakkabut. Hold your tongue.&quot; And, turning to Rosette, the captain said, &quot;If, sir, I understand right, you require some silver five-franc pieces for your operation?&quot;<br /> &quot;Forty,&quot; said Rosette, surlily.<br /> &quot;Two hundred francs!&quot; whined Hakkabut.-- On a Comet, Jules Verne<br /> <br /> '''theory of sets'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Set theory is the mathematical theory of sets, which represent collections of abstract objects. It encompasses the everyday notions, introduced in primary school, of collections of objects, and the elements of, and membership in, such collections. In most modern mathematical formalisms, set theory provides the language in which mathematical objects are described. It is (along with logic and the predicate calculus) one of the axiomatic foundations for mathematics, allowing mathematical objects to be constructed formally from the undefined terms of &quot;set&quot; and &quot;set membership&quot;. It is in its own right a branch of mathematics and an active field of mathematical research. Wikipedia&lt;br&gt;<br /> :The members of a set can be, say, [Mike, Mary, Jack, Richard, Ron, Umeki, . . . . . .], the employees of a company, or the passengers of the train leaving the station; they need NOT be abstract. Cf [[ATD_525-556#Page 535|page 525:set theory]].<br /> <br /> '''Bruges Canal'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Belgium: Bruges canal. For a picture of the canal see [http://cruises.about.com/library/pictures/baltic/blbruges19.htm Bruges Canal].<br /> <br /> ==Page 568==<br /> <br /> '''vaporetto'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> A Venetian water-bus.<br /> <br /> '''Grand Canal'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> The main canal that runs through the heart of Venice and down past San Marco, the city's main square.<br /> <br /> '''San Marco end'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> See above. This is where Florian's (appears in the novel) is situated.<br /> <br /> '''Piazzetta'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> ??? A small piazza. The large square in front of St Mark's is the Piazza San Marco. The smaller side square running beside the Palazzo Ducale down to the canal is the Piazzetta San Marco.<br /> <br /> '''San Giorgio Maggiore'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> A rather over-ornate church on the Grand Canal opposite San Marco.<br /> <br /> '''spreading... cloak'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Cliche/allusion?<br /> <br /> '''live here forever'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Pynchon special-pleading that Dally isn't just another tourist.<br /> Or is this just a typical reaction of the tourist? And a Pynchonesque longing for home?<br /> <br /> '''Teatro Verdi in Trieste'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> A 1200+ seat theatre built in late-eighteenth century in Trieste for classical music, opera and ballet ([http://selectitaly.com/events.php?product_id=27&amp;city_id=122 Teatro Verdi]). With its stately columns, elaborate adornments and lush elegance it is rather an unlikely venue for magic show. Another unlikely venue for magic show is Teatro Malibran in Venice (next page).<br /> <br /> ==Page 569==<br /> <br /> '''Malibran... Polo's house'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> The Teatro Malibran, built at the site of Marco Polo's house, which was destroyed in 1596.<br /> :It is still there ! Cf [[ATD_336-357#Page 355|page 355:Teatro Malibran]] and the external link (for photos, etc) listed there.<br /> <br /> '''&quot;pincette&quot; pass'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Probably from the [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pincer_movement pincer movement] of military strategy.<br /> :Professor Hoffman's ''Modern Magic'' (1876) describes three &quot;passes with coins,&quot; La Pincette, Le Tourniquet and La Coulée. Amazon has the book for sale if anyone wants to look up the details.<br /> <br /> '''profondes'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> &quot;Large pockets in tail coats which can be used for vanishes or productions&quot;, [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_conjuring_terms Wikipedia]<br /> <br /> '''Vincenzo Miserere'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> ??? Misero means poor, pitiful, miserable, etc. Psalm 51 (sometimes numbered as 50) is known as the Miserere because it begins (in Latin) Miserere mei Deus (Have mercy on me, God).<br /> <br /> '''train to Trieste'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> ???Venice and Trieste are on the opposite sides (about 70 miles apart) of the same gulf : Gulf of Venice. Taking a train from Venice to Trieste would mean taking a route several times lengthier than a ferry.<br /> <br /> '''Svegli'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> The fictional professor's name comes from the Italian ''sveglio'' for &quot;clever, dextrous, skillful.&quot;<br /> <br /> '''shark leather'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Different from sharkskin?<br /> <br /> '''''Specchiere'''''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Mirror-maker<br /> <br /> '''glassmakers on Murano'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Murano Wikipedia]<br /> <br /> '''today'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> When is that?<br /> <br /> '''''guaglion'''''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Naples dialect: ''guaglione'' is boy. (It first appeared on page 531).<br /> <br /> ==Page 570==<br /> <br /> '''another one of his stories'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> (Jackson Pynchon should highlight all the AtD passages that originated as bedtime stories.)<br /> <br /> '''TERAPIA'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Italian, &quot;therapy&quot;<br /> <br /> '''San Servolo'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> An island in the Venetian archipelago, [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/San_Servolo Wikipedia], [http://maps.google.com/maps?f=q&amp;hl=en&amp;q=45.418654+N,+12.35698+E&amp;ie=UTF8&amp;z=17&amp;ll=45.418651,12.35698&amp;spn=0.006891,0.010793&amp;t=k&amp;om=1&amp;iwloc=addr Google Maps]<br /> <br /> '''Palazzo Ducale'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> The Ducal Palace in Venice, residence of the Doge. It's by San Marco.<br /> <br /> '''''manicomio'''''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Italian, &quot;madhouse&quot;<br /> <br /> '''''paramorfico'''''&lt;br&gt;<br /> paramorphic - see the entry for [[P|Paramorphoscope]]<br /> <br /> '''uterine vellum'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vellum Vellum] produced from the skin of an unborn calf<br /> <br /> '''pitch, rouge'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Products used in the grinding of lenses and mirrors.<br /> <br /> ==Page 571==<br /> <br /> '''La Doppiatrice'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Italian: the Doubler. <br /> <br /> Perhaps an analogue of the diffraction grating that splits the electron into two &quot;alternate&quot; electrons in Schrodinger's thought experiment on quantum effects, source here of a sort of human quantum splitting, an alternate universe creator. <br /> <br /> '''Ettore Sananzolo'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> ???<br /> <br /> '''Maskelyne cabinet'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> After Neville Maskelyne, from ''Mason and Dixon.'' Maskelyne was sent at the same time as M and D to record the Transit of Venus on St. Helena. He became Astronomer Royal while they were in America.<br /> <br /> While Maskelyne is indeed a real person, the name is very suggestive of mescaline. The two do not seem to be &quot;related.&quot;<br /> <br /> More likely a descendant, [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Nevil_Maskelyne John Nevil Maskelyne.] --[[User:Jeffersonista|Jordan]] 13:46, 25 January 2007 (PST)<br /> <br /> ==Page 572==<br /> <br /> '''smoke back into a cigar'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Time's arrow/ entropy motif.<br /> <br /> '''hard-as-a-rock black cigar'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> The quality of a cigar is usually higher with dark, more tightly-wrapped tobacco. Vincenzo has a fine one, it seems. <br /> <br /> '''thumping'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> sound/feeling of a water-bus?<br /> <br /> '''''salso'''''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Longest river in Sicily.Its small deltaic system there is dominated by marine processes rather than fluvial ones. It is a seasonal torrent, with brief but violent floods during the winter rains (from November to February), Is this what riding the salso in and back out again means? Riding the floods from the winter rains?<br /> <br /> Hardly. 'Salso' (ital.) means 'salty', so this is probably a poetical word for 'the sea'.<br /> <br /> '''''sandoli'''''&lt;br&gt;<br /> ??? The sandolo is a type of boat used in Venice, similar to a gondola but (I believe) larger.<br /> <br /> '''trains pulling in'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Famous early film.<br /> <br /> ==Page 573==<br /> <br /> '''San Polo'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> It is one of the six districts (sestieri) of Venice. (The other five are: Cannaregio, Dorsoduro, Santa Croce, San Marco, and Castello.) It (with Santa Croce and Dorsoduro) is located at the south side of the Grand Canal just across the Rialto bridge from San Marco. The San Polo district is the second most important area of Venice in terms of historical immportance and attractions for the tourists. It is the home to the Rialto market, the old artisan quarters of Venice, and the stunning Frari church.<br /> <br /> '''Cannareggio'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> It is commonly spelled Cannaregio. It is located north of the Grand Canal, and is one of the few parts of the city where Venetians still live in great numbers. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cannaregio Canaregio].<br /> <br /> ==Page 574==<br /> <br /> '''thirty years older'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> About 65yo?<br /> <br /> '''that day'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> In NYC when Dally showed up.<br /> <br /> '''when she was born'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Cf Pretenders/Chryssie Hynde.<br /> <br /> '''Stronzo'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Italian curse word, roughly &quot;asshole&quot;<br /> <br /> '''''In bocc' al lupo!'''''&lt;br&gt;<br /> From the Roman dialect, in which the Italians – including Rocco and Pino – seem to speak. Meaning, literally, &quot;In the <br /> mouth of the wolf,&quot; and idiomatically, &quot;Good luck.&quot; <br /> <br /> Specifically, as supported by the show business context, the good-luck wish among actors: &quot;Break a leg!&quot;<br /> <br /> '''''campielli'''''&lt;br&gt;<br /> ??? Small squares. A campo is literally a field and by extension a large square in a town. A campiello is a small square. I believe Venice has only one Piazza (San Marco) and the other squares are campi and campielli.<br /> <br /> '''impersonation of itself'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> echoes &quot;the mountains had become geometrical impersonations of themselves&quot;, p. 394<br /> <br /> ==Page 575==<br /> <br /> '''Riva'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> ??? Probably Riva del Vin by the Grand Canal; a great tourist attraction from where one can view the historical Rialto Bridge. (The word ''riva'' itself means ''river bank''). [http://arglist.com/cgi-bin/image?gallery=venice&amp;name=20050525-025 Riva del Vin] and[http://www.altravistavenezia.it/_VirtualTours/VA/Rialto_Riva_del_Vin/rialto_riva_del_vin.html Rialto-Riva del Vin]<br /> <br /> '''middy blouses'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> In the style of a midshipman's blouse (shirt).<br /> <br /> '''not yet been rebuilt'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Remember p256.<br /> <br /> '''''lucciole'''''&lt;br&gt;<br /> prostitutes<br /> <br /> '''''fondamenta'''''&lt;br&gt;<br /> A waterside street in Venice<br /> <br /> '''''ombreta'''''&lt;br&gt;<br /> ??? A local wine produced in the hills north of Venice.&lt;br /&gt;<br /> Well, actually ''ombreta de vin'' means &quot;a glass of wine&quot; in Venetian dialect.<br /> <br /> '''light's good here'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Old joke about drunk looking for car keys under streetlight though he dropped them somewhere else.<br /> <br /> '''inside that labyrinth . . . microcosm of all Venice'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> A hologram has this property, that a little chip broken off it contains the entire image. This is, however, a specific reference to Fractal &amp;#151; non-Euclidian &amp;#151; Geometry ... self-similarity over scale. A fractal is an object or quantity that displays self-similarity, in a somewhat technical sense, on all scales. The object need not exhibit exactly the same structure at all scales, but the same &quot;type&quot; of structures must appear on all scales. A plot of the quantity on a log-log graph versus scale then gives a straight line, whose slope is said to be the fractal dimension. The prototypical example for a fractal is the length of a coastline measured with different length rulers. The shorter the ruler, the longer the length measured, a paradox known as the coastline paradox, mentioned by Pynchon on [[ATD_821-848#Page_821|page 821: coastline approaching infinite length]].<br /> :Good argument for the fractal reference, better than the original one for the hologram metaphor. Hunter is not making smaller and smaller paintings (&quot;chips&quot;) but rather exploiting an observation about scale.<br /> <br /> ==Page 576==<br /> <br /> '''''rio'''''&lt;br&gt;<br /> narrow waterway in Venice (Cf [[ATD_243-272#Page 245|page 245:''rio'']].)<br /> <br /> '''twelve soldi'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> ??? A soldo is a small coin.<br /> <br /> '''franc... ten francs'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> ???<br /> <br /> '''Santos-Dumont style'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Cf [[ATD_525-556#Page 529|page 529:Monsieur Santos-Dumont]]<br /> <br /> '''Canaletto'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Real name: [http://www.wga.hu/bio/c/canalett/biograph.html Zuane Antonio Canal] (1697-1768), a well-known scenery painter at the time. He went to England in 1746 and returned to Venice in 1755.&lt;br&gt;<br /> Venetian landscape painter, 1697-1768, famous for his paintings of Venice ([http://www.artericerca.com/ven_set/Canaletto/canaletto.htm Italian website]).<br /> <br /> As described, Penhallow's pictures are reminiscent, in spirit and in some ways content, of John Singer Sargent's Venetian paintings. Sargent also later painted one of the most haunting images of World War I, [http://jssgallery.org/Paintings/Gassed/Gassed.htm &quot;Gassed&quot;], showing a column of men blinded by mustard gas feeling their way to an aid station.<br /> <br /> '''Beppo'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Allusion to Byron's poem &quot;Beppo - A Venetian Story&quot;. Beppo is a husband who's been away for many years and then, returning, reclaims his wife from another man.<br /> <br /> Beppo = Mouse, diminutive of Giuseppi. There is also Beppo Levi (born on May 14, 1875 in Turin, Italy, died on August 28, 1961 in Rosario, Argentina) Italian mathematician, director of the Mathematics Institute of the National University of the Littoral from 1939 to 1961. His work included the mathematics of alternative spaces[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Beppo_Levi].<br /> <br /> '''pitch'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> From Merriam-Webster Dictionary: ''chiefly British: an outdoor site (as for camping or doing business).<br /> <br /> '''Bauer-Grünwald'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> An expensive hotel near San Marco in Venice.<br /> <br /> '''demobilized from a war that nobody knew about . . . seeking refuge from time'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Hunter Penhallow, one of the Trespassers?<br /> <br /> ==Page 577==<br /> <br /> '''a time-traveler from the future'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Hunter Penhallow IS a Trespasser.<br /> <br /> ''''Safe''''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Recent art-movie title? I think safe here means safe without allusion.<br /> <br /> '''neutral hour?'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Is any moment in Time apolitical?<br /> <br /> '''Castello'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Castello is the largest of the six sestieri of Venice. The district grew up from the thirteenth century around a naval dockyard on what was originally the Isole Gemini.<br /> <br /> Not sure on the derivation of Isole Gemini; but Gemini, like Pisces (cf. Fomalhaut, the brightest star in the Pisces constellation) and Sagittarius, are the dual signs of western astrology in keeping with &quot;bi-locations,&quot; Deuce Kindred, Renfrew/Werfner, mirrors, etc. <br /> <br /> Jyotisha (Indian astrology) includes Virgo as a dual sign or dvisvabha rashis -- thus forming a Quaternity (4 signs or rashis)of Duality. It's interesting that Pynchon does not say Gemini and Pisces directly, but alludes to them behind Castello and Fomalhaut. Be on the lookout for twins, fish, virgins and centaurs!<br /> <br /> '''Evening Gun'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> &quot;At reveille the morning gun goes off; and at retreat, the evening&quot;. From <br /> a history description. Here is a site with picture.http://www.ziplink.net/~edkreutz/1f.html<br /> <br /> '''Dr. Grace'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Renowned, full-bearded 19th-century English cricket player.<br /> <br /> '''Charing Cross'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Charing Cross Railway Station, London. The original station was opened on 11 January 1864 by the South East Railway. Now, over 37 million people pass through Charing Cross every year. Situated on the forecourt of the stations is the Eleanor Cross, from which point road distances from London are measured. For more see [http://www.networkrail.co.uk/aspx/795.aspx#history Charing Cross].<br /> <br /> ==Page 578==<br /> <br /> '''Dorsoduro'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> An area of Venice. The Dorsoduro district is a relatively central area of the city, located on the opposie side of the Grand Canal from the San Marco district. But, at the smae time it offers the visitor a chance to explore a delightful part of the city free from the crowds of San Marco.<br /> The Accademia Gallery, Peggy Gugggenheim Museum, and the Santa della Maria Salute Church (one of the most famous landmarks of Venice) are all located here. [http://www.tours-italy.com/venice/guide_dorsoduro.htm Dorsoduro].<br /> <br /> '''''pensione'''''&lt;br&gt;<br /> A cheap Italian hotel, like a bed and breakfast.<br /> <br /> '''La Calcina'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> A historical hotel. La Calcina means ''The Lime House'', because the hotel was built on a 17th-century lime production site. It is located on the Zattere promenade, at the foot of the Calcina Bridge. Various Bohemian artists frequented the Café of the hotel, and John Ruskin indeed stayed at the hotel from February 13 to May 23, 1877. For the historical background of the hotel see [http://www.lacalcina.com/HTML/en/calcina_storia_en.html La Calcina].<br /> <br /> '''eminent ghosts, Turner and Whistler, Ruskin, Browning....'''<br /> <br /> Evokes Lytton Strachey's ''Eminent Victorians'' and this Quaternity of artists were eminent indeed (though not the subject of Strachey's book). All had a conection to Venice, and the note on Ruskin at the La Calcina above could be true of the other three as well. <br /> <br /> Robert Browning became a ghost in Venice in 1887. Of particular historic significance, Browning was the first person to ever have his voice heard after his death. Thomas Edison recorded Browning reading his poem &quot;How They Brought Good News from Ghent to Aix&quot; including the poet's apologies for forgetting the words. The recording was first played in Venice in 1890.<br /> <br /> '''''&quot;traces of conciousness&quot;. Psychical Research beginning to open these matters..streaming by'''''&lt;br&gt;<br /> <br /> Possible allusion to Joyce's &quot;stream of conciousness&quot;. Ulysses is also set in 1904, the year Joyce met his wife. <br /> <br /> But that is not the stream of consciousness refered to here, and it is the wrong &quot;James.&quot; William James actually coined the term &quot;stream of consciousness.&quot; Joyce was not the first to use it as a literary technique either -- he just perfected it in a way not seen before -- except perhaps in Proust.<br /> <br /> Considering the context in AtD concerns ghosts and the very next sentence begins with a mention of Psychical Research, &quot;traces of consciousness&quot; is not so much stream of consciousness as a trailing vapor or whisp of consciousness that streams by as a &quot;kind of ghost.&quot; Think in terms of thought transference, ESP, mediums, hypnosis, hallucinations, ghosts. More than a few characters in this novel are involved in these things.<br /> <br /> In order to study these phenomena, three dons of Trinity College, Cambridge founded The Society for Psychical Research in 1882. William James helped to found the American branch and was president of the group for a while. <br /> <br /> There are recurring parallels in AtD to a famous James quote from ''Varieties of Religious Experience'': <br /> <br /> Our normal waking consciousness . . . is but one special type of consciousness, whilst all about it, parted from it by the flimsiest of screens, there lie potential forms of consciousness entirely different. We may go through life without suspecting their existence; but apply the requisite stimulus and at a touch they are all there in all their completeness . . . No account of the universe in its totality can be final which leaves these other forms of consciousness quite disregarded. <br /> <br /> <br /> '''Zattere'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> An area of wide waterfront pavements in Venice.<br /> <br /> '''''...in hotels, the way your dreams are often, alarmingly, not your own?'''''&lt;br&gt;<br /> One more possible allusion to Proust, including also the following paragraph. At the beginning of the ''Recherche'', the main character, Marcel, spends a sleepless night in a hotel room, surrounded by memories he can't make sense of. <br /> <br /> In ''Lot 49'' Oedipa Maas considers all the dreams and memories stored in the mattresses of transients' hotels, and of the information destroyed when they burned.<br /> <br /> '''''cimici'''''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Latin: bedbug.<br /> <br /> '''to pick up traces of the dreams of whoever slept there just before them'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Cf. the Tom Waits song &quot;9th &amp; Hennepin&quot;: &quot;And all the rooms they smell like diesel / And you take on the dreams of the ones who have slept there&quot;. [http://www.tomwaitslibrary.com/lyrics/raindogs/9thandhennepin.html Lyrics]<br /> <br /> '''bora'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> a regional wind, blowing each winter.<br /> <br /> ==Page 579==<br /> <br /> '''vino forte'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> strong wine.<br /> <br /> '''Brindisi, Squinzano, . . . Brletta'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> They are the cities in Puglia (Apula) region of southeast Italy, ie. at the &quot;heel of the Italian Boot&quot;.<br /> <br /> '''Tintoretto's ''Abduction . . .'''''&lt;br&gt;<br /> See [http://www.egypttoday.com/article.aspx?ArticleID=3374 here]<br /> <br /> Tintoretto (1518-94), Venetian painter. Originally named Jacopo Robusti, because of his father's profession of ''tintore'' (dye) he was nicknamed as [http://www.wga.hu/bio/t/tintoret/biograph.html Tintoretto]. The most successful painter of Venetian school in the generation after Titian. His drawings, unlike Michelangelo's detailed life studies, are brilliant, rapid notations, bristling with energy, and his color is more somber and mystical than Titian's. For a better, can be enlarged, view of his [http://www.wga.hu/index1.html ''Abduction of the Body of St. Mark (1562-66)''].<br /> <br /> '''Accademia'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> The major art-gallery in Dorsoduro, Venice<br /> <br /> '''Titian'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> 16th century Venetian painter.&lt;br&gt;<br /> Vecellio Tiziano (1490-1576), better known as Titian, the greatest painter of the Venetain School and the leading light of the Italian Renaissance. Titian was recognized as a towering genius in his own time and his reputation as one of the giants of art has never been seriously questioned. He was supreme in every branch of painting and his achievements were so varied — ranging &quot;from the joyous evocation of pagan antiquity . . . to the depths of tragedy in his late religious paintings&quot; — that he has been an inspiration to artists of very different character. In many subjects, above all in portraiture, he set patterns that were followed by generations of artists. For more and Titian's paintings [http://www.wga.hu/bio/t/tiziano/biograph.html Titian].<br /> <br /> '''Infancy Gospel of Thomas'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> One of the apocryphal scriptures. The Infancy Gospel of Thomas relates the miraculous deeds of Jesus before he turned twelve. [http://www.earlychristianwritings.com/infancythomas.html 1] [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gospel_of_Thomas Wikipedia on the Gospel of Thomas]<br /> <br /> →Actually, The Infancy Gospel of Thomas is not the same as the Gospel of Thomas. The former is a brief summary of Jesus' misadventures as a child (as AtD notes, Jesus really is described as a hell-raiser and although at one point he brings a child named Zenon back from death, the Infancy Gospel mostly just makes a shallow exhibition of Jesus' miraculous powers). The latter is a Gnostic text and a &quot;collection of sayings, prophecies, proverbs, and parables of Jesus&quot; (Willis Barnstone, &quot;The Other Bible&quot; p. 299).<br /> <br /> Also, I read through the whole Infancy Gospel of Thomas and could not find the particular parable that Pynchon describes. However, Pynchon's parable is in keeping with the style of this Gospel. Jesus gets in trouble--making adults irate--and then sets everything straight. This particular parable also does not appear in The Infancy Gospel of James, The Infacy Gospel of Pseudo-Matthew, or The Arabic Infancy Gospel.<br /> <br /> The reference to this Gospel is a double+ play on the twins/double/mirror motif. First, as can be seen in this posting, there is confusion between the Gospel of Thomas and the Infancy Gospel of Thomas. The two gospels appear to be the same, but they are different. Second, the name ''Thomas'' means ''twin''. Also(+), Thomas is the doubting Thomas.<br /> To doubt is to be &quot;of two minds.&quot; The historic and theological significance of Thomas is loaded with themes relevant to this novel.<br /> <br /> ==Page 580==<br /> <br /> '''Pentecost story in Acts'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Pentecost is a Christian holiday commemorating the descent of the Holy Spirit on Jesus' followers and the beginning of the Christian church. Pentecost is celebrated by many (but not all) Christians on the Sunday 50 days after Easter. It often falls in early June. [[Acts II|Read the Biblical passages in Acts II...]]<br /> <br /> '''Galilean dialect'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Of Aramaic.<br /> <br /> '''Yes, well, it's redemption, isn't it, you expect chaos, you get order instead'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> In the Infancy Gospel of Thomas and the Pentecost, first Jesus, then the Holy Ghost, act as Maxwell's Demon [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Maxwell%27s_Demon]. In the Infancy Gospel story, Jesus sorts the randomly mixed dye molecules so that each garment comes out one color; in the Pentecost story the Holy Ghost causes a single language, just random noise to all but Galileans, to be heard as the many different languages of the listeners. Taking the two stories together, thermodynamic entropy is reversed, but the entropy of information is increased. This is the crux of ''Lot 49''; here it is another &quot;secular miracle&quot;; order emerges from chaos. The mathemateicians, artists and similar seekers may bring forth a similar miracle, the ability to experience other dimensions, to understand the universe (See Kit's dream, P.566).<br /> <br /> '''''rii'''''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Plural of ''rio''.<br /> <br /> ==Page 581==<br /> <br /> '''''sotopòrteghi'''''&lt;br&gt;<br /> An open doorway for public access. (Cf [[ATD_243-272#Page 246|page 246:sotopòrteghi]].)<br /> <br /> '''Bodeo 10.4 mm'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> A mass-produced Italian-made service revolver, initially made around 1889. Demand for them as guns was low, causing thousands of the weapons to be converted to table lamps. An interesting Pynchonian connection between light, manufacture, weapons, and war.<br /> <br /> ==Page 582==<br /> <br /> '''''foschetta'''''&lt;br&gt;<br /> ''Foschia'' in Italian means &quot;fog&quot;. ''Foschetta'' is a term for &quot;light fog&quot;.<br /> <br /> '''''masègni'''''&lt;br&gt;<br /> ???<br /> :blocks of Euganean trachyte used for paving, often marked off by bands of Istrian stone<br /> <br /> '''''patrone'''''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Probably meaning ''padrone'', &quot;master&quot;. -- blicero2<br /> :or female saint? not referring to Tonio but just as an expression.<br /> <br /> '''wine trains up from Puglia'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> ???Puglia region is in southeast of Italy (at the &quot;heel of the Italian Boot&quot;). From page 578-579: &quot;In September, when the vino forte arrived from Brindis, Squinzano, and Barletta . . .&quot; These three cities are in Puglia. Cf [[ATD_557-587#Page 579|page 579:vino forte]] and [[ATD_557-587#Page 579|page 579:Brindisi, Squinzano, . . . Barletta]].<br /> <br /> '''Winter'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> 1904-1905?<br /> <br /> '''''osterie'''''&lt;br&gt;<br /> tavern?<br /> <br /> '''Principessa Spongiatosta'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Is Pugnax's book from p6 at all relevant here?<br /> :Yes! [[Princess_Casamassima,_The|''The Princess Casamassima'']] has several resonances with ''AtD.''<br /> <br /> '''Ca''''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Abbreviated form of &quot;Casa,&quot; Italian for &quot;house.&quot;<br /> <br /> Which appears to be multidimensional, or at any rate non-Euclidean, reminiscent of Zombini's cabinet.<br /> <br /> '''Roman Composite order'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> A classical order (style of building design) dating from late Roman times, formed by superimposing Ionic volute (volute = a spiral scroll ornament) on a Corinthian capital (capital = the head or crowning feature of a column). ([http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Composite_order Composite order]).<br /> <br /> '''japonica'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Japanese honeysuckle.<br /> <br /> ==Page 583==<br /> <br /> '''Iron Bridge'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> The Ponte dell’Accademia - connecting the Venetian quarters (sestieri) San Marco and Dorsoduro - was constructed during the Austrian occupation in 1854. This steel construction got replaced ca. 1933 by a wooden bridge (which was replaced by yet another wooden bridge in 1985) [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ponte_dell'Accademia Wikipedia]<br /> <br /> '''Le Havre'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> French port city on the Atlantic (English Channel).<br /> <br /> '''''ma via'''''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Meaning &quot;come on!&quot;, in Italian. -- blicero2<br /> <br /> '''third eyes touching'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> The third eye, as existing on some reptiles is a dorsal organ that is receptive to light, otherwise known as the ''pineal eye''. Since the two half-sisters are obviously not reptiles, this reference might allude to the figurative third eye, or the eye of the mind, heart or soul. When the two touch foreheads, they are able to peer into each other consciences, by way of these third eyes. [http://www.thefreedictionary.com/third+eye /Dictionary Entry]<br /> <br /> ==Page 584==<br /> <br /> '''&quot;Swiss insurance salesman. Wolf. No, Putzi.&quot;'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Bria's had so many beaux she gets them confused? One was a wolf; the other a putz?<br /> :''Wolf'' is an uncommon given name but also a diminutive of Wolfgang. ''Putzi'' does not come from a given name; it's like &quot;sweetiepie,&quot; a nickname for a cute boy.<br /> <br /> '''''topo'''''&lt;br&gt;<br /> A topo is a guide for a crag or climbing area.<br /> <br /> '''Dogana'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Custom House, built on a wedge of land called ''Punta della Dogana'' (Custom Point). This wedge of land is at the entrance of the Grand Canal, as described in the text: &quot;where the Grand Canal and the Lagoon meet&quot;. The original 14th-century customs tower was replaced by a colonnaded building named the ''Dogana de Mare'' (Sea Customs Post). See picture [http://uk.encarta.msn.com/media_1041505867_761562189_-1_1/Punta_della_Dogana_Venice.html Punta della Dogana]<br /> <br /> '''Andrea Tancredi'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> An artist and acquaintence made by Hunter Penhallow in Venice. His name is likely derived from the Gioacchino Rossini opera ''Tancredi'' or the Voltaire play by the same name. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tancredi Wikipedia Entry]&lt;br /&gt;<br /> Tancredi, restored, is a tragedy. the soldier Tancredi and his family have been stripped of their estates and inheritances, and he himself has been banished since his youth. Two more noble families — headed by Argirio and Orbazzano — have been warring for years. Wikipedia.<br /> Tancredi presides in exile...he is mortally wounded at the end after learning the person he thought betrayed the heroine did not. <br /> <br /> :Actually, per [[T#tancredi|my entry in the Alpha index]], more likely the name connects with Tancredi, the time-traveling character in ''City of Death'', a four-part serial in the British science fiction television series ''Dr. Who'' which involves time travel and bilocation. Tancredi is the sole survivor of the Jagaroth race, an evil people who destroyed themselves in a war some 400 million years ago. Tancredi explains that a few escaped in a dilapidated spacecraft and found Earth in a primeval, lifeless stage of its development. The ship disintegrated upon takeoff and [[Scaroth]] tells of how he was fractured in time, splinters of his being were scattered across time and space, all identical, none complete. Whereas, in ''City of Death'', Tancredi, one of the Scaroff &quot;splinters&quot; living in Renaissance Italy, is plotting to create multiple Mona Lisa's for fraudulent purposes, ''Against the Day'''s Tancredi is fighting art fraud. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/City_of_Death Read the synopsis of ''City of Death'']; The name &quot;Andrea&quot; ''could'' be a reference to the protagonist Andrea Marsh, a time-traveler in the 1889 novel, ''Timeless Love'' by Judy Hinson ([[Timeless Love|synopsis]]).<br /> <br /> '''Seurat and Signac'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> George Seurat (1859-1891) and Paul Signac (1863-1935), French painters who developed pointillism. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pointillism Wikipedia entry].<br /> <br /> '''Divisionism'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Term invented by Paul Signac to describe the Neo-Impressionist separation of colour into dots or patches applied directly to the canvas. From Grove Dictionary of Art. <br /> <br /> <br /> '''Marinetti'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> The Italian poet Filippo Tommaso Marinetti was the first among [the Futurists] to produce a manifesto of their artistic philosophy in his Manifesto of Futurism (1909)(see below).<br /> <br /> '''&quot;Futurists&quot;'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Practitioners or followers of Futurism, an early 20th century art movement that is considered the genesis of Cubism, Dada and Art Deco. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Futurism_%28art%29 Wikipedia entry].Marinetti summed up the major principles of the Futurists, including a passionate loathing of ideas from the past, especially political and artistic traditions. He and others also espoused a love of speed, technology and violence. The car, the plane, the industrial town were all legendary for the Futurists, because they represented the technological triumph of man over nature.<br /> <br /> <br /> '''brutalism'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> See above and The Futurists were often condemned as fascistic in their manifestos and outlook. <br /> <br /> '''Torcello'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> A lonely Venetian island: very peaceful and beautiful with a church and little else.<br /> <br /> '''primitivo'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> A kind of red wine (same as the original Zinfandel, actually).<br /> <br /> ==Page 585==<br /> <br /> '''green-and-lavender'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Another clashing color scheme.<br /> <br /> '''sirocco'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> A hot dust-laden wind from the Libyan deserts that blows on the northern Mediterranean coast chiefly in Italy, Malta, and Sicily. &lt;br&gt;<br /> The correct spelling in Italian is ''Scirocco''. <br /> <br /> '''San Michele'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> San Michele, nicknamed The Island of the Dead, is the cemetery island of Venice. It is associated with the sestiere of Cannaregio from which it lies a short distance north east. <br /> Walls of San Michele.Along with neighbouring San Cristoforo della Pace, the island was a popular place for local travellers and fishermen to land. Mauro Codussi's Chiesa di San Michele in Isola of 1469, the first Renaissance church in Venice, and a monastery lie on the island.<br /> <br /> '''futuristic vehicle'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> See p. 155 [[ATD_149-170#Pages_154-155|and annotations.]] Of course, the machine-inspired Futurists would remind Hunter of this vehicle that 'had borne him to safety'!<br /> <br /> Why? Hunter isn't the Futurist here and doesn't seem to share the same naive faith in Progress that Tancredi does.<br /> <br /> '''the chill, comfortless faith in science and rationality...'''&lt;br /&gt;<br /> [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Max_Weber Max Weber's] concept of rationality, and the [[Routinization of Charisma|routinization/rationalization of charisma]], is a prominent theme in [http://gravitys-rainbow.pynchonwiki.com/wiki/index.php?title=R#routinization ''Gravity's Rainbow''] &amp;#151; a spontaneous and charismatic source of authority is eventually &quot;rationalized&quot; and brought under the control of processes and rules. In Pynchon's view, it is a movement toward Death and thematically related to entropy &amp;#151; a prominent theme in [http://v.pynchonwiki.com/wiki/index.php?title=E#entropy ''V.''] &amp;#151; and, in [http://masondixon.pynchonwiki.com/wiki/index.php?title=F#fengshui ''Mason &amp; Dixon''], bad ''Feng Shui'' and the reduction of the fuzzy boundaries between Pennsylvania and Maryland into a straight line.<br /> <br /> In the April 1957 issue of ''The Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists'', Cornell University Professor of Philosophy, E.A. Burtt, author of the classic ''Metaphysical Foundations of Modern Science'', called for a 'revolutionary' change in the way we viewed science in an article entitled ''A Critique of Science''.[http://www.manasjournal.org/pdf_library/VolumeX_1957/X-17.pdf]<br /> <br /> '''''Preliminary Studies...'''''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Artists often do 'preliminary studies'..'infernal machine' comes out of Futurism's ideas.<br /> <br /> ==Page 586==<br /> <br /> '''Always with us.'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Gospel of Matthew. &quot;The poor you will always have with you&quot;. Here reference is to born-again Christers.<br /> <br /> '''''vero?'''''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Literally meaning ''true'' in Italian, here it is used as you would use: &quot;Are you talking of an infernal machine, ''aren't you'' ?&quot;<br /> <br /> '''We desire transformation'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Aligns the explosion-loving Tancredi with the Rilke-quoting Blicero from Gravity's Rainbow. '&quot;Want the Change,&quot; Rilke said, &quot;O be inspired by the Flame!&quot;' (GR p.97)<br /> <br /> It also might be helpful to recall that Shiva, who has been referred to implicitly numerous times already in ATD, is the transformative/destructive deity of the Hindi Trimurti.<br /> <br /> This section also sets up Tancredi as an opposite of Hunter, who on p.577 wants to find a &quot;neutral hour&quot;, that &quot;goes neither forwards or back&quot;, and on the same page &quot;felt no desire to join in, quite the opposite.&quot; Hunter himself is much like Katje from GR. Page 97 again: &quot;But not Katje: No mothlike plunge. He must conclude that secretly she fears the change...&quot;<br /> <br /> '''orpiment yellow'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> A yellow color pigment ([http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Orpiment Wikipedia])<br /> <br /> '''Nürnberg violet'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> An artificial color pigment discovered in 1868 in the city of Nuremberg<br /> <br /> ==Page 587==<br /> <br /> '''&quot;The energies of motion, the grammatical tyrannies of becoming, in divisionismo we discover how to break them apart into their component frequencies . . . we define a smallest element, a dot of color which becomes the basic unit of reality . . . .'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> This seems to describe both the kind of painting done by Tancredi and atomic research. Breaking material into its atomic unit, the basic unit of reality, is literally part of the &quot;energies of motion.&quot;<br /> This also describes how a television set works. The screen is composed of millions of tiny dots that, taken together, create moving pictures. <br /> <br /> <br /> '''Brownian movement'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Also called Brownian motion. It is the irregular motion of small particles suspended in a liquid or a gas, caused by the bombardment of the particles by molecules of the medium<br /> first divscovered by botanist Robert Brown (1773-1858) in 1827. Einstein in one of his four ''Annus Mirabilis Papers'' of 1905 explained the random motion using molecular kinetic theory of heat. Cf [[ATD_397-428#Page 412|page 412:young Einstein]].<br /> <br /> '''I really love the old dump'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> For the same reason Dally does: Venice has what Pynchon called (in ''V.'') &quot;Temporal Bandwidth&quot;: a life in a depth of time, a simultaneous humane immersion in past, present and future. The canals of industrialized Belgium are silted up, the connections to its Hanse past lost, paved and tracked over. This has not, and cannot, happen to Venice; even a Futurist painter cannot carry out the appaling modernization he describes. Venice is a place to hide from the future; indeed, in terms of physical destruction, the world wars barely touched La Serenisima.<br /> <br /> '''''nebbia, nebbietta, foschia, caligo, sfumato'''''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Varieties of fog.<br /> <br /> '''speed of sound'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Air temperature is more important that density.<br /> <br /> '''''La Velocità del Suono'''''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Italian, &quot;speed of sound&quot;<br /> <br /> ==Annotation Index==<br /> {{ATD PbP}}</div>

MKOHUT https://against-the-day.pynchonwiki.com/wiki/index.php?title=ATD_525-556&diff=14132 2007-10-21T15:46:24Z

<p>MKOHUT: /* Page 551 */</p> <hr /> <div>:'''&lt;big&gt;Please keep these annotations SPOILER-FREE by not revealing information from later pages in the novel.&lt;/big&gt;'''&lt;p&gt;&lt;br&gt;<br /> <br /> ==Page 525==<br /> <br /> '''Ostend'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Cf [[ATD_489-524#Page 521|page 521:Ostend]], a seaport in northwest Belgium. Among English-speaking tourists, Ostend (or Ostende) is best known as a ferry port. Ships have shuttled between Dover and Ostend for more than 150 years, and today's high-speed catamarans move hundreds of passengers and vehicles between these two ports in just two hours. But this thousand-year-old city is a popular beach resort with Belgians, who flock to Ostend for sun, surfing, sailing and the ''Kursaal'' (Casino). The fishing harbor and old town draw many visitors. Ostend is the only Belgian coastal resort that is as lively in the summer as in the winter. For more and pictures [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ostend Ostend].<br /> <br /> '''Fishermen's Quai'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Fishermen's Quay, also called De Trap. The shrimp boats come home here from the sea in the morning. Along the quay many stands sell lots of seafoods.<br /> <br /> '''Boulevard van Isenghem'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> A major thoroughfare in Ostend, locally called ''Van Iseghemlaan'', extending diagonally from seafront southwest through the city.<br /> <br /> '''street-plausible'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Presentable.<br /> <br /> '''Quai de l'empereur'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Since Ostende is in the Flemish part of Belgium this should be the Keizerskaai, a street along the old part of the harbour, 1919 renamed Vindictivelaan.<br /> <br /> '''estaminet'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> According to the OED - A café in which smoking is allowed. Now, any small establishment selling alcoholic liquor. <br /> <br /> '''twelve-centime'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> one centime is the French eqivalent of one cent. A twelve-centime beer would cost 12/100 of a franc.<br /> <br /> '''Quaternions'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Cf [[ATD_119-148#Page 130|page 130:Quaternions]]. Quaternions are a non-communtative extension of complex numbers (Hamilton, 1843).&lt;br&gt;<br /> <br /> Analogy with the complex numbers (Cf [[ATD_119-148#Page 132|page 132:complex number]]) being represented as a sum of real and imaginary parts, a + b''i'', where ''i''² = −1, a quaternion is defined as a combination a + b''i'' + c''j'' + d''k'', where ''i''² = ''j''² = ''k''² = ''i j k'' = −1, and a, b, c, d are ''four'' explicit real numbers. The non-commutative property refers to ''i j = −j i = k; j k = −k j = i; k i = −i k = j''. (i.e. ''i j ≠ j i; j k ≠ k j; k i ≠ i k''; etc.) The using of ''i, j, k'', the imaginary numbers (Cf [[ATD_119-148#Page 133|page 133:imaginary number]]), led to the phrases of &quot;the ''ijk'' lot&quot; of page 533 and &quot;creature of ''i-j-k''&quot; of page 534.<br /> <br /> '''Kellner'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> German: waiter, barman. Use of the German word would be insulting to the Belgian barman.<br /> <br /> '''''demi'''''&lt;br&gt;<br /> A half-pint glass (25 centilitres, actually).<br /> <br /> '''Lambic'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Pron. ''lahm-BEEK.'' Unique Belgian beer style, sour and often thin in body.<br /> <br /> '''skimmer'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Straw hat (&quot;Panama&quot;).<br /> <br /> ==Page 526==<br /> <br /> '''biquaternion'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Or &quot;octonion,&quot; an innovation of English mathematician W.K. Clifford, [[ATD_243-272#Page_249|referred to on p. 249.]]<br /> <br /> '''Barry Nebulay'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Pun on a term from heraldry, ''barry nebuly.'' Barry (rhymes with &quot;starry,&quot; not &quot;carry&quot;) refers to a shield divided into an even number of parts by horizontal lines. Nebuly signals that the lines are deformed into stylized &quot;cloud&quot; shapes. [http://www.rarebooks.nd.edu/digital/heraldry/partitions.html Here you can see an example.] If a ''British'' author had a character with a heraldic name, it would suggest a pseudonym.<br /> <br /> '''University of Dublin'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> The Alma Mater of Hamilton, the father of Quaternion. He studied, graduated and taught at Trinity College, the University of Dublin, Ireland's oldest university.<br /> <br /> If University College, Dublin, then Joyce had graduated in 1902.&lt;br&gt;<br /> <br /> '''Quaternioneers'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Quaternion believers.<br /> <br /> '''Gibbsian Vectors'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Vector Analysis (or Vector Calculus) developed by Willard Gibbs (Cf [[ATD_26-56#Page 29|page 29:Professor Gibbs]]) in 1881 and 1884. It is a branch of calculus that deals with vectors and process involving vectors. It is much more easily applied to phsics and other applied sciences than Hamilton's Quaternions (Cf [[ATD_525-556#Page 525|page 525:Quaternions]]).&lt;br&gt;<br /> A vector is defined by not only a magnitude but also a direction, such as a velocity vector, ''v'' is defined by ''v'' = a''i'' + b''j'' + c''k'',<br /> where a, b, and c are the magnitudes of the velocity components in directions of ''i, j'' and ''k'' which are unit vectors, (not imaginary numbers as in Quaternion), with magnitude of 1. In three dimensional cases and ''xyz'' coordinate system is used then ''i, j, k'' are related to ''x, y, z'' directions (&quot;''xyz'' people&quot; of page 533); but they, in general, may be used irrespective of the notation of the coordinates.<br /> Mathematical operations (addition, subtraction, multiplication), differentiation (''curl'' — Cf [[ATD_318-335#Page 326|page 326:Curl]] and p. 536, ''Laplacian'' — Cf [[ATD_318-335#Page 326|page 326:Laplacian]] and p. 536, etc) and integration can be applied to vectors. It is interesting to know that one of the two multiplication operations is called cross product; for unit vectors (''i, j, k'') perpendicular to each other, then, ''i × i = j × j = k × k = 0'', ''i × j = k'', ''j × i = -k'', etc. ([http://web.mit.edu/wwmath/vectorc/summary.html Vector Calculus]).&lt;br&gt;<br /> A simple vector anyalysis example here: if ''k'', the unit vector, stands for the direction upward and g is the gravitational acceleration, then the acceleration vector, ''a'', for a projectile, is defined for downward action, (the ''i'' and ''j'' directions have zero components):&lt;br&gt;<br /> :''a'' = -g ''k''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Integrating ''a'' would give the velocity vector, ''v''&lt;br&gt;<br /> :''v'' = -g t ''k''&lt;br&gt;<br /> for zero initial velocity case, and t standing for time.&lt;br&gt;<br /> And integrating ''v'' would yield the position vector, ''h'', for the projectile&lt;br&gt;<br /> :''h'' = -½ g t² ''k''&lt;br&gt;<br /> toward the sea level.<br /> <br /> '''Quaternionists'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Quaternion believers, same as Quaternioneers.<br /> <br /> '''Tasmania'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Tasmania is an island of the southern coast of Australia. Known for its relative isolation, it was a prison for English convicts in the 1800s<br /> <br /> '''Having been inseparable from the rise of the electromagnetic'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> In his 1865 work ''The Dynamical Theory of the Electromagnetic Field'', James Clerk Maxwell unified electricity and magnetism. He put forth twenty equations, with twenty unknowns, in vector form (though different in notation and form than the equations that now bear his name) that completely described all known electromagnetic phenomena. In his 1873 treatise on the subject, he expressed the equations in the mathematics of quaternions. It appears that the quaternion form of the equations remained popular even though, at the behest of his publisher, Maxwell reverted to the 1865 form in the second edition (1881)--though they remain scattered throughout. In 1892 Oliver Heaviside (On the Forces, Stresses, and Fluxes of Energy in the Electromagnetic Field. ''Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society of London.'' A, Vol. 183. pp423-480), while spewing scientific vitriol at the Quaternionists, reformulated Maxwell's original 1865 equations (Heaviside chose to remove the vector potential and scalar fields from the equations; the inclusion of these terms had served as Maxwell's justification for the use of quaternions), and provided the notation still in use today. See this [http://www.zpenergy.com/modules.php?name=Downloads&amp;d_op=getit&amp;lid=60 PDF] for the evolution of Maxwell's equations.<br /> <br /> '''Hamiltonian devotees'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> The Quaternion faction, after William Hamilton, who devised the scheme.<br /> <br /> '''Grand Hôtel de la Nouvelle Digue'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> There is a Hotel Digue in the Seychelles; this is a New Hotel Digue by Pynchon? <br /> <br /> Grand Hotel of New Dyke, may be a made up hotel name.<br /> <br /> '''anterooms of death'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> This metaphor is sometimes applied to concentration camps. Here the lyric &quot;feel like I'm fixin' to die&quot; seems more apposite.<br /> <br /> '''Belgian Art Nouveau'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Art Nouveau, 1890(or 80) to 1914, explores a new style in the visual arts and architecture that developed in Europe and North America at the end of the 19th century. At its height (~1907), Art Nouveau was a concerted attempt to create an international style based on decoration. It was developed by a brilliant and energetic generation of artists and desisgners, who sought to fashion an art form appropriate to the post-Industrial Revolution modern age.&lt;br&gt;<br /> Brussels was one of the Art Nouveau centers and represented different style from the others. The jewelers there, accepted as artists rahter than craftsmen, (together with those in Paris) defined Art Nouveau in jewelery and achieved the most renown. ([http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Art_Nouveau Art Nouveau]).<br /> <br /> ==Page 527==<br /> <br /> '''dossing'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> British slang for &quot;sleeping&quot;, &quot;staying overnight&quot;<br /> <br /> '''Russian nihilists'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> :The following four are local, Belgian, not Russian, nihilists !<br /> <br /> '''Eugénie'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Female. Possibly named for Empress Eugénie (1826-1920), consort of French Emperor Napoleon III. Ultimately for St. Eugenia, 3rd-century Roman martyr whose feast is celebrated on December 25.<br /> <br /> '''Fatou'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Female. A pseudonym? In view of the date of the action, certainly not named after [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fatou the mathematician Fatou] (1878-1929).<br /> <br /> '''Denis'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Male. Named for St. Denis or Dionysius, patron saint of Paris and of France, 3rd-century bishop of Paris, martyr, beheaded on the hill now called Montmartre. &quot;Montjoie St. Denis!&quot; was a warcry used by French troops in the Middle Ages. His intercession is effective against demonic possession and headache.<br /> <br /> '''Policarpe'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Male. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Polycarp Saint Polycarp] was a Christian bishop of Smyrna (now İzmir in Turkey) in the second century. He was stabbed and died a martyr after an attempt to burn him at the stake failed. His intercession is sought against earache and dysentery.<br /> <br /> '''Young Congo'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Probably in reference to the [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Young_Turks Young Turks], a Turkish revolutionary movement<br /> <br /> '''Garde Civique'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> A part of the Belgian army. According to the [http://www.1911encyclopedia.org/Belgium 1911 Britannica], &quot;the mass of the garde civique does not pretend to possess military value. It is a defence against sedition and socialism.&quot;<br /> <br /> '''French Second Bureau boys'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Deuxieme Bureau; French Intelligence.<br /> <br /> '''''phalange'''''&lt;br&gt;<br /> French: phalanx. A military (here mock-military) group ready for combat. &lt;br&gt;<br /> <br /> It also conjures up memories of the early 19th century utopian socialist <br /> Charles Fourier, who theorized that people should live communally in &quot;phalanxes&quot; of a specific number based upon their &quot;passions.&quot; His solid ideas included equality of the sexes, but he also taught wacky things such as the moon being made of lemonade. Of particular relevance is his rejection of industrial civilization. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Utopian_socialism]<br /> <br /> '''&quot;...until something had happened, something too terrible to remember...&quot;'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Again this theme of an unknowable past transgression, here invoked almost as if the unknown signifies the other 'lateral' (a word which has cropped up at least a dozen times already) 'vector'.<br /> <br /> '''the Digue'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> French for &quot;dyke&quot;<br /> <br /> '''Congo... Belgians'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> The Belgian colonisation of the Congo was, as Conrad's ''Heart of Darkness'' makes clear, notable for its greed and brutality.<br /> <br /> '''Leopold, King of the Belgians'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> 1835-1909, reigned 1865-1909. A man of almost Nixonian fiendishness. In the Congo he acted as sole proprietor and absolute ruler. The positive outcomes of his exploitation include ''Heart of Darkness'' and the phrase &quot;crime against humanity.&quot;<br /> <br /> '''co-conscious'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> mental processes outside the main stream of consciousness but sometimes available to it — from Merriam-Webster's Medical Dictionary.<br /> <br /> '''Force Publique'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Belgian armed forces operating in the Belgian Congo ([http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Force_Publique Wikipedia]). &quot;King Leopold's private army&quot; may be a more accurate description.<br /> <br /> '''rubber worker'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> See above: One of the early missions of the FP was to increase rubber export quotas through forced labor and related atrocities.<br /> <br /> ==Page 528==<br /> <br /> '''''khâgne'''''&lt;br&gt;<br /> an informal term used by French students for Classes Préparatoires Littéraires, the two-year cycle of classes taken after the Baccalaureat (taken at age 17-18), to prepare for the entrance examination to the Ecole Normale Supeieure. ([http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kh%C3%A2gne khâgne]).<br /> <br /> '''Reclus'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> J. J. Élisée Reclus (1830-1905), French geographer but mainly educated in Germany. Several times he was forced to leave France because of his political views; he traveled widely in Europe, the British Isles, the United States, and South America and for many years lived in Switzerland. He was professor of comparative geography at the University of Brussels from 1895 to 1905. He had quite an extensive connection with various socialist and anarchist circles (met Bakunin while in Florence).Once he was imprisoned in Versailles in 1871 for his part in the ''Paris Commune''. In 1882 he initiated the ''Anti-marriage movement'' while in Geneva. [[http://academic.reed.edu/formosa/texts/reclusbio.html Reclus]).<br /> <br /> '''Stirnerite'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Follower of Max Stirner, 19th century German philosopher and author of ''The Ego and Its Own,'' a work influential in anarchist thought. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Max_Stirner Wikipedia entry].<br /> <br /> ''Max Stirner'''s (1806-56) attacks on systematic philosophy, his denial of absulutes, and his rejection of abstract concepts of any kind often places him among the first philosophical nihilists. For Stirner, achieving individual freedom is the only law; and the state, which necvessarily imperils freedom, must be destroyed. Even beyond the oppression of the state, though, are the constraints imposed by others because their very existence is an obstable compromising individual freedom. Thus Stirner argues that existence is an endless &quot;war of each against all&quot; (1845). (taken from the paragraph about Max Stirner in [http://www.iep.utm.edu/n/nihilism.htm#H1 Nihilism])&lt;br&gt;<br /> Sourcing here? Much complexity in properly understanding Stirner, who has some Pynchon-like qualities, to say the least. From the Stanford Dictionary of Philosophy&lt;br&gt;<br /> His major work:<br /> The Ego and Its Own<br /> Much of Stirner's prose—which is crowded with aphorisms, italicisation, and hyperbole—appears calculated to disconcert. Most striking, perhaps, is the use of word play. Rather than reach a conclusion through the conventional use of argument, Stirner often approaches a claim that he wishes to endorse by exploiting words with related etymologies or formal similarities. For example, he associates words for property (such as ‘Eigentum’) with words connoting distinctive individual characteristics (such as ‘Eigenheit’) in order to promote the claim that property is expressive of selfhood. (Stirner's account of egoistic property—see below—gives this apparently orthodox Hegelian claim a distinctive twist.)<br /> <br /> This rejection of conventional forms of intellectual discussion is linked to Stirner's substantive views about language and rationality. His unusual style reflects a conviction that both language and rationality are human products which have come to constrain and oppress their creators. Stirner maintains that accepted meanings and traditional standards of argumentation are underpinned by a conception of truth as a privileged realm beyond individual control. As a result, individuals who accept this conception are abandoning a potential area of creative self-expression in favour of adopting a subordinate role as servants of truth. In stark contrast, Stirner insists that the only legitimate restriction on the form of our language, or on the structure of our arguments, is that they should serve our individual ends. It is the frequent failure of ordinary meanings and standard forms of argument to satisfy his interpretation of this criterion which underpins Stirner's remorselessly idiosyncratic style.<br /> <br /> The Ego and Its Own has an intelligible, but scarcely transparent, structure. It is organised around a tripartite account of human experience, initially introduced in a description of the stages of an individual life. The first stage in this developmental narrative is the realistic one of childhood, in which children are constrained by material and natural forces such as their parents. Liberation from these external constraints is achieved with what Stirner calls the self-discovery of mind, as children find the means to outwit those forces in their own determination and cunning. The idealistic stage of youth, however, contains new internal sources of constraint, as individuals once more become enslaved, this time to the spiritual forces of conscience and reason. Only with the adulthood of egoism do individuals escape both material (external) and spiritual (internal) constraints, learning to value their personal satisfaction above all other considerations.<br /> <br /> Stirner portrays this dialectic of individual growth as an analogue of historical development, and it is a tripartite account of the latter which structures the remainder of the book. Human history is reduced to successive epochs of realism (the ancient, or pre-Christian, world), idealism (the modern, or Christian, world), and egoism (the future world). <br /> <br /> What about these &quot;successive epochs&quot; in understanding ATD?<br /> <br /> Stirner's major work, The Ego and Its Own has been reissued in English a number of times in Pynchon's lifetime,from the 60s on. (Not that TRP could not have read it in German!)<br /> <br /> '''''Anarcho-individualiste'''''&lt;br&gt;<br /> i.e. he has doctrinal differernces with Stirnerism, strictly speaking; see P. 324, and &quot;Eigenheit&quot;.<br /> <br /> '''Leopold'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> See p. 527.<br /> <br /> '''going down lately'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Being assassinated.<br /> <br /> '''Sipido'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Jean-Baptiste Sipido (1884-1959), a Belgian socialist. Accusing the Prince of Wales of causing thousands of inocents were killed in the Boer War in South Africa, on April 5, 1900, Sipido leaped onto the foot board of the royal compartment right before the train left the North Railway Station (Gare du Nord), Brussel, and fired two (or one? as reported in ''The Manchester Guardian'', or four? as stated in the text here) shots through the window but missed everyone inside. He was arrested, tried and acquitted. The leader of the House of Commons called the acquittal a &quot;grave and most unfortunate miscarriage of justice.&quot; ([http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jean-Baptiste_Sipido Sipido]).<br /> <br /> '''Prince... of Wales'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> (Maud Gonne's husband claimed to have been involved in another such plot.)<br /> <br /> '''Hippodrome'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Hippodrome Wellington, a horse racing track in Ostend built in 1883. The facility hosts both harness and flat racing events. ([http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hippodrome_Wellington Hippodrome]).<br /> <br /> '''Royal Bathing Hut... twenty francs'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> A bathing machine ([http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bathing_machine bathing machine])? The King of Belgium certainly would not want to be seen in a swimsuit on a public beach... It seems unlikely, though, that such a royal bathing machine would be for hire.<br /> <br /> '''twenty francs'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> ???<br /> <br /> ==Page 529==<br /> <br /> '''picric family'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> The explosive picric acid (2,4,6-trinitrophenol) and its derivatives. For picric acid, Brugère's powder and Designolle's powder, [http://encyclopedia.jrank.org/PER_PIG/PICRIC_ACID_or_TRINITROPHENOL_C.html see this Britannica article.]<br /> <br /> '''Brugère's powder'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> See &quot;picric family&quot; above.<br /> <br /> '''Designolle's'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> See &quot;picric family&quot; above.<br /> <br /> '''Monsieur Santos-Dumont'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Alberto Santos-Dumont (1873-1932), a pioneer of aviation from Brasil. Check out [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alberto_Santos-Dumont Wikipedia] to get a look at the way he was wearing his &quot;trademark Panama hat&quot;. <br /> <br /> '''Green Hour''' and '''''l'heure vertigineuse'''''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Absinthe-drinking time. The liqueur is green. In French, ''l'heure verte,'' so ''vertigineuse'' (vertiginous, causing dizziness) is a pun on the word for &quot;green.&quot;<br /> <br /> '''Rocco and Pino'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Rabid Quaternionists and sudden friends of Kit Traverse.<br /> :No, they were not mathematicians at all, let alone Quaternionists, but two &quot;Italian naval renegades&quot; !!<br /> ::&quot;Rocco and Pino&quot; are, in temperament, something like the &quot;Mason and Dixon&quot; of manned-torpedoes... cf. the &quot;torpedo&quot; (i.e., &quot;Electrick-Eel&quot;) of ''Mason &amp; Dixon''.<br /> <br /> '''Whitehead works in Fiume'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Anticipating GR's V2 works.<br /> <br /> ''Robert Whitehead'' (1823-1905), an English engineer. He developed the first self-propelled torpedo in 1866. He attended Manchester's Mechanics Institute, worked in a shipyard in Toulon (1844), France, and as a consultant engineer in Milan (1847), Italy. Later he moved to Trieste and in 1856 became a manager of a company called ''Founderia Mettali'' (later, ''Stabilimento Tecnico di Fiume'') in Fiume producing ship steam boilers and engines which were the most advanced of that era. He also developed the first self-propelled torpedo which was very popular. Whitehead's torpedo was propelled by a compressed air engine, carried 18lbs dynamites and a self-regulating device which kept the torpedo cruising at a constant preset depth. [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Robert_Whitehead Whitehead]].<br /> <br /> ''Fiume'' is now Rijeka, Croatia. Trieste is on the northwestern edge of the Istra Peninsula, Rijeka is east of it. [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rijeka Fiume]].<br /> <br /> Interesting sidebar: Whitehead's fortune from Fiume and the torpedo went solely to his granddaughter Agatha Whitehead, who married Baron von Trapp. The Von Trapp money came from Robert Whitehead, and most of the von Trapp singers were his great-grandchildren.<br /> <br /> '''''Alberta'''''&lt;br&gt;<br /> The [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Royal_yacht Wikipedia] entry on royal yachts goes back to the 17th century but doesn't include ''Alberta.'' The craft does get a mention in [http://www.bouncing-balls.com/timeline/people/nr_leopoldmorel.htm this page on Leopold and the Congo.]<br /> <br /> '''Siluro Dirigibile a Lenta Corsa'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> or S.L.C. &quot;slow course torpedo&quot;, &quot;slow-running torpedo&quot;. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Manned_torpedo Wikipedia] Italy‘s Navy was among the first to experiment with manned torpedos. Though according to [http://web.ukonline.co.uk/chalcraft/sm/chariots.html this site] this did not happen until 1935, Italian frogmen as early as October 31, 1918 made it into the harbour of Pula with the help of a modified german torpedo and sank the former Austrian but by then since a few hours Croatian/Slovenian/Bosnian battleship SMS ''Viribus Unitis''. [http://www.geocities.com/tegetthoff66/viribus.html website]<br /> <br /> The Wikipedia entry linked above doesn't contain the Italian word ''dirigibile'' (steerable), which sets up the torpedo as a counterpart of the dirigible ''Inconvenience.''<br /> <br /> :I suspect there's a connection between the torpedo and &quot;Not the usual lateener, in fact appearing to have neither sails, masts, nor oars&quot; in Miles' reversed vision, [[ATD_243-272#Page_250|page 250.]] Needs work, though.<br /> <br /> ==Page 530==<br /> <br /> '''exfiltrate'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Make a surreptitious escape (as &quot;infiltrate&quot; means to make a surreptitious entrance).<br /> <br /> '''''Macchè'''''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Italian: certainly not, not a chance. And in Pynchon's Italian is used as an all-purpose exclamation.<br /> <br /> '''''Ehi, stu gazz', categoria'''''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Stu gazz' is a dialect representation of ''sto cazzo'', literally meaning ''this dick here''. Normally you could translate the sense of the sentence as: ''yeah, why not, a fucking category! ''. -- blicero2 - 2007.02.22<br /> <br /> '''''mezzogiornismo'''''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Denigrating the Italian South. Mezzogiorno means ''midday'' in Italian but refers generally to Southern Italy.<br /> <br /> ==Page 531==<br /> <br /> '''Bruges'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> An exceptionally beautiful Belgian town of canals which is thus one of several towns known as the 'Venice of the north'. In the 14th cettury Burges already became an international finanacial and trading center, but<br /> started to decline in the 15th century. In the 20th century, however, the city was discovered by the international tourism and the medieval heritage turned out to be a new source of wealth. A new harbor of Zeebrugge, 10 miles outside of Bruges at the North Sea coast, brought new developments and new industries to the region. For the city and its history see ([http://www.trabel.com/brugge.htm Bruges]).<br /> <br /> '''Raoul's Atelier de la Vitesse'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> French: Ralph's Speed Shop.<br /> <br /> '''Ghent'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Belgian city, less than 30 miles southeast of Bruges, on the rail line about halfway between Ostend and Brussels. It is the fourth largest city of Belgium. It is bigger than Bruges but not as famous as a tourist attraction. But the city is a showcase of medieval Flemish wealth and commercial success. See ([http://www.trabel.com/gent.htm Ghent]).<br /> <br /> '''Daimler six-cylinder'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> ???<br /> <br /> '''a hundred horsepower'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> ???<br /> <br /> '''''guaglion'''''&lt;br&gt;<br /> italian (dialectal) = boy, young person<br /> <br /> '''Umeki Tsurigane'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Umeki is typically made with some combination of the various kanji for &quot;plum&quot; (ume) and &quot;tree&quot; (ki), though one has the ki being the character for &quot;ghost/devil&quot; and one obscure reading that's entirely redundant, where ume is &quot;plant&quot; (usually read ue). There is one where ume is the kanji for &quot;buried or embedded&quot;. Tsurigane, means a &quot;temple bell&quot;, which can stand alone or be followed by the grass kanji to mean &quot;bellflower&quot; (lots of botanical stuff happening here, if that means anything; hardly the only example in ''AtD''). Given the search for Shambhala going on, &quot;Buried Temple Bell&quot; seems a likely translation, at least at this point; the botanical meanings could perhaps emerge later.<br /> <br /> Or, another terrible name-pun? &quot;You make [m]e sore again.&quot; See another on P. [[ATD_748-767#Page_757| 757]]<br /> <br /> '''Professor Knott'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Cargill Knott (1856-1922), professor of physics; seismologist. See his biography [http://www.penicuikcdt.org.uk/Cargill_Knott.html here].<br /> <br /> ==Page 532==<br /> <br /> '''Kimura'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Cf [[ATD_26-56#Page 29|page 29:Kimura]] and [[ATD_318-335#Page 318|page 318:Shunkichi Kimura]].<br /> <br /> '''drover's sombrero'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Cowboy hat.<br /> <br /> '''furoshiki'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Japanese all-purpose cloth. Can be worn, used as wrapping, or used as a bag.<br /> <br /> '''taupe'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> A brownish gray.<br /> <br /> '''boilermakers and their helpers'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> [[ATD_358-373#Page_360|See annotation to p. 360.]]<br /> <br /> '''Anharmonic Pencil'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> ''Pencil'' is a term commonly used in Synthetic Geometry. Straight lines incident with a plane - coplanar lines - and passing through a common point are said to be concurrent lines and the set of all such concurrent coplanar lines is called the ''pencil''. (Cf [[ATD_429-459#Page 456|page 456:Pencil]]). For a figure and a not quite precise definition see [http://mathworld.wolfram.com/Pencil.html pencil]. If a, b, c and d, are four distinct coplanar lines and their double ratio λ = (abcd) = -1, then a, b, c, d are called a harmonic quadruple of lines; they are said to constitute a ''harmonic pencil''. A ''pencil'' which is not harmonic then is known as ''anharmonic pencil''. See Pencil (lines 8-9), Double Ratio λ (lines 32-35) and Harmonic Pencil (line 39) of [http://ca.geocities.com/ingsaler6/mathworld.html Mathworld].<br /> <br /> '''''Comptes rendus'''''&lt;br&gt;<br /> ''Comptes rendus des séances hebdomadaires,'' Proceedings of the weekly sessions (of the Academy of Sciences), published from 1835, later (ca. 1935) retitled ''Comptes rendus de l'Académie des sciences,'' Proceedings of the Academy of Sciences. (Notice that the academy didn't see the need to specify &quot;French.&quot; Take that, Royal Society of London!) For about a century, one of two journals so universally circulated and recognized that bibliographies nearly always cited them in nickname form: ''C.R.'' The other was ''Ber.,'' short for ''Berichte der Deutschen Chemischen Gesellschaft,'' Reports of the German Chemical Society (from 1868).<br /> <br /> '''De Forest'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Cf [[ATD_26-56#Page 29|page 29:De Forest]].<br /> <br /> '''Gibbs'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Cf [[ATD_26-56#Page 29|page 29:Professor Gibbs]].<br /> <br /> '''Maxwell Equations'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Cf [[ATD_57-80#Page 58|page 58:Maxwell Field Equations]].<br /> <br /> ==Page 533==<br /> <br /> '''aniline teal'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> The wallpaper dye; aniline dyes were the first synthetic dyes, discovered by [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/William_Perkin William Perkin] in 1858. Their intense and fade-resistant colors were very fashionable at the end of the nineteenth century. The dyes are also significant in ''GR'' as the products of I.G. Farben.<br /> <br /> '''Heavisiders'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Oliver Heaviside (May 18, 1850 – February 3, 1925) was a self-taught English electrical engineer, mathematician and physicist who adapted complex numbers to the study of electrical circuits, developed techniques for applying Laplace transforms to the solution of differential equations, reformulated Maxwell's field equations in terms of electric and magnetic forces and energy flux, and independently co-formulated vector analysis. Although at odds with the scientific establishment for most of his life, Heaviside changed the face of mathematics and science for years to come.[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Heaviside].<br /> <br /> '''Grassmanniacs'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Nineteenth century German mathematician and linguist, essentially the inventor/discoverer of vector space. Grassmann showed that once geometry is put into the algebraic form he advocated, then the number three has no privileged role as the number of spatial dimensions; the number of possible dimensions is in fact unbounded.[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hermann_Grassmann].<br /> <br /> '''in the mood for a clambake'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Anachronistic Broadway show tune? If so, the clambake in ''Carousel'' turns into a brawl; the assmebled factions of mathematicians could be in the mood for either a party or a brawl, apparently. <br /> <br /> '''Monopole de la Maison'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Monopole of the House, a fanciful name of a fanciful drink.&lt;br&gt;<br /> There is, since 1898, a well known restaurant called ''Monopole Lunch &amp; Sea Grill'' in Plattsburgh of upper New York state. ([http://www.monopole.org Monopole Restaurant]).&lt;br&gt;<br /> Most probably, it's the Magnetic monopole being referred here. In physics, a monopole is a magnet with a net magnetic charge, i.e. there is only one pole instead of two (so no net magnetic charge) as usual. ([http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Magnetic_monopole Monopole]). It's existence had been theoretically predicted by various particle theories (superstring theory, etc) but never been proved experimentally. Proving the existence of a monopole would certainly earn a Nobel Prize.<br /> <br /> '''Idiom Neutral'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> An invented language, like Esperanto. Idiom Neutral dictionaries first appeared in 1902. It looks like a simplified Latinate language and it grew out of Volapuk, another &quot;auxiliary language.&quot; It was abandoned by the ''Akademi Internasional de Lingu Universal'' in 1908.<br /> <br /> For a list of all the invented languages that linguists are keeping track of, including Klingon, try [http://linguistlist.org/forms/langs/GetListOfConstructedLgs.html Eastern Michigan's Linguist List]. And don't forget to click on the link to &quot;Browse sites devoted to constructed languages.&quot;<br /> <br /> '''phatic'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Basically, small talk or chatter. Words used to convey fellow-feeling rather than to impart information.<br /> <br /> '''''Kampf ums Dasein'''''&lt;br&gt;<br /> German: struggle for existence.<br /> <br /> '''Q-brother'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Fellow Quaternioneer or Fellow Quaternionist.<br /> <br /> '''We are the Jews of mathematics, wandering out here in our diaspora--some destined for the past, others the future, even a few able to set out at unknown angles from the simple line of Time, upon journeys that no one can predict''' &lt;br&gt;<br /> In keeping with the analogy of Judaism, those &quot;few&quot; people within the Quaternionists &quot;able to set out at unknown angles&quot; are most likely being compared to Kabbalists who claim to partake in a mystic &quot;journey to the Throne of God through the mythological realm of the seven heavens&quot; (Armstrong, A History of God--p. 247). Throne Mysticism in Kabbalah is explored extensively in Gravity's Rainbow.<br /> <br /> Perhaps this is obvious to some, but these &quot;Jews of Mathematics&quot; worship the Hamiltonian Tetractys [http://www.math.ucr.edu/home/baez/dublin/]; those other Jews worshipped the Tetragrammatron. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tetragrammaton] The proliferation of 4s continues.<br /> <br /> ==Page 534==<br /> <br /> '''Poiret gown'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> A gown designed by Paul Poiret (1879-1944), a French fashion designer based in Paris. &quot;In the annals of fashion history, Paul Poiret is best remembered for freeing women from corsets and further liberating them through pantaloons . . . it was Poiret's remarkable innovations in the cut and construction of cloting . . . Working with fabric directly onto the body, Poiret helped to pioneer a radical approach to dressmakeing that relied more on the skills of drapery than on those of tailoring.&quot; (from [http://www.metmuseum.org/special/se_event.asp?OccurrenceId={0DC3D00F-4611-4F91-8DC2-CC3C1A5C48D5} MetMuseum], <br /> New York Metropolitan Museum's Special Exhibitions, ''Poiret: King of Fashion'', May 9, 2007 to August 5, 2007). For a picture of Poiret gown see [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Image:Poiretgown.jpg Poiret Gown]. ''The New York Times'' reported on February 1, 2007 that A Poiret Gown Brings $5,500 at [http://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html?res=9B07EFDA1538F93AA15756C0A967948260 Christie's Auction] - the gown was made in 1913 when Poiret was at the height of his career. For his bio see [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Paul_Poiret Poiret].<br /> <br /> '''''green and long'''''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Pickle, or... what?<br /> : A green and long ''gherkin'' (a small, immature fruit of a variety of cucumber used in pickling).<br /> <br /> ==Page 535==<br /> <br /> '''no-name wine'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> 1970s idiom for common European practice?<br /> <br /> '''set theory'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Set theory deals with the properties of well-defined collections, or ''sets'', of entities - the ''elements'' or ''members'' of the set - conceived as a whole. The elements may be of a mathematical nature or non-mathematical. The set theory grew out of the German mathematician Georg Cantor's (1845-1918) study of infinite sets of real numbers. <br /> <br /> The ''language of sets'' has become an important tool for all branches of mathematics, but is of very little relevance to the practice of mathematics in everyday life. As a source of metaphors, however, it's been quite productive; &quot;subset,&quot; &quot;superset,&quot; &quot;universe,&quot; &quot;intersection&quot; and &quot;Venn diagram&quot; have found varying degrees of acceptance. Recasting Aristotle's syllogisms in set-theoretic language also makes them easier for many people to understand.<br /> <br /> '''Hamilton . . . early genius'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Hamilton, according to ''Chambers Biographical Dictionary'', &quot;at fifteen knew thirteen languages, had read Newton's ''Principia'', and commenced original investigations&quot;. At twenty-two, &quot;while still an undergraduate, he was appointed professor of Astronomy at Dublin and Irish Astronomer-Royal&quot;; at thirty &quot;he was knighted&quot;.<br /> <br /> '''Hamilton . . . in the grip of a first love'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> ???&lt;br&gt;<br /> Pynchon probably didn't mean Quaternion was Hamilton's first love, but its effect on him was similar to that of a first love. In 1843 at the age of 38 Hamilton invented the Quaternion, the first non-communtative algebra to be studied. He felt this would revolutionise mathematical physics, and he spent the rest of his life working on it. In 1853 he published a large volume, ''Lectures on Quaternions'', on his grand invention. The last seven years of his life, Hamilton was writing an 800-page book ''Elements of Quaternions'' modeling on Euclid's ''Elements''. The last chapter of the book was completed by his son after his death.<br /> <br /> '''the Walt Whitman of English physics'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Whitman pops up again, last seen on [[ATD_489-524#Page_491|page 491]].<br /> <br /> ==Page 536==<br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> '''Oscar Wilde'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Note that Wilde's Dorian Gray also undergoes a kind of bilocation.<br /> <br /> '''Kursaal'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Spa. Casino ?<br /> <br /> '''vectors'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> For serious minds see Cf [[ATD_525-556#Page 526|page 526:Gibbsian Vectors]], but let's follow Pynchon's lighter mood, here is a non-mathematical definition by Kamen (1995):<br /> :''Many things have more than direction;''<br /> :''The magnitude is also a question.''<br /> :''With acceleration or force,''<br /> :''And many more things, of course,''<br /> :''It's vectors that make the connection.''<br /> <br /> '''Curls'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Cf [[ATD_318-335#Page 326|page 326:Curl]]: curl is a vector operator that shows a vector field's rate of rotation.<br /> <br /> '''Laplacians'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Pierre-Simon, Marquis de Laplace (March 23, 1749 – March 5, 1827); French mathematician and astronomer who summarized and extended the work of his predecessors in his five volume Mécanique Céleste (Celestial Mechanics) (1799-1825), translating the geometrical study of mechanics used by Isaac Newton to one based on calculus, known as physical mechanics.<br /> <br /> He is also the discoverer of Laplace's equation. Although the Laplace transform is named in honor of Laplace, who used the transform in his work on probability theory, the transform was discovered originally by Leonhard Euler. The Laplace transform appears in all branches of mathematical physics — a field he took a leading role in forming. The Laplacian differential operator, much relied-upon in applied mathematics, is likewise named after him. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Laplace].<br /> <br /> :Cf [[ATD_318-335#Page 326|page 326:Laplacian]]: Laplacian is a differential operator named after Laplace. The text here was talking about mathematical operations and operators — rates of change, rotations, partial differentials, Curls, ''Laplacians'', . . .<br /> <br /> '''scream'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Scream motif.<br /> <br /> '''beginning to appal'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> By 1905 there had been years of outrage at conditions in the Belgian Congo, King Leopold's private fief. Conrad's ''Heart of Darkness'' had been published as a serial in Blackwood's Magazine in 1899 and as a book in 1902. There were missionaries' accounts of the brutality, and newspaper reports. Leopold and his apologists published rebuttals. The Norton Critical Edition of ''Heart of Darkness'' contains an extensive collection of both.<br /> <br /> '''baize'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Baize is a coarse woolen felt.<br /> <br /> ==Page 537==<br /> <br /> '''broken symmetries'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Broken_symmetry Broken symmetry] is a concept used widely in mathematics and physics. For a simplest explanation (good enough for the text here), this term means that an object breaks either rotational symmetry or translational sysmetry - when one can only rotate an object in certain angles or when one is able to tell if the object has been shifted sideways. For a little bit more detailed explanation see [http://www.lassp.cornell.edu/sethna/OrderParameters/BrokenSymmetry.html Identify the Broken Symmetry]; or even more [http://scienceweek.com/2005/sw050708-6.htm On Broken Symmetry].<br /> <br /> '''''sphinxe Khnopffienne'''''&lt;br&gt;<br /> refers to the Belgian symbolist painter Fernand Khnopff (1858-1921), famous for his painting &quot;The Caress&quot;, in which a female sphinx erotically lures a young man. The painting can be seen in the [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fernand_Khnopff wikipedia entry]<br /> <br /> '''Pléiade Lafrisée'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> in French, &quot;friser&quot; means to curl or twist. &quot;La frisée&quot; could mean &quot;curled,&quot; by extension &quot;twisted.&quot; The Pleiades is a cluster of hundreds of stars, though only a few are visible, sometimes referred to as The Seven Sisters. If Pleiades are Sisters, Pléiade is ''one'' Sister, so her name means Twisted Sister!<br /> <br /> '''''Conseilleuse'''''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Female consultant?<br /> <br /> ==Page 538==<br /> <br /> '''retroversion matrix'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> ???<br /> <br /> '''''Ma foi'''''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Literally &quot;My faith&quot;, i.e. &quot;By my faith!&quot;, a mild exclamation of incredulity.<br /> <br /> '''ten thousand francs'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> <br /> Based on currency conversions relative to gold, this is equivalent to<br /> about $30,000 US today.<br /> <br /> '''piker'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Someone cheap or cautious, possibly named after people from PIke County, Missouri, who came to California in the 1800s, looking for work. They were poor, hence cheap.<br /> <br /> '''what is a Quaternino?'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Cf [[ATD_525-556#Page 525|page 525:Quaternions]] for a mathematical definition. From ''The Random House Dictionary of the English Languages'', The Unabridged Edition (1966): Quaternion is &quot;a quantity or operator expressed as the sum of a real number and three complex numbers, equivalent to the ''quotient of two vectors''. The field of quaternions is not commutative under multiplication.&quot;.<br /> <br /> '''Bertie ('Mad Dog') Russell'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> 'Mad Dog' seems to be used with heavy irony here. Bertrand Russell was known most for his rationalism, so to speak, his work in modern logic. <br /> He did little in his public roles (at this time in AtD) that would have <br /> him referred to as &quot;crazy', as we say, beyond the social norm, &quot;mad&quot;. <br /> It might be argued that his use of 'logic' against philosophers such as Hegel and McTaggart within ''Against the Day'' showed up their 'madness'.<br /> (Many did think McTaggart was a bit...different...for seriously not believing in Time.) McTaggart broke with Russell after an early influential friendship---Russell was the younger man and the influenced one. He said he was an Hegelian because of McTaggart--Russell wrote in his<br /> Autobiography that McTaggart said he no longer wanted to meet/talk with him bcause he could no longer stand Russell's opinions.<br /> <br /> [http://nobelprize.org/nobel_prizes/literature/laureates/1950/russell-bio.html Bertrand Russell] (1872-1970) was a British mathematician, philosopher, logician and social critic. Best known for his work in mathermatical logic and analytic philosophy. In late spring of 1901 he discovered the so-called [http://plato.stanford.edu/entries/russell-paradox/ Russell Paradox], &quot;the most famous of the logical or set-theoretical paradoxes. The paradox arises within naive set theory by considering the set of all sets that are not members of themselves. Such a set appears to be a member of itself if and only if it is not a member of itself, hence the paradox.&quot; (On-line Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy). He won the 1950 Nobel Prize in Literature in &quot;recognition of his varied and significant writings in which he champions humanitarian ideals and freedom of thought&quot;.<br /> <br /> '''Barry Nebulay'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> nebulae: formed from the diffusion of gas in galaxies or as exploded stars (or the last ember-like stage of a star)&lt;br&gt; <br /> Most nebulae can be described as diffuse nebulae, which means that they are extended and contain no well-defined boundaries.[1] In visible light these nebulae may be divided into emission nebulae and reflection nebulae, a categorization that depends on how the light we see is created.<br /> <br /> '''Hegel... puns'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Probably refers to the fact that quite a lot of Hegel's philosophy deals with the is-ness of the world as we know and experience it.<br /> <br /> On page 787 of Bertrand Russell's ''History of Western Philosophy'' is a summary, perhaps, of this remark about Hegel's puns: &quot;as a result of analysis of the concept &quot;existence&quot;, modern logic has proved this [Cartesianism, refuted by Kant, reinstated by Hegel] argument invalid.....&quot;<br /> <br /> We know from other places that TRP himself seems to 'not like' Cartesianism. See 'cartesian' citations within this wiki.<br /> <br /> ==Page 539==<br /> <br /> '''a vector quotient'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> The result of one vector divided by another. According to the English dictionary definition of previous page this is just a Quaternion.<br /> <br /> '''unit vector'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Unit vector is a vector with magnitude of one. The unit vectors in 3-dimensional space, ''i, j, k'', associated with ''x, y, z'' directions are used in defining a general 3D vector (Cf [[ATD_525-556#Page 526|page 526:Gibbsian Vectors]]).<br /> <br /> '''''square root of minus one'''''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Imaginary number (Cf [[ATD_119-148#Page 132|page 133:Imaginary Number]]). The imaginary numbers ''i, j, k'' are used in defining a Quaternion (Cf [[ATD_525-556#Page 525|page 525:Quaternions]]).<br /> <br /> ''''Triangle Asana''''&lt;br&gt;<br /> A basic yoga pose. <br /> <br /> [http://yoga.org.nz/postures/yoga_positions_images_page.htm Here are images of several basic poses.]<br /> <br /> ''''Dr Rao abruptly vanished''''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Might be a reference to [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Martin_Gardner Martin Gardner]'s<br /> [http://www.amazon.com/No-Sided-Professor-Fantasy-Mystery-Philosophy/dp/0879753900 &quot;No-Sided Professor&quot;]<br /> <br /> ''''Quadrantal Versor Asana''''&lt;br&gt;<br /> A triangle pose taken that extra dimension.<br /> <br /> '''''&quot;Uwe moer!&quot;'''''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Looks a lot like the Dutch &quot;Uw moeder!&quot; - a cry of astonishment (&quot;Your mother!&quot;), the equivalent to the black English &quot;yo mama&quot;.<br /> <br /> '''noncommutative'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> A term typical to mathematics. A commutative equation is one that can operate in exact reverse and still yield the same results. 'Noncommutative' then suggests unidirectionality. The ability to go from point A to point B, but not from B to A.<br /> <br /> '''reticule'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> A woman's drawstring handbag; usually made of net or beading or brocade; also: A system of lines forming a pattern of squares at the focal plane of a telescope, used in micrometers.<br /> [http://www.astunit.com/tutorials/glossary.htm] <br /> :Isn't that sort of a red herring? &quot;[P]roducing from her reticule a . . . watch&quot; doesn't really allow of that second meaning. &lt;br&gt;<br /> :It could be a pun, since a reticule/ handbag always shows its pattern of lines, and a watch (timepiece) is drawn from it. Remember that, e.g. railroad lines of tracks, are a sign of industrialism encroaching on the natural and the spiritual.<br /> <br /> '''Vacheron &amp; Constantin watch'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Made by a Swiss company founded in 1755. From 1819 to 1970 the name was as in the text, then the &amp; dropped out. See the [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vacheron_Constantin Wikipedia entry.]<br /> <br /> '''hunting-case'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> For a pocket watch, a case with a hinged metal cover. More often called &quot;hunter case&quot; (and such a watch a &quot;hunter&quot;).<br /> <br /> ==Page 540==<br /> <br /> '''&quot;haar rekening, ja?&quot;'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> The bill, yes? (Dutch)?<br /> <br /> ''Her'' bill, yes? I.e., give the check to the lady.<br /> <br /> Given the presence of Chris 'Kit' Traverse here, this very much suggests a reference to Christopher 'Kit' Marlowe, Elizabethan poet, playwright and contemporary of Shakespeare. Marlowe was stabbed to death in 1593, in murky circumstances, ostensibly over a bill or 'reckoning', though he was widely believed to have been involved in some form of espionage.<br /> <br /> Strictly speaking &quot;haar rekening&quot; means that the lady pays for herself only. If Root wanted to make sure that Pléiade pays for the whole company he would have to say &quot;de hele rekening voor de dame&quot;. <br /> <br /> '''Piet Woevre'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> The Woëvre is a natural region of Lorraine in north-east France. It forms part of Lorraine plateau and lies largely in the department of Meuse. During World War I, there was much fighting there due to vast mineral resources that had been discovered in the Briey basin or Eastern Woevre at the end of the 19th century. &quot;Piet&quot; is Dutch for &quot;rock&quot; or &quot;stone&quot; and is a fairly common Dutch name, the English equivalent being Peter.<br /> <br /> If the surname is pronounced as in Dutch, Woevre is another Pynchon villain with a &quot;V&quot;-name (Vond, Weissman, Vibe). <br /> <br /> '''Force Publique'''&lt;br /&gt;<br /> The Force Publique (FP) was the official armed force for what is now the Democratic Republic of the Congo from 1885, (when the territory was known as the Congo Free State), through the period of direct Belgian rule (1908-60), until the beginning of the Second Republic in 1965. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Force_Publique Wikipedia entry]<br /> <br /> '''made him reach'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Possible allusion to a famous line, &quot;When I hear the word culture I reach for my gun.&quot; From Hanns Johst's biographical play ''Schlageter''. The original line is slightly different: &quot;Wenn ich Kultur höre ... entsichere ich meinen Browning,&quot; &quot;Whenever I hear of culture... I release the safety-catch of my Browning!&quot; (Act 1, Scene 1). It is spoken by another character in conversation with the young Schlageter. In the scene Schlageter and his wartime comrade Friedrich Thiemann are studying for a college examination, but then start disputing whether it's worthwhile doing so when the nation is not free. <br /> <br /> The line is often misattributed to better-known Nazis and others [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hanns_Johst].<br /> <br /> *In Jean-Luc Godard's 1963 film [http://www.chicagoreader.com/movies/archives/0997/09057.html ''Le Mépris'' (''Contempt'')], Jack Palance's character &quot;Jeremy Prokosch,&quot; an American movie-producer, intones to Fritz Lang: &quot;Whenever I hear the word culture, I reach for my checkbook.&quot;<br /> <br /> '''not unambiguous'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Ie, ambiguous.<br /> <br /> '''''rastaquoueres'''''&lt;br&gt;<br /> 8???<br /> <br /> '''de Decker'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> In Dutch/Flemish, the name means &quot;roofer.&quot; (''De'' in these names almost never means &quot;of, from&quot; as in French; it's nearly always the definite article.)<br /> <br /> ==Page 541==<br /> <br /> '''''bobbejaan'''''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Afrikaans: baboon. (Afrikaans is the language spoken by descendants of Dutch colonists in present-day South Africa. Some items identified as Dutch or Flemish in this wiki may really be Afrikaans.)<br /> <br /> The South African song &quot;Bobbejaan klim die berg&quot; (&quot;Bobbejaan climbed the hill&quot;) is the source of the stage name of Belgium's most famous country and western musician, Bobbejaan Schoepen (b. 1925). In 1943 he was suppressed by the Nazis after performing a South African song, &quot;Mamma, 'k wil 'n man hê&quot; (&quot;Mama, I want a man&quot;), which contains the line &quot;No, Mama, I don't want a German, because I don't like pork.&quot; He founded the Bobbejaanland theme park in Belgium, where he still lives.<br /> <br /> '''MKIV/ODC... Mark Four'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> This would be the Mark IV Ohmic Drift Compensator ([[ATD 557-587#Page 565|Page 565]]), a key component of the Q-weapon, which &quot;regulates how much light is allowed to enter the silvering of the mirror! Special kind of refraction! Calibrated against imaginary index! Dangerous! Of the essence!'&quot;<br /> <br /> '''not part of your remit'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Not included in your job description, instructions, authorization. &quot;Remit&quot; (noun) is usually a British usage.<br /> <br /> '''''gatkruiper'''''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Dutch/Flemish: brownnose, ass-kisser.<br /> <br /> '''one on her wrist'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> All the bruises reflect some refinement or artistry except this one, which may have been inflicted crudely.<br /> <br /> '''over the day'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Title motif?<br /> <br /> ==Page 542==<br /> <br /> '''trans-horizontic'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Across the horizon -- &quot; a screaming comes across the sky&quot;<br /> <br /> '''Edmund Whittaker'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Edmund Whittaker (1873-1956), an English mathematician. He is best known for his work in numerical analysis. And he contributed widely to applied mathematics, mathematical physics and the theory of special functions. He also worked on celestial mechanics and the history of applied mathermatics and physics. ([http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/E._T._Whittaker Whittaker]).<br /> <br /> The Sir Edmund Whittaker Memorial Prize is awarded every four years by the Edinburgh Mathematical Society to an outstanding young mathematician having a specified connection with Scotland [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sir_Edmund_Whittaker_Memorial_Prize]. <br /> <br /> '''louche'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> The cloudy effect caused by the addition of water to absinthe. Dictionary definition: &quot;of questionable taste or morality; decadent.&quot;<br /> <br /> '''cheval-glass'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Standing mirror in a freestanding vertical frame.<br /> <br /> '''as if someone'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Sound-cancelling vs opacity-cancelling?<br /> <br /> ==Page 543==<br /> <br /> '''wraith of Pleiade Lafrisee'''<br /> <br /> Pleiade manifests one of her not-visible stars. Perhaps this sister has somehow twisted herself on an imaginary axis ala Dr. V. Ganesh Rao.<br /> <br /> '''monitory'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Warning, giving advice, by extension ominous or menacing.<br /> <br /> '''Against....the day....'''<br /> Note: this phrase happens at the exact halfway point of the novel: p.542.3<br /> <br /> '''He Who Must Come'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> The evil-doer who must come might be Adolf Hitler. It would make sense. The implication being that Europe is precipitating into a no-return situation. Capitalism cannot but end in WW2.&lt;br&gt;<br /> Ah, a lot more and less than capitalism going on here, especially if anyone specific like Hitler is meant. <br /> :When French writers use this phrase (''celui qui doit venir'') they '''do''' mean the Messiah . . . although a few devout quibblers point out that the Messiah has already come. It's rather tiresome Googling the phrase; the first 83 hits definitely refer to Christ and most of them quote the first verses of Matthew 11. But there's also a Camus reference (in English, I think) down at No. 90, if anyone has a JSTOR account:<br /> :links.jstor.org/sici?sici=0361-1299(1985)39%3A4%3C251%3ACFS%22M%3E2.0.CO%3B2-X <br /> <br /> Recalls Yeats' 'The Second Coming' once again: &quot;And what rough beast, its hour come round at last, Slouches towards Bethlehem to be born?&quot; [http://chumpsofchoice.blogspot.com/2007/05/casino-royale-in-flanders-field.html#c3637134446204467798 ]<br /> <br /> '''General Boulanger'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/General_Boulanger Georges Boulanger], French military man, and War Minister in the late 19th century. He was one of those men &quot;on a white horse&quot; that some conservatives looked to, as he urged an attack on Germany and the end of the French Republic with a return to monarchy. He was also notorious for his harsh reprisals against workers' demonstrations. &quot;'Boulangisme'&quot; threatened a coup in 1889, but the general's procrastination brought the crisis to an end.&lt;br&gt;<br /> In ''The Infernal Machine: A History of Terrorism''<br /> by Matthew Carr, 2007, Boulanger is called the &quot;father&quot; of fascism.<br /> <br /> '''what death and what transfiguration'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Allusion to Richard Strauss' tone poem &quot;Death and Transfiguration&quot; (''Tod und Verklärung''), premiered in 1890.<br /> <br /> '''''&quot;Zeker&quot;'''''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Dutch: certainly.<br /> <br /> '''''dead cert'''''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Dead certainty, sure thing.<br /> <br /> '''Von Schlieffen'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Alfred von Schlieffen was the author of a German war plan to win a two-front war against both France and Russia by quickly defeating France before Russian troops could be mobilized. The [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Schlieffen_Plan Schlieffen Plan] included an attack on France through Belgium, disregarding its neutrality.<br /> <br /> '''Wilhelm has offered Leopold part of France, the ancient Duchy of Burgundy'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> [http://www.crwflags.com/fotw/flags/fr-bg.html History of the duchy.] [http://www.freiburg-madison.de/freiburg_history/1386-1517_The%20Early%20Habsburgs.htm Map,] with portrait of Duke Charles the Rash.<br /> <br /> '''lowlands'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Title of Pynchon's first published story. Here, ass?<br /> <br /> ==Page 544==<br /> <br /> '''Place d'Armes'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Main square of Ostend; literally &quot;drill field&quot;.<br /> <br /> '''peau de soie'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> &quot;Skin of silk&quot; A heavy, smooth satin with very fine ribbing; somewhat dull in sheen compared with traditional silk finishes.<br /> <br /> '''Krafft-Ebing'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Richard Freiherr von Krafft-Ebing, Austro-German psychiatrist and author of ''Psychopathia Sexualis'' (1886), a pioneering study of deviant sexual behavior and fetishism. Coined both ''sadism'' and ''masochism'' as terms for these respective behaviors. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Richard_Freiherr_von_Krafft-Ebing Wikipedia entry].<br /> <br /> '''toque'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Toque here refers to a lady's hat, originally of fur but here in velvet, which is rather like a flattened chef's hat in shape.<br /> <br /> Proust: in ''À l'ombre des jeunes filles en fleurs'' the narrator first sees Albertine wearing a toque. There seem to be quite a few Proust themes and references running throughout the novel. Indeed '''Pliade''' is the French publisher of Proust's works. <br /> <br /> '''guipure'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Lace trim.<br /> <br /> '''midinette'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> A shopgirl or dressmakers apprentice. A milliner.<br /> <br /> '''Lambic'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> A distinctive Belgian style of beer. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lambic Wikipedia]<br /> <br /> '''sous'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> <br /> Coins. Originally Roman gold coins, latterly any kind of coin.<br /> <br /> Specifically small change. She is affecting modesty by claiming that a hat like hers can be had for pennies in any unpretentious shop. In France &quot;sou is used as slang for money, as in ''sans le sou''. 'I'm broke', 'without money'. It is also a slang term for the Canadian cent (standard French, cent).&quot; ([http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sou Wikipedia])<br /> <br /> '''mayonnaise'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Brautigan's &quot;Trout Fishing in America&quot; famously ends with the word mayonnaise. [http://books.google.com/books?vid=ISBN0395500761&amp;id=rbEjDovfyNMC&amp;pg=RA2-PA111&amp;lpg=RA2-PA111&amp;ots=ELKl5b_6Tx&amp;dq=mayonnaise+trout.fishing&amp;num=100&amp;sig=BiyXRqJXRGrMWbrBNgn8de2kpCo#PRA2-PA112,M1 GoogleBooks]<br /> <br /> '''ovoöleaginous'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Another Pynchonic word combination, here denoting the two main ingredients of mayonnaise: 1) eggs, and 2) oil. It's not &quot;fecoventilatory collision&quot; as seen in &quot;Vineland,&quot; but it's nice.<br /> <br /> '''Grenache'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Grape commonly used in Rhone Valley wines e.g. Chateauneuf du Pape.<br /> <br /> '''Chantilly'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> <br /> Region north of Paris.<br /> <br /> Here the reference is to crème chantilly otherwise known as whipped cream. Chantilly mayonnaise is made by incorporating the beaten egg whites for extra lightness.<br /> <br /> '''attainder'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Legislative act declaring that a person is guilty of a crime and setting punishment without the benefit of a formal trial. The Constitution forbids the federal government (Article I, Section 9, clause 3) and the state governments (Article I, Section 10, clause 1) from passing bills of attainder.<br /> [www.historycentral.com/Civics/B.html] <br /> <br /> ''''''Aux armes, citoyens''''''&lt;br&gt;<br /> ''To arms, citizens'', from the French national anthem, ''La Marseillaise'' (1792). Kit confused La Mayonnaise with La Marseillaise.&lt;br&gt;<br /> Not &quot;Le Marseillaise,&quot; you nitwit!<br /> <br /> '''Louis XV'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> King of France 1715-1774 [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Louis_XV]. <br /> <br /> '''Cléo de Mérode'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Glamorous French ballerina (1875-1966), later Follies Bergere dancer and famous beauty. Her reputed intimacy with King Leopold was only a rumor [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cleo_de_Merode]. The character Madame Leonora Armfeldt in Stephen Sondheim's ''A Little Night Music'' has some features in common with her.<br /> <br /> '''Marquise de Pompadour'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Mistress of Louis XV,once friend of Voltaire and a power behind official scenes.[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Madame_de_Pompadour].<br /> <br /> ==Page 545==<br /> <br /> '''duc de Richelieu'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Duc de Richelieu (1696-1788), marshal of France, was a grandnephew of Cardinal Richelieu, and born in Paris. Apart from his reputation as a man of exceptionally loose morals, he attained, in spite of a defective education, distinction as a diplomatist and general. ([http://www.1911encyclopedia.org/Louis_Francois_Armand_du_Plessis,_duc_de_Richelieu duc de Richelieu] and cf [[ATD_489-524#Page 490|page 490:duc de Richelieu]])<br /> <br /> '''dubious 'victory' in 1756'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> As part of the Seven Years' War (1756-1763), duc de Richelieu (1696-1788), a Marshal of France, won a victory in the Battle of Minorca (May 20, 1756) over John Byng (1704-1757), a British Admiral. In spring of 1756 John Byng was sent with a small and undermanned fleet to relieve the British ''Port Mahon'' on the Mediterranean island of Minorca. During the battle ensued, several British ships were badly damaged by the French squadron while others, including Byng's flagship, were still out of effective firing range. Instead of engaging the enemy directly, Byng decided to keep the formation, allowing the French fleet to get away undamaged. ([http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_Minorca Battle of Minorca]).<br /> <br /> '''the ill-fated Admiral Byng'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> John Byng, convicted by court-martial of failure &quot;to do his utmost&quot; in the battle, shot in 1757. Remembered because of (1) his being the last officer of flag rank to be put to death for conduct in battle and (2) Voltaire's gag in ''Candide:'' &quot;In this country it is good to kill an admiral from time to time in order to encourage the others.&quot;<br /> <br /> '''cantharides'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> &quot;Spanish fly,&quot; contact irritant sometimes ill-advisedly used as aphrodisiac.<br /> <br /> '''Sadean'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Pertaining to the Marquis de Sade. The acts the chef performs on the egg and oil have the same names as acts of Sadean sex. <br /> <br /> '''''n'est-ce pas?'''''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Right? (Isn't that so?)<br /> <br /> '''vetiver'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> A grass (Vetiveria zizanioides) of tropical India, cultivated for its aromatic roots that yield an oil used in perfumery.<br /> [www.answers.com/topic/vetiver]. So, a perfume with, llterallly, roots in India.<br /> <br /> Vetiver makes frequent appearances throughout ''À la recherche du temps perdu.''<br /> <br /> '''pip'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> A beaut; in current parlance, a hottie.<br /> <br /> '''Q.P. system'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Quaternion Probability, page 536.<br /> <br /> '''Usine Régionale'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> French: as translated in the text.<br /> <br /> ==Page 546==<br /> <br /> '''disjunctive effects of thunderstorms'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Folk wisdom says a thunderstorm will cause mayonnaise to separate (oil from yolks).<br /> <br /> '''cottonseed oil'''<br /> <br /> Mayonnaisse like Smegmo and Crisco is a hydrogenated fat; cottonseed oil is a common factor to all three. Indeed, the name Crisco derives from the intial sounds of &quot;'''crys'''tallized '''c'''ottonseed '''o'''il&quot;. Note in the next few pages a mention of Candlebrow -- underscoring a tie-in between Mayonnaisse and Smegmo. <br /> <br /> It may be of interest to note that hydrogenation may have a symbolic use for Pynchon. The process entails bubbling hydrogen through oil in the presence of a metal catalyst such as nickel, platinum, aluminum at 248 to 410 degrees. Remnants of these metals stay in the finished product, and when consumed can lead to an increase in heavy metals in the human body.<br /> <br /> Eating hydrogenated oils is like eating plastic. The body does not recognize that these molecules have been mutated and tries to use them as essential fatty acids. But they cannot perform the same function, and as a result hydrogenated oils can cause short circuits in the electrical flow that controls the heartbeat, nerve functions, cell division and mental balance. They also create free radicals (anarchists!) that are linked to cancers. Free radicals plus metal remnants are a major contributor to cancer, heart disease, immune system dysfunction, osteoporosis, depression, chronic fatigue, Alzheimers, and neurological diseases. It is estimated that over 200 million people have died prematurely because of the hydrogenated oils found in our diets. [http://www.drz.org/asp/newsletter/default.asp?xt2id=23] Not to mention innocent bystanders killed by mentally imbalanced people whose imbalance may stem from the ingestion of hydrogenated oils -- there may be some underlying reality to the &quot;Twinkie defense.&quot;<br /> <br /> '''lounge suit'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> A lounge suit is another name for business suit consisting of a matching jacket and trousers or skirt.<br /> <br /> '''congress shoes'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> ankle high shoes with elastic gussets in the sides (wordweb online)<br /> <br /> '''invisible hand'''<br /> <br /> Suggestive of Adam Smith's metaphor for market forces in economics.<br /> <br /> '''dripping-heads'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mayonnaise To make mayonnaise,] beat together egg yolks, salt, mustard and vinegar, then drip in oil while beating to form the emulsion. If you scale the process up for industrial production, you will automate the introduction of the oil, using nozzles that release it a drop at a time—but in a large vat you can have many such nozzles.<br /> <br /> '''''cuves d'agitation'''''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Vat or tank in which the mayonnaise is agitated or beaten.<br /> <br /> '''Clinique d'Urgence pour Sauvetage des Sauces'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> French: Emergency Clinic for Salvage of Sauces.<br /> <br /> ==Page 547==<br /> <br /> '''' ...engulfed in thick, slick, sour-smelling mayonnaise. ''''<br /> The whole Kit's experience in the mayonnaise factory is very much reminiscent to [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Roald_Dahl Roald Dahl]'s [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Charlie_and_the_Chocolate_Factory Charlie and the Chocolate Factory].<br /> <br /> '''''Cazzo, cretino'''''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Literally, &quot;Dick, cretin.&quot; ''Cazzo'' is a common Italian interjectionary obscenity, especially in the south. &quot;Cazzo, cretino,&quot; is akin to someone saying, &quot;Well shit, dummy,&quot; or &quot;F-ing moron!&quot;<br /> <br /> '''''È il cowboy!'''''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Italian: It's the cowboy!<br /> <br /> '''''vero?'''''&lt;br&gt;<br /> true? real?<br /> <br /> '''''Le bambole anarchiste, porca miseria'''''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Italian: Anarchist babes, oh boy.<br /> <br /> '''Oudenberg'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> A southeast suburb of Ostende.<br /> <br /> '''Quai de l'Entrepôt'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Warehouse Quay<br /> <br /> '''''ragazzi'''''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Italian: boys, guys.<br /> <br /> ==Page 548==<br /> <br /> '''General Boulanger'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> That the General was 'reactionary' and that the C of C bureaucracy had a 'defiant residue' of Boulangism, continues the characterization of the organization for which the Chums 'work'.&lt;br&gt;<br /> See p. 543 above, regarding a 2007 book in which Boulanger is called the 'father of fascism'.<br /> <br /> '''''timbres fictifs'''''&lt;br&gt;<br /> French: fictive postage stamps. Cf &quot;Lot 49&quot;.&lt;br&gt;<br /> Yes, stamps mean something in Pynchon's works; here, it seems important that these stamps are characterized as frauds.<br /> <br /> '''&quot;IIIb&quot;'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> As explained in the text.&lt;br&gt;<br /> &quot;Section IIIB (Intelligence) of the German High Command. After WWI, was funded by Alfred Hugenberg (financial backer of Nazi party)&quot;. From ''Sabotage'' by Sayers &amp; Kahn, 1942.[http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&amp;q=%22IIIB%27+%2B+INTELLIGENCE&amp;btnG=Search]. The authors state in the Forward, in 1942, &quot;that 'Nazi Germany' is the creation of spies and saboteurs&quot;. See ''V.'' &amp; ''Gravity's Rainbow'', of course. <br /> <br /> '''Germany might stand a better chance...'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> That is, if the French were to push into Alsace (per Boulanger) as the Germans executed the Schlieffen Plan [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Schlieffen_plan] for the encirclement of Paris, it would put the French at an even greater disadvantage...as actually happened in 1914. Had the Belgians and British not delayed the Germans in Flanders, and had the French railroads not performed speedily to bring the French troops back to the Marne, World War I could have had a very different outcome...an alternate history. <br /> <br /> '''revanchist'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Policies based on revenge, or a person following such policies. In General Boulanger's case, revenge against Germany for the Franco-Prussian War (that is, retaking Alsace, lost in 1871).<br /> <br /> '''the somewhat discomposed General'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Having died in 1891, the General by the time of the action is certainly somewhat '''de'''composed; brief biographies do not suggest he was ''non compos mentis,'' that is, mentally discomposed.<br /> <br /> ==Page 549==<br /> '''grow more and more invisible'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> What could be meant? Clearly, they inhabit bodies that people interact with?, as well as being characters in works of fiction.&lt;br&gt;<br /> Given what happens with the Chums as the story progresses [Spoiler bit, thematically], I suggest that their invisibility here<br /> means the entering of simple human life, to live out their lives 'anonymously' in history. I want to suggest this is largely a positive vision, indicated in other ways and places as well in TRPs work. Here is an overt bit of circumstantial evidence from Pynchon's introduction to Jim Dodge's novel ''Stone Junction'':&lt;br&gt;<br /> &quot;Equally difficult for those who might wish to proceed through life<br /> anonymously and without trace has been the continuing assault against<br /> the once-reliable refuge of the cash or non-plastic economy.&quot; [http://www.themodernword.com/pynchon/pynchon_essays_stone.html]<br /> <br /> '''cackled Darby'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> (When did he lose his innocence?)<br /> <br /> '''a modification of any salsician metaphor toward the diminutive'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Salsician: pertaining to sausage. Lindsay says Suckling's penis is better compared to a wiener than a knockwurst.<br /> <br /> '''&quot;Why you little–and I do mean 'little'–&quot;'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Another Simpsons reference? <br /> <br /> Noseworth, the Master-At-Arms of the Chums division of this organization with a defiant residue of 'fascism', who had no smell to Pugnax early on,<br /> is called out, either for real or in a sex-bashing putdown, for homosexuality. cf. homosexuality as a metaphor in ''Gravity's Rainbow''. <br /> <br /> '''dunes between Nieuport and Dunkirk'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Nieuport is a Belgian seaport about 10 miles southwest of Ostend. Dunkirk is a French port (less than 10 miles inside the French border) about 20 miles southwest of Nieuport. The latter was a site of one of the bloodest battle in World War I. The general area between Niewport and Dunkirk was the well traversed battle fields of two world wars. (Dunkirk was (in)famous for the British Army's escape from the Nazi German's assault in World War II.)<br /> <br /> '''power-receivers'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Not information, energy.<br /> <br /> ==Page 550==<br /> <br /> '''Lot's wife''' &lt;br&gt;<br /> Angels of God led Lot and his family out of Sodom as it was being destroyed and told them not to look back at the mayhem. Lot's wife, Edith, imprudently looked back and was transfigured into a pillar of salt.<br /> <br /> '''preference...for interiors'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> In [http://masondixon.pynchonwiki.com/wiki/index.php?title=Chapter_35:_349-361 Mason &amp; Dixon, p. 354] <br /> , the interiors of some coaches were larger than their exterior dimensions. Interiors have importance in Pynchon's worldview. Cf. &quot;invisibility&quot;, and a 'human life' above.&lt;br&gt;<br /> <br /> '''Italian grotto'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> an imitating recess or structure made to resemble a natural Italian grotto.<br /> <br /> '''a highly developed taste, moreover, for human blood'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Since Pugnax developed this taste in the Carpathians, home of Castle Dracula, this seems a clear reference to Bram Stoker's novel. <br /> <br /> '''Carpathians'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Major mountain range running northwest-southeast through Poland, Slovakia, western Ukraine and Romania.<br /> <br /> '''Uhlans'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Uhlan regiments belonged to the light cavalry. They wore splendid uniforms (model for some U.S. marching band uniforms). [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Uhlan Wikipedia article.]<br /> <br /> '''Temesvár'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Now Timişoara, extreme western Romania.<br /> <br /> ==Page 551==<br /> '''prefiguration...of the holy City'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> City of God, ala Augustine? ''The Heavenly City of the 18th Century Philosophers''[http://www.amazon.com/Heavenly-City-Eighteenth-Century-Philosophers/dp/0300101503]<br /> , as explored in the book Ian McEwan says he lent Pynchon? [citation needed]&lt;br&gt;<br /> Misc: Carl Becker, who wrote the above book in 1932 was a Cornell University Professor. According the ''The Encyclopedia Brittanica'', &quot;he began [in the 1920s ]challenging the then-orthodox assumption of the superiority of a scientific methodology in historical study.&quot; Which would be appealing to Mr. Pynchon, needless to say.<br /> <br /> '''...separated by only a slice of Time...'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Miles is beginning to experience Time almost as a spatial dimension, his personal vector as traversing (!) 4-dimensional space, or perhaps multidimensional space, the mathematics for which is being debated in Ostend.<br /> <br /> '''securing the mess decks'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> The Chums follow U.S. Navy idiom in orders (frequently prefixed with &quot;Now&quot;) and shipboard activities (&quot;secure&quot; meaning &quot;whatever you did before, undo it now,&quot; in this case put away the dishes and fold up the tables).<br /> <br /> '''Ryder Thorn'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Tolkienesque name? Or perhaps it's a nod to the Ryder-Waite Tarot deck and to Kevin Thorn (Kevin Matthew Fertig, 1977-), the American professional wrestler better known by his ring name Kevin Thorn who is currently signed to World Wrestling Entertainment wrestling on its ECW brand. He has appeared in vigniettes with Ariel (Shelly Martinez, 1980-), the tarot card reader, who spits blood at the camera while she &quot;predicted the future of ECW.&quot; Yup, a stretch...<br /> <br /> *The name also evokes the Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse.<br /> <br /> '''He was at Candlebrow.'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Presumably a 'trespasser.'<br /> <br /> '''the four-note chord in the context of timelessness'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> A melody is formed by notes following one another in time; a chord on the ukulele violates that practice by having all the notes sound at once. A really clever little passage.<br /> Note: Jazz musicians describe musical improvisations as horizontal (with the melody) or vertical (with the chord)<br /> <br /> ==Page 552==<br /> <br /> '''knuckle-duster'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Brass knuckles.<br /> <br /> '''Diksmuide'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> 20 kilometers south of Ostend (about halfway to Ypres).<br /> <br /> ==Page 553==<br /> <br /> '''The terrain was flat...lowlands'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Not, this time, a reference to Pynchon's ''Lowlands'', but to the two-dimensionality of Flanders, as in Edwin A. Abbott's ''Flatland'' [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Flatland]; most humans, like the inhabitants of Flanders and Abbott's Flatlanders, experience life in two dimensions. <br /> <br /> '''Somewhere up in the sky was Miles' home...'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Whereas Miles and the Chums of Chance, in contrast, live in three dimensions. The mathematicians gathered in Ostend are trying to calculate how to experience and use vectors to live in four dimensions; in a way, to experience Time as a kind of spatial dimension. Miles, on P. 551, is demonstrating the beginnings of an intuitive discovery of how to experience Time as an almost spatial dimension. Which would be a sort of &quot;time travel&quot;, or at least an expanded view of life and history.<br /> <br /> '''retted'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> soaked in water or exposed to moisture (as flax or hemp) to facilitate the removal of the fiber from the woody tissue by partial rotting.<br /> <br /> ==Page 554==<br /> <br /> '''Ypres and Menin'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Municipalities in West Flanders that were sites of some of the bloodiest battles of WWI. At the beginning of the war, the British and Belgian stand helped save Paris from encirclement by the Germans, and saved the Channel ports, but as Thorn points out, the area became the western anchor of the Western Front trench system. The several Battles of Ypres saw the first uses of poison gas (Mustard Gas, dichlorodiethylsulfide, was first called Yperite), the use of enormous mines, and the legendary mud of Passchendaele [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Passchendaele]. <br /> <br /> '''Ten years from now'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> (1914?) through 1918? and beyond?. Another paramorphic mirror--what do we now face. Whatever it is, it is nuclear.<br /> <br /> '''Bosch'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Hieronymous Bosch (1450-1516), Dutch painter of nightmares. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hieronymus_Bosch Wikipedia entry].<br /> <br /> '''Brueghel'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Pieter Brueghel the Elder(1525-1569), Flemish painter.[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pieter_Brueghel_the_Elder Wikipedia entry].<br /> <br /> '''League'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> League of Nations? The League of Nations was formed after WWI to prevent future wars. Didn't succeed.<br /> <br /> No. In this case a historical unit of length, approximately three miles - &quot;league on league&quot; = tremendous masses<br /> <br /> '''where the needles went and which way to rotate them'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> I.e., how to push Thorn's buttons; the image is from acupuncture.<br /> <br /> ==Page 555==<br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> '''simpletons at the fair'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Making Pynchon's metaphor explicit.<br /> <br /> '''Chopin E-minor Nocturne'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Frédéric Chopin (1810-49), a Polish pianist and composer ([http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fr%C3%A9d%C3%A9ric_Chopin Chopin]). He was born in Warsaw, Poland to a Polish morther and a French father. He went to Paris at the age of 20 and died there at the age of 39. He was widely regarded as one of the most famous and influential composers for the piano. From 1837-47 he had a 10-year stormy relationship with the French writer George Sand. His E-minor Nocturne is a 4-minute long Romantic style piano solo composed in 1827. (A ''nocturne'' is usually a musical composition that is inspired by, or evocative of, the night [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nocturne Nocturne].)<br /> <br /> '''owl-light'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> ???glimmering or imperfect light or twilight hours.<br /> <br /> ''''plasmic hysteresis''''&lt;br&gt;<br /> <br /> A coined term, apparently similar in meaning to Miles’ phrase “failure of physical translation.” Plasma would take an older meaning of “form” or “shape.&quot; Hysteresis, according to Webster's, refers to “a retardation in effect when the forces on an object are changed.” Hysteresis is used to describe magnetic phenomenon as well as plastic or elastic materials, that involve changes to a rest state that last beyond the forces that cause them. Examples include recordings on magnetic tape or a thumbprint slowly disappearing from putty. In the context of this passage, plasmic hysteresis appears to describe the lingering visage of someone who is no longer present – a hysteresis of form only and thus a failed physical translation. See [http://www.etymonline.com/index.php?search=plasma&amp;searchmode=none etymology of plasma] and this nifty explanation of [http://www.lassp.cornell.edu/sethna/hysteresis/WhatIsHysteresis.html hysteresis]. <br /> <br /> Hysteresis has also been used to refer to “loops” in time, certainly apropos in this case. I stumbled across an excellent example in a 1980 episode of Dr. Who, in which the eponymous Dr. is trapped in “chronic hysteresis,” an endless loop or return to a previous <br /> point in time – very similar to the situation of Ryder Thorn. [http://www.drwhoguide.com/who_5q.htm Check it out for yourself!] <br /> <br /> <br /> ==Annotation Index==<br /> {{ATD PbP}}</div>

MKOHUT https://against-the-day.pynchonwiki.com/wiki/index.php?title=ATD_525-556&diff=14131 2007-10-21T14:49:44Z

<p>MKOHUT: /* Page 551 */</p> <hr /> <div>:'''&lt;big&gt;Please keep these annotations SPOILER-FREE by not revealing information from later pages in the novel.&lt;/big&gt;'''&lt;p&gt;&lt;br&gt;<br /> <br /> ==Page 525==<br /> <br /> '''Ostend'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Cf [[ATD_489-524#Page 521|page 521:Ostend]], a seaport in northwest Belgium. Among English-speaking tourists, Ostend (or Ostende) is best known as a ferry port. Ships have shuttled between Dover and Ostend for more than 150 years, and today's high-speed catamarans move hundreds of passengers and vehicles between these two ports in just two hours. But this thousand-year-old city is a popular beach resort with Belgians, who flock to Ostend for sun, surfing, sailing and the ''Kursaal'' (Casino). The fishing harbor and old town draw many visitors. Ostend is the only Belgian coastal resort that is as lively in the summer as in the winter. For more and pictures [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ostend Ostend].<br /> <br /> '''Fishermen's Quai'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Fishermen's Quay, also called De Trap. The shrimp boats come home here from the sea in the morning. Along the quay many stands sell lots of seafoods.<br /> <br /> '''Boulevard van Isenghem'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> A major thoroughfare in Ostend, locally called ''Van Iseghemlaan'', extending diagonally from seafront southwest through the city.<br /> <br /> '''street-plausible'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Presentable.<br /> <br /> '''Quai de l'empereur'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Since Ostende is in the Flemish part of Belgium this should be the Keizerskaai, a street along the old part of the harbour, 1919 renamed Vindictivelaan.<br /> <br /> '''estaminet'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> According to the OED - A café in which smoking is allowed. Now, any small establishment selling alcoholic liquor. <br /> <br /> '''twelve-centime'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> one centime is the French eqivalent of one cent. A twelve-centime beer would cost 12/100 of a franc.<br /> <br /> '''Quaternions'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Cf [[ATD_119-148#Page 130|page 130:Quaternions]]. Quaternions are a non-communtative extension of complex numbers (Hamilton, 1843).&lt;br&gt;<br /> <br /> Analogy with the complex numbers (Cf [[ATD_119-148#Page 132|page 132:complex number]]) being represented as a sum of real and imaginary parts, a + b''i'', where ''i''² = −1, a quaternion is defined as a combination a + b''i'' + c''j'' + d''k'', where ''i''² = ''j''² = ''k''² = ''i j k'' = −1, and a, b, c, d are ''four'' explicit real numbers. The non-commutative property refers to ''i j = −j i = k; j k = −k j = i; k i = −i k = j''. (i.e. ''i j ≠ j i; j k ≠ k j; k i ≠ i k''; etc.) The using of ''i, j, k'', the imaginary numbers (Cf [[ATD_119-148#Page 133|page 133:imaginary number]]), led to the phrases of &quot;the ''ijk'' lot&quot; of page 533 and &quot;creature of ''i-j-k''&quot; of page 534.<br /> <br /> '''Kellner'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> German: waiter, barman. Use of the German word would be insulting to the Belgian barman.<br /> <br /> '''''demi'''''&lt;br&gt;<br /> A half-pint glass (25 centilitres, actually).<br /> <br /> '''Lambic'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Pron. ''lahm-BEEK.'' Unique Belgian beer style, sour and often thin in body.<br /> <br /> '''skimmer'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Straw hat (&quot;Panama&quot;).<br /> <br /> ==Page 526==<br /> <br /> '''biquaternion'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Or &quot;octonion,&quot; an innovation of English mathematician W.K. Clifford, [[ATD_243-272#Page_249|referred to on p. 249.]]<br /> <br /> '''Barry Nebulay'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Pun on a term from heraldry, ''barry nebuly.'' Barry (rhymes with &quot;starry,&quot; not &quot;carry&quot;) refers to a shield divided into an even number of parts by horizontal lines. Nebuly signals that the lines are deformed into stylized &quot;cloud&quot; shapes. [http://www.rarebooks.nd.edu/digital/heraldry/partitions.html Here you can see an example.] If a ''British'' author had a character with a heraldic name, it would suggest a pseudonym.<br /> <br /> '''University of Dublin'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> The Alma Mater of Hamilton, the father of Quaternion. He studied, graduated and taught at Trinity College, the University of Dublin, Ireland's oldest university.<br /> <br /> If University College, Dublin, then Joyce had graduated in 1902.&lt;br&gt;<br /> <br /> '''Quaternioneers'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Quaternion believers.<br /> <br /> '''Gibbsian Vectors'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Vector Analysis (or Vector Calculus) developed by Willard Gibbs (Cf [[ATD_26-56#Page 29|page 29:Professor Gibbs]]) in 1881 and 1884. It is a branch of calculus that deals with vectors and process involving vectors. It is much more easily applied to phsics and other applied sciences than Hamilton's Quaternions (Cf [[ATD_525-556#Page 525|page 525:Quaternions]]).&lt;br&gt;<br /> A vector is defined by not only a magnitude but also a direction, such as a velocity vector, ''v'' is defined by ''v'' = a''i'' + b''j'' + c''k'',<br /> where a, b, and c are the magnitudes of the velocity components in directions of ''i, j'' and ''k'' which are unit vectors, (not imaginary numbers as in Quaternion), with magnitude of 1. In three dimensional cases and ''xyz'' coordinate system is used then ''i, j, k'' are related to ''x, y, z'' directions (&quot;''xyz'' people&quot; of page 533); but they, in general, may be used irrespective of the notation of the coordinates.<br /> Mathematical operations (addition, subtraction, multiplication), differentiation (''curl'' — Cf [[ATD_318-335#Page 326|page 326:Curl]] and p. 536, ''Laplacian'' — Cf [[ATD_318-335#Page 326|page 326:Laplacian]] and p. 536, etc) and integration can be applied to vectors. It is interesting to know that one of the two multiplication operations is called cross product; for unit vectors (''i, j, k'') perpendicular to each other, then, ''i × i = j × j = k × k = 0'', ''i × j = k'', ''j × i = -k'', etc. ([http://web.mit.edu/wwmath/vectorc/summary.html Vector Calculus]).&lt;br&gt;<br /> A simple vector anyalysis example here: if ''k'', the unit vector, stands for the direction upward and g is the gravitational acceleration, then the acceleration vector, ''a'', for a projectile, is defined for downward action, (the ''i'' and ''j'' directions have zero components):&lt;br&gt;<br /> :''a'' = -g ''k''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Integrating ''a'' would give the velocity vector, ''v''&lt;br&gt;<br /> :''v'' = -g t ''k''&lt;br&gt;<br /> for zero initial velocity case, and t standing for time.&lt;br&gt;<br /> And integrating ''v'' would yield the position vector, ''h'', for the projectile&lt;br&gt;<br /> :''h'' = -½ g t² ''k''&lt;br&gt;<br /> toward the sea level.<br /> <br /> '''Quaternionists'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Quaternion believers, same as Quaternioneers.<br /> <br /> '''Tasmania'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Tasmania is an island of the southern coast of Australia. Known for its relative isolation, it was a prison for English convicts in the 1800s<br /> <br /> '''Having been inseparable from the rise of the electromagnetic'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> In his 1865 work ''The Dynamical Theory of the Electromagnetic Field'', James Clerk Maxwell unified electricity and magnetism. He put forth twenty equations, with twenty unknowns, in vector form (though different in notation and form than the equations that now bear his name) that completely described all known electromagnetic phenomena. In his 1873 treatise on the subject, he expressed the equations in the mathematics of quaternions. It appears that the quaternion form of the equations remained popular even though, at the behest of his publisher, Maxwell reverted to the 1865 form in the second edition (1881)--though they remain scattered throughout. In 1892 Oliver Heaviside (On the Forces, Stresses, and Fluxes of Energy in the Electromagnetic Field. ''Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society of London.'' A, Vol. 183. pp423-480), while spewing scientific vitriol at the Quaternionists, reformulated Maxwell's original 1865 equations (Heaviside chose to remove the vector potential and scalar fields from the equations; the inclusion of these terms had served as Maxwell's justification for the use of quaternions), and provided the notation still in use today. See this [http://www.zpenergy.com/modules.php?name=Downloads&amp;d_op=getit&amp;lid=60 PDF] for the evolution of Maxwell's equations.<br /> <br /> '''Hamiltonian devotees'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> The Quaternion faction, after William Hamilton, who devised the scheme.<br /> <br /> '''Grand Hôtel de la Nouvelle Digue'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> There is a Hotel Digue in the Seychelles; this is a New Hotel Digue by Pynchon? <br /> <br /> Grand Hotel of New Dyke, may be a made up hotel name.<br /> <br /> '''anterooms of death'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> This metaphor is sometimes applied to concentration camps. Here the lyric &quot;feel like I'm fixin' to die&quot; seems more apposite.<br /> <br /> '''Belgian Art Nouveau'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Art Nouveau, 1890(or 80) to 1914, explores a new style in the visual arts and architecture that developed in Europe and North America at the end of the 19th century. At its height (~1907), Art Nouveau was a concerted attempt to create an international style based on decoration. It was developed by a brilliant and energetic generation of artists and desisgners, who sought to fashion an art form appropriate to the post-Industrial Revolution modern age.&lt;br&gt;<br /> Brussels was one of the Art Nouveau centers and represented different style from the others. The jewelers there, accepted as artists rahter than craftsmen, (together with those in Paris) defined Art Nouveau in jewelery and achieved the most renown. ([http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Art_Nouveau Art Nouveau]).<br /> <br /> ==Page 527==<br /> <br /> '''dossing'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> British slang for &quot;sleeping&quot;, &quot;staying overnight&quot;<br /> <br /> '''Russian nihilists'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> :The following four are local, Belgian, not Russian, nihilists !<br /> <br /> '''Eugénie'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Female. Possibly named for Empress Eugénie (1826-1920), consort of French Emperor Napoleon III. Ultimately for St. Eugenia, 3rd-century Roman martyr whose feast is celebrated on December 25.<br /> <br /> '''Fatou'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Female. A pseudonym? In view of the date of the action, certainly not named after [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fatou the mathematician Fatou] (1878-1929).<br /> <br /> '''Denis'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Male. Named for St. Denis or Dionysius, patron saint of Paris and of France, 3rd-century bishop of Paris, martyr, beheaded on the hill now called Montmartre. &quot;Montjoie St. Denis!&quot; was a warcry used by French troops in the Middle Ages. His intercession is effective against demonic possession and headache.<br /> <br /> '''Policarpe'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Male. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Polycarp Saint Polycarp] was a Christian bishop of Smyrna (now İzmir in Turkey) in the second century. He was stabbed and died a martyr after an attempt to burn him at the stake failed. His intercession is sought against earache and dysentery.<br /> <br /> '''Young Congo'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Probably in reference to the [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Young_Turks Young Turks], a Turkish revolutionary movement<br /> <br /> '''Garde Civique'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> A part of the Belgian army. According to the [http://www.1911encyclopedia.org/Belgium 1911 Britannica], &quot;the mass of the garde civique does not pretend to possess military value. It is a defence against sedition and socialism.&quot;<br /> <br /> '''French Second Bureau boys'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Deuxieme Bureau; French Intelligence.<br /> <br /> '''''phalange'''''&lt;br&gt;<br /> French: phalanx. A military (here mock-military) group ready for combat. &lt;br&gt;<br /> <br /> It also conjures up memories of the early 19th century utopian socialist <br /> Charles Fourier, who theorized that people should live communally in &quot;phalanxes&quot; of a specific number based upon their &quot;passions.&quot; His solid ideas included equality of the sexes, but he also taught wacky things such as the moon being made of lemonade. Of particular relevance is his rejection of industrial civilization. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Utopian_socialism]<br /> <br /> '''&quot;...until something had happened, something too terrible to remember...&quot;'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Again this theme of an unknowable past transgression, here invoked almost as if the unknown signifies the other 'lateral' (a word which has cropped up at least a dozen times already) 'vector'.<br /> <br /> '''the Digue'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> French for &quot;dyke&quot;<br /> <br /> '''Congo... Belgians'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> The Belgian colonisation of the Congo was, as Conrad's ''Heart of Darkness'' makes clear, notable for its greed and brutality.<br /> <br /> '''Leopold, King of the Belgians'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> 1835-1909, reigned 1865-1909. A man of almost Nixonian fiendishness. In the Congo he acted as sole proprietor and absolute ruler. The positive outcomes of his exploitation include ''Heart of Darkness'' and the phrase &quot;crime against humanity.&quot;<br /> <br /> '''co-conscious'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> mental processes outside the main stream of consciousness but sometimes available to it — from Merriam-Webster's Medical Dictionary.<br /> <br /> '''Force Publique'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Belgian armed forces operating in the Belgian Congo ([http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Force_Publique Wikipedia]). &quot;King Leopold's private army&quot; may be a more accurate description.<br /> <br /> '''rubber worker'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> See above: One of the early missions of the FP was to increase rubber export quotas through forced labor and related atrocities.<br /> <br /> ==Page 528==<br /> <br /> '''''khâgne'''''&lt;br&gt;<br /> an informal term used by French students for Classes Préparatoires Littéraires, the two-year cycle of classes taken after the Baccalaureat (taken at age 17-18), to prepare for the entrance examination to the Ecole Normale Supeieure. ([http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kh%C3%A2gne khâgne]).<br /> <br /> '''Reclus'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> J. J. Élisée Reclus (1830-1905), French geographer but mainly educated in Germany. Several times he was forced to leave France because of his political views; he traveled widely in Europe, the British Isles, the United States, and South America and for many years lived in Switzerland. He was professor of comparative geography at the University of Brussels from 1895 to 1905. He had quite an extensive connection with various socialist and anarchist circles (met Bakunin while in Florence).Once he was imprisoned in Versailles in 1871 for his part in the ''Paris Commune''. In 1882 he initiated the ''Anti-marriage movement'' while in Geneva. [[http://academic.reed.edu/formosa/texts/reclusbio.html Reclus]).<br /> <br /> '''Stirnerite'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Follower of Max Stirner, 19th century German philosopher and author of ''The Ego and Its Own,'' a work influential in anarchist thought. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Max_Stirner Wikipedia entry].<br /> <br /> ''Max Stirner'''s (1806-56) attacks on systematic philosophy, his denial of absulutes, and his rejection of abstract concepts of any kind often places him among the first philosophical nihilists. For Stirner, achieving individual freedom is the only law; and the state, which necvessarily imperils freedom, must be destroyed. Even beyond the oppression of the state, though, are the constraints imposed by others because their very existence is an obstable compromising individual freedom. Thus Stirner argues that existence is an endless &quot;war of each against all&quot; (1845). (taken from the paragraph about Max Stirner in [http://www.iep.utm.edu/n/nihilism.htm#H1 Nihilism])&lt;br&gt;<br /> Sourcing here? Much complexity in properly understanding Stirner, who has some Pynchon-like qualities, to say the least. From the Stanford Dictionary of Philosophy&lt;br&gt;<br /> His major work:<br /> The Ego and Its Own<br /> Much of Stirner's prose—which is crowded with aphorisms, italicisation, and hyperbole—appears calculated to disconcert. Most striking, perhaps, is the use of word play. Rather than reach a conclusion through the conventional use of argument, Stirner often approaches a claim that he wishes to endorse by exploiting words with related etymologies or formal similarities. For example, he associates words for property (such as ‘Eigentum’) with words connoting distinctive individual characteristics (such as ‘Eigenheit’) in order to promote the claim that property is expressive of selfhood. (Stirner's account of egoistic property—see below—gives this apparently orthodox Hegelian claim a distinctive twist.)<br /> <br /> This rejection of conventional forms of intellectual discussion is linked to Stirner's substantive views about language and rationality. His unusual style reflects a conviction that both language and rationality are human products which have come to constrain and oppress their creators. Stirner maintains that accepted meanings and traditional standards of argumentation are underpinned by a conception of truth as a privileged realm beyond individual control. As a result, individuals who accept this conception are abandoning a potential area of creative self-expression in favour of adopting a subordinate role as servants of truth. In stark contrast, Stirner insists that the only legitimate restriction on the form of our language, or on the structure of our arguments, is that they should serve our individual ends. It is the frequent failure of ordinary meanings and standard forms of argument to satisfy his interpretation of this criterion which underpins Stirner's remorselessly idiosyncratic style.<br /> <br /> The Ego and Its Own has an intelligible, but scarcely transparent, structure. It is organised around a tripartite account of human experience, initially introduced in a description of the stages of an individual life. The first stage in this developmental narrative is the realistic one of childhood, in which children are constrained by material and natural forces such as their parents. Liberation from these external constraints is achieved with what Stirner calls the self-discovery of mind, as children find the means to outwit those forces in their own determination and cunning. The idealistic stage of youth, however, contains new internal sources of constraint, as individuals once more become enslaved, this time to the spiritual forces of conscience and reason. Only with the adulthood of egoism do individuals escape both material (external) and spiritual (internal) constraints, learning to value their personal satisfaction above all other considerations.<br /> <br /> Stirner portrays this dialectic of individual growth as an analogue of historical development, and it is a tripartite account of the latter which structures the remainder of the book. Human history is reduced to successive epochs of realism (the ancient, or pre-Christian, world), idealism (the modern, or Christian, world), and egoism (the future world). <br /> <br /> What about these &quot;successive epochs&quot; in understanding ATD?<br /> <br /> Stirner's major work, The Ego and Its Own has been reissued in English a number of times in Pynchon's lifetime,from the 60s on. (Not that TRP could not have read it in German!)<br /> <br /> '''''Anarcho-individualiste'''''&lt;br&gt;<br /> i.e. he has doctrinal differernces with Stirnerism, strictly speaking; see P. 324, and &quot;Eigenheit&quot;.<br /> <br /> '''Leopold'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> See p. 527.<br /> <br /> '''going down lately'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Being assassinated.<br /> <br /> '''Sipido'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Jean-Baptiste Sipido (1884-1959), a Belgian socialist. Accusing the Prince of Wales of causing thousands of inocents were killed in the Boer War in South Africa, on April 5, 1900, Sipido leaped onto the foot board of the royal compartment right before the train left the North Railway Station (Gare du Nord), Brussel, and fired two (or one? as reported in ''The Manchester Guardian'', or four? as stated in the text here) shots through the window but missed everyone inside. He was arrested, tried and acquitted. The leader of the House of Commons called the acquittal a &quot;grave and most unfortunate miscarriage of justice.&quot; ([http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jean-Baptiste_Sipido Sipido]).<br /> <br /> '''Prince... of Wales'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> (Maud Gonne's husband claimed to have been involved in another such plot.)<br /> <br /> '''Hippodrome'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Hippodrome Wellington, a horse racing track in Ostend built in 1883. The facility hosts both harness and flat racing events. ([http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hippodrome_Wellington Hippodrome]).<br /> <br /> '''Royal Bathing Hut... twenty francs'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> A bathing machine ([http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bathing_machine bathing machine])? The King of Belgium certainly would not want to be seen in a swimsuit on a public beach... It seems unlikely, though, that such a royal bathing machine would be for hire.<br /> <br /> '''twenty francs'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> ???<br /> <br /> ==Page 529==<br /> <br /> '''picric family'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> The explosive picric acid (2,4,6-trinitrophenol) and its derivatives. For picric acid, Brugère's powder and Designolle's powder, [http://encyclopedia.jrank.org/PER_PIG/PICRIC_ACID_or_TRINITROPHENOL_C.html see this Britannica article.]<br /> <br /> '''Brugère's powder'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> See &quot;picric family&quot; above.<br /> <br /> '''Designolle's'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> See &quot;picric family&quot; above.<br /> <br /> '''Monsieur Santos-Dumont'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Alberto Santos-Dumont (1873-1932), a pioneer of aviation from Brasil. Check out [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alberto_Santos-Dumont Wikipedia] to get a look at the way he was wearing his &quot;trademark Panama hat&quot;. <br /> <br /> '''Green Hour''' and '''''l'heure vertigineuse'''''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Absinthe-drinking time. The liqueur is green. In French, ''l'heure verte,'' so ''vertigineuse'' (vertiginous, causing dizziness) is a pun on the word for &quot;green.&quot;<br /> <br /> '''Rocco and Pino'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Rabid Quaternionists and sudden friends of Kit Traverse.<br /> :No, they were not mathematicians at all, let alone Quaternionists, but two &quot;Italian naval renegades&quot; !!<br /> ::&quot;Rocco and Pino&quot; are, in temperament, something like the &quot;Mason and Dixon&quot; of manned-torpedoes... cf. the &quot;torpedo&quot; (i.e., &quot;Electrick-Eel&quot;) of ''Mason &amp; Dixon''.<br /> <br /> '''Whitehead works in Fiume'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Anticipating GR's V2 works.<br /> <br /> ''Robert Whitehead'' (1823-1905), an English engineer. He developed the first self-propelled torpedo in 1866. He attended Manchester's Mechanics Institute, worked in a shipyard in Toulon (1844), France, and as a consultant engineer in Milan (1847), Italy. Later he moved to Trieste and in 1856 became a manager of a company called ''Founderia Mettali'' (later, ''Stabilimento Tecnico di Fiume'') in Fiume producing ship steam boilers and engines which were the most advanced of that era. He also developed the first self-propelled torpedo which was very popular. Whitehead's torpedo was propelled by a compressed air engine, carried 18lbs dynamites and a self-regulating device which kept the torpedo cruising at a constant preset depth. [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Robert_Whitehead Whitehead]].<br /> <br /> ''Fiume'' is now Rijeka, Croatia. Trieste is on the northwestern edge of the Istra Peninsula, Rijeka is east of it. [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rijeka Fiume]].<br /> <br /> Interesting sidebar: Whitehead's fortune from Fiume and the torpedo went solely to his granddaughter Agatha Whitehead, who married Baron von Trapp. The Von Trapp money came from Robert Whitehead, and most of the von Trapp singers were his great-grandchildren.<br /> <br /> '''''Alberta'''''&lt;br&gt;<br /> The [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Royal_yacht Wikipedia] entry on royal yachts goes back to the 17th century but doesn't include ''Alberta.'' The craft does get a mention in [http://www.bouncing-balls.com/timeline/people/nr_leopoldmorel.htm this page on Leopold and the Congo.]<br /> <br /> '''Siluro Dirigibile a Lenta Corsa'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> or S.L.C. &quot;slow course torpedo&quot;, &quot;slow-running torpedo&quot;. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Manned_torpedo Wikipedia] Italy‘s Navy was among the first to experiment with manned torpedos. Though according to [http://web.ukonline.co.uk/chalcraft/sm/chariots.html this site] this did not happen until 1935, Italian frogmen as early as October 31, 1918 made it into the harbour of Pula with the help of a modified german torpedo and sank the former Austrian but by then since a few hours Croatian/Slovenian/Bosnian battleship SMS ''Viribus Unitis''. [http://www.geocities.com/tegetthoff66/viribus.html website]<br /> <br /> The Wikipedia entry linked above doesn't contain the Italian word ''dirigibile'' (steerable), which sets up the torpedo as a counterpart of the dirigible ''Inconvenience.''<br /> <br /> :I suspect there's a connection between the torpedo and &quot;Not the usual lateener, in fact appearing to have neither sails, masts, nor oars&quot; in Miles' reversed vision, [[ATD_243-272#Page_250|page 250.]] Needs work, though.<br /> <br /> ==Page 530==<br /> <br /> '''exfiltrate'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Make a surreptitious escape (as &quot;infiltrate&quot; means to make a surreptitious entrance).<br /> <br /> '''''Macchè'''''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Italian: certainly not, not a chance. And in Pynchon's Italian is used as an all-purpose exclamation.<br /> <br /> '''''Ehi, stu gazz', categoria'''''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Stu gazz' is a dialect representation of ''sto cazzo'', literally meaning ''this dick here''. Normally you could translate the sense of the sentence as: ''yeah, why not, a fucking category! ''. -- blicero2 - 2007.02.22<br /> <br /> '''''mezzogiornismo'''''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Denigrating the Italian South. Mezzogiorno means ''midday'' in Italian but refers generally to Southern Italy.<br /> <br /> ==Page 531==<br /> <br /> '''Bruges'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> An exceptionally beautiful Belgian town of canals which is thus one of several towns known as the 'Venice of the north'. In the 14th cettury Burges already became an international finanacial and trading center, but<br /> started to decline in the 15th century. In the 20th century, however, the city was discovered by the international tourism and the medieval heritage turned out to be a new source of wealth. A new harbor of Zeebrugge, 10 miles outside of Bruges at the North Sea coast, brought new developments and new industries to the region. For the city and its history see ([http://www.trabel.com/brugge.htm Bruges]).<br /> <br /> '''Raoul's Atelier de la Vitesse'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> French: Ralph's Speed Shop.<br /> <br /> '''Ghent'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Belgian city, less than 30 miles southeast of Bruges, on the rail line about halfway between Ostend and Brussels. It is the fourth largest city of Belgium. It is bigger than Bruges but not as famous as a tourist attraction. But the city is a showcase of medieval Flemish wealth and commercial success. See ([http://www.trabel.com/gent.htm Ghent]).<br /> <br /> '''Daimler six-cylinder'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> ???<br /> <br /> '''a hundred horsepower'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> ???<br /> <br /> '''''guaglion'''''&lt;br&gt;<br /> italian (dialectal) = boy, young person<br /> <br /> '''Umeki Tsurigane'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Umeki is typically made with some combination of the various kanji for &quot;plum&quot; (ume) and &quot;tree&quot; (ki), though one has the ki being the character for &quot;ghost/devil&quot; and one obscure reading that's entirely redundant, where ume is &quot;plant&quot; (usually read ue). There is one where ume is the kanji for &quot;buried or embedded&quot;. Tsurigane, means a &quot;temple bell&quot;, which can stand alone or be followed by the grass kanji to mean &quot;bellflower&quot; (lots of botanical stuff happening here, if that means anything; hardly the only example in ''AtD''). Given the search for Shambhala going on, &quot;Buried Temple Bell&quot; seems a likely translation, at least at this point; the botanical meanings could perhaps emerge later.<br /> <br /> Or, another terrible name-pun? &quot;You make [m]e sore again.&quot; See another on P. [[ATD_748-767#Page_757| 757]]<br /> <br /> '''Professor Knott'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Cargill Knott (1856-1922), professor of physics; seismologist. See his biography [http://www.penicuikcdt.org.uk/Cargill_Knott.html here].<br /> <br /> ==Page 532==<br /> <br /> '''Kimura'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Cf [[ATD_26-56#Page 29|page 29:Kimura]] and [[ATD_318-335#Page 318|page 318:Shunkichi Kimura]].<br /> <br /> '''drover's sombrero'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Cowboy hat.<br /> <br /> '''furoshiki'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Japanese all-purpose cloth. Can be worn, used as wrapping, or used as a bag.<br /> <br /> '''taupe'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> A brownish gray.<br /> <br /> '''boilermakers and their helpers'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> [[ATD_358-373#Page_360|See annotation to p. 360.]]<br /> <br /> '''Anharmonic Pencil'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> ''Pencil'' is a term commonly used in Synthetic Geometry. Straight lines incident with a plane - coplanar lines - and passing through a common point are said to be concurrent lines and the set of all such concurrent coplanar lines is called the ''pencil''. (Cf [[ATD_429-459#Page 456|page 456:Pencil]]). For a figure and a not quite precise definition see [http://mathworld.wolfram.com/Pencil.html pencil]. If a, b, c and d, are four distinct coplanar lines and their double ratio λ = (abcd) = -1, then a, b, c, d are called a harmonic quadruple of lines; they are said to constitute a ''harmonic pencil''. A ''pencil'' which is not harmonic then is known as ''anharmonic pencil''. See Pencil (lines 8-9), Double Ratio λ (lines 32-35) and Harmonic Pencil (line 39) of [http://ca.geocities.com/ingsaler6/mathworld.html Mathworld].<br /> <br /> '''''Comptes rendus'''''&lt;br&gt;<br /> ''Comptes rendus des séances hebdomadaires,'' Proceedings of the weekly sessions (of the Academy of Sciences), published from 1835, later (ca. 1935) retitled ''Comptes rendus de l'Académie des sciences,'' Proceedings of the Academy of Sciences. (Notice that the academy didn't see the need to specify &quot;French.&quot; Take that, Royal Society of London!) For about a century, one of two journals so universally circulated and recognized that bibliographies nearly always cited them in nickname form: ''C.R.'' The other was ''Ber.,'' short for ''Berichte der Deutschen Chemischen Gesellschaft,'' Reports of the German Chemical Society (from 1868).<br /> <br /> '''De Forest'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Cf [[ATD_26-56#Page 29|page 29:De Forest]].<br /> <br /> '''Gibbs'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Cf [[ATD_26-56#Page 29|page 29:Professor Gibbs]].<br /> <br /> '''Maxwell Equations'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Cf [[ATD_57-80#Page 58|page 58:Maxwell Field Equations]].<br /> <br /> ==Page 533==<br /> <br /> '''aniline teal'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> The wallpaper dye; aniline dyes were the first synthetic dyes, discovered by [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/William_Perkin William Perkin] in 1858. Their intense and fade-resistant colors were very fashionable at the end of the nineteenth century. The dyes are also significant in ''GR'' as the products of I.G. Farben.<br /> <br /> '''Heavisiders'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Oliver Heaviside (May 18, 1850 – February 3, 1925) was a self-taught English electrical engineer, mathematician and physicist who adapted complex numbers to the study of electrical circuits, developed techniques for applying Laplace transforms to the solution of differential equations, reformulated Maxwell's field equations in terms of electric and magnetic forces and energy flux, and independently co-formulated vector analysis. Although at odds with the scientific establishment for most of his life, Heaviside changed the face of mathematics and science for years to come.[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Heaviside].<br /> <br /> '''Grassmanniacs'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Nineteenth century German mathematician and linguist, essentially the inventor/discoverer of vector space. Grassmann showed that once geometry is put into the algebraic form he advocated, then the number three has no privileged role as the number of spatial dimensions; the number of possible dimensions is in fact unbounded.[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hermann_Grassmann].<br /> <br /> '''in the mood for a clambake'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Anachronistic Broadway show tune? If so, the clambake in ''Carousel'' turns into a brawl; the assmebled factions of mathematicians could be in the mood for either a party or a brawl, apparently. <br /> <br /> '''Monopole de la Maison'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Monopole of the House, a fanciful name of a fanciful drink.&lt;br&gt;<br /> There is, since 1898, a well known restaurant called ''Monopole Lunch &amp; Sea Grill'' in Plattsburgh of upper New York state. ([http://www.monopole.org Monopole Restaurant]).&lt;br&gt;<br /> Most probably, it's the Magnetic monopole being referred here. In physics, a monopole is a magnet with a net magnetic charge, i.e. there is only one pole instead of two (so no net magnetic charge) as usual. ([http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Magnetic_monopole Monopole]). It's existence had been theoretically predicted by various particle theories (superstring theory, etc) but never been proved experimentally. Proving the existence of a monopole would certainly earn a Nobel Prize.<br /> <br /> '''Idiom Neutral'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> An invented language, like Esperanto. Idiom Neutral dictionaries first appeared in 1902. It looks like a simplified Latinate language and it grew out of Volapuk, another &quot;auxiliary language.&quot; It was abandoned by the ''Akademi Internasional de Lingu Universal'' in 1908.<br /> <br /> For a list of all the invented languages that linguists are keeping track of, including Klingon, try [http://linguistlist.org/forms/langs/GetListOfConstructedLgs.html Eastern Michigan's Linguist List]. And don't forget to click on the link to &quot;Browse sites devoted to constructed languages.&quot;<br /> <br /> '''phatic'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Basically, small talk or chatter. Words used to convey fellow-feeling rather than to impart information.<br /> <br /> '''''Kampf ums Dasein'''''&lt;br&gt;<br /> German: struggle for existence.<br /> <br /> '''Q-brother'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Fellow Quaternioneer or Fellow Quaternionist.<br /> <br /> '''We are the Jews of mathematics, wandering out here in our diaspora--some destined for the past, others the future, even a few able to set out at unknown angles from the simple line of Time, upon journeys that no one can predict''' &lt;br&gt;<br /> In keeping with the analogy of Judaism, those &quot;few&quot; people within the Quaternionists &quot;able to set out at unknown angles&quot; are most likely being compared to Kabbalists who claim to partake in a mystic &quot;journey to the Throne of God through the mythological realm of the seven heavens&quot; (Armstrong, A History of God--p. 247). Throne Mysticism in Kabbalah is explored extensively in Gravity's Rainbow.<br /> <br /> Perhaps this is obvious to some, but these &quot;Jews of Mathematics&quot; worship the Hamiltonian Tetractys [http://www.math.ucr.edu/home/baez/dublin/]; those other Jews worshipped the Tetragrammatron. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tetragrammaton] The proliferation of 4s continues.<br /> <br /> ==Page 534==<br /> <br /> '''Poiret gown'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> A gown designed by Paul Poiret (1879-1944), a French fashion designer based in Paris. &quot;In the annals of fashion history, Paul Poiret is best remembered for freeing women from corsets and further liberating them through pantaloons . . . it was Poiret's remarkable innovations in the cut and construction of cloting . . . Working with fabric directly onto the body, Poiret helped to pioneer a radical approach to dressmakeing that relied more on the skills of drapery than on those of tailoring.&quot; (from [http://www.metmuseum.org/special/se_event.asp?OccurrenceId={0DC3D00F-4611-4F91-8DC2-CC3C1A5C48D5} MetMuseum], <br /> New York Metropolitan Museum's Special Exhibitions, ''Poiret: King of Fashion'', May 9, 2007 to August 5, 2007). For a picture of Poiret gown see [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Image:Poiretgown.jpg Poiret Gown]. ''The New York Times'' reported on February 1, 2007 that A Poiret Gown Brings $5,500 at [http://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html?res=9B07EFDA1538F93AA15756C0A967948260 Christie's Auction] - the gown was made in 1913 when Poiret was at the height of his career. For his bio see [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Paul_Poiret Poiret].<br /> <br /> '''''green and long'''''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Pickle, or... what?<br /> : A green and long ''gherkin'' (a small, immature fruit of a variety of cucumber used in pickling).<br /> <br /> ==Page 535==<br /> <br /> '''no-name wine'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> 1970s idiom for common European practice?<br /> <br /> '''set theory'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Set theory deals with the properties of well-defined collections, or ''sets'', of entities - the ''elements'' or ''members'' of the set - conceived as a whole. The elements may be of a mathematical nature or non-mathematical. The set theory grew out of the German mathematician Georg Cantor's (1845-1918) study of infinite sets of real numbers. <br /> <br /> The ''language of sets'' has become an important tool for all branches of mathematics, but is of very little relevance to the practice of mathematics in everyday life. As a source of metaphors, however, it's been quite productive; &quot;subset,&quot; &quot;superset,&quot; &quot;universe,&quot; &quot;intersection&quot; and &quot;Venn diagram&quot; have found varying degrees of acceptance. Recasting Aristotle's syllogisms in set-theoretic language also makes them easier for many people to understand.<br /> <br /> '''Hamilton . . . early genius'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Hamilton, according to ''Chambers Biographical Dictionary'', &quot;at fifteen knew thirteen languages, had read Newton's ''Principia'', and commenced original investigations&quot;. At twenty-two, &quot;while still an undergraduate, he was appointed professor of Astronomy at Dublin and Irish Astronomer-Royal&quot;; at thirty &quot;he was knighted&quot;.<br /> <br /> '''Hamilton . . . in the grip of a first love'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> ???&lt;br&gt;<br /> Pynchon probably didn't mean Quaternion was Hamilton's first love, but its effect on him was similar to that of a first love. In 1843 at the age of 38 Hamilton invented the Quaternion, the first non-communtative algebra to be studied. He felt this would revolutionise mathematical physics, and he spent the rest of his life working on it. In 1853 he published a large volume, ''Lectures on Quaternions'', on his grand invention. The last seven years of his life, Hamilton was writing an 800-page book ''Elements of Quaternions'' modeling on Euclid's ''Elements''. The last chapter of the book was completed by his son after his death.<br /> <br /> '''the Walt Whitman of English physics'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Whitman pops up again, last seen on [[ATD_489-524#Page_491|page 491]].<br /> <br /> ==Page 536==<br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> '''Oscar Wilde'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Note that Wilde's Dorian Gray also undergoes a kind of bilocation.<br /> <br /> '''Kursaal'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Spa. Casino ?<br /> <br /> '''vectors'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> For serious minds see Cf [[ATD_525-556#Page 526|page 526:Gibbsian Vectors]], but let's follow Pynchon's lighter mood, here is a non-mathematical definition by Kamen (1995):<br /> :''Many things have more than direction;''<br /> :''The magnitude is also a question.''<br /> :''With acceleration or force,''<br /> :''And many more things, of course,''<br /> :''It's vectors that make the connection.''<br /> <br /> '''Curls'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Cf [[ATD_318-335#Page 326|page 326:Curl]]: curl is a vector operator that shows a vector field's rate of rotation.<br /> <br /> '''Laplacians'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Pierre-Simon, Marquis de Laplace (March 23, 1749 – March 5, 1827); French mathematician and astronomer who summarized and extended the work of his predecessors in his five volume Mécanique Céleste (Celestial Mechanics) (1799-1825), translating the geometrical study of mechanics used by Isaac Newton to one based on calculus, known as physical mechanics.<br /> <br /> He is also the discoverer of Laplace's equation. Although the Laplace transform is named in honor of Laplace, who used the transform in his work on probability theory, the transform was discovered originally by Leonhard Euler. The Laplace transform appears in all branches of mathematical physics — a field he took a leading role in forming. The Laplacian differential operator, much relied-upon in applied mathematics, is likewise named after him. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Laplace].<br /> <br /> :Cf [[ATD_318-335#Page 326|page 326:Laplacian]]: Laplacian is a differential operator named after Laplace. The text here was talking about mathematical operations and operators — rates of change, rotations, partial differentials, Curls, ''Laplacians'', . . .<br /> <br /> '''scream'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Scream motif.<br /> <br /> '''beginning to appal'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> By 1905 there had been years of outrage at conditions in the Belgian Congo, King Leopold's private fief. Conrad's ''Heart of Darkness'' had been published as a serial in Blackwood's Magazine in 1899 and as a book in 1902. There were missionaries' accounts of the brutality, and newspaper reports. Leopold and his apologists published rebuttals. The Norton Critical Edition of ''Heart of Darkness'' contains an extensive collection of both.<br /> <br /> '''baize'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Baize is a coarse woolen felt.<br /> <br /> ==Page 537==<br /> <br /> '''broken symmetries'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Broken_symmetry Broken symmetry] is a concept used widely in mathematics and physics. For a simplest explanation (good enough for the text here), this term means that an object breaks either rotational symmetry or translational sysmetry - when one can only rotate an object in certain angles or when one is able to tell if the object has been shifted sideways. For a little bit more detailed explanation see [http://www.lassp.cornell.edu/sethna/OrderParameters/BrokenSymmetry.html Identify the Broken Symmetry]; or even more [http://scienceweek.com/2005/sw050708-6.htm On Broken Symmetry].<br /> <br /> '''''sphinxe Khnopffienne'''''&lt;br&gt;<br /> refers to the Belgian symbolist painter Fernand Khnopff (1858-1921), famous for his painting &quot;The Caress&quot;, in which a female sphinx erotically lures a young man. The painting can be seen in the [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fernand_Khnopff wikipedia entry]<br /> <br /> '''Pléiade Lafrisée'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> in French, &quot;friser&quot; means to curl or twist. &quot;La frisée&quot; could mean &quot;curled,&quot; by extension &quot;twisted.&quot; The Pleiades is a cluster of hundreds of stars, though only a few are visible, sometimes referred to as The Seven Sisters. If Pleiades are Sisters, Pléiade is ''one'' Sister, so her name means Twisted Sister!<br /> <br /> '''''Conseilleuse'''''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Female consultant?<br /> <br /> ==Page 538==<br /> <br /> '''retroversion matrix'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> ???<br /> <br /> '''''Ma foi'''''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Literally &quot;My faith&quot;, i.e. &quot;By my faith!&quot;, a mild exclamation of incredulity.<br /> <br /> '''ten thousand francs'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> <br /> Based on currency conversions relative to gold, this is equivalent to<br /> about $30,000 US today.<br /> <br /> '''piker'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Someone cheap or cautious, possibly named after people from PIke County, Missouri, who came to California in the 1800s, looking for work. They were poor, hence cheap.<br /> <br /> '''what is a Quaternino?'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Cf [[ATD_525-556#Page 525|page 525:Quaternions]] for a mathematical definition. From ''The Random House Dictionary of the English Languages'', The Unabridged Edition (1966): Quaternion is &quot;a quantity or operator expressed as the sum of a real number and three complex numbers, equivalent to the ''quotient of two vectors''. The field of quaternions is not commutative under multiplication.&quot;.<br /> <br /> '''Bertie ('Mad Dog') Russell'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> 'Mad Dog' seems to be used with heavy irony here. Bertrand Russell was known most for his rationalism, so to speak, his work in modern logic. <br /> He did little in his public roles (at this time in AtD) that would have <br /> him referred to as &quot;crazy', as we say, beyond the social norm, &quot;mad&quot;. <br /> It might be argued that his use of 'logic' against philosophers such as Hegel and McTaggart within ''Against the Day'' showed up their 'madness'.<br /> (Many did think McTaggart was a bit...different...for seriously not believing in Time.) McTaggart broke with Russell after an early influential friendship---Russell was the younger man and the influenced one. He said he was an Hegelian because of McTaggart--Russell wrote in his<br /> Autobiography that McTaggart said he no longer wanted to meet/talk with him bcause he could no longer stand Russell's opinions.<br /> <br /> [http://nobelprize.org/nobel_prizes/literature/laureates/1950/russell-bio.html Bertrand Russell] (1872-1970) was a British mathematician, philosopher, logician and social critic. Best known for his work in mathermatical logic and analytic philosophy. In late spring of 1901 he discovered the so-called [http://plato.stanford.edu/entries/russell-paradox/ Russell Paradox], &quot;the most famous of the logical or set-theoretical paradoxes. The paradox arises within naive set theory by considering the set of all sets that are not members of themselves. Such a set appears to be a member of itself if and only if it is not a member of itself, hence the paradox.&quot; (On-line Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy). He won the 1950 Nobel Prize in Literature in &quot;recognition of his varied and significant writings in which he champions humanitarian ideals and freedom of thought&quot;.<br /> <br /> '''Barry Nebulay'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> nebulae: formed from the diffusion of gas in galaxies or as exploded stars (or the last ember-like stage of a star)&lt;br&gt; <br /> Most nebulae can be described as diffuse nebulae, which means that they are extended and contain no well-defined boundaries.[1] In visible light these nebulae may be divided into emission nebulae and reflection nebulae, a categorization that depends on how the light we see is created.<br /> <br /> '''Hegel... puns'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Probably refers to the fact that quite a lot of Hegel's philosophy deals with the is-ness of the world as we know and experience it.<br /> <br /> On page 787 of Bertrand Russell's ''History of Western Philosophy'' is a summary, perhaps, of this remark about Hegel's puns: &quot;as a result of analysis of the concept &quot;existence&quot;, modern logic has proved this [Cartesianism, refuted by Kant, reinstated by Hegel] argument invalid.....&quot;<br /> <br /> We know from other places that TRP himself seems to 'not like' Cartesianism. See 'cartesian' citations within this wiki.<br /> <br /> ==Page 539==<br /> <br /> '''a vector quotient'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> The result of one vector divided by another. According to the English dictionary definition of previous page this is just a Quaternion.<br /> <br /> '''unit vector'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Unit vector is a vector with magnitude of one. The unit vectors in 3-dimensional space, ''i, j, k'', associated with ''x, y, z'' directions are used in defining a general 3D vector (Cf [[ATD_525-556#Page 526|page 526:Gibbsian Vectors]]).<br /> <br /> '''''square root of minus one'''''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Imaginary number (Cf [[ATD_119-148#Page 132|page 133:Imaginary Number]]). The imaginary numbers ''i, j, k'' are used in defining a Quaternion (Cf [[ATD_525-556#Page 525|page 525:Quaternions]]).<br /> <br /> ''''Triangle Asana''''&lt;br&gt;<br /> A basic yoga pose. <br /> <br /> [http://yoga.org.nz/postures/yoga_positions_images_page.htm Here are images of several basic poses.]<br /> <br /> ''''Dr Rao abruptly vanished''''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Might be a reference to [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Martin_Gardner Martin Gardner]'s<br /> [http://www.amazon.com/No-Sided-Professor-Fantasy-Mystery-Philosophy/dp/0879753900 &quot;No-Sided Professor&quot;]<br /> <br /> ''''Quadrantal Versor Asana''''&lt;br&gt;<br /> A triangle pose taken that extra dimension.<br /> <br /> '''''&quot;Uwe moer!&quot;'''''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Looks a lot like the Dutch &quot;Uw moeder!&quot; - a cry of astonishment (&quot;Your mother!&quot;), the equivalent to the black English &quot;yo mama&quot;.<br /> <br /> '''noncommutative'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> A term typical to mathematics. A commutative equation is one that can operate in exact reverse and still yield the same results. 'Noncommutative' then suggests unidirectionality. The ability to go from point A to point B, but not from B to A.<br /> <br /> '''reticule'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> A woman's drawstring handbag; usually made of net or beading or brocade; also: A system of lines forming a pattern of squares at the focal plane of a telescope, used in micrometers.<br /> [http://www.astunit.com/tutorials/glossary.htm] <br /> :Isn't that sort of a red herring? &quot;[P]roducing from her reticule a . . . watch&quot; doesn't really allow of that second meaning. &lt;br&gt;<br /> :It could be a pun, since a reticule/ handbag always shows its pattern of lines, and a watch (timepiece) is drawn from it. Remember that, e.g. railroad lines of tracks, are a sign of industrialism encroaching on the natural and the spiritual.<br /> <br /> '''Vacheron &amp; Constantin watch'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Made by a Swiss company founded in 1755. From 1819 to 1970 the name was as in the text, then the &amp; dropped out. See the [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vacheron_Constantin Wikipedia entry.]<br /> <br /> '''hunting-case'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> For a pocket watch, a case with a hinged metal cover. More often called &quot;hunter case&quot; (and such a watch a &quot;hunter&quot;).<br /> <br /> ==Page 540==<br /> <br /> '''&quot;haar rekening, ja?&quot;'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> The bill, yes? (Dutch)?<br /> <br /> ''Her'' bill, yes? I.e., give the check to the lady.<br /> <br /> Given the presence of Chris 'Kit' Traverse here, this very much suggests a reference to Christopher 'Kit' Marlowe, Elizabethan poet, playwright and contemporary of Shakespeare. Marlowe was stabbed to death in 1593, in murky circumstances, ostensibly over a bill or 'reckoning', though he was widely believed to have been involved in some form of espionage.<br /> <br /> Strictly speaking &quot;haar rekening&quot; means that the lady pays for herself only. If Root wanted to make sure that Pléiade pays for the whole company he would have to say &quot;de hele rekening voor de dame&quot;. <br /> <br /> '''Piet Woevre'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> The Woëvre is a natural region of Lorraine in north-east France. It forms part of Lorraine plateau and lies largely in the department of Meuse. During World War I, there was much fighting there due to vast mineral resources that had been discovered in the Briey basin or Eastern Woevre at the end of the 19th century. &quot;Piet&quot; is Dutch for &quot;rock&quot; or &quot;stone&quot; and is a fairly common Dutch name, the English equivalent being Peter.<br /> <br /> If the surname is pronounced as in Dutch, Woevre is another Pynchon villain with a &quot;V&quot;-name (Vond, Weissman, Vibe). <br /> <br /> '''Force Publique'''&lt;br /&gt;<br /> The Force Publique (FP) was the official armed force for what is now the Democratic Republic of the Congo from 1885, (when the territory was known as the Congo Free State), through the period of direct Belgian rule (1908-60), until the beginning of the Second Republic in 1965. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Force_Publique Wikipedia entry]<br /> <br /> '''made him reach'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Possible allusion to a famous line, &quot;When I hear the word culture I reach for my gun.&quot; From Hanns Johst's biographical play ''Schlageter''. The original line is slightly different: &quot;Wenn ich Kultur höre ... entsichere ich meinen Browning,&quot; &quot;Whenever I hear of culture... I release the safety-catch of my Browning!&quot; (Act 1, Scene 1). It is spoken by another character in conversation with the young Schlageter. In the scene Schlageter and his wartime comrade Friedrich Thiemann are studying for a college examination, but then start disputing whether it's worthwhile doing so when the nation is not free. <br /> <br /> The line is often misattributed to better-known Nazis and others [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hanns_Johst].<br /> <br /> *In Jean-Luc Godard's 1963 film [http://www.chicagoreader.com/movies/archives/0997/09057.html ''Le Mépris'' (''Contempt'')], Jack Palance's character &quot;Jeremy Prokosch,&quot; an American movie-producer, intones to Fritz Lang: &quot;Whenever I hear the word culture, I reach for my checkbook.&quot;<br /> <br /> '''not unambiguous'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Ie, ambiguous.<br /> <br /> '''''rastaquoueres'''''&lt;br&gt;<br /> 8???<br /> <br /> '''de Decker'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> In Dutch/Flemish, the name means &quot;roofer.&quot; (''De'' in these names almost never means &quot;of, from&quot; as in French; it's nearly always the definite article.)<br /> <br /> ==Page 541==<br /> <br /> '''''bobbejaan'''''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Afrikaans: baboon. (Afrikaans is the language spoken by descendants of Dutch colonists in present-day South Africa. Some items identified as Dutch or Flemish in this wiki may really be Afrikaans.)<br /> <br /> The South African song &quot;Bobbejaan klim die berg&quot; (&quot;Bobbejaan climbed the hill&quot;) is the source of the stage name of Belgium's most famous country and western musician, Bobbejaan Schoepen (b. 1925). In 1943 he was suppressed by the Nazis after performing a South African song, &quot;Mamma, 'k wil 'n man hê&quot; (&quot;Mama, I want a man&quot;), which contains the line &quot;No, Mama, I don't want a German, because I don't like pork.&quot; He founded the Bobbejaanland theme park in Belgium, where he still lives.<br /> <br /> '''MKIV/ODC... Mark Four'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> This would be the Mark IV Ohmic Drift Compensator ([[ATD 557-587#Page 565|Page 565]]), a key component of the Q-weapon, which &quot;regulates how much light is allowed to enter the silvering of the mirror! Special kind of refraction! Calibrated against imaginary index! Dangerous! Of the essence!'&quot;<br /> <br /> '''not part of your remit'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Not included in your job description, instructions, authorization. &quot;Remit&quot; (noun) is usually a British usage.<br /> <br /> '''''gatkruiper'''''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Dutch/Flemish: brownnose, ass-kisser.<br /> <br /> '''one on her wrist'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> All the bruises reflect some refinement or artistry except this one, which may have been inflicted crudely.<br /> <br /> '''over the day'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Title motif?<br /> <br /> ==Page 542==<br /> <br /> '''trans-horizontic'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Across the horizon -- &quot; a screaming comes across the sky&quot;<br /> <br /> '''Edmund Whittaker'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Edmund Whittaker (1873-1956), an English mathematician. He is best known for his work in numerical analysis. And he contributed widely to applied mathematics, mathematical physics and the theory of special functions. He also worked on celestial mechanics and the history of applied mathermatics and physics. ([http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/E._T._Whittaker Whittaker]).<br /> <br /> The Sir Edmund Whittaker Memorial Prize is awarded every four years by the Edinburgh Mathematical Society to an outstanding young mathematician having a specified connection with Scotland [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sir_Edmund_Whittaker_Memorial_Prize]. <br /> <br /> '''louche'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> The cloudy effect caused by the addition of water to absinthe. Dictionary definition: &quot;of questionable taste or morality; decadent.&quot;<br /> <br /> '''cheval-glass'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Standing mirror in a freestanding vertical frame.<br /> <br /> '''as if someone'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Sound-cancelling vs opacity-cancelling?<br /> <br /> ==Page 543==<br /> <br /> '''wraith of Pleiade Lafrisee'''<br /> <br /> Pleiade manifests one of her not-visible stars. Perhaps this sister has somehow twisted herself on an imaginary axis ala Dr. V. Ganesh Rao.<br /> <br /> '''monitory'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Warning, giving advice, by extension ominous or menacing.<br /> <br /> '''Against....the day....'''<br /> Note: this phrase happens at the exact halfway point of the novel: p.542.3<br /> <br /> '''He Who Must Come'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> The evil-doer who must come might be Adolf Hitler. It would make sense. The implication being that Europe is precipitating into a no-return situation. Capitalism cannot but end in WW2.&lt;br&gt;<br /> Ah, a lot more and less than capitalism going on here, especially if anyone specific like Hitler is meant. <br /> :When French writers use this phrase (''celui qui doit venir'') they '''do''' mean the Messiah . . . although a few devout quibblers point out that the Messiah has already come. It's rather tiresome Googling the phrase; the first 83 hits definitely refer to Christ and most of them quote the first verses of Matthew 11. But there's also a Camus reference (in English, I think) down at No. 90, if anyone has a JSTOR account:<br /> :links.jstor.org/sici?sici=0361-1299(1985)39%3A4%3C251%3ACFS%22M%3E2.0.CO%3B2-X <br /> <br /> Recalls Yeats' 'The Second Coming' once again: &quot;And what rough beast, its hour come round at last, Slouches towards Bethlehem to be born?&quot; [http://chumpsofchoice.blogspot.com/2007/05/casino-royale-in-flanders-field.html#c3637134446204467798 ]<br /> <br /> '''General Boulanger'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/General_Boulanger Georges Boulanger], French military man, and War Minister in the late 19th century. He was one of those men &quot;on a white horse&quot; that some conservatives looked to, as he urged an attack on Germany and the end of the French Republic with a return to monarchy. He was also notorious for his harsh reprisals against workers' demonstrations. &quot;'Boulangisme'&quot; threatened a coup in 1889, but the general's procrastination brought the crisis to an end.&lt;br&gt;<br /> In ''The Infernal Machine: A History of Terrorism''<br /> by Matthew Carr, 2007, Boulanger is called the &quot;father&quot; of fascism.<br /> <br /> '''what death and what transfiguration'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Allusion to Richard Strauss' tone poem &quot;Death and Transfiguration&quot; (''Tod und Verklärung''), premiered in 1890.<br /> <br /> '''''&quot;Zeker&quot;'''''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Dutch: certainly.<br /> <br /> '''''dead cert'''''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Dead certainty, sure thing.<br /> <br /> '''Von Schlieffen'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Alfred von Schlieffen was the author of a German war plan to win a two-front war against both France and Russia by quickly defeating France before Russian troops could be mobilized. The [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Schlieffen_Plan Schlieffen Plan] included an attack on France through Belgium, disregarding its neutrality.<br /> <br /> '''Wilhelm has offered Leopold part of France, the ancient Duchy of Burgundy'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> [http://www.crwflags.com/fotw/flags/fr-bg.html History of the duchy.] [http://www.freiburg-madison.de/freiburg_history/1386-1517_The%20Early%20Habsburgs.htm Map,] with portrait of Duke Charles the Rash.<br /> <br /> '''lowlands'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Title of Pynchon's first published story. Here, ass?<br /> <br /> ==Page 544==<br /> <br /> '''Place d'Armes'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Main square of Ostend; literally &quot;drill field&quot;.<br /> <br /> '''peau de soie'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> &quot;Skin of silk&quot; A heavy, smooth satin with very fine ribbing; somewhat dull in sheen compared with traditional silk finishes.<br /> <br /> '''Krafft-Ebing'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Richard Freiherr von Krafft-Ebing, Austro-German psychiatrist and author of ''Psychopathia Sexualis'' (1886), a pioneering study of deviant sexual behavior and fetishism. Coined both ''sadism'' and ''masochism'' as terms for these respective behaviors. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Richard_Freiherr_von_Krafft-Ebing Wikipedia entry].<br /> <br /> '''toque'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Toque here refers to a lady's hat, originally of fur but here in velvet, which is rather like a flattened chef's hat in shape.<br /> <br /> Proust: in ''À l'ombre des jeunes filles en fleurs'' the narrator first sees Albertine wearing a toque. There seem to be quite a few Proust themes and references running throughout the novel. Indeed '''Pliade''' is the French publisher of Proust's works. <br /> <br /> '''guipure'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Lace trim.<br /> <br /> '''midinette'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> A shopgirl or dressmakers apprentice. A milliner.<br /> <br /> '''Lambic'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> A distinctive Belgian style of beer. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lambic Wikipedia]<br /> <br /> '''sous'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> <br /> Coins. Originally Roman gold coins, latterly any kind of coin.<br /> <br /> Specifically small change. She is affecting modesty by claiming that a hat like hers can be had for pennies in any unpretentious shop. In France &quot;sou is used as slang for money, as in ''sans le sou''. 'I'm broke', 'without money'. It is also a slang term for the Canadian cent (standard French, cent).&quot; ([http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sou Wikipedia])<br /> <br /> '''mayonnaise'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Brautigan's &quot;Trout Fishing in America&quot; famously ends with the word mayonnaise. [http://books.google.com/books?vid=ISBN0395500761&amp;id=rbEjDovfyNMC&amp;pg=RA2-PA111&amp;lpg=RA2-PA111&amp;ots=ELKl5b_6Tx&amp;dq=mayonnaise+trout.fishing&amp;num=100&amp;sig=BiyXRqJXRGrMWbrBNgn8de2kpCo#PRA2-PA112,M1 GoogleBooks]<br /> <br /> '''ovoöleaginous'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Another Pynchonic word combination, here denoting the two main ingredients of mayonnaise: 1) eggs, and 2) oil. It's not &quot;fecoventilatory collision&quot; as seen in &quot;Vineland,&quot; but it's nice.<br /> <br /> '''Grenache'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Grape commonly used in Rhone Valley wines e.g. Chateauneuf du Pape.<br /> <br /> '''Chantilly'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> <br /> Region north of Paris.<br /> <br /> Here the reference is to crème chantilly otherwise known as whipped cream. Chantilly mayonnaise is made by incorporating the beaten egg whites for extra lightness.<br /> <br /> '''attainder'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Legislative act declaring that a person is guilty of a crime and setting punishment without the benefit of a formal trial. The Constitution forbids the federal government (Article I, Section 9, clause 3) and the state governments (Article I, Section 10, clause 1) from passing bills of attainder.<br /> [www.historycentral.com/Civics/B.html] <br /> <br /> ''''''Aux armes, citoyens''''''&lt;br&gt;<br /> ''To arms, citizens'', from the French national anthem, ''La Marseillaise'' (1792). Kit confused La Mayonnaise with La Marseillaise.&lt;br&gt;<br /> Not &quot;Le Marseillaise,&quot; you nitwit!<br /> <br /> '''Louis XV'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> King of France 1715-1774 [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Louis_XV]. <br /> <br /> '''Cléo de Mérode'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Glamorous French ballerina (1875-1966), later Follies Bergere dancer and famous beauty. Her reputed intimacy with King Leopold was only a rumor [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cleo_de_Merode]. The character Madame Leonora Armfeldt in Stephen Sondheim's ''A Little Night Music'' has some features in common with her.<br /> <br /> '''Marquise de Pompadour'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Mistress of Louis XV,once friend of Voltaire and a power behind official scenes.[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Madame_de_Pompadour].<br /> <br /> ==Page 545==<br /> <br /> '''duc de Richelieu'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Duc de Richelieu (1696-1788), marshal of France, was a grandnephew of Cardinal Richelieu, and born in Paris. Apart from his reputation as a man of exceptionally loose morals, he attained, in spite of a defective education, distinction as a diplomatist and general. ([http://www.1911encyclopedia.org/Louis_Francois_Armand_du_Plessis,_duc_de_Richelieu duc de Richelieu] and cf [[ATD_489-524#Page 490|page 490:duc de Richelieu]])<br /> <br /> '''dubious 'victory' in 1756'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> As part of the Seven Years' War (1756-1763), duc de Richelieu (1696-1788), a Marshal of France, won a victory in the Battle of Minorca (May 20, 1756) over John Byng (1704-1757), a British Admiral. In spring of 1756 John Byng was sent with a small and undermanned fleet to relieve the British ''Port Mahon'' on the Mediterranean island of Minorca. During the battle ensued, several British ships were badly damaged by the French squadron while others, including Byng's flagship, were still out of effective firing range. Instead of engaging the enemy directly, Byng decided to keep the formation, allowing the French fleet to get away undamaged. ([http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_Minorca Battle of Minorca]).<br /> <br /> '''the ill-fated Admiral Byng'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> John Byng, convicted by court-martial of failure &quot;to do his utmost&quot; in the battle, shot in 1757. Remembered because of (1) his being the last officer of flag rank to be put to death for conduct in battle and (2) Voltaire's gag in ''Candide:'' &quot;In this country it is good to kill an admiral from time to time in order to encourage the others.&quot;<br /> <br /> '''cantharides'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> &quot;Spanish fly,&quot; contact irritant sometimes ill-advisedly used as aphrodisiac.<br /> <br /> '''Sadean'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Pertaining to the Marquis de Sade. The acts the chef performs on the egg and oil have the same names as acts of Sadean sex. <br /> <br /> '''''n'est-ce pas?'''''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Right? (Isn't that so?)<br /> <br /> '''vetiver'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> A grass (Vetiveria zizanioides) of tropical India, cultivated for its aromatic roots that yield an oil used in perfumery.<br /> [www.answers.com/topic/vetiver]. So, a perfume with, llterallly, roots in India.<br /> <br /> Vetiver makes frequent appearances throughout ''À la recherche du temps perdu.''<br /> <br /> '''pip'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> A beaut; in current parlance, a hottie.<br /> <br /> '''Q.P. system'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Quaternion Probability, page 536.<br /> <br /> '''Usine Régionale'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> French: as translated in the text.<br /> <br /> ==Page 546==<br /> <br /> '''disjunctive effects of thunderstorms'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Folk wisdom says a thunderstorm will cause mayonnaise to separate (oil from yolks).<br /> <br /> '''cottonseed oil'''<br /> <br /> Mayonnaisse like Smegmo and Crisco is a hydrogenated fat; cottonseed oil is a common factor to all three. Indeed, the name Crisco derives from the intial sounds of &quot;'''crys'''tallized '''c'''ottonseed '''o'''il&quot;. Note in the next few pages a mention of Candlebrow -- underscoring a tie-in between Mayonnaisse and Smegmo. <br /> <br /> It may be of interest to note that hydrogenation may have a symbolic use for Pynchon. The process entails bubbling hydrogen through oil in the presence of a metal catalyst such as nickel, platinum, aluminum at 248 to 410 degrees. Remnants of these metals stay in the finished product, and when consumed can lead to an increase in heavy metals in the human body.<br /> <br /> Eating hydrogenated oils is like eating plastic. The body does not recognize that these molecules have been mutated and tries to use them as essential fatty acids. But they cannot perform the same function, and as a result hydrogenated oils can cause short circuits in the electrical flow that controls the heartbeat, nerve functions, cell division and mental balance. They also create free radicals (anarchists!) that are linked to cancers. Free radicals plus metal remnants are a major contributor to cancer, heart disease, immune system dysfunction, osteoporosis, depression, chronic fatigue, Alzheimers, and neurological diseases. It is estimated that over 200 million people have died prematurely because of the hydrogenated oils found in our diets. [http://www.drz.org/asp/newsletter/default.asp?xt2id=23] Not to mention innocent bystanders killed by mentally imbalanced people whose imbalance may stem from the ingestion of hydrogenated oils -- there may be some underlying reality to the &quot;Twinkie defense.&quot;<br /> <br /> '''lounge suit'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> A lounge suit is another name for business suit consisting of a matching jacket and trousers or skirt.<br /> <br /> '''congress shoes'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> ankle high shoes with elastic gussets in the sides (wordweb online)<br /> <br /> '''invisible hand'''<br /> <br /> Suggestive of Adam Smith's metaphor for market forces in economics.<br /> <br /> '''dripping-heads'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mayonnaise To make mayonnaise,] beat together egg yolks, salt, mustard and vinegar, then drip in oil while beating to form the emulsion. If you scale the process up for industrial production, you will automate the introduction of the oil, using nozzles that release it a drop at a time—but in a large vat you can have many such nozzles.<br /> <br /> '''''cuves d'agitation'''''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Vat or tank in which the mayonnaise is agitated or beaten.<br /> <br /> '''Clinique d'Urgence pour Sauvetage des Sauces'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> French: Emergency Clinic for Salvage of Sauces.<br /> <br /> ==Page 547==<br /> <br /> '''' ...engulfed in thick, slick, sour-smelling mayonnaise. ''''<br /> The whole Kit's experience in the mayonnaise factory is very much reminiscent to [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Roald_Dahl Roald Dahl]'s [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Charlie_and_the_Chocolate_Factory Charlie and the Chocolate Factory].<br /> <br /> '''''Cazzo, cretino'''''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Literally, &quot;Dick, cretin.&quot; ''Cazzo'' is a common Italian interjectionary obscenity, especially in the south. &quot;Cazzo, cretino,&quot; is akin to someone saying, &quot;Well shit, dummy,&quot; or &quot;F-ing moron!&quot;<br /> <br /> '''''È il cowboy!'''''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Italian: It's the cowboy!<br /> <br /> '''''vero?'''''&lt;br&gt;<br /> true? real?<br /> <br /> '''''Le bambole anarchiste, porca miseria'''''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Italian: Anarchist babes, oh boy.<br /> <br /> '''Oudenberg'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> A southeast suburb of Ostende.<br /> <br /> '''Quai de l'Entrepôt'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Warehouse Quay<br /> <br /> '''''ragazzi'''''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Italian: boys, guys.<br /> <br /> ==Page 548==<br /> <br /> '''General Boulanger'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> That the General was 'reactionary' and that the C of C bureaucracy had a 'defiant residue' of Boulangism, continues the characterization of the organization for which the Chums 'work'.&lt;br&gt;<br /> See p. 543 above, regarding a 2007 book in which Boulanger is called the 'father of fascism'.<br /> <br /> '''''timbres fictifs'''''&lt;br&gt;<br /> French: fictive postage stamps. Cf &quot;Lot 49&quot;.&lt;br&gt;<br /> Yes, stamps mean something in Pynchon's works; here, it seems important that these stamps are characterized as frauds.<br /> <br /> '''&quot;IIIb&quot;'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> As explained in the text.&lt;br&gt;<br /> &quot;Section IIIB (Intelligence) of the German High Command. After WWI, was funded by Alfred Hugenberg (financial backer of Nazi party)&quot;. From ''Sabotage'' by Sayers &amp; Kahn, 1942.[http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&amp;q=%22IIIB%27+%2B+INTELLIGENCE&amp;btnG=Search]. The authors state in the Forward, in 1942, &quot;that 'Nazi Germany' is the creation of spies and saboteurs&quot;. See ''V.'' &amp; ''Gravity's Rainbow'', of course. <br /> <br /> '''Germany might stand a better chance...'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> That is, if the French were to push into Alsace (per Boulanger) as the Germans executed the Schlieffen Plan [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Schlieffen_plan] for the encirclement of Paris, it would put the French at an even greater disadvantage...as actually happened in 1914. Had the Belgians and British not delayed the Germans in Flanders, and had the French railroads not performed speedily to bring the French troops back to the Marne, World War I could have had a very different outcome...an alternate history. <br /> <br /> '''revanchist'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Policies based on revenge, or a person following such policies. In General Boulanger's case, revenge against Germany for the Franco-Prussian War (that is, retaking Alsace, lost in 1871).<br /> <br /> '''the somewhat discomposed General'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Having died in 1891, the General by the time of the action is certainly somewhat '''de'''composed; brief biographies do not suggest he was ''non compos mentis,'' that is, mentally discomposed.<br /> <br /> ==Page 549==<br /> '''grow more and more invisible'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> What could be meant? Clearly, they inhabit bodies that people interact with?, as well as being characters in works of fiction.&lt;br&gt;<br /> Given what happens with the Chums as the story progresses [Spoiler bit, thematically], I suggest that their invisibility here<br /> means the entering of simple human life, to live out their lives 'anonymously' in history. I want to suggest this is largely a positive vision, indicated in other ways and places as well in TRPs work. Here is an overt bit of circumstantial evidence from Pynchon's introduction to Jim Dodge's novel ''Stone Junction'':&lt;br&gt;<br /> &quot;Equally difficult for those who might wish to proceed through life<br /> anonymously and without trace has been the continuing assault against<br /> the once-reliable refuge of the cash or non-plastic economy.&quot; [http://www.themodernword.com/pynchon/pynchon_essays_stone.html]<br /> <br /> '''cackled Darby'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> (When did he lose his innocence?)<br /> <br /> '''a modification of any salsician metaphor toward the diminutive'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Salsician: pertaining to sausage. Lindsay says Suckling's penis is better compared to a wiener than a knockwurst.<br /> <br /> '''&quot;Why you little–and I do mean 'little'–&quot;'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Another Simpsons reference? <br /> <br /> Noseworth, the Master-At-Arms of the Chums division of this organization with a defiant residue of 'fascism', who had no smell to Pugnax early on,<br /> is called out, either for real or in a sex-bashing putdown, for homosexuality. cf. homosexuality as a metaphor in ''Gravity's Rainbow''. <br /> <br /> '''dunes between Nieuport and Dunkirk'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Nieuport is a Belgian seaport about 10 miles southwest of Ostend. Dunkirk is a French port (less than 10 miles inside the French border) about 20 miles southwest of Nieuport. The latter was a site of one of the bloodest battle in World War I. The general area between Niewport and Dunkirk was the well traversed battle fields of two world wars. (Dunkirk was (in)famous for the British Army's escape from the Nazi German's assault in World War II.)<br /> <br /> '''power-receivers'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Not information, energy.<br /> <br /> ==Page 550==<br /> <br /> '''Lot's wife''' &lt;br&gt;<br /> Angels of God led Lot and his family out of Sodom as it was being destroyed and told them not to look back at the mayhem. Lot's wife, Edith, imprudently looked back and was transfigured into a pillar of salt.<br /> <br /> '''preference...for interiors'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> In [http://masondixon.pynchonwiki.com/wiki/index.php?title=Chapter_35:_349-361 Mason &amp; Dixon, p. 354] <br /> , the interiors of some coaches were larger than their exterior dimensions. Interiors have importance in Pynchon's worldview. Cf. &quot;invisibility&quot;, and a 'human life' above.&lt;br&gt;<br /> <br /> '''Italian grotto'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> an imitating recess or structure made to resemble a natural Italian grotto.<br /> <br /> '''a highly developed taste, moreover, for human blood'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Since Pugnax developed this taste in the Carpathians, home of Castle Dracula, this seems a clear reference to Bram Stoker's novel. <br /> <br /> '''Carpathians'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Major mountain range running northwest-southeast through Poland, Slovakia, western Ukraine and Romania.<br /> <br /> '''Uhlans'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Uhlan regiments belonged to the light cavalry. They wore splendid uniforms (model for some U.S. marching band uniforms). [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Uhlan Wikipedia article.]<br /> <br /> '''Temesvár'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Now Timişoara, extreme western Romania.<br /> <br /> ==Page 551==<br /> '''prefiguration...of the holy City'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> City of God, ala Augustine? ''The Heavenly City of the 18th Century Philosophers''[http://www.amazon.com/Heavenly-City-Eighteenth-Century-Philosophers/dp/0300101503]<br /> , as explored in the book Ian McEwan says he lent Pynchon? [citation needed]<br /> <br /> '''...separated by only a slice of Time...'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Miles is beginning to experience Time almost as a spatial dimension, his personal vector as traversing (!) 4-dimensional space, or perhaps multidimensional space, the mathematics for which is being debated in Ostend.<br /> <br /> '''securing the mess decks'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> The Chums follow U.S. Navy idiom in orders (frequently prefixed with &quot;Now&quot;) and shipboard activities (&quot;secure&quot; meaning &quot;whatever you did before, undo it now,&quot; in this case put away the dishes and fold up the tables).<br /> <br /> '''Ryder Thorn'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Tolkienesque name? Or perhaps it's a nod to the Ryder-Waite Tarot deck and to Kevin Thorn (Kevin Matthew Fertig, 1977-), the American professional wrestler better known by his ring name Kevin Thorn who is currently signed to World Wrestling Entertainment wrestling on its ECW brand. He has appeared in vigniettes with Ariel (Shelly Martinez, 1980-), the tarot card reader, who spits blood at the camera while she &quot;predicted the future of ECW.&quot; Yup, a stretch...<br /> <br /> *The name also evokes the Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse.<br /> <br /> '''He was at Candlebrow.'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Presumably a 'trespasser.'<br /> <br /> '''the four-note chord in the context of timelessness'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> A melody is formed by notes following one another in time; a chord on the ukulele violates that practice by having all the notes sound at once. A really clever little passage.<br /> Note: Jazz musicians describe musical improvisations as horizontal (with the melody) or vertical (with the chord)<br /> <br /> ==Page 552==<br /> <br /> '''knuckle-duster'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Brass knuckles.<br /> <br /> '''Diksmuide'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> 20 kilometers south of Ostend (about halfway to Ypres).<br /> <br /> ==Page 553==<br /> <br /> '''The terrain was flat...lowlands'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Not, this time, a reference to Pynchon's ''Lowlands'', but to the two-dimensionality of Flanders, as in Edwin A. Abbott's ''Flatland'' [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Flatland]; most humans, like the inhabitants of Flanders and Abbott's Flatlanders, experience life in two dimensions. <br /> <br /> '''Somewhere up in the sky was Miles' home...'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Whereas Miles and the Chums of Chance, in contrast, live in three dimensions. The mathematicians gathered in Ostend are trying to calculate how to experience and use vectors to live in four dimensions; in a way, to experience Time as a kind of spatial dimension. Miles, on P. 551, is demonstrating the beginnings of an intuitive discovery of how to experience Time as an almost spatial dimension. Which would be a sort of &quot;time travel&quot;, or at least an expanded view of life and history.<br /> <br /> '''retted'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> soaked in water or exposed to moisture (as flax or hemp) to facilitate the removal of the fiber from the woody tissue by partial rotting.<br /> <br /> ==Page 554==<br /> <br /> '''Ypres and Menin'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Municipalities in West Flanders that were sites of some of the bloodiest battles of WWI. At the beginning of the war, the British and Belgian stand helped save Paris from encirclement by the Germans, and saved the Channel ports, but as Thorn points out, the area became the western anchor of the Western Front trench system. The several Battles of Ypres saw the first uses of poison gas (Mustard Gas, dichlorodiethylsulfide, was first called Yperite), the use of enormous mines, and the legendary mud of Passchendaele [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Passchendaele]. <br /> <br /> '''Ten years from now'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> (1914?) through 1918? and beyond?. Another paramorphic mirror--what do we now face. Whatever it is, it is nuclear.<br /> <br /> '''Bosch'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Hieronymous Bosch (1450-1516), Dutch painter of nightmares. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hieronymus_Bosch Wikipedia entry].<br /> <br /> '''Brueghel'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Pieter Brueghel the Elder(1525-1569), Flemish painter.[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pieter_Brueghel_the_Elder Wikipedia entry].<br /> <br /> '''League'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> League of Nations? The League of Nations was formed after WWI to prevent future wars. Didn't succeed.<br /> <br /> No. In this case a historical unit of length, approximately three miles - &quot;league on league&quot; = tremendous masses<br /> <br /> '''where the needles went and which way to rotate them'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> I.e., how to push Thorn's buttons; the image is from acupuncture.<br /> <br /> ==Page 555==<br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> '''simpletons at the fair'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Making Pynchon's metaphor explicit.<br /> <br /> '''Chopin E-minor Nocturne'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Frédéric Chopin (1810-49), a Polish pianist and composer ([http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fr%C3%A9d%C3%A9ric_Chopin Chopin]). He was born in Warsaw, Poland to a Polish morther and a French father. He went to Paris at the age of 20 and died there at the age of 39. He was widely regarded as one of the most famous and influential composers for the piano. From 1837-47 he had a 10-year stormy relationship with the French writer George Sand. His E-minor Nocturne is a 4-minute long Romantic style piano solo composed in 1827. (A ''nocturne'' is usually a musical composition that is inspired by, or evocative of, the night [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nocturne Nocturne].)<br /> <br /> '''owl-light'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> ???glimmering or imperfect light or twilight hours.<br /> <br /> ''''plasmic hysteresis''''&lt;br&gt;<br /> <br /> A coined term, apparently similar in meaning to Miles’ phrase “failure of physical translation.” Plasma would take an older meaning of “form” or “shape.&quot; Hysteresis, according to Webster's, refers to “a retardation in effect when the forces on an object are changed.” Hysteresis is used to describe magnetic phenomenon as well as plastic or elastic materials, that involve changes to a rest state that last beyond the forces that cause them. Examples include recordings on magnetic tape or a thumbprint slowly disappearing from putty. In the context of this passage, plasmic hysteresis appears to describe the lingering visage of someone who is no longer present – a hysteresis of form only and thus a failed physical translation. See [http://www.etymonline.com/index.php?search=plasma&amp;searchmode=none etymology of plasma] and this nifty explanation of [http://www.lassp.cornell.edu/sethna/hysteresis/WhatIsHysteresis.html hysteresis]. <br /> <br /> Hysteresis has also been used to refer to “loops” in time, certainly apropos in this case. I stumbled across an excellent example in a 1980 episode of Dr. Who, in which the eponymous Dr. is trapped in “chronic hysteresis,” an endless loop or return to a previous <br /> point in time – very similar to the situation of Ryder Thorn. [http://www.drwhoguide.com/who_5q.htm Check it out for yourself!] <br /> <br /> <br /> ==Annotation Index==<br /> {{ATD PbP}}</div>

MKOHUT https://against-the-day.pynchonwiki.com/wiki/index.php?title=ATD_525-556&diff=14129 2007-10-21T14:44:05Z

<p>MKOHUT: /* Page 551 */</p> <hr /> <div>:'''&lt;big&gt;Please keep these annotations SPOILER-FREE by not revealing information from later pages in the novel.&lt;/big&gt;'''&lt;p&gt;&lt;br&gt;<br /> <br /> ==Page 525==<br /> <br /> '''Ostend'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Cf [[ATD_489-524#Page 521|page 521:Ostend]], a seaport in northwest Belgium. Among English-speaking tourists, Ostend (or Ostende) is best known as a ferry port. Ships have shuttled between Dover and Ostend for more than 150 years, and today's high-speed catamarans move hundreds of passengers and vehicles between these two ports in just two hours. But this thousand-year-old city is a popular beach resort with Belgians, who flock to Ostend for sun, surfing, sailing and the ''Kursaal'' (Casino). The fishing harbor and old town draw many visitors. Ostend is the only Belgian coastal resort that is as lively in the summer as in the winter. For more and pictures [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ostend Ostend].<br /> <br /> '''Fishermen's Quai'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Fishermen's Quay, also called De Trap. The shrimp boats come home here from the sea in the morning. Along the quay many stands sell lots of seafoods.<br /> <br /> '''Boulevard van Isenghem'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> A major thoroughfare in Ostend, locally called ''Van Iseghemlaan'', extending diagonally from seafront southwest through the city.<br /> <br /> '''street-plausible'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Presentable.<br /> <br /> '''Quai de l'empereur'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Since Ostende is in the Flemish part of Belgium this should be the Keizerskaai, a street along the old part of the harbour, 1919 renamed Vindictivelaan.<br /> <br /> '''estaminet'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> According to the OED - A café in which smoking is allowed. Now, any small establishment selling alcoholic liquor. <br /> <br /> '''twelve-centime'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> one centime is the French eqivalent of one cent. A twelve-centime beer would cost 12/100 of a franc.<br /> <br /> '''Quaternions'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Cf [[ATD_119-148#Page 130|page 130:Quaternions]]. Quaternions are a non-communtative extension of complex numbers (Hamilton, 1843).&lt;br&gt;<br /> <br /> Analogy with the complex numbers (Cf [[ATD_119-148#Page 132|page 132:complex number]]) being represented as a sum of real and imaginary parts, a + b''i'', where ''i''² = −1, a quaternion is defined as a combination a + b''i'' + c''j'' + d''k'', where ''i''² = ''j''² = ''k''² = ''i j k'' = −1, and a, b, c, d are ''four'' explicit real numbers. The non-commutative property refers to ''i j = −j i = k; j k = −k j = i; k i = −i k = j''. (i.e. ''i j ≠ j i; j k ≠ k j; k i ≠ i k''; etc.) The using of ''i, j, k'', the imaginary numbers (Cf [[ATD_119-148#Page 133|page 133:imaginary number]]), led to the phrases of &quot;the ''ijk'' lot&quot; of page 533 and &quot;creature of ''i-j-k''&quot; of page 534.<br /> <br /> '''Kellner'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> German: waiter, barman. Use of the German word would be insulting to the Belgian barman.<br /> <br /> '''''demi'''''&lt;br&gt;<br /> A half-pint glass (25 centilitres, actually).<br /> <br /> '''Lambic'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Pron. ''lahm-BEEK.'' Unique Belgian beer style, sour and often thin in body.<br /> <br /> '''skimmer'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Straw hat (&quot;Panama&quot;).<br /> <br /> ==Page 526==<br /> <br /> '''biquaternion'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Or &quot;octonion,&quot; an innovation of English mathematician W.K. Clifford, [[ATD_243-272#Page_249|referred to on p. 249.]]<br /> <br /> '''Barry Nebulay'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Pun on a term from heraldry, ''barry nebuly.'' Barry (rhymes with &quot;starry,&quot; not &quot;carry&quot;) refers to a shield divided into an even number of parts by horizontal lines. Nebuly signals that the lines are deformed into stylized &quot;cloud&quot; shapes. [http://www.rarebooks.nd.edu/digital/heraldry/partitions.html Here you can see an example.] If a ''British'' author had a character with a heraldic name, it would suggest a pseudonym.<br /> <br /> '''University of Dublin'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> The Alma Mater of Hamilton, the father of Quaternion. He studied, graduated and taught at Trinity College, the University of Dublin, Ireland's oldest university.<br /> <br /> If University College, Dublin, then Joyce had graduated in 1902.&lt;br&gt;<br /> <br /> '''Quaternioneers'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Quaternion believers.<br /> <br /> '''Gibbsian Vectors'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Vector Analysis (or Vector Calculus) developed by Willard Gibbs (Cf [[ATD_26-56#Page 29|page 29:Professor Gibbs]]) in 1881 and 1884. It is a branch of calculus that deals with vectors and process involving vectors. It is much more easily applied to phsics and other applied sciences than Hamilton's Quaternions (Cf [[ATD_525-556#Page 525|page 525:Quaternions]]).&lt;br&gt;<br /> A vector is defined by not only a magnitude but also a direction, such as a velocity vector, ''v'' is defined by ''v'' = a''i'' + b''j'' + c''k'',<br /> where a, b, and c are the magnitudes of the velocity components in directions of ''i, j'' and ''k'' which are unit vectors, (not imaginary numbers as in Quaternion), with magnitude of 1. In three dimensional cases and ''xyz'' coordinate system is used then ''i, j, k'' are related to ''x, y, z'' directions (&quot;''xyz'' people&quot; of page 533); but they, in general, may be used irrespective of the notation of the coordinates.<br /> Mathematical operations (addition, subtraction, multiplication), differentiation (''curl'' — Cf [[ATD_318-335#Page 326|page 326:Curl]] and p. 536, ''Laplacian'' — Cf [[ATD_318-335#Page 326|page 326:Laplacian]] and p. 536, etc) and integration can be applied to vectors. It is interesting to know that one of the two multiplication operations is called cross product; for unit vectors (''i, j, k'') perpendicular to each other, then, ''i × i = j × j = k × k = 0'', ''i × j = k'', ''j × i = -k'', etc. ([http://web.mit.edu/wwmath/vectorc/summary.html Vector Calculus]).&lt;br&gt;<br /> A simple vector anyalysis example here: if ''k'', the unit vector, stands for the direction upward and g is the gravitational acceleration, then the acceleration vector, ''a'', for a projectile, is defined for downward action, (the ''i'' and ''j'' directions have zero components):&lt;br&gt;<br /> :''a'' = -g ''k''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Integrating ''a'' would give the velocity vector, ''v''&lt;br&gt;<br /> :''v'' = -g t ''k''&lt;br&gt;<br /> for zero initial velocity case, and t standing for time.&lt;br&gt;<br /> And integrating ''v'' would yield the position vector, ''h'', for the projectile&lt;br&gt;<br /> :''h'' = -½ g t² ''k''&lt;br&gt;<br /> toward the sea level.<br /> <br /> '''Quaternionists'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Quaternion believers, same as Quaternioneers.<br /> <br /> '''Tasmania'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Tasmania is an island of the southern coast of Australia. Known for its relative isolation, it was a prison for English convicts in the 1800s<br /> <br /> '''Having been inseparable from the rise of the electromagnetic'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> In his 1865 work ''The Dynamical Theory of the Electromagnetic Field'', James Clerk Maxwell unified electricity and magnetism. He put forth twenty equations, with twenty unknowns, in vector form (though different in notation and form than the equations that now bear his name) that completely described all known electromagnetic phenomena. In his 1873 treatise on the subject, he expressed the equations in the mathematics of quaternions. It appears that the quaternion form of the equations remained popular even though, at the behest of his publisher, Maxwell reverted to the 1865 form in the second edition (1881)--though they remain scattered throughout. In 1892 Oliver Heaviside (On the Forces, Stresses, and Fluxes of Energy in the Electromagnetic Field. ''Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society of London.'' A, Vol. 183. pp423-480), while spewing scientific vitriol at the Quaternionists, reformulated Maxwell's original 1865 equations (Heaviside chose to remove the vector potential and scalar fields from the equations; the inclusion of these terms had served as Maxwell's justification for the use of quaternions), and provided the notation still in use today. See this [http://www.zpenergy.com/modules.php?name=Downloads&amp;d_op=getit&amp;lid=60 PDF] for the evolution of Maxwell's equations.<br /> <br /> '''Hamiltonian devotees'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> The Quaternion faction, after William Hamilton, who devised the scheme.<br /> <br /> '''Grand Hôtel de la Nouvelle Digue'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> There is a Hotel Digue in the Seychelles; this is a New Hotel Digue by Pynchon? <br /> <br /> Grand Hotel of New Dyke, may be a made up hotel name.<br /> <br /> '''anterooms of death'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> This metaphor is sometimes applied to concentration camps. Here the lyric &quot;feel like I'm fixin' to die&quot; seems more apposite.<br /> <br /> '''Belgian Art Nouveau'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Art Nouveau, 1890(or 80) to 1914, explores a new style in the visual arts and architecture that developed in Europe and North America at the end of the 19th century. At its height (~1907), Art Nouveau was a concerted attempt to create an international style based on decoration. It was developed by a brilliant and energetic generation of artists and desisgners, who sought to fashion an art form appropriate to the post-Industrial Revolution modern age.&lt;br&gt;<br /> Brussels was one of the Art Nouveau centers and represented different style from the others. The jewelers there, accepted as artists rahter than craftsmen, (together with those in Paris) defined Art Nouveau in jewelery and achieved the most renown. ([http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Art_Nouveau Art Nouveau]).<br /> <br /> ==Page 527==<br /> <br /> '''dossing'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> British slang for &quot;sleeping&quot;, &quot;staying overnight&quot;<br /> <br /> '''Russian nihilists'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> :The following four are local, Belgian, not Russian, nihilists !<br /> <br /> '''Eugénie'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Female. Possibly named for Empress Eugénie (1826-1920), consort of French Emperor Napoleon III. Ultimately for St. Eugenia, 3rd-century Roman martyr whose feast is celebrated on December 25.<br /> <br /> '''Fatou'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Female. A pseudonym? In view of the date of the action, certainly not named after [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fatou the mathematician Fatou] (1878-1929).<br /> <br /> '''Denis'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Male. Named for St. Denis or Dionysius, patron saint of Paris and of France, 3rd-century bishop of Paris, martyr, beheaded on the hill now called Montmartre. &quot;Montjoie St. Denis!&quot; was a warcry used by French troops in the Middle Ages. His intercession is effective against demonic possession and headache.<br /> <br /> '''Policarpe'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Male. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Polycarp Saint Polycarp] was a Christian bishop of Smyrna (now İzmir in Turkey) in the second century. He was stabbed and died a martyr after an attempt to burn him at the stake failed. His intercession is sought against earache and dysentery.<br /> <br /> '''Young Congo'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Probably in reference to the [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Young_Turks Young Turks], a Turkish revolutionary movement<br /> <br /> '''Garde Civique'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> A part of the Belgian army. According to the [http://www.1911encyclopedia.org/Belgium 1911 Britannica], &quot;the mass of the garde civique does not pretend to possess military value. It is a defence against sedition and socialism.&quot;<br /> <br /> '''French Second Bureau boys'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Deuxieme Bureau; French Intelligence.<br /> <br /> '''''phalange'''''&lt;br&gt;<br /> French: phalanx. A military (here mock-military) group ready for combat. &lt;br&gt;<br /> <br /> It also conjures up memories of the early 19th century utopian socialist <br /> Charles Fourier, who theorized that people should live communally in &quot;phalanxes&quot; of a specific number based upon their &quot;passions.&quot; His solid ideas included equality of the sexes, but he also taught wacky things such as the moon being made of lemonade. Of particular relevance is his rejection of industrial civilization. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Utopian_socialism]<br /> <br /> '''&quot;...until something had happened, something too terrible to remember...&quot;'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Again this theme of an unknowable past transgression, here invoked almost as if the unknown signifies the other 'lateral' (a word which has cropped up at least a dozen times already) 'vector'.<br /> <br /> '''the Digue'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> French for &quot;dyke&quot;<br /> <br /> '''Congo... Belgians'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> The Belgian colonisation of the Congo was, as Conrad's ''Heart of Darkness'' makes clear, notable for its greed and brutality.<br /> <br /> '''Leopold, King of the Belgians'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> 1835-1909, reigned 1865-1909. A man of almost Nixonian fiendishness. In the Congo he acted as sole proprietor and absolute ruler. The positive outcomes of his exploitation include ''Heart of Darkness'' and the phrase &quot;crime against humanity.&quot;<br /> <br /> '''co-conscious'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> mental processes outside the main stream of consciousness but sometimes available to it — from Merriam-Webster's Medical Dictionary.<br /> <br /> '''Force Publique'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Belgian armed forces operating in the Belgian Congo ([http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Force_Publique Wikipedia]). &quot;King Leopold's private army&quot; may be a more accurate description.<br /> <br /> '''rubber worker'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> See above: One of the early missions of the FP was to increase rubber export quotas through forced labor and related atrocities.<br /> <br /> ==Page 528==<br /> <br /> '''''khâgne'''''&lt;br&gt;<br /> an informal term used by French students for Classes Préparatoires Littéraires, the two-year cycle of classes taken after the Baccalaureat (taken at age 17-18), to prepare for the entrance examination to the Ecole Normale Supeieure. ([http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kh%C3%A2gne khâgne]).<br /> <br /> '''Reclus'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> J. J. Élisée Reclus (1830-1905), French geographer but mainly educated in Germany. Several times he was forced to leave France because of his political views; he traveled widely in Europe, the British Isles, the United States, and South America and for many years lived in Switzerland. He was professor of comparative geography at the University of Brussels from 1895 to 1905. He had quite an extensive connection with various socialist and anarchist circles (met Bakunin while in Florence).Once he was imprisoned in Versailles in 1871 for his part in the ''Paris Commune''. In 1882 he initiated the ''Anti-marriage movement'' while in Geneva. [[http://academic.reed.edu/formosa/texts/reclusbio.html Reclus]).<br /> <br /> '''Stirnerite'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Follower of Max Stirner, 19th century German philosopher and author of ''The Ego and Its Own,'' a work influential in anarchist thought. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Max_Stirner Wikipedia entry].<br /> <br /> ''Max Stirner'''s (1806-56) attacks on systematic philosophy, his denial of absulutes, and his rejection of abstract concepts of any kind often places him among the first philosophical nihilists. For Stirner, achieving individual freedom is the only law; and the state, which necvessarily imperils freedom, must be destroyed. Even beyond the oppression of the state, though, are the constraints imposed by others because their very existence is an obstable compromising individual freedom. Thus Stirner argues that existence is an endless &quot;war of each against all&quot; (1845). (taken from the paragraph about Max Stirner in [http://www.iep.utm.edu/n/nihilism.htm#H1 Nihilism])&lt;br&gt;<br /> Sourcing here? Much complexity in properly understanding Stirner, who has some Pynchon-like qualities, to say the least. From the Stanford Dictionary of Philosophy&lt;br&gt;<br /> His major work:<br /> The Ego and Its Own<br /> Much of Stirner's prose—which is crowded with aphorisms, italicisation, and hyperbole—appears calculated to disconcert. Most striking, perhaps, is the use of word play. Rather than reach a conclusion through the conventional use of argument, Stirner often approaches a claim that he wishes to endorse by exploiting words with related etymologies or formal similarities. For example, he associates words for property (such as ‘Eigentum’) with words connoting distinctive individual characteristics (such as ‘Eigenheit’) in order to promote the claim that property is expressive of selfhood. (Stirner's account of egoistic property—see below—gives this apparently orthodox Hegelian claim a distinctive twist.)<br /> <br /> This rejection of conventional forms of intellectual discussion is linked to Stirner's substantive views about language and rationality. His unusual style reflects a conviction that both language and rationality are human products which have come to constrain and oppress their creators. Stirner maintains that accepted meanings and traditional standards of argumentation are underpinned by a conception of truth as a privileged realm beyond individual control. As a result, individuals who accept this conception are abandoning a potential area of creative self-expression in favour of adopting a subordinate role as servants of truth. In stark contrast, Stirner insists that the only legitimate restriction on the form of our language, or on the structure of our arguments, is that they should serve our individual ends. It is the frequent failure of ordinary meanings and standard forms of argument to satisfy his interpretation of this criterion which underpins Stirner's remorselessly idiosyncratic style.<br /> <br /> The Ego and Its Own has an intelligible, but scarcely transparent, structure. It is organised around a tripartite account of human experience, initially introduced in a description of the stages of an individual life. The first stage in this developmental narrative is the realistic one of childhood, in which children are constrained by material and natural forces such as their parents. Liberation from these external constraints is achieved with what Stirner calls the self-discovery of mind, as children find the means to outwit those forces in their own determination and cunning. The idealistic stage of youth, however, contains new internal sources of constraint, as individuals once more become enslaved, this time to the spiritual forces of conscience and reason. Only with the adulthood of egoism do individuals escape both material (external) and spiritual (internal) constraints, learning to value their personal satisfaction above all other considerations.<br /> <br /> Stirner portrays this dialectic of individual growth as an analogue of historical development, and it is a tripartite account of the latter which structures the remainder of the book. Human history is reduced to successive epochs of realism (the ancient, or pre-Christian, world), idealism (the modern, or Christian, world), and egoism (the future world). <br /> <br /> What about these &quot;successive epochs&quot; in understanding ATD?<br /> <br /> Stirner's major work, The Ego and Its Own has been reissued in English a number of times in Pynchon's lifetime,from the 60s on. (Not that TRP could not have read it in German!)<br /> <br /> '''''Anarcho-individualiste'''''&lt;br&gt;<br /> i.e. he has doctrinal differernces with Stirnerism, strictly speaking; see P. 324, and &quot;Eigenheit&quot;.<br /> <br /> '''Leopold'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> See p. 527.<br /> <br /> '''going down lately'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Being assassinated.<br /> <br /> '''Sipido'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Jean-Baptiste Sipido (1884-1959), a Belgian socialist. Accusing the Prince of Wales of causing thousands of inocents were killed in the Boer War in South Africa, on April 5, 1900, Sipido leaped onto the foot board of the royal compartment right before the train left the North Railway Station (Gare du Nord), Brussel, and fired two (or one? as reported in ''The Manchester Guardian'', or four? as stated in the text here) shots through the window but missed everyone inside. He was arrested, tried and acquitted. The leader of the House of Commons called the acquittal a &quot;grave and most unfortunate miscarriage of justice.&quot; ([http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jean-Baptiste_Sipido Sipido]).<br /> <br /> '''Prince... of Wales'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> (Maud Gonne's husband claimed to have been involved in another such plot.)<br /> <br /> '''Hippodrome'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Hippodrome Wellington, a horse racing track in Ostend built in 1883. The facility hosts both harness and flat racing events. ([http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hippodrome_Wellington Hippodrome]).<br /> <br /> '''Royal Bathing Hut... twenty francs'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> A bathing machine ([http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bathing_machine bathing machine])? The King of Belgium certainly would not want to be seen in a swimsuit on a public beach... It seems unlikely, though, that such a royal bathing machine would be for hire.<br /> <br /> '''twenty francs'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> ???<br /> <br /> ==Page 529==<br /> <br /> '''picric family'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> The explosive picric acid (2,4,6-trinitrophenol) and its derivatives. For picric acid, Brugère's powder and Designolle's powder, [http://encyclopedia.jrank.org/PER_PIG/PICRIC_ACID_or_TRINITROPHENOL_C.html see this Britannica article.]<br /> <br /> '''Brugère's powder'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> See &quot;picric family&quot; above.<br /> <br /> '''Designolle's'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> See &quot;picric family&quot; above.<br /> <br /> '''Monsieur Santos-Dumont'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Alberto Santos-Dumont (1873-1932), a pioneer of aviation from Brasil. Check out [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alberto_Santos-Dumont Wikipedia] to get a look at the way he was wearing his &quot;trademark Panama hat&quot;. <br /> <br /> '''Green Hour''' and '''''l'heure vertigineuse'''''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Absinthe-drinking time. The liqueur is green. In French, ''l'heure verte,'' so ''vertigineuse'' (vertiginous, causing dizziness) is a pun on the word for &quot;green.&quot;<br /> <br /> '''Rocco and Pino'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Rabid Quaternionists and sudden friends of Kit Traverse.<br /> :No, they were not mathematicians at all, let alone Quaternionists, but two &quot;Italian naval renegades&quot; !!<br /> ::&quot;Rocco and Pino&quot; are, in temperament, something like the &quot;Mason and Dixon&quot; of manned-torpedoes... cf. the &quot;torpedo&quot; (i.e., &quot;Electrick-Eel&quot;) of ''Mason &amp; Dixon''.<br /> <br /> '''Whitehead works in Fiume'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Anticipating GR's V2 works.<br /> <br /> ''Robert Whitehead'' (1823-1905), an English engineer. He developed the first self-propelled torpedo in 1866. He attended Manchester's Mechanics Institute, worked in a shipyard in Toulon (1844), France, and as a consultant engineer in Milan (1847), Italy. Later he moved to Trieste and in 1856 became a manager of a company called ''Founderia Mettali'' (later, ''Stabilimento Tecnico di Fiume'') in Fiume producing ship steam boilers and engines which were the most advanced of that era. He also developed the first self-propelled torpedo which was very popular. Whitehead's torpedo was propelled by a compressed air engine, carried 18lbs dynamites and a self-regulating device which kept the torpedo cruising at a constant preset depth. [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Robert_Whitehead Whitehead]].<br /> <br /> ''Fiume'' is now Rijeka, Croatia. Trieste is on the northwestern edge of the Istra Peninsula, Rijeka is east of it. [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rijeka Fiume]].<br /> <br /> Interesting sidebar: Whitehead's fortune from Fiume and the torpedo went solely to his granddaughter Agatha Whitehead, who married Baron von Trapp. The Von Trapp money came from Robert Whitehead, and most of the von Trapp singers were his great-grandchildren.<br /> <br /> '''''Alberta'''''&lt;br&gt;<br /> The [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Royal_yacht Wikipedia] entry on royal yachts goes back to the 17th century but doesn't include ''Alberta.'' The craft does get a mention in [http://www.bouncing-balls.com/timeline/people/nr_leopoldmorel.htm this page on Leopold and the Congo.]<br /> <br /> '''Siluro Dirigibile a Lenta Corsa'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> or S.L.C. &quot;slow course torpedo&quot;, &quot;slow-running torpedo&quot;. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Manned_torpedo Wikipedia] Italy‘s Navy was among the first to experiment with manned torpedos. Though according to [http://web.ukonline.co.uk/chalcraft/sm/chariots.html this site] this did not happen until 1935, Italian frogmen as early as October 31, 1918 made it into the harbour of Pula with the help of a modified german torpedo and sank the former Austrian but by then since a few hours Croatian/Slovenian/Bosnian battleship SMS ''Viribus Unitis''. [http://www.geocities.com/tegetthoff66/viribus.html website]<br /> <br /> The Wikipedia entry linked above doesn't contain the Italian word ''dirigibile'' (steerable), which sets up the torpedo as a counterpart of the dirigible ''Inconvenience.''<br /> <br /> :I suspect there's a connection between the torpedo and &quot;Not the usual lateener, in fact appearing to have neither sails, masts, nor oars&quot; in Miles' reversed vision, [[ATD_243-272#Page_250|page 250.]] Needs work, though.<br /> <br /> ==Page 530==<br /> <br /> '''exfiltrate'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Make a surreptitious escape (as &quot;infiltrate&quot; means to make a surreptitious entrance).<br /> <br /> '''''Macchè'''''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Italian: certainly not, not a chance. And in Pynchon's Italian is used as an all-purpose exclamation.<br /> <br /> '''''Ehi, stu gazz', categoria'''''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Stu gazz' is a dialect representation of ''sto cazzo'', literally meaning ''this dick here''. Normally you could translate the sense of the sentence as: ''yeah, why not, a fucking category! ''. -- blicero2 - 2007.02.22<br /> <br /> '''''mezzogiornismo'''''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Denigrating the Italian South. Mezzogiorno means ''midday'' in Italian but refers generally to Southern Italy.<br /> <br /> ==Page 531==<br /> <br /> '''Bruges'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> An exceptionally beautiful Belgian town of canals which is thus one of several towns known as the 'Venice of the north'. In the 14th cettury Burges already became an international finanacial and trading center, but<br /> started to decline in the 15th century. In the 20th century, however, the city was discovered by the international tourism and the medieval heritage turned out to be a new source of wealth. A new harbor of Zeebrugge, 10 miles outside of Bruges at the North Sea coast, brought new developments and new industries to the region. For the city and its history see ([http://www.trabel.com/brugge.htm Bruges]).<br /> <br /> '''Raoul's Atelier de la Vitesse'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> French: Ralph's Speed Shop.<br /> <br /> '''Ghent'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Belgian city, less than 30 miles southeast of Bruges, on the rail line about halfway between Ostend and Brussels. It is the fourth largest city of Belgium. It is bigger than Bruges but not as famous as a tourist attraction. But the city is a showcase of medieval Flemish wealth and commercial success. See ([http://www.trabel.com/gent.htm Ghent]).<br /> <br /> '''Daimler six-cylinder'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> ???<br /> <br /> '''a hundred horsepower'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> ???<br /> <br /> '''''guaglion'''''&lt;br&gt;<br /> italian (dialectal) = boy, young person<br /> <br /> '''Umeki Tsurigane'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Umeki is typically made with some combination of the various kanji for &quot;plum&quot; (ume) and &quot;tree&quot; (ki), though one has the ki being the character for &quot;ghost/devil&quot; and one obscure reading that's entirely redundant, where ume is &quot;plant&quot; (usually read ue). There is one where ume is the kanji for &quot;buried or embedded&quot;. Tsurigane, means a &quot;temple bell&quot;, which can stand alone or be followed by the grass kanji to mean &quot;bellflower&quot; (lots of botanical stuff happening here, if that means anything; hardly the only example in ''AtD''). Given the search for Shambhala going on, &quot;Buried Temple Bell&quot; seems a likely translation, at least at this point; the botanical meanings could perhaps emerge later.<br /> <br /> Or, another terrible name-pun? &quot;You make [m]e sore again.&quot; See another on P. [[ATD_748-767#Page_757| 757]]<br /> <br /> '''Professor Knott'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Cargill Knott (1856-1922), professor of physics; seismologist. See his biography [http://www.penicuikcdt.org.uk/Cargill_Knott.html here].<br /> <br /> ==Page 532==<br /> <br /> '''Kimura'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Cf [[ATD_26-56#Page 29|page 29:Kimura]] and [[ATD_318-335#Page 318|page 318:Shunkichi Kimura]].<br /> <br /> '''drover's sombrero'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Cowboy hat.<br /> <br /> '''furoshiki'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Japanese all-purpose cloth. Can be worn, used as wrapping, or used as a bag.<br /> <br /> '''taupe'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> A brownish gray.<br /> <br /> '''boilermakers and their helpers'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> [[ATD_358-373#Page_360|See annotation to p. 360.]]<br /> <br /> '''Anharmonic Pencil'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> ''Pencil'' is a term commonly used in Synthetic Geometry. Straight lines incident with a plane - coplanar lines - and passing through a common point are said to be concurrent lines and the set of all such concurrent coplanar lines is called the ''pencil''. (Cf [[ATD_429-459#Page 456|page 456:Pencil]]). For a figure and a not quite precise definition see [http://mathworld.wolfram.com/Pencil.html pencil]. If a, b, c and d, are four distinct coplanar lines and their double ratio λ = (abcd) = -1, then a, b, c, d are called a harmonic quadruple of lines; they are said to constitute a ''harmonic pencil''. A ''pencil'' which is not harmonic then is known as ''anharmonic pencil''. See Pencil (lines 8-9), Double Ratio λ (lines 32-35) and Harmonic Pencil (line 39) of [http://ca.geocities.com/ingsaler6/mathworld.html Mathworld].<br /> <br /> '''''Comptes rendus'''''&lt;br&gt;<br /> ''Comptes rendus des séances hebdomadaires,'' Proceedings of the weekly sessions (of the Academy of Sciences), published from 1835, later (ca. 1935) retitled ''Comptes rendus de l'Académie des sciences,'' Proceedings of the Academy of Sciences. (Notice that the academy didn't see the need to specify &quot;French.&quot; Take that, Royal Society of London!) For about a century, one of two journals so universally circulated and recognized that bibliographies nearly always cited them in nickname form: ''C.R.'' The other was ''Ber.,'' short for ''Berichte der Deutschen Chemischen Gesellschaft,'' Reports of the German Chemical Society (from 1868).<br /> <br /> '''De Forest'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Cf [[ATD_26-56#Page 29|page 29:De Forest]].<br /> <br /> '''Gibbs'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Cf [[ATD_26-56#Page 29|page 29:Professor Gibbs]].<br /> <br /> '''Maxwell Equations'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Cf [[ATD_57-80#Page 58|page 58:Maxwell Field Equations]].<br /> <br /> ==Page 533==<br /> <br /> '''aniline teal'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> The wallpaper dye; aniline dyes were the first synthetic dyes, discovered by [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/William_Perkin William Perkin] in 1858. Their intense and fade-resistant colors were very fashionable at the end of the nineteenth century. The dyes are also significant in ''GR'' as the products of I.G. Farben.<br /> <br /> '''Heavisiders'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Oliver Heaviside (May 18, 1850 – February 3, 1925) was a self-taught English electrical engineer, mathematician and physicist who adapted complex numbers to the study of electrical circuits, developed techniques for applying Laplace transforms to the solution of differential equations, reformulated Maxwell's field equations in terms of electric and magnetic forces and energy flux, and independently co-formulated vector analysis. Although at odds with the scientific establishment for most of his life, Heaviside changed the face of mathematics and science for years to come.[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Heaviside].<br /> <br /> '''Grassmanniacs'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Nineteenth century German mathematician and linguist, essentially the inventor/discoverer of vector space. Grassmann showed that once geometry is put into the algebraic form he advocated, then the number three has no privileged role as the number of spatial dimensions; the number of possible dimensions is in fact unbounded.[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hermann_Grassmann].<br /> <br /> '''in the mood for a clambake'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Anachronistic Broadway show tune? If so, the clambake in ''Carousel'' turns into a brawl; the assmebled factions of mathematicians could be in the mood for either a party or a brawl, apparently. <br /> <br /> '''Monopole de la Maison'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Monopole of the House, a fanciful name of a fanciful drink.&lt;br&gt;<br /> There is, since 1898, a well known restaurant called ''Monopole Lunch &amp; Sea Grill'' in Plattsburgh of upper New York state. ([http://www.monopole.org Monopole Restaurant]).&lt;br&gt;<br /> Most probably, it's the Magnetic monopole being referred here. In physics, a monopole is a magnet with a net magnetic charge, i.e. there is only one pole instead of two (so no net magnetic charge) as usual. ([http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Magnetic_monopole Monopole]). It's existence had been theoretically predicted by various particle theories (superstring theory, etc) but never been proved experimentally. Proving the existence of a monopole would certainly earn a Nobel Prize.<br /> <br /> '''Idiom Neutral'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> An invented language, like Esperanto. Idiom Neutral dictionaries first appeared in 1902. It looks like a simplified Latinate language and it grew out of Volapuk, another &quot;auxiliary language.&quot; It was abandoned by the ''Akademi Internasional de Lingu Universal'' in 1908.<br /> <br /> For a list of all the invented languages that linguists are keeping track of, including Klingon, try [http://linguistlist.org/forms/langs/GetListOfConstructedLgs.html Eastern Michigan's Linguist List]. And don't forget to click on the link to &quot;Browse sites devoted to constructed languages.&quot;<br /> <br /> '''phatic'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Basically, small talk or chatter. Words used to convey fellow-feeling rather than to impart information.<br /> <br /> '''''Kampf ums Dasein'''''&lt;br&gt;<br /> German: struggle for existence.<br /> <br /> '''Q-brother'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Fellow Quaternioneer or Fellow Quaternionist.<br /> <br /> '''We are the Jews of mathematics, wandering out here in our diaspora--some destined for the past, others the future, even a few able to set out at unknown angles from the simple line of Time, upon journeys that no one can predict''' &lt;br&gt;<br /> In keeping with the analogy of Judaism, those &quot;few&quot; people within the Quaternionists &quot;able to set out at unknown angles&quot; are most likely being compared to Kabbalists who claim to partake in a mystic &quot;journey to the Throne of God through the mythological realm of the seven heavens&quot; (Armstrong, A History of God--p. 247). Throne Mysticism in Kabbalah is explored extensively in Gravity's Rainbow.<br /> <br /> Perhaps this is obvious to some, but these &quot;Jews of Mathematics&quot; worship the Hamiltonian Tetractys [http://www.math.ucr.edu/home/baez/dublin/]; those other Jews worshipped the Tetragrammatron. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tetragrammaton] The proliferation of 4s continues.<br /> <br /> ==Page 534==<br /> <br /> '''Poiret gown'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> A gown designed by Paul Poiret (1879-1944), a French fashion designer based in Paris. &quot;In the annals of fashion history, Paul Poiret is best remembered for freeing women from corsets and further liberating them through pantaloons . . . it was Poiret's remarkable innovations in the cut and construction of cloting . . . Working with fabric directly onto the body, Poiret helped to pioneer a radical approach to dressmakeing that relied more on the skills of drapery than on those of tailoring.&quot; (from [http://www.metmuseum.org/special/se_event.asp?OccurrenceId={0DC3D00F-4611-4F91-8DC2-CC3C1A5C48D5} MetMuseum], <br /> New York Metropolitan Museum's Special Exhibitions, ''Poiret: King of Fashion'', May 9, 2007 to August 5, 2007). For a picture of Poiret gown see [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Image:Poiretgown.jpg Poiret Gown]. ''The New York Times'' reported on February 1, 2007 that A Poiret Gown Brings $5,500 at [http://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html?res=9B07EFDA1538F93AA15756C0A967948260 Christie's Auction] - the gown was made in 1913 when Poiret was at the height of his career. For his bio see [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Paul_Poiret Poiret].<br /> <br /> '''''green and long'''''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Pickle, or... what?<br /> : A green and long ''gherkin'' (a small, immature fruit of a variety of cucumber used in pickling).<br /> <br /> ==Page 535==<br /> <br /> '''no-name wine'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> 1970s idiom for common European practice?<br /> <br /> '''set theory'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Set theory deals with the properties of well-defined collections, or ''sets'', of entities - the ''elements'' or ''members'' of the set - conceived as a whole. The elements may be of a mathematical nature or non-mathematical. The set theory grew out of the German mathematician Georg Cantor's (1845-1918) study of infinite sets of real numbers. <br /> <br /> The ''language of sets'' has become an important tool for all branches of mathematics, but is of very little relevance to the practice of mathematics in everyday life. As a source of metaphors, however, it's been quite productive; &quot;subset,&quot; &quot;superset,&quot; &quot;universe,&quot; &quot;intersection&quot; and &quot;Venn diagram&quot; have found varying degrees of acceptance. Recasting Aristotle's syllogisms in set-theoretic language also makes them easier for many people to understand.<br /> <br /> '''Hamilton . . . early genius'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Hamilton, according to ''Chambers Biographical Dictionary'', &quot;at fifteen knew thirteen languages, had read Newton's ''Principia'', and commenced original investigations&quot;. At twenty-two, &quot;while still an undergraduate, he was appointed professor of Astronomy at Dublin and Irish Astronomer-Royal&quot;; at thirty &quot;he was knighted&quot;.<br /> <br /> '''Hamilton . . . in the grip of a first love'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> ???&lt;br&gt;<br /> Pynchon probably didn't mean Quaternion was Hamilton's first love, but its effect on him was similar to that of a first love. In 1843 at the age of 38 Hamilton invented the Quaternion, the first non-communtative algebra to be studied. He felt this would revolutionise mathematical physics, and he spent the rest of his life working on it. In 1853 he published a large volume, ''Lectures on Quaternions'', on his grand invention. The last seven years of his life, Hamilton was writing an 800-page book ''Elements of Quaternions'' modeling on Euclid's ''Elements''. The last chapter of the book was completed by his son after his death.<br /> <br /> '''the Walt Whitman of English physics'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Whitman pops up again, last seen on [[ATD_489-524#Page_491|page 491]].<br /> <br /> ==Page 536==<br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> '''Oscar Wilde'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Note that Wilde's Dorian Gray also undergoes a kind of bilocation.<br /> <br /> '''Kursaal'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Spa. Casino ?<br /> <br /> '''vectors'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> For serious minds see Cf [[ATD_525-556#Page 526|page 526:Gibbsian Vectors]], but let's follow Pynchon's lighter mood, here is a non-mathematical definition by Kamen (1995):<br /> :''Many things have more than direction;''<br /> :''The magnitude is also a question.''<br /> :''With acceleration or force,''<br /> :''And many more things, of course,''<br /> :''It's vectors that make the connection.''<br /> <br /> '''Curls'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Cf [[ATD_318-335#Page 326|page 326:Curl]]: curl is a vector operator that shows a vector field's rate of rotation.<br /> <br /> '''Laplacians'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Pierre-Simon, Marquis de Laplace (March 23, 1749 – March 5, 1827); French mathematician and astronomer who summarized and extended the work of his predecessors in his five volume Mécanique Céleste (Celestial Mechanics) (1799-1825), translating the geometrical study of mechanics used by Isaac Newton to one based on calculus, known as physical mechanics.<br /> <br /> He is also the discoverer of Laplace's equation. Although the Laplace transform is named in honor of Laplace, who used the transform in his work on probability theory, the transform was discovered originally by Leonhard Euler. The Laplace transform appears in all branches of mathematical physics — a field he took a leading role in forming. The Laplacian differential operator, much relied-upon in applied mathematics, is likewise named after him. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Laplace].<br /> <br /> :Cf [[ATD_318-335#Page 326|page 326:Laplacian]]: Laplacian is a differential operator named after Laplace. The text here was talking about mathematical operations and operators — rates of change, rotations, partial differentials, Curls, ''Laplacians'', . . .<br /> <br /> '''scream'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Scream motif.<br /> <br /> '''beginning to appal'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> By 1905 there had been years of outrage at conditions in the Belgian Congo, King Leopold's private fief. Conrad's ''Heart of Darkness'' had been published as a serial in Blackwood's Magazine in 1899 and as a book in 1902. There were missionaries' accounts of the brutality, and newspaper reports. Leopold and his apologists published rebuttals. The Norton Critical Edition of ''Heart of Darkness'' contains an extensive collection of both.<br /> <br /> '''baize'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Baize is a coarse woolen felt.<br /> <br /> ==Page 537==<br /> <br /> '''broken symmetries'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Broken_symmetry Broken symmetry] is a concept used widely in mathematics and physics. For a simplest explanation (good enough for the text here), this term means that an object breaks either rotational symmetry or translational sysmetry - when one can only rotate an object in certain angles or when one is able to tell if the object has been shifted sideways. For a little bit more detailed explanation see [http://www.lassp.cornell.edu/sethna/OrderParameters/BrokenSymmetry.html Identify the Broken Symmetry]; or even more [http://scienceweek.com/2005/sw050708-6.htm On Broken Symmetry].<br /> <br /> '''''sphinxe Khnopffienne'''''&lt;br&gt;<br /> refers to the Belgian symbolist painter Fernand Khnopff (1858-1921), famous for his painting &quot;The Caress&quot;, in which a female sphinx erotically lures a young man. The painting can be seen in the [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fernand_Khnopff wikipedia entry]<br /> <br /> '''Pléiade Lafrisée'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> in French, &quot;friser&quot; means to curl or twist. &quot;La frisée&quot; could mean &quot;curled,&quot; by extension &quot;twisted.&quot; The Pleiades is a cluster of hundreds of stars, though only a few are visible, sometimes referred to as The Seven Sisters. If Pleiades are Sisters, Pléiade is ''one'' Sister, so her name means Twisted Sister!<br /> <br /> '''''Conseilleuse'''''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Female consultant?<br /> <br /> ==Page 538==<br /> <br /> '''retroversion matrix'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> ???<br /> <br /> '''''Ma foi'''''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Literally &quot;My faith&quot;, i.e. &quot;By my faith!&quot;, a mild exclamation of incredulity.<br /> <br /> '''ten thousand francs'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> <br /> Based on currency conversions relative to gold, this is equivalent to<br /> about $30,000 US today.<br /> <br /> '''piker'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Someone cheap or cautious, possibly named after people from PIke County, Missouri, who came to California in the 1800s, looking for work. They were poor, hence cheap.<br /> <br /> '''what is a Quaternino?'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Cf [[ATD_525-556#Page 525|page 525:Quaternions]] for a mathematical definition. From ''The Random House Dictionary of the English Languages'', The Unabridged Edition (1966): Quaternion is &quot;a quantity or operator expressed as the sum of a real number and three complex numbers, equivalent to the ''quotient of two vectors''. The field of quaternions is not commutative under multiplication.&quot;.<br /> <br /> '''Bertie ('Mad Dog') Russell'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> 'Mad Dog' seems to be used with heavy irony here. Bertrand Russell was known most for his rationalism, so to speak, his work in modern logic. <br /> He did little in his public roles (at this time in AtD) that would have <br /> him referred to as &quot;crazy', as we say, beyond the social norm, &quot;mad&quot;. <br /> It might be argued that his use of 'logic' against philosophers such as Hegel and McTaggart within ''Against the Day'' showed up their 'madness'.<br /> (Many did think McTaggart was a bit...different...for seriously not believing in Time.) McTaggart broke with Russell after an early influential friendship---Russell was the younger man and the influenced one. He said he was an Hegelian because of McTaggart--Russell wrote in his<br /> Autobiography that McTaggart said he no longer wanted to meet/talk with him bcause he could no longer stand Russell's opinions.<br /> <br /> [http://nobelprize.org/nobel_prizes/literature/laureates/1950/russell-bio.html Bertrand Russell] (1872-1970) was a British mathematician, philosopher, logician and social critic. Best known for his work in mathermatical logic and analytic philosophy. In late spring of 1901 he discovered the so-called [http://plato.stanford.edu/entries/russell-paradox/ Russell Paradox], &quot;the most famous of the logical or set-theoretical paradoxes. The paradox arises within naive set theory by considering the set of all sets that are not members of themselves. Such a set appears to be a member of itself if and only if it is not a member of itself, hence the paradox.&quot; (On-line Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy). He won the 1950 Nobel Prize in Literature in &quot;recognition of his varied and significant writings in which he champions humanitarian ideals and freedom of thought&quot;.<br /> <br /> '''Barry Nebulay'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> nebulae: formed from the diffusion of gas in galaxies or as exploded stars (or the last ember-like stage of a star)&lt;br&gt; <br /> Most nebulae can be described as diffuse nebulae, which means that they are extended and contain no well-defined boundaries.[1] In visible light these nebulae may be divided into emission nebulae and reflection nebulae, a categorization that depends on how the light we see is created.<br /> <br /> '''Hegel... puns'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Probably refers to the fact that quite a lot of Hegel's philosophy deals with the is-ness of the world as we know and experience it.<br /> <br /> On page 787 of Bertrand Russell's ''History of Western Philosophy'' is a summary, perhaps, of this remark about Hegel's puns: &quot;as a result of analysis of the concept &quot;existence&quot;, modern logic has proved this [Cartesianism, refuted by Kant, reinstated by Hegel] argument invalid.....&quot;<br /> <br /> We know from other places that TRP himself seems to 'not like' Cartesianism. See 'cartesian' citations within this wiki.<br /> <br /> ==Page 539==<br /> <br /> '''a vector quotient'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> The result of one vector divided by another. According to the English dictionary definition of previous page this is just a Quaternion.<br /> <br /> '''unit vector'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Unit vector is a vector with magnitude of one. The unit vectors in 3-dimensional space, ''i, j, k'', associated with ''x, y, z'' directions are used in defining a general 3D vector (Cf [[ATD_525-556#Page 526|page 526:Gibbsian Vectors]]).<br /> <br /> '''''square root of minus one'''''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Imaginary number (Cf [[ATD_119-148#Page 132|page 133:Imaginary Number]]). The imaginary numbers ''i, j, k'' are used in defining a Quaternion (Cf [[ATD_525-556#Page 525|page 525:Quaternions]]).<br /> <br /> ''''Triangle Asana''''&lt;br&gt;<br /> A basic yoga pose. <br /> <br /> [http://yoga.org.nz/postures/yoga_positions_images_page.htm Here are images of several basic poses.]<br /> <br /> ''''Dr Rao abruptly vanished''''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Might be a reference to [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Martin_Gardner Martin Gardner]'s<br /> [http://www.amazon.com/No-Sided-Professor-Fantasy-Mystery-Philosophy/dp/0879753900 &quot;No-Sided Professor&quot;]<br /> <br /> ''''Quadrantal Versor Asana''''&lt;br&gt;<br /> A triangle pose taken that extra dimension.<br /> <br /> '''''&quot;Uwe moer!&quot;'''''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Looks a lot like the Dutch &quot;Uw moeder!&quot; - a cry of astonishment (&quot;Your mother!&quot;), the equivalent to the black English &quot;yo mama&quot;.<br /> <br /> '''noncommutative'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> A term typical to mathematics. A commutative equation is one that can operate in exact reverse and still yield the same results. 'Noncommutative' then suggests unidirectionality. The ability to go from point A to point B, but not from B to A.<br /> <br /> '''reticule'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> A woman's drawstring handbag; usually made of net or beading or brocade; also: A system of lines forming a pattern of squares at the focal plane of a telescope, used in micrometers.<br /> [http://www.astunit.com/tutorials/glossary.htm] <br /> :Isn't that sort of a red herring? &quot;[P]roducing from her reticule a . . . watch&quot; doesn't really allow of that second meaning. &lt;br&gt;<br /> :It could be a pun, since a reticule/ handbag always shows its pattern of lines, and a watch (timepiece) is drawn from it. Remember that, e.g. railroad lines of tracks, are a sign of industrialism encroaching on the natural and the spiritual.<br /> <br /> '''Vacheron &amp; Constantin watch'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Made by a Swiss company founded in 1755. From 1819 to 1970 the name was as in the text, then the &amp; dropped out. See the [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vacheron_Constantin Wikipedia entry.]<br /> <br /> '''hunting-case'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> For a pocket watch, a case with a hinged metal cover. More often called &quot;hunter case&quot; (and such a watch a &quot;hunter&quot;).<br /> <br /> ==Page 540==<br /> <br /> '''&quot;haar rekening, ja?&quot;'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> The bill, yes? (Dutch)?<br /> <br /> ''Her'' bill, yes? I.e., give the check to the lady.<br /> <br /> Given the presence of Chris 'Kit' Traverse here, this very much suggests a reference to Christopher 'Kit' Marlowe, Elizabethan poet, playwright and contemporary of Shakespeare. Marlowe was stabbed to death in 1593, in murky circumstances, ostensibly over a bill or 'reckoning', though he was widely believed to have been involved in some form of espionage.<br /> <br /> Strictly speaking &quot;haar rekening&quot; means that the lady pays for herself only. If Root wanted to make sure that Pléiade pays for the whole company he would have to say &quot;de hele rekening voor de dame&quot;. <br /> <br /> '''Piet Woevre'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> The Woëvre is a natural region of Lorraine in north-east France. It forms part of Lorraine plateau and lies largely in the department of Meuse. During World War I, there was much fighting there due to vast mineral resources that had been discovered in the Briey basin or Eastern Woevre at the end of the 19th century. &quot;Piet&quot; is Dutch for &quot;rock&quot; or &quot;stone&quot; and is a fairly common Dutch name, the English equivalent being Peter.<br /> <br /> If the surname is pronounced as in Dutch, Woevre is another Pynchon villain with a &quot;V&quot;-name (Vond, Weissman, Vibe). <br /> <br /> '''Force Publique'''&lt;br /&gt;<br /> The Force Publique (FP) was the official armed force for what is now the Democratic Republic of the Congo from 1885, (when the territory was known as the Congo Free State), through the period of direct Belgian rule (1908-60), until the beginning of the Second Republic in 1965. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Force_Publique Wikipedia entry]<br /> <br /> '''made him reach'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Possible allusion to a famous line, &quot;When I hear the word culture I reach for my gun.&quot; From Hanns Johst's biographical play ''Schlageter''. The original line is slightly different: &quot;Wenn ich Kultur höre ... entsichere ich meinen Browning,&quot; &quot;Whenever I hear of culture... I release the safety-catch of my Browning!&quot; (Act 1, Scene 1). It is spoken by another character in conversation with the young Schlageter. In the scene Schlageter and his wartime comrade Friedrich Thiemann are studying for a college examination, but then start disputing whether it's worthwhile doing so when the nation is not free. <br /> <br /> The line is often misattributed to better-known Nazis and others [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hanns_Johst].<br /> <br /> *In Jean-Luc Godard's 1963 film [http://www.chicagoreader.com/movies/archives/0997/09057.html ''Le Mépris'' (''Contempt'')], Jack Palance's character &quot;Jeremy Prokosch,&quot; an American movie-producer, intones to Fritz Lang: &quot;Whenever I hear the word culture, I reach for my checkbook.&quot;<br /> <br /> '''not unambiguous'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Ie, ambiguous.<br /> <br /> '''''rastaquoueres'''''&lt;br&gt;<br /> 8???<br /> <br /> '''de Decker'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> In Dutch/Flemish, the name means &quot;roofer.&quot; (''De'' in these names almost never means &quot;of, from&quot; as in French; it's nearly always the definite article.)<br /> <br /> ==Page 541==<br /> <br /> '''''bobbejaan'''''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Afrikaans: baboon. (Afrikaans is the language spoken by descendants of Dutch colonists in present-day South Africa. Some items identified as Dutch or Flemish in this wiki may really be Afrikaans.)<br /> <br /> The South African song &quot;Bobbejaan klim die berg&quot; (&quot;Bobbejaan climbed the hill&quot;) is the source of the stage name of Belgium's most famous country and western musician, Bobbejaan Schoepen (b. 1925). In 1943 he was suppressed by the Nazis after performing a South African song, &quot;Mamma, 'k wil 'n man hê&quot; (&quot;Mama, I want a man&quot;), which contains the line &quot;No, Mama, I don't want a German, because I don't like pork.&quot; He founded the Bobbejaanland theme park in Belgium, where he still lives.<br /> <br /> '''MKIV/ODC... Mark Four'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> This would be the Mark IV Ohmic Drift Compensator ([[ATD 557-587#Page 565|Page 565]]), a key component of the Q-weapon, which &quot;regulates how much light is allowed to enter the silvering of the mirror! Special kind of refraction! Calibrated against imaginary index! Dangerous! Of the essence!'&quot;<br /> <br /> '''not part of your remit'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Not included in your job description, instructions, authorization. &quot;Remit&quot; (noun) is usually a British usage.<br /> <br /> '''''gatkruiper'''''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Dutch/Flemish: brownnose, ass-kisser.<br /> <br /> '''one on her wrist'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> All the bruises reflect some refinement or artistry except this one, which may have been inflicted crudely.<br /> <br /> '''over the day'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Title motif?<br /> <br /> ==Page 542==<br /> <br /> '''trans-horizontic'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Across the horizon -- &quot; a screaming comes across the sky&quot;<br /> <br /> '''Edmund Whittaker'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Edmund Whittaker (1873-1956), an English mathematician. He is best known for his work in numerical analysis. And he contributed widely to applied mathematics, mathematical physics and the theory of special functions. He also worked on celestial mechanics and the history of applied mathermatics and physics. ([http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/E._T._Whittaker Whittaker]).<br /> <br /> The Sir Edmund Whittaker Memorial Prize is awarded every four years by the Edinburgh Mathematical Society to an outstanding young mathematician having a specified connection with Scotland [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sir_Edmund_Whittaker_Memorial_Prize]. <br /> <br /> '''louche'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> The cloudy effect caused by the addition of water to absinthe. Dictionary definition: &quot;of questionable taste or morality; decadent.&quot;<br /> <br /> '''cheval-glass'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Standing mirror in a freestanding vertical frame.<br /> <br /> '''as if someone'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Sound-cancelling vs opacity-cancelling?<br /> <br /> ==Page 543==<br /> <br /> '''wraith of Pleiade Lafrisee'''<br /> <br /> Pleiade manifests one of her not-visible stars. Perhaps this sister has somehow twisted herself on an imaginary axis ala Dr. V. Ganesh Rao.<br /> <br /> '''monitory'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Warning, giving advice, by extension ominous or menacing.<br /> <br /> '''Against....the day....'''<br /> Note: this phrase happens at the exact halfway point of the novel: p.542.3<br /> <br /> '''He Who Must Come'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> The evil-doer who must come might be Adolf Hitler. It would make sense. The implication being that Europe is precipitating into a no-return situation. Capitalism cannot but end in WW2.&lt;br&gt;<br /> Ah, a lot more and less than capitalism going on here, especially if anyone specific like Hitler is meant. <br /> :When French writers use this phrase (''celui qui doit venir'') they '''do''' mean the Messiah . . . although a few devout quibblers point out that the Messiah has already come. It's rather tiresome Googling the phrase; the first 83 hits definitely refer to Christ and most of them quote the first verses of Matthew 11. But there's also a Camus reference (in English, I think) down at No. 90, if anyone has a JSTOR account:<br /> :links.jstor.org/sici?sici=0361-1299(1985)39%3A4%3C251%3ACFS%22M%3E2.0.CO%3B2-X <br /> <br /> Recalls Yeats' 'The Second Coming' once again: &quot;And what rough beast, its hour come round at last, Slouches towards Bethlehem to be born?&quot; [http://chumpsofchoice.blogspot.com/2007/05/casino-royale-in-flanders-field.html#c3637134446204467798 ]<br /> <br /> '''General Boulanger'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/General_Boulanger Georges Boulanger], French military man, and War Minister in the late 19th century. He was one of those men &quot;on a white horse&quot; that some conservatives looked to, as he urged an attack on Germany and the end of the French Republic with a return to monarchy. He was also notorious for his harsh reprisals against workers' demonstrations. &quot;'Boulangisme'&quot; threatened a coup in 1889, but the general's procrastination brought the crisis to an end.&lt;br&gt;<br /> In ''The Infernal Machine: A History of Terrorism''<br /> by Matthew Carr, 2007, Boulanger is called the &quot;father&quot; of fascism.<br /> <br /> '''what death and what transfiguration'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Allusion to Richard Strauss' tone poem &quot;Death and Transfiguration&quot; (''Tod und Verklärung''), premiered in 1890.<br /> <br /> '''''&quot;Zeker&quot;'''''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Dutch: certainly.<br /> <br /> '''''dead cert'''''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Dead certainty, sure thing.<br /> <br /> '''Von Schlieffen'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Alfred von Schlieffen was the author of a German war plan to win a two-front war against both France and Russia by quickly defeating France before Russian troops could be mobilized. The [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Schlieffen_Plan Schlieffen Plan] included an attack on France through Belgium, disregarding its neutrality.<br /> <br /> '''Wilhelm has offered Leopold part of France, the ancient Duchy of Burgundy'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> [http://www.crwflags.com/fotw/flags/fr-bg.html History of the duchy.] [http://www.freiburg-madison.de/freiburg_history/1386-1517_The%20Early%20Habsburgs.htm Map,] with portrait of Duke Charles the Rash.<br /> <br /> '''lowlands'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Title of Pynchon's first published story. Here, ass?<br /> <br /> ==Page 544==<br /> <br /> '''Place d'Armes'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Main square of Ostend; literally &quot;drill field&quot;.<br /> <br /> '''peau de soie'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> &quot;Skin of silk&quot; A heavy, smooth satin with very fine ribbing; somewhat dull in sheen compared with traditional silk finishes.<br /> <br /> '''Krafft-Ebing'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Richard Freiherr von Krafft-Ebing, Austro-German psychiatrist and author of ''Psychopathia Sexualis'' (1886), a pioneering study of deviant sexual behavior and fetishism. Coined both ''sadism'' and ''masochism'' as terms for these respective behaviors. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Richard_Freiherr_von_Krafft-Ebing Wikipedia entry].<br /> <br /> '''toque'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Toque here refers to a lady's hat, originally of fur but here in velvet, which is rather like a flattened chef's hat in shape.<br /> <br /> Proust: in ''À l'ombre des jeunes filles en fleurs'' the narrator first sees Albertine wearing a toque. There seem to be quite a few Proust themes and references running throughout the novel. Indeed '''Pliade''' is the French publisher of Proust's works. <br /> <br /> '''guipure'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Lace trim.<br /> <br /> '''midinette'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> A shopgirl or dressmakers apprentice. A milliner.<br /> <br /> '''Lambic'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> A distinctive Belgian style of beer. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lambic Wikipedia]<br /> <br /> '''sous'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> <br /> Coins. Originally Roman gold coins, latterly any kind of coin.<br /> <br /> Specifically small change. She is affecting modesty by claiming that a hat like hers can be had for pennies in any unpretentious shop. In France &quot;sou is used as slang for money, as in ''sans le sou''. 'I'm broke', 'without money'. It is also a slang term for the Canadian cent (standard French, cent).&quot; ([http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sou Wikipedia])<br /> <br /> '''mayonnaise'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Brautigan's &quot;Trout Fishing in America&quot; famously ends with the word mayonnaise. [http://books.google.com/books?vid=ISBN0395500761&amp;id=rbEjDovfyNMC&amp;pg=RA2-PA111&amp;lpg=RA2-PA111&amp;ots=ELKl5b_6Tx&amp;dq=mayonnaise+trout.fishing&amp;num=100&amp;sig=BiyXRqJXRGrMWbrBNgn8de2kpCo#PRA2-PA112,M1 GoogleBooks]<br /> <br /> '''ovoöleaginous'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Another Pynchonic word combination, here denoting the two main ingredients of mayonnaise: 1) eggs, and 2) oil. It's not &quot;fecoventilatory collision&quot; as seen in &quot;Vineland,&quot; but it's nice.<br /> <br /> '''Grenache'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Grape commonly used in Rhone Valley wines e.g. Chateauneuf du Pape.<br /> <br /> '''Chantilly'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> <br /> Region north of Paris.<br /> <br /> Here the reference is to crème chantilly otherwise known as whipped cream. Chantilly mayonnaise is made by incorporating the beaten egg whites for extra lightness.<br /> <br /> '''attainder'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Legislative act declaring that a person is guilty of a crime and setting punishment without the benefit of a formal trial. The Constitution forbids the federal government (Article I, Section 9, clause 3) and the state governments (Article I, Section 10, clause 1) from passing bills of attainder.<br /> [www.historycentral.com/Civics/B.html] <br /> <br /> ''''''Aux armes, citoyens''''''&lt;br&gt;<br /> ''To arms, citizens'', from the French national anthem, ''La Marseillaise'' (1792). Kit confused La Mayonnaise with La Marseillaise.&lt;br&gt;<br /> Not &quot;Le Marseillaise,&quot; you nitwit!<br /> <br /> '''Louis XV'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> King of France 1715-1774 [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Louis_XV]. <br /> <br /> '''Cléo de Mérode'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Glamorous French ballerina (1875-1966), later Follies Bergere dancer and famous beauty. Her reputed intimacy with King Leopold was only a rumor [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cleo_de_Merode]. The character Madame Leonora Armfeldt in Stephen Sondheim's ''A Little Night Music'' has some features in common with her.<br /> <br /> '''Marquise de Pompadour'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Mistress of Louis XV,once friend of Voltaire and a power behind official scenes.[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Madame_de_Pompadour].<br /> <br /> ==Page 545==<br /> <br /> '''duc de Richelieu'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Duc de Richelieu (1696-1788), marshal of France, was a grandnephew of Cardinal Richelieu, and born in Paris. Apart from his reputation as a man of exceptionally loose morals, he attained, in spite of a defective education, distinction as a diplomatist and general. ([http://www.1911encyclopedia.org/Louis_Francois_Armand_du_Plessis,_duc_de_Richelieu duc de Richelieu] and cf [[ATD_489-524#Page 490|page 490:duc de Richelieu]])<br /> <br /> '''dubious 'victory' in 1756'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> As part of the Seven Years' War (1756-1763), duc de Richelieu (1696-1788), a Marshal of France, won a victory in the Battle of Minorca (May 20, 1756) over John Byng (1704-1757), a British Admiral. In spring of 1756 John Byng was sent with a small and undermanned fleet to relieve the British ''Port Mahon'' on the Mediterranean island of Minorca. During the battle ensued, several British ships were badly damaged by the French squadron while others, including Byng's flagship, were still out of effective firing range. Instead of engaging the enemy directly, Byng decided to keep the formation, allowing the French fleet to get away undamaged. ([http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_Minorca Battle of Minorca]).<br /> <br /> '''the ill-fated Admiral Byng'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> John Byng, convicted by court-martial of failure &quot;to do his utmost&quot; in the battle, shot in 1757. Remembered because of (1) his being the last officer of flag rank to be put to death for conduct in battle and (2) Voltaire's gag in ''Candide:'' &quot;In this country it is good to kill an admiral from time to time in order to encourage the others.&quot;<br /> <br /> '''cantharides'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> &quot;Spanish fly,&quot; contact irritant sometimes ill-advisedly used as aphrodisiac.<br /> <br /> '''Sadean'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Pertaining to the Marquis de Sade. The acts the chef performs on the egg and oil have the same names as acts of Sadean sex. <br /> <br /> '''''n'est-ce pas?'''''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Right? (Isn't that so?)<br /> <br /> '''vetiver'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> A grass (Vetiveria zizanioides) of tropical India, cultivated for its aromatic roots that yield an oil used in perfumery.<br /> [www.answers.com/topic/vetiver]. So, a perfume with, llterallly, roots in India.<br /> <br /> Vetiver makes frequent appearances throughout ''À la recherche du temps perdu.''<br /> <br /> '''pip'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> A beaut; in current parlance, a hottie.<br /> <br /> '''Q.P. system'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Quaternion Probability, page 536.<br /> <br /> '''Usine Régionale'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> French: as translated in the text.<br /> <br /> ==Page 546==<br /> <br /> '''disjunctive effects of thunderstorms'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Folk wisdom says a thunderstorm will cause mayonnaise to separate (oil from yolks).<br /> <br /> '''cottonseed oil'''<br /> <br /> Mayonnaisse like Smegmo and Crisco is a hydrogenated fat; cottonseed oil is a common factor to all three. Indeed, the name Crisco derives from the intial sounds of &quot;'''crys'''tallized '''c'''ottonseed '''o'''il&quot;. Note in the next few pages a mention of Candlebrow -- underscoring a tie-in between Mayonnaisse and Smegmo. <br /> <br /> It may be of interest to note that hydrogenation may have a symbolic use for Pynchon. The process entails bubbling hydrogen through oil in the presence of a metal catalyst such as nickel, platinum, aluminum at 248 to 410 degrees. Remnants of these metals stay in the finished product, and when consumed can lead to an increase in heavy metals in the human body.<br /> <br /> Eating hydrogenated oils is like eating plastic. The body does not recognize that these molecules have been mutated and tries to use them as essential fatty acids. But they cannot perform the same function, and as a result hydrogenated oils can cause short circuits in the electrical flow that controls the heartbeat, nerve functions, cell division and mental balance. They also create free radicals (anarchists!) that are linked to cancers. Free radicals plus metal remnants are a major contributor to cancer, heart disease, immune system dysfunction, osteoporosis, depression, chronic fatigue, Alzheimers, and neurological diseases. It is estimated that over 200 million people have died prematurely because of the hydrogenated oils found in our diets. [http://www.drz.org/asp/newsletter/default.asp?xt2id=23] Not to mention innocent bystanders killed by mentally imbalanced people whose imbalance may stem from the ingestion of hydrogenated oils -- there may be some underlying reality to the &quot;Twinkie defense.&quot;<br /> <br /> '''lounge suit'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> A lounge suit is another name for business suit consisting of a matching jacket and trousers or skirt.<br /> <br /> '''congress shoes'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> ankle high shoes with elastic gussets in the sides (wordweb online)<br /> <br /> '''invisible hand'''<br /> <br /> Suggestive of Adam Smith's metaphor for market forces in economics.<br /> <br /> '''dripping-heads'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mayonnaise To make mayonnaise,] beat together egg yolks, salt, mustard and vinegar, then drip in oil while beating to form the emulsion. If you scale the process up for industrial production, you will automate the introduction of the oil, using nozzles that release it a drop at a time—but in a large vat you can have many such nozzles.<br /> <br /> '''''cuves d'agitation'''''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Vat or tank in which the mayonnaise is agitated or beaten.<br /> <br /> '''Clinique d'Urgence pour Sauvetage des Sauces'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> French: Emergency Clinic for Salvage of Sauces.<br /> <br /> ==Page 547==<br /> <br /> '''' ...engulfed in thick, slick, sour-smelling mayonnaise. ''''<br /> The whole Kit's experience in the mayonnaise factory is very much reminiscent to [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Roald_Dahl Roald Dahl]'s [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Charlie_and_the_Chocolate_Factory Charlie and the Chocolate Factory].<br /> <br /> '''''Cazzo, cretino'''''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Literally, &quot;Dick, cretin.&quot; ''Cazzo'' is a common Italian interjectionary obscenity, especially in the south. &quot;Cazzo, cretino,&quot; is akin to someone saying, &quot;Well shit, dummy,&quot; or &quot;F-ing moron!&quot;<br /> <br /> '''''È il cowboy!'''''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Italian: It's the cowboy!<br /> <br /> '''''vero?'''''&lt;br&gt;<br /> true? real?<br /> <br /> '''''Le bambole anarchiste, porca miseria'''''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Italian: Anarchist babes, oh boy.<br /> <br /> '''Oudenberg'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> A southeast suburb of Ostende.<br /> <br /> '''Quai de l'Entrepôt'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Warehouse Quay<br /> <br /> '''''ragazzi'''''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Italian: boys, guys.<br /> <br /> ==Page 548==<br /> <br /> '''General Boulanger'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> That the General was 'reactionary' and that the C of C bureaucracy had a 'defiant residue' of Boulangism, continues the characterization of the organization for which the Chums 'work'.&lt;br&gt;<br /> See p. 543 above, regarding a 2007 book in which Boulanger is called the 'father of fascism'.<br /> <br /> '''''timbres fictifs'''''&lt;br&gt;<br /> French: fictive postage stamps. Cf &quot;Lot 49&quot;.&lt;br&gt;<br /> Yes, stamps mean something in Pynchon's works; here, it seems important that these stamps are characterized as frauds.<br /> <br /> '''&quot;IIIb&quot;'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> As explained in the text.&lt;br&gt;<br /> &quot;Section IIIB (Intelligence) of the German High Command. After WWI, was funded by Alfred Hugenberg (financial backer of Nazi party)&quot;. From ''Sabotage'' by Sayers &amp; Kahn, 1942.[http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&amp;q=%22IIIB%27+%2B+INTELLIGENCE&amp;btnG=Search]. The authors state in the Forward, in 1942, &quot;that 'Nazi Germany' is the creation of spies and saboteurs&quot;. See ''V.'' &amp; ''Gravity's Rainbow'', of course. <br /> <br /> '''Germany might stand a better chance...'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> That is, if the French were to push into Alsace (per Boulanger) as the Germans executed the Schlieffen Plan [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Schlieffen_plan] for the encirclement of Paris, it would put the French at an even greater disadvantage...as actually happened in 1914. Had the Belgians and British not delayed the Germans in Flanders, and had the French railroads not performed speedily to bring the French troops back to the Marne, World War I could have had a very different outcome...an alternate history. <br /> <br /> '''revanchist'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Policies based on revenge, or a person following such policies. In General Boulanger's case, revenge against Germany for the Franco-Prussian War (that is, retaking Alsace, lost in 1871).<br /> <br /> '''the somewhat discomposed General'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Having died in 1891, the General by the time of the action is certainly somewhat '''de'''composed; brief biographies do not suggest he was ''non compos mentis,'' that is, mentally discomposed.<br /> <br /> ==Page 549==<br /> '''grow more and more invisible'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> What could be meant? Clearly, they inhabit bodies that people interact with?, as well as being characters in works of fiction.&lt;br&gt;<br /> Given what happens with the Chums as the story progresses [Spoiler bit, thematically], I suggest that their invisibility here<br /> means the entering of simple human life, to live out their lives 'anonymously' in history. I want to suggest this is largely a positive vision, indicated in other ways and places as well in TRPs work. Here is an overt bit of circumstantial evidence from Pynchon's introduction to Jim Dodge's novel ''Stone Junction'':&lt;br&gt;<br /> &quot;Equally difficult for those who might wish to proceed through life<br /> anonymously and without trace has been the continuing assault against<br /> the once-reliable refuge of the cash or non-plastic economy.&quot; [http://www.themodernword.com/pynchon/pynchon_essays_stone.html]<br /> <br /> '''cackled Darby'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> (When did he lose his innocence?)<br /> <br /> '''a modification of any salsician metaphor toward the diminutive'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Salsician: pertaining to sausage. Lindsay says Suckling's penis is better compared to a wiener than a knockwurst.<br /> <br /> '''&quot;Why you little–and I do mean 'little'–&quot;'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Another Simpsons reference? <br /> <br /> Noseworth, the Master-At-Arms of the Chums division of this organization with a defiant residue of 'fascism', who had no smell to Pugnax early on,<br /> is called out, either for real or in a sex-bashing putdown, for homosexuality. cf. homosexuality as a metaphor in ''Gravity's Rainbow''. <br /> <br /> '''dunes between Nieuport and Dunkirk'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Nieuport is a Belgian seaport about 10 miles southwest of Ostend. Dunkirk is a French port (less than 10 miles inside the French border) about 20 miles southwest of Nieuport. The latter was a site of one of the bloodest battle in World War I. The general area between Niewport and Dunkirk was the well traversed battle fields of two world wars. (Dunkirk was (in)famous for the British Army's escape from the Nazi German's assault in World War II.)<br /> <br /> '''power-receivers'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Not information, energy.<br /> <br /> ==Page 550==<br /> <br /> '''Lot's wife''' &lt;br&gt;<br /> Angels of God led Lot and his family out of Sodom as it was being destroyed and told them not to look back at the mayhem. Lot's wife, Edith, imprudently looked back and was transfigured into a pillar of salt.<br /> <br /> '''preference...for interiors'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> In [http://masondixon.pynchonwiki.com/wiki/index.php?title=Chapter_35:_349-361 Mason &amp; Dixon, p. 354] <br /> , the interiors of some coaches were larger than their exterior dimensions. Interiors have importance in Pynchon's worldview. Cf. &quot;invisibility&quot;, and a 'human life' above.&lt;br&gt;<br /> <br /> '''Italian grotto'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> an imitating recess or structure made to resemble a natural Italian grotto.<br /> <br /> '''a highly developed taste, moreover, for human blood'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Since Pugnax developed this taste in the Carpathians, home of Castle Dracula, this seems a clear reference to Bram Stoker's novel. <br /> <br /> '''Carpathians'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Major mountain range running northwest-southeast through Poland, Slovakia, western Ukraine and Romania.<br /> <br /> '''Uhlans'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Uhlan regiments belonged to the light cavalry. They wore splendid uniforms (model for some U.S. marching band uniforms). [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Uhlan Wikipedia article.]<br /> <br /> '''Temesvár'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Now Timişoara, extreme western Romania.<br /> <br /> ==Page 551==<br /> '''prefiguration...of the holy City'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> City of God, ala Augustine? ''The Heavenly City of the 18th Century Philosophers'', as in the title of a book Ian McEwan says he lent Pynchon? [citation needed]<br /> <br /> '''...separated by only a slice of Time...'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Miles is beginning to experience Time almost as a spatial dimension, his personal vector as traversing (!) 4-dimensional space, or perhaps multidimensional space, the mathematics for which is being debated in Ostend.<br /> <br /> '''securing the mess decks'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> The Chums follow U.S. Navy idiom in orders (frequently prefixed with &quot;Now&quot;) and shipboard activities (&quot;secure&quot; meaning &quot;whatever you did before, undo it now,&quot; in this case put away the dishes and fold up the tables).<br /> <br /> '''Ryder Thorn'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Tolkienesque name? Or perhaps it's a nod to the Ryder-Waite Tarot deck and to Kevin Thorn (Kevin Matthew Fertig, 1977-), the American professional wrestler better known by his ring name Kevin Thorn who is currently signed to World Wrestling Entertainment wrestling on its ECW brand. He has appeared in vigniettes with Ariel (Shelly Martinez, 1980-), the tarot card reader, who spits blood at the camera while she &quot;predicted the future of ECW.&quot; Yup, a stretch...<br /> <br /> *The name also evokes the Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse.<br /> <br /> '''He was at Candlebrow.'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Presumably a 'trespasser.'<br /> <br /> '''the four-note chord in the context of timelessness'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> A melody is formed by notes following one another in time; a chord on the ukulele violates that practice by having all the notes sound at once. A really clever little passage.<br /> Note: Jazz musicians describe musical improvisations as horizontal (with the melody) or vertical (with the chord)<br /> <br /> ==Page 552==<br /> <br /> '''knuckle-duster'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Brass knuckles.<br /> <br /> '''Diksmuide'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> 20 kilometers south of Ostend (about halfway to Ypres).<br /> <br /> ==Page 553==<br /> <br /> '''The terrain was flat...lowlands'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Not, this time, a reference to Pynchon's ''Lowlands'', but to the two-dimensionality of Flanders, as in Edwin A. Abbott's ''Flatland'' [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Flatland]; most humans, like the inhabitants of Flanders and Abbott's Flatlanders, experience life in two dimensions. <br /> <br /> '''Somewhere up in the sky was Miles' home...'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Whereas Miles and the Chums of Chance, in contrast, live in three dimensions. The mathematicians gathered in Ostend are trying to calculate how to experience and use vectors to live in four dimensions; in a way, to experience Time as a kind of spatial dimension. Miles, on P. 551, is demonstrating the beginnings of an intuitive discovery of how to experience Time as an almost spatial dimension. Which would be a sort of &quot;time travel&quot;, or at least an expanded view of life and history.<br /> <br /> '''retted'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> soaked in water or exposed to moisture (as flax or hemp) to facilitate the removal of the fiber from the woody tissue by partial rotting.<br /> <br /> ==Page 554==<br /> <br /> '''Ypres and Menin'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Municipalities in West Flanders that were sites of some of the bloodiest battles of WWI. At the beginning of the war, the British and Belgian stand helped save Paris from encirclement by the Germans, and saved the Channel ports, but as Thorn points out, the area became the western anchor of the Western Front trench system. The several Battles of Ypres saw the first uses of poison gas (Mustard Gas, dichlorodiethylsulfide, was first called Yperite), the use of enormous mines, and the legendary mud of Passchendaele [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Passchendaele]. <br /> <br /> '''Ten years from now'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> (1914?) through 1918? and beyond?. Another paramorphic mirror--what do we now face. Whatever it is, it is nuclear.<br /> <br /> '''Bosch'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Hieronymous Bosch (1450-1516), Dutch painter of nightmares. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hieronymus_Bosch Wikipedia entry].<br /> <br /> '''Brueghel'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Pieter Brueghel the Elder(1525-1569), Flemish painter.[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pieter_Brueghel_the_Elder Wikipedia entry].<br /> <br /> '''League'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> League of Nations? The League of Nations was formed after WWI to prevent future wars. Didn't succeed.<br /> <br /> No. In this case a historical unit of length, approximately three miles - &quot;league on league&quot; = tremendous masses<br /> <br /> '''where the needles went and which way to rotate them'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> I.e., how to push Thorn's buttons; the image is from acupuncture.<br /> <br /> ==Page 555==<br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> '''simpletons at the fair'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Making Pynchon's metaphor explicit.<br /> <br /> '''Chopin E-minor Nocturne'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Frédéric Chopin (1810-49), a Polish pianist and composer ([http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fr%C3%A9d%C3%A9ric_Chopin Chopin]). He was born in Warsaw, Poland to a Polish morther and a French father. He went to Paris at the age of 20 and died there at the age of 39. He was widely regarded as one of the most famous and influential composers for the piano. From 1837-47 he had a 10-year stormy relationship with the French writer George Sand. His E-minor Nocturne is a 4-minute long Romantic style piano solo composed in 1827. (A ''nocturne'' is usually a musical composition that is inspired by, or evocative of, the night [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nocturne Nocturne].)<br /> <br /> '''owl-light'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> ???glimmering or imperfect light or twilight hours.<br /> <br /> ''''plasmic hysteresis''''&lt;br&gt;<br /> <br /> A coined term, apparently similar in meaning to Miles’ phrase “failure of physical translation.” Plasma would take an older meaning of “form” or “shape.&quot; Hysteresis, according to Webster's, refers to “a retardation in effect when the forces on an object are changed.” Hysteresis is used to describe magnetic phenomenon as well as plastic or elastic materials, that involve changes to a rest state that last beyond the forces that cause them. Examples include recordings on magnetic tape or a thumbprint slowly disappearing from putty. In the context of this passage, plasmic hysteresis appears to describe the lingering visage of someone who is no longer present – a hysteresis of form only and thus a failed physical translation. See [http://www.etymonline.com/index.php?search=plasma&amp;searchmode=none etymology of plasma] and this nifty explanation of [http://www.lassp.cornell.edu/sethna/hysteresis/WhatIsHysteresis.html hysteresis]. <br /> <br /> Hysteresis has also been used to refer to “loops” in time, certainly apropos in this case. I stumbled across an excellent example in a 1980 episode of Dr. Who, in which the eponymous Dr. is trapped in “chronic hysteresis,” an endless loop or return to a previous <br /> point in time – very similar to the situation of Ryder Thorn. [http://www.drwhoguide.com/who_5q.htm Check it out for yourself!] <br /> <br /> <br /> ==Annotation Index==<br /> {{ATD PbP}}</div>

MKOHUT https://against-the-day.pynchonwiki.com/wiki/index.php?title=ATD_525-556&diff=14128 2007-10-21T14:24:19Z

<p>MKOHUT: /* Page 550 */</p> <hr /> <div>:'''&lt;big&gt;Please keep these annotations SPOILER-FREE by not revealing information from later pages in the novel.&lt;/big&gt;'''&lt;p&gt;&lt;br&gt;<br /> <br /> ==Page 525==<br /> <br /> '''Ostend'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Cf [[ATD_489-524#Page 521|page 521:Ostend]], a seaport in northwest Belgium. Among English-speaking tourists, Ostend (or Ostende) is best known as a ferry port. Ships have shuttled between Dover and Ostend for more than 150 years, and today's high-speed catamarans move hundreds of passengers and vehicles between these two ports in just two hours. But this thousand-year-old city is a popular beach resort with Belgians, who flock to Ostend for sun, surfing, sailing and the ''Kursaal'' (Casino). The fishing harbor and old town draw many visitors. Ostend is the only Belgian coastal resort that is as lively in the summer as in the winter. For more and pictures [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ostend Ostend].<br /> <br /> '''Fishermen's Quai'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Fishermen's Quay, also called De Trap. The shrimp boats come home here from the sea in the morning. Along the quay many stands sell lots of seafoods.<br /> <br /> '''Boulevard van Isenghem'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> A major thoroughfare in Ostend, locally called ''Van Iseghemlaan'', extending diagonally from seafront southwest through the city.<br /> <br /> '''street-plausible'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Presentable.<br /> <br /> '''Quai de l'empereur'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Since Ostende is in the Flemish part of Belgium this should be the Keizerskaai, a street along the old part of the harbour, 1919 renamed Vindictivelaan.<br /> <br /> '''estaminet'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> According to the OED - A café in which smoking is allowed. Now, any small establishment selling alcoholic liquor. <br /> <br /> '''twelve-centime'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> one centime is the French eqivalent of one cent. A twelve-centime beer would cost 12/100 of a franc.<br /> <br /> '''Quaternions'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Cf [[ATD_119-148#Page 130|page 130:Quaternions]]. Quaternions are a non-communtative extension of complex numbers (Hamilton, 1843).&lt;br&gt;<br /> <br /> Analogy with the complex numbers (Cf [[ATD_119-148#Page 132|page 132:complex number]]) being represented as a sum of real and imaginary parts, a + b''i'', where ''i''² = −1, a quaternion is defined as a combination a + b''i'' + c''j'' + d''k'', where ''i''² = ''j''² = ''k''² = ''i j k'' = −1, and a, b, c, d are ''four'' explicit real numbers. The non-commutative property refers to ''i j = −j i = k; j k = −k j = i; k i = −i k = j''. (i.e. ''i j ≠ j i; j k ≠ k j; k i ≠ i k''; etc.) The using of ''i, j, k'', the imaginary numbers (Cf [[ATD_119-148#Page 133|page 133:imaginary number]]), led to the phrases of &quot;the ''ijk'' lot&quot; of page 533 and &quot;creature of ''i-j-k''&quot; of page 534.<br /> <br /> '''Kellner'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> German: waiter, barman. Use of the German word would be insulting to the Belgian barman.<br /> <br /> '''''demi'''''&lt;br&gt;<br /> A half-pint glass (25 centilitres, actually).<br /> <br /> '''Lambic'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Pron. ''lahm-BEEK.'' Unique Belgian beer style, sour and often thin in body.<br /> <br /> '''skimmer'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Straw hat (&quot;Panama&quot;).<br /> <br /> ==Page 526==<br /> <br /> '''biquaternion'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Or &quot;octonion,&quot; an innovation of English mathematician W.K. Clifford, [[ATD_243-272#Page_249|referred to on p. 249.]]<br /> <br /> '''Barry Nebulay'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Pun on a term from heraldry, ''barry nebuly.'' Barry (rhymes with &quot;starry,&quot; not &quot;carry&quot;) refers to a shield divided into an even number of parts by horizontal lines. Nebuly signals that the lines are deformed into stylized &quot;cloud&quot; shapes. [http://www.rarebooks.nd.edu/digital/heraldry/partitions.html Here you can see an example.] If a ''British'' author had a character with a heraldic name, it would suggest a pseudonym.<br /> <br /> '''University of Dublin'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> The Alma Mater of Hamilton, the father of Quaternion. He studied, graduated and taught at Trinity College, the University of Dublin, Ireland's oldest university.<br /> <br /> If University College, Dublin, then Joyce had graduated in 1902.&lt;br&gt;<br /> <br /> '''Quaternioneers'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Quaternion believers.<br /> <br /> '''Gibbsian Vectors'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Vector Analysis (or Vector Calculus) developed by Willard Gibbs (Cf [[ATD_26-56#Page 29|page 29:Professor Gibbs]]) in 1881 and 1884. It is a branch of calculus that deals with vectors and process involving vectors. It is much more easily applied to phsics and other applied sciences than Hamilton's Quaternions (Cf [[ATD_525-556#Page 525|page 525:Quaternions]]).&lt;br&gt;<br /> A vector is defined by not only a magnitude but also a direction, such as a velocity vector, ''v'' is defined by ''v'' = a''i'' + b''j'' + c''k'',<br /> where a, b, and c are the magnitudes of the velocity components in directions of ''i, j'' and ''k'' which are unit vectors, (not imaginary numbers as in Quaternion), with magnitude of 1. In three dimensional cases and ''xyz'' coordinate system is used then ''i, j, k'' are related to ''x, y, z'' directions (&quot;''xyz'' people&quot; of page 533); but they, in general, may be used irrespective of the notation of the coordinates.<br /> Mathematical operations (addition, subtraction, multiplication), differentiation (''curl'' — Cf [[ATD_318-335#Page 326|page 326:Curl]] and p. 536, ''Laplacian'' — Cf [[ATD_318-335#Page 326|page 326:Laplacian]] and p. 536, etc) and integration can be applied to vectors. It is interesting to know that one of the two multiplication operations is called cross product; for unit vectors (''i, j, k'') perpendicular to each other, then, ''i × i = j × j = k × k = 0'', ''i × j = k'', ''j × i = -k'', etc. ([http://web.mit.edu/wwmath/vectorc/summary.html Vector Calculus]).&lt;br&gt;<br /> A simple vector anyalysis example here: if ''k'', the unit vector, stands for the direction upward and g is the gravitational acceleration, then the acceleration vector, ''a'', for a projectile, is defined for downward action, (the ''i'' and ''j'' directions have zero components):&lt;br&gt;<br /> :''a'' = -g ''k''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Integrating ''a'' would give the velocity vector, ''v''&lt;br&gt;<br /> :''v'' = -g t ''k''&lt;br&gt;<br /> for zero initial velocity case, and t standing for time.&lt;br&gt;<br /> And integrating ''v'' would yield the position vector, ''h'', for the projectile&lt;br&gt;<br /> :''h'' = -½ g t² ''k''&lt;br&gt;<br /> toward the sea level.<br /> <br /> '''Quaternionists'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Quaternion believers, same as Quaternioneers.<br /> <br /> '''Tasmania'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Tasmania is an island of the southern coast of Australia. Known for its relative isolation, it was a prison for English convicts in the 1800s<br /> <br /> '''Having been inseparable from the rise of the electromagnetic'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> In his 1865 work ''The Dynamical Theory of the Electromagnetic Field'', James Clerk Maxwell unified electricity and magnetism. He put forth twenty equations, with twenty unknowns, in vector form (though different in notation and form than the equations that now bear his name) that completely described all known electromagnetic phenomena. In his 1873 treatise on the subject, he expressed the equations in the mathematics of quaternions. It appears that the quaternion form of the equations remained popular even though, at the behest of his publisher, Maxwell reverted to the 1865 form in the second edition (1881)--though they remain scattered throughout. In 1892 Oliver Heaviside (On the Forces, Stresses, and Fluxes of Energy in the Electromagnetic Field. ''Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society of London.'' A, Vol. 183. pp423-480), while spewing scientific vitriol at the Quaternionists, reformulated Maxwell's original 1865 equations (Heaviside chose to remove the vector potential and scalar fields from the equations; the inclusion of these terms had served as Maxwell's justification for the use of quaternions), and provided the notation still in use today. See this [http://www.zpenergy.com/modules.php?name=Downloads&amp;d_op=getit&amp;lid=60 PDF] for the evolution of Maxwell's equations.<br /> <br /> '''Hamiltonian devotees'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> The Quaternion faction, after William Hamilton, who devised the scheme.<br /> <br /> '''Grand Hôtel de la Nouvelle Digue'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> There is a Hotel Digue in the Seychelles; this is a New Hotel Digue by Pynchon? <br /> <br /> Grand Hotel of New Dyke, may be a made up hotel name.<br /> <br /> '''anterooms of death'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> This metaphor is sometimes applied to concentration camps. Here the lyric &quot;feel like I'm fixin' to die&quot; seems more apposite.<br /> <br /> '''Belgian Art Nouveau'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Art Nouveau, 1890(or 80) to 1914, explores a new style in the visual arts and architecture that developed in Europe and North America at the end of the 19th century. At its height (~1907), Art Nouveau was a concerted attempt to create an international style based on decoration. It was developed by a brilliant and energetic generation of artists and desisgners, who sought to fashion an art form appropriate to the post-Industrial Revolution modern age.&lt;br&gt;<br /> Brussels was one of the Art Nouveau centers and represented different style from the others. The jewelers there, accepted as artists rahter than craftsmen, (together with those in Paris) defined Art Nouveau in jewelery and achieved the most renown. ([http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Art_Nouveau Art Nouveau]).<br /> <br /> ==Page 527==<br /> <br /> '''dossing'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> British slang for &quot;sleeping&quot;, &quot;staying overnight&quot;<br /> <br /> '''Russian nihilists'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> :The following four are local, Belgian, not Russian, nihilists !<br /> <br /> '''Eugénie'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Female. Possibly named for Empress Eugénie (1826-1920), consort of French Emperor Napoleon III. Ultimately for St. Eugenia, 3rd-century Roman martyr whose feast is celebrated on December 25.<br /> <br /> '''Fatou'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Female. A pseudonym? In view of the date of the action, certainly not named after [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fatou the mathematician Fatou] (1878-1929).<br /> <br /> '''Denis'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Male. Named for St. Denis or Dionysius, patron saint of Paris and of France, 3rd-century bishop of Paris, martyr, beheaded on the hill now called Montmartre. &quot;Montjoie St. Denis!&quot; was a warcry used by French troops in the Middle Ages. His intercession is effective against demonic possession and headache.<br /> <br /> '''Policarpe'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Male. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Polycarp Saint Polycarp] was a Christian bishop of Smyrna (now İzmir in Turkey) in the second century. He was stabbed and died a martyr after an attempt to burn him at the stake failed. His intercession is sought against earache and dysentery.<br /> <br /> '''Young Congo'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Probably in reference to the [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Young_Turks Young Turks], a Turkish revolutionary movement<br /> <br /> '''Garde Civique'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> A part of the Belgian army. According to the [http://www.1911encyclopedia.org/Belgium 1911 Britannica], &quot;the mass of the garde civique does not pretend to possess military value. It is a defence against sedition and socialism.&quot;<br /> <br /> '''French Second Bureau boys'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Deuxieme Bureau; French Intelligence.<br /> <br /> '''''phalange'''''&lt;br&gt;<br /> French: phalanx. A military (here mock-military) group ready for combat. &lt;br&gt;<br /> <br /> It also conjures up memories of the early 19th century utopian socialist <br /> Charles Fourier, who theorized that people should live communally in &quot;phalanxes&quot; of a specific number based upon their &quot;passions.&quot; His solid ideas included equality of the sexes, but he also taught wacky things such as the moon being made of lemonade. Of particular relevance is his rejection of industrial civilization. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Utopian_socialism]<br /> <br /> '''&quot;...until something had happened, something too terrible to remember...&quot;'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Again this theme of an unknowable past transgression, here invoked almost as if the unknown signifies the other 'lateral' (a word which has cropped up at least a dozen times already) 'vector'.<br /> <br /> '''the Digue'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> French for &quot;dyke&quot;<br /> <br /> '''Congo... Belgians'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> The Belgian colonisation of the Congo was, as Conrad's ''Heart of Darkness'' makes clear, notable for its greed and brutality.<br /> <br /> '''Leopold, King of the Belgians'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> 1835-1909, reigned 1865-1909. A man of almost Nixonian fiendishness. In the Congo he acted as sole proprietor and absolute ruler. The positive outcomes of his exploitation include ''Heart of Darkness'' and the phrase &quot;crime against humanity.&quot;<br /> <br /> '''co-conscious'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> mental processes outside the main stream of consciousness but sometimes available to it — from Merriam-Webster's Medical Dictionary.<br /> <br /> '''Force Publique'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Belgian armed forces operating in the Belgian Congo ([http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Force_Publique Wikipedia]). &quot;King Leopold's private army&quot; may be a more accurate description.<br /> <br /> '''rubber worker'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> See above: One of the early missions of the FP was to increase rubber export quotas through forced labor and related atrocities.<br /> <br /> ==Page 528==<br /> <br /> '''''khâgne'''''&lt;br&gt;<br /> an informal term used by French students for Classes Préparatoires Littéraires, the two-year cycle of classes taken after the Baccalaureat (taken at age 17-18), to prepare for the entrance examination to the Ecole Normale Supeieure. ([http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kh%C3%A2gne khâgne]).<br /> <br /> '''Reclus'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> J. J. Élisée Reclus (1830-1905), French geographer but mainly educated in Germany. Several times he was forced to leave France because of his political views; he traveled widely in Europe, the British Isles, the United States, and South America and for many years lived in Switzerland. He was professor of comparative geography at the University of Brussels from 1895 to 1905. He had quite an extensive connection with various socialist and anarchist circles (met Bakunin while in Florence).Once he was imprisoned in Versailles in 1871 for his part in the ''Paris Commune''. In 1882 he initiated the ''Anti-marriage movement'' while in Geneva. [[http://academic.reed.edu/formosa/texts/reclusbio.html Reclus]).<br /> <br /> '''Stirnerite'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Follower of Max Stirner, 19th century German philosopher and author of ''The Ego and Its Own,'' a work influential in anarchist thought. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Max_Stirner Wikipedia entry].<br /> <br /> ''Max Stirner'''s (1806-56) attacks on systematic philosophy, his denial of absulutes, and his rejection of abstract concepts of any kind often places him among the first philosophical nihilists. For Stirner, achieving individual freedom is the only law; and the state, which necvessarily imperils freedom, must be destroyed. Even beyond the oppression of the state, though, are the constraints imposed by others because their very existence is an obstable compromising individual freedom. Thus Stirner argues that existence is an endless &quot;war of each against all&quot; (1845). (taken from the paragraph about Max Stirner in [http://www.iep.utm.edu/n/nihilism.htm#H1 Nihilism])&lt;br&gt;<br /> Sourcing here? Much complexity in properly understanding Stirner, who has some Pynchon-like qualities, to say the least. From the Stanford Dictionary of Philosophy&lt;br&gt;<br /> His major work:<br /> The Ego and Its Own<br /> Much of Stirner's prose—which is crowded with aphorisms, italicisation, and hyperbole—appears calculated to disconcert. Most striking, perhaps, is the use of word play. Rather than reach a conclusion through the conventional use of argument, Stirner often approaches a claim that he wishes to endorse by exploiting words with related etymologies or formal similarities. For example, he associates words for property (such as ‘Eigentum’) with words connoting distinctive individual characteristics (such as ‘Eigenheit’) in order to promote the claim that property is expressive of selfhood. (Stirner's account of egoistic property—see below—gives this apparently orthodox Hegelian claim a distinctive twist.)<br /> <br /> This rejection of conventional forms of intellectual discussion is linked to Stirner's substantive views about language and rationality. His unusual style reflects a conviction that both language and rationality are human products which have come to constrain and oppress their creators. Stirner maintains that accepted meanings and traditional standards of argumentation are underpinned by a conception of truth as a privileged realm beyond individual control. As a result, individuals who accept this conception are abandoning a potential area of creative self-expression in favour of adopting a subordinate role as servants of truth. In stark contrast, Stirner insists that the only legitimate restriction on the form of our language, or on the structure of our arguments, is that they should serve our individual ends. It is the frequent failure of ordinary meanings and standard forms of argument to satisfy his interpretation of this criterion which underpins Stirner's remorselessly idiosyncratic style.<br /> <br /> The Ego and Its Own has an intelligible, but scarcely transparent, structure. It is organised around a tripartite account of human experience, initially introduced in a description of the stages of an individual life. The first stage in this developmental narrative is the realistic one of childhood, in which children are constrained by material and natural forces such as their parents. Liberation from these external constraints is achieved with what Stirner calls the self-discovery of mind, as children find the means to outwit those forces in their own determination and cunning. The idealistic stage of youth, however, contains new internal sources of constraint, as individuals once more become enslaved, this time to the spiritual forces of conscience and reason. Only with the adulthood of egoism do individuals escape both material (external) and spiritual (internal) constraints, learning to value their personal satisfaction above all other considerations.<br /> <br /> Stirner portrays this dialectic of individual growth as an analogue of historical development, and it is a tripartite account of the latter which structures the remainder of the book. Human history is reduced to successive epochs of realism (the ancient, or pre-Christian, world), idealism (the modern, or Christian, world), and egoism (the future world). <br /> <br /> What about these &quot;successive epochs&quot; in understanding ATD?<br /> <br /> Stirner's major work, The Ego and Its Own has been reissued in English a number of times in Pynchon's lifetime,from the 60s on. (Not that TRP could not have read it in German!)<br /> <br /> '''''Anarcho-individualiste'''''&lt;br&gt;<br /> i.e. he has doctrinal differernces with Stirnerism, strictly speaking; see P. 324, and &quot;Eigenheit&quot;.<br /> <br /> '''Leopold'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> See p. 527.<br /> <br /> '''going down lately'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Being assassinated.<br /> <br /> '''Sipido'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Jean-Baptiste Sipido (1884-1959), a Belgian socialist. Accusing the Prince of Wales of causing thousands of inocents were killed in the Boer War in South Africa, on April 5, 1900, Sipido leaped onto the foot board of the royal compartment right before the train left the North Railway Station (Gare du Nord), Brussel, and fired two (or one? as reported in ''The Manchester Guardian'', or four? as stated in the text here) shots through the window but missed everyone inside. He was arrested, tried and acquitted. The leader of the House of Commons called the acquittal a &quot;grave and most unfortunate miscarriage of justice.&quot; ([http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jean-Baptiste_Sipido Sipido]).<br /> <br /> '''Prince... of Wales'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> (Maud Gonne's husband claimed to have been involved in another such plot.)<br /> <br /> '''Hippodrome'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Hippodrome Wellington, a horse racing track in Ostend built in 1883. The facility hosts both harness and flat racing events. ([http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hippodrome_Wellington Hippodrome]).<br /> <br /> '''Royal Bathing Hut... twenty francs'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> A bathing machine ([http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bathing_machine bathing machine])? The King of Belgium certainly would not want to be seen in a swimsuit on a public beach... It seems unlikely, though, that such a royal bathing machine would be for hire.<br /> <br /> '''twenty francs'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> ???<br /> <br /> ==Page 529==<br /> <br /> '''picric family'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> The explosive picric acid (2,4,6-trinitrophenol) and its derivatives. For picric acid, Brugère's powder and Designolle's powder, [http://encyclopedia.jrank.org/PER_PIG/PICRIC_ACID_or_TRINITROPHENOL_C.html see this Britannica article.]<br /> <br /> '''Brugère's powder'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> See &quot;picric family&quot; above.<br /> <br /> '''Designolle's'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> See &quot;picric family&quot; above.<br /> <br /> '''Monsieur Santos-Dumont'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Alberto Santos-Dumont (1873-1932), a pioneer of aviation from Brasil. Check out [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alberto_Santos-Dumont Wikipedia] to get a look at the way he was wearing his &quot;trademark Panama hat&quot;. <br /> <br /> '''Green Hour''' and '''''l'heure vertigineuse'''''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Absinthe-drinking time. The liqueur is green. In French, ''l'heure verte,'' so ''vertigineuse'' (vertiginous, causing dizziness) is a pun on the word for &quot;green.&quot;<br /> <br /> '''Rocco and Pino'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Rabid Quaternionists and sudden friends of Kit Traverse.<br /> :No, they were not mathematicians at all, let alone Quaternionists, but two &quot;Italian naval renegades&quot; !!<br /> ::&quot;Rocco and Pino&quot; are, in temperament, something like the &quot;Mason and Dixon&quot; of manned-torpedoes... cf. the &quot;torpedo&quot; (i.e., &quot;Electrick-Eel&quot;) of ''Mason &amp; Dixon''.<br /> <br /> '''Whitehead works in Fiume'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Anticipating GR's V2 works.<br /> <br /> ''Robert Whitehead'' (1823-1905), an English engineer. He developed the first self-propelled torpedo in 1866. He attended Manchester's Mechanics Institute, worked in a shipyard in Toulon (1844), France, and as a consultant engineer in Milan (1847), Italy. Later he moved to Trieste and in 1856 became a manager of a company called ''Founderia Mettali'' (later, ''Stabilimento Tecnico di Fiume'') in Fiume producing ship steam boilers and engines which were the most advanced of that era. He also developed the first self-propelled torpedo which was very popular. Whitehead's torpedo was propelled by a compressed air engine, carried 18lbs dynamites and a self-regulating device which kept the torpedo cruising at a constant preset depth. [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Robert_Whitehead Whitehead]].<br /> <br /> ''Fiume'' is now Rijeka, Croatia. Trieste is on the northwestern edge of the Istra Peninsula, Rijeka is east of it. [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rijeka Fiume]].<br /> <br /> Interesting sidebar: Whitehead's fortune from Fiume and the torpedo went solely to his granddaughter Agatha Whitehead, who married Baron von Trapp. The Von Trapp money came from Robert Whitehead, and most of the von Trapp singers were his great-grandchildren.<br /> <br /> '''''Alberta'''''&lt;br&gt;<br /> The [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Royal_yacht Wikipedia] entry on royal yachts goes back to the 17th century but doesn't include ''Alberta.'' The craft does get a mention in [http://www.bouncing-balls.com/timeline/people/nr_leopoldmorel.htm this page on Leopold and the Congo.]<br /> <br /> '''Siluro Dirigibile a Lenta Corsa'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> or S.L.C. &quot;slow course torpedo&quot;, &quot;slow-running torpedo&quot;. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Manned_torpedo Wikipedia] Italy‘s Navy was among the first to experiment with manned torpedos. Though according to [http://web.ukonline.co.uk/chalcraft/sm/chariots.html this site] this did not happen until 1935, Italian frogmen as early as October 31, 1918 made it into the harbour of Pula with the help of a modified german torpedo and sank the former Austrian but by then since a few hours Croatian/Slovenian/Bosnian battleship SMS ''Viribus Unitis''. [http://www.geocities.com/tegetthoff66/viribus.html website]<br /> <br /> The Wikipedia entry linked above doesn't contain the Italian word ''dirigibile'' (steerable), which sets up the torpedo as a counterpart of the dirigible ''Inconvenience.''<br /> <br /> :I suspect there's a connection between the torpedo and &quot;Not the usual lateener, in fact appearing to have neither sails, masts, nor oars&quot; in Miles' reversed vision, [[ATD_243-272#Page_250|page 250.]] Needs work, though.<br /> <br /> ==Page 530==<br /> <br /> '''exfiltrate'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Make a surreptitious escape (as &quot;infiltrate&quot; means to make a surreptitious entrance).<br /> <br /> '''''Macchè'''''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Italian: certainly not, not a chance. And in Pynchon's Italian is used as an all-purpose exclamation.<br /> <br /> '''''Ehi, stu gazz', categoria'''''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Stu gazz' is a dialect representation of ''sto cazzo'', literally meaning ''this dick here''. Normally you could translate the sense of the sentence as: ''yeah, why not, a fucking category! ''. -- blicero2 - 2007.02.22<br /> <br /> '''''mezzogiornismo'''''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Denigrating the Italian South. Mezzogiorno means ''midday'' in Italian but refers generally to Southern Italy.<br /> <br /> ==Page 531==<br /> <br /> '''Bruges'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> An exceptionally beautiful Belgian town of canals which is thus one of several towns known as the 'Venice of the north'. In the 14th cettury Burges already became an international finanacial and trading center, but<br /> started to decline in the 15th century. In the 20th century, however, the city was discovered by the international tourism and the medieval heritage turned out to be a new source of wealth. A new harbor of Zeebrugge, 10 miles outside of Bruges at the North Sea coast, brought new developments and new industries to the region. For the city and its history see ([http://www.trabel.com/brugge.htm Bruges]).<br /> <br /> '''Raoul's Atelier de la Vitesse'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> French: Ralph's Speed Shop.<br /> <br /> '''Ghent'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Belgian city, less than 30 miles southeast of Bruges, on the rail line about halfway between Ostend and Brussels. It is the fourth largest city of Belgium. It is bigger than Bruges but not as famous as a tourist attraction. But the city is a showcase of medieval Flemish wealth and commercial success. See ([http://www.trabel.com/gent.htm Ghent]).<br /> <br /> '''Daimler six-cylinder'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> ???<br /> <br /> '''a hundred horsepower'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> ???<br /> <br /> '''''guaglion'''''&lt;br&gt;<br /> italian (dialectal) = boy, young person<br /> <br /> '''Umeki Tsurigane'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Umeki is typically made with some combination of the various kanji for &quot;plum&quot; (ume) and &quot;tree&quot; (ki), though one has the ki being the character for &quot;ghost/devil&quot; and one obscure reading that's entirely redundant, where ume is &quot;plant&quot; (usually read ue). There is one where ume is the kanji for &quot;buried or embedded&quot;. Tsurigane, means a &quot;temple bell&quot;, which can stand alone or be followed by the grass kanji to mean &quot;bellflower&quot; (lots of botanical stuff happening here, if that means anything; hardly the only example in ''AtD''). Given the search for Shambhala going on, &quot;Buried Temple Bell&quot; seems a likely translation, at least at this point; the botanical meanings could perhaps emerge later.<br /> <br /> Or, another terrible name-pun? &quot;You make [m]e sore again.&quot; See another on P. [[ATD_748-767#Page_757| 757]]<br /> <br /> '''Professor Knott'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Cargill Knott (1856-1922), professor of physics; seismologist. See his biography [http://www.penicuikcdt.org.uk/Cargill_Knott.html here].<br /> <br /> ==Page 532==<br /> <br /> '''Kimura'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Cf [[ATD_26-56#Page 29|page 29:Kimura]] and [[ATD_318-335#Page 318|page 318:Shunkichi Kimura]].<br /> <br /> '''drover's sombrero'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Cowboy hat.<br /> <br /> '''furoshiki'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Japanese all-purpose cloth. Can be worn, used as wrapping, or used as a bag.<br /> <br /> '''taupe'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> A brownish gray.<br /> <br /> '''boilermakers and their helpers'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> [[ATD_358-373#Page_360|See annotation to p. 360.]]<br /> <br /> '''Anharmonic Pencil'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> ''Pencil'' is a term commonly used in Synthetic Geometry. Straight lines incident with a plane - coplanar lines - and passing through a common point are said to be concurrent lines and the set of all such concurrent coplanar lines is called the ''pencil''. (Cf [[ATD_429-459#Page 456|page 456:Pencil]]). For a figure and a not quite precise definition see [http://mathworld.wolfram.com/Pencil.html pencil]. If a, b, c and d, are four distinct coplanar lines and their double ratio λ = (abcd) = -1, then a, b, c, d are called a harmonic quadruple of lines; they are said to constitute a ''harmonic pencil''. A ''pencil'' which is not harmonic then is known as ''anharmonic pencil''. See Pencil (lines 8-9), Double Ratio λ (lines 32-35) and Harmonic Pencil (line 39) of [http://ca.geocities.com/ingsaler6/mathworld.html Mathworld].<br /> <br /> '''''Comptes rendus'''''&lt;br&gt;<br /> ''Comptes rendus des séances hebdomadaires,'' Proceedings of the weekly sessions (of the Academy of Sciences), published from 1835, later (ca. 1935) retitled ''Comptes rendus de l'Académie des sciences,'' Proceedings of the Academy of Sciences. (Notice that the academy didn't see the need to specify &quot;French.&quot; Take that, Royal Society of London!) For about a century, one of two journals so universally circulated and recognized that bibliographies nearly always cited them in nickname form: ''C.R.'' The other was ''Ber.,'' short for ''Berichte der Deutschen Chemischen Gesellschaft,'' Reports of the German Chemical Society (from 1868).<br /> <br /> '''De Forest'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Cf [[ATD_26-56#Page 29|page 29:De Forest]].<br /> <br /> '''Gibbs'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Cf [[ATD_26-56#Page 29|page 29:Professor Gibbs]].<br /> <br /> '''Maxwell Equations'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Cf [[ATD_57-80#Page 58|page 58:Maxwell Field Equations]].<br /> <br /> ==Page 533==<br /> <br /> '''aniline teal'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> The wallpaper dye; aniline dyes were the first synthetic dyes, discovered by [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/William_Perkin William Perkin] in 1858. Their intense and fade-resistant colors were very fashionable at the end of the nineteenth century. The dyes are also significant in ''GR'' as the products of I.G. Farben.<br /> <br /> '''Heavisiders'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Oliver Heaviside (May 18, 1850 – February 3, 1925) was a self-taught English electrical engineer, mathematician and physicist who adapted complex numbers to the study of electrical circuits, developed techniques for applying Laplace transforms to the solution of differential equations, reformulated Maxwell's field equations in terms of electric and magnetic forces and energy flux, and independently co-formulated vector analysis. Although at odds with the scientific establishment for most of his life, Heaviside changed the face of mathematics and science for years to come.[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Heaviside].<br /> <br /> '''Grassmanniacs'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Nineteenth century German mathematician and linguist, essentially the inventor/discoverer of vector space. Grassmann showed that once geometry is put into the algebraic form he advocated, then the number three has no privileged role as the number of spatial dimensions; the number of possible dimensions is in fact unbounded.[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hermann_Grassmann].<br /> <br /> '''in the mood for a clambake'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Anachronistic Broadway show tune? If so, the clambake in ''Carousel'' turns into a brawl; the assmebled factions of mathematicians could be in the mood for either a party or a brawl, apparently. <br /> <br /> '''Monopole de la Maison'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Monopole of the House, a fanciful name of a fanciful drink.&lt;br&gt;<br /> There is, since 1898, a well known restaurant called ''Monopole Lunch &amp; Sea Grill'' in Plattsburgh of upper New York state. ([http://www.monopole.org Monopole Restaurant]).&lt;br&gt;<br /> Most probably, it's the Magnetic monopole being referred here. In physics, a monopole is a magnet with a net magnetic charge, i.e. there is only one pole instead of two (so no net magnetic charge) as usual. ([http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Magnetic_monopole Monopole]). It's existence had been theoretically predicted by various particle theories (superstring theory, etc) but never been proved experimentally. Proving the existence of a monopole would certainly earn a Nobel Prize.<br /> <br /> '''Idiom Neutral'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> An invented language, like Esperanto. Idiom Neutral dictionaries first appeared in 1902. It looks like a simplified Latinate language and it grew out of Volapuk, another &quot;auxiliary language.&quot; It was abandoned by the ''Akademi Internasional de Lingu Universal'' in 1908.<br /> <br /> For a list of all the invented languages that linguists are keeping track of, including Klingon, try [http://linguistlist.org/forms/langs/GetListOfConstructedLgs.html Eastern Michigan's Linguist List]. And don't forget to click on the link to &quot;Browse sites devoted to constructed languages.&quot;<br /> <br /> '''phatic'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Basically, small talk or chatter. Words used to convey fellow-feeling rather than to impart information.<br /> <br /> '''''Kampf ums Dasein'''''&lt;br&gt;<br /> German: struggle for existence.<br /> <br /> '''Q-brother'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Fellow Quaternioneer or Fellow Quaternionist.<br /> <br /> '''We are the Jews of mathematics, wandering out here in our diaspora--some destined for the past, others the future, even a few able to set out at unknown angles from the simple line of Time, upon journeys that no one can predict''' &lt;br&gt;<br /> In keeping with the analogy of Judaism, those &quot;few&quot; people within the Quaternionists &quot;able to set out at unknown angles&quot; are most likely being compared to Kabbalists who claim to partake in a mystic &quot;journey to the Throne of God through the mythological realm of the seven heavens&quot; (Armstrong, A History of God--p. 247). Throne Mysticism in Kabbalah is explored extensively in Gravity's Rainbow.<br /> <br /> Perhaps this is obvious to some, but these &quot;Jews of Mathematics&quot; worship the Hamiltonian Tetractys [http://www.math.ucr.edu/home/baez/dublin/]; those other Jews worshipped the Tetragrammatron. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tetragrammaton] The proliferation of 4s continues.<br /> <br /> ==Page 534==<br /> <br /> '''Poiret gown'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> A gown designed by Paul Poiret (1879-1944), a French fashion designer based in Paris. &quot;In the annals of fashion history, Paul Poiret is best remembered for freeing women from corsets and further liberating them through pantaloons . . . it was Poiret's remarkable innovations in the cut and construction of cloting . . . Working with fabric directly onto the body, Poiret helped to pioneer a radical approach to dressmakeing that relied more on the skills of drapery than on those of tailoring.&quot; (from [http://www.metmuseum.org/special/se_event.asp?OccurrenceId={0DC3D00F-4611-4F91-8DC2-CC3C1A5C48D5} MetMuseum], <br /> New York Metropolitan Museum's Special Exhibitions, ''Poiret: King of Fashion'', May 9, 2007 to August 5, 2007). For a picture of Poiret gown see [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Image:Poiretgown.jpg Poiret Gown]. ''The New York Times'' reported on February 1, 2007 that A Poiret Gown Brings $5,500 at [http://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html?res=9B07EFDA1538F93AA15756C0A967948260 Christie's Auction] - the gown was made in 1913 when Poiret was at the height of his career. For his bio see [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Paul_Poiret Poiret].<br /> <br /> '''''green and long'''''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Pickle, or... what?<br /> : A green and long ''gherkin'' (a small, immature fruit of a variety of cucumber used in pickling).<br /> <br /> ==Page 535==<br /> <br /> '''no-name wine'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> 1970s idiom for common European practice?<br /> <br /> '''set theory'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Set theory deals with the properties of well-defined collections, or ''sets'', of entities - the ''elements'' or ''members'' of the set - conceived as a whole. The elements may be of a mathematical nature or non-mathematical. The set theory grew out of the German mathematician Georg Cantor's (1845-1918) study of infinite sets of real numbers. <br /> <br /> The ''language of sets'' has become an important tool for all branches of mathematics, but is of very little relevance to the practice of mathematics in everyday life. As a source of metaphors, however, it's been quite productive; &quot;subset,&quot; &quot;superset,&quot; &quot;universe,&quot; &quot;intersection&quot; and &quot;Venn diagram&quot; have found varying degrees of acceptance. Recasting Aristotle's syllogisms in set-theoretic language also makes them easier for many people to understand.<br /> <br /> '''Hamilton . . . early genius'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Hamilton, according to ''Chambers Biographical Dictionary'', &quot;at fifteen knew thirteen languages, had read Newton's ''Principia'', and commenced original investigations&quot;. At twenty-two, &quot;while still an undergraduate, he was appointed professor of Astronomy at Dublin and Irish Astronomer-Royal&quot;; at thirty &quot;he was knighted&quot;.<br /> <br /> '''Hamilton . . . in the grip of a first love'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> ???&lt;br&gt;<br /> Pynchon probably didn't mean Quaternion was Hamilton's first love, but its effect on him was similar to that of a first love. In 1843 at the age of 38 Hamilton invented the Quaternion, the first non-communtative algebra to be studied. He felt this would revolutionise mathematical physics, and he spent the rest of his life working on it. In 1853 he published a large volume, ''Lectures on Quaternions'', on his grand invention. The last seven years of his life, Hamilton was writing an 800-page book ''Elements of Quaternions'' modeling on Euclid's ''Elements''. The last chapter of the book was completed by his son after his death.<br /> <br /> '''the Walt Whitman of English physics'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Whitman pops up again, last seen on [[ATD_489-524#Page_491|page 491]].<br /> <br /> ==Page 536==<br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> '''Oscar Wilde'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Note that Wilde's Dorian Gray also undergoes a kind of bilocation.<br /> <br /> '''Kursaal'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Spa. Casino ?<br /> <br /> '''vectors'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> For serious minds see Cf [[ATD_525-556#Page 526|page 526:Gibbsian Vectors]], but let's follow Pynchon's lighter mood, here is a non-mathematical definition by Kamen (1995):<br /> :''Many things have more than direction;''<br /> :''The magnitude is also a question.''<br /> :''With acceleration or force,''<br /> :''And many more things, of course,''<br /> :''It's vectors that make the connection.''<br /> <br /> '''Curls'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Cf [[ATD_318-335#Page 326|page 326:Curl]]: curl is a vector operator that shows a vector field's rate of rotation.<br /> <br /> '''Laplacians'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Pierre-Simon, Marquis de Laplace (March 23, 1749 – March 5, 1827); French mathematician and astronomer who summarized and extended the work of his predecessors in his five volume Mécanique Céleste (Celestial Mechanics) (1799-1825), translating the geometrical study of mechanics used by Isaac Newton to one based on calculus, known as physical mechanics.<br /> <br /> He is also the discoverer of Laplace's equation. Although the Laplace transform is named in honor of Laplace, who used the transform in his work on probability theory, the transform was discovered originally by Leonhard Euler. The Laplace transform appears in all branches of mathematical physics — a field he took a leading role in forming. The Laplacian differential operator, much relied-upon in applied mathematics, is likewise named after him. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Laplace].<br /> <br /> :Cf [[ATD_318-335#Page 326|page 326:Laplacian]]: Laplacian is a differential operator named after Laplace. The text here was talking about mathematical operations and operators — rates of change, rotations, partial differentials, Curls, ''Laplacians'', . . .<br /> <br /> '''scream'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Scream motif.<br /> <br /> '''beginning to appal'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> By 1905 there had been years of outrage at conditions in the Belgian Congo, King Leopold's private fief. Conrad's ''Heart of Darkness'' had been published as a serial in Blackwood's Magazine in 1899 and as a book in 1902. There were missionaries' accounts of the brutality, and newspaper reports. Leopold and his apologists published rebuttals. The Norton Critical Edition of ''Heart of Darkness'' contains an extensive collection of both.<br /> <br /> '''baize'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Baize is a coarse woolen felt.<br /> <br /> ==Page 537==<br /> <br /> '''broken symmetries'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Broken_symmetry Broken symmetry] is a concept used widely in mathematics and physics. For a simplest explanation (good enough for the text here), this term means that an object breaks either rotational symmetry or translational sysmetry - when one can only rotate an object in certain angles or when one is able to tell if the object has been shifted sideways. For a little bit more detailed explanation see [http://www.lassp.cornell.edu/sethna/OrderParameters/BrokenSymmetry.html Identify the Broken Symmetry]; or even more [http://scienceweek.com/2005/sw050708-6.htm On Broken Symmetry].<br /> <br /> '''''sphinxe Khnopffienne'''''&lt;br&gt;<br /> refers to the Belgian symbolist painter Fernand Khnopff (1858-1921), famous for his painting &quot;The Caress&quot;, in which a female sphinx erotically lures a young man. The painting can be seen in the [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fernand_Khnopff wikipedia entry]<br /> <br /> '''Pléiade Lafrisée'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> in French, &quot;friser&quot; means to curl or twist. &quot;La frisée&quot; could mean &quot;curled,&quot; by extension &quot;twisted.&quot; The Pleiades is a cluster of hundreds of stars, though only a few are visible, sometimes referred to as The Seven Sisters. If Pleiades are Sisters, Pléiade is ''one'' Sister, so her name means Twisted Sister!<br /> <br /> '''''Conseilleuse'''''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Female consultant?<br /> <br /> ==Page 538==<br /> <br /> '''retroversion matrix'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> ???<br /> <br /> '''''Ma foi'''''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Literally &quot;My faith&quot;, i.e. &quot;By my faith!&quot;, a mild exclamation of incredulity.<br /> <br /> '''ten thousand francs'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> <br /> Based on currency conversions relative to gold, this is equivalent to<br /> about $30,000 US today.<br /> <br /> '''piker'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Someone cheap or cautious, possibly named after people from PIke County, Missouri, who came to California in the 1800s, looking for work. They were poor, hence cheap.<br /> <br /> '''what is a Quaternino?'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Cf [[ATD_525-556#Page 525|page 525:Quaternions]] for a mathematical definition. From ''The Random House Dictionary of the English Languages'', The Unabridged Edition (1966): Quaternion is &quot;a quantity or operator expressed as the sum of a real number and three complex numbers, equivalent to the ''quotient of two vectors''. The field of quaternions is not commutative under multiplication.&quot;.<br /> <br /> '''Bertie ('Mad Dog') Russell'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> 'Mad Dog' seems to be used with heavy irony here. Bertrand Russell was known most for his rationalism, so to speak, his work in modern logic. <br /> He did little in his public roles (at this time in AtD) that would have <br /> him referred to as &quot;crazy', as we say, beyond the social norm, &quot;mad&quot;. <br /> It might be argued that his use of 'logic' against philosophers such as Hegel and McTaggart within ''Against the Day'' showed up their 'madness'.<br /> (Many did think McTaggart was a bit...different...for seriously not believing in Time.) McTaggart broke with Russell after an early influential friendship---Russell was the younger man and the influenced one. He said he was an Hegelian because of McTaggart--Russell wrote in his<br /> Autobiography that McTaggart said he no longer wanted to meet/talk with him bcause he could no longer stand Russell's opinions.<br /> <br /> [http://nobelprize.org/nobel_prizes/literature/laureates/1950/russell-bio.html Bertrand Russell] (1872-1970) was a British mathematician, philosopher, logician and social critic. Best known for his work in mathermatical logic and analytic philosophy. In late spring of 1901 he discovered the so-called [http://plato.stanford.edu/entries/russell-paradox/ Russell Paradox], &quot;the most famous of the logical or set-theoretical paradoxes. The paradox arises within naive set theory by considering the set of all sets that are not members of themselves. Such a set appears to be a member of itself if and only if it is not a member of itself, hence the paradox.&quot; (On-line Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy). He won the 1950 Nobel Prize in Literature in &quot;recognition of his varied and significant writings in which he champions humanitarian ideals and freedom of thought&quot;.<br /> <br /> '''Barry Nebulay'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> nebulae: formed from the diffusion of gas in galaxies or as exploded stars (or the last ember-like stage of a star)&lt;br&gt; <br /> Most nebulae can be described as diffuse nebulae, which means that they are extended and contain no well-defined boundaries.[1] In visible light these nebulae may be divided into emission nebulae and reflection nebulae, a categorization that depends on how the light we see is created.<br /> <br /> '''Hegel... puns'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Probably refers to the fact that quite a lot of Hegel's philosophy deals with the is-ness of the world as we know and experience it.<br /> <br /> On page 787 of Bertrand Russell's ''History of Western Philosophy'' is a summary, perhaps, of this remark about Hegel's puns: &quot;as a result of analysis of the concept &quot;existence&quot;, modern logic has proved this [Cartesianism, refuted by Kant, reinstated by Hegel] argument invalid.....&quot;<br /> <br /> We know from other places that TRP himself seems to 'not like' Cartesianism. See 'cartesian' citations within this wiki.<br /> <br /> ==Page 539==<br /> <br /> '''a vector quotient'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> The result of one vector divided by another. According to the English dictionary definition of previous page this is just a Quaternion.<br /> <br /> '''unit vector'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Unit vector is a vector with magnitude of one. The unit vectors in 3-dimensional space, ''i, j, k'', associated with ''x, y, z'' directions are used in defining a general 3D vector (Cf [[ATD_525-556#Page 526|page 526:Gibbsian Vectors]]).<br /> <br /> '''''square root of minus one'''''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Imaginary number (Cf [[ATD_119-148#Page 132|page 133:Imaginary Number]]). The imaginary numbers ''i, j, k'' are used in defining a Quaternion (Cf [[ATD_525-556#Page 525|page 525:Quaternions]]).<br /> <br /> ''''Triangle Asana''''&lt;br&gt;<br /> A basic yoga pose. <br /> <br /> [http://yoga.org.nz/postures/yoga_positions_images_page.htm Here are images of several basic poses.]<br /> <br /> ''''Dr Rao abruptly vanished''''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Might be a reference to [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Martin_Gardner Martin Gardner]'s<br /> [http://www.amazon.com/No-Sided-Professor-Fantasy-Mystery-Philosophy/dp/0879753900 &quot;No-Sided Professor&quot;]<br /> <br /> ''''Quadrantal Versor Asana''''&lt;br&gt;<br /> A triangle pose taken that extra dimension.<br /> <br /> '''''&quot;Uwe moer!&quot;'''''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Looks a lot like the Dutch &quot;Uw moeder!&quot; - a cry of astonishment (&quot;Your mother!&quot;), the equivalent to the black English &quot;yo mama&quot;.<br /> <br /> '''noncommutative'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> A term typical to mathematics. A commutative equation is one that can operate in exact reverse and still yield the same results. 'Noncommutative' then suggests unidirectionality. The ability to go from point A to point B, but not from B to A.<br /> <br /> '''reticule'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> A woman's drawstring handbag; usually made of net or beading or brocade; also: A system of lines forming a pattern of squares at the focal plane of a telescope, used in micrometers.<br /> [http://www.astunit.com/tutorials/glossary.htm] <br /> :Isn't that sort of a red herring? &quot;[P]roducing from her reticule a . . . watch&quot; doesn't really allow of that second meaning. &lt;br&gt;<br /> :It could be a pun, since a reticule/ handbag always shows its pattern of lines, and a watch (timepiece) is drawn from it. Remember that, e.g. railroad lines of tracks, are a sign of industrialism encroaching on the natural and the spiritual.<br /> <br /> '''Vacheron &amp; Constantin watch'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Made by a Swiss company founded in 1755. From 1819 to 1970 the name was as in the text, then the &amp; dropped out. See the [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vacheron_Constantin Wikipedia entry.]<br /> <br /> '''hunting-case'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> For a pocket watch, a case with a hinged metal cover. More often called &quot;hunter case&quot; (and such a watch a &quot;hunter&quot;).<br /> <br /> ==Page 540==<br /> <br /> '''&quot;haar rekening, ja?&quot;'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> The bill, yes? (Dutch)?<br /> <br /> ''Her'' bill, yes? I.e., give the check to the lady.<br /> <br /> Given the presence of Chris 'Kit' Traverse here, this very much suggests a reference to Christopher 'Kit' Marlowe, Elizabethan poet, playwright and contemporary of Shakespeare. Marlowe was stabbed to death in 1593, in murky circumstances, ostensibly over a bill or 'reckoning', though he was widely believed to have been involved in some form of espionage.<br /> <br /> Strictly speaking &quot;haar rekening&quot; means that the lady pays for herself only. If Root wanted to make sure that Pléiade pays for the whole company he would have to say &quot;de hele rekening voor de dame&quot;. <br /> <br /> '''Piet Woevre'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> The Woëvre is a natural region of Lorraine in north-east France. It forms part of Lorraine plateau and lies largely in the department of Meuse. During World War I, there was much fighting there due to vast mineral resources that had been discovered in the Briey basin or Eastern Woevre at the end of the 19th century. &quot;Piet&quot; is Dutch for &quot;rock&quot; or &quot;stone&quot; and is a fairly common Dutch name, the English equivalent being Peter.<br /> <br /> If the surname is pronounced as in Dutch, Woevre is another Pynchon villain with a &quot;V&quot;-name (Vond, Weissman, Vibe). <br /> <br /> '''Force Publique'''&lt;br /&gt;<br /> The Force Publique (FP) was the official armed force for what is now the Democratic Republic of the Congo from 1885, (when the territory was known as the Congo Free State), through the period of direct Belgian rule (1908-60), until the beginning of the Second Republic in 1965. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Force_Publique Wikipedia entry]<br /> <br /> '''made him reach'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Possible allusion to a famous line, &quot;When I hear the word culture I reach for my gun.&quot; From Hanns Johst's biographical play ''Schlageter''. The original line is slightly different: &quot;Wenn ich Kultur höre ... entsichere ich meinen Browning,&quot; &quot;Whenever I hear of culture... I release the safety-catch of my Browning!&quot; (Act 1, Scene 1). It is spoken by another character in conversation with the young Schlageter. In the scene Schlageter and his wartime comrade Friedrich Thiemann are studying for a college examination, but then start disputing whether it's worthwhile doing so when the nation is not free. <br /> <br /> The line is often misattributed to better-known Nazis and others [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hanns_Johst].<br /> <br /> *In Jean-Luc Godard's 1963 film [http://www.chicagoreader.com/movies/archives/0997/09057.html ''Le Mépris'' (''Contempt'')], Jack Palance's character &quot;Jeremy Prokosch,&quot; an American movie-producer, intones to Fritz Lang: &quot;Whenever I hear the word culture, I reach for my checkbook.&quot;<br /> <br /> '''not unambiguous'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Ie, ambiguous.<br /> <br /> '''''rastaquoueres'''''&lt;br&gt;<br /> 8???<br /> <br /> '''de Decker'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> In Dutch/Flemish, the name means &quot;roofer.&quot; (''De'' in these names almost never means &quot;of, from&quot; as in French; it's nearly always the definite article.)<br /> <br /> ==Page 541==<br /> <br /> '''''bobbejaan'''''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Afrikaans: baboon. (Afrikaans is the language spoken by descendants of Dutch colonists in present-day South Africa. Some items identified as Dutch or Flemish in this wiki may really be Afrikaans.)<br /> <br /> The South African song &quot;Bobbejaan klim die berg&quot; (&quot;Bobbejaan climbed the hill&quot;) is the source of the stage name of Belgium's most famous country and western musician, Bobbejaan Schoepen (b. 1925). In 1943 he was suppressed by the Nazis after performing a South African song, &quot;Mamma, 'k wil 'n man hê&quot; (&quot;Mama, I want a man&quot;), which contains the line &quot;No, Mama, I don't want a German, because I don't like pork.&quot; He founded the Bobbejaanland theme park in Belgium, where he still lives.<br /> <br /> '''MKIV/ODC... Mark Four'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> This would be the Mark IV Ohmic Drift Compensator ([[ATD 557-587#Page 565|Page 565]]), a key component of the Q-weapon, which &quot;regulates how much light is allowed to enter the silvering of the mirror! Special kind of refraction! Calibrated against imaginary index! Dangerous! Of the essence!'&quot;<br /> <br /> '''not part of your remit'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Not included in your job description, instructions, authorization. &quot;Remit&quot; (noun) is usually a British usage.<br /> <br /> '''''gatkruiper'''''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Dutch/Flemish: brownnose, ass-kisser.<br /> <br /> '''one on her wrist'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> All the bruises reflect some refinement or artistry except this one, which may have been inflicted crudely.<br /> <br /> '''over the day'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Title motif?<br /> <br /> ==Page 542==<br /> <br /> '''trans-horizontic'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Across the horizon -- &quot; a screaming comes across the sky&quot;<br /> <br /> '''Edmund Whittaker'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Edmund Whittaker (1873-1956), an English mathematician. He is best known for his work in numerical analysis. And he contributed widely to applied mathematics, mathematical physics and the theory of special functions. He also worked on celestial mechanics and the history of applied mathermatics and physics. ([http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/E._T._Whittaker Whittaker]).<br /> <br /> The Sir Edmund Whittaker Memorial Prize is awarded every four years by the Edinburgh Mathematical Society to an outstanding young mathematician having a specified connection with Scotland [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sir_Edmund_Whittaker_Memorial_Prize]. <br /> <br /> '''louche'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> The cloudy effect caused by the addition of water to absinthe. Dictionary definition: &quot;of questionable taste or morality; decadent.&quot;<br /> <br /> '''cheval-glass'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Standing mirror in a freestanding vertical frame.<br /> <br /> '''as if someone'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Sound-cancelling vs opacity-cancelling?<br /> <br /> ==Page 543==<br /> <br /> '''wraith of Pleiade Lafrisee'''<br /> <br /> Pleiade manifests one of her not-visible stars. Perhaps this sister has somehow twisted herself on an imaginary axis ala Dr. V. Ganesh Rao.<br /> <br /> '''monitory'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Warning, giving advice, by extension ominous or menacing.<br /> <br /> '''Against....the day....'''<br /> Note: this phrase happens at the exact halfway point of the novel: p.542.3<br /> <br /> '''He Who Must Come'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> The evil-doer who must come might be Adolf Hitler. It would make sense. The implication being that Europe is precipitating into a no-return situation. Capitalism cannot but end in WW2.&lt;br&gt;<br /> Ah, a lot more and less than capitalism going on here, especially if anyone specific like Hitler is meant. <br /> :When French writers use this phrase (''celui qui doit venir'') they '''do''' mean the Messiah . . . although a few devout quibblers point out that the Messiah has already come. It's rather tiresome Googling the phrase; the first 83 hits definitely refer to Christ and most of them quote the first verses of Matthew 11. But there's also a Camus reference (in English, I think) down at No. 90, if anyone has a JSTOR account:<br /> :links.jstor.org/sici?sici=0361-1299(1985)39%3A4%3C251%3ACFS%22M%3E2.0.CO%3B2-X <br /> <br /> Recalls Yeats' 'The Second Coming' once again: &quot;And what rough beast, its hour come round at last, Slouches towards Bethlehem to be born?&quot; [http://chumpsofchoice.blogspot.com/2007/05/casino-royale-in-flanders-field.html#c3637134446204467798 ]<br /> <br /> '''General Boulanger'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/General_Boulanger Georges Boulanger], French military man, and War Minister in the late 19th century. He was one of those men &quot;on a white horse&quot; that some conservatives looked to, as he urged an attack on Germany and the end of the French Republic with a return to monarchy. He was also notorious for his harsh reprisals against workers' demonstrations. &quot;'Boulangisme'&quot; threatened a coup in 1889, but the general's procrastination brought the crisis to an end.&lt;br&gt;<br /> In ''The Infernal Machine: A History of Terrorism''<br /> by Matthew Carr, 2007, Boulanger is called the &quot;father&quot; of fascism.<br /> <br /> '''what death and what transfiguration'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Allusion to Richard Strauss' tone poem &quot;Death and Transfiguration&quot; (''Tod und Verklärung''), premiered in 1890.<br /> <br /> '''''&quot;Zeker&quot;'''''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Dutch: certainly.<br /> <br /> '''''dead cert'''''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Dead certainty, sure thing.<br /> <br /> '''Von Schlieffen'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Alfred von Schlieffen was the author of a German war plan to win a two-front war against both France and Russia by quickly defeating France before Russian troops could be mobilized. The [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Schlieffen_Plan Schlieffen Plan] included an attack on France through Belgium, disregarding its neutrality.<br /> <br /> '''Wilhelm has offered Leopold part of France, the ancient Duchy of Burgundy'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> [http://www.crwflags.com/fotw/flags/fr-bg.html History of the duchy.] [http://www.freiburg-madison.de/freiburg_history/1386-1517_The%20Early%20Habsburgs.htm Map,] with portrait of Duke Charles the Rash.<br /> <br /> '''lowlands'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Title of Pynchon's first published story. Here, ass?<br /> <br /> ==Page 544==<br /> <br /> '''Place d'Armes'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Main square of Ostend; literally &quot;drill field&quot;.<br /> <br /> '''peau de soie'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> &quot;Skin of silk&quot; A heavy, smooth satin with very fine ribbing; somewhat dull in sheen compared with traditional silk finishes.<br /> <br /> '''Krafft-Ebing'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Richard Freiherr von Krafft-Ebing, Austro-German psychiatrist and author of ''Psychopathia Sexualis'' (1886), a pioneering study of deviant sexual behavior and fetishism. Coined both ''sadism'' and ''masochism'' as terms for these respective behaviors. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Richard_Freiherr_von_Krafft-Ebing Wikipedia entry].<br /> <br /> '''toque'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Toque here refers to a lady's hat, originally of fur but here in velvet, which is rather like a flattened chef's hat in shape.<br /> <br /> Proust: in ''À l'ombre des jeunes filles en fleurs'' the narrator first sees Albertine wearing a toque. There seem to be quite a few Proust themes and references running throughout the novel. Indeed '''Pliade''' is the French publisher of Proust's works. <br /> <br /> '''guipure'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Lace trim.<br /> <br /> '''midinette'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> A shopgirl or dressmakers apprentice. A milliner.<br /> <br /> '''Lambic'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> A distinctive Belgian style of beer. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lambic Wikipedia]<br /> <br /> '''sous'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> <br /> Coins. Originally Roman gold coins, latterly any kind of coin.<br /> <br /> Specifically small change. She is affecting modesty by claiming that a hat like hers can be had for pennies in any unpretentious shop. In France &quot;sou is used as slang for money, as in ''sans le sou''. 'I'm broke', 'without money'. It is also a slang term for the Canadian cent (standard French, cent).&quot; ([http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sou Wikipedia])<br /> <br /> '''mayonnaise'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Brautigan's &quot;Trout Fishing in America&quot; famously ends with the word mayonnaise. [http://books.google.com/books?vid=ISBN0395500761&amp;id=rbEjDovfyNMC&amp;pg=RA2-PA111&amp;lpg=RA2-PA111&amp;ots=ELKl5b_6Tx&amp;dq=mayonnaise+trout.fishing&amp;num=100&amp;sig=BiyXRqJXRGrMWbrBNgn8de2kpCo#PRA2-PA112,M1 GoogleBooks]<br /> <br /> '''ovoöleaginous'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Another Pynchonic word combination, here denoting the two main ingredients of mayonnaise: 1) eggs, and 2) oil. It's not &quot;fecoventilatory collision&quot; as seen in &quot;Vineland,&quot; but it's nice.<br /> <br /> '''Grenache'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Grape commonly used in Rhone Valley wines e.g. Chateauneuf du Pape.<br /> <br /> '''Chantilly'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> <br /> Region north of Paris.<br /> <br /> Here the reference is to crème chantilly otherwise known as whipped cream. Chantilly mayonnaise is made by incorporating the beaten egg whites for extra lightness.<br /> <br /> '''attainder'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Legislative act declaring that a person is guilty of a crime and setting punishment without the benefit of a formal trial. The Constitution forbids the federal government (Article I, Section 9, clause 3) and the state governments (Article I, Section 10, clause 1) from passing bills of attainder.<br /> [www.historycentral.com/Civics/B.html] <br /> <br /> ''''''Aux armes, citoyens''''''&lt;br&gt;<br /> ''To arms, citizens'', from the French national anthem, ''La Marseillaise'' (1792). Kit confused La Mayonnaise with La Marseillaise.&lt;br&gt;<br /> Not &quot;Le Marseillaise,&quot; you nitwit!<br /> <br /> '''Louis XV'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> King of France 1715-1774 [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Louis_XV]. <br /> <br /> '''Cléo de Mérode'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Glamorous French ballerina (1875-1966), later Follies Bergere dancer and famous beauty. Her reputed intimacy with King Leopold was only a rumor [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cleo_de_Merode]. The character Madame Leonora Armfeldt in Stephen Sondheim's ''A Little Night Music'' has some features in common with her.<br /> <br /> '''Marquise de Pompadour'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Mistress of Louis XV,once friend of Voltaire and a power behind official scenes.[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Madame_de_Pompadour].<br /> <br /> ==Page 545==<br /> <br /> '''duc de Richelieu'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Duc de Richelieu (1696-1788), marshal of France, was a grandnephew of Cardinal Richelieu, and born in Paris. Apart from his reputation as a man of exceptionally loose morals, he attained, in spite of a defective education, distinction as a diplomatist and general. ([http://www.1911encyclopedia.org/Louis_Francois_Armand_du_Plessis,_duc_de_Richelieu duc de Richelieu] and cf [[ATD_489-524#Page 490|page 490:duc de Richelieu]])<br /> <br /> '''dubious 'victory' in 1756'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> As part of the Seven Years' War (1756-1763), duc de Richelieu (1696-1788), a Marshal of France, won a victory in the Battle of Minorca (May 20, 1756) over John Byng (1704-1757), a British Admiral. In spring of 1756 John Byng was sent with a small and undermanned fleet to relieve the British ''Port Mahon'' on the Mediterranean island of Minorca. During the battle ensued, several British ships were badly damaged by the French squadron while others, including Byng's flagship, were still out of effective firing range. Instead of engaging the enemy directly, Byng decided to keep the formation, allowing the French fleet to get away undamaged. ([http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_Minorca Battle of Minorca]).<br /> <br /> '''the ill-fated Admiral Byng'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> John Byng, convicted by court-martial of failure &quot;to do his utmost&quot; in the battle, shot in 1757. Remembered because of (1) his being the last officer of flag rank to be put to death for conduct in battle and (2) Voltaire's gag in ''Candide:'' &quot;In this country it is good to kill an admiral from time to time in order to encourage the others.&quot;<br /> <br /> '''cantharides'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> &quot;Spanish fly,&quot; contact irritant sometimes ill-advisedly used as aphrodisiac.<br /> <br /> '''Sadean'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Pertaining to the Marquis de Sade. The acts the chef performs on the egg and oil have the same names as acts of Sadean sex. <br /> <br /> '''''n'est-ce pas?'''''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Right? (Isn't that so?)<br /> <br /> '''vetiver'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> A grass (Vetiveria zizanioides) of tropical India, cultivated for its aromatic roots that yield an oil used in perfumery.<br /> [www.answers.com/topic/vetiver]. So, a perfume with, llterallly, roots in India.<br /> <br /> Vetiver makes frequent appearances throughout ''À la recherche du temps perdu.''<br /> <br /> '''pip'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> A beaut; in current parlance, a hottie.<br /> <br /> '''Q.P. system'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Quaternion Probability, page 536.<br /> <br /> '''Usine Régionale'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> French: as translated in the text.<br /> <br /> ==Page 546==<br /> <br /> '''disjunctive effects of thunderstorms'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Folk wisdom says a thunderstorm will cause mayonnaise to separate (oil from yolks).<br /> <br /> '''cottonseed oil'''<br /> <br /> Mayonnaisse like Smegmo and Crisco is a hydrogenated fat; cottonseed oil is a common factor to all three. Indeed, the name Crisco derives from the intial sounds of &quot;'''crys'''tallized '''c'''ottonseed '''o'''il&quot;. Note in the next few pages a mention of Candlebrow -- underscoring a tie-in between Mayonnaisse and Smegmo. <br /> <br /> It may be of interest to note that hydrogenation may have a symbolic use for Pynchon. The process entails bubbling hydrogen through oil in the presence of a metal catalyst such as nickel, platinum, aluminum at 248 to 410 degrees. Remnants of these metals stay in the finished product, and when consumed can lead to an increase in heavy metals in the human body.<br /> <br /> Eating hydrogenated oils is like eating plastic. The body does not recognize that these molecules have been mutated and tries to use them as essential fatty acids. But they cannot perform the same function, and as a result hydrogenated oils can cause short circuits in the electrical flow that controls the heartbeat, nerve functions, cell division and mental balance. They also create free radicals (anarchists!) that are linked to cancers. Free radicals plus metal remnants are a major contributor to cancer, heart disease, immune system dysfunction, osteoporosis, depression, chronic fatigue, Alzheimers, and neurological diseases. It is estimated that over 200 million people have died prematurely because of the hydrogenated oils found in our diets. [http://www.drz.org/asp/newsletter/default.asp?xt2id=23] Not to mention innocent bystanders killed by mentally imbalanced people whose imbalance may stem from the ingestion of hydrogenated oils -- there may be some underlying reality to the &quot;Twinkie defense.&quot;<br /> <br /> '''lounge suit'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> A lounge suit is another name for business suit consisting of a matching jacket and trousers or skirt.<br /> <br /> '''congress shoes'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> ankle high shoes with elastic gussets in the sides (wordweb online)<br /> <br /> '''invisible hand'''<br /> <br /> Suggestive of Adam Smith's metaphor for market forces in economics.<br /> <br /> '''dripping-heads'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mayonnaise To make mayonnaise,] beat together egg yolks, salt, mustard and vinegar, then drip in oil while beating to form the emulsion. If you scale the process up for industrial production, you will automate the introduction of the oil, using nozzles that release it a drop at a time—but in a large vat you can have many such nozzles.<br /> <br /> '''''cuves d'agitation'''''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Vat or tank in which the mayonnaise is agitated or beaten.<br /> <br /> '''Clinique d'Urgence pour Sauvetage des Sauces'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> French: Emergency Clinic for Salvage of Sauces.<br /> <br /> ==Page 547==<br /> <br /> '''' ...engulfed in thick, slick, sour-smelling mayonnaise. ''''<br /> The whole Kit's experience in the mayonnaise factory is very much reminiscent to [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Roald_Dahl Roald Dahl]'s [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Charlie_and_the_Chocolate_Factory Charlie and the Chocolate Factory].<br /> <br /> '''''Cazzo, cretino'''''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Literally, &quot;Dick, cretin.&quot; ''Cazzo'' is a common Italian interjectionary obscenity, especially in the south. &quot;Cazzo, cretino,&quot; is akin to someone saying, &quot;Well shit, dummy,&quot; or &quot;F-ing moron!&quot;<br /> <br /> '''''È il cowboy!'''''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Italian: It's the cowboy!<br /> <br /> '''''vero?'''''&lt;br&gt;<br /> true? real?<br /> <br /> '''''Le bambole anarchiste, porca miseria'''''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Italian: Anarchist babes, oh boy.<br /> <br /> '''Oudenberg'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> A southeast suburb of Ostende.<br /> <br /> '''Quai de l'Entrepôt'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Warehouse Quay<br /> <br /> '''''ragazzi'''''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Italian: boys, guys.<br /> <br /> ==Page 548==<br /> <br /> '''General Boulanger'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> That the General was 'reactionary' and that the C of C bureaucracy had a 'defiant residue' of Boulangism, continues the characterization of the organization for which the Chums 'work'.&lt;br&gt;<br /> See p. 543 above, regarding a 2007 book in which Boulanger is called the 'father of fascism'.<br /> <br /> '''''timbres fictifs'''''&lt;br&gt;<br /> French: fictive postage stamps. Cf &quot;Lot 49&quot;.&lt;br&gt;<br /> Yes, stamps mean something in Pynchon's works; here, it seems important that these stamps are characterized as frauds.<br /> <br /> '''&quot;IIIb&quot;'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> As explained in the text.&lt;br&gt;<br /> &quot;Section IIIB (Intelligence) of the German High Command. After WWI, was funded by Alfred Hugenberg (financial backer of Nazi party)&quot;. From ''Sabotage'' by Sayers &amp; Kahn, 1942.[http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&amp;q=%22IIIB%27+%2B+INTELLIGENCE&amp;btnG=Search]. The authors state in the Forward, in 1942, &quot;that 'Nazi Germany' is the creation of spies and saboteurs&quot;. See ''V.'' &amp; ''Gravity's Rainbow'', of course. <br /> <br /> '''Germany might stand a better chance...'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> That is, if the French were to push into Alsace (per Boulanger) as the Germans executed the Schlieffen Plan [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Schlieffen_plan] for the encirclement of Paris, it would put the French at an even greater disadvantage...as actually happened in 1914. Had the Belgians and British not delayed the Germans in Flanders, and had the French railroads not performed speedily to bring the French troops back to the Marne, World War I could have had a very different outcome...an alternate history. <br /> <br /> '''revanchist'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Policies based on revenge, or a person following such policies. In General Boulanger's case, revenge against Germany for the Franco-Prussian War (that is, retaking Alsace, lost in 1871).<br /> <br /> '''the somewhat discomposed General'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Having died in 1891, the General by the time of the action is certainly somewhat '''de'''composed; brief biographies do not suggest he was ''non compos mentis,'' that is, mentally discomposed.<br /> <br /> ==Page 549==<br /> '''grow more and more invisible'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> What could be meant? Clearly, they inhabit bodies that people interact with?, as well as being characters in works of fiction.&lt;br&gt;<br /> Given what happens with the Chums as the story progresses [Spoiler bit, thematically], I suggest that their invisibility here<br /> means the entering of simple human life, to live out their lives 'anonymously' in history. I want to suggest this is largely a positive vision, indicated in other ways and places as well in TRPs work. Here is an overt bit of circumstantial evidence from Pynchon's introduction to Jim Dodge's novel ''Stone Junction'':&lt;br&gt;<br /> &quot;Equally difficult for those who might wish to proceed through life<br /> anonymously and without trace has been the continuing assault against<br /> the once-reliable refuge of the cash or non-plastic economy.&quot; [http://www.themodernword.com/pynchon/pynchon_essays_stone.html]<br /> <br /> '''cackled Darby'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> (When did he lose his innocence?)<br /> <br /> '''a modification of any salsician metaphor toward the diminutive'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Salsician: pertaining to sausage. Lindsay says Suckling's penis is better compared to a wiener than a knockwurst.<br /> <br /> '''&quot;Why you little–and I do mean 'little'–&quot;'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Another Simpsons reference? <br /> <br /> Noseworth, the Master-At-Arms of the Chums division of this organization with a defiant residue of 'fascism', who had no smell to Pugnax early on,<br /> is called out, either for real or in a sex-bashing putdown, for homosexuality. cf. homosexuality as a metaphor in ''Gravity's Rainbow''. <br /> <br /> '''dunes between Nieuport and Dunkirk'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Nieuport is a Belgian seaport about 10 miles southwest of Ostend. Dunkirk is a French port (less than 10 miles inside the French border) about 20 miles southwest of Nieuport. The latter was a site of one of the bloodest battle in World War I. The general area between Niewport and Dunkirk was the well traversed battle fields of two world wars. (Dunkirk was (in)famous for the British Army's escape from the Nazi German's assault in World War II.)<br /> <br /> '''power-receivers'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Not information, energy.<br /> <br /> ==Page 550==<br /> <br /> '''Lot's wife''' &lt;br&gt;<br /> Angels of God led Lot and his family out of Sodom as it was being destroyed and told them not to look back at the mayhem. Lot's wife, Edith, imprudently looked back and was transfigured into a pillar of salt.<br /> <br /> '''preference...for interiors'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> In [http://masondixon.pynchonwiki.com/wiki/index.php?title=Chapter_35:_349-361 Mason &amp; Dixon, p. 354] <br /> , the interiors of some coaches were larger than their exterior dimensions. Interiors have importance in Pynchon's worldview. Cf. &quot;invisibility&quot;, and a 'human life' above.&lt;br&gt;<br /> <br /> '''Italian grotto'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> an imitating recess or structure made to resemble a natural Italian grotto.<br /> <br /> '''a highly developed taste, moreover, for human blood'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Since Pugnax developed this taste in the Carpathians, home of Castle Dracula, this seems a clear reference to Bram Stoker's novel. <br /> <br /> '''Carpathians'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Major mountain range running northwest-southeast through Poland, Slovakia, western Ukraine and Romania.<br /> <br /> '''Uhlans'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Uhlan regiments belonged to the light cavalry. They wore splendid uniforms (model for some U.S. marching band uniforms). [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Uhlan Wikipedia article.]<br /> <br /> '''Temesvár'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Now Timişoara, extreme western Romania.<br /> <br /> ==Page 551==<br /> <br /> '''...separated by only a slice of Time...'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Miles is beginning to experience Time almost as a spatial dimension, his personal vector as traversing (!) 4-dimensional space, or perhaps multidimensional space, the mathematics for which is being debated in Ostend.<br /> <br /> '''securing the mess decks'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> The Chums follow U.S. Navy idiom in orders (frequently prefixed with &quot;Now&quot;) and shipboard activities (&quot;secure&quot; meaning &quot;whatever you did before, undo it now,&quot; in this case put away the dishes and fold up the tables).<br /> <br /> '''Ryder Thorn'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Tolkienesque name? Or perhaps it's a nod to the Ryder-Waite Tarot deck and to Kevin Thorn (Kevin Matthew Fertig, 1977-), the American professional wrestler better known by his ring name Kevin Thorn who is currently signed to World Wrestling Entertainment wrestling on its ECW brand. He has appeared in vigniettes with Ariel (Shelly Martinez, 1980-), the tarot card reader, who spits blood at the camera while she &quot;predicted the future of ECW.&quot; Yup, a stretch...<br /> <br /> *The name also evokes the Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse.<br /> <br /> '''He was at Candlebrow.'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Presumably a 'trespasser.'<br /> <br /> '''the four-note chord in the context of timelessness'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> A melody is formed by notes following one another in time; a chord on the ukulele violates that practice by having all the notes sound at once. A really clever little passage.<br /> Note: Jazz musicians describe musical improvisations as horizontal (with the melody) or vertical (with the chord)<br /> <br /> ==Page 552==<br /> <br /> '''knuckle-duster'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Brass knuckles.<br /> <br /> '''Diksmuide'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> 20 kilometers south of Ostend (about halfway to Ypres).<br /> <br /> ==Page 553==<br /> <br /> '''The terrain was flat...lowlands'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Not, this time, a reference to Pynchon's ''Lowlands'', but to the two-dimensionality of Flanders, as in Edwin A. Abbott's ''Flatland'' [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Flatland]; most humans, like the inhabitants of Flanders and Abbott's Flatlanders, experience life in two dimensions. <br /> <br /> '''Somewhere up in the sky was Miles' home...'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Whereas Miles and the Chums of Chance, in contrast, live in three dimensions. The mathematicians gathered in Ostend are trying to calculate how to experience and use vectors to live in four dimensions; in a way, to experience Time as a kind of spatial dimension. Miles, on P. 551, is demonstrating the beginnings of an intuitive discovery of how to experience Time as an almost spatial dimension. Which would be a sort of &quot;time travel&quot;, or at least an expanded view of life and history.<br /> <br /> '''retted'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> soaked in water or exposed to moisture (as flax or hemp) to facilitate the removal of the fiber from the woody tissue by partial rotting.<br /> <br /> ==Page 554==<br /> <br /> '''Ypres and Menin'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Municipalities in West Flanders that were sites of some of the bloodiest battles of WWI. At the beginning of the war, the British and Belgian stand helped save Paris from encirclement by the Germans, and saved the Channel ports, but as Thorn points out, the area became the western anchor of the Western Front trench system. The several Battles of Ypres saw the first uses of poison gas (Mustard Gas, dichlorodiethylsulfide, was first called Yperite), the use of enormous mines, and the legendary mud of Passchendaele [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Passchendaele]. <br /> <br /> '''Ten years from now'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> (1914?) through 1918? and beyond?. Another paramorphic mirror--what do we now face. Whatever it is, it is nuclear.<br /> <br /> '''Bosch'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Hieronymous Bosch (1450-1516), Dutch painter of nightmares. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hieronymus_Bosch Wikipedia entry].<br /> <br /> '''Brueghel'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Pieter Brueghel the Elder(1525-1569), Flemish painter.[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pieter_Brueghel_the_Elder Wikipedia entry].<br /> <br /> '''League'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> League of Nations? The League of Nations was formed after WWI to prevent future wars. Didn't succeed.<br /> <br /> No. In this case a historical unit of length, approximately three miles - &quot;league on league&quot; = tremendous masses<br /> <br /> '''where the needles went and which way to rotate them'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> I.e., how to push Thorn's buttons; the image is from acupuncture.<br /> <br /> ==Page 555==<br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> '''simpletons at the fair'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Making Pynchon's metaphor explicit.<br /> <br /> '''Chopin E-minor Nocturne'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Frédéric Chopin (1810-49), a Polish pianist and composer ([http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fr%C3%A9d%C3%A9ric_Chopin Chopin]). He was born in Warsaw, Poland to a Polish morther and a French father. He went to Paris at the age of 20 and died there at the age of 39. He was widely regarded as one of the most famous and influential composers for the piano. From 1837-47 he had a 10-year stormy relationship with the French writer George Sand. His E-minor Nocturne is a 4-minute long Romantic style piano solo composed in 1827. (A ''nocturne'' is usually a musical composition that is inspired by, or evocative of, the night [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nocturne Nocturne].)<br /> <br /> '''owl-light'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> ???glimmering or imperfect light or twilight hours.<br /> <br /> ''''plasmic hysteresis''''&lt;br&gt;<br /> <br /> A coined term, apparently similar in meaning to Miles’ phrase “failure of physical translation.” Plasma would take an older meaning of “form” or “shape.&quot; Hysteresis, according to Webster's, refers to “a retardation in effect when the forces on an object are changed.” Hysteresis is used to describe magnetic phenomenon as well as plastic or elastic materials, that involve changes to a rest state that last beyond the forces that cause them. Examples include recordings on magnetic tape or a thumbprint slowly disappearing from putty. In the context of this passage, plasmic hysteresis appears to describe the lingering visage of someone who is no longer present – a hysteresis of form only and thus a failed physical translation. See [http://www.etymonline.com/index.php?search=plasma&amp;searchmode=none etymology of plasma] and this nifty explanation of [http://www.lassp.cornell.edu/sethna/hysteresis/WhatIsHysteresis.html hysteresis]. <br /> <br /> Hysteresis has also been used to refer to “loops” in time, certainly apropos in this case. I stumbled across an excellent example in a 1980 episode of Dr. Who, in which the eponymous Dr. is trapped in “chronic hysteresis,” an endless loop or return to a previous <br /> point in time – very similar to the situation of Ryder Thorn. [http://www.drwhoguide.com/who_5q.htm Check it out for yourself!] <br /> <br /> <br /> ==Annotation Index==<br /> {{ATD PbP}}</div>

MKOHUT https://against-the-day.pynchonwiki.com/wiki/index.php?title=ATD_525-556&diff=14127 2007-10-21T14:17:51Z

<p>MKOHUT: /* Page 550 */</p> <hr /> <div>:'''&lt;big&gt;Please keep these annotations SPOILER-FREE by not revealing information from later pages in the novel.&lt;/big&gt;'''&lt;p&gt;&lt;br&gt;<br /> <br /> ==Page 525==<br /> <br /> '''Ostend'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Cf [[ATD_489-524#Page 521|page 521:Ostend]], a seaport in northwest Belgium. Among English-speaking tourists, Ostend (or Ostende) is best known as a ferry port. Ships have shuttled between Dover and Ostend for more than 150 years, and today's high-speed catamarans move hundreds of passengers and vehicles between these two ports in just two hours. But this thousand-year-old city is a popular beach resort with Belgians, who flock to Ostend for sun, surfing, sailing and the ''Kursaal'' (Casino). The fishing harbor and old town draw many visitors. Ostend is the only Belgian coastal resort that is as lively in the summer as in the winter. For more and pictures [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ostend Ostend].<br /> <br /> '''Fishermen's Quai'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Fishermen's Quay, also called De Trap. The shrimp boats come home here from the sea in the morning. Along the quay many stands sell lots of seafoods.<br /> <br /> '''Boulevard van Isenghem'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> A major thoroughfare in Ostend, locally called ''Van Iseghemlaan'', extending diagonally from seafront southwest through the city.<br /> <br /> '''street-plausible'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Presentable.<br /> <br /> '''Quai de l'empereur'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Since Ostende is in the Flemish part of Belgium this should be the Keizerskaai, a street along the old part of the harbour, 1919 renamed Vindictivelaan.<br /> <br /> '''estaminet'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> According to the OED - A café in which smoking is allowed. Now, any small establishment selling alcoholic liquor. <br /> <br /> '''twelve-centime'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> one centime is the French eqivalent of one cent. A twelve-centime beer would cost 12/100 of a franc.<br /> <br /> '''Quaternions'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Cf [[ATD_119-148#Page 130|page 130:Quaternions]]. Quaternions are a non-communtative extension of complex numbers (Hamilton, 1843).&lt;br&gt;<br /> <br /> Analogy with the complex numbers (Cf [[ATD_119-148#Page 132|page 132:complex number]]) being represented as a sum of real and imaginary parts, a + b''i'', where ''i''² = −1, a quaternion is defined as a combination a + b''i'' + c''j'' + d''k'', where ''i''² = ''j''² = ''k''² = ''i j k'' = −1, and a, b, c, d are ''four'' explicit real numbers. The non-commutative property refers to ''i j = −j i = k; j k = −k j = i; k i = −i k = j''. (i.e. ''i j ≠ j i; j k ≠ k j; k i ≠ i k''; etc.) The using of ''i, j, k'', the imaginary numbers (Cf [[ATD_119-148#Page 133|page 133:imaginary number]]), led to the phrases of &quot;the ''ijk'' lot&quot; of page 533 and &quot;creature of ''i-j-k''&quot; of page 534.<br /> <br /> '''Kellner'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> German: waiter, barman. Use of the German word would be insulting to the Belgian barman.<br /> <br /> '''''demi'''''&lt;br&gt;<br /> A half-pint glass (25 centilitres, actually).<br /> <br /> '''Lambic'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Pron. ''lahm-BEEK.'' Unique Belgian beer style, sour and often thin in body.<br /> <br /> '''skimmer'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Straw hat (&quot;Panama&quot;).<br /> <br /> ==Page 526==<br /> <br /> '''biquaternion'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Or &quot;octonion,&quot; an innovation of English mathematician W.K. Clifford, [[ATD_243-272#Page_249|referred to on p. 249.]]<br /> <br /> '''Barry Nebulay'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Pun on a term from heraldry, ''barry nebuly.'' Barry (rhymes with &quot;starry,&quot; not &quot;carry&quot;) refers to a shield divided into an even number of parts by horizontal lines. Nebuly signals that the lines are deformed into stylized &quot;cloud&quot; shapes. [http://www.rarebooks.nd.edu/digital/heraldry/partitions.html Here you can see an example.] If a ''British'' author had a character with a heraldic name, it would suggest a pseudonym.<br /> <br /> '''University of Dublin'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> The Alma Mater of Hamilton, the father of Quaternion. He studied, graduated and taught at Trinity College, the University of Dublin, Ireland's oldest university.<br /> <br /> If University College, Dublin, then Joyce had graduated in 1902.&lt;br&gt;<br /> <br /> '''Quaternioneers'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Quaternion believers.<br /> <br /> '''Gibbsian Vectors'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Vector Analysis (or Vector Calculus) developed by Willard Gibbs (Cf [[ATD_26-56#Page 29|page 29:Professor Gibbs]]) in 1881 and 1884. It is a branch of calculus that deals with vectors and process involving vectors. It is much more easily applied to phsics and other applied sciences than Hamilton's Quaternions (Cf [[ATD_525-556#Page 525|page 525:Quaternions]]).&lt;br&gt;<br /> A vector is defined by not only a magnitude but also a direction, such as a velocity vector, ''v'' is defined by ''v'' = a''i'' + b''j'' + c''k'',<br /> where a, b, and c are the magnitudes of the velocity components in directions of ''i, j'' and ''k'' which are unit vectors, (not imaginary numbers as in Quaternion), with magnitude of 1. In three dimensional cases and ''xyz'' coordinate system is used then ''i, j, k'' are related to ''x, y, z'' directions (&quot;''xyz'' people&quot; of page 533); but they, in general, may be used irrespective of the notation of the coordinates.<br /> Mathematical operations (addition, subtraction, multiplication), differentiation (''curl'' — Cf [[ATD_318-335#Page 326|page 326:Curl]] and p. 536, ''Laplacian'' — Cf [[ATD_318-335#Page 326|page 326:Laplacian]] and p. 536, etc) and integration can be applied to vectors. It is interesting to know that one of the two multiplication operations is called cross product; for unit vectors (''i, j, k'') perpendicular to each other, then, ''i × i = j × j = k × k = 0'', ''i × j = k'', ''j × i = -k'', etc. ([http://web.mit.edu/wwmath/vectorc/summary.html Vector Calculus]).&lt;br&gt;<br /> A simple vector anyalysis example here: if ''k'', the unit vector, stands for the direction upward and g is the gravitational acceleration, then the acceleration vector, ''a'', for a projectile, is defined for downward action, (the ''i'' and ''j'' directions have zero components):&lt;br&gt;<br /> :''a'' = -g ''k''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Integrating ''a'' would give the velocity vector, ''v''&lt;br&gt;<br /> :''v'' = -g t ''k''&lt;br&gt;<br /> for zero initial velocity case, and t standing for time.&lt;br&gt;<br /> And integrating ''v'' would yield the position vector, ''h'', for the projectile&lt;br&gt;<br /> :''h'' = -½ g t² ''k''&lt;br&gt;<br /> toward the sea level.<br /> <br /> '''Quaternionists'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Quaternion believers, same as Quaternioneers.<br /> <br /> '''Tasmania'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Tasmania is an island of the southern coast of Australia. Known for its relative isolation, it was a prison for English convicts in the 1800s<br /> <br /> '''Having been inseparable from the rise of the electromagnetic'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> In his 1865 work ''The Dynamical Theory of the Electromagnetic Field'', James Clerk Maxwell unified electricity and magnetism. He put forth twenty equations, with twenty unknowns, in vector form (though different in notation and form than the equations that now bear his name) that completely described all known electromagnetic phenomena. In his 1873 treatise on the subject, he expressed the equations in the mathematics of quaternions. It appears that the quaternion form of the equations remained popular even though, at the behest of his publisher, Maxwell reverted to the 1865 form in the second edition (1881)--though they remain scattered throughout. In 1892 Oliver Heaviside (On the Forces, Stresses, and Fluxes of Energy in the Electromagnetic Field. ''Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society of London.'' A, Vol. 183. pp423-480), while spewing scientific vitriol at the Quaternionists, reformulated Maxwell's original 1865 equations (Heaviside chose to remove the vector potential and scalar fields from the equations; the inclusion of these terms had served as Maxwell's justification for the use of quaternions), and provided the notation still in use today. See this [http://www.zpenergy.com/modules.php?name=Downloads&amp;d_op=getit&amp;lid=60 PDF] for the evolution of Maxwell's equations.<br /> <br /> '''Hamiltonian devotees'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> The Quaternion faction, after William Hamilton, who devised the scheme.<br /> <br /> '''Grand Hôtel de la Nouvelle Digue'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> There is a Hotel Digue in the Seychelles; this is a New Hotel Digue by Pynchon? <br /> <br /> Grand Hotel of New Dyke, may be a made up hotel name.<br /> <br /> '''anterooms of death'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> This metaphor is sometimes applied to concentration camps. Here the lyric &quot;feel like I'm fixin' to die&quot; seems more apposite.<br /> <br /> '''Belgian Art Nouveau'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Art Nouveau, 1890(or 80) to 1914, explores a new style in the visual arts and architecture that developed in Europe and North America at the end of the 19th century. At its height (~1907), Art Nouveau was a concerted attempt to create an international style based on decoration. It was developed by a brilliant and energetic generation of artists and desisgners, who sought to fashion an art form appropriate to the post-Industrial Revolution modern age.&lt;br&gt;<br /> Brussels was one of the Art Nouveau centers and represented different style from the others. The jewelers there, accepted as artists rahter than craftsmen, (together with those in Paris) defined Art Nouveau in jewelery and achieved the most renown. ([http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Art_Nouveau Art Nouveau]).<br /> <br /> ==Page 527==<br /> <br /> '''dossing'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> British slang for &quot;sleeping&quot;, &quot;staying overnight&quot;<br /> <br /> '''Russian nihilists'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> :The following four are local, Belgian, not Russian, nihilists !<br /> <br /> '''Eugénie'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Female. Possibly named for Empress Eugénie (1826-1920), consort of French Emperor Napoleon III. Ultimately for St. Eugenia, 3rd-century Roman martyr whose feast is celebrated on December 25.<br /> <br /> '''Fatou'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Female. A pseudonym? In view of the date of the action, certainly not named after [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fatou the mathematician Fatou] (1878-1929).<br /> <br /> '''Denis'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Male. Named for St. Denis or Dionysius, patron saint of Paris and of France, 3rd-century bishop of Paris, martyr, beheaded on the hill now called Montmartre. &quot;Montjoie St. Denis!&quot; was a warcry used by French troops in the Middle Ages. His intercession is effective against demonic possession and headache.<br /> <br /> '''Policarpe'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Male. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Polycarp Saint Polycarp] was a Christian bishop of Smyrna (now İzmir in Turkey) in the second century. He was stabbed and died a martyr after an attempt to burn him at the stake failed. His intercession is sought against earache and dysentery.<br /> <br /> '''Young Congo'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Probably in reference to the [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Young_Turks Young Turks], a Turkish revolutionary movement<br /> <br /> '''Garde Civique'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> A part of the Belgian army. According to the [http://www.1911encyclopedia.org/Belgium 1911 Britannica], &quot;the mass of the garde civique does not pretend to possess military value. It is a defence against sedition and socialism.&quot;<br /> <br /> '''French Second Bureau boys'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Deuxieme Bureau; French Intelligence.<br /> <br /> '''''phalange'''''&lt;br&gt;<br /> French: phalanx. A military (here mock-military) group ready for combat. &lt;br&gt;<br /> <br /> It also conjures up memories of the early 19th century utopian socialist <br /> Charles Fourier, who theorized that people should live communally in &quot;phalanxes&quot; of a specific number based upon their &quot;passions.&quot; His solid ideas included equality of the sexes, but he also taught wacky things such as the moon being made of lemonade. Of particular relevance is his rejection of industrial civilization. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Utopian_socialism]<br /> <br /> '''&quot;...until something had happened, something too terrible to remember...&quot;'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Again this theme of an unknowable past transgression, here invoked almost as if the unknown signifies the other 'lateral' (a word which has cropped up at least a dozen times already) 'vector'.<br /> <br /> '''the Digue'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> French for &quot;dyke&quot;<br /> <br /> '''Congo... Belgians'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> The Belgian colonisation of the Congo was, as Conrad's ''Heart of Darkness'' makes clear, notable for its greed and brutality.<br /> <br /> '''Leopold, King of the Belgians'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> 1835-1909, reigned 1865-1909. A man of almost Nixonian fiendishness. In the Congo he acted as sole proprietor and absolute ruler. The positive outcomes of his exploitation include ''Heart of Darkness'' and the phrase &quot;crime against humanity.&quot;<br /> <br /> '''co-conscious'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> mental processes outside the main stream of consciousness but sometimes available to it — from Merriam-Webster's Medical Dictionary.<br /> <br /> '''Force Publique'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Belgian armed forces operating in the Belgian Congo ([http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Force_Publique Wikipedia]). &quot;King Leopold's private army&quot; may be a more accurate description.<br /> <br /> '''rubber worker'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> See above: One of the early missions of the FP was to increase rubber export quotas through forced labor and related atrocities.<br /> <br /> ==Page 528==<br /> <br /> '''''khâgne'''''&lt;br&gt;<br /> an informal term used by French students for Classes Préparatoires Littéraires, the two-year cycle of classes taken after the Baccalaureat (taken at age 17-18), to prepare for the entrance examination to the Ecole Normale Supeieure. ([http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kh%C3%A2gne khâgne]).<br /> <br /> '''Reclus'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> J. J. Élisée Reclus (1830-1905), French geographer but mainly educated in Germany. Several times he was forced to leave France because of his political views; he traveled widely in Europe, the British Isles, the United States, and South America and for many years lived in Switzerland. He was professor of comparative geography at the University of Brussels from 1895 to 1905. He had quite an extensive connection with various socialist and anarchist circles (met Bakunin while in Florence).Once he was imprisoned in Versailles in 1871 for his part in the ''Paris Commune''. In 1882 he initiated the ''Anti-marriage movement'' while in Geneva. [[http://academic.reed.edu/formosa/texts/reclusbio.html Reclus]).<br /> <br /> '''Stirnerite'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Follower of Max Stirner, 19th century German philosopher and author of ''The Ego and Its Own,'' a work influential in anarchist thought. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Max_Stirner Wikipedia entry].<br /> <br /> ''Max Stirner'''s (1806-56) attacks on systematic philosophy, his denial of absulutes, and his rejection of abstract concepts of any kind often places him among the first philosophical nihilists. For Stirner, achieving individual freedom is the only law; and the state, which necvessarily imperils freedom, must be destroyed. Even beyond the oppression of the state, though, are the constraints imposed by others because their very existence is an obstable compromising individual freedom. Thus Stirner argues that existence is an endless &quot;war of each against all&quot; (1845). (taken from the paragraph about Max Stirner in [http://www.iep.utm.edu/n/nihilism.htm#H1 Nihilism])&lt;br&gt;<br /> Sourcing here? Much complexity in properly understanding Stirner, who has some Pynchon-like qualities, to say the least. From the Stanford Dictionary of Philosophy&lt;br&gt;<br /> His major work:<br /> The Ego and Its Own<br /> Much of Stirner's prose—which is crowded with aphorisms, italicisation, and hyperbole—appears calculated to disconcert. Most striking, perhaps, is the use of word play. Rather than reach a conclusion through the conventional use of argument, Stirner often approaches a claim that he wishes to endorse by exploiting words with related etymologies or formal similarities. For example, he associates words for property (such as ‘Eigentum’) with words connoting distinctive individual characteristics (such as ‘Eigenheit’) in order to promote the claim that property is expressive of selfhood. (Stirner's account of egoistic property—see below—gives this apparently orthodox Hegelian claim a distinctive twist.)<br /> <br /> This rejection of conventional forms of intellectual discussion is linked to Stirner's substantive views about language and rationality. His unusual style reflects a conviction that both language and rationality are human products which have come to constrain and oppress their creators. Stirner maintains that accepted meanings and traditional standards of argumentation are underpinned by a conception of truth as a privileged realm beyond individual control. As a result, individuals who accept this conception are abandoning a potential area of creative self-expression in favour of adopting a subordinate role as servants of truth. In stark contrast, Stirner insists that the only legitimate restriction on the form of our language, or on the structure of our arguments, is that they should serve our individual ends. It is the frequent failure of ordinary meanings and standard forms of argument to satisfy his interpretation of this criterion which underpins Stirner's remorselessly idiosyncratic style.<br /> <br /> The Ego and Its Own has an intelligible, but scarcely transparent, structure. It is organised around a tripartite account of human experience, initially introduced in a description of the stages of an individual life. The first stage in this developmental narrative is the realistic one of childhood, in which children are constrained by material and natural forces such as their parents. Liberation from these external constraints is achieved with what Stirner calls the self-discovery of mind, as children find the means to outwit those forces in their own determination and cunning. The idealistic stage of youth, however, contains new internal sources of constraint, as individuals once more become enslaved, this time to the spiritual forces of conscience and reason. Only with the adulthood of egoism do individuals escape both material (external) and spiritual (internal) constraints, learning to value their personal satisfaction above all other considerations.<br /> <br /> Stirner portrays this dialectic of individual growth as an analogue of historical development, and it is a tripartite account of the latter which structures the remainder of the book. Human history is reduced to successive epochs of realism (the ancient, or pre-Christian, world), idealism (the modern, or Christian, world), and egoism (the future world). <br /> <br /> What about these &quot;successive epochs&quot; in understanding ATD?<br /> <br /> Stirner's major work, The Ego and Its Own has been reissued in English a number of times in Pynchon's lifetime,from the 60s on. (Not that TRP could not have read it in German!)<br /> <br /> '''''Anarcho-individualiste'''''&lt;br&gt;<br /> i.e. he has doctrinal differernces with Stirnerism, strictly speaking; see P. 324, and &quot;Eigenheit&quot;.<br /> <br /> '''Leopold'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> See p. 527.<br /> <br /> '''going down lately'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Being assassinated.<br /> <br /> '''Sipido'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Jean-Baptiste Sipido (1884-1959), a Belgian socialist. Accusing the Prince of Wales of causing thousands of inocents were killed in the Boer War in South Africa, on April 5, 1900, Sipido leaped onto the foot board of the royal compartment right before the train left the North Railway Station (Gare du Nord), Brussel, and fired two (or one? as reported in ''The Manchester Guardian'', or four? as stated in the text here) shots through the window but missed everyone inside. He was arrested, tried and acquitted. The leader of the House of Commons called the acquittal a &quot;grave and most unfortunate miscarriage of justice.&quot; ([http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jean-Baptiste_Sipido Sipido]).<br /> <br /> '''Prince... of Wales'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> (Maud Gonne's husband claimed to have been involved in another such plot.)<br /> <br /> '''Hippodrome'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Hippodrome Wellington, a horse racing track in Ostend built in 1883. The facility hosts both harness and flat racing events. ([http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hippodrome_Wellington Hippodrome]).<br /> <br /> '''Royal Bathing Hut... twenty francs'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> A bathing machine ([http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bathing_machine bathing machine])? The King of Belgium certainly would not want to be seen in a swimsuit on a public beach... It seems unlikely, though, that such a royal bathing machine would be for hire.<br /> <br /> '''twenty francs'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> ???<br /> <br /> ==Page 529==<br /> <br /> '''picric family'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> The explosive picric acid (2,4,6-trinitrophenol) and its derivatives. For picric acid, Brugère's powder and Designolle's powder, [http://encyclopedia.jrank.org/PER_PIG/PICRIC_ACID_or_TRINITROPHENOL_C.html see this Britannica article.]<br /> <br /> '''Brugère's powder'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> See &quot;picric family&quot; above.<br /> <br /> '''Designolle's'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> See &quot;picric family&quot; above.<br /> <br /> '''Monsieur Santos-Dumont'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Alberto Santos-Dumont (1873-1932), a pioneer of aviation from Brasil. Check out [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alberto_Santos-Dumont Wikipedia] to get a look at the way he was wearing his &quot;trademark Panama hat&quot;. <br /> <br /> '''Green Hour''' and '''''l'heure vertigineuse'''''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Absinthe-drinking time. The liqueur is green. In French, ''l'heure verte,'' so ''vertigineuse'' (vertiginous, causing dizziness) is a pun on the word for &quot;green.&quot;<br /> <br /> '''Rocco and Pino'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Rabid Quaternionists and sudden friends of Kit Traverse.<br /> :No, they were not mathematicians at all, let alone Quaternionists, but two &quot;Italian naval renegades&quot; !!<br /> ::&quot;Rocco and Pino&quot; are, in temperament, something like the &quot;Mason and Dixon&quot; of manned-torpedoes... cf. the &quot;torpedo&quot; (i.e., &quot;Electrick-Eel&quot;) of ''Mason &amp; Dixon''.<br /> <br /> '''Whitehead works in Fiume'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Anticipating GR's V2 works.<br /> <br /> ''Robert Whitehead'' (1823-1905), an English engineer. He developed the first self-propelled torpedo in 1866. He attended Manchester's Mechanics Institute, worked in a shipyard in Toulon (1844), France, and as a consultant engineer in Milan (1847), Italy. Later he moved to Trieste and in 1856 became a manager of a company called ''Founderia Mettali'' (later, ''Stabilimento Tecnico di Fiume'') in Fiume producing ship steam boilers and engines which were the most advanced of that era. He also developed the first self-propelled torpedo which was very popular. Whitehead's torpedo was propelled by a compressed air engine, carried 18lbs dynamites and a self-regulating device which kept the torpedo cruising at a constant preset depth. [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Robert_Whitehead Whitehead]].<br /> <br /> ''Fiume'' is now Rijeka, Croatia. Trieste is on the northwestern edge of the Istra Peninsula, Rijeka is east of it. [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rijeka Fiume]].<br /> <br /> Interesting sidebar: Whitehead's fortune from Fiume and the torpedo went solely to his granddaughter Agatha Whitehead, who married Baron von Trapp. The Von Trapp money came from Robert Whitehead, and most of the von Trapp singers were his great-grandchildren.<br /> <br /> '''''Alberta'''''&lt;br&gt;<br /> The [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Royal_yacht Wikipedia] entry on royal yachts goes back to the 17th century but doesn't include ''Alberta.'' The craft does get a mention in [http://www.bouncing-balls.com/timeline/people/nr_leopoldmorel.htm this page on Leopold and the Congo.]<br /> <br /> '''Siluro Dirigibile a Lenta Corsa'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> or S.L.C. &quot;slow course torpedo&quot;, &quot;slow-running torpedo&quot;. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Manned_torpedo Wikipedia] Italy‘s Navy was among the first to experiment with manned torpedos. Though according to [http://web.ukonline.co.uk/chalcraft/sm/chariots.html this site] this did not happen until 1935, Italian frogmen as early as October 31, 1918 made it into the harbour of Pula with the help of a modified german torpedo and sank the former Austrian but by then since a few hours Croatian/Slovenian/Bosnian battleship SMS ''Viribus Unitis''. [http://www.geocities.com/tegetthoff66/viribus.html website]<br /> <br /> The Wikipedia entry linked above doesn't contain the Italian word ''dirigibile'' (steerable), which sets up the torpedo as a counterpart of the dirigible ''Inconvenience.''<br /> <br /> :I suspect there's a connection between the torpedo and &quot;Not the usual lateener, in fact appearing to have neither sails, masts, nor oars&quot; in Miles' reversed vision, [[ATD_243-272#Page_250|page 250.]] Needs work, though.<br /> <br /> ==Page 530==<br /> <br /> '''exfiltrate'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Make a surreptitious escape (as &quot;infiltrate&quot; means to make a surreptitious entrance).<br /> <br /> '''''Macchè'''''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Italian: certainly not, not a chance. And in Pynchon's Italian is used as an all-purpose exclamation.<br /> <br /> '''''Ehi, stu gazz', categoria'''''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Stu gazz' is a dialect representation of ''sto cazzo'', literally meaning ''this dick here''. Normally you could translate the sense of the sentence as: ''yeah, why not, a fucking category! ''. -- blicero2 - 2007.02.22<br /> <br /> '''''mezzogiornismo'''''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Denigrating the Italian South. Mezzogiorno means ''midday'' in Italian but refers generally to Southern Italy.<br /> <br /> ==Page 531==<br /> <br /> '''Bruges'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> An exceptionally beautiful Belgian town of canals which is thus one of several towns known as the 'Venice of the north'. In the 14th cettury Burges already became an international finanacial and trading center, but<br /> started to decline in the 15th century. In the 20th century, however, the city was discovered by the international tourism and the medieval heritage turned out to be a new source of wealth. A new harbor of Zeebrugge, 10 miles outside of Bruges at the North Sea coast, brought new developments and new industries to the region. For the city and its history see ([http://www.trabel.com/brugge.htm Bruges]).<br /> <br /> '''Raoul's Atelier de la Vitesse'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> French: Ralph's Speed Shop.<br /> <br /> '''Ghent'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Belgian city, less than 30 miles southeast of Bruges, on the rail line about halfway between Ostend and Brussels. It is the fourth largest city of Belgium. It is bigger than Bruges but not as famous as a tourist attraction. But the city is a showcase of medieval Flemish wealth and commercial success. See ([http://www.trabel.com/gent.htm Ghent]).<br /> <br /> '''Daimler six-cylinder'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> ???<br /> <br /> '''a hundred horsepower'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> ???<br /> <br /> '''''guaglion'''''&lt;br&gt;<br /> italian (dialectal) = boy, young person<br /> <br /> '''Umeki Tsurigane'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Umeki is typically made with some combination of the various kanji for &quot;plum&quot; (ume) and &quot;tree&quot; (ki), though one has the ki being the character for &quot;ghost/devil&quot; and one obscure reading that's entirely redundant, where ume is &quot;plant&quot; (usually read ue). There is one where ume is the kanji for &quot;buried or embedded&quot;. Tsurigane, means a &quot;temple bell&quot;, which can stand alone or be followed by the grass kanji to mean &quot;bellflower&quot; (lots of botanical stuff happening here, if that means anything; hardly the only example in ''AtD''). Given the search for Shambhala going on, &quot;Buried Temple Bell&quot; seems a likely translation, at least at this point; the botanical meanings could perhaps emerge later.<br /> <br /> Or, another terrible name-pun? &quot;You make [m]e sore again.&quot; See another on P. [[ATD_748-767#Page_757| 757]]<br /> <br /> '''Professor Knott'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Cargill Knott (1856-1922), professor of physics; seismologist. See his biography [http://www.penicuikcdt.org.uk/Cargill_Knott.html here].<br /> <br /> ==Page 532==<br /> <br /> '''Kimura'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Cf [[ATD_26-56#Page 29|page 29:Kimura]] and [[ATD_318-335#Page 318|page 318:Shunkichi Kimura]].<br /> <br /> '''drover's sombrero'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Cowboy hat.<br /> <br /> '''furoshiki'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Japanese all-purpose cloth. Can be worn, used as wrapping, or used as a bag.<br /> <br /> '''taupe'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> A brownish gray.<br /> <br /> '''boilermakers and their helpers'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> [[ATD_358-373#Page_360|See annotation to p. 360.]]<br /> <br /> '''Anharmonic Pencil'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> ''Pencil'' is a term commonly used in Synthetic Geometry. Straight lines incident with a plane - coplanar lines - and passing through a common point are said to be concurrent lines and the set of all such concurrent coplanar lines is called the ''pencil''. (Cf [[ATD_429-459#Page 456|page 456:Pencil]]). For a figure and a not quite precise definition see [http://mathworld.wolfram.com/Pencil.html pencil]. If a, b, c and d, are four distinct coplanar lines and their double ratio λ = (abcd) = -1, then a, b, c, d are called a harmonic quadruple of lines; they are said to constitute a ''harmonic pencil''. A ''pencil'' which is not harmonic then is known as ''anharmonic pencil''. See Pencil (lines 8-9), Double Ratio λ (lines 32-35) and Harmonic Pencil (line 39) of [http://ca.geocities.com/ingsaler6/mathworld.html Mathworld].<br /> <br /> '''''Comptes rendus'''''&lt;br&gt;<br /> ''Comptes rendus des séances hebdomadaires,'' Proceedings of the weekly sessions (of the Academy of Sciences), published from 1835, later (ca. 1935) retitled ''Comptes rendus de l'Académie des sciences,'' Proceedings of the Academy of Sciences. (Notice that the academy didn't see the need to specify &quot;French.&quot; Take that, Royal Society of London!) For about a century, one of two journals so universally circulated and recognized that bibliographies nearly always cited them in nickname form: ''C.R.'' The other was ''Ber.,'' short for ''Berichte der Deutschen Chemischen Gesellschaft,'' Reports of the German Chemical Society (from 1868).<br /> <br /> '''De Forest'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Cf [[ATD_26-56#Page 29|page 29:De Forest]].<br /> <br /> '''Gibbs'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Cf [[ATD_26-56#Page 29|page 29:Professor Gibbs]].<br /> <br /> '''Maxwell Equations'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Cf [[ATD_57-80#Page 58|page 58:Maxwell Field Equations]].<br /> <br /> ==Page 533==<br /> <br /> '''aniline teal'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> The wallpaper dye; aniline dyes were the first synthetic dyes, discovered by [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/William_Perkin William Perkin] in 1858. Their intense and fade-resistant colors were very fashionable at the end of the nineteenth century. The dyes are also significant in ''GR'' as the products of I.G. Farben.<br /> <br /> '''Heavisiders'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Oliver Heaviside (May 18, 1850 – February 3, 1925) was a self-taught English electrical engineer, mathematician and physicist who adapted complex numbers to the study of electrical circuits, developed techniques for applying Laplace transforms to the solution of differential equations, reformulated Maxwell's field equations in terms of electric and magnetic forces and energy flux, and independently co-formulated vector analysis. Although at odds with the scientific establishment for most of his life, Heaviside changed the face of mathematics and science for years to come.[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Heaviside].<br /> <br /> '''Grassmanniacs'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Nineteenth century German mathematician and linguist, essentially the inventor/discoverer of vector space. Grassmann showed that once geometry is put into the algebraic form he advocated, then the number three has no privileged role as the number of spatial dimensions; the number of possible dimensions is in fact unbounded.[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hermann_Grassmann].<br /> <br /> '''in the mood for a clambake'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Anachronistic Broadway show tune? If so, the clambake in ''Carousel'' turns into a brawl; the assmebled factions of mathematicians could be in the mood for either a party or a brawl, apparently. <br /> <br /> '''Monopole de la Maison'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Monopole of the House, a fanciful name of a fanciful drink.&lt;br&gt;<br /> There is, since 1898, a well known restaurant called ''Monopole Lunch &amp; Sea Grill'' in Plattsburgh of upper New York state. ([http://www.monopole.org Monopole Restaurant]).&lt;br&gt;<br /> Most probably, it's the Magnetic monopole being referred here. In physics, a monopole is a magnet with a net magnetic charge, i.e. there is only one pole instead of two (so no net magnetic charge) as usual. ([http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Magnetic_monopole Monopole]). It's existence had been theoretically predicted by various particle theories (superstring theory, etc) but never been proved experimentally. Proving the existence of a monopole would certainly earn a Nobel Prize.<br /> <br /> '''Idiom Neutral'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> An invented language, like Esperanto. Idiom Neutral dictionaries first appeared in 1902. It looks like a simplified Latinate language and it grew out of Volapuk, another &quot;auxiliary language.&quot; It was abandoned by the ''Akademi Internasional de Lingu Universal'' in 1908.<br /> <br /> For a list of all the invented languages that linguists are keeping track of, including Klingon, try [http://linguistlist.org/forms/langs/GetListOfConstructedLgs.html Eastern Michigan's Linguist List]. And don't forget to click on the link to &quot;Browse sites devoted to constructed languages.&quot;<br /> <br /> '''phatic'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Basically, small talk or chatter. Words used to convey fellow-feeling rather than to impart information.<br /> <br /> '''''Kampf ums Dasein'''''&lt;br&gt;<br /> German: struggle for existence.<br /> <br /> '''Q-brother'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Fellow Quaternioneer or Fellow Quaternionist.<br /> <br /> '''We are the Jews of mathematics, wandering out here in our diaspora--some destined for the past, others the future, even a few able to set out at unknown angles from the simple line of Time, upon journeys that no one can predict''' &lt;br&gt;<br /> In keeping with the analogy of Judaism, those &quot;few&quot; people within the Quaternionists &quot;able to set out at unknown angles&quot; are most likely being compared to Kabbalists who claim to partake in a mystic &quot;journey to the Throne of God through the mythological realm of the seven heavens&quot; (Armstrong, A History of God--p. 247). Throne Mysticism in Kabbalah is explored extensively in Gravity's Rainbow.<br /> <br /> Perhaps this is obvious to some, but these &quot;Jews of Mathematics&quot; worship the Hamiltonian Tetractys [http://www.math.ucr.edu/home/baez/dublin/]; those other Jews worshipped the Tetragrammatron. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tetragrammaton] The proliferation of 4s continues.<br /> <br /> ==Page 534==<br /> <br /> '''Poiret gown'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> A gown designed by Paul Poiret (1879-1944), a French fashion designer based in Paris. &quot;In the annals of fashion history, Paul Poiret is best remembered for freeing women from corsets and further liberating them through pantaloons . . . it was Poiret's remarkable innovations in the cut and construction of cloting . . . Working with fabric directly onto the body, Poiret helped to pioneer a radical approach to dressmakeing that relied more on the skills of drapery than on those of tailoring.&quot; (from [http://www.metmuseum.org/special/se_event.asp?OccurrenceId={0DC3D00F-4611-4F91-8DC2-CC3C1A5C48D5} MetMuseum], <br /> New York Metropolitan Museum's Special Exhibitions, ''Poiret: King of Fashion'', May 9, 2007 to August 5, 2007). For a picture of Poiret gown see [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Image:Poiretgown.jpg Poiret Gown]. ''The New York Times'' reported on February 1, 2007 that A Poiret Gown Brings $5,500 at [http://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html?res=9B07EFDA1538F93AA15756C0A967948260 Christie's Auction] - the gown was made in 1913 when Poiret was at the height of his career. For his bio see [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Paul_Poiret Poiret].<br /> <br /> '''''green and long'''''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Pickle, or... what?<br /> : A green and long ''gherkin'' (a small, immature fruit of a variety of cucumber used in pickling).<br /> <br /> ==Page 535==<br /> <br /> '''no-name wine'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> 1970s idiom for common European practice?<br /> <br /> '''set theory'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Set theory deals with the properties of well-defined collections, or ''sets'', of entities - the ''elements'' or ''members'' of the set - conceived as a whole. The elements may be of a mathematical nature or non-mathematical. The set theory grew out of the German mathematician Georg Cantor's (1845-1918) study of infinite sets of real numbers. <br /> <br /> The ''language of sets'' has become an important tool for all branches of mathematics, but is of very little relevance to the practice of mathematics in everyday life. As a source of metaphors, however, it's been quite productive; &quot;subset,&quot; &quot;superset,&quot; &quot;universe,&quot; &quot;intersection&quot; and &quot;Venn diagram&quot; have found varying degrees of acceptance. Recasting Aristotle's syllogisms in set-theoretic language also makes them easier for many people to understand.<br /> <br /> '''Hamilton . . . early genius'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Hamilton, according to ''Chambers Biographical Dictionary'', &quot;at fifteen knew thirteen languages, had read Newton's ''Principia'', and commenced original investigations&quot;. At twenty-two, &quot;while still an undergraduate, he was appointed professor of Astronomy at Dublin and Irish Astronomer-Royal&quot;; at thirty &quot;he was knighted&quot;.<br /> <br /> '''Hamilton . . . in the grip of a first love'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> ???&lt;br&gt;<br /> Pynchon probably didn't mean Quaternion was Hamilton's first love, but its effect on him was similar to that of a first love. In 1843 at the age of 38 Hamilton invented the Quaternion, the first non-communtative algebra to be studied. He felt this would revolutionise mathematical physics, and he spent the rest of his life working on it. In 1853 he published a large volume, ''Lectures on Quaternions'', on his grand invention. The last seven years of his life, Hamilton was writing an 800-page book ''Elements of Quaternions'' modeling on Euclid's ''Elements''. The last chapter of the book was completed by his son after his death.<br /> <br /> '''the Walt Whitman of English physics'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Whitman pops up again, last seen on [[ATD_489-524#Page_491|page 491]].<br /> <br /> ==Page 536==<br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> '''Oscar Wilde'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Note that Wilde's Dorian Gray also undergoes a kind of bilocation.<br /> <br /> '''Kursaal'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Spa. Casino ?<br /> <br /> '''vectors'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> For serious minds see Cf [[ATD_525-556#Page 526|page 526:Gibbsian Vectors]], but let's follow Pynchon's lighter mood, here is a non-mathematical definition by Kamen (1995):<br /> :''Many things have more than direction;''<br /> :''The magnitude is also a question.''<br /> :''With acceleration or force,''<br /> :''And many more things, of course,''<br /> :''It's vectors that make the connection.''<br /> <br /> '''Curls'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Cf [[ATD_318-335#Page 326|page 326:Curl]]: curl is a vector operator that shows a vector field's rate of rotation.<br /> <br /> '''Laplacians'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Pierre-Simon, Marquis de Laplace (March 23, 1749 – March 5, 1827); French mathematician and astronomer who summarized and extended the work of his predecessors in his five volume Mécanique Céleste (Celestial Mechanics) (1799-1825), translating the geometrical study of mechanics used by Isaac Newton to one based on calculus, known as physical mechanics.<br /> <br /> He is also the discoverer of Laplace's equation. Although the Laplace transform is named in honor of Laplace, who used the transform in his work on probability theory, the transform was discovered originally by Leonhard Euler. The Laplace transform appears in all branches of mathematical physics — a field he took a leading role in forming. The Laplacian differential operator, much relied-upon in applied mathematics, is likewise named after him. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Laplace].<br /> <br /> :Cf [[ATD_318-335#Page 326|page 326:Laplacian]]: Laplacian is a differential operator named after Laplace. The text here was talking about mathematical operations and operators — rates of change, rotations, partial differentials, Curls, ''Laplacians'', . . .<br /> <br /> '''scream'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Scream motif.<br /> <br /> '''beginning to appal'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> By 1905 there had been years of outrage at conditions in the Belgian Congo, King Leopold's private fief. Conrad's ''Heart of Darkness'' had been published as a serial in Blackwood's Magazine in 1899 and as a book in 1902. There were missionaries' accounts of the brutality, and newspaper reports. Leopold and his apologists published rebuttals. The Norton Critical Edition of ''Heart of Darkness'' contains an extensive collection of both.<br /> <br /> '''baize'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Baize is a coarse woolen felt.<br /> <br /> ==Page 537==<br /> <br /> '''broken symmetries'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Broken_symmetry Broken symmetry] is a concept used widely in mathematics and physics. For a simplest explanation (good enough for the text here), this term means that an object breaks either rotational symmetry or translational sysmetry - when one can only rotate an object in certain angles or when one is able to tell if the object has been shifted sideways. For a little bit more detailed explanation see [http://www.lassp.cornell.edu/sethna/OrderParameters/BrokenSymmetry.html Identify the Broken Symmetry]; or even more [http://scienceweek.com/2005/sw050708-6.htm On Broken Symmetry].<br /> <br /> '''''sphinxe Khnopffienne'''''&lt;br&gt;<br /> refers to the Belgian symbolist painter Fernand Khnopff (1858-1921), famous for his painting &quot;The Caress&quot;, in which a female sphinx erotically lures a young man. The painting can be seen in the [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fernand_Khnopff wikipedia entry]<br /> <br /> '''Pléiade Lafrisée'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> in French, &quot;friser&quot; means to curl or twist. &quot;La frisée&quot; could mean &quot;curled,&quot; by extension &quot;twisted.&quot; The Pleiades is a cluster of hundreds of stars, though only a few are visible, sometimes referred to as The Seven Sisters. If Pleiades are Sisters, Pléiade is ''one'' Sister, so her name means Twisted Sister!<br /> <br /> '''''Conseilleuse'''''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Female consultant?<br /> <br /> ==Page 538==<br /> <br /> '''retroversion matrix'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> ???<br /> <br /> '''''Ma foi'''''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Literally &quot;My faith&quot;, i.e. &quot;By my faith!&quot;, a mild exclamation of incredulity.<br /> <br /> '''ten thousand francs'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> <br /> Based on currency conversions relative to gold, this is equivalent to<br /> about $30,000 US today.<br /> <br /> '''piker'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Someone cheap or cautious, possibly named after people from PIke County, Missouri, who came to California in the 1800s, looking for work. They were poor, hence cheap.<br /> <br /> '''what is a Quaternino?'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Cf [[ATD_525-556#Page 525|page 525:Quaternions]] for a mathematical definition. From ''The Random House Dictionary of the English Languages'', The Unabridged Edition (1966): Quaternion is &quot;a quantity or operator expressed as the sum of a real number and three complex numbers, equivalent to the ''quotient of two vectors''. The field of quaternions is not commutative under multiplication.&quot;.<br /> <br /> '''Bertie ('Mad Dog') Russell'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> 'Mad Dog' seems to be used with heavy irony here. Bertrand Russell was known most for his rationalism, so to speak, his work in modern logic. <br /> He did little in his public roles (at this time in AtD) that would have <br /> him referred to as &quot;crazy', as we say, beyond the social norm, &quot;mad&quot;. <br /> It might be argued that his use of 'logic' against philosophers such as Hegel and McTaggart within ''Against the Day'' showed up their 'madness'.<br /> (Many did think McTaggart was a bit...different...for seriously not believing in Time.) McTaggart broke with Russell after an early influential friendship---Russell was the younger man and the influenced one. He said he was an Hegelian because of McTaggart--Russell wrote in his<br /> Autobiography that McTaggart said he no longer wanted to meet/talk with him bcause he could no longer stand Russell's opinions.<br /> <br /> [http://nobelprize.org/nobel_prizes/literature/laureates/1950/russell-bio.html Bertrand Russell] (1872-1970) was a British mathematician, philosopher, logician and social critic. Best known for his work in mathermatical logic and analytic philosophy. In late spring of 1901 he discovered the so-called [http://plato.stanford.edu/entries/russell-paradox/ Russell Paradox], &quot;the most famous of the logical or set-theoretical paradoxes. The paradox arises within naive set theory by considering the set of all sets that are not members of themselves. Such a set appears to be a member of itself if and only if it is not a member of itself, hence the paradox.&quot; (On-line Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy). He won the 1950 Nobel Prize in Literature in &quot;recognition of his varied and significant writings in which he champions humanitarian ideals and freedom of thought&quot;.<br /> <br /> '''Barry Nebulay'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> nebulae: formed from the diffusion of gas in galaxies or as exploded stars (or the last ember-like stage of a star)&lt;br&gt; <br /> Most nebulae can be described as diffuse nebulae, which means that they are extended and contain no well-defined boundaries.[1] In visible light these nebulae may be divided into emission nebulae and reflection nebulae, a categorization that depends on how the light we see is created.<br /> <br /> '''Hegel... puns'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Probably refers to the fact that quite a lot of Hegel's philosophy deals with the is-ness of the world as we know and experience it.<br /> <br /> On page 787 of Bertrand Russell's ''History of Western Philosophy'' is a summary, perhaps, of this remark about Hegel's puns: &quot;as a result of analysis of the concept &quot;existence&quot;, modern logic has proved this [Cartesianism, refuted by Kant, reinstated by Hegel] argument invalid.....&quot;<br /> <br /> We know from other places that TRP himself seems to 'not like' Cartesianism. See 'cartesian' citations within this wiki.<br /> <br /> ==Page 539==<br /> <br /> '''a vector quotient'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> The result of one vector divided by another. According to the English dictionary definition of previous page this is just a Quaternion.<br /> <br /> '''unit vector'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Unit vector is a vector with magnitude of one. The unit vectors in 3-dimensional space, ''i, j, k'', associated with ''x, y, z'' directions are used in defining a general 3D vector (Cf [[ATD_525-556#Page 526|page 526:Gibbsian Vectors]]).<br /> <br /> '''''square root of minus one'''''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Imaginary number (Cf [[ATD_119-148#Page 132|page 133:Imaginary Number]]). The imaginary numbers ''i, j, k'' are used in defining a Quaternion (Cf [[ATD_525-556#Page 525|page 525:Quaternions]]).<br /> <br /> ''''Triangle Asana''''&lt;br&gt;<br /> A basic yoga pose. <br /> <br /> [http://yoga.org.nz/postures/yoga_positions_images_page.htm Here are images of several basic poses.]<br /> <br /> ''''Dr Rao abruptly vanished''''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Might be a reference to [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Martin_Gardner Martin Gardner]'s<br /> [http://www.amazon.com/No-Sided-Professor-Fantasy-Mystery-Philosophy/dp/0879753900 &quot;No-Sided Professor&quot;]<br /> <br /> ''''Quadrantal Versor Asana''''&lt;br&gt;<br /> A triangle pose taken that extra dimension.<br /> <br /> '''''&quot;Uwe moer!&quot;'''''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Looks a lot like the Dutch &quot;Uw moeder!&quot; - a cry of astonishment (&quot;Your mother!&quot;), the equivalent to the black English &quot;yo mama&quot;.<br /> <br /> '''noncommutative'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> A term typical to mathematics. A commutative equation is one that can operate in exact reverse and still yield the same results. 'Noncommutative' then suggests unidirectionality. The ability to go from point A to point B, but not from B to A.<br /> <br /> '''reticule'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> A woman's drawstring handbag; usually made of net or beading or brocade; also: A system of lines forming a pattern of squares at the focal plane of a telescope, used in micrometers.<br /> [http://www.astunit.com/tutorials/glossary.htm] <br /> :Isn't that sort of a red herring? &quot;[P]roducing from her reticule a . . . watch&quot; doesn't really allow of that second meaning. &lt;br&gt;<br /> :It could be a pun, since a reticule/ handbag always shows its pattern of lines, and a watch (timepiece) is drawn from it. Remember that, e.g. railroad lines of tracks, are a sign of industrialism encroaching on the natural and the spiritual.<br /> <br /> '''Vacheron &amp; Constantin watch'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Made by a Swiss company founded in 1755. From 1819 to 1970 the name was as in the text, then the &amp; dropped out. See the [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vacheron_Constantin Wikipedia entry.]<br /> <br /> '''hunting-case'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> For a pocket watch, a case with a hinged metal cover. More often called &quot;hunter case&quot; (and such a watch a &quot;hunter&quot;).<br /> <br /> ==Page 540==<br /> <br /> '''&quot;haar rekening, ja?&quot;'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> The bill, yes? (Dutch)?<br /> <br /> ''Her'' bill, yes? I.e., give the check to the lady.<br /> <br /> Given the presence of Chris 'Kit' Traverse here, this very much suggests a reference to Christopher 'Kit' Marlowe, Elizabethan poet, playwright and contemporary of Shakespeare. Marlowe was stabbed to death in 1593, in murky circumstances, ostensibly over a bill or 'reckoning', though he was widely believed to have been involved in some form of espionage.<br /> <br /> Strictly speaking &quot;haar rekening&quot; means that the lady pays for herself only. If Root wanted to make sure that Pléiade pays for the whole company he would have to say &quot;de hele rekening voor de dame&quot;. <br /> <br /> '''Piet Woevre'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> The Woëvre is a natural region of Lorraine in north-east France. It forms part of Lorraine plateau and lies largely in the department of Meuse. During World War I, there was much fighting there due to vast mineral resources that had been discovered in the Briey basin or Eastern Woevre at the end of the 19th century. &quot;Piet&quot; is Dutch for &quot;rock&quot; or &quot;stone&quot; and is a fairly common Dutch name, the English equivalent being Peter.<br /> <br /> If the surname is pronounced as in Dutch, Woevre is another Pynchon villain with a &quot;V&quot;-name (Vond, Weissman, Vibe). <br /> <br /> '''Force Publique'''&lt;br /&gt;<br /> The Force Publique (FP) was the official armed force for what is now the Democratic Republic of the Congo from 1885, (when the territory was known as the Congo Free State), through the period of direct Belgian rule (1908-60), until the beginning of the Second Republic in 1965. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Force_Publique Wikipedia entry]<br /> <br /> '''made him reach'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Possible allusion to a famous line, &quot;When I hear the word culture I reach for my gun.&quot; From Hanns Johst's biographical play ''Schlageter''. The original line is slightly different: &quot;Wenn ich Kultur höre ... entsichere ich meinen Browning,&quot; &quot;Whenever I hear of culture... I release the safety-catch of my Browning!&quot; (Act 1, Scene 1). It is spoken by another character in conversation with the young Schlageter. In the scene Schlageter and his wartime comrade Friedrich Thiemann are studying for a college examination, but then start disputing whether it's worthwhile doing so when the nation is not free. <br /> <br /> The line is often misattributed to better-known Nazis and others [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hanns_Johst].<br /> <br /> *In Jean-Luc Godard's 1963 film [http://www.chicagoreader.com/movies/archives/0997/09057.html ''Le Mépris'' (''Contempt'')], Jack Palance's character &quot;Jeremy Prokosch,&quot; an American movie-producer, intones to Fritz Lang: &quot;Whenever I hear the word culture, I reach for my checkbook.&quot;<br /> <br /> '''not unambiguous'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Ie, ambiguous.<br /> <br /> '''''rastaquoueres'''''&lt;br&gt;<br /> 8???<br /> <br /> '''de Decker'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> In Dutch/Flemish, the name means &quot;roofer.&quot; (''De'' in these names almost never means &quot;of, from&quot; as in French; it's nearly always the definite article.)<br /> <br /> ==Page 541==<br /> <br /> '''''bobbejaan'''''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Afrikaans: baboon. (Afrikaans is the language spoken by descendants of Dutch colonists in present-day South Africa. Some items identified as Dutch or Flemish in this wiki may really be Afrikaans.)<br /> <br /> The South African song &quot;Bobbejaan klim die berg&quot; (&quot;Bobbejaan climbed the hill&quot;) is the source of the stage name of Belgium's most famous country and western musician, Bobbejaan Schoepen (b. 1925). In 1943 he was suppressed by the Nazis after performing a South African song, &quot;Mamma, 'k wil 'n man hê&quot; (&quot;Mama, I want a man&quot;), which contains the line &quot;No, Mama, I don't want a German, because I don't like pork.&quot; He founded the Bobbejaanland theme park in Belgium, where he still lives.<br /> <br /> '''MKIV/ODC... Mark Four'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> This would be the Mark IV Ohmic Drift Compensator ([[ATD 557-587#Page 565|Page 565]]), a key component of the Q-weapon, which &quot;regulates how much light is allowed to enter the silvering of the mirror! Special kind of refraction! Calibrated against imaginary index! Dangerous! Of the essence!'&quot;<br /> <br /> '''not part of your remit'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Not included in your job description, instructions, authorization. &quot;Remit&quot; (noun) is usually a British usage.<br /> <br /> '''''gatkruiper'''''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Dutch/Flemish: brownnose, ass-kisser.<br /> <br /> '''one on her wrist'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> All the bruises reflect some refinement or artistry except this one, which may have been inflicted crudely.<br /> <br /> '''over the day'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Title motif?<br /> <br /> ==Page 542==<br /> <br /> '''trans-horizontic'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Across the horizon -- &quot; a screaming comes across the sky&quot;<br /> <br /> '''Edmund Whittaker'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Edmund Whittaker (1873-1956), an English mathematician. He is best known for his work in numerical analysis. And he contributed widely to applied mathematics, mathematical physics and the theory of special functions. He also worked on celestial mechanics and the history of applied mathermatics and physics. ([http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/E._T._Whittaker Whittaker]).<br /> <br /> The Sir Edmund Whittaker Memorial Prize is awarded every four years by the Edinburgh Mathematical Society to an outstanding young mathematician having a specified connection with Scotland [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sir_Edmund_Whittaker_Memorial_Prize]. <br /> <br /> '''louche'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> The cloudy effect caused by the addition of water to absinthe. Dictionary definition: &quot;of questionable taste or morality; decadent.&quot;<br /> <br /> '''cheval-glass'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Standing mirror in a freestanding vertical frame.<br /> <br /> '''as if someone'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Sound-cancelling vs opacity-cancelling?<br /> <br /> ==Page 543==<br /> <br /> '''wraith of Pleiade Lafrisee'''<br /> <br /> Pleiade manifests one of her not-visible stars. Perhaps this sister has somehow twisted herself on an imaginary axis ala Dr. V. Ganesh Rao.<br /> <br /> '''monitory'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Warning, giving advice, by extension ominous or menacing.<br /> <br /> '''Against....the day....'''<br /> Note: this phrase happens at the exact halfway point of the novel: p.542.3<br /> <br /> '''He Who Must Come'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> The evil-doer who must come might be Adolf Hitler. It would make sense. The implication being that Europe is precipitating into a no-return situation. Capitalism cannot but end in WW2.&lt;br&gt;<br /> Ah, a lot more and less than capitalism going on here, especially if anyone specific like Hitler is meant. <br /> :When French writers use this phrase (''celui qui doit venir'') they '''do''' mean the Messiah . . . although a few devout quibblers point out that the Messiah has already come. It's rather tiresome Googling the phrase; the first 83 hits definitely refer to Christ and most of them quote the first verses of Matthew 11. But there's also a Camus reference (in English, I think) down at No. 90, if anyone has a JSTOR account:<br /> :links.jstor.org/sici?sici=0361-1299(1985)39%3A4%3C251%3ACFS%22M%3E2.0.CO%3B2-X <br /> <br /> Recalls Yeats' 'The Second Coming' once again: &quot;And what rough beast, its hour come round at last, Slouches towards Bethlehem to be born?&quot; [http://chumpsofchoice.blogspot.com/2007/05/casino-royale-in-flanders-field.html#c3637134446204467798 ]<br /> <br /> '''General Boulanger'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/General_Boulanger Georges Boulanger], French military man, and War Minister in the late 19th century. He was one of those men &quot;on a white horse&quot; that some conservatives looked to, as he urged an attack on Germany and the end of the French Republic with a return to monarchy. He was also notorious for his harsh reprisals against workers' demonstrations. &quot;'Boulangisme'&quot; threatened a coup in 1889, but the general's procrastination brought the crisis to an end.&lt;br&gt;<br /> In ''The Infernal Machine: A History of Terrorism''<br /> by Matthew Carr, 2007, Boulanger is called the &quot;father&quot; of fascism.<br /> <br /> '''what death and what transfiguration'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Allusion to Richard Strauss' tone poem &quot;Death and Transfiguration&quot; (''Tod und Verklärung''), premiered in 1890.<br /> <br /> '''''&quot;Zeker&quot;'''''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Dutch: certainly.<br /> <br /> '''''dead cert'''''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Dead certainty, sure thing.<br /> <br /> '''Von Schlieffen'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Alfred von Schlieffen was the author of a German war plan to win a two-front war against both France and Russia by quickly defeating France before Russian troops could be mobilized. The [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Schlieffen_Plan Schlieffen Plan] included an attack on France through Belgium, disregarding its neutrality.<br /> <br /> '''Wilhelm has offered Leopold part of France, the ancient Duchy of Burgundy'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> [http://www.crwflags.com/fotw/flags/fr-bg.html History of the duchy.] [http://www.freiburg-madison.de/freiburg_history/1386-1517_The%20Early%20Habsburgs.htm Map,] with portrait of Duke Charles the Rash.<br /> <br /> '''lowlands'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Title of Pynchon's first published story. Here, ass?<br /> <br /> ==Page 544==<br /> <br /> '''Place d'Armes'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Main square of Ostend; literally &quot;drill field&quot;.<br /> <br /> '''peau de soie'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> &quot;Skin of silk&quot; A heavy, smooth satin with very fine ribbing; somewhat dull in sheen compared with traditional silk finishes.<br /> <br /> '''Krafft-Ebing'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Richard Freiherr von Krafft-Ebing, Austro-German psychiatrist and author of ''Psychopathia Sexualis'' (1886), a pioneering study of deviant sexual behavior and fetishism. Coined both ''sadism'' and ''masochism'' as terms for these respective behaviors. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Richard_Freiherr_von_Krafft-Ebing Wikipedia entry].<br /> <br /> '''toque'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Toque here refers to a lady's hat, originally of fur but here in velvet, which is rather like a flattened chef's hat in shape.<br /> <br /> Proust: in ''À l'ombre des jeunes filles en fleurs'' the narrator first sees Albertine wearing a toque. There seem to be quite a few Proust themes and references running throughout the novel. Indeed '''Pliade''' is the French publisher of Proust's works. <br /> <br /> '''guipure'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Lace trim.<br /> <br /> '''midinette'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> A shopgirl or dressmakers apprentice. A milliner.<br /> <br /> '''Lambic'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> A distinctive Belgian style of beer. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lambic Wikipedia]<br /> <br /> '''sous'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> <br /> Coins. Originally Roman gold coins, latterly any kind of coin.<br /> <br /> Specifically small change. She is affecting modesty by claiming that a hat like hers can be had for pennies in any unpretentious shop. In France &quot;sou is used as slang for money, as in ''sans le sou''. 'I'm broke', 'without money'. It is also a slang term for the Canadian cent (standard French, cent).&quot; ([http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sou Wikipedia])<br /> <br /> '''mayonnaise'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Brautigan's &quot;Trout Fishing in America&quot; famously ends with the word mayonnaise. [http://books.google.com/books?vid=ISBN0395500761&amp;id=rbEjDovfyNMC&amp;pg=RA2-PA111&amp;lpg=RA2-PA111&amp;ots=ELKl5b_6Tx&amp;dq=mayonnaise+trout.fishing&amp;num=100&amp;sig=BiyXRqJXRGrMWbrBNgn8de2kpCo#PRA2-PA112,M1 GoogleBooks]<br /> <br /> '''ovoöleaginous'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Another Pynchonic word combination, here denoting the two main ingredients of mayonnaise: 1) eggs, and 2) oil. It's not &quot;fecoventilatory collision&quot; as seen in &quot;Vineland,&quot; but it's nice.<br /> <br /> '''Grenache'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Grape commonly used in Rhone Valley wines e.g. Chateauneuf du Pape.<br /> <br /> '''Chantilly'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> <br /> Region north of Paris.<br /> <br /> Here the reference is to crème chantilly otherwise known as whipped cream. Chantilly mayonnaise is made by incorporating the beaten egg whites for extra lightness.<br /> <br /> '''attainder'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Legislative act declaring that a person is guilty of a crime and setting punishment without the benefit of a formal trial. The Constitution forbids the federal government (Article I, Section 9, clause 3) and the state governments (Article I, Section 10, clause 1) from passing bills of attainder.<br /> [www.historycentral.com/Civics/B.html] <br /> <br /> ''''''Aux armes, citoyens''''''&lt;br&gt;<br /> ''To arms, citizens'', from the French national anthem, ''La Marseillaise'' (1792). Kit confused La Mayonnaise with La Marseillaise.&lt;br&gt;<br /> Not &quot;Le Marseillaise,&quot; you nitwit!<br /> <br /> '''Louis XV'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> King of France 1715-1774 [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Louis_XV]. <br /> <br /> '''Cléo de Mérode'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Glamorous French ballerina (1875-1966), later Follies Bergere dancer and famous beauty. Her reputed intimacy with King Leopold was only a rumor [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cleo_de_Merode]. The character Madame Leonora Armfeldt in Stephen Sondheim's ''A Little Night Music'' has some features in common with her.<br /> <br /> '''Marquise de Pompadour'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Mistress of Louis XV,once friend of Voltaire and a power behind official scenes.[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Madame_de_Pompadour].<br /> <br /> ==Page 545==<br /> <br /> '''duc de Richelieu'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Duc de Richelieu (1696-1788), marshal of France, was a grandnephew of Cardinal Richelieu, and born in Paris. Apart from his reputation as a man of exceptionally loose morals, he attained, in spite of a defective education, distinction as a diplomatist and general. ([http://www.1911encyclopedia.org/Louis_Francois_Armand_du_Plessis,_duc_de_Richelieu duc de Richelieu] and cf [[ATD_489-524#Page 490|page 490:duc de Richelieu]])<br /> <br /> '''dubious 'victory' in 1756'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> As part of the Seven Years' War (1756-1763), duc de Richelieu (1696-1788), a Marshal of France, won a victory in the Battle of Minorca (May 20, 1756) over John Byng (1704-1757), a British Admiral. In spring of 1756 John Byng was sent with a small and undermanned fleet to relieve the British ''Port Mahon'' on the Mediterranean island of Minorca. During the battle ensued, several British ships were badly damaged by the French squadron while others, including Byng's flagship, were still out of effective firing range. Instead of engaging the enemy directly, Byng decided to keep the formation, allowing the French fleet to get away undamaged. ([http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_Minorca Battle of Minorca]).<br /> <br /> '''the ill-fated Admiral Byng'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> John Byng, convicted by court-martial of failure &quot;to do his utmost&quot; in the battle, shot in 1757. Remembered because of (1) his being the last officer of flag rank to be put to death for conduct in battle and (2) Voltaire's gag in ''Candide:'' &quot;In this country it is good to kill an admiral from time to time in order to encourage the others.&quot;<br /> <br /> '''cantharides'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> &quot;Spanish fly,&quot; contact irritant sometimes ill-advisedly used as aphrodisiac.<br /> <br /> '''Sadean'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Pertaining to the Marquis de Sade. The acts the chef performs on the egg and oil have the same names as acts of Sadean sex. <br /> <br /> '''''n'est-ce pas?'''''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Right? (Isn't that so?)<br /> <br /> '''vetiver'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> A grass (Vetiveria zizanioides) of tropical India, cultivated for its aromatic roots that yield an oil used in perfumery.<br /> [www.answers.com/topic/vetiver]. So, a perfume with, llterallly, roots in India.<br /> <br /> Vetiver makes frequent appearances throughout ''À la recherche du temps perdu.''<br /> <br /> '''pip'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> A beaut; in current parlance, a hottie.<br /> <br /> '''Q.P. system'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Quaternion Probability, page 536.<br /> <br /> '''Usine Régionale'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> French: as translated in the text.<br /> <br /> ==Page 546==<br /> <br /> '''disjunctive effects of thunderstorms'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Folk wisdom says a thunderstorm will cause mayonnaise to separate (oil from yolks).<br /> <br /> '''cottonseed oil'''<br /> <br /> Mayonnaisse like Smegmo and Crisco is a hydrogenated fat; cottonseed oil is a common factor to all three. Indeed, the name Crisco derives from the intial sounds of &quot;'''crys'''tallized '''c'''ottonseed '''o'''il&quot;. Note in the next few pages a mention of Candlebrow -- underscoring a tie-in between Mayonnaisse and Smegmo. <br /> <br /> It may be of interest to note that hydrogenation may have a symbolic use for Pynchon. The process entails bubbling hydrogen through oil in the presence of a metal catalyst such as nickel, platinum, aluminum at 248 to 410 degrees. Remnants of these metals stay in the finished product, and when consumed can lead to an increase in heavy metals in the human body.<br /> <br /> Eating hydrogenated oils is like eating plastic. The body does not recognize that these molecules have been mutated and tries to use them as essential fatty acids. But they cannot perform the same function, and as a result hydrogenated oils can cause short circuits in the electrical flow that controls the heartbeat, nerve functions, cell division and mental balance. They also create free radicals (anarchists!) that are linked to cancers. Free radicals plus metal remnants are a major contributor to cancer, heart disease, immune system dysfunction, osteoporosis, depression, chronic fatigue, Alzheimers, and neurological diseases. It is estimated that over 200 million people have died prematurely because of the hydrogenated oils found in our diets. [http://www.drz.org/asp/newsletter/default.asp?xt2id=23] Not to mention innocent bystanders killed by mentally imbalanced people whose imbalance may stem from the ingestion of hydrogenated oils -- there may be some underlying reality to the &quot;Twinkie defense.&quot;<br /> <br /> '''lounge suit'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> A lounge suit is another name for business suit consisting of a matching jacket and trousers or skirt.<br /> <br /> '''congress shoes'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> ankle high shoes with elastic gussets in the sides (wordweb online)<br /> <br /> '''invisible hand'''<br /> <br /> Suggestive of Adam Smith's metaphor for market forces in economics.<br /> <br /> '''dripping-heads'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mayonnaise To make mayonnaise,] beat together egg yolks, salt, mustard and vinegar, then drip in oil while beating to form the emulsion. If you scale the process up for industrial production, you will automate the introduction of the oil, using nozzles that release it a drop at a time—but in a large vat you can have many such nozzles.<br /> <br /> '''''cuves d'agitation'''''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Vat or tank in which the mayonnaise is agitated or beaten.<br /> <br /> '''Clinique d'Urgence pour Sauvetage des Sauces'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> French: Emergency Clinic for Salvage of Sauces.<br /> <br /> ==Page 547==<br /> <br /> '''' ...engulfed in thick, slick, sour-smelling mayonnaise. ''''<br /> The whole Kit's experience in the mayonnaise factory is very much reminiscent to [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Roald_Dahl Roald Dahl]'s [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Charlie_and_the_Chocolate_Factory Charlie and the Chocolate Factory].<br /> <br /> '''''Cazzo, cretino'''''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Literally, &quot;Dick, cretin.&quot; ''Cazzo'' is a common Italian interjectionary obscenity, especially in the south. &quot;Cazzo, cretino,&quot; is akin to someone saying, &quot;Well shit, dummy,&quot; or &quot;F-ing moron!&quot;<br /> <br /> '''''È il cowboy!'''''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Italian: It's the cowboy!<br /> <br /> '''''vero?'''''&lt;br&gt;<br /> true? real?<br /> <br /> '''''Le bambole anarchiste, porca miseria'''''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Italian: Anarchist babes, oh boy.<br /> <br /> '''Oudenberg'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> A southeast suburb of Ostende.<br /> <br /> '''Quai de l'Entrepôt'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Warehouse Quay<br /> <br /> '''''ragazzi'''''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Italian: boys, guys.<br /> <br /> ==Page 548==<br /> <br /> '''General Boulanger'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> That the General was 'reactionary' and that the C of C bureaucracy had a 'defiant residue' of Boulangism, continues the characterization of the organization for which the Chums 'work'.&lt;br&gt;<br /> See p. 543 above, regarding a 2007 book in which Boulanger is called the 'father of fascism'.<br /> <br /> '''''timbres fictifs'''''&lt;br&gt;<br /> French: fictive postage stamps. Cf &quot;Lot 49&quot;.&lt;br&gt;<br /> Yes, stamps mean something in Pynchon's works; here, it seems important that these stamps are characterized as frauds.<br /> <br /> '''&quot;IIIb&quot;'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> As explained in the text.&lt;br&gt;<br /> &quot;Section IIIB (Intelligence) of the German High Command. After WWI, was funded by Alfred Hugenberg (financial backer of Nazi party)&quot;. From ''Sabotage'' by Sayers &amp; Kahn, 1942.[http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&amp;q=%22IIIB%27+%2B+INTELLIGENCE&amp;btnG=Search]. The authors state in the Forward, in 1942, &quot;that 'Nazi Germany' is the creation of spies and saboteurs&quot;. See ''V.'' &amp; ''Gravity's Rainbow'', of course. <br /> <br /> '''Germany might stand a better chance...'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> That is, if the French were to push into Alsace (per Boulanger) as the Germans executed the Schlieffen Plan [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Schlieffen_plan] for the encirclement of Paris, it would put the French at an even greater disadvantage...as actually happened in 1914. Had the Belgians and British not delayed the Germans in Flanders, and had the French railroads not performed speedily to bring the French troops back to the Marne, World War I could have had a very different outcome...an alternate history. <br /> <br /> '''revanchist'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Policies based on revenge, or a person following such policies. In General Boulanger's case, revenge against Germany for the Franco-Prussian War (that is, retaking Alsace, lost in 1871).<br /> <br /> '''the somewhat discomposed General'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Having died in 1891, the General by the time of the action is certainly somewhat '''de'''composed; brief biographies do not suggest he was ''non compos mentis,'' that is, mentally discomposed.<br /> <br /> ==Page 549==<br /> '''grow more and more invisible'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> What could be meant? Clearly, they inhabit bodies that people interact with?, as well as being characters in works of fiction.&lt;br&gt;<br /> Given what happens with the Chums as the story progresses [Spoiler bit, thematically], I suggest that their invisibility here<br /> means the entering of simple human life, to live out their lives 'anonymously' in history. I want to suggest this is largely a positive vision, indicated in other ways and places as well in TRPs work. Here is an overt bit of circumstantial evidence from Pynchon's introduction to Jim Dodge's novel ''Stone Junction'':&lt;br&gt;<br /> &quot;Equally difficult for those who might wish to proceed through life<br /> anonymously and without trace has been the continuing assault against<br /> the once-reliable refuge of the cash or non-plastic economy.&quot; [http://www.themodernword.com/pynchon/pynchon_essays_stone.html]<br /> <br /> '''cackled Darby'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> (When did he lose his innocence?)<br /> <br /> '''a modification of any salsician metaphor toward the diminutive'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Salsician: pertaining to sausage. Lindsay says Suckling's penis is better compared to a wiener than a knockwurst.<br /> <br /> '''&quot;Why you little–and I do mean 'little'–&quot;'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Another Simpsons reference? <br /> <br /> Noseworth, the Master-At-Arms of the Chums division of this organization with a defiant residue of 'fascism', who had no smell to Pugnax early on,<br /> is called out, either for real or in a sex-bashing putdown, for homosexuality. cf. homosexuality as a metaphor in ''Gravity's Rainbow''. <br /> <br /> '''dunes between Nieuport and Dunkirk'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Nieuport is a Belgian seaport about 10 miles southwest of Ostend. Dunkirk is a French port (less than 10 miles inside the French border) about 20 miles southwest of Nieuport. The latter was a site of one of the bloodest battle in World War I. The general area between Niewport and Dunkirk was the well traversed battle fields of two world wars. (Dunkirk was (in)famous for the British Army's escape from the Nazi German's assault in World War II.)<br /> <br /> '''power-receivers'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Not information, energy.<br /> <br /> ==Page 550==<br /> <br /> '''Lot's wife''' &lt;br&gt;<br /> Angels of God led Lot and his family out of Sodom as it was being destroyed and told them not to look back at the mayhem. Lot's wife, Edith, imprudently looked back and was transfigured into a pillar of salt.<br /> <br /> '''preference...for interiors'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> In [http://masondixon.pynchonwiki.com/wiki/index.php?title=Chapter_35:_349-361 Mason &amp; Dixon, p. 354] <br /> , the interiors of some coaches were larger than their exterior dimensions. Interiors have importance in Pynchon's worldview. Cf. &quot;invisibility&quot;, and a 'human life' above.<br /> <br /> '''Italian grotto'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> an imitating recess or structure made to resemble a natural Italian grotto.<br /> <br /> '''a highly developed taste, moreover, for human blood'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Since Pugnax developed this taste in the Carpathians, home of Castle Dracula, this seems a clear reference to Bram Stoker's novel. <br /> <br /> '''Carpathians'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Major mountain range running northwest-southeast through Poland, Slovakia, western Ukraine and Romania.<br /> <br /> '''Uhlans'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Uhlan regiments belonged to the light cavalry. They wore splendid uniforms (model for some U.S. marching band uniforms). [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Uhlan Wikipedia article.]<br /> <br /> '''Temesvár'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Now Timişoara, extreme western Romania.<br /> <br /> ==Page 551==<br /> <br /> '''...separated by only a slice of Time...'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Miles is beginning to experience Time almost as a spatial dimension, his personal vector as traversing (!) 4-dimensional space, or perhaps multidimensional space, the mathematics for which is being debated in Ostend.<br /> <br /> '''securing the mess decks'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> The Chums follow U.S. Navy idiom in orders (frequently prefixed with &quot;Now&quot;) and shipboard activities (&quot;secure&quot; meaning &quot;whatever you did before, undo it now,&quot; in this case put away the dishes and fold up the tables).<br /> <br /> '''Ryder Thorn'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Tolkienesque name? Or perhaps it's a nod to the Ryder-Waite Tarot deck and to Kevin Thorn (Kevin Matthew Fertig, 1977-), the American professional wrestler better known by his ring name Kevin Thorn who is currently signed to World Wrestling Entertainment wrestling on its ECW brand. He has appeared in vigniettes with Ariel (Shelly Martinez, 1980-), the tarot card reader, who spits blood at the camera while she &quot;predicted the future of ECW.&quot; Yup, a stretch...<br /> <br /> *The name also evokes the Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse.<br /> <br /> '''He was at Candlebrow.'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Presumably a 'trespasser.'<br /> <br /> '''the four-note chord in the context of timelessness'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> A melody is formed by notes following one another in time; a chord on the ukulele violates that practice by having all the notes sound at once. A really clever little passage.<br /> Note: Jazz musicians describe musical improvisations as horizontal (with the melody) or vertical (with the chord)<br /> <br /> ==Page 552==<br /> <br /> '''knuckle-duster'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Brass knuckles.<br /> <br /> '''Diksmuide'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> 20 kilometers south of Ostend (about halfway to Ypres).<br /> <br /> ==Page 553==<br /> <br /> '''The terrain was flat...lowlands'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Not, this time, a reference to Pynchon's ''Lowlands'', but to the two-dimensionality of Flanders, as in Edwin A. Abbott's ''Flatland'' [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Flatland]; most humans, like the inhabitants of Flanders and Abbott's Flatlanders, experience life in two dimensions. <br /> <br /> '''Somewhere up in the sky was Miles' home...'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Whereas Miles and the Chums of Chance, in contrast, live in three dimensions. The mathematicians gathered in Ostend are trying to calculate how to experience and use vectors to live in four dimensions; in a way, to experience Time as a kind of spatial dimension. Miles, on P. 551, is demonstrating the beginnings of an intuitive discovery of how to experience Time as an almost spatial dimension. Which would be a sort of &quot;time travel&quot;, or at least an expanded view of life and history.<br /> <br /> '''retted'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> soaked in water or exposed to moisture (as flax or hemp) to facilitate the removal of the fiber from the woody tissue by partial rotting.<br /> <br /> ==Page 554==<br /> <br /> '''Ypres and Menin'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Municipalities in West Flanders that were sites of some of the bloodiest battles of WWI. At the beginning of the war, the British and Belgian stand helped save Paris from encirclement by the Germans, and saved the Channel ports, but as Thorn points out, the area became the western anchor of the Western Front trench system. The several Battles of Ypres saw the first uses of poison gas (Mustard Gas, dichlorodiethylsulfide, was first called Yperite), the use of enormous mines, and the legendary mud of Passchendaele [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Passchendaele]. <br /> <br /> '''Ten years from now'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> (1914?) through 1918? and beyond?. Another paramorphic mirror--what do we now face. Whatever it is, it is nuclear.<br /> <br /> '''Bosch'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Hieronymous Bosch (1450-1516), Dutch painter of nightmares. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hieronymus_Bosch Wikipedia entry].<br /> <br /> '''Brueghel'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Pieter Brueghel the Elder(1525-1569), Flemish painter.[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pieter_Brueghel_the_Elder Wikipedia entry].<br /> <br /> '''League'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> League of Nations? The League of Nations was formed after WWI to prevent future wars. Didn't succeed.<br /> <br /> No. In this case a historical unit of length, approximately three miles - &quot;league on league&quot; = tremendous masses<br /> <br /> '''where the needles went and which way to rotate them'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> I.e., how to push Thorn's buttons; the image is from acupuncture.<br /> <br /> ==Page 555==<br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> '''simpletons at the fair'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Making Pynchon's metaphor explicit.<br /> <br /> '''Chopin E-minor Nocturne'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Frédéric Chopin (1810-49), a Polish pianist and composer ([http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fr%C3%A9d%C3%A9ric_Chopin Chopin]). He was born in Warsaw, Poland to a Polish morther and a French father. He went to Paris at the age of 20 and died there at the age of 39. He was widely regarded as one of the most famous and influential composers for the piano. From 1837-47 he had a 10-year stormy relationship with the French writer George Sand. His E-minor Nocturne is a 4-minute long Romantic style piano solo composed in 1827. (A ''nocturne'' is usually a musical composition that is inspired by, or evocative of, the night [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nocturne Nocturne].)<br /> <br /> '''owl-light'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> ???glimmering or imperfect light or twilight hours.<br /> <br /> ''''plasmic hysteresis''''&lt;br&gt;<br /> <br /> A coined term, apparently similar in meaning to Miles’ phrase “failure of physical translation.” Plasma would take an older meaning of “form” or “shape.&quot; Hysteresis, according to Webster's, refers to “a retardation in effect when the forces on an object are changed.” Hysteresis is used to describe magnetic phenomenon as well as plastic or elastic materials, that involve changes to a rest state that last beyond the forces that cause them. Examples include recordings on magnetic tape or a thumbprint slowly disappearing from putty. In the context of this passage, plasmic hysteresis appears to describe the lingering visage of someone who is no longer present – a hysteresis of form only and thus a failed physical translation. See [http://www.etymonline.com/index.php?search=plasma&amp;searchmode=none etymology of plasma] and this nifty explanation of [http://www.lassp.cornell.edu/sethna/hysteresis/WhatIsHysteresis.html hysteresis]. <br /> <br /> Hysteresis has also been used to refer to “loops” in time, certainly apropos in this case. I stumbled across an excellent example in a 1980 episode of Dr. Who, in which the eponymous Dr. is trapped in “chronic hysteresis,” an endless loop or return to a previous <br /> point in time – very similar to the situation of Ryder Thorn. [http://www.drwhoguide.com/who_5q.htm Check it out for yourself!] <br /> <br /> <br /> ==Annotation Index==<br /> {{ATD PbP}}</div>

MKOHUT https://against-the-day.pynchonwiki.com/wiki/index.php?title=ATD_525-556&diff=14126 2007-10-21T14:13:37Z

<p>MKOHUT: /* Page 550 */</p> <hr /> <div>:'''&lt;big&gt;Please keep these annotations SPOILER-FREE by not revealing information from later pages in the novel.&lt;/big&gt;'''&lt;p&gt;&lt;br&gt;<br /> <br /> ==Page 525==<br /> <br /> '''Ostend'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Cf [[ATD_489-524#Page 521|page 521:Ostend]], a seaport in northwest Belgium. Among English-speaking tourists, Ostend (or Ostende) is best known as a ferry port. Ships have shuttled between Dover and Ostend for more than 150 years, and today's high-speed catamarans move hundreds of passengers and vehicles between these two ports in just two hours. But this thousand-year-old city is a popular beach resort with Belgians, who flock to Ostend for sun, surfing, sailing and the ''Kursaal'' (Casino). The fishing harbor and old town draw many visitors. Ostend is the only Belgian coastal resort that is as lively in the summer as in the winter. For more and pictures [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ostend Ostend].<br /> <br /> '''Fishermen's Quai'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Fishermen's Quay, also called De Trap. The shrimp boats come home here from the sea in the morning. Along the quay many stands sell lots of seafoods.<br /> <br /> '''Boulevard van Isenghem'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> A major thoroughfare in Ostend, locally called ''Van Iseghemlaan'', extending diagonally from seafront southwest through the city.<br /> <br /> '''street-plausible'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Presentable.<br /> <br /> '''Quai de l'empereur'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Since Ostende is in the Flemish part of Belgium this should be the Keizerskaai, a street along the old part of the harbour, 1919 renamed Vindictivelaan.<br /> <br /> '''estaminet'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> According to the OED - A café in which smoking is allowed. Now, any small establishment selling alcoholic liquor. <br /> <br /> '''twelve-centime'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> one centime is the French eqivalent of one cent. A twelve-centime beer would cost 12/100 of a franc.<br /> <br /> '''Quaternions'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Cf [[ATD_119-148#Page 130|page 130:Quaternions]]. Quaternions are a non-communtative extension of complex numbers (Hamilton, 1843).&lt;br&gt;<br /> <br /> Analogy with the complex numbers (Cf [[ATD_119-148#Page 132|page 132:complex number]]) being represented as a sum of real and imaginary parts, a + b''i'', where ''i''² = −1, a quaternion is defined as a combination a + b''i'' + c''j'' + d''k'', where ''i''² = ''j''² = ''k''² = ''i j k'' = −1, and a, b, c, d are ''four'' explicit real numbers. The non-commutative property refers to ''i j = −j i = k; j k = −k j = i; k i = −i k = j''. (i.e. ''i j ≠ j i; j k ≠ k j; k i ≠ i k''; etc.) The using of ''i, j, k'', the imaginary numbers (Cf [[ATD_119-148#Page 133|page 133:imaginary number]]), led to the phrases of &quot;the ''ijk'' lot&quot; of page 533 and &quot;creature of ''i-j-k''&quot; of page 534.<br /> <br /> '''Kellner'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> German: waiter, barman. Use of the German word would be insulting to the Belgian barman.<br /> <br /> '''''demi'''''&lt;br&gt;<br /> A half-pint glass (25 centilitres, actually).<br /> <br /> '''Lambic'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Pron. ''lahm-BEEK.'' Unique Belgian beer style, sour and often thin in body.<br /> <br /> '''skimmer'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Straw hat (&quot;Panama&quot;).<br /> <br /> ==Page 526==<br /> <br /> '''biquaternion'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Or &quot;octonion,&quot; an innovation of English mathematician W.K. Clifford, [[ATD_243-272#Page_249|referred to on p. 249.]]<br /> <br /> '''Barry Nebulay'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Pun on a term from heraldry, ''barry nebuly.'' Barry (rhymes with &quot;starry,&quot; not &quot;carry&quot;) refers to a shield divided into an even number of parts by horizontal lines. Nebuly signals that the lines are deformed into stylized &quot;cloud&quot; shapes. [http://www.rarebooks.nd.edu/digital/heraldry/partitions.html Here you can see an example.] If a ''British'' author had a character with a heraldic name, it would suggest a pseudonym.<br /> <br /> '''University of Dublin'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> The Alma Mater of Hamilton, the father of Quaternion. He studied, graduated and taught at Trinity College, the University of Dublin, Ireland's oldest university.<br /> <br /> If University College, Dublin, then Joyce had graduated in 1902.&lt;br&gt;<br /> <br /> '''Quaternioneers'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Quaternion believers.<br /> <br /> '''Gibbsian Vectors'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Vector Analysis (or Vector Calculus) developed by Willard Gibbs (Cf [[ATD_26-56#Page 29|page 29:Professor Gibbs]]) in 1881 and 1884. It is a branch of calculus that deals with vectors and process involving vectors. It is much more easily applied to phsics and other applied sciences than Hamilton's Quaternions (Cf [[ATD_525-556#Page 525|page 525:Quaternions]]).&lt;br&gt;<br /> A vector is defined by not only a magnitude but also a direction, such as a velocity vector, ''v'' is defined by ''v'' = a''i'' + b''j'' + c''k'',<br /> where a, b, and c are the magnitudes of the velocity components in directions of ''i, j'' and ''k'' which are unit vectors, (not imaginary numbers as in Quaternion), with magnitude of 1. In three dimensional cases and ''xyz'' coordinate system is used then ''i, j, k'' are related to ''x, y, z'' directions (&quot;''xyz'' people&quot; of page 533); but they, in general, may be used irrespective of the notation of the coordinates.<br /> Mathematical operations (addition, subtraction, multiplication), differentiation (''curl'' — Cf [[ATD_318-335#Page 326|page 326:Curl]] and p. 536, ''Laplacian'' — Cf [[ATD_318-335#Page 326|page 326:Laplacian]] and p. 536, etc) and integration can be applied to vectors. It is interesting to know that one of the two multiplication operations is called cross product; for unit vectors (''i, j, k'') perpendicular to each other, then, ''i × i = j × j = k × k = 0'', ''i × j = k'', ''j × i = -k'', etc. ([http://web.mit.edu/wwmath/vectorc/summary.html Vector Calculus]).&lt;br&gt;<br /> A simple vector anyalysis example here: if ''k'', the unit vector, stands for the direction upward and g is the gravitational acceleration, then the acceleration vector, ''a'', for a projectile, is defined for downward action, (the ''i'' and ''j'' directions have zero components):&lt;br&gt;<br /> :''a'' = -g ''k''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Integrating ''a'' would give the velocity vector, ''v''&lt;br&gt;<br /> :''v'' = -g t ''k''&lt;br&gt;<br /> for zero initial velocity case, and t standing for time.&lt;br&gt;<br /> And integrating ''v'' would yield the position vector, ''h'', for the projectile&lt;br&gt;<br /> :''h'' = -½ g t² ''k''&lt;br&gt;<br /> toward the sea level.<br /> <br /> '''Quaternionists'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Quaternion believers, same as Quaternioneers.<br /> <br /> '''Tasmania'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Tasmania is an island of the southern coast of Australia. Known for its relative isolation, it was a prison for English convicts in the 1800s<br /> <br /> '''Having been inseparable from the rise of the electromagnetic'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> In his 1865 work ''The Dynamical Theory of the Electromagnetic Field'', James Clerk Maxwell unified electricity and magnetism. He put forth twenty equations, with twenty unknowns, in vector form (though different in notation and form than the equations that now bear his name) that completely described all known electromagnetic phenomena. In his 1873 treatise on the subject, he expressed the equations in the mathematics of quaternions. It appears that the quaternion form of the equations remained popular even though, at the behest of his publisher, Maxwell reverted to the 1865 form in the second edition (1881)--though they remain scattered throughout. In 1892 Oliver Heaviside (On the Forces, Stresses, and Fluxes of Energy in the Electromagnetic Field. ''Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society of London.'' A, Vol. 183. pp423-480), while spewing scientific vitriol at the Quaternionists, reformulated Maxwell's original 1865 equations (Heaviside chose to remove the vector potential and scalar fields from the equations; the inclusion of these terms had served as Maxwell's justification for the use of quaternions), and provided the notation still in use today. See this [http://www.zpenergy.com/modules.php?name=Downloads&amp;d_op=getit&amp;lid=60 PDF] for the evolution of Maxwell's equations.<br /> <br /> '''Hamiltonian devotees'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> The Quaternion faction, after William Hamilton, who devised the scheme.<br /> <br /> '''Grand Hôtel de la Nouvelle Digue'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> There is a Hotel Digue in the Seychelles; this is a New Hotel Digue by Pynchon? <br /> <br /> Grand Hotel of New Dyke, may be a made up hotel name.<br /> <br /> '''anterooms of death'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> This metaphor is sometimes applied to concentration camps. Here the lyric &quot;feel like I'm fixin' to die&quot; seems more apposite.<br /> <br /> '''Belgian Art Nouveau'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Art Nouveau, 1890(or 80) to 1914, explores a new style in the visual arts and architecture that developed in Europe and North America at the end of the 19th century. At its height (~1907), Art Nouveau was a concerted attempt to create an international style based on decoration. It was developed by a brilliant and energetic generation of artists and desisgners, who sought to fashion an art form appropriate to the post-Industrial Revolution modern age.&lt;br&gt;<br /> Brussels was one of the Art Nouveau centers and represented different style from the others. The jewelers there, accepted as artists rahter than craftsmen, (together with those in Paris) defined Art Nouveau in jewelery and achieved the most renown. ([http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Art_Nouveau Art Nouveau]).<br /> <br /> ==Page 527==<br /> <br /> '''dossing'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> British slang for &quot;sleeping&quot;, &quot;staying overnight&quot;<br /> <br /> '''Russian nihilists'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> :The following four are local, Belgian, not Russian, nihilists !<br /> <br /> '''Eugénie'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Female. Possibly named for Empress Eugénie (1826-1920), consort of French Emperor Napoleon III. Ultimately for St. Eugenia, 3rd-century Roman martyr whose feast is celebrated on December 25.<br /> <br /> '''Fatou'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Female. A pseudonym? In view of the date of the action, certainly not named after [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fatou the mathematician Fatou] (1878-1929).<br /> <br /> '''Denis'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Male. Named for St. Denis or Dionysius, patron saint of Paris and of France, 3rd-century bishop of Paris, martyr, beheaded on the hill now called Montmartre. &quot;Montjoie St. Denis!&quot; was a warcry used by French troops in the Middle Ages. His intercession is effective against demonic possession and headache.<br /> <br /> '''Policarpe'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Male. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Polycarp Saint Polycarp] was a Christian bishop of Smyrna (now İzmir in Turkey) in the second century. He was stabbed and died a martyr after an attempt to burn him at the stake failed. His intercession is sought against earache and dysentery.<br /> <br /> '''Young Congo'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Probably in reference to the [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Young_Turks Young Turks], a Turkish revolutionary movement<br /> <br /> '''Garde Civique'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> A part of the Belgian army. According to the [http://www.1911encyclopedia.org/Belgium 1911 Britannica], &quot;the mass of the garde civique does not pretend to possess military value. It is a defence against sedition and socialism.&quot;<br /> <br /> '''French Second Bureau boys'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Deuxieme Bureau; French Intelligence.<br /> <br /> '''''phalange'''''&lt;br&gt;<br /> French: phalanx. A military (here mock-military) group ready for combat. &lt;br&gt;<br /> <br /> It also conjures up memories of the early 19th century utopian socialist <br /> Charles Fourier, who theorized that people should live communally in &quot;phalanxes&quot; of a specific number based upon their &quot;passions.&quot; His solid ideas included equality of the sexes, but he also taught wacky things such as the moon being made of lemonade. Of particular relevance is his rejection of industrial civilization. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Utopian_socialism]<br /> <br /> '''&quot;...until something had happened, something too terrible to remember...&quot;'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Again this theme of an unknowable past transgression, here invoked almost as if the unknown signifies the other 'lateral' (a word which has cropped up at least a dozen times already) 'vector'.<br /> <br /> '''the Digue'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> French for &quot;dyke&quot;<br /> <br /> '''Congo... Belgians'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> The Belgian colonisation of the Congo was, as Conrad's ''Heart of Darkness'' makes clear, notable for its greed and brutality.<br /> <br /> '''Leopold, King of the Belgians'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> 1835-1909, reigned 1865-1909. A man of almost Nixonian fiendishness. In the Congo he acted as sole proprietor and absolute ruler. The positive outcomes of his exploitation include ''Heart of Darkness'' and the phrase &quot;crime against humanity.&quot;<br /> <br /> '''co-conscious'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> mental processes outside the main stream of consciousness but sometimes available to it — from Merriam-Webster's Medical Dictionary.<br /> <br /> '''Force Publique'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Belgian armed forces operating in the Belgian Congo ([http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Force_Publique Wikipedia]). &quot;King Leopold's private army&quot; may be a more accurate description.<br /> <br /> '''rubber worker'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> See above: One of the early missions of the FP was to increase rubber export quotas through forced labor and related atrocities.<br /> <br /> ==Page 528==<br /> <br /> '''''khâgne'''''&lt;br&gt;<br /> an informal term used by French students for Classes Préparatoires Littéraires, the two-year cycle of classes taken after the Baccalaureat (taken at age 17-18), to prepare for the entrance examination to the Ecole Normale Supeieure. ([http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kh%C3%A2gne khâgne]).<br /> <br /> '''Reclus'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> J. J. Élisée Reclus (1830-1905), French geographer but mainly educated in Germany. Several times he was forced to leave France because of his political views; he traveled widely in Europe, the British Isles, the United States, and South America and for many years lived in Switzerland. He was professor of comparative geography at the University of Brussels from 1895 to 1905. He had quite an extensive connection with various socialist and anarchist circles (met Bakunin while in Florence).Once he was imprisoned in Versailles in 1871 for his part in the ''Paris Commune''. In 1882 he initiated the ''Anti-marriage movement'' while in Geneva. [[http://academic.reed.edu/formosa/texts/reclusbio.html Reclus]).<br /> <br /> '''Stirnerite'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Follower of Max Stirner, 19th century German philosopher and author of ''The Ego and Its Own,'' a work influential in anarchist thought. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Max_Stirner Wikipedia entry].<br /> <br /> ''Max Stirner'''s (1806-56) attacks on systematic philosophy, his denial of absulutes, and his rejection of abstract concepts of any kind often places him among the first philosophical nihilists. For Stirner, achieving individual freedom is the only law; and the state, which necvessarily imperils freedom, must be destroyed. Even beyond the oppression of the state, though, are the constraints imposed by others because their very existence is an obstable compromising individual freedom. Thus Stirner argues that existence is an endless &quot;war of each against all&quot; (1845). (taken from the paragraph about Max Stirner in [http://www.iep.utm.edu/n/nihilism.htm#H1 Nihilism])&lt;br&gt;<br /> Sourcing here? Much complexity in properly understanding Stirner, who has some Pynchon-like qualities, to say the least. From the Stanford Dictionary of Philosophy&lt;br&gt;<br /> His major work:<br /> The Ego and Its Own<br /> Much of Stirner's prose—which is crowded with aphorisms, italicisation, and hyperbole—appears calculated to disconcert. Most striking, perhaps, is the use of word play. Rather than reach a conclusion through the conventional use of argument, Stirner often approaches a claim that he wishes to endorse by exploiting words with related etymologies or formal similarities. For example, he associates words for property (such as ‘Eigentum’) with words connoting distinctive individual characteristics (such as ‘Eigenheit’) in order to promote the claim that property is expressive of selfhood. (Stirner's account of egoistic property—see below—gives this apparently orthodox Hegelian claim a distinctive twist.)<br /> <br /> This rejection of conventional forms of intellectual discussion is linked to Stirner's substantive views about language and rationality. His unusual style reflects a conviction that both language and rationality are human products which have come to constrain and oppress their creators. Stirner maintains that accepted meanings and traditional standards of argumentation are underpinned by a conception of truth as a privileged realm beyond individual control. As a result, individuals who accept this conception are abandoning a potential area of creative self-expression in favour of adopting a subordinate role as servants of truth. In stark contrast, Stirner insists that the only legitimate restriction on the form of our language, or on the structure of our arguments, is that they should serve our individual ends. It is the frequent failure of ordinary meanings and standard forms of argument to satisfy his interpretation of this criterion which underpins Stirner's remorselessly idiosyncratic style.<br /> <br /> The Ego and Its Own has an intelligible, but scarcely transparent, structure. It is organised around a tripartite account of human experience, initially introduced in a description of the stages of an individual life. The first stage in this developmental narrative is the realistic one of childhood, in which children are constrained by material and natural forces such as their parents. Liberation from these external constraints is achieved with what Stirner calls the self-discovery of mind, as children find the means to outwit those forces in their own determination and cunning. The idealistic stage of youth, however, contains new internal sources of constraint, as individuals once more become enslaved, this time to the spiritual forces of conscience and reason. Only with the adulthood of egoism do individuals escape both material (external) and spiritual (internal) constraints, learning to value their personal satisfaction above all other considerations.<br /> <br /> Stirner portrays this dialectic of individual growth as an analogue of historical development, and it is a tripartite account of the latter which structures the remainder of the book. Human history is reduced to successive epochs of realism (the ancient, or pre-Christian, world), idealism (the modern, or Christian, world), and egoism (the future world). <br /> <br /> What about these &quot;successive epochs&quot; in understanding ATD?<br /> <br /> Stirner's major work, The Ego and Its Own has been reissued in English a number of times in Pynchon's lifetime,from the 60s on. (Not that TRP could not have read it in German!)<br /> <br /> '''''Anarcho-individualiste'''''&lt;br&gt;<br /> i.e. he has doctrinal differernces with Stirnerism, strictly speaking; see P. 324, and &quot;Eigenheit&quot;.<br /> <br /> '''Leopold'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> See p. 527.<br /> <br /> '''going down lately'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Being assassinated.<br /> <br /> '''Sipido'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Jean-Baptiste Sipido (1884-1959), a Belgian socialist. Accusing the Prince of Wales of causing thousands of inocents were killed in the Boer War in South Africa, on April 5, 1900, Sipido leaped onto the foot board of the royal compartment right before the train left the North Railway Station (Gare du Nord), Brussel, and fired two (or one? as reported in ''The Manchester Guardian'', or four? as stated in the text here) shots through the window but missed everyone inside. He was arrested, tried and acquitted. The leader of the House of Commons called the acquittal a &quot;grave and most unfortunate miscarriage of justice.&quot; ([http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jean-Baptiste_Sipido Sipido]).<br /> <br /> '''Prince... of Wales'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> (Maud Gonne's husband claimed to have been involved in another such plot.)<br /> <br /> '''Hippodrome'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Hippodrome Wellington, a horse racing track in Ostend built in 1883. The facility hosts both harness and flat racing events. ([http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hippodrome_Wellington Hippodrome]).<br /> <br /> '''Royal Bathing Hut... twenty francs'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> A bathing machine ([http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bathing_machine bathing machine])? The King of Belgium certainly would not want to be seen in a swimsuit on a public beach... It seems unlikely, though, that such a royal bathing machine would be for hire.<br /> <br /> '''twenty francs'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> ???<br /> <br /> ==Page 529==<br /> <br /> '''picric family'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> The explosive picric acid (2,4,6-trinitrophenol) and its derivatives. For picric acid, Brugère's powder and Designolle's powder, [http://encyclopedia.jrank.org/PER_PIG/PICRIC_ACID_or_TRINITROPHENOL_C.html see this Britannica article.]<br /> <br /> '''Brugère's powder'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> See &quot;picric family&quot; above.<br /> <br /> '''Designolle's'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> See &quot;picric family&quot; above.<br /> <br /> '''Monsieur Santos-Dumont'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Alberto Santos-Dumont (1873-1932), a pioneer of aviation from Brasil. Check out [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alberto_Santos-Dumont Wikipedia] to get a look at the way he was wearing his &quot;trademark Panama hat&quot;. <br /> <br /> '''Green Hour''' and '''''l'heure vertigineuse'''''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Absinthe-drinking time. The liqueur is green. In French, ''l'heure verte,'' so ''vertigineuse'' (vertiginous, causing dizziness) is a pun on the word for &quot;green.&quot;<br /> <br /> '''Rocco and Pino'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Rabid Quaternionists and sudden friends of Kit Traverse.<br /> :No, they were not mathematicians at all, let alone Quaternionists, but two &quot;Italian naval renegades&quot; !!<br /> ::&quot;Rocco and Pino&quot; are, in temperament, something like the &quot;Mason and Dixon&quot; of manned-torpedoes... cf. the &quot;torpedo&quot; (i.e., &quot;Electrick-Eel&quot;) of ''Mason &amp; Dixon''.<br /> <br /> '''Whitehead works in Fiume'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Anticipating GR's V2 works.<br /> <br /> ''Robert Whitehead'' (1823-1905), an English engineer. He developed the first self-propelled torpedo in 1866. He attended Manchester's Mechanics Institute, worked in a shipyard in Toulon (1844), France, and as a consultant engineer in Milan (1847), Italy. Later he moved to Trieste and in 1856 became a manager of a company called ''Founderia Mettali'' (later, ''Stabilimento Tecnico di Fiume'') in Fiume producing ship steam boilers and engines which were the most advanced of that era. He also developed the first self-propelled torpedo which was very popular. Whitehead's torpedo was propelled by a compressed air engine, carried 18lbs dynamites and a self-regulating device which kept the torpedo cruising at a constant preset depth. [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Robert_Whitehead Whitehead]].<br /> <br /> ''Fiume'' is now Rijeka, Croatia. Trieste is on the northwestern edge of the Istra Peninsula, Rijeka is east of it. [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rijeka Fiume]].<br /> <br /> Interesting sidebar: Whitehead's fortune from Fiume and the torpedo went solely to his granddaughter Agatha Whitehead, who married Baron von Trapp. The Von Trapp money came from Robert Whitehead, and most of the von Trapp singers were his great-grandchildren.<br /> <br /> '''''Alberta'''''&lt;br&gt;<br /> The [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Royal_yacht Wikipedia] entry on royal yachts goes back to the 17th century but doesn't include ''Alberta.'' The craft does get a mention in [http://www.bouncing-balls.com/timeline/people/nr_leopoldmorel.htm this page on Leopold and the Congo.]<br /> <br /> '''Siluro Dirigibile a Lenta Corsa'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> or S.L.C. &quot;slow course torpedo&quot;, &quot;slow-running torpedo&quot;. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Manned_torpedo Wikipedia] Italy‘s Navy was among the first to experiment with manned torpedos. Though according to [http://web.ukonline.co.uk/chalcraft/sm/chariots.html this site] this did not happen until 1935, Italian frogmen as early as October 31, 1918 made it into the harbour of Pula with the help of a modified german torpedo and sank the former Austrian but by then since a few hours Croatian/Slovenian/Bosnian battleship SMS ''Viribus Unitis''. [http://www.geocities.com/tegetthoff66/viribus.html website]<br /> <br /> The Wikipedia entry linked above doesn't contain the Italian word ''dirigibile'' (steerable), which sets up the torpedo as a counterpart of the dirigible ''Inconvenience.''<br /> <br /> :I suspect there's a connection between the torpedo and &quot;Not the usual lateener, in fact appearing to have neither sails, masts, nor oars&quot; in Miles' reversed vision, [[ATD_243-272#Page_250|page 250.]] Needs work, though.<br /> <br /> ==Page 530==<br /> <br /> '''exfiltrate'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Make a surreptitious escape (as &quot;infiltrate&quot; means to make a surreptitious entrance).<br /> <br /> '''''Macchè'''''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Italian: certainly not, not a chance. And in Pynchon's Italian is used as an all-purpose exclamation.<br /> <br /> '''''Ehi, stu gazz', categoria'''''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Stu gazz' is a dialect representation of ''sto cazzo'', literally meaning ''this dick here''. Normally you could translate the sense of the sentence as: ''yeah, why not, a fucking category! ''. -- blicero2 - 2007.02.22<br /> <br /> '''''mezzogiornismo'''''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Denigrating the Italian South. Mezzogiorno means ''midday'' in Italian but refers generally to Southern Italy.<br /> <br /> ==Page 531==<br /> <br /> '''Bruges'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> An exceptionally beautiful Belgian town of canals which is thus one of several towns known as the 'Venice of the north'. In the 14th cettury Burges already became an international finanacial and trading center, but<br /> started to decline in the 15th century. In the 20th century, however, the city was discovered by the international tourism and the medieval heritage turned out to be a new source of wealth. A new harbor of Zeebrugge, 10 miles outside of Bruges at the North Sea coast, brought new developments and new industries to the region. For the city and its history see ([http://www.trabel.com/brugge.htm Bruges]).<br /> <br /> '''Raoul's Atelier de la Vitesse'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> French: Ralph's Speed Shop.<br /> <br /> '''Ghent'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Belgian city, less than 30 miles southeast of Bruges, on the rail line about halfway between Ostend and Brussels. It is the fourth largest city of Belgium. It is bigger than Bruges but not as famous as a tourist attraction. But the city is a showcase of medieval Flemish wealth and commercial success. See ([http://www.trabel.com/gent.htm Ghent]).<br /> <br /> '''Daimler six-cylinder'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> ???<br /> <br /> '''a hundred horsepower'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> ???<br /> <br /> '''''guaglion'''''&lt;br&gt;<br /> italian (dialectal) = boy, young person<br /> <br /> '''Umeki Tsurigane'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Umeki is typically made with some combination of the various kanji for &quot;plum&quot; (ume) and &quot;tree&quot; (ki), though one has the ki being the character for &quot;ghost/devil&quot; and one obscure reading that's entirely redundant, where ume is &quot;plant&quot; (usually read ue). There is one where ume is the kanji for &quot;buried or embedded&quot;. Tsurigane, means a &quot;temple bell&quot;, which can stand alone or be followed by the grass kanji to mean &quot;bellflower&quot; (lots of botanical stuff happening here, if that means anything; hardly the only example in ''AtD''). Given the search for Shambhala going on, &quot;Buried Temple Bell&quot; seems a likely translation, at least at this point; the botanical meanings could perhaps emerge later.<br /> <br /> Or, another terrible name-pun? &quot;You make [m]e sore again.&quot; See another on P. [[ATD_748-767#Page_757| 757]]<br /> <br /> '''Professor Knott'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Cargill Knott (1856-1922), professor of physics; seismologist. See his biography [http://www.penicuikcdt.org.uk/Cargill_Knott.html here].<br /> <br /> ==Page 532==<br /> <br /> '''Kimura'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Cf [[ATD_26-56#Page 29|page 29:Kimura]] and [[ATD_318-335#Page 318|page 318:Shunkichi Kimura]].<br /> <br /> '''drover's sombrero'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Cowboy hat.<br /> <br /> '''furoshiki'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Japanese all-purpose cloth. Can be worn, used as wrapping, or used as a bag.<br /> <br /> '''taupe'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> A brownish gray.<br /> <br /> '''boilermakers and their helpers'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> [[ATD_358-373#Page_360|See annotation to p. 360.]]<br /> <br /> '''Anharmonic Pencil'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> ''Pencil'' is a term commonly used in Synthetic Geometry. Straight lines incident with a plane - coplanar lines - and passing through a common point are said to be concurrent lines and the set of all such concurrent coplanar lines is called the ''pencil''. (Cf [[ATD_429-459#Page 456|page 456:Pencil]]). For a figure and a not quite precise definition see [http://mathworld.wolfram.com/Pencil.html pencil]. If a, b, c and d, are four distinct coplanar lines and their double ratio λ = (abcd) = -1, then a, b, c, d are called a harmonic quadruple of lines; they are said to constitute a ''harmonic pencil''. A ''pencil'' which is not harmonic then is known as ''anharmonic pencil''. See Pencil (lines 8-9), Double Ratio λ (lines 32-35) and Harmonic Pencil (line 39) of [http://ca.geocities.com/ingsaler6/mathworld.html Mathworld].<br /> <br /> '''''Comptes rendus'''''&lt;br&gt;<br /> ''Comptes rendus des séances hebdomadaires,'' Proceedings of the weekly sessions (of the Academy of Sciences), published from 1835, later (ca. 1935) retitled ''Comptes rendus de l'Académie des sciences,'' Proceedings of the Academy of Sciences. (Notice that the academy didn't see the need to specify &quot;French.&quot; Take that, Royal Society of London!) For about a century, one of two journals so universally circulated and recognized that bibliographies nearly always cited them in nickname form: ''C.R.'' The other was ''Ber.,'' short for ''Berichte der Deutschen Chemischen Gesellschaft,'' Reports of the German Chemical Society (from 1868).<br /> <br /> '''De Forest'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Cf [[ATD_26-56#Page 29|page 29:De Forest]].<br /> <br /> '''Gibbs'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Cf [[ATD_26-56#Page 29|page 29:Professor Gibbs]].<br /> <br /> '''Maxwell Equations'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Cf [[ATD_57-80#Page 58|page 58:Maxwell Field Equations]].<br /> <br /> ==Page 533==<br /> <br /> '''aniline teal'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> The wallpaper dye; aniline dyes were the first synthetic dyes, discovered by [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/William_Perkin William Perkin] in 1858. Their intense and fade-resistant colors were very fashionable at the end of the nineteenth century. The dyes are also significant in ''GR'' as the products of I.G. Farben.<br /> <br /> '''Heavisiders'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Oliver Heaviside (May 18, 1850 – February 3, 1925) was a self-taught English electrical engineer, mathematician and physicist who adapted complex numbers to the study of electrical circuits, developed techniques for applying Laplace transforms to the solution of differential equations, reformulated Maxwell's field equations in terms of electric and magnetic forces and energy flux, and independently co-formulated vector analysis. Although at odds with the scientific establishment for most of his life, Heaviside changed the face of mathematics and science for years to come.[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Heaviside].<br /> <br /> '''Grassmanniacs'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Nineteenth century German mathematician and linguist, essentially the inventor/discoverer of vector space. Grassmann showed that once geometry is put into the algebraic form he advocated, then the number three has no privileged role as the number of spatial dimensions; the number of possible dimensions is in fact unbounded.[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hermann_Grassmann].<br /> <br /> '''in the mood for a clambake'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Anachronistic Broadway show tune? If so, the clambake in ''Carousel'' turns into a brawl; the assmebled factions of mathematicians could be in the mood for either a party or a brawl, apparently. <br /> <br /> '''Monopole de la Maison'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Monopole of the House, a fanciful name of a fanciful drink.&lt;br&gt;<br /> There is, since 1898, a well known restaurant called ''Monopole Lunch &amp; Sea Grill'' in Plattsburgh of upper New York state. ([http://www.monopole.org Monopole Restaurant]).&lt;br&gt;<br /> Most probably, it's the Magnetic monopole being referred here. In physics, a monopole is a magnet with a net magnetic charge, i.e. there is only one pole instead of two (so no net magnetic charge) as usual. ([http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Magnetic_monopole Monopole]). It's existence had been theoretically predicted by various particle theories (superstring theory, etc) but never been proved experimentally. Proving the existence of a monopole would certainly earn a Nobel Prize.<br /> <br /> '''Idiom Neutral'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> An invented language, like Esperanto. Idiom Neutral dictionaries first appeared in 1902. It looks like a simplified Latinate language and it grew out of Volapuk, another &quot;auxiliary language.&quot; It was abandoned by the ''Akademi Internasional de Lingu Universal'' in 1908.<br /> <br /> For a list of all the invented languages that linguists are keeping track of, including Klingon, try [http://linguistlist.org/forms/langs/GetListOfConstructedLgs.html Eastern Michigan's Linguist List]. And don't forget to click on the link to &quot;Browse sites devoted to constructed languages.&quot;<br /> <br /> '''phatic'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Basically, small talk or chatter. Words used to convey fellow-feeling rather than to impart information.<br /> <br /> '''''Kampf ums Dasein'''''&lt;br&gt;<br /> German: struggle for existence.<br /> <br /> '''Q-brother'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Fellow Quaternioneer or Fellow Quaternionist.<br /> <br /> '''We are the Jews of mathematics, wandering out here in our diaspora--some destined for the past, others the future, even a few able to set out at unknown angles from the simple line of Time, upon journeys that no one can predict''' &lt;br&gt;<br /> In keeping with the analogy of Judaism, those &quot;few&quot; people within the Quaternionists &quot;able to set out at unknown angles&quot; are most likely being compared to Kabbalists who claim to partake in a mystic &quot;journey to the Throne of God through the mythological realm of the seven heavens&quot; (Armstrong, A History of God--p. 247). Throne Mysticism in Kabbalah is explored extensively in Gravity's Rainbow.<br /> <br /> Perhaps this is obvious to some, but these &quot;Jews of Mathematics&quot; worship the Hamiltonian Tetractys [http://www.math.ucr.edu/home/baez/dublin/]; those other Jews worshipped the Tetragrammatron. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tetragrammaton] The proliferation of 4s continues.<br /> <br /> ==Page 534==<br /> <br /> '''Poiret gown'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> A gown designed by Paul Poiret (1879-1944), a French fashion designer based in Paris. &quot;In the annals of fashion history, Paul Poiret is best remembered for freeing women from corsets and further liberating them through pantaloons . . . it was Poiret's remarkable innovations in the cut and construction of cloting . . . Working with fabric directly onto the body, Poiret helped to pioneer a radical approach to dressmakeing that relied more on the skills of drapery than on those of tailoring.&quot; (from [http://www.metmuseum.org/special/se_event.asp?OccurrenceId={0DC3D00F-4611-4F91-8DC2-CC3C1A5C48D5} MetMuseum], <br /> New York Metropolitan Museum's Special Exhibitions, ''Poiret: King of Fashion'', May 9, 2007 to August 5, 2007). For a picture of Poiret gown see [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Image:Poiretgown.jpg Poiret Gown]. ''The New York Times'' reported on February 1, 2007 that A Poiret Gown Brings $5,500 at [http://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html?res=9B07EFDA1538F93AA15756C0A967948260 Christie's Auction] - the gown was made in 1913 when Poiret was at the height of his career. For his bio see [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Paul_Poiret Poiret].<br /> <br /> '''''green and long'''''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Pickle, or... what?<br /> : A green and long ''gherkin'' (a small, immature fruit of a variety of cucumber used in pickling).<br /> <br /> ==Page 535==<br /> <br /> '''no-name wine'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> 1970s idiom for common European practice?<br /> <br /> '''set theory'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Set theory deals with the properties of well-defined collections, or ''sets'', of entities - the ''elements'' or ''members'' of the set - conceived as a whole. The elements may be of a mathematical nature or non-mathematical. The set theory grew out of the German mathematician Georg Cantor's (1845-1918) study of infinite sets of real numbers. <br /> <br /> The ''language of sets'' has become an important tool for all branches of mathematics, but is of very little relevance to the practice of mathematics in everyday life. As a source of metaphors, however, it's been quite productive; &quot;subset,&quot; &quot;superset,&quot; &quot;universe,&quot; &quot;intersection&quot; and &quot;Venn diagram&quot; have found varying degrees of acceptance. Recasting Aristotle's syllogisms in set-theoretic language also makes them easier for many people to understand.<br /> <br /> '''Hamilton . . . early genius'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Hamilton, according to ''Chambers Biographical Dictionary'', &quot;at fifteen knew thirteen languages, had read Newton's ''Principia'', and commenced original investigations&quot;. At twenty-two, &quot;while still an undergraduate, he was appointed professor of Astronomy at Dublin and Irish Astronomer-Royal&quot;; at thirty &quot;he was knighted&quot;.<br /> <br /> '''Hamilton . . . in the grip of a first love'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> ???&lt;br&gt;<br /> Pynchon probably didn't mean Quaternion was Hamilton's first love, but its effect on him was similar to that of a first love. In 1843 at the age of 38 Hamilton invented the Quaternion, the first non-communtative algebra to be studied. He felt this would revolutionise mathematical physics, and he spent the rest of his life working on it. In 1853 he published a large volume, ''Lectures on Quaternions'', on his grand invention. The last seven years of his life, Hamilton was writing an 800-page book ''Elements of Quaternions'' modeling on Euclid's ''Elements''. The last chapter of the book was completed by his son after his death.<br /> <br /> '''the Walt Whitman of English physics'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Whitman pops up again, last seen on [[ATD_489-524#Page_491|page 491]].<br /> <br /> ==Page 536==<br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> '''Oscar Wilde'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Note that Wilde's Dorian Gray also undergoes a kind of bilocation.<br /> <br /> '''Kursaal'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Spa. Casino ?<br /> <br /> '''vectors'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> For serious minds see Cf [[ATD_525-556#Page 526|page 526:Gibbsian Vectors]], but let's follow Pynchon's lighter mood, here is a non-mathematical definition by Kamen (1995):<br /> :''Many things have more than direction;''<br /> :''The magnitude is also a question.''<br /> :''With acceleration or force,''<br /> :''And many more things, of course,''<br /> :''It's vectors that make the connection.''<br /> <br /> '''Curls'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Cf [[ATD_318-335#Page 326|page 326:Curl]]: curl is a vector operator that shows a vector field's rate of rotation.<br /> <br /> '''Laplacians'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Pierre-Simon, Marquis de Laplace (March 23, 1749 – March 5, 1827); French mathematician and astronomer who summarized and extended the work of his predecessors in his five volume Mécanique Céleste (Celestial Mechanics) (1799-1825), translating the geometrical study of mechanics used by Isaac Newton to one based on calculus, known as physical mechanics.<br /> <br /> He is also the discoverer of Laplace's equation. Although the Laplace transform is named in honor of Laplace, who used the transform in his work on probability theory, the transform was discovered originally by Leonhard Euler. The Laplace transform appears in all branches of mathematical physics — a field he took a leading role in forming. The Laplacian differential operator, much relied-upon in applied mathematics, is likewise named after him. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Laplace].<br /> <br /> :Cf [[ATD_318-335#Page 326|page 326:Laplacian]]: Laplacian is a differential operator named after Laplace. The text here was talking about mathematical operations and operators — rates of change, rotations, partial differentials, Curls, ''Laplacians'', . . .<br /> <br /> '''scream'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Scream motif.<br /> <br /> '''beginning to appal'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> By 1905 there had been years of outrage at conditions in the Belgian Congo, King Leopold's private fief. Conrad's ''Heart of Darkness'' had been published as a serial in Blackwood's Magazine in 1899 and as a book in 1902. There were missionaries' accounts of the brutality, and newspaper reports. Leopold and his apologists published rebuttals. The Norton Critical Edition of ''Heart of Darkness'' contains an extensive collection of both.<br /> <br /> '''baize'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Baize is a coarse woolen felt.<br /> <br /> ==Page 537==<br /> <br /> '''broken symmetries'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Broken_symmetry Broken symmetry] is a concept used widely in mathematics and physics. For a simplest explanation (good enough for the text here), this term means that an object breaks either rotational symmetry or translational sysmetry - when one can only rotate an object in certain angles or when one is able to tell if the object has been shifted sideways. For a little bit more detailed explanation see [http://www.lassp.cornell.edu/sethna/OrderParameters/BrokenSymmetry.html Identify the Broken Symmetry]; or even more [http://scienceweek.com/2005/sw050708-6.htm On Broken Symmetry].<br /> <br /> '''''sphinxe Khnopffienne'''''&lt;br&gt;<br /> refers to the Belgian symbolist painter Fernand Khnopff (1858-1921), famous for his painting &quot;The Caress&quot;, in which a female sphinx erotically lures a young man. The painting can be seen in the [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fernand_Khnopff wikipedia entry]<br /> <br /> '''Pléiade Lafrisée'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> in French, &quot;friser&quot; means to curl or twist. &quot;La frisée&quot; could mean &quot;curled,&quot; by extension &quot;twisted.&quot; The Pleiades is a cluster of hundreds of stars, though only a few are visible, sometimes referred to as The Seven Sisters. If Pleiades are Sisters, Pléiade is ''one'' Sister, so her name means Twisted Sister!<br /> <br /> '''''Conseilleuse'''''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Female consultant?<br /> <br /> ==Page 538==<br /> <br /> '''retroversion matrix'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> ???<br /> <br /> '''''Ma foi'''''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Literally &quot;My faith&quot;, i.e. &quot;By my faith!&quot;, a mild exclamation of incredulity.<br /> <br /> '''ten thousand francs'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> <br /> Based on currency conversions relative to gold, this is equivalent to<br /> about $30,000 US today.<br /> <br /> '''piker'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Someone cheap or cautious, possibly named after people from PIke County, Missouri, who came to California in the 1800s, looking for work. They were poor, hence cheap.<br /> <br /> '''what is a Quaternino?'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Cf [[ATD_525-556#Page 525|page 525:Quaternions]] for a mathematical definition. From ''The Random House Dictionary of the English Languages'', The Unabridged Edition (1966): Quaternion is &quot;a quantity or operator expressed as the sum of a real number and three complex numbers, equivalent to the ''quotient of two vectors''. The field of quaternions is not commutative under multiplication.&quot;.<br /> <br /> '''Bertie ('Mad Dog') Russell'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> 'Mad Dog' seems to be used with heavy irony here. Bertrand Russell was known most for his rationalism, so to speak, his work in modern logic. <br /> He did little in his public roles (at this time in AtD) that would have <br /> him referred to as &quot;crazy', as we say, beyond the social norm, &quot;mad&quot;. <br /> It might be argued that his use of 'logic' against philosophers such as Hegel and McTaggart within ''Against the Day'' showed up their 'madness'.<br /> (Many did think McTaggart was a bit...different...for seriously not believing in Time.) McTaggart broke with Russell after an early influential friendship---Russell was the younger man and the influenced one. He said he was an Hegelian because of McTaggart--Russell wrote in his<br /> Autobiography that McTaggart said he no longer wanted to meet/talk with him bcause he could no longer stand Russell's opinions.<br /> <br /> [http://nobelprize.org/nobel_prizes/literature/laureates/1950/russell-bio.html Bertrand Russell] (1872-1970) was a British mathematician, philosopher, logician and social critic. Best known for his work in mathermatical logic and analytic philosophy. In late spring of 1901 he discovered the so-called [http://plato.stanford.edu/entries/russell-paradox/ Russell Paradox], &quot;the most famous of the logical or set-theoretical paradoxes. The paradox arises within naive set theory by considering the set of all sets that are not members of themselves. Such a set appears to be a member of itself if and only if it is not a member of itself, hence the paradox.&quot; (On-line Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy). He won the 1950 Nobel Prize in Literature in &quot;recognition of his varied and significant writings in which he champions humanitarian ideals and freedom of thought&quot;.<br /> <br /> '''Barry Nebulay'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> nebulae: formed from the diffusion of gas in galaxies or as exploded stars (or the last ember-like stage of a star)&lt;br&gt; <br /> Most nebulae can be described as diffuse nebulae, which means that they are extended and contain no well-defined boundaries.[1] In visible light these nebulae may be divided into emission nebulae and reflection nebulae, a categorization that depends on how the light we see is created.<br /> <br /> '''Hegel... puns'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Probably refers to the fact that quite a lot of Hegel's philosophy deals with the is-ness of the world as we know and experience it.<br /> <br /> On page 787 of Bertrand Russell's ''History of Western Philosophy'' is a summary, perhaps, of this remark about Hegel's puns: &quot;as a result of analysis of the concept &quot;existence&quot;, modern logic has proved this [Cartesianism, refuted by Kant, reinstated by Hegel] argument invalid.....&quot;<br /> <br /> We know from other places that TRP himself seems to 'not like' Cartesianism. See 'cartesian' citations within this wiki.<br /> <br /> ==Page 539==<br /> <br /> '''a vector quotient'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> The result of one vector divided by another. According to the English dictionary definition of previous page this is just a Quaternion.<br /> <br /> '''unit vector'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Unit vector is a vector with magnitude of one. The unit vectors in 3-dimensional space, ''i, j, k'', associated with ''x, y, z'' directions are used in defining a general 3D vector (Cf [[ATD_525-556#Page 526|page 526:Gibbsian Vectors]]).<br /> <br /> '''''square root of minus one'''''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Imaginary number (Cf [[ATD_119-148#Page 132|page 133:Imaginary Number]]). The imaginary numbers ''i, j, k'' are used in defining a Quaternion (Cf [[ATD_525-556#Page 525|page 525:Quaternions]]).<br /> <br /> ''''Triangle Asana''''&lt;br&gt;<br /> A basic yoga pose. <br /> <br /> [http://yoga.org.nz/postures/yoga_positions_images_page.htm Here are images of several basic poses.]<br /> <br /> ''''Dr Rao abruptly vanished''''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Might be a reference to [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Martin_Gardner Martin Gardner]'s<br /> [http://www.amazon.com/No-Sided-Professor-Fantasy-Mystery-Philosophy/dp/0879753900 &quot;No-Sided Professor&quot;]<br /> <br /> ''''Quadrantal Versor Asana''''&lt;br&gt;<br /> A triangle pose taken that extra dimension.<br /> <br /> '''''&quot;Uwe moer!&quot;'''''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Looks a lot like the Dutch &quot;Uw moeder!&quot; - a cry of astonishment (&quot;Your mother!&quot;), the equivalent to the black English &quot;yo mama&quot;.<br /> <br /> '''noncommutative'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> A term typical to mathematics. A commutative equation is one that can operate in exact reverse and still yield the same results. 'Noncommutative' then suggests unidirectionality. The ability to go from point A to point B, but not from B to A.<br /> <br /> '''reticule'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> A woman's drawstring handbag; usually made of net or beading or brocade; also: A system of lines forming a pattern of squares at the focal plane of a telescope, used in micrometers.<br /> [http://www.astunit.com/tutorials/glossary.htm] <br /> :Isn't that sort of a red herring? &quot;[P]roducing from her reticule a . . . watch&quot; doesn't really allow of that second meaning. &lt;br&gt;<br /> :It could be a pun, since a reticule/ handbag always shows its pattern of lines, and a watch (timepiece) is drawn from it. Remember that, e.g. railroad lines of tracks, are a sign of industrialism encroaching on the natural and the spiritual.<br /> <br /> '''Vacheron &amp; Constantin watch'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Made by a Swiss company founded in 1755. From 1819 to 1970 the name was as in the text, then the &amp; dropped out. See the [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vacheron_Constantin Wikipedia entry.]<br /> <br /> '''hunting-case'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> For a pocket watch, a case with a hinged metal cover. More often called &quot;hunter case&quot; (and such a watch a &quot;hunter&quot;).<br /> <br /> ==Page 540==<br /> <br /> '''&quot;haar rekening, ja?&quot;'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> The bill, yes? (Dutch)?<br /> <br /> ''Her'' bill, yes? I.e., give the check to the lady.<br /> <br /> Given the presence of Chris 'Kit' Traverse here, this very much suggests a reference to Christopher 'Kit' Marlowe, Elizabethan poet, playwright and contemporary of Shakespeare. Marlowe was stabbed to death in 1593, in murky circumstances, ostensibly over a bill or 'reckoning', though he was widely believed to have been involved in some form of espionage.<br /> <br /> Strictly speaking &quot;haar rekening&quot; means that the lady pays for herself only. If Root wanted to make sure that Pléiade pays for the whole company he would have to say &quot;de hele rekening voor de dame&quot;. <br /> <br /> '''Piet Woevre'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> The Woëvre is a natural region of Lorraine in north-east France. It forms part of Lorraine plateau and lies largely in the department of Meuse. During World War I, there was much fighting there due to vast mineral resources that had been discovered in the Briey basin or Eastern Woevre at the end of the 19th century. &quot;Piet&quot; is Dutch for &quot;rock&quot; or &quot;stone&quot; and is a fairly common Dutch name, the English equivalent being Peter.<br /> <br /> If the surname is pronounced as in Dutch, Woevre is another Pynchon villain with a &quot;V&quot;-name (Vond, Weissman, Vibe). <br /> <br /> '''Force Publique'''&lt;br /&gt;<br /> The Force Publique (FP) was the official armed force for what is now the Democratic Republic of the Congo from 1885, (when the territory was known as the Congo Free State), through the period of direct Belgian rule (1908-60), until the beginning of the Second Republic in 1965. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Force_Publique Wikipedia entry]<br /> <br /> '''made him reach'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Possible allusion to a famous line, &quot;When I hear the word culture I reach for my gun.&quot; From Hanns Johst's biographical play ''Schlageter''. The original line is slightly different: &quot;Wenn ich Kultur höre ... entsichere ich meinen Browning,&quot; &quot;Whenever I hear of culture... I release the safety-catch of my Browning!&quot; (Act 1, Scene 1). It is spoken by another character in conversation with the young Schlageter. In the scene Schlageter and his wartime comrade Friedrich Thiemann are studying for a college examination, but then start disputing whether it's worthwhile doing so when the nation is not free. <br /> <br /> The line is often misattributed to better-known Nazis and others [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hanns_Johst].<br /> <br /> *In Jean-Luc Godard's 1963 film [http://www.chicagoreader.com/movies/archives/0997/09057.html ''Le Mépris'' (''Contempt'')], Jack Palance's character &quot;Jeremy Prokosch,&quot; an American movie-producer, intones to Fritz Lang: &quot;Whenever I hear the word culture, I reach for my checkbook.&quot;<br /> <br /> '''not unambiguous'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Ie, ambiguous.<br /> <br /> '''''rastaquoueres'''''&lt;br&gt;<br /> 8???<br /> <br /> '''de Decker'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> In Dutch/Flemish, the name means &quot;roofer.&quot; (''De'' in these names almost never means &quot;of, from&quot; as in French; it's nearly always the definite article.)<br /> <br /> ==Page 541==<br /> <br /> '''''bobbejaan'''''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Afrikaans: baboon. (Afrikaans is the language spoken by descendants of Dutch colonists in present-day South Africa. Some items identified as Dutch or Flemish in this wiki may really be Afrikaans.)<br /> <br /> The South African song &quot;Bobbejaan klim die berg&quot; (&quot;Bobbejaan climbed the hill&quot;) is the source of the stage name of Belgium's most famous country and western musician, Bobbejaan Schoepen (b. 1925). In 1943 he was suppressed by the Nazis after performing a South African song, &quot;Mamma, 'k wil 'n man hê&quot; (&quot;Mama, I want a man&quot;), which contains the line &quot;No, Mama, I don't want a German, because I don't like pork.&quot; He founded the Bobbejaanland theme park in Belgium, where he still lives.<br /> <br /> '''MKIV/ODC... Mark Four'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> This would be the Mark IV Ohmic Drift Compensator ([[ATD 557-587#Page 565|Page 565]]), a key component of the Q-weapon, which &quot;regulates how much light is allowed to enter the silvering of the mirror! Special kind of refraction! Calibrated against imaginary index! Dangerous! Of the essence!'&quot;<br /> <br /> '''not part of your remit'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Not included in your job description, instructions, authorization. &quot;Remit&quot; (noun) is usually a British usage.<br /> <br /> '''''gatkruiper'''''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Dutch/Flemish: brownnose, ass-kisser.<br /> <br /> '''one on her wrist'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> All the bruises reflect some refinement or artistry except this one, which may have been inflicted crudely.<br /> <br /> '''over the day'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Title motif?<br /> <br /> ==Page 542==<br /> <br /> '''trans-horizontic'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Across the horizon -- &quot; a screaming comes across the sky&quot;<br /> <br /> '''Edmund Whittaker'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Edmund Whittaker (1873-1956), an English mathematician. He is best known for his work in numerical analysis. And he contributed widely to applied mathematics, mathematical physics and the theory of special functions. He also worked on celestial mechanics and the history of applied mathermatics and physics. ([http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/E._T._Whittaker Whittaker]).<br /> <br /> The Sir Edmund Whittaker Memorial Prize is awarded every four years by the Edinburgh Mathematical Society to an outstanding young mathematician having a specified connection with Scotland [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sir_Edmund_Whittaker_Memorial_Prize]. <br /> <br /> '''louche'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> The cloudy effect caused by the addition of water to absinthe. Dictionary definition: &quot;of questionable taste or morality; decadent.&quot;<br /> <br /> '''cheval-glass'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Standing mirror in a freestanding vertical frame.<br /> <br /> '''as if someone'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Sound-cancelling vs opacity-cancelling?<br /> <br /> ==Page 543==<br /> <br /> '''wraith of Pleiade Lafrisee'''<br /> <br /> Pleiade manifests one of her not-visible stars. Perhaps this sister has somehow twisted herself on an imaginary axis ala Dr. V. Ganesh Rao.<br /> <br /> '''monitory'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Warning, giving advice, by extension ominous or menacing.<br /> <br /> '''Against....the day....'''<br /> Note: this phrase happens at the exact halfway point of the novel: p.542.3<br /> <br /> '''He Who Must Come'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> The evil-doer who must come might be Adolf Hitler. It would make sense. The implication being that Europe is precipitating into a no-return situation. Capitalism cannot but end in WW2.&lt;br&gt;<br /> Ah, a lot more and less than capitalism going on here, especially if anyone specific like Hitler is meant. <br /> :When French writers use this phrase (''celui qui doit venir'') they '''do''' mean the Messiah . . . although a few devout quibblers point out that the Messiah has already come. It's rather tiresome Googling the phrase; the first 83 hits definitely refer to Christ and most of them quote the first verses of Matthew 11. But there's also a Camus reference (in English, I think) down at No. 90, if anyone has a JSTOR account:<br /> :links.jstor.org/sici?sici=0361-1299(1985)39%3A4%3C251%3ACFS%22M%3E2.0.CO%3B2-X <br /> <br /> Recalls Yeats' 'The Second Coming' once again: &quot;And what rough beast, its hour come round at last, Slouches towards Bethlehem to be born?&quot; [http://chumpsofchoice.blogspot.com/2007/05/casino-royale-in-flanders-field.html#c3637134446204467798 ]<br /> <br /> '''General Boulanger'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/General_Boulanger Georges Boulanger], French military man, and War Minister in the late 19th century. He was one of those men &quot;on a white horse&quot; that some conservatives looked to, as he urged an attack on Germany and the end of the French Republic with a return to monarchy. He was also notorious for his harsh reprisals against workers' demonstrations. &quot;'Boulangisme'&quot; threatened a coup in 1889, but the general's procrastination brought the crisis to an end.&lt;br&gt;<br /> In ''The Infernal Machine: A History of Terrorism''<br /> by Matthew Carr, 2007, Boulanger is called the &quot;father&quot; of fascism.<br /> <br /> '''what death and what transfiguration'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Allusion to Richard Strauss' tone poem &quot;Death and Transfiguration&quot; (''Tod und Verklärung''), premiered in 1890.<br /> <br /> '''''&quot;Zeker&quot;'''''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Dutch: certainly.<br /> <br /> '''''dead cert'''''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Dead certainty, sure thing.<br /> <br /> '''Von Schlieffen'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Alfred von Schlieffen was the author of a German war plan to win a two-front war against both France and Russia by quickly defeating France before Russian troops could be mobilized. The [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Schlieffen_Plan Schlieffen Plan] included an attack on France through Belgium, disregarding its neutrality.<br /> <br /> '''Wilhelm has offered Leopold part of France, the ancient Duchy of Burgundy'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> [http://www.crwflags.com/fotw/flags/fr-bg.html History of the duchy.] [http://www.freiburg-madison.de/freiburg_history/1386-1517_The%20Early%20Habsburgs.htm Map,] with portrait of Duke Charles the Rash.<br /> <br /> '''lowlands'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Title of Pynchon's first published story. Here, ass?<br /> <br /> ==Page 544==<br /> <br /> '''Place d'Armes'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Main square of Ostend; literally &quot;drill field&quot;.<br /> <br /> '''peau de soie'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> &quot;Skin of silk&quot; A heavy, smooth satin with very fine ribbing; somewhat dull in sheen compared with traditional silk finishes.<br /> <br /> '''Krafft-Ebing'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Richard Freiherr von Krafft-Ebing, Austro-German psychiatrist and author of ''Psychopathia Sexualis'' (1886), a pioneering study of deviant sexual behavior and fetishism. Coined both ''sadism'' and ''masochism'' as terms for these respective behaviors. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Richard_Freiherr_von_Krafft-Ebing Wikipedia entry].<br /> <br /> '''toque'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Toque here refers to a lady's hat, originally of fur but here in velvet, which is rather like a flattened chef's hat in shape.<br /> <br /> Proust: in ''À l'ombre des jeunes filles en fleurs'' the narrator first sees Albertine wearing a toque. There seem to be quite a few Proust themes and references running throughout the novel. Indeed '''Pliade''' is the French publisher of Proust's works. <br /> <br /> '''guipure'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Lace trim.<br /> <br /> '''midinette'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> A shopgirl or dressmakers apprentice. A milliner.<br /> <br /> '''Lambic'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> A distinctive Belgian style of beer. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lambic Wikipedia]<br /> <br /> '''sous'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> <br /> Coins. Originally Roman gold coins, latterly any kind of coin.<br /> <br /> Specifically small change. She is affecting modesty by claiming that a hat like hers can be had for pennies in any unpretentious shop. In France &quot;sou is used as slang for money, as in ''sans le sou''. 'I'm broke', 'without money'. It is also a slang term for the Canadian cent (standard French, cent).&quot; ([http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sou Wikipedia])<br /> <br /> '''mayonnaise'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Brautigan's &quot;Trout Fishing in America&quot; famously ends with the word mayonnaise. [http://books.google.com/books?vid=ISBN0395500761&amp;id=rbEjDovfyNMC&amp;pg=RA2-PA111&amp;lpg=RA2-PA111&amp;ots=ELKl5b_6Tx&amp;dq=mayonnaise+trout.fishing&amp;num=100&amp;sig=BiyXRqJXRGrMWbrBNgn8de2kpCo#PRA2-PA112,M1 GoogleBooks]<br /> <br /> '''ovoöleaginous'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Another Pynchonic word combination, here denoting the two main ingredients of mayonnaise: 1) eggs, and 2) oil. It's not &quot;fecoventilatory collision&quot; as seen in &quot;Vineland,&quot; but it's nice.<br /> <br /> '''Grenache'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Grape commonly used in Rhone Valley wines e.g. Chateauneuf du Pape.<br /> <br /> '''Chantilly'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> <br /> Region north of Paris.<br /> <br /> Here the reference is to crème chantilly otherwise known as whipped cream. Chantilly mayonnaise is made by incorporating the beaten egg whites for extra lightness.<br /> <br /> '''attainder'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Legislative act declaring that a person is guilty of a crime and setting punishment without the benefit of a formal trial. The Constitution forbids the federal government (Article I, Section 9, clause 3) and the state governments (Article I, Section 10, clause 1) from passing bills of attainder.<br /> [www.historycentral.com/Civics/B.html] <br /> <br /> ''''''Aux armes, citoyens''''''&lt;br&gt;<br /> ''To arms, citizens'', from the French national anthem, ''La Marseillaise'' (1792). Kit confused La Mayonnaise with La Marseillaise.&lt;br&gt;<br /> Not &quot;Le Marseillaise,&quot; you nitwit!<br /> <br /> '''Louis XV'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> King of France 1715-1774 [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Louis_XV]. <br /> <br /> '''Cléo de Mérode'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Glamorous French ballerina (1875-1966), later Follies Bergere dancer and famous beauty. Her reputed intimacy with King Leopold was only a rumor [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cleo_de_Merode]. The character Madame Leonora Armfeldt in Stephen Sondheim's ''A Little Night Music'' has some features in common with her.<br /> <br /> '''Marquise de Pompadour'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Mistress of Louis XV,once friend of Voltaire and a power behind official scenes.[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Madame_de_Pompadour].<br /> <br /> ==Page 545==<br /> <br /> '''duc de Richelieu'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Duc de Richelieu (1696-1788), marshal of France, was a grandnephew of Cardinal Richelieu, and born in Paris. Apart from his reputation as a man of exceptionally loose morals, he attained, in spite of a defective education, distinction as a diplomatist and general. ([http://www.1911encyclopedia.org/Louis_Francois_Armand_du_Plessis,_duc_de_Richelieu duc de Richelieu] and cf [[ATD_489-524#Page 490|page 490:duc de Richelieu]])<br /> <br /> '''dubious 'victory' in 1756'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> As part of the Seven Years' War (1756-1763), duc de Richelieu (1696-1788), a Marshal of France, won a victory in the Battle of Minorca (May 20, 1756) over John Byng (1704-1757), a British Admiral. In spring of 1756 John Byng was sent with a small and undermanned fleet to relieve the British ''Port Mahon'' on the Mediterranean island of Minorca. During the battle ensued, several British ships were badly damaged by the French squadron while others, including Byng's flagship, were still out of effective firing range. Instead of engaging the enemy directly, Byng decided to keep the formation, allowing the French fleet to get away undamaged. ([http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_Minorca Battle of Minorca]).<br /> <br /> '''the ill-fated Admiral Byng'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> John Byng, convicted by court-martial of failure &quot;to do his utmost&quot; in the battle, shot in 1757. Remembered because of (1) his being the last officer of flag rank to be put to death for conduct in battle and (2) Voltaire's gag in ''Candide:'' &quot;In this country it is good to kill an admiral from time to time in order to encourage the others.&quot;<br /> <br /> '''cantharides'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> &quot;Spanish fly,&quot; contact irritant sometimes ill-advisedly used as aphrodisiac.<br /> <br /> '''Sadean'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Pertaining to the Marquis de Sade. The acts the chef performs on the egg and oil have the same names as acts of Sadean sex. <br /> <br /> '''''n'est-ce pas?'''''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Right? (Isn't that so?)<br /> <br /> '''vetiver'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> A grass (Vetiveria zizanioides) of tropical India, cultivated for its aromatic roots that yield an oil used in perfumery.<br /> [www.answers.com/topic/vetiver]. So, a perfume with, llterallly, roots in India.<br /> <br /> Vetiver makes frequent appearances throughout ''À la recherche du temps perdu.''<br /> <br /> '''pip'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> A beaut; in current parlance, a hottie.<br /> <br /> '''Q.P. system'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Quaternion Probability, page 536.<br /> <br /> '''Usine Régionale'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> French: as translated in the text.<br /> <br /> ==Page 546==<br /> <br /> '''disjunctive effects of thunderstorms'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Folk wisdom says a thunderstorm will cause mayonnaise to separate (oil from yolks).<br /> <br /> '''cottonseed oil'''<br /> <br /> Mayonnaisse like Smegmo and Crisco is a hydrogenated fat; cottonseed oil is a common factor to all three. Indeed, the name Crisco derives from the intial sounds of &quot;'''crys'''tallized '''c'''ottonseed '''o'''il&quot;. Note in the next few pages a mention of Candlebrow -- underscoring a tie-in between Mayonnaisse and Smegmo. <br /> <br /> It may be of interest to note that hydrogenation may have a symbolic use for Pynchon. The process entails bubbling hydrogen through oil in the presence of a metal catalyst such as nickel, platinum, aluminum at 248 to 410 degrees. Remnants of these metals stay in the finished product, and when consumed can lead to an increase in heavy metals in the human body.<br /> <br /> Eating hydrogenated oils is like eating plastic. The body does not recognize that these molecules have been mutated and tries to use them as essential fatty acids. But they cannot perform the same function, and as a result hydrogenated oils can cause short circuits in the electrical flow that controls the heartbeat, nerve functions, cell division and mental balance. They also create free radicals (anarchists!) that are linked to cancers. Free radicals plus metal remnants are a major contributor to cancer, heart disease, immune system dysfunction, osteoporosis, depression, chronic fatigue, Alzheimers, and neurological diseases. It is estimated that over 200 million people have died prematurely because of the hydrogenated oils found in our diets. [http://www.drz.org/asp/newsletter/default.asp?xt2id=23] Not to mention innocent bystanders killed by mentally imbalanced people whose imbalance may stem from the ingestion of hydrogenated oils -- there may be some underlying reality to the &quot;Twinkie defense.&quot;<br /> <br /> '''lounge suit'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> A lounge suit is another name for business suit consisting of a matching jacket and trousers or skirt.<br /> <br /> '''congress shoes'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> ankle high shoes with elastic gussets in the sides (wordweb online)<br /> <br /> '''invisible hand'''<br /> <br /> Suggestive of Adam Smith's metaphor for market forces in economics.<br /> <br /> '''dripping-heads'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mayonnaise To make mayonnaise,] beat together egg yolks, salt, mustard and vinegar, then drip in oil while beating to form the emulsion. If you scale the process up for industrial production, you will automate the introduction of the oil, using nozzles that release it a drop at a time—but in a large vat you can have many such nozzles.<br /> <br /> '''''cuves d'agitation'''''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Vat or tank in which the mayonnaise is agitated or beaten.<br /> <br /> '''Clinique d'Urgence pour Sauvetage des Sauces'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> French: Emergency Clinic for Salvage of Sauces.<br /> <br /> ==Page 547==<br /> <br /> '''' ...engulfed in thick, slick, sour-smelling mayonnaise. ''''<br /> The whole Kit's experience in the mayonnaise factory is very much reminiscent to [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Roald_Dahl Roald Dahl]'s [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Charlie_and_the_Chocolate_Factory Charlie and the Chocolate Factory].<br /> <br /> '''''Cazzo, cretino'''''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Literally, &quot;Dick, cretin.&quot; ''Cazzo'' is a common Italian interjectionary obscenity, especially in the south. &quot;Cazzo, cretino,&quot; is akin to someone saying, &quot;Well shit, dummy,&quot; or &quot;F-ing moron!&quot;<br /> <br /> '''''È il cowboy!'''''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Italian: It's the cowboy!<br /> <br /> '''''vero?'''''&lt;br&gt;<br /> true? real?<br /> <br /> '''''Le bambole anarchiste, porca miseria'''''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Italian: Anarchist babes, oh boy.<br /> <br /> '''Oudenberg'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> A southeast suburb of Ostende.<br /> <br /> '''Quai de l'Entrepôt'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Warehouse Quay<br /> <br /> '''''ragazzi'''''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Italian: boys, guys.<br /> <br /> ==Page 548==<br /> <br /> '''General Boulanger'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> That the General was 'reactionary' and that the C of C bureaucracy had a 'defiant residue' of Boulangism, continues the characterization of the organization for which the Chums 'work'.&lt;br&gt;<br /> See p. 543 above, regarding a 2007 book in which Boulanger is called the 'father of fascism'.<br /> <br /> '''''timbres fictifs'''''&lt;br&gt;<br /> French: fictive postage stamps. Cf &quot;Lot 49&quot;.&lt;br&gt;<br /> Yes, stamps mean something in Pynchon's works; here, it seems important that these stamps are characterized as frauds.<br /> <br /> '''&quot;IIIb&quot;'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> As explained in the text.&lt;br&gt;<br /> &quot;Section IIIB (Intelligence) of the German High Command. After WWI, was funded by Alfred Hugenberg (financial backer of Nazi party)&quot;. From ''Sabotage'' by Sayers &amp; Kahn, 1942.[http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&amp;q=%22IIIB%27+%2B+INTELLIGENCE&amp;btnG=Search]. The authors state in the Forward, in 1942, &quot;that 'Nazi Germany' is the creation of spies and saboteurs&quot;. See ''V.'' &amp; ''Gravity's Rainbow'', of course. <br /> <br /> '''Germany might stand a better chance...'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> That is, if the French were to push into Alsace (per Boulanger) as the Germans executed the Schlieffen Plan [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Schlieffen_plan] for the encirclement of Paris, it would put the French at an even greater disadvantage...as actually happened in 1914. Had the Belgians and British not delayed the Germans in Flanders, and had the French railroads not performed speedily to bring the French troops back to the Marne, World War I could have had a very different outcome...an alternate history. <br /> <br /> '''revanchist'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Policies based on revenge, or a person following such policies. In General Boulanger's case, revenge against Germany for the Franco-Prussian War (that is, retaking Alsace, lost in 1871).<br /> <br /> '''the somewhat discomposed General'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Having died in 1891, the General by the time of the action is certainly somewhat '''de'''composed; brief biographies do not suggest he was ''non compos mentis,'' that is, mentally discomposed.<br /> <br /> ==Page 549==<br /> '''grow more and more invisible'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> What could be meant? Clearly, they inhabit bodies that people interact with?, as well as being characters in works of fiction.&lt;br&gt;<br /> Given what happens with the Chums as the story progresses [Spoiler bit, thematically], I suggest that their invisibility here<br /> means the entering of simple human life, to live out their lives 'anonymously' in history. I want to suggest this is largely a positive vision, indicated in other ways and places as well in TRPs work. Here is an overt bit of circumstantial evidence from Pynchon's introduction to Jim Dodge's novel ''Stone Junction'':&lt;br&gt;<br /> &quot;Equally difficult for those who might wish to proceed through life<br /> anonymously and without trace has been the continuing assault against<br /> the once-reliable refuge of the cash or non-plastic economy.&quot; [http://www.themodernword.com/pynchon/pynchon_essays_stone.html]<br /> <br /> '''cackled Darby'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> (When did he lose his innocence?)<br /> <br /> '''a modification of any salsician metaphor toward the diminutive'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Salsician: pertaining to sausage. Lindsay says Suckling's penis is better compared to a wiener than a knockwurst.<br /> <br /> '''&quot;Why you little–and I do mean 'little'–&quot;'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Another Simpsons reference? <br /> <br /> Noseworth, the Master-At-Arms of the Chums division of this organization with a defiant residue of 'fascism', who had no smell to Pugnax early on,<br /> is called out, either for real or in a sex-bashing putdown, for homosexuality. cf. homosexuality as a metaphor in ''Gravity's Rainbow''. <br /> <br /> '''dunes between Nieuport and Dunkirk'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Nieuport is a Belgian seaport about 10 miles southwest of Ostend. Dunkirk is a French port (less than 10 miles inside the French border) about 20 miles southwest of Nieuport. The latter was a site of one of the bloodest battle in World War I. The general area between Niewport and Dunkirk was the well traversed battle fields of two world wars. (Dunkirk was (in)famous for the British Army's escape from the Nazi German's assault in World War II.)<br /> <br /> '''power-receivers'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Not information, energy.<br /> <br /> ==Page 550==<br /> <br /> '''Lot's wife''' &lt;br&gt;<br /> Angels of God led Lot and his family out of Sodom as it was being destroyed and told them not to look back at the mayhem. Lot's wife, Edith, imprudently looked back and was transfigured into a pillar of salt.<br /> <br /> '''preference...for interiors'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> In ''Mason &amp; Dixon'', the interiors of some coaches were larger than their exterior dimensions. Interiors have importance in Pynchon's worldview. Cf. &quot;invisibility&quot;, and a 'human life' above.<br /> <br /> '''Italian grotto'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> an imitating recess or structure made to resemble a natural Italian grotto.<br /> <br /> '''a highly developed taste, moreover, for human blood'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Since Pugnax developed this taste in the Carpathians, home of Castle Dracula, this seems a clear reference to Bram Stoker's novel. <br /> <br /> '''Carpathians'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Major mountain range running northwest-southeast through Poland, Slovakia, western Ukraine and Romania.<br /> <br /> '''Uhlans'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Uhlan regiments belonged to the light cavalry. They wore splendid uniforms (model for some U.S. marching band uniforms). [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Uhlan Wikipedia article.]<br /> <br /> '''Temesvár'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Now Timişoara, extreme western Romania.<br /> <br /> ==Page 551==<br /> <br /> '''...separated by only a slice of Time...'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Miles is beginning to experience Time almost as a spatial dimension, his personal vector as traversing (!) 4-dimensional space, or perhaps multidimensional space, the mathematics for which is being debated in Ostend.<br /> <br /> '''securing the mess decks'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> The Chums follow U.S. Navy idiom in orders (frequently prefixed with &quot;Now&quot;) and shipboard activities (&quot;secure&quot; meaning &quot;whatever you did before, undo it now,&quot; in this case put away the dishes and fold up the tables).<br /> <br /> '''Ryder Thorn'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Tolkienesque name? Or perhaps it's a nod to the Ryder-Waite Tarot deck and to Kevin Thorn (Kevin Matthew Fertig, 1977-), the American professional wrestler better known by his ring name Kevin Thorn who is currently signed to World Wrestling Entertainment wrestling on its ECW brand. He has appeared in vigniettes with Ariel (Shelly Martinez, 1980-), the tarot card reader, who spits blood at the camera while she &quot;predicted the future of ECW.&quot; Yup, a stretch...<br /> <br /> *The name also evokes the Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse.<br /> <br /> '''He was at Candlebrow.'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Presumably a 'trespasser.'<br /> <br /> '''the four-note chord in the context of timelessness'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> A melody is formed by notes following one another in time; a chord on the ukulele violates that practice by having all the notes sound at once. A really clever little passage.<br /> Note: Jazz musicians describe musical improvisations as horizontal (with the melody) or vertical (with the chord)<br /> <br /> ==Page 552==<br /> <br /> '''knuckle-duster'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Brass knuckles.<br /> <br /> '''Diksmuide'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> 20 kilometers south of Ostend (about halfway to Ypres).<br /> <br /> ==Page 553==<br /> <br /> '''The terrain was flat...lowlands'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Not, this time, a reference to Pynchon's ''Lowlands'', but to the two-dimensionality of Flanders, as in Edwin A. Abbott's ''Flatland'' [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Flatland]; most humans, like the inhabitants of Flanders and Abbott's Flatlanders, experience life in two dimensions. <br /> <br /> '''Somewhere up in the sky was Miles' home...'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Whereas Miles and the Chums of Chance, in contrast, live in three dimensions. The mathematicians gathered in Ostend are trying to calculate how to experience and use vectors to live in four dimensions; in a way, to experience Time as a kind of spatial dimension. Miles, on P. 551, is demonstrating the beginnings of an intuitive discovery of how to experience Time as an almost spatial dimension. Which would be a sort of &quot;time travel&quot;, or at least an expanded view of life and history.<br /> <br /> '''retted'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> soaked in water or exposed to moisture (as flax or hemp) to facilitate the removal of the fiber from the woody tissue by partial rotting.<br /> <br /> ==Page 554==<br /> <br /> '''Ypres and Menin'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Municipalities in West Flanders that were sites of some of the bloodiest battles of WWI. At the beginning of the war, the British and Belgian stand helped save Paris from encirclement by the Germans, and saved the Channel ports, but as Thorn points out, the area became the western anchor of the Western Front trench system. The several Battles of Ypres saw the first uses of poison gas (Mustard Gas, dichlorodiethylsulfide, was first called Yperite), the use of enormous mines, and the legendary mud of Passchendaele [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Passchendaele]. <br /> <br /> '''Ten years from now'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> (1914?) through 1918? and beyond?. Another paramorphic mirror--what do we now face. Whatever it is, it is nuclear.<br /> <br /> '''Bosch'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Hieronymous Bosch (1450-1516), Dutch painter of nightmares. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hieronymus_Bosch Wikipedia entry].<br /> <br /> '''Brueghel'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Pieter Brueghel the Elder(1525-1569), Flemish painter.[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pieter_Brueghel_the_Elder Wikipedia entry].<br /> <br /> '''League'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> League of Nations? The League of Nations was formed after WWI to prevent future wars. Didn't succeed.<br /> <br /> No. In this case a historical unit of length, approximately three miles - &quot;league on league&quot; = tremendous masses<br /> <br /> '''where the needles went and which way to rotate them'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> I.e., how to push Thorn's buttons; the image is from acupuncture.<br /> <br /> ==Page 555==<br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> '''simpletons at the fair'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Making Pynchon's metaphor explicit.<br /> <br /> '''Chopin E-minor Nocturne'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Frédéric Chopin (1810-49), a Polish pianist and composer ([http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fr%C3%A9d%C3%A9ric_Chopin Chopin]). He was born in Warsaw, Poland to a Polish morther and a French father. He went to Paris at the age of 20 and died there at the age of 39. He was widely regarded as one of the most famous and influential composers for the piano. From 1837-47 he had a 10-year stormy relationship with the French writer George Sand. His E-minor Nocturne is a 4-minute long Romantic style piano solo composed in 1827. (A ''nocturne'' is usually a musical composition that is inspired by, or evocative of, the night [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nocturne Nocturne].)<br /> <br /> '''owl-light'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> ???glimmering or imperfect light or twilight hours.<br /> <br /> ''''plasmic hysteresis''''&lt;br&gt;<br /> <br /> A coined term, apparently similar in meaning to Miles’ phrase “failure of physical translation.” Plasma would take an older meaning of “form” or “shape.&quot; Hysteresis, according to Webster's, refers to “a retardation in effect when the forces on an object are changed.” Hysteresis is used to describe magnetic phenomenon as well as plastic or elastic materials, that involve changes to a rest state that last beyond the forces that cause them. Examples include recordings on magnetic tape or a thumbprint slowly disappearing from putty. In the context of this passage, plasmic hysteresis appears to describe the lingering visage of someone who is no longer present – a hysteresis of form only and thus a failed physical translation. See [http://www.etymonline.com/index.php?search=plasma&amp;searchmode=none etymology of plasma] and this nifty explanation of [http://www.lassp.cornell.edu/sethna/hysteresis/WhatIsHysteresis.html hysteresis]. <br /> <br /> Hysteresis has also been used to refer to “loops” in time, certainly apropos in this case. I stumbled across an excellent example in a 1980 episode of Dr. Who, in which the eponymous Dr. is trapped in “chronic hysteresis,” an endless loop or return to a previous <br /> point in time – very similar to the situation of Ryder Thorn. [http://www.drwhoguide.com/who_5q.htm Check it out for yourself!] <br /> <br /> <br /> ==Annotation Index==<br /> {{ATD PbP}}</div>

MKOHUT https://against-the-day.pynchonwiki.com/wiki/index.php?title=ATD_525-556&diff=14125 2007-10-21T14:06:40Z

<p>MKOHUT: /* Page 549 */</p> <hr /> <div>:'''&lt;big&gt;Please keep these annotations SPOILER-FREE by not revealing information from later pages in the novel.&lt;/big&gt;'''&lt;p&gt;&lt;br&gt;<br /> <br /> ==Page 525==<br /> <br /> '''Ostend'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Cf [[ATD_489-524#Page 521|page 521:Ostend]], a seaport in northwest Belgium. Among English-speaking tourists, Ostend (or Ostende) is best known as a ferry port. Ships have shuttled between Dover and Ostend for more than 150 years, and today's high-speed catamarans move hundreds of passengers and vehicles between these two ports in just two hours. But this thousand-year-old city is a popular beach resort with Belgians, who flock to Ostend for sun, surfing, sailing and the ''Kursaal'' (Casino). The fishing harbor and old town draw many visitors. Ostend is the only Belgian coastal resort that is as lively in the summer as in the winter. For more and pictures [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ostend Ostend].<br /> <br /> '''Fishermen's Quai'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Fishermen's Quay, also called De Trap. The shrimp boats come home here from the sea in the morning. Along the quay many stands sell lots of seafoods.<br /> <br /> '''Boulevard van Isenghem'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> A major thoroughfare in Ostend, locally called ''Van Iseghemlaan'', extending diagonally from seafront southwest through the city.<br /> <br /> '''street-plausible'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Presentable.<br /> <br /> '''Quai de l'empereur'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Since Ostende is in the Flemish part of Belgium this should be the Keizerskaai, a street along the old part of the harbour, 1919 renamed Vindictivelaan.<br /> <br /> '''estaminet'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> According to the OED - A café in which smoking is allowed. Now, any small establishment selling alcoholic liquor. <br /> <br /> '''twelve-centime'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> one centime is the French eqivalent of one cent. A twelve-centime beer would cost 12/100 of a franc.<br /> <br /> '''Quaternions'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Cf [[ATD_119-148#Page 130|page 130:Quaternions]]. Quaternions are a non-communtative extension of complex numbers (Hamilton, 1843).&lt;br&gt;<br /> <br /> Analogy with the complex numbers (Cf [[ATD_119-148#Page 132|page 132:complex number]]) being represented as a sum of real and imaginary parts, a + b''i'', where ''i''² = −1, a quaternion is defined as a combination a + b''i'' + c''j'' + d''k'', where ''i''² = ''j''² = ''k''² = ''i j k'' = −1, and a, b, c, d are ''four'' explicit real numbers. The non-commutative property refers to ''i j = −j i = k; j k = −k j = i; k i = −i k = j''. (i.e. ''i j ≠ j i; j k ≠ k j; k i ≠ i k''; etc.) The using of ''i, j, k'', the imaginary numbers (Cf [[ATD_119-148#Page 133|page 133:imaginary number]]), led to the phrases of &quot;the ''ijk'' lot&quot; of page 533 and &quot;creature of ''i-j-k''&quot; of page 534.<br /> <br /> '''Kellner'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> German: waiter, barman. Use of the German word would be insulting to the Belgian barman.<br /> <br /> '''''demi'''''&lt;br&gt;<br /> A half-pint glass (25 centilitres, actually).<br /> <br /> '''Lambic'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Pron. ''lahm-BEEK.'' Unique Belgian beer style, sour and often thin in body.<br /> <br /> '''skimmer'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Straw hat (&quot;Panama&quot;).<br /> <br /> ==Page 526==<br /> <br /> '''biquaternion'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Or &quot;octonion,&quot; an innovation of English mathematician W.K. Clifford, [[ATD_243-272#Page_249|referred to on p. 249.]]<br /> <br /> '''Barry Nebulay'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Pun on a term from heraldry, ''barry nebuly.'' Barry (rhymes with &quot;starry,&quot; not &quot;carry&quot;) refers to a shield divided into an even number of parts by horizontal lines. Nebuly signals that the lines are deformed into stylized &quot;cloud&quot; shapes. [http://www.rarebooks.nd.edu/digital/heraldry/partitions.html Here you can see an example.] If a ''British'' author had a character with a heraldic name, it would suggest a pseudonym.<br /> <br /> '''University of Dublin'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> The Alma Mater of Hamilton, the father of Quaternion. He studied, graduated and taught at Trinity College, the University of Dublin, Ireland's oldest university.<br /> <br /> If University College, Dublin, then Joyce had graduated in 1902.&lt;br&gt;<br /> <br /> '''Quaternioneers'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Quaternion believers.<br /> <br /> '''Gibbsian Vectors'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Vector Analysis (or Vector Calculus) developed by Willard Gibbs (Cf [[ATD_26-56#Page 29|page 29:Professor Gibbs]]) in 1881 and 1884. It is a branch of calculus that deals with vectors and process involving vectors. It is much more easily applied to phsics and other applied sciences than Hamilton's Quaternions (Cf [[ATD_525-556#Page 525|page 525:Quaternions]]).&lt;br&gt;<br /> A vector is defined by not only a magnitude but also a direction, such as a velocity vector, ''v'' is defined by ''v'' = a''i'' + b''j'' + c''k'',<br /> where a, b, and c are the magnitudes of the velocity components in directions of ''i, j'' and ''k'' which are unit vectors, (not imaginary numbers as in Quaternion), with magnitude of 1. In three dimensional cases and ''xyz'' coordinate system is used then ''i, j, k'' are related to ''x, y, z'' directions (&quot;''xyz'' people&quot; of page 533); but they, in general, may be used irrespective of the notation of the coordinates.<br /> Mathematical operations (addition, subtraction, multiplication), differentiation (''curl'' — Cf [[ATD_318-335#Page 326|page 326:Curl]] and p. 536, ''Laplacian'' — Cf [[ATD_318-335#Page 326|page 326:Laplacian]] and p. 536, etc) and integration can be applied to vectors. It is interesting to know that one of the two multiplication operations is called cross product; for unit vectors (''i, j, k'') perpendicular to each other, then, ''i × i = j × j = k × k = 0'', ''i × j = k'', ''j × i = -k'', etc. ([http://web.mit.edu/wwmath/vectorc/summary.html Vector Calculus]).&lt;br&gt;<br /> A simple vector anyalysis example here: if ''k'', the unit vector, stands for the direction upward and g is the gravitational acceleration, then the acceleration vector, ''a'', for a projectile, is defined for downward action, (the ''i'' and ''j'' directions have zero components):&lt;br&gt;<br /> :''a'' = -g ''k''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Integrating ''a'' would give the velocity vector, ''v''&lt;br&gt;<br /> :''v'' = -g t ''k''&lt;br&gt;<br /> for zero initial velocity case, and t standing for time.&lt;br&gt;<br /> And integrating ''v'' would yield the position vector, ''h'', for the projectile&lt;br&gt;<br /> :''h'' = -½ g t² ''k''&lt;br&gt;<br /> toward the sea level.<br /> <br /> '''Quaternionists'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Quaternion believers, same as Quaternioneers.<br /> <br /> '''Tasmania'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Tasmania is an island of the southern coast of Australia. Known for its relative isolation, it was a prison for English convicts in the 1800s<br /> <br /> '''Having been inseparable from the rise of the electromagnetic'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> In his 1865 work ''The Dynamical Theory of the Electromagnetic Field'', James Clerk Maxwell unified electricity and magnetism. He put forth twenty equations, with twenty unknowns, in vector form (though different in notation and form than the equations that now bear his name) that completely described all known electromagnetic phenomena. In his 1873 treatise on the subject, he expressed the equations in the mathematics of quaternions. It appears that the quaternion form of the equations remained popular even though, at the behest of his publisher, Maxwell reverted to the 1865 form in the second edition (1881)--though they remain scattered throughout. In 1892 Oliver Heaviside (On the Forces, Stresses, and Fluxes of Energy in the Electromagnetic Field. ''Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society of London.'' A, Vol. 183. pp423-480), while spewing scientific vitriol at the Quaternionists, reformulated Maxwell's original 1865 equations (Heaviside chose to remove the vector potential and scalar fields from the equations; the inclusion of these terms had served as Maxwell's justification for the use of quaternions), and provided the notation still in use today. See this [http://www.zpenergy.com/modules.php?name=Downloads&amp;d_op=getit&amp;lid=60 PDF] for the evolution of Maxwell's equations.<br /> <br /> '''Hamiltonian devotees'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> The Quaternion faction, after William Hamilton, who devised the scheme.<br /> <br /> '''Grand Hôtel de la Nouvelle Digue'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> There is a Hotel Digue in the Seychelles; this is a New Hotel Digue by Pynchon? <br /> <br /> Grand Hotel of New Dyke, may be a made up hotel name.<br /> <br /> '''anterooms of death'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> This metaphor is sometimes applied to concentration camps. Here the lyric &quot;feel like I'm fixin' to die&quot; seems more apposite.<br /> <br /> '''Belgian Art Nouveau'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Art Nouveau, 1890(or 80) to 1914, explores a new style in the visual arts and architecture that developed in Europe and North America at the end of the 19th century. At its height (~1907), Art Nouveau was a concerted attempt to create an international style based on decoration. It was developed by a brilliant and energetic generation of artists and desisgners, who sought to fashion an art form appropriate to the post-Industrial Revolution modern age.&lt;br&gt;<br /> Brussels was one of the Art Nouveau centers and represented different style from the others. The jewelers there, accepted as artists rahter than craftsmen, (together with those in Paris) defined Art Nouveau in jewelery and achieved the most renown. ([http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Art_Nouveau Art Nouveau]).<br /> <br /> ==Page 527==<br /> <br /> '''dossing'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> British slang for &quot;sleeping&quot;, &quot;staying overnight&quot;<br /> <br /> '''Russian nihilists'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> :The following four are local, Belgian, not Russian, nihilists !<br /> <br /> '''Eugénie'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Female. Possibly named for Empress Eugénie (1826-1920), consort of French Emperor Napoleon III. Ultimately for St. Eugenia, 3rd-century Roman martyr whose feast is celebrated on December 25.<br /> <br /> '''Fatou'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Female. A pseudonym? In view of the date of the action, certainly not named after [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fatou the mathematician Fatou] (1878-1929).<br /> <br /> '''Denis'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Male. Named for St. Denis or Dionysius, patron saint of Paris and of France, 3rd-century bishop of Paris, martyr, beheaded on the hill now called Montmartre. &quot;Montjoie St. Denis!&quot; was a warcry used by French troops in the Middle Ages. His intercession is effective against demonic possession and headache.<br /> <br /> '''Policarpe'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Male. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Polycarp Saint Polycarp] was a Christian bishop of Smyrna (now İzmir in Turkey) in the second century. He was stabbed and died a martyr after an attempt to burn him at the stake failed. His intercession is sought against earache and dysentery.<br /> <br /> '''Young Congo'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Probably in reference to the [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Young_Turks Young Turks], a Turkish revolutionary movement<br /> <br /> '''Garde Civique'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> A part of the Belgian army. According to the [http://www.1911encyclopedia.org/Belgium 1911 Britannica], &quot;the mass of the garde civique does not pretend to possess military value. It is a defence against sedition and socialism.&quot;<br /> <br /> '''French Second Bureau boys'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Deuxieme Bureau; French Intelligence.<br /> <br /> '''''phalange'''''&lt;br&gt;<br /> French: phalanx. A military (here mock-military) group ready for combat. &lt;br&gt;<br /> <br /> It also conjures up memories of the early 19th century utopian socialist <br /> Charles Fourier, who theorized that people should live communally in &quot;phalanxes&quot; of a specific number based upon their &quot;passions.&quot; His solid ideas included equality of the sexes, but he also taught wacky things such as the moon being made of lemonade. Of particular relevance is his rejection of industrial civilization. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Utopian_socialism]<br /> <br /> '''&quot;...until something had happened, something too terrible to remember...&quot;'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Again this theme of an unknowable past transgression, here invoked almost as if the unknown signifies the other 'lateral' (a word which has cropped up at least a dozen times already) 'vector'.<br /> <br /> '''the Digue'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> French for &quot;dyke&quot;<br /> <br /> '''Congo... Belgians'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> The Belgian colonisation of the Congo was, as Conrad's ''Heart of Darkness'' makes clear, notable for its greed and brutality.<br /> <br /> '''Leopold, King of the Belgians'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> 1835-1909, reigned 1865-1909. A man of almost Nixonian fiendishness. In the Congo he acted as sole proprietor and absolute ruler. The positive outcomes of his exploitation include ''Heart of Darkness'' and the phrase &quot;crime against humanity.&quot;<br /> <br /> '''co-conscious'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> mental processes outside the main stream of consciousness but sometimes available to it — from Merriam-Webster's Medical Dictionary.<br /> <br /> '''Force Publique'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Belgian armed forces operating in the Belgian Congo ([http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Force_Publique Wikipedia]). &quot;King Leopold's private army&quot; may be a more accurate description.<br /> <br /> '''rubber worker'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> See above: One of the early missions of the FP was to increase rubber export quotas through forced labor and related atrocities.<br /> <br /> ==Page 528==<br /> <br /> '''''khâgne'''''&lt;br&gt;<br /> an informal term used by French students for Classes Préparatoires Littéraires, the two-year cycle of classes taken after the Baccalaureat (taken at age 17-18), to prepare for the entrance examination to the Ecole Normale Supeieure. ([http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kh%C3%A2gne khâgne]).<br /> <br /> '''Reclus'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> J. J. Élisée Reclus (1830-1905), French geographer but mainly educated in Germany. Several times he was forced to leave France because of his political views; he traveled widely in Europe, the British Isles, the United States, and South America and for many years lived in Switzerland. He was professor of comparative geography at the University of Brussels from 1895 to 1905. He had quite an extensive connection with various socialist and anarchist circles (met Bakunin while in Florence).Once he was imprisoned in Versailles in 1871 for his part in the ''Paris Commune''. In 1882 he initiated the ''Anti-marriage movement'' while in Geneva. [[http://academic.reed.edu/formosa/texts/reclusbio.html Reclus]).<br /> <br /> '''Stirnerite'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Follower of Max Stirner, 19th century German philosopher and author of ''The Ego and Its Own,'' a work influential in anarchist thought. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Max_Stirner Wikipedia entry].<br /> <br /> ''Max Stirner'''s (1806-56) attacks on systematic philosophy, his denial of absulutes, and his rejection of abstract concepts of any kind often places him among the first philosophical nihilists. For Stirner, achieving individual freedom is the only law; and the state, which necvessarily imperils freedom, must be destroyed. Even beyond the oppression of the state, though, are the constraints imposed by others because their very existence is an obstable compromising individual freedom. Thus Stirner argues that existence is an endless &quot;war of each against all&quot; (1845). (taken from the paragraph about Max Stirner in [http://www.iep.utm.edu/n/nihilism.htm#H1 Nihilism])&lt;br&gt;<br /> Sourcing here? Much complexity in properly understanding Stirner, who has some Pynchon-like qualities, to say the least. From the Stanford Dictionary of Philosophy&lt;br&gt;<br /> His major work:<br /> The Ego and Its Own<br /> Much of Stirner's prose—which is crowded with aphorisms, italicisation, and hyperbole—appears calculated to disconcert. Most striking, perhaps, is the use of word play. Rather than reach a conclusion through the conventional use of argument, Stirner often approaches a claim that he wishes to endorse by exploiting words with related etymologies or formal similarities. For example, he associates words for property (such as ‘Eigentum’) with words connoting distinctive individual characteristics (such as ‘Eigenheit’) in order to promote the claim that property is expressive of selfhood. (Stirner's account of egoistic property—see below—gives this apparently orthodox Hegelian claim a distinctive twist.)<br /> <br /> This rejection of conventional forms of intellectual discussion is linked to Stirner's substantive views about language and rationality. His unusual style reflects a conviction that both language and rationality are human products which have come to constrain and oppress their creators. Stirner maintains that accepted meanings and traditional standards of argumentation are underpinned by a conception of truth as a privileged realm beyond individual control. As a result, individuals who accept this conception are abandoning a potential area of creative self-expression in favour of adopting a subordinate role as servants of truth. In stark contrast, Stirner insists that the only legitimate restriction on the form of our language, or on the structure of our arguments, is that they should serve our individual ends. It is the frequent failure of ordinary meanings and standard forms of argument to satisfy his interpretation of this criterion which underpins Stirner's remorselessly idiosyncratic style.<br /> <br /> The Ego and Its Own has an intelligible, but scarcely transparent, structure. It is organised around a tripartite account of human experience, initially introduced in a description of the stages of an individual life. The first stage in this developmental narrative is the realistic one of childhood, in which children are constrained by material and natural forces such as their parents. Liberation from these external constraints is achieved with what Stirner calls the self-discovery of mind, as children find the means to outwit those forces in their own determination and cunning. The idealistic stage of youth, however, contains new internal sources of constraint, as individuals once more become enslaved, this time to the spiritual forces of conscience and reason. Only with the adulthood of egoism do individuals escape both material (external) and spiritual (internal) constraints, learning to value their personal satisfaction above all other considerations.<br /> <br /> Stirner portrays this dialectic of individual growth as an analogue of historical development, and it is a tripartite account of the latter which structures the remainder of the book. Human history is reduced to successive epochs of realism (the ancient, or pre-Christian, world), idealism (the modern, or Christian, world), and egoism (the future world). <br /> <br /> What about these &quot;successive epochs&quot; in understanding ATD?<br /> <br /> Stirner's major work, The Ego and Its Own has been reissued in English a number of times in Pynchon's lifetime,from the 60s on. (Not that TRP could not have read it in German!)<br /> <br /> '''''Anarcho-individualiste'''''&lt;br&gt;<br /> i.e. he has doctrinal differernces with Stirnerism, strictly speaking; see P. 324, and &quot;Eigenheit&quot;.<br /> <br /> '''Leopold'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> See p. 527.<br /> <br /> '''going down lately'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Being assassinated.<br /> <br /> '''Sipido'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Jean-Baptiste Sipido (1884-1959), a Belgian socialist. Accusing the Prince of Wales of causing thousands of inocents were killed in the Boer War in South Africa, on April 5, 1900, Sipido leaped onto the foot board of the royal compartment right before the train left the North Railway Station (Gare du Nord), Brussel, and fired two (or one? as reported in ''The Manchester Guardian'', or four? as stated in the text here) shots through the window but missed everyone inside. He was arrested, tried and acquitted. The leader of the House of Commons called the acquittal a &quot;grave and most unfortunate miscarriage of justice.&quot; ([http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jean-Baptiste_Sipido Sipido]).<br /> <br /> '''Prince... of Wales'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> (Maud Gonne's husband claimed to have been involved in another such plot.)<br /> <br /> '''Hippodrome'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Hippodrome Wellington, a horse racing track in Ostend built in 1883. The facility hosts both harness and flat racing events. ([http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hippodrome_Wellington Hippodrome]).<br /> <br /> '''Royal Bathing Hut... twenty francs'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> A bathing machine ([http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bathing_machine bathing machine])? The King of Belgium certainly would not want to be seen in a swimsuit on a public beach... It seems unlikely, though, that such a royal bathing machine would be for hire.<br /> <br /> '''twenty francs'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> ???<br /> <br /> ==Page 529==<br /> <br /> '''picric family'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> The explosive picric acid (2,4,6-trinitrophenol) and its derivatives. For picric acid, Brugère's powder and Designolle's powder, [http://encyclopedia.jrank.org/PER_PIG/PICRIC_ACID_or_TRINITROPHENOL_C.html see this Britannica article.]<br /> <br /> '''Brugère's powder'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> See &quot;picric family&quot; above.<br /> <br /> '''Designolle's'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> See &quot;picric family&quot; above.<br /> <br /> '''Monsieur Santos-Dumont'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Alberto Santos-Dumont (1873-1932), a pioneer of aviation from Brasil. Check out [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alberto_Santos-Dumont Wikipedia] to get a look at the way he was wearing his &quot;trademark Panama hat&quot;. <br /> <br /> '''Green Hour''' and '''''l'heure vertigineuse'''''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Absinthe-drinking time. The liqueur is green. In French, ''l'heure verte,'' so ''vertigineuse'' (vertiginous, causing dizziness) is a pun on the word for &quot;green.&quot;<br /> <br /> '''Rocco and Pino'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Rabid Quaternionists and sudden friends of Kit Traverse.<br /> :No, they were not mathematicians at all, let alone Quaternionists, but two &quot;Italian naval renegades&quot; !!<br /> ::&quot;Rocco and Pino&quot; are, in temperament, something like the &quot;Mason and Dixon&quot; of manned-torpedoes... cf. the &quot;torpedo&quot; (i.e., &quot;Electrick-Eel&quot;) of ''Mason &amp; Dixon''.<br /> <br /> '''Whitehead works in Fiume'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Anticipating GR's V2 works.<br /> <br /> ''Robert Whitehead'' (1823-1905), an English engineer. He developed the first self-propelled torpedo in 1866. He attended Manchester's Mechanics Institute, worked in a shipyard in Toulon (1844), France, and as a consultant engineer in Milan (1847), Italy. Later he moved to Trieste and in 1856 became a manager of a company called ''Founderia Mettali'' (later, ''Stabilimento Tecnico di Fiume'') in Fiume producing ship steam boilers and engines which were the most advanced of that era. He also developed the first self-propelled torpedo which was very popular. Whitehead's torpedo was propelled by a compressed air engine, carried 18lbs dynamites and a self-regulating device which kept the torpedo cruising at a constant preset depth. [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Robert_Whitehead Whitehead]].<br /> <br /> ''Fiume'' is now Rijeka, Croatia. Trieste is on the northwestern edge of the Istra Peninsula, Rijeka is east of it. [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rijeka Fiume]].<br /> <br /> Interesting sidebar: Whitehead's fortune from Fiume and the torpedo went solely to his granddaughter Agatha Whitehead, who married Baron von Trapp. The Von Trapp money came from Robert Whitehead, and most of the von Trapp singers were his great-grandchildren.<br /> <br /> '''''Alberta'''''&lt;br&gt;<br /> The [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Royal_yacht Wikipedia] entry on royal yachts goes back to the 17th century but doesn't include ''Alberta.'' The craft does get a mention in [http://www.bouncing-balls.com/timeline/people/nr_leopoldmorel.htm this page on Leopold and the Congo.]<br /> <br /> '''Siluro Dirigibile a Lenta Corsa'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> or S.L.C. &quot;slow course torpedo&quot;, &quot;slow-running torpedo&quot;. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Manned_torpedo Wikipedia] Italy‘s Navy was among the first to experiment with manned torpedos. Though according to [http://web.ukonline.co.uk/chalcraft/sm/chariots.html this site] this did not happen until 1935, Italian frogmen as early as October 31, 1918 made it into the harbour of Pula with the help of a modified german torpedo and sank the former Austrian but by then since a few hours Croatian/Slovenian/Bosnian battleship SMS ''Viribus Unitis''. [http://www.geocities.com/tegetthoff66/viribus.html website]<br /> <br /> The Wikipedia entry linked above doesn't contain the Italian word ''dirigibile'' (steerable), which sets up the torpedo as a counterpart of the dirigible ''Inconvenience.''<br /> <br /> :I suspect there's a connection between the torpedo and &quot;Not the usual lateener, in fact appearing to have neither sails, masts, nor oars&quot; in Miles' reversed vision, [[ATD_243-272#Page_250|page 250.]] Needs work, though.<br /> <br /> ==Page 530==<br /> <br /> '''exfiltrate'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Make a surreptitious escape (as &quot;infiltrate&quot; means to make a surreptitious entrance).<br /> <br /> '''''Macchè'''''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Italian: certainly not, not a chance. And in Pynchon's Italian is used as an all-purpose exclamation.<br /> <br /> '''''Ehi, stu gazz', categoria'''''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Stu gazz' is a dialect representation of ''sto cazzo'', literally meaning ''this dick here''. Normally you could translate the sense of the sentence as: ''yeah, why not, a fucking category! ''. -- blicero2 - 2007.02.22<br /> <br /> '''''mezzogiornismo'''''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Denigrating the Italian South. Mezzogiorno means ''midday'' in Italian but refers generally to Southern Italy.<br /> <br /> ==Page 531==<br /> <br /> '''Bruges'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> An exceptionally beautiful Belgian town of canals which is thus one of several towns known as the 'Venice of the north'. In the 14th cettury Burges already became an international finanacial and trading center, but<br /> started to decline in the 15th century. In the 20th century, however, the city was discovered by the international tourism and the medieval heritage turned out to be a new source of wealth. A new harbor of Zeebrugge, 10 miles outside of Bruges at the North Sea coast, brought new developments and new industries to the region. For the city and its history see ([http://www.trabel.com/brugge.htm Bruges]).<br /> <br /> '''Raoul's Atelier de la Vitesse'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> French: Ralph's Speed Shop.<br /> <br /> '''Ghent'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Belgian city, less than 30 miles southeast of Bruges, on the rail line about halfway between Ostend and Brussels. It is the fourth largest city of Belgium. It is bigger than Bruges but not as famous as a tourist attraction. But the city is a showcase of medieval Flemish wealth and commercial success. See ([http://www.trabel.com/gent.htm Ghent]).<br /> <br /> '''Daimler six-cylinder'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> ???<br /> <br /> '''a hundred horsepower'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> ???<br /> <br /> '''''guaglion'''''&lt;br&gt;<br /> italian (dialectal) = boy, young person<br /> <br /> '''Umeki Tsurigane'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Umeki is typically made with some combination of the various kanji for &quot;plum&quot; (ume) and &quot;tree&quot; (ki), though one has the ki being the character for &quot;ghost/devil&quot; and one obscure reading that's entirely redundant, where ume is &quot;plant&quot; (usually read ue). There is one where ume is the kanji for &quot;buried or embedded&quot;. Tsurigane, means a &quot;temple bell&quot;, which can stand alone or be followed by the grass kanji to mean &quot;bellflower&quot; (lots of botanical stuff happening here, if that means anything; hardly the only example in ''AtD''). Given the search for Shambhala going on, &quot;Buried Temple Bell&quot; seems a likely translation, at least at this point; the botanical meanings could perhaps emerge later.<br /> <br /> Or, another terrible name-pun? &quot;You make [m]e sore again.&quot; See another on P. [[ATD_748-767#Page_757| 757]]<br /> <br /> '''Professor Knott'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Cargill Knott (1856-1922), professor of physics; seismologist. See his biography [http://www.penicuikcdt.org.uk/Cargill_Knott.html here].<br /> <br /> ==Page 532==<br /> <br /> '''Kimura'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Cf [[ATD_26-56#Page 29|page 29:Kimura]] and [[ATD_318-335#Page 318|page 318:Shunkichi Kimura]].<br /> <br /> '''drover's sombrero'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Cowboy hat.<br /> <br /> '''furoshiki'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Japanese all-purpose cloth. Can be worn, used as wrapping, or used as a bag.<br /> <br /> '''taupe'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> A brownish gray.<br /> <br /> '''boilermakers and their helpers'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> [[ATD_358-373#Page_360|See annotation to p. 360.]]<br /> <br /> '''Anharmonic Pencil'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> ''Pencil'' is a term commonly used in Synthetic Geometry. Straight lines incident with a plane - coplanar lines - and passing through a common point are said to be concurrent lines and the set of all such concurrent coplanar lines is called the ''pencil''. (Cf [[ATD_429-459#Page 456|page 456:Pencil]]). For a figure and a not quite precise definition see [http://mathworld.wolfram.com/Pencil.html pencil]. If a, b, c and d, are four distinct coplanar lines and their double ratio λ = (abcd) = -1, then a, b, c, d are called a harmonic quadruple of lines; they are said to constitute a ''harmonic pencil''. A ''pencil'' which is not harmonic then is known as ''anharmonic pencil''. See Pencil (lines 8-9), Double Ratio λ (lines 32-35) and Harmonic Pencil (line 39) of [http://ca.geocities.com/ingsaler6/mathworld.html Mathworld].<br /> <br /> '''''Comptes rendus'''''&lt;br&gt;<br /> ''Comptes rendus des séances hebdomadaires,'' Proceedings of the weekly sessions (of the Academy of Sciences), published from 1835, later (ca. 1935) retitled ''Comptes rendus de l'Académie des sciences,'' Proceedings of the Academy of Sciences. (Notice that the academy didn't see the need to specify &quot;French.&quot; Take that, Royal Society of London!) For about a century, one of two journals so universally circulated and recognized that bibliographies nearly always cited them in nickname form: ''C.R.'' The other was ''Ber.,'' short for ''Berichte der Deutschen Chemischen Gesellschaft,'' Reports of the German Chemical Society (from 1868).<br /> <br /> '''De Forest'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Cf [[ATD_26-56#Page 29|page 29:De Forest]].<br /> <br /> '''Gibbs'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Cf [[ATD_26-56#Page 29|page 29:Professor Gibbs]].<br /> <br /> '''Maxwell Equations'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Cf [[ATD_57-80#Page 58|page 58:Maxwell Field Equations]].<br /> <br /> ==Page 533==<br /> <br /> '''aniline teal'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> The wallpaper dye; aniline dyes were the first synthetic dyes, discovered by [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/William_Perkin William Perkin] in 1858. Their intense and fade-resistant colors were very fashionable at the end of the nineteenth century. The dyes are also significant in ''GR'' as the products of I.G. Farben.<br /> <br /> '''Heavisiders'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Oliver Heaviside (May 18, 1850 – February 3, 1925) was a self-taught English electrical engineer, mathematician and physicist who adapted complex numbers to the study of electrical circuits, developed techniques for applying Laplace transforms to the solution of differential equations, reformulated Maxwell's field equations in terms of electric and magnetic forces and energy flux, and independently co-formulated vector analysis. Although at odds with the scientific establishment for most of his life, Heaviside changed the face of mathematics and science for years to come.[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Heaviside].<br /> <br /> '''Grassmanniacs'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Nineteenth century German mathematician and linguist, essentially the inventor/discoverer of vector space. Grassmann showed that once geometry is put into the algebraic form he advocated, then the number three has no privileged role as the number of spatial dimensions; the number of possible dimensions is in fact unbounded.[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hermann_Grassmann].<br /> <br /> '''in the mood for a clambake'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Anachronistic Broadway show tune? If so, the clambake in ''Carousel'' turns into a brawl; the assmebled factions of mathematicians could be in the mood for either a party or a brawl, apparently. <br /> <br /> '''Monopole de la Maison'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Monopole of the House, a fanciful name of a fanciful drink.&lt;br&gt;<br /> There is, since 1898, a well known restaurant called ''Monopole Lunch &amp; Sea Grill'' in Plattsburgh of upper New York state. ([http://www.monopole.org Monopole Restaurant]).&lt;br&gt;<br /> Most probably, it's the Magnetic monopole being referred here. In physics, a monopole is a magnet with a net magnetic charge, i.e. there is only one pole instead of two (so no net magnetic charge) as usual. ([http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Magnetic_monopole Monopole]). It's existence had been theoretically predicted by various particle theories (superstring theory, etc) but never been proved experimentally. Proving the existence of a monopole would certainly earn a Nobel Prize.<br /> <br /> '''Idiom Neutral'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> An invented language, like Esperanto. Idiom Neutral dictionaries first appeared in 1902. It looks like a simplified Latinate language and it grew out of Volapuk, another &quot;auxiliary language.&quot; It was abandoned by the ''Akademi Internasional de Lingu Universal'' in 1908.<br /> <br /> For a list of all the invented languages that linguists are keeping track of, including Klingon, try [http://linguistlist.org/forms/langs/GetListOfConstructedLgs.html Eastern Michigan's Linguist List]. And don't forget to click on the link to &quot;Browse sites devoted to constructed languages.&quot;<br /> <br /> '''phatic'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Basically, small talk or chatter. Words used to convey fellow-feeling rather than to impart information.<br /> <br /> '''''Kampf ums Dasein'''''&lt;br&gt;<br /> German: struggle for existence.<br /> <br /> '''Q-brother'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Fellow Quaternioneer or Fellow Quaternionist.<br /> <br /> '''We are the Jews of mathematics, wandering out here in our diaspora--some destined for the past, others the future, even a few able to set out at unknown angles from the simple line of Time, upon journeys that no one can predict''' &lt;br&gt;<br /> In keeping with the analogy of Judaism, those &quot;few&quot; people within the Quaternionists &quot;able to set out at unknown angles&quot; are most likely being compared to Kabbalists who claim to partake in a mystic &quot;journey to the Throne of God through the mythological realm of the seven heavens&quot; (Armstrong, A History of God--p. 247). Throne Mysticism in Kabbalah is explored extensively in Gravity's Rainbow.<br /> <br /> Perhaps this is obvious to some, but these &quot;Jews of Mathematics&quot; worship the Hamiltonian Tetractys [http://www.math.ucr.edu/home/baez/dublin/]; those other Jews worshipped the Tetragrammatron. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tetragrammaton] The proliferation of 4s continues.<br /> <br /> ==Page 534==<br /> <br /> '''Poiret gown'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> A gown designed by Paul Poiret (1879-1944), a French fashion designer based in Paris. &quot;In the annals of fashion history, Paul Poiret is best remembered for freeing women from corsets and further liberating them through pantaloons . . . it was Poiret's remarkable innovations in the cut and construction of cloting . . . Working with fabric directly onto the body, Poiret helped to pioneer a radical approach to dressmakeing that relied more on the skills of drapery than on those of tailoring.&quot; (from [http://www.metmuseum.org/special/se_event.asp?OccurrenceId={0DC3D00F-4611-4F91-8DC2-CC3C1A5C48D5} MetMuseum], <br /> New York Metropolitan Museum's Special Exhibitions, ''Poiret: King of Fashion'', May 9, 2007 to August 5, 2007). For a picture of Poiret gown see [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Image:Poiretgown.jpg Poiret Gown]. ''The New York Times'' reported on February 1, 2007 that A Poiret Gown Brings $5,500 at [http://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html?res=9B07EFDA1538F93AA15756C0A967948260 Christie's Auction] - the gown was made in 1913 when Poiret was at the height of his career. For his bio see [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Paul_Poiret Poiret].<br /> <br /> '''''green and long'''''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Pickle, or... what?<br /> : A green and long ''gherkin'' (a small, immature fruit of a variety of cucumber used in pickling).<br /> <br /> ==Page 535==<br /> <br /> '''no-name wine'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> 1970s idiom for common European practice?<br /> <br /> '''set theory'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Set theory deals with the properties of well-defined collections, or ''sets'', of entities - the ''elements'' or ''members'' of the set - conceived as a whole. The elements may be of a mathematical nature or non-mathematical. The set theory grew out of the German mathematician Georg Cantor's (1845-1918) study of infinite sets of real numbers. <br /> <br /> The ''language of sets'' has become an important tool for all branches of mathematics, but is of very little relevance to the practice of mathematics in everyday life. As a source of metaphors, however, it's been quite productive; &quot;subset,&quot; &quot;superset,&quot; &quot;universe,&quot; &quot;intersection&quot; and &quot;Venn diagram&quot; have found varying degrees of acceptance. Recasting Aristotle's syllogisms in set-theoretic language also makes them easier for many people to understand.<br /> <br /> '''Hamilton . . . early genius'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Hamilton, according to ''Chambers Biographical Dictionary'', &quot;at fifteen knew thirteen languages, had read Newton's ''Principia'', and commenced original investigations&quot;. At twenty-two, &quot;while still an undergraduate, he was appointed professor of Astronomy at Dublin and Irish Astronomer-Royal&quot;; at thirty &quot;he was knighted&quot;.<br /> <br /> '''Hamilton . . . in the grip of a first love'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> ???&lt;br&gt;<br /> Pynchon probably didn't mean Quaternion was Hamilton's first love, but its effect on him was similar to that of a first love. In 1843 at the age of 38 Hamilton invented the Quaternion, the first non-communtative algebra to be studied. He felt this would revolutionise mathematical physics, and he spent the rest of his life working on it. In 1853 he published a large volume, ''Lectures on Quaternions'', on his grand invention. The last seven years of his life, Hamilton was writing an 800-page book ''Elements of Quaternions'' modeling on Euclid's ''Elements''. The last chapter of the book was completed by his son after his death.<br /> <br /> '''the Walt Whitman of English physics'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Whitman pops up again, last seen on [[ATD_489-524#Page_491|page 491]].<br /> <br /> ==Page 536==<br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> '''Oscar Wilde'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Note that Wilde's Dorian Gray also undergoes a kind of bilocation.<br /> <br /> '''Kursaal'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Spa. Casino ?<br /> <br /> '''vectors'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> For serious minds see Cf [[ATD_525-556#Page 526|page 526:Gibbsian Vectors]], but let's follow Pynchon's lighter mood, here is a non-mathematical definition by Kamen (1995):<br /> :''Many things have more than direction;''<br /> :''The magnitude is also a question.''<br /> :''With acceleration or force,''<br /> :''And many more things, of course,''<br /> :''It's vectors that make the connection.''<br /> <br /> '''Curls'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Cf [[ATD_318-335#Page 326|page 326:Curl]]: curl is a vector operator that shows a vector field's rate of rotation.<br /> <br /> '''Laplacians'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Pierre-Simon, Marquis de Laplace (March 23, 1749 – March 5, 1827); French mathematician and astronomer who summarized and extended the work of his predecessors in his five volume Mécanique Céleste (Celestial Mechanics) (1799-1825), translating the geometrical study of mechanics used by Isaac Newton to one based on calculus, known as physical mechanics.<br /> <br /> He is also the discoverer of Laplace's equation. Although the Laplace transform is named in honor of Laplace, who used the transform in his work on probability theory, the transform was discovered originally by Leonhard Euler. The Laplace transform appears in all branches of mathematical physics — a field he took a leading role in forming. The Laplacian differential operator, much relied-upon in applied mathematics, is likewise named after him. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Laplace].<br /> <br /> :Cf [[ATD_318-335#Page 326|page 326:Laplacian]]: Laplacian is a differential operator named after Laplace. The text here was talking about mathematical operations and operators — rates of change, rotations, partial differentials, Curls, ''Laplacians'', . . .<br /> <br /> '''scream'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Scream motif.<br /> <br /> '''beginning to appal'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> By 1905 there had been years of outrage at conditions in the Belgian Congo, King Leopold's private fief. Conrad's ''Heart of Darkness'' had been published as a serial in Blackwood's Magazine in 1899 and as a book in 1902. There were missionaries' accounts of the brutality, and newspaper reports. Leopold and his apologists published rebuttals. The Norton Critical Edition of ''Heart of Darkness'' contains an extensive collection of both.<br /> <br /> '''baize'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Baize is a coarse woolen felt.<br /> <br /> ==Page 537==<br /> <br /> '''broken symmetries'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Broken_symmetry Broken symmetry] is a concept used widely in mathematics and physics. For a simplest explanation (good enough for the text here), this term means that an object breaks either rotational symmetry or translational sysmetry - when one can only rotate an object in certain angles or when one is able to tell if the object has been shifted sideways. For a little bit more detailed explanation see [http://www.lassp.cornell.edu/sethna/OrderParameters/BrokenSymmetry.html Identify the Broken Symmetry]; or even more [http://scienceweek.com/2005/sw050708-6.htm On Broken Symmetry].<br /> <br /> '''''sphinxe Khnopffienne'''''&lt;br&gt;<br /> refers to the Belgian symbolist painter Fernand Khnopff (1858-1921), famous for his painting &quot;The Caress&quot;, in which a female sphinx erotically lures a young man. The painting can be seen in the [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fernand_Khnopff wikipedia entry]<br /> <br /> '''Pléiade Lafrisée'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> in French, &quot;friser&quot; means to curl or twist. &quot;La frisée&quot; could mean &quot;curled,&quot; by extension &quot;twisted.&quot; The Pleiades is a cluster of hundreds of stars, though only a few are visible, sometimes referred to as The Seven Sisters. If Pleiades are Sisters, Pléiade is ''one'' Sister, so her name means Twisted Sister!<br /> <br /> '''''Conseilleuse'''''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Female consultant?<br /> <br /> ==Page 538==<br /> <br /> '''retroversion matrix'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> ???<br /> <br /> '''''Ma foi'''''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Literally &quot;My faith&quot;, i.e. &quot;By my faith!&quot;, a mild exclamation of incredulity.<br /> <br /> '''ten thousand francs'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> <br /> Based on currency conversions relative to gold, this is equivalent to<br /> about $30,000 US today.<br /> <br /> '''piker'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Someone cheap or cautious, possibly named after people from PIke County, Missouri, who came to California in the 1800s, looking for work. They were poor, hence cheap.<br /> <br /> '''what is a Quaternino?'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Cf [[ATD_525-556#Page 525|page 525:Quaternions]] for a mathematical definition. From ''The Random House Dictionary of the English Languages'', The Unabridged Edition (1966): Quaternion is &quot;a quantity or operator expressed as the sum of a real number and three complex numbers, equivalent to the ''quotient of two vectors''. The field of quaternions is not commutative under multiplication.&quot;.<br /> <br /> '''Bertie ('Mad Dog') Russell'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> 'Mad Dog' seems to be used with heavy irony here. Bertrand Russell was known most for his rationalism, so to speak, his work in modern logic. <br /> He did little in his public roles (at this time in AtD) that would have <br /> him referred to as &quot;crazy', as we say, beyond the social norm, &quot;mad&quot;. <br /> It might be argued that his use of 'logic' against philosophers such as Hegel and McTaggart within ''Against the Day'' showed up their 'madness'.<br /> (Many did think McTaggart was a bit...different...for seriously not believing in Time.) McTaggart broke with Russell after an early influential friendship---Russell was the younger man and the influenced one. He said he was an Hegelian because of McTaggart--Russell wrote in his<br /> Autobiography that McTaggart said he no longer wanted to meet/talk with him bcause he could no longer stand Russell's opinions.<br /> <br /> [http://nobelprize.org/nobel_prizes/literature/laureates/1950/russell-bio.html Bertrand Russell] (1872-1970) was a British mathematician, philosopher, logician and social critic. Best known for his work in mathermatical logic and analytic philosophy. In late spring of 1901 he discovered the so-called [http://plato.stanford.edu/entries/russell-paradox/ Russell Paradox], &quot;the most famous of the logical or set-theoretical paradoxes. The paradox arises within naive set theory by considering the set of all sets that are not members of themselves. Such a set appears to be a member of itself if and only if it is not a member of itself, hence the paradox.&quot; (On-line Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy). He won the 1950 Nobel Prize in Literature in &quot;recognition of his varied and significant writings in which he champions humanitarian ideals and freedom of thought&quot;.<br /> <br /> '''Barry Nebulay'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> nebulae: formed from the diffusion of gas in galaxies or as exploded stars (or the last ember-like stage of a star)&lt;br&gt; <br /> Most nebulae can be described as diffuse nebulae, which means that they are extended and contain no well-defined boundaries.[1] In visible light these nebulae may be divided into emission nebulae and reflection nebulae, a categorization that depends on how the light we see is created.<br /> <br /> '''Hegel... puns'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Probably refers to the fact that quite a lot of Hegel's philosophy deals with the is-ness of the world as we know and experience it.<br /> <br /> On page 787 of Bertrand Russell's ''History of Western Philosophy'' is a summary, perhaps, of this remark about Hegel's puns: &quot;as a result of analysis of the concept &quot;existence&quot;, modern logic has proved this [Cartesianism, refuted by Kant, reinstated by Hegel] argument invalid.....&quot;<br /> <br /> We know from other places that TRP himself seems to 'not like' Cartesianism. See 'cartesian' citations within this wiki.<br /> <br /> ==Page 539==<br /> <br /> '''a vector quotient'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> The result of one vector divided by another. According to the English dictionary definition of previous page this is just a Quaternion.<br /> <br /> '''unit vector'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Unit vector is a vector with magnitude of one. The unit vectors in 3-dimensional space, ''i, j, k'', associated with ''x, y, z'' directions are used in defining a general 3D vector (Cf [[ATD_525-556#Page 526|page 526:Gibbsian Vectors]]).<br /> <br /> '''''square root of minus one'''''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Imaginary number (Cf [[ATD_119-148#Page 132|page 133:Imaginary Number]]). The imaginary numbers ''i, j, k'' are used in defining a Quaternion (Cf [[ATD_525-556#Page 525|page 525:Quaternions]]).<br /> <br /> ''''Triangle Asana''''&lt;br&gt;<br /> A basic yoga pose. <br /> <br /> [http://yoga.org.nz/postures/yoga_positions_images_page.htm Here are images of several basic poses.]<br /> <br /> ''''Dr Rao abruptly vanished''''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Might be a reference to [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Martin_Gardner Martin Gardner]'s<br /> [http://www.amazon.com/No-Sided-Professor-Fantasy-Mystery-Philosophy/dp/0879753900 &quot;No-Sided Professor&quot;]<br /> <br /> ''''Quadrantal Versor Asana''''&lt;br&gt;<br /> A triangle pose taken that extra dimension.<br /> <br /> '''''&quot;Uwe moer!&quot;'''''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Looks a lot like the Dutch &quot;Uw moeder!&quot; - a cry of astonishment (&quot;Your mother!&quot;), the equivalent to the black English &quot;yo mama&quot;.<br /> <br /> '''noncommutative'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> A term typical to mathematics. A commutative equation is one that can operate in exact reverse and still yield the same results. 'Noncommutative' then suggests unidirectionality. The ability to go from point A to point B, but not from B to A.<br /> <br /> '''reticule'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> A woman's drawstring handbag; usually made of net or beading or brocade; also: A system of lines forming a pattern of squares at the focal plane of a telescope, used in micrometers.<br /> [http://www.astunit.com/tutorials/glossary.htm] <br /> :Isn't that sort of a red herring? &quot;[P]roducing from her reticule a . . . watch&quot; doesn't really allow of that second meaning. &lt;br&gt;<br /> :It could be a pun, since a reticule/ handbag always shows its pattern of lines, and a watch (timepiece) is drawn from it. Remember that, e.g. railroad lines of tracks, are a sign of industrialism encroaching on the natural and the spiritual.<br /> <br /> '''Vacheron &amp; Constantin watch'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Made by a Swiss company founded in 1755. From 1819 to 1970 the name was as in the text, then the &amp; dropped out. See the [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vacheron_Constantin Wikipedia entry.]<br /> <br /> '''hunting-case'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> For a pocket watch, a case with a hinged metal cover. More often called &quot;hunter case&quot; (and such a watch a &quot;hunter&quot;).<br /> <br /> ==Page 540==<br /> <br /> '''&quot;haar rekening, ja?&quot;'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> The bill, yes? (Dutch)?<br /> <br /> ''Her'' bill, yes? I.e., give the check to the lady.<br /> <br /> Given the presence of Chris 'Kit' Traverse here, this very much suggests a reference to Christopher 'Kit' Marlowe, Elizabethan poet, playwright and contemporary of Shakespeare. Marlowe was stabbed to death in 1593, in murky circumstances, ostensibly over a bill or 'reckoning', though he was widely believed to have been involved in some form of espionage.<br /> <br /> Strictly speaking &quot;haar rekening&quot; means that the lady pays for herself only. If Root wanted to make sure that Pléiade pays for the whole company he would have to say &quot;de hele rekening voor de dame&quot;. <br /> <br /> '''Piet Woevre'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> The Woëvre is a natural region of Lorraine in north-east France. It forms part of Lorraine plateau and lies largely in the department of Meuse. During World War I, there was much fighting there due to vast mineral resources that had been discovered in the Briey basin or Eastern Woevre at the end of the 19th century. &quot;Piet&quot; is Dutch for &quot;rock&quot; or &quot;stone&quot; and is a fairly common Dutch name, the English equivalent being Peter.<br /> <br /> If the surname is pronounced as in Dutch, Woevre is another Pynchon villain with a &quot;V&quot;-name (Vond, Weissman, Vibe). <br /> <br /> '''Force Publique'''&lt;br /&gt;<br /> The Force Publique (FP) was the official armed force for what is now the Democratic Republic of the Congo from 1885, (when the territory was known as the Congo Free State), through the period of direct Belgian rule (1908-60), until the beginning of the Second Republic in 1965. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Force_Publique Wikipedia entry]<br /> <br /> '''made him reach'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Possible allusion to a famous line, &quot;When I hear the word culture I reach for my gun.&quot; From Hanns Johst's biographical play ''Schlageter''. The original line is slightly different: &quot;Wenn ich Kultur höre ... entsichere ich meinen Browning,&quot; &quot;Whenever I hear of culture... I release the safety-catch of my Browning!&quot; (Act 1, Scene 1). It is spoken by another character in conversation with the young Schlageter. In the scene Schlageter and his wartime comrade Friedrich Thiemann are studying for a college examination, but then start disputing whether it's worthwhile doing so when the nation is not free. <br /> <br /> The line is often misattributed to better-known Nazis and others [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hanns_Johst].<br /> <br /> *In Jean-Luc Godard's 1963 film [http://www.chicagoreader.com/movies/archives/0997/09057.html ''Le Mépris'' (''Contempt'')], Jack Palance's character &quot;Jeremy Prokosch,&quot; an American movie-producer, intones to Fritz Lang: &quot;Whenever I hear the word culture, I reach for my checkbook.&quot;<br /> <br /> '''not unambiguous'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Ie, ambiguous.<br /> <br /> '''''rastaquoueres'''''&lt;br&gt;<br /> 8???<br /> <br /> '''de Decker'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> In Dutch/Flemish, the name means &quot;roofer.&quot; (''De'' in these names almost never means &quot;of, from&quot; as in French; it's nearly always the definite article.)<br /> <br /> ==Page 541==<br /> <br /> '''''bobbejaan'''''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Afrikaans: baboon. (Afrikaans is the language spoken by descendants of Dutch colonists in present-day South Africa. Some items identified as Dutch or Flemish in this wiki may really be Afrikaans.)<br /> <br /> The South African song &quot;Bobbejaan klim die berg&quot; (&quot;Bobbejaan climbed the hill&quot;) is the source of the stage name of Belgium's most famous country and western musician, Bobbejaan Schoepen (b. 1925). In 1943 he was suppressed by the Nazis after performing a South African song, &quot;Mamma, 'k wil 'n man hê&quot; (&quot;Mama, I want a man&quot;), which contains the line &quot;No, Mama, I don't want a German, because I don't like pork.&quot; He founded the Bobbejaanland theme park in Belgium, where he still lives.<br /> <br /> '''MKIV/ODC... Mark Four'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> This would be the Mark IV Ohmic Drift Compensator ([[ATD 557-587#Page 565|Page 565]]), a key component of the Q-weapon, which &quot;regulates how much light is allowed to enter the silvering of the mirror! Special kind of refraction! Calibrated against imaginary index! Dangerous! Of the essence!'&quot;<br /> <br /> '''not part of your remit'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Not included in your job description, instructions, authorization. &quot;Remit&quot; (noun) is usually a British usage.<br /> <br /> '''''gatkruiper'''''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Dutch/Flemish: brownnose, ass-kisser.<br /> <br /> '''one on her wrist'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> All the bruises reflect some refinement or artistry except this one, which may have been inflicted crudely.<br /> <br /> '''over the day'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Title motif?<br /> <br /> ==Page 542==<br /> <br /> '''trans-horizontic'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Across the horizon -- &quot; a screaming comes across the sky&quot;<br /> <br /> '''Edmund Whittaker'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Edmund Whittaker (1873-1956), an English mathematician. He is best known for his work in numerical analysis. And he contributed widely to applied mathematics, mathematical physics and the theory of special functions. He also worked on celestial mechanics and the history of applied mathermatics and physics. ([http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/E._T._Whittaker Whittaker]).<br /> <br /> The Sir Edmund Whittaker Memorial Prize is awarded every four years by the Edinburgh Mathematical Society to an outstanding young mathematician having a specified connection with Scotland [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sir_Edmund_Whittaker_Memorial_Prize]. <br /> <br /> '''louche'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> The cloudy effect caused by the addition of water to absinthe. Dictionary definition: &quot;of questionable taste or morality; decadent.&quot;<br /> <br /> '''cheval-glass'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Standing mirror in a freestanding vertical frame.<br /> <br /> '''as if someone'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Sound-cancelling vs opacity-cancelling?<br /> <br /> ==Page 543==<br /> <br /> '''wraith of Pleiade Lafrisee'''<br /> <br /> Pleiade manifests one of her not-visible stars. Perhaps this sister has somehow twisted herself on an imaginary axis ala Dr. V. Ganesh Rao.<br /> <br /> '''monitory'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Warning, giving advice, by extension ominous or menacing.<br /> <br /> '''Against....the day....'''<br /> Note: this phrase happens at the exact halfway point of the novel: p.542.3<br /> <br /> '''He Who Must Come'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> The evil-doer who must come might be Adolf Hitler. It would make sense. The implication being that Europe is precipitating into a no-return situation. Capitalism cannot but end in WW2.&lt;br&gt;<br /> Ah, a lot more and less than capitalism going on here, especially if anyone specific like Hitler is meant. <br /> :When French writers use this phrase (''celui qui doit venir'') they '''do''' mean the Messiah . . . although a few devout quibblers point out that the Messiah has already come. It's rather tiresome Googling the phrase; the first 83 hits definitely refer to Christ and most of them quote the first verses of Matthew 11. But there's also a Camus reference (in English, I think) down at No. 90, if anyone has a JSTOR account:<br /> :links.jstor.org/sici?sici=0361-1299(1985)39%3A4%3C251%3ACFS%22M%3E2.0.CO%3B2-X <br /> <br /> Recalls Yeats' 'The Second Coming' once again: &quot;And what rough beast, its hour come round at last, Slouches towards Bethlehem to be born?&quot; [http://chumpsofchoice.blogspot.com/2007/05/casino-royale-in-flanders-field.html#c3637134446204467798 ]<br /> <br /> '''General Boulanger'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/General_Boulanger Georges Boulanger], French military man, and War Minister in the late 19th century. He was one of those men &quot;on a white horse&quot; that some conservatives looked to, as he urged an attack on Germany and the end of the French Republic with a return to monarchy. He was also notorious for his harsh reprisals against workers' demonstrations. &quot;'Boulangisme'&quot; threatened a coup in 1889, but the general's procrastination brought the crisis to an end.&lt;br&gt;<br /> In ''The Infernal Machine: A History of Terrorism''<br /> by Matthew Carr, 2007, Boulanger is called the &quot;father&quot; of fascism.<br /> <br /> '''what death and what transfiguration'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Allusion to Richard Strauss' tone poem &quot;Death and Transfiguration&quot; (''Tod und Verklärung''), premiered in 1890.<br /> <br /> '''''&quot;Zeker&quot;'''''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Dutch: certainly.<br /> <br /> '''''dead cert'''''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Dead certainty, sure thing.<br /> <br /> '''Von Schlieffen'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Alfred von Schlieffen was the author of a German war plan to win a two-front war against both France and Russia by quickly defeating France before Russian troops could be mobilized. The [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Schlieffen_Plan Schlieffen Plan] included an attack on France through Belgium, disregarding its neutrality.<br /> <br /> '''Wilhelm has offered Leopold part of France, the ancient Duchy of Burgundy'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> [http://www.crwflags.com/fotw/flags/fr-bg.html History of the duchy.] [http://www.freiburg-madison.de/freiburg_history/1386-1517_The%20Early%20Habsburgs.htm Map,] with portrait of Duke Charles the Rash.<br /> <br /> '''lowlands'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Title of Pynchon's first published story. Here, ass?<br /> <br /> ==Page 544==<br /> <br /> '''Place d'Armes'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Main square of Ostend; literally &quot;drill field&quot;.<br /> <br /> '''peau de soie'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> &quot;Skin of silk&quot; A heavy, smooth satin with very fine ribbing; somewhat dull in sheen compared with traditional silk finishes.<br /> <br /> '''Krafft-Ebing'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Richard Freiherr von Krafft-Ebing, Austro-German psychiatrist and author of ''Psychopathia Sexualis'' (1886), a pioneering study of deviant sexual behavior and fetishism. Coined both ''sadism'' and ''masochism'' as terms for these respective behaviors. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Richard_Freiherr_von_Krafft-Ebing Wikipedia entry].<br /> <br /> '''toque'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Toque here refers to a lady's hat, originally of fur but here in velvet, which is rather like a flattened chef's hat in shape.<br /> <br /> Proust: in ''À l'ombre des jeunes filles en fleurs'' the narrator first sees Albertine wearing a toque. There seem to be quite a few Proust themes and references running throughout the novel. Indeed '''Pliade''' is the French publisher of Proust's works. <br /> <br /> '''guipure'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Lace trim.<br /> <br /> '''midinette'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> A shopgirl or dressmakers apprentice. A milliner.<br /> <br /> '''Lambic'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> A distinctive Belgian style of beer. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lambic Wikipedia]<br /> <br /> '''sous'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> <br /> Coins. Originally Roman gold coins, latterly any kind of coin.<br /> <br /> Specifically small change. She is affecting modesty by claiming that a hat like hers can be had for pennies in any unpretentious shop. In France &quot;sou is used as slang for money, as in ''sans le sou''. 'I'm broke', 'without money'. It is also a slang term for the Canadian cent (standard French, cent).&quot; ([http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sou Wikipedia])<br /> <br /> '''mayonnaise'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Brautigan's &quot;Trout Fishing in America&quot; famously ends with the word mayonnaise. [http://books.google.com/books?vid=ISBN0395500761&amp;id=rbEjDovfyNMC&amp;pg=RA2-PA111&amp;lpg=RA2-PA111&amp;ots=ELKl5b_6Tx&amp;dq=mayonnaise+trout.fishing&amp;num=100&amp;sig=BiyXRqJXRGrMWbrBNgn8de2kpCo#PRA2-PA112,M1 GoogleBooks]<br /> <br /> '''ovoöleaginous'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Another Pynchonic word combination, here denoting the two main ingredients of mayonnaise: 1) eggs, and 2) oil. It's not &quot;fecoventilatory collision&quot; as seen in &quot;Vineland,&quot; but it's nice.<br /> <br /> '''Grenache'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Grape commonly used in Rhone Valley wines e.g. Chateauneuf du Pape.<br /> <br /> '''Chantilly'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> <br /> Region north of Paris.<br /> <br /> Here the reference is to crème chantilly otherwise known as whipped cream. Chantilly mayonnaise is made by incorporating the beaten egg whites for extra lightness.<br /> <br /> '''attainder'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Legislative act declaring that a person is guilty of a crime and setting punishment without the benefit of a formal trial. The Constitution forbids the federal government (Article I, Section 9, clause 3) and the state governments (Article I, Section 10, clause 1) from passing bills of attainder.<br /> [www.historycentral.com/Civics/B.html] <br /> <br /> ''''''Aux armes, citoyens''''''&lt;br&gt;<br /> ''To arms, citizens'', from the French national anthem, ''La Marseillaise'' (1792). Kit confused La Mayonnaise with La Marseillaise.&lt;br&gt;<br /> Not &quot;Le Marseillaise,&quot; you nitwit!<br /> <br /> '''Louis XV'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> King of France 1715-1774 [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Louis_XV]. <br /> <br /> '''Cléo de Mérode'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Glamorous French ballerina (1875-1966), later Follies Bergere dancer and famous beauty. Her reputed intimacy with King Leopold was only a rumor [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cleo_de_Merode]. The character Madame Leonora Armfeldt in Stephen Sondheim's ''A Little Night Music'' has some features in common with her.<br /> <br /> '''Marquise de Pompadour'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Mistress of Louis XV,once friend of Voltaire and a power behind official scenes.[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Madame_de_Pompadour].<br /> <br /> ==Page 545==<br /> <br /> '''duc de Richelieu'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Duc de Richelieu (1696-1788), marshal of France, was a grandnephew of Cardinal Richelieu, and born in Paris. Apart from his reputation as a man of exceptionally loose morals, he attained, in spite of a defective education, distinction as a diplomatist and general. ([http://www.1911encyclopedia.org/Louis_Francois_Armand_du_Plessis,_duc_de_Richelieu duc de Richelieu] and cf [[ATD_489-524#Page 490|page 490:duc de Richelieu]])<br /> <br /> '''dubious 'victory' in 1756'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> As part of the Seven Years' War (1756-1763), duc de Richelieu (1696-1788), a Marshal of France, won a victory in the Battle of Minorca (May 20, 1756) over John Byng (1704-1757), a British Admiral. In spring of 1756 John Byng was sent with a small and undermanned fleet to relieve the British ''Port Mahon'' on the Mediterranean island of Minorca. During the battle ensued, several British ships were badly damaged by the French squadron while others, including Byng's flagship, were still out of effective firing range. Instead of engaging the enemy directly, Byng decided to keep the formation, allowing the French fleet to get away undamaged. ([http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_Minorca Battle of Minorca]).<br /> <br /> '''the ill-fated Admiral Byng'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> John Byng, convicted by court-martial of failure &quot;to do his utmost&quot; in the battle, shot in 1757. Remembered because of (1) his being the last officer of flag rank to be put to death for conduct in battle and (2) Voltaire's gag in ''Candide:'' &quot;In this country it is good to kill an admiral from time to time in order to encourage the others.&quot;<br /> <br /> '''cantharides'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> &quot;Spanish fly,&quot; contact irritant sometimes ill-advisedly used as aphrodisiac.<br /> <br /> '''Sadean'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Pertaining to the Marquis de Sade. The acts the chef performs on the egg and oil have the same names as acts of Sadean sex. <br /> <br /> '''''n'est-ce pas?'''''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Right? (Isn't that so?)<br /> <br /> '''vetiver'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> A grass (Vetiveria zizanioides) of tropical India, cultivated for its aromatic roots that yield an oil used in perfumery.<br /> [www.answers.com/topic/vetiver]. So, a perfume with, llterallly, roots in India.<br /> <br /> Vetiver makes frequent appearances throughout ''À la recherche du temps perdu.''<br /> <br /> '''pip'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> A beaut; in current parlance, a hottie.<br /> <br /> '''Q.P. system'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Quaternion Probability, page 536.<br /> <br /> '''Usine Régionale'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> French: as translated in the text.<br /> <br /> ==Page 546==<br /> <br /> '''disjunctive effects of thunderstorms'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Folk wisdom says a thunderstorm will cause mayonnaise to separate (oil from yolks).<br /> <br /> '''cottonseed oil'''<br /> <br /> Mayonnaisse like Smegmo and Crisco is a hydrogenated fat; cottonseed oil is a common factor to all three. Indeed, the name Crisco derives from the intial sounds of &quot;'''crys'''tallized '''c'''ottonseed '''o'''il&quot;. Note in the next few pages a mention of Candlebrow -- underscoring a tie-in between Mayonnaisse and Smegmo. <br /> <br /> It may be of interest to note that hydrogenation may have a symbolic use for Pynchon. The process entails bubbling hydrogen through oil in the presence of a metal catalyst such as nickel, platinum, aluminum at 248 to 410 degrees. Remnants of these metals stay in the finished product, and when consumed can lead to an increase in heavy metals in the human body.<br /> <br /> Eating hydrogenated oils is like eating plastic. The body does not recognize that these molecules have been mutated and tries to use them as essential fatty acids. But they cannot perform the same function, and as a result hydrogenated oils can cause short circuits in the electrical flow that controls the heartbeat, nerve functions, cell division and mental balance. They also create free radicals (anarchists!) that are linked to cancers. Free radicals plus metal remnants are a major contributor to cancer, heart disease, immune system dysfunction, osteoporosis, depression, chronic fatigue, Alzheimers, and neurological diseases. It is estimated that over 200 million people have died prematurely because of the hydrogenated oils found in our diets. [http://www.drz.org/asp/newsletter/default.asp?xt2id=23] Not to mention innocent bystanders killed by mentally imbalanced people whose imbalance may stem from the ingestion of hydrogenated oils -- there may be some underlying reality to the &quot;Twinkie defense.&quot;<br /> <br /> '''lounge suit'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> A lounge suit is another name for business suit consisting of a matching jacket and trousers or skirt.<br /> <br /> '''congress shoes'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> ankle high shoes with elastic gussets in the sides (wordweb online)<br /> <br /> '''invisible hand'''<br /> <br /> Suggestive of Adam Smith's metaphor for market forces in economics.<br /> <br /> '''dripping-heads'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mayonnaise To make mayonnaise,] beat together egg yolks, salt, mustard and vinegar, then drip in oil while beating to form the emulsion. If you scale the process up for industrial production, you will automate the introduction of the oil, using nozzles that release it a drop at a time—but in a large vat you can have many such nozzles.<br /> <br /> '''''cuves d'agitation'''''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Vat or tank in which the mayonnaise is agitated or beaten.<br /> <br /> '''Clinique d'Urgence pour Sauvetage des Sauces'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> French: Emergency Clinic for Salvage of Sauces.<br /> <br /> ==Page 547==<br /> <br /> '''' ...engulfed in thick, slick, sour-smelling mayonnaise. ''''<br /> The whole Kit's experience in the mayonnaise factory is very much reminiscent to [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Roald_Dahl Roald Dahl]'s [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Charlie_and_the_Chocolate_Factory Charlie and the Chocolate Factory].<br /> <br /> '''''Cazzo, cretino'''''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Literally, &quot;Dick, cretin.&quot; ''Cazzo'' is a common Italian interjectionary obscenity, especially in the south. &quot;Cazzo, cretino,&quot; is akin to someone saying, &quot;Well shit, dummy,&quot; or &quot;F-ing moron!&quot;<br /> <br /> '''''È il cowboy!'''''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Italian: It's the cowboy!<br /> <br /> '''''vero?'''''&lt;br&gt;<br /> true? real?<br /> <br /> '''''Le bambole anarchiste, porca miseria'''''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Italian: Anarchist babes, oh boy.<br /> <br /> '''Oudenberg'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> A southeast suburb of Ostende.<br /> <br /> '''Quai de l'Entrepôt'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Warehouse Quay<br /> <br /> '''''ragazzi'''''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Italian: boys, guys.<br /> <br /> ==Page 548==<br /> <br /> '''General Boulanger'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> That the General was 'reactionary' and that the C of C bureaucracy had a 'defiant residue' of Boulangism, continues the characterization of the organization for which the Chums 'work'.&lt;br&gt;<br /> See p. 543 above, regarding a 2007 book in which Boulanger is called the 'father of fascism'.<br /> <br /> '''''timbres fictifs'''''&lt;br&gt;<br /> French: fictive postage stamps. Cf &quot;Lot 49&quot;.&lt;br&gt;<br /> Yes, stamps mean something in Pynchon's works; here, it seems important that these stamps are characterized as frauds.<br /> <br /> '''&quot;IIIb&quot;'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> As explained in the text.&lt;br&gt;<br /> &quot;Section IIIB (Intelligence) of the German High Command. After WWI, was funded by Alfred Hugenberg (financial backer of Nazi party)&quot;. From ''Sabotage'' by Sayers &amp; Kahn, 1942.[http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&amp;q=%22IIIB%27+%2B+INTELLIGENCE&amp;btnG=Search]. The authors state in the Forward, in 1942, &quot;that 'Nazi Germany' is the creation of spies and saboteurs&quot;. See ''V.'' &amp; ''Gravity's Rainbow'', of course. <br /> <br /> '''Germany might stand a better chance...'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> That is, if the French were to push into Alsace (per Boulanger) as the Germans executed the Schlieffen Plan [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Schlieffen_plan] for the encirclement of Paris, it would put the French at an even greater disadvantage...as actually happened in 1914. Had the Belgians and British not delayed the Germans in Flanders, and had the French railroads not performed speedily to bring the French troops back to the Marne, World War I could have had a very different outcome...an alternate history. <br /> <br /> '''revanchist'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Policies based on revenge, or a person following such policies. In General Boulanger's case, revenge against Germany for the Franco-Prussian War (that is, retaking Alsace, lost in 1871).<br /> <br /> '''the somewhat discomposed General'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Having died in 1891, the General by the time of the action is certainly somewhat '''de'''composed; brief biographies do not suggest he was ''non compos mentis,'' that is, mentally discomposed.<br /> <br /> ==Page 549==<br /> '''grow more and more invisible'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> What could be meant? Clearly, they inhabit bodies that people interact with?, as well as being characters in works of fiction.&lt;br&gt;<br /> Given what happens with the Chums as the story progresses [Spoiler bit, thematically], I suggest that their invisibility here<br /> means the entering of simple human life, to live out their lives 'anonymously' in history. I want to suggest this is largely a positive vision, indicated in other ways and places as well in TRPs work. Here is an overt bit of circumstantial evidence from Pynchon's introduction to Jim Dodge's novel ''Stone Junction'':&lt;br&gt;<br /> &quot;Equally difficult for those who might wish to proceed through life<br /> anonymously and without trace has been the continuing assault against<br /> the once-reliable refuge of the cash or non-plastic economy.&quot; [http://www.themodernword.com/pynchon/pynchon_essays_stone.html]<br /> <br /> '''cackled Darby'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> (When did he lose his innocence?)<br /> <br /> '''a modification of any salsician metaphor toward the diminutive'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Salsician: pertaining to sausage. Lindsay says Suckling's penis is better compared to a wiener than a knockwurst.<br /> <br /> '''&quot;Why you little–and I do mean 'little'–&quot;'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Another Simpsons reference? <br /> <br /> Noseworth, the Master-At-Arms of the Chums division of this organization with a defiant residue of 'fascism', who had no smell to Pugnax early on,<br /> is called out, either for real or in a sex-bashing putdown, for homosexuality. cf. homosexuality as a metaphor in ''Gravity's Rainbow''. <br /> <br /> '''dunes between Nieuport and Dunkirk'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Nieuport is a Belgian seaport about 10 miles southwest of Ostend. Dunkirk is a French port (less than 10 miles inside the French border) about 20 miles southwest of Nieuport. The latter was a site of one of the bloodest battle in World War I. The general area between Niewport and Dunkirk was the well traversed battle fields of two world wars. (Dunkirk was (in)famous for the British Army's escape from the Nazi German's assault in World War II.)<br /> <br /> '''power-receivers'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Not information, energy.<br /> <br /> ==Page 550==<br /> <br /> '''Lot's wife''' &lt;br&gt;<br /> Angels of God led Lot and his family out of Sodom as it was being destroyed and told them not to look back at the mayhem. Lot's wife, Edith, imprudently looked back and was transfigured into a pillar of salt.<br /> <br /> '''Italian grotto'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> an imitating recess or structure made to resemble a natural Italian grotto.<br /> <br /> '''a highly developed taste, moreover, for human blood'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Since Pugnax developed this taste in the Carpathians, home of Castle Dracula, this seems a clear reference to Bram Stoker's novel. <br /> <br /> '''Carpathians'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Major mountain range running northwest-southeast through Poland, Slovakia, western Ukraine and Romania.<br /> <br /> '''Uhlans'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Uhlan regiments belonged to the light cavalry. They wore splendid uniforms (model for some U.S. marching band uniforms). [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Uhlan Wikipedia article.]<br /> <br /> '''Temesvár'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Now Timişoara, extreme western Romania.<br /> <br /> ==Page 551==<br /> <br /> '''...separated by only a slice of Time...'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Miles is beginning to experience Time almost as a spatial dimension, his personal vector as traversing (!) 4-dimensional space, or perhaps multidimensional space, the mathematics for which is being debated in Ostend.<br /> <br /> '''securing the mess decks'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> The Chums follow U.S. Navy idiom in orders (frequently prefixed with &quot;Now&quot;) and shipboard activities (&quot;secure&quot; meaning &quot;whatever you did before, undo it now,&quot; in this case put away the dishes and fold up the tables).<br /> <br /> '''Ryder Thorn'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Tolkienesque name? Or perhaps it's a nod to the Ryder-Waite Tarot deck and to Kevin Thorn (Kevin Matthew Fertig, 1977-), the American professional wrestler better known by his ring name Kevin Thorn who is currently signed to World Wrestling Entertainment wrestling on its ECW brand. He has appeared in vigniettes with Ariel (Shelly Martinez, 1980-), the tarot card reader, who spits blood at the camera while she &quot;predicted the future of ECW.&quot; Yup, a stretch...<br /> <br /> *The name also evokes the Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse.<br /> <br /> '''He was at Candlebrow.'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Presumably a 'trespasser.'<br /> <br /> '''the four-note chord in the context of timelessness'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> A melody is formed by notes following one another in time; a chord on the ukulele violates that practice by having all the notes sound at once. A really clever little passage.<br /> Note: Jazz musicians describe musical improvisations as horizontal (with the melody) or vertical (with the chord)<br /> <br /> ==Page 552==<br /> <br /> '''knuckle-duster'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Brass knuckles.<br /> <br /> '''Diksmuide'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> 20 kilometers south of Ostend (about halfway to Ypres).<br /> <br /> ==Page 553==<br /> <br /> '''The terrain was flat...lowlands'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Not, this time, a reference to Pynchon's ''Lowlands'', but to the two-dimensionality of Flanders, as in Edwin A. Abbott's ''Flatland'' [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Flatland]; most humans, like the inhabitants of Flanders and Abbott's Flatlanders, experience life in two dimensions. <br /> <br /> '''Somewhere up in the sky was Miles' home...'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Whereas Miles and the Chums of Chance, in contrast, live in three dimensions. The mathematicians gathered in Ostend are trying to calculate how to experience and use vectors to live in four dimensions; in a way, to experience Time as a kind of spatial dimension. Miles, on P. 551, is demonstrating the beginnings of an intuitive discovery of how to experience Time as an almost spatial dimension. Which would be a sort of &quot;time travel&quot;, or at least an expanded view of life and history.<br /> <br /> '''retted'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> soaked in water or exposed to moisture (as flax or hemp) to facilitate the removal of the fiber from the woody tissue by partial rotting.<br /> <br /> ==Page 554==<br /> <br /> '''Ypres and Menin'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Municipalities in West Flanders that were sites of some of the bloodiest battles of WWI. At the beginning of the war, the British and Belgian stand helped save Paris from encirclement by the Germans, and saved the Channel ports, but as Thorn points out, the area became the western anchor of the Western Front trench system. The several Battles of Ypres saw the first uses of poison gas (Mustard Gas, dichlorodiethylsulfide, was first called Yperite), the use of enormous mines, and the legendary mud of Passchendaele [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Passchendaele]. <br /> <br /> '''Ten years from now'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> (1914?) through 1918? and beyond?. Another paramorphic mirror--what do we now face. Whatever it is, it is nuclear.<br /> <br /> '''Bosch'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Hieronymous Bosch (1450-1516), Dutch painter of nightmares. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hieronymus_Bosch Wikipedia entry].<br /> <br /> '''Brueghel'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Pieter Brueghel the Elder(1525-1569), Flemish painter.[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pieter_Brueghel_the_Elder Wikipedia entry].<br /> <br /> '''League'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> League of Nations? The League of Nations was formed after WWI to prevent future wars. Didn't succeed.<br /> <br /> No. In this case a historical unit of length, approximately three miles - &quot;league on league&quot; = tremendous masses<br /> <br /> '''where the needles went and which way to rotate them'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> I.e., how to push Thorn's buttons; the image is from acupuncture.<br /> <br /> ==Page 555==<br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> '''simpletons at the fair'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Making Pynchon's metaphor explicit.<br /> <br /> '''Chopin E-minor Nocturne'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Frédéric Chopin (1810-49), a Polish pianist and composer ([http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fr%C3%A9d%C3%A9ric_Chopin Chopin]). He was born in Warsaw, Poland to a Polish morther and a French father. He went to Paris at the age of 20 and died there at the age of 39. He was widely regarded as one of the most famous and influential composers for the piano. From 1837-47 he had a 10-year stormy relationship with the French writer George Sand. His E-minor Nocturne is a 4-minute long Romantic style piano solo composed in 1827. (A ''nocturne'' is usually a musical composition that is inspired by, or evocative of, the night [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nocturne Nocturne].)<br /> <br /> '''owl-light'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> ???glimmering or imperfect light or twilight hours.<br /> <br /> ''''plasmic hysteresis''''&lt;br&gt;<br /> <br /> A coined term, apparently similar in meaning to Miles’ phrase “failure of physical translation.” Plasma would take an older meaning of “form” or “shape.&quot; Hysteresis, according to Webster's, refers to “a retardation in effect when the forces on an object are changed.” Hysteresis is used to describe magnetic phenomenon as well as plastic or elastic materials, that involve changes to a rest state that last beyond the forces that cause them. Examples include recordings on magnetic tape or a thumbprint slowly disappearing from putty. In the context of this passage, plasmic hysteresis appears to describe the lingering visage of someone who is no longer present – a hysteresis of form only and thus a failed physical translation. See [http://www.etymonline.com/index.php?search=plasma&amp;searchmode=none etymology of plasma] and this nifty explanation of [http://www.lassp.cornell.edu/sethna/hysteresis/WhatIsHysteresis.html hysteresis]. <br /> <br /> Hysteresis has also been used to refer to “loops” in time, certainly apropos in this case. I stumbled across an excellent example in a 1980 episode of Dr. Who, in which the eponymous Dr. is trapped in “chronic hysteresis,” an endless loop or return to a previous <br /> point in time – very similar to the situation of Ryder Thorn. [http://www.drwhoguide.com/who_5q.htm Check it out for yourself!] <br /> <br /> <br /> ==Annotation Index==<br /> {{ATD PbP}}</div>

MKOHUT https://against-the-day.pynchonwiki.com/wiki/index.php?title=ATD_525-556&diff=14124 2007-10-21T13:58:55Z

<p>MKOHUT: /* Page 549 */</p> <hr /> <div>:'''&lt;big&gt;Please keep these annotations SPOILER-FREE by not revealing information from later pages in the novel.&lt;/big&gt;'''&lt;p&gt;&lt;br&gt;<br /> <br /> ==Page 525==<br /> <br /> '''Ostend'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Cf [[ATD_489-524#Page 521|page 521:Ostend]], a seaport in northwest Belgium. Among English-speaking tourists, Ostend (or Ostende) is best known as a ferry port. Ships have shuttled between Dover and Ostend for more than 150 years, and today's high-speed catamarans move hundreds of passengers and vehicles between these two ports in just two hours. But this thousand-year-old city is a popular beach resort with Belgians, who flock to Ostend for sun, surfing, sailing and the ''Kursaal'' (Casino). The fishing harbor and old town draw many visitors. Ostend is the only Belgian coastal resort that is as lively in the summer as in the winter. For more and pictures [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ostend Ostend].<br /> <br /> '''Fishermen's Quai'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Fishermen's Quay, also called De Trap. The shrimp boats come home here from the sea in the morning. Along the quay many stands sell lots of seafoods.<br /> <br /> '''Boulevard van Isenghem'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> A major thoroughfare in Ostend, locally called ''Van Iseghemlaan'', extending diagonally from seafront southwest through the city.<br /> <br /> '''street-plausible'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Presentable.<br /> <br /> '''Quai de l'empereur'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Since Ostende is in the Flemish part of Belgium this should be the Keizerskaai, a street along the old part of the harbour, 1919 renamed Vindictivelaan.<br /> <br /> '''estaminet'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> According to the OED - A café in which smoking is allowed. Now, any small establishment selling alcoholic liquor. <br /> <br /> '''twelve-centime'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> one centime is the French eqivalent of one cent. A twelve-centime beer would cost 12/100 of a franc.<br /> <br /> '''Quaternions'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Cf [[ATD_119-148#Page 130|page 130:Quaternions]]. Quaternions are a non-communtative extension of complex numbers (Hamilton, 1843).&lt;br&gt;<br /> <br /> Analogy with the complex numbers (Cf [[ATD_119-148#Page 132|page 132:complex number]]) being represented as a sum of real and imaginary parts, a + b''i'', where ''i''² = −1, a quaternion is defined as a combination a + b''i'' + c''j'' + d''k'', where ''i''² = ''j''² = ''k''² = ''i j k'' = −1, and a, b, c, d are ''four'' explicit real numbers. The non-commutative property refers to ''i j = −j i = k; j k = −k j = i; k i = −i k = j''. (i.e. ''i j ≠ j i; j k ≠ k j; k i ≠ i k''; etc.) The using of ''i, j, k'', the imaginary numbers (Cf [[ATD_119-148#Page 133|page 133:imaginary number]]), led to the phrases of &quot;the ''ijk'' lot&quot; of page 533 and &quot;creature of ''i-j-k''&quot; of page 534.<br /> <br /> '''Kellner'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> German: waiter, barman. Use of the German word would be insulting to the Belgian barman.<br /> <br /> '''''demi'''''&lt;br&gt;<br /> A half-pint glass (25 centilitres, actually).<br /> <br /> '''Lambic'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Pron. ''lahm-BEEK.'' Unique Belgian beer style, sour and often thin in body.<br /> <br /> '''skimmer'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Straw hat (&quot;Panama&quot;).<br /> <br /> ==Page 526==<br /> <br /> '''biquaternion'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Or &quot;octonion,&quot; an innovation of English mathematician W.K. Clifford, [[ATD_243-272#Page_249|referred to on p. 249.]]<br /> <br /> '''Barry Nebulay'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Pun on a term from heraldry, ''barry nebuly.'' Barry (rhymes with &quot;starry,&quot; not &quot;carry&quot;) refers to a shield divided into an even number of parts by horizontal lines. Nebuly signals that the lines are deformed into stylized &quot;cloud&quot; shapes. [http://www.rarebooks.nd.edu/digital/heraldry/partitions.html Here you can see an example.] If a ''British'' author had a character with a heraldic name, it would suggest a pseudonym.<br /> <br /> '''University of Dublin'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> The Alma Mater of Hamilton, the father of Quaternion. He studied, graduated and taught at Trinity College, the University of Dublin, Ireland's oldest university.<br /> <br /> If University College, Dublin, then Joyce had graduated in 1902.&lt;br&gt;<br /> <br /> '''Quaternioneers'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Quaternion believers.<br /> <br /> '''Gibbsian Vectors'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Vector Analysis (or Vector Calculus) developed by Willard Gibbs (Cf [[ATD_26-56#Page 29|page 29:Professor Gibbs]]) in 1881 and 1884. It is a branch of calculus that deals with vectors and process involving vectors. It is much more easily applied to phsics and other applied sciences than Hamilton's Quaternions (Cf [[ATD_525-556#Page 525|page 525:Quaternions]]).&lt;br&gt;<br /> A vector is defined by not only a magnitude but also a direction, such as a velocity vector, ''v'' is defined by ''v'' = a''i'' + b''j'' + c''k'',<br /> where a, b, and c are the magnitudes of the velocity components in directions of ''i, j'' and ''k'' which are unit vectors, (not imaginary numbers as in Quaternion), with magnitude of 1. In three dimensional cases and ''xyz'' coordinate system is used then ''i, j, k'' are related to ''x, y, z'' directions (&quot;''xyz'' people&quot; of page 533); but they, in general, may be used irrespective of the notation of the coordinates.<br /> Mathematical operations (addition, subtraction, multiplication), differentiation (''curl'' — Cf [[ATD_318-335#Page 326|page 326:Curl]] and p. 536, ''Laplacian'' — Cf [[ATD_318-335#Page 326|page 326:Laplacian]] and p. 536, etc) and integration can be applied to vectors. It is interesting to know that one of the two multiplication operations is called cross product; for unit vectors (''i, j, k'') perpendicular to each other, then, ''i × i = j × j = k × k = 0'', ''i × j = k'', ''j × i = -k'', etc. ([http://web.mit.edu/wwmath/vectorc/summary.html Vector Calculus]).&lt;br&gt;<br /> A simple vector anyalysis example here: if ''k'', the unit vector, stands for the direction upward and g is the gravitational acceleration, then the acceleration vector, ''a'', for a projectile, is defined for downward action, (the ''i'' and ''j'' directions have zero components):&lt;br&gt;<br /> :''a'' = -g ''k''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Integrating ''a'' would give the velocity vector, ''v''&lt;br&gt;<br /> :''v'' = -g t ''k''&lt;br&gt;<br /> for zero initial velocity case, and t standing for time.&lt;br&gt;<br /> And integrating ''v'' would yield the position vector, ''h'', for the projectile&lt;br&gt;<br /> :''h'' = -½ g t² ''k''&lt;br&gt;<br /> toward the sea level.<br /> <br /> '''Quaternionists'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Quaternion believers, same as Quaternioneers.<br /> <br /> '''Tasmania'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Tasmania is an island of the southern coast of Australia. Known for its relative isolation, it was a prison for English convicts in the 1800s<br /> <br /> '''Having been inseparable from the rise of the electromagnetic'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> In his 1865 work ''The Dynamical Theory of the Electromagnetic Field'', James Clerk Maxwell unified electricity and magnetism. He put forth twenty equations, with twenty unknowns, in vector form (though different in notation and form than the equations that now bear his name) that completely described all known electromagnetic phenomena. In his 1873 treatise on the subject, he expressed the equations in the mathematics of quaternions. It appears that the quaternion form of the equations remained popular even though, at the behest of his publisher, Maxwell reverted to the 1865 form in the second edition (1881)--though they remain scattered throughout. In 1892 Oliver Heaviside (On the Forces, Stresses, and Fluxes of Energy in the Electromagnetic Field. ''Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society of London.'' A, Vol. 183. pp423-480), while spewing scientific vitriol at the Quaternionists, reformulated Maxwell's original 1865 equations (Heaviside chose to remove the vector potential and scalar fields from the equations; the inclusion of these terms had served as Maxwell's justification for the use of quaternions), and provided the notation still in use today. See this [http://www.zpenergy.com/modules.php?name=Downloads&amp;d_op=getit&amp;lid=60 PDF] for the evolution of Maxwell's equations.<br /> <br /> '''Hamiltonian devotees'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> The Quaternion faction, after William Hamilton, who devised the scheme.<br /> <br /> '''Grand Hôtel de la Nouvelle Digue'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> There is a Hotel Digue in the Seychelles; this is a New Hotel Digue by Pynchon? <br /> <br /> Grand Hotel of New Dyke, may be a made up hotel name.<br /> <br /> '''anterooms of death'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> This metaphor is sometimes applied to concentration camps. Here the lyric &quot;feel like I'm fixin' to die&quot; seems more apposite.<br /> <br /> '''Belgian Art Nouveau'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Art Nouveau, 1890(or 80) to 1914, explores a new style in the visual arts and architecture that developed in Europe and North America at the end of the 19th century. At its height (~1907), Art Nouveau was a concerted attempt to create an international style based on decoration. It was developed by a brilliant and energetic generation of artists and desisgners, who sought to fashion an art form appropriate to the post-Industrial Revolution modern age.&lt;br&gt;<br /> Brussels was one of the Art Nouveau centers and represented different style from the others. The jewelers there, accepted as artists rahter than craftsmen, (together with those in Paris) defined Art Nouveau in jewelery and achieved the most renown. ([http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Art_Nouveau Art Nouveau]).<br /> <br /> ==Page 527==<br /> <br /> '''dossing'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> British slang for &quot;sleeping&quot;, &quot;staying overnight&quot;<br /> <br /> '''Russian nihilists'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> :The following four are local, Belgian, not Russian, nihilists !<br /> <br /> '''Eugénie'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Female. Possibly named for Empress Eugénie (1826-1920), consort of French Emperor Napoleon III. Ultimately for St. Eugenia, 3rd-century Roman martyr whose feast is celebrated on December 25.<br /> <br /> '''Fatou'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Female. A pseudonym? In view of the date of the action, certainly not named after [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fatou the mathematician Fatou] (1878-1929).<br /> <br /> '''Denis'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Male. Named for St. Denis or Dionysius, patron saint of Paris and of France, 3rd-century bishop of Paris, martyr, beheaded on the hill now called Montmartre. &quot;Montjoie St. Denis!&quot; was a warcry used by French troops in the Middle Ages. His intercession is effective against demonic possession and headache.<br /> <br /> '''Policarpe'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Male. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Polycarp Saint Polycarp] was a Christian bishop of Smyrna (now İzmir in Turkey) in the second century. He was stabbed and died a martyr after an attempt to burn him at the stake failed. His intercession is sought against earache and dysentery.<br /> <br /> '''Young Congo'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Probably in reference to the [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Young_Turks Young Turks], a Turkish revolutionary movement<br /> <br /> '''Garde Civique'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> A part of the Belgian army. According to the [http://www.1911encyclopedia.org/Belgium 1911 Britannica], &quot;the mass of the garde civique does not pretend to possess military value. It is a defence against sedition and socialism.&quot;<br /> <br /> '''French Second Bureau boys'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Deuxieme Bureau; French Intelligence.<br /> <br /> '''''phalange'''''&lt;br&gt;<br /> French: phalanx. A military (here mock-military) group ready for combat. &lt;br&gt;<br /> <br /> It also conjures up memories of the early 19th century utopian socialist <br /> Charles Fourier, who theorized that people should live communally in &quot;phalanxes&quot; of a specific number based upon their &quot;passions.&quot; His solid ideas included equality of the sexes, but he also taught wacky things such as the moon being made of lemonade. Of particular relevance is his rejection of industrial civilization. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Utopian_socialism]<br /> <br /> '''&quot;...until something had happened, something too terrible to remember...&quot;'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Again this theme of an unknowable past transgression, here invoked almost as if the unknown signifies the other 'lateral' (a word which has cropped up at least a dozen times already) 'vector'.<br /> <br /> '''the Digue'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> French for &quot;dyke&quot;<br /> <br /> '''Congo... Belgians'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> The Belgian colonisation of the Congo was, as Conrad's ''Heart of Darkness'' makes clear, notable for its greed and brutality.<br /> <br /> '''Leopold, King of the Belgians'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> 1835-1909, reigned 1865-1909. A man of almost Nixonian fiendishness. In the Congo he acted as sole proprietor and absolute ruler. The positive outcomes of his exploitation include ''Heart of Darkness'' and the phrase &quot;crime against humanity.&quot;<br /> <br /> '''co-conscious'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> mental processes outside the main stream of consciousness but sometimes available to it — from Merriam-Webster's Medical Dictionary.<br /> <br /> '''Force Publique'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Belgian armed forces operating in the Belgian Congo ([http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Force_Publique Wikipedia]). &quot;King Leopold's private army&quot; may be a more accurate description.<br /> <br /> '''rubber worker'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> See above: One of the early missions of the FP was to increase rubber export quotas through forced labor and related atrocities.<br /> <br /> ==Page 528==<br /> <br /> '''''khâgne'''''&lt;br&gt;<br /> an informal term used by French students for Classes Préparatoires Littéraires, the two-year cycle of classes taken after the Baccalaureat (taken at age 17-18), to prepare for the entrance examination to the Ecole Normale Supeieure. ([http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kh%C3%A2gne khâgne]).<br /> <br /> '''Reclus'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> J. J. Élisée Reclus (1830-1905), French geographer but mainly educated in Germany. Several times he was forced to leave France because of his political views; he traveled widely in Europe, the British Isles, the United States, and South America and for many years lived in Switzerland. He was professor of comparative geography at the University of Brussels from 1895 to 1905. He had quite an extensive connection with various socialist and anarchist circles (met Bakunin while in Florence).Once he was imprisoned in Versailles in 1871 for his part in the ''Paris Commune''. In 1882 he initiated the ''Anti-marriage movement'' while in Geneva. [[http://academic.reed.edu/formosa/texts/reclusbio.html Reclus]).<br /> <br /> '''Stirnerite'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Follower of Max Stirner, 19th century German philosopher and author of ''The Ego and Its Own,'' a work influential in anarchist thought. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Max_Stirner Wikipedia entry].<br /> <br /> ''Max Stirner'''s (1806-56) attacks on systematic philosophy, his denial of absulutes, and his rejection of abstract concepts of any kind often places him among the first philosophical nihilists. For Stirner, achieving individual freedom is the only law; and the state, which necvessarily imperils freedom, must be destroyed. Even beyond the oppression of the state, though, are the constraints imposed by others because their very existence is an obstable compromising individual freedom. Thus Stirner argues that existence is an endless &quot;war of each against all&quot; (1845). (taken from the paragraph about Max Stirner in [http://www.iep.utm.edu/n/nihilism.htm#H1 Nihilism])&lt;br&gt;<br /> Sourcing here? Much complexity in properly understanding Stirner, who has some Pynchon-like qualities, to say the least. From the Stanford Dictionary of Philosophy&lt;br&gt;<br /> His major work:<br /> The Ego and Its Own<br /> Much of Stirner's prose—which is crowded with aphorisms, italicisation, and hyperbole—appears calculated to disconcert. Most striking, perhaps, is the use of word play. Rather than reach a conclusion through the conventional use of argument, Stirner often approaches a claim that he wishes to endorse by exploiting words with related etymologies or formal similarities. For example, he associates words for property (such as ‘Eigentum’) with words connoting distinctive individual characteristics (such as ‘Eigenheit’) in order to promote the claim that property is expressive of selfhood. (Stirner's account of egoistic property—see below—gives this apparently orthodox Hegelian claim a distinctive twist.)<br /> <br /> This rejection of conventional forms of intellectual discussion is linked to Stirner's substantive views about language and rationality. His unusual style reflects a conviction that both language and rationality are human products which have come to constrain and oppress their creators. Stirner maintains that accepted meanings and traditional standards of argumentation are underpinned by a conception of truth as a privileged realm beyond individual control. As a result, individuals who accept this conception are abandoning a potential area of creative self-expression in favour of adopting a subordinate role as servants of truth. In stark contrast, Stirner insists that the only legitimate restriction on the form of our language, or on the structure of our arguments, is that they should serve our individual ends. It is the frequent failure of ordinary meanings and standard forms of argument to satisfy his interpretation of this criterion which underpins Stirner's remorselessly idiosyncratic style.<br /> <br /> The Ego and Its Own has an intelligible, but scarcely transparent, structure. It is organised around a tripartite account of human experience, initially introduced in a description of the stages of an individual life. The first stage in this developmental narrative is the realistic one of childhood, in which children are constrained by material and natural forces such as their parents. Liberation from these external constraints is achieved with what Stirner calls the self-discovery of mind, as children find the means to outwit those forces in their own determination and cunning. The idealistic stage of youth, however, contains new internal sources of constraint, as individuals once more become enslaved, this time to the spiritual forces of conscience and reason. Only with the adulthood of egoism do individuals escape both material (external) and spiritual (internal) constraints, learning to value their personal satisfaction above all other considerations.<br /> <br /> Stirner portrays this dialectic of individual growth as an analogue of historical development, and it is a tripartite account of the latter which structures the remainder of the book. Human history is reduced to successive epochs of realism (the ancient, or pre-Christian, world), idealism (the modern, or Christian, world), and egoism (the future world). <br /> <br /> What about these &quot;successive epochs&quot; in understanding ATD?<br /> <br /> Stirner's major work, The Ego and Its Own has been reissued in English a number of times in Pynchon's lifetime,from the 60s on. (Not that TRP could not have read it in German!)<br /> <br /> '''''Anarcho-individualiste'''''&lt;br&gt;<br /> i.e. he has doctrinal differernces with Stirnerism, strictly speaking; see P. 324, and &quot;Eigenheit&quot;.<br /> <br /> '''Leopold'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> See p. 527.<br /> <br /> '''going down lately'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Being assassinated.<br /> <br /> '''Sipido'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Jean-Baptiste Sipido (1884-1959), a Belgian socialist. Accusing the Prince of Wales of causing thousands of inocents were killed in the Boer War in South Africa, on April 5, 1900, Sipido leaped onto the foot board of the royal compartment right before the train left the North Railway Station (Gare du Nord), Brussel, and fired two (or one? as reported in ''The Manchester Guardian'', or four? as stated in the text here) shots through the window but missed everyone inside. He was arrested, tried and acquitted. The leader of the House of Commons called the acquittal a &quot;grave and most unfortunate miscarriage of justice.&quot; ([http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jean-Baptiste_Sipido Sipido]).<br /> <br /> '''Prince... of Wales'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> (Maud Gonne's husband claimed to have been involved in another such plot.)<br /> <br /> '''Hippodrome'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Hippodrome Wellington, a horse racing track in Ostend built in 1883. The facility hosts both harness and flat racing events. ([http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hippodrome_Wellington Hippodrome]).<br /> <br /> '''Royal Bathing Hut... twenty francs'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> A bathing machine ([http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bathing_machine bathing machine])? The King of Belgium certainly would not want to be seen in a swimsuit on a public beach... It seems unlikely, though, that such a royal bathing machine would be for hire.<br /> <br /> '''twenty francs'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> ???<br /> <br /> ==Page 529==<br /> <br /> '''picric family'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> The explosive picric acid (2,4,6-trinitrophenol) and its derivatives. For picric acid, Brugère's powder and Designolle's powder, [http://encyclopedia.jrank.org/PER_PIG/PICRIC_ACID_or_TRINITROPHENOL_C.html see this Britannica article.]<br /> <br /> '''Brugère's powder'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> See &quot;picric family&quot; above.<br /> <br /> '''Designolle's'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> See &quot;picric family&quot; above.<br /> <br /> '''Monsieur Santos-Dumont'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Alberto Santos-Dumont (1873-1932), a pioneer of aviation from Brasil. Check out [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alberto_Santos-Dumont Wikipedia] to get a look at the way he was wearing his &quot;trademark Panama hat&quot;. <br /> <br /> '''Green Hour''' and '''''l'heure vertigineuse'''''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Absinthe-drinking time. The liqueur is green. In French, ''l'heure verte,'' so ''vertigineuse'' (vertiginous, causing dizziness) is a pun on the word for &quot;green.&quot;<br /> <br /> '''Rocco and Pino'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Rabid Quaternionists and sudden friends of Kit Traverse.<br /> :No, they were not mathematicians at all, let alone Quaternionists, but two &quot;Italian naval renegades&quot; !!<br /> ::&quot;Rocco and Pino&quot; are, in temperament, something like the &quot;Mason and Dixon&quot; of manned-torpedoes... cf. the &quot;torpedo&quot; (i.e., &quot;Electrick-Eel&quot;) of ''Mason &amp; Dixon''.<br /> <br /> '''Whitehead works in Fiume'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Anticipating GR's V2 works.<br /> <br /> ''Robert Whitehead'' (1823-1905), an English engineer. He developed the first self-propelled torpedo in 1866. He attended Manchester's Mechanics Institute, worked in a shipyard in Toulon (1844), France, and as a consultant engineer in Milan (1847), Italy. Later he moved to Trieste and in 1856 became a manager of a company called ''Founderia Mettali'' (later, ''Stabilimento Tecnico di Fiume'') in Fiume producing ship steam boilers and engines which were the most advanced of that era. He also developed the first self-propelled torpedo which was very popular. Whitehead's torpedo was propelled by a compressed air engine, carried 18lbs dynamites and a self-regulating device which kept the torpedo cruising at a constant preset depth. [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Robert_Whitehead Whitehead]].<br /> <br /> ''Fiume'' is now Rijeka, Croatia. Trieste is on the northwestern edge of the Istra Peninsula, Rijeka is east of it. [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rijeka Fiume]].<br /> <br /> Interesting sidebar: Whitehead's fortune from Fiume and the torpedo went solely to his granddaughter Agatha Whitehead, who married Baron von Trapp. The Von Trapp money came from Robert Whitehead, and most of the von Trapp singers were his great-grandchildren.<br /> <br /> '''''Alberta'''''&lt;br&gt;<br /> The [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Royal_yacht Wikipedia] entry on royal yachts goes back to the 17th century but doesn't include ''Alberta.'' The craft does get a mention in [http://www.bouncing-balls.com/timeline/people/nr_leopoldmorel.htm this page on Leopold and the Congo.]<br /> <br /> '''Siluro Dirigibile a Lenta Corsa'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> or S.L.C. &quot;slow course torpedo&quot;, &quot;slow-running torpedo&quot;. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Manned_torpedo Wikipedia] Italy‘s Navy was among the first to experiment with manned torpedos. Though according to [http://web.ukonline.co.uk/chalcraft/sm/chariots.html this site] this did not happen until 1935, Italian frogmen as early as October 31, 1918 made it into the harbour of Pula with the help of a modified german torpedo and sank the former Austrian but by then since a few hours Croatian/Slovenian/Bosnian battleship SMS ''Viribus Unitis''. [http://www.geocities.com/tegetthoff66/viribus.html website]<br /> <br /> The Wikipedia entry linked above doesn't contain the Italian word ''dirigibile'' (steerable), which sets up the torpedo as a counterpart of the dirigible ''Inconvenience.''<br /> <br /> :I suspect there's a connection between the torpedo and &quot;Not the usual lateener, in fact appearing to have neither sails, masts, nor oars&quot; in Miles' reversed vision, [[ATD_243-272#Page_250|page 250.]] Needs work, though.<br /> <br /> ==Page 530==<br /> <br /> '''exfiltrate'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Make a surreptitious escape (as &quot;infiltrate&quot; means to make a surreptitious entrance).<br /> <br /> '''''Macchè'''''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Italian: certainly not, not a chance. And in Pynchon's Italian is used as an all-purpose exclamation.<br /> <br /> '''''Ehi, stu gazz', categoria'''''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Stu gazz' is a dialect representation of ''sto cazzo'', literally meaning ''this dick here''. Normally you could translate the sense of the sentence as: ''yeah, why not, a fucking category! ''. -- blicero2 - 2007.02.22<br /> <br /> '''''mezzogiornismo'''''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Denigrating the Italian South. Mezzogiorno means ''midday'' in Italian but refers generally to Southern Italy.<br /> <br /> ==Page 531==<br /> <br /> '''Bruges'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> An exceptionally beautiful Belgian town of canals which is thus one of several towns known as the 'Venice of the north'. In the 14th cettury Burges already became an international finanacial and trading center, but<br /> started to decline in the 15th century. In the 20th century, however, the city was discovered by the international tourism and the medieval heritage turned out to be a new source of wealth. A new harbor of Zeebrugge, 10 miles outside of Bruges at the North Sea coast, brought new developments and new industries to the region. For the city and its history see ([http://www.trabel.com/brugge.htm Bruges]).<br /> <br /> '''Raoul's Atelier de la Vitesse'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> French: Ralph's Speed Shop.<br /> <br /> '''Ghent'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Belgian city, less than 30 miles southeast of Bruges, on the rail line about halfway between Ostend and Brussels. It is the fourth largest city of Belgium. It is bigger than Bruges but not as famous as a tourist attraction. But the city is a showcase of medieval Flemish wealth and commercial success. See ([http://www.trabel.com/gent.htm Ghent]).<br /> <br /> '''Daimler six-cylinder'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> ???<br /> <br /> '''a hundred horsepower'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> ???<br /> <br /> '''''guaglion'''''&lt;br&gt;<br /> italian (dialectal) = boy, young person<br /> <br /> '''Umeki Tsurigane'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Umeki is typically made with some combination of the various kanji for &quot;plum&quot; (ume) and &quot;tree&quot; (ki), though one has the ki being the character for &quot;ghost/devil&quot; and one obscure reading that's entirely redundant, where ume is &quot;plant&quot; (usually read ue). There is one where ume is the kanji for &quot;buried or embedded&quot;. Tsurigane, means a &quot;temple bell&quot;, which can stand alone or be followed by the grass kanji to mean &quot;bellflower&quot; (lots of botanical stuff happening here, if that means anything; hardly the only example in ''AtD''). Given the search for Shambhala going on, &quot;Buried Temple Bell&quot; seems a likely translation, at least at this point; the botanical meanings could perhaps emerge later.<br /> <br /> Or, another terrible name-pun? &quot;You make [m]e sore again.&quot; See another on P. [[ATD_748-767#Page_757| 757]]<br /> <br /> '''Professor Knott'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Cargill Knott (1856-1922), professor of physics; seismologist. See his biography [http://www.penicuikcdt.org.uk/Cargill_Knott.html here].<br /> <br /> ==Page 532==<br /> <br /> '''Kimura'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Cf [[ATD_26-56#Page 29|page 29:Kimura]] and [[ATD_318-335#Page 318|page 318:Shunkichi Kimura]].<br /> <br /> '''drover's sombrero'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Cowboy hat.<br /> <br /> '''furoshiki'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Japanese all-purpose cloth. Can be worn, used as wrapping, or used as a bag.<br /> <br /> '''taupe'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> A brownish gray.<br /> <br /> '''boilermakers and their helpers'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> [[ATD_358-373#Page_360|See annotation to p. 360.]]<br /> <br /> '''Anharmonic Pencil'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> ''Pencil'' is a term commonly used in Synthetic Geometry. Straight lines incident with a plane - coplanar lines - and passing through a common point are said to be concurrent lines and the set of all such concurrent coplanar lines is called the ''pencil''. (Cf [[ATD_429-459#Page 456|page 456:Pencil]]). For a figure and a not quite precise definition see [http://mathworld.wolfram.com/Pencil.html pencil]. If a, b, c and d, are four distinct coplanar lines and their double ratio λ = (abcd) = -1, then a, b, c, d are called a harmonic quadruple of lines; they are said to constitute a ''harmonic pencil''. A ''pencil'' which is not harmonic then is known as ''anharmonic pencil''. See Pencil (lines 8-9), Double Ratio λ (lines 32-35) and Harmonic Pencil (line 39) of [http://ca.geocities.com/ingsaler6/mathworld.html Mathworld].<br /> <br /> '''''Comptes rendus'''''&lt;br&gt;<br /> ''Comptes rendus des séances hebdomadaires,'' Proceedings of the weekly sessions (of the Academy of Sciences), published from 1835, later (ca. 1935) retitled ''Comptes rendus de l'Académie des sciences,'' Proceedings of the Academy of Sciences. (Notice that the academy didn't see the need to specify &quot;French.&quot; Take that, Royal Society of London!) For about a century, one of two journals so universally circulated and recognized that bibliographies nearly always cited them in nickname form: ''C.R.'' The other was ''Ber.,'' short for ''Berichte der Deutschen Chemischen Gesellschaft,'' Reports of the German Chemical Society (from 1868).<br /> <br /> '''De Forest'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Cf [[ATD_26-56#Page 29|page 29:De Forest]].<br /> <br /> '''Gibbs'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Cf [[ATD_26-56#Page 29|page 29:Professor Gibbs]].<br /> <br /> '''Maxwell Equations'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Cf [[ATD_57-80#Page 58|page 58:Maxwell Field Equations]].<br /> <br /> ==Page 533==<br /> <br /> '''aniline teal'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> The wallpaper dye; aniline dyes were the first synthetic dyes, discovered by [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/William_Perkin William Perkin] in 1858. Their intense and fade-resistant colors were very fashionable at the end of the nineteenth century. The dyes are also significant in ''GR'' as the products of I.G. Farben.<br /> <br /> '''Heavisiders'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Oliver Heaviside (May 18, 1850 – February 3, 1925) was a self-taught English electrical engineer, mathematician and physicist who adapted complex numbers to the study of electrical circuits, developed techniques for applying Laplace transforms to the solution of differential equations, reformulated Maxwell's field equations in terms of electric and magnetic forces and energy flux, and independently co-formulated vector analysis. Although at odds with the scientific establishment for most of his life, Heaviside changed the face of mathematics and science for years to come.[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Heaviside].<br /> <br /> '''Grassmanniacs'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Nineteenth century German mathematician and linguist, essentially the inventor/discoverer of vector space. Grassmann showed that once geometry is put into the algebraic form he advocated, then the number three has no privileged role as the number of spatial dimensions; the number of possible dimensions is in fact unbounded.[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hermann_Grassmann].<br /> <br /> '''in the mood for a clambake'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Anachronistic Broadway show tune? If so, the clambake in ''Carousel'' turns into a brawl; the assmebled factions of mathematicians could be in the mood for either a party or a brawl, apparently. <br /> <br /> '''Monopole de la Maison'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Monopole of the House, a fanciful name of a fanciful drink.&lt;br&gt;<br /> There is, since 1898, a well known restaurant called ''Monopole Lunch &amp; Sea Grill'' in Plattsburgh of upper New York state. ([http://www.monopole.org Monopole Restaurant]).&lt;br&gt;<br /> Most probably, it's the Magnetic monopole being referred here. In physics, a monopole is a magnet with a net magnetic charge, i.e. there is only one pole instead of two (so no net magnetic charge) as usual. ([http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Magnetic_monopole Monopole]). It's existence had been theoretically predicted by various particle theories (superstring theory, etc) but never been proved experimentally. Proving the existence of a monopole would certainly earn a Nobel Prize.<br /> <br /> '''Idiom Neutral'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> An invented language, like Esperanto. Idiom Neutral dictionaries first appeared in 1902. It looks like a simplified Latinate language and it grew out of Volapuk, another &quot;auxiliary language.&quot; It was abandoned by the ''Akademi Internasional de Lingu Universal'' in 1908.<br /> <br /> For a list of all the invented languages that linguists are keeping track of, including Klingon, try [http://linguistlist.org/forms/langs/GetListOfConstructedLgs.html Eastern Michigan's Linguist List]. And don't forget to click on the link to &quot;Browse sites devoted to constructed languages.&quot;<br /> <br /> '''phatic'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Basically, small talk or chatter. Words used to convey fellow-feeling rather than to impart information.<br /> <br /> '''''Kampf ums Dasein'''''&lt;br&gt;<br /> German: struggle for existence.<br /> <br /> '''Q-brother'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Fellow Quaternioneer or Fellow Quaternionist.<br /> <br /> '''We are the Jews of mathematics, wandering out here in our diaspora--some destined for the past, others the future, even a few able to set out at unknown angles from the simple line of Time, upon journeys that no one can predict''' &lt;br&gt;<br /> In keeping with the analogy of Judaism, those &quot;few&quot; people within the Quaternionists &quot;able to set out at unknown angles&quot; are most likely being compared to Kabbalists who claim to partake in a mystic &quot;journey to the Throne of God through the mythological realm of the seven heavens&quot; (Armstrong, A History of God--p. 247). Throne Mysticism in Kabbalah is explored extensively in Gravity's Rainbow.<br /> <br /> Perhaps this is obvious to some, but these &quot;Jews of Mathematics&quot; worship the Hamiltonian Tetractys [http://www.math.ucr.edu/home/baez/dublin/]; those other Jews worshipped the Tetragrammatron. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tetragrammaton] The proliferation of 4s continues.<br /> <br /> ==Page 534==<br /> <br /> '''Poiret gown'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> A gown designed by Paul Poiret (1879-1944), a French fashion designer based in Paris. &quot;In the annals of fashion history, Paul Poiret is best remembered for freeing women from corsets and further liberating them through pantaloons . . . it was Poiret's remarkable innovations in the cut and construction of cloting . . . Working with fabric directly onto the body, Poiret helped to pioneer a radical approach to dressmakeing that relied more on the skills of drapery than on those of tailoring.&quot; (from [http://www.metmuseum.org/special/se_event.asp?OccurrenceId={0DC3D00F-4611-4F91-8DC2-CC3C1A5C48D5} MetMuseum], <br /> New York Metropolitan Museum's Special Exhibitions, ''Poiret: King of Fashion'', May 9, 2007 to August 5, 2007). For a picture of Poiret gown see [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Image:Poiretgown.jpg Poiret Gown]. ''The New York Times'' reported on February 1, 2007 that A Poiret Gown Brings $5,500 at [http://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html?res=9B07EFDA1538F93AA15756C0A967948260 Christie's Auction] - the gown was made in 1913 when Poiret was at the height of his career. For his bio see [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Paul_Poiret Poiret].<br /> <br /> '''''green and long'''''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Pickle, or... what?<br /> : A green and long ''gherkin'' (a small, immature fruit of a variety of cucumber used in pickling).<br /> <br /> ==Page 535==<br /> <br /> '''no-name wine'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> 1970s idiom for common European practice?<br /> <br /> '''set theory'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Set theory deals with the properties of well-defined collections, or ''sets'', of entities - the ''elements'' or ''members'' of the set - conceived as a whole. The elements may be of a mathematical nature or non-mathematical. The set theory grew out of the German mathematician Georg Cantor's (1845-1918) study of infinite sets of real numbers. <br /> <br /> The ''language of sets'' has become an important tool for all branches of mathematics, but is of very little relevance to the practice of mathematics in everyday life. As a source of metaphors, however, it's been quite productive; &quot;subset,&quot; &quot;superset,&quot; &quot;universe,&quot; &quot;intersection&quot; and &quot;Venn diagram&quot; have found varying degrees of acceptance. Recasting Aristotle's syllogisms in set-theoretic language also makes them easier for many people to understand.<br /> <br /> '''Hamilton . . . early genius'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Hamilton, according to ''Chambers Biographical Dictionary'', &quot;at fifteen knew thirteen languages, had read Newton's ''Principia'', and commenced original investigations&quot;. At twenty-two, &quot;while still an undergraduate, he was appointed professor of Astronomy at Dublin and Irish Astronomer-Royal&quot;; at thirty &quot;he was knighted&quot;.<br /> <br /> '''Hamilton . . . in the grip of a first love'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> ???&lt;br&gt;<br /> Pynchon probably didn't mean Quaternion was Hamilton's first love, but its effect on him was similar to that of a first love. In 1843 at the age of 38 Hamilton invented the Quaternion, the first non-communtative algebra to be studied. He felt this would revolutionise mathematical physics, and he spent the rest of his life working on it. In 1853 he published a large volume, ''Lectures on Quaternions'', on his grand invention. The last seven years of his life, Hamilton was writing an 800-page book ''Elements of Quaternions'' modeling on Euclid's ''Elements''. The last chapter of the book was completed by his son after his death.<br /> <br /> '''the Walt Whitman of English physics'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Whitman pops up again, last seen on [[ATD_489-524#Page_491|page 491]].<br /> <br /> ==Page 536==<br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> '''Oscar Wilde'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Note that Wilde's Dorian Gray also undergoes a kind of bilocation.<br /> <br /> '''Kursaal'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Spa. Casino ?<br /> <br /> '''vectors'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> For serious minds see Cf [[ATD_525-556#Page 526|page 526:Gibbsian Vectors]], but let's follow Pynchon's lighter mood, here is a non-mathematical definition by Kamen (1995):<br /> :''Many things have more than direction;''<br /> :''The magnitude is also a question.''<br /> :''With acceleration or force,''<br /> :''And many more things, of course,''<br /> :''It's vectors that make the connection.''<br /> <br /> '''Curls'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Cf [[ATD_318-335#Page 326|page 326:Curl]]: curl is a vector operator that shows a vector field's rate of rotation.<br /> <br /> '''Laplacians'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Pierre-Simon, Marquis de Laplace (March 23, 1749 – March 5, 1827); French mathematician and astronomer who summarized and extended the work of his predecessors in his five volume Mécanique Céleste (Celestial Mechanics) (1799-1825), translating the geometrical study of mechanics used by Isaac Newton to one based on calculus, known as physical mechanics.<br /> <br /> He is also the discoverer of Laplace's equation. Although the Laplace transform is named in honor of Laplace, who used the transform in his work on probability theory, the transform was discovered originally by Leonhard Euler. The Laplace transform appears in all branches of mathematical physics — a field he took a leading role in forming. The Laplacian differential operator, much relied-upon in applied mathematics, is likewise named after him. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Laplace].<br /> <br /> :Cf [[ATD_318-335#Page 326|page 326:Laplacian]]: Laplacian is a differential operator named after Laplace. The text here was talking about mathematical operations and operators — rates of change, rotations, partial differentials, Curls, ''Laplacians'', . . .<br /> <br /> '''scream'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Scream motif.<br /> <br /> '''beginning to appal'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> By 1905 there had been years of outrage at conditions in the Belgian Congo, King Leopold's private fief. Conrad's ''Heart of Darkness'' had been published as a serial in Blackwood's Magazine in 1899 and as a book in 1902. There were missionaries' accounts of the brutality, and newspaper reports. Leopold and his apologists published rebuttals. The Norton Critical Edition of ''Heart of Darkness'' contains an extensive collection of both.<br /> <br /> '''baize'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Baize is a coarse woolen felt.<br /> <br /> ==Page 537==<br /> <br /> '''broken symmetries'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Broken_symmetry Broken symmetry] is a concept used widely in mathematics and physics. For a simplest explanation (good enough for the text here), this term means that an object breaks either rotational symmetry or translational sysmetry - when one can only rotate an object in certain angles or when one is able to tell if the object has been shifted sideways. For a little bit more detailed explanation see [http://www.lassp.cornell.edu/sethna/OrderParameters/BrokenSymmetry.html Identify the Broken Symmetry]; or even more [http://scienceweek.com/2005/sw050708-6.htm On Broken Symmetry].<br /> <br /> '''''sphinxe Khnopffienne'''''&lt;br&gt;<br /> refers to the Belgian symbolist painter Fernand Khnopff (1858-1921), famous for his painting &quot;The Caress&quot;, in which a female sphinx erotically lures a young man. The painting can be seen in the [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fernand_Khnopff wikipedia entry]<br /> <br /> '''Pléiade Lafrisée'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> in French, &quot;friser&quot; means to curl or twist. &quot;La frisée&quot; could mean &quot;curled,&quot; by extension &quot;twisted.&quot; The Pleiades is a cluster of hundreds of stars, though only a few are visible, sometimes referred to as The Seven Sisters. If Pleiades are Sisters, Pléiade is ''one'' Sister, so her name means Twisted Sister!<br /> <br /> '''''Conseilleuse'''''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Female consultant?<br /> <br /> ==Page 538==<br /> <br /> '''retroversion matrix'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> ???<br /> <br /> '''''Ma foi'''''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Literally &quot;My faith&quot;, i.e. &quot;By my faith!&quot;, a mild exclamation of incredulity.<br /> <br /> '''ten thousand francs'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> <br /> Based on currency conversions relative to gold, this is equivalent to<br /> about $30,000 US today.<br /> <br /> '''piker'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Someone cheap or cautious, possibly named after people from PIke County, Missouri, who came to California in the 1800s, looking for work. They were poor, hence cheap.<br /> <br /> '''what is a Quaternino?'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Cf [[ATD_525-556#Page 525|page 525:Quaternions]] for a mathematical definition. From ''The Random House Dictionary of the English Languages'', The Unabridged Edition (1966): Quaternion is &quot;a quantity or operator expressed as the sum of a real number and three complex numbers, equivalent to the ''quotient of two vectors''. The field of quaternions is not commutative under multiplication.&quot;.<br /> <br /> '''Bertie ('Mad Dog') Russell'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> 'Mad Dog' seems to be used with heavy irony here. Bertrand Russell was known most for his rationalism, so to speak, his work in modern logic. <br /> He did little in his public roles (at this time in AtD) that would have <br /> him referred to as &quot;crazy', as we say, beyond the social norm, &quot;mad&quot;. <br /> It might be argued that his use of 'logic' against philosophers such as Hegel and McTaggart within ''Against the Day'' showed up their 'madness'.<br /> (Many did think McTaggart was a bit...different...for seriously not believing in Time.) McTaggart broke with Russell after an early influential friendship---Russell was the younger man and the influenced one. He said he was an Hegelian because of McTaggart--Russell wrote in his<br /> Autobiography that McTaggart said he no longer wanted to meet/talk with him bcause he could no longer stand Russell's opinions.<br /> <br /> [http://nobelprize.org/nobel_prizes/literature/laureates/1950/russell-bio.html Bertrand Russell] (1872-1970) was a British mathematician, philosopher, logician and social critic. Best known for his work in mathermatical logic and analytic philosophy. In late spring of 1901 he discovered the so-called [http://plato.stanford.edu/entries/russell-paradox/ Russell Paradox], &quot;the most famous of the logical or set-theoretical paradoxes. The paradox arises within naive set theory by considering the set of all sets that are not members of themselves. Such a set appears to be a member of itself if and only if it is not a member of itself, hence the paradox.&quot; (On-line Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy). He won the 1950 Nobel Prize in Literature in &quot;recognition of his varied and significant writings in which he champions humanitarian ideals and freedom of thought&quot;.<br /> <br /> '''Barry Nebulay'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> nebulae: formed from the diffusion of gas in galaxies or as exploded stars (or the last ember-like stage of a star)&lt;br&gt; <br /> Most nebulae can be described as diffuse nebulae, which means that they are extended and contain no well-defined boundaries.[1] In visible light these nebulae may be divided into emission nebulae and reflection nebulae, a categorization that depends on how the light we see is created.<br /> <br /> '''Hegel... puns'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Probably refers to the fact that quite a lot of Hegel's philosophy deals with the is-ness of the world as we know and experience it.<br /> <br /> On page 787 of Bertrand Russell's ''History of Western Philosophy'' is a summary, perhaps, of this remark about Hegel's puns: &quot;as a result of analysis of the concept &quot;existence&quot;, modern logic has proved this [Cartesianism, refuted by Kant, reinstated by Hegel] argument invalid.....&quot;<br /> <br /> We know from other places that TRP himself seems to 'not like' Cartesianism. See 'cartesian' citations within this wiki.<br /> <br /> ==Page 539==<br /> <br /> '''a vector quotient'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> The result of one vector divided by another. According to the English dictionary definition of previous page this is just a Quaternion.<br /> <br /> '''unit vector'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Unit vector is a vector with magnitude of one. The unit vectors in 3-dimensional space, ''i, j, k'', associated with ''x, y, z'' directions are used in defining a general 3D vector (Cf [[ATD_525-556#Page 526|page 526:Gibbsian Vectors]]).<br /> <br /> '''''square root of minus one'''''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Imaginary number (Cf [[ATD_119-148#Page 132|page 133:Imaginary Number]]). The imaginary numbers ''i, j, k'' are used in defining a Quaternion (Cf [[ATD_525-556#Page 525|page 525:Quaternions]]).<br /> <br /> ''''Triangle Asana''''&lt;br&gt;<br /> A basic yoga pose. <br /> <br /> [http://yoga.org.nz/postures/yoga_positions_images_page.htm Here are images of several basic poses.]<br /> <br /> ''''Dr Rao abruptly vanished''''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Might be a reference to [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Martin_Gardner Martin Gardner]'s<br /> [http://www.amazon.com/No-Sided-Professor-Fantasy-Mystery-Philosophy/dp/0879753900 &quot;No-Sided Professor&quot;]<br /> <br /> ''''Quadrantal Versor Asana''''&lt;br&gt;<br /> A triangle pose taken that extra dimension.<br /> <br /> '''''&quot;Uwe moer!&quot;'''''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Looks a lot like the Dutch &quot;Uw moeder!&quot; - a cry of astonishment (&quot;Your mother!&quot;), the equivalent to the black English &quot;yo mama&quot;.<br /> <br /> '''noncommutative'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> A term typical to mathematics. A commutative equation is one that can operate in exact reverse and still yield the same results. 'Noncommutative' then suggests unidirectionality. The ability to go from point A to point B, but not from B to A.<br /> <br /> '''reticule'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> A woman's drawstring handbag; usually made of net or beading or brocade; also: A system of lines forming a pattern of squares at the focal plane of a telescope, used in micrometers.<br /> [http://www.astunit.com/tutorials/glossary.htm] <br /> :Isn't that sort of a red herring? &quot;[P]roducing from her reticule a . . . watch&quot; doesn't really allow of that second meaning. &lt;br&gt;<br /> :It could be a pun, since a reticule/ handbag always shows its pattern of lines, and a watch (timepiece) is drawn from it. Remember that, e.g. railroad lines of tracks, are a sign of industrialism encroaching on the natural and the spiritual.<br /> <br /> '''Vacheron &amp; Constantin watch'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Made by a Swiss company founded in 1755. From 1819 to 1970 the name was as in the text, then the &amp; dropped out. See the [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vacheron_Constantin Wikipedia entry.]<br /> <br /> '''hunting-case'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> For a pocket watch, a case with a hinged metal cover. More often called &quot;hunter case&quot; (and such a watch a &quot;hunter&quot;).<br /> <br /> ==Page 540==<br /> <br /> '''&quot;haar rekening, ja?&quot;'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> The bill, yes? (Dutch)?<br /> <br /> ''Her'' bill, yes? I.e., give the check to the lady.<br /> <br /> Given the presence of Chris 'Kit' Traverse here, this very much suggests a reference to Christopher 'Kit' Marlowe, Elizabethan poet, playwright and contemporary of Shakespeare. Marlowe was stabbed to death in 1593, in murky circumstances, ostensibly over a bill or 'reckoning', though he was widely believed to have been involved in some form of espionage.<br /> <br /> Strictly speaking &quot;haar rekening&quot; means that the lady pays for herself only. If Root wanted to make sure that Pléiade pays for the whole company he would have to say &quot;de hele rekening voor de dame&quot;. <br /> <br /> '''Piet Woevre'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> The Woëvre is a natural region of Lorraine in north-east France. It forms part of Lorraine plateau and lies largely in the department of Meuse. During World War I, there was much fighting there due to vast mineral resources that had been discovered in the Briey basin or Eastern Woevre at the end of the 19th century. &quot;Piet&quot; is Dutch for &quot;rock&quot; or &quot;stone&quot; and is a fairly common Dutch name, the English equivalent being Peter.<br /> <br /> If the surname is pronounced as in Dutch, Woevre is another Pynchon villain with a &quot;V&quot;-name (Vond, Weissman, Vibe). <br /> <br /> '''Force Publique'''&lt;br /&gt;<br /> The Force Publique (FP) was the official armed force for what is now the Democratic Republic of the Congo from 1885, (when the territory was known as the Congo Free State), through the period of direct Belgian rule (1908-60), until the beginning of the Second Republic in 1965. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Force_Publique Wikipedia entry]<br /> <br /> '''made him reach'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Possible allusion to a famous line, &quot;When I hear the word culture I reach for my gun.&quot; From Hanns Johst's biographical play ''Schlageter''. The original line is slightly different: &quot;Wenn ich Kultur höre ... entsichere ich meinen Browning,&quot; &quot;Whenever I hear of culture... I release the safety-catch of my Browning!&quot; (Act 1, Scene 1). It is spoken by another character in conversation with the young Schlageter. In the scene Schlageter and his wartime comrade Friedrich Thiemann are studying for a college examination, but then start disputing whether it's worthwhile doing so when the nation is not free. <br /> <br /> The line is often misattributed to better-known Nazis and others [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hanns_Johst].<br /> <br /> *In Jean-Luc Godard's 1963 film [http://www.chicagoreader.com/movies/archives/0997/09057.html ''Le Mépris'' (''Contempt'')], Jack Palance's character &quot;Jeremy Prokosch,&quot; an American movie-producer, intones to Fritz Lang: &quot;Whenever I hear the word culture, I reach for my checkbook.&quot;<br /> <br /> '''not unambiguous'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Ie, ambiguous.<br /> <br /> '''''rastaquoueres'''''&lt;br&gt;<br /> 8???<br /> <br /> '''de Decker'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> In Dutch/Flemish, the name means &quot;roofer.&quot; (''De'' in these names almost never means &quot;of, from&quot; as in French; it's nearly always the definite article.)<br /> <br /> ==Page 541==<br /> <br /> '''''bobbejaan'''''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Afrikaans: baboon. (Afrikaans is the language spoken by descendants of Dutch colonists in present-day South Africa. Some items identified as Dutch or Flemish in this wiki may really be Afrikaans.)<br /> <br /> The South African song &quot;Bobbejaan klim die berg&quot; (&quot;Bobbejaan climbed the hill&quot;) is the source of the stage name of Belgium's most famous country and western musician, Bobbejaan Schoepen (b. 1925). In 1943 he was suppressed by the Nazis after performing a South African song, &quot;Mamma, 'k wil 'n man hê&quot; (&quot;Mama, I want a man&quot;), which contains the line &quot;No, Mama, I don't want a German, because I don't like pork.&quot; He founded the Bobbejaanland theme park in Belgium, where he still lives.<br /> <br /> '''MKIV/ODC... Mark Four'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> This would be the Mark IV Ohmic Drift Compensator ([[ATD 557-587#Page 565|Page 565]]), a key component of the Q-weapon, which &quot;regulates how much light is allowed to enter the silvering of the mirror! Special kind of refraction! Calibrated against imaginary index! Dangerous! Of the essence!'&quot;<br /> <br /> '''not part of your remit'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Not included in your job description, instructions, authorization. &quot;Remit&quot; (noun) is usually a British usage.<br /> <br /> '''''gatkruiper'''''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Dutch/Flemish: brownnose, ass-kisser.<br /> <br /> '''one on her wrist'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> All the bruises reflect some refinement or artistry except this one, which may have been inflicted crudely.<br /> <br /> '''over the day'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Title motif?<br /> <br /> ==Page 542==<br /> <br /> '''trans-horizontic'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Across the horizon -- &quot; a screaming comes across the sky&quot;<br /> <br /> '''Edmund Whittaker'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Edmund Whittaker (1873-1956), an English mathematician. He is best known for his work in numerical analysis. And he contributed widely to applied mathematics, mathematical physics and the theory of special functions. He also worked on celestial mechanics and the history of applied mathermatics and physics. ([http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/E._T._Whittaker Whittaker]).<br /> <br /> The Sir Edmund Whittaker Memorial Prize is awarded every four years by the Edinburgh Mathematical Society to an outstanding young mathematician having a specified connection with Scotland [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sir_Edmund_Whittaker_Memorial_Prize]. <br /> <br /> '''louche'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> The cloudy effect caused by the addition of water to absinthe. Dictionary definition: &quot;of questionable taste or morality; decadent.&quot;<br /> <br /> '''cheval-glass'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Standing mirror in a freestanding vertical frame.<br /> <br /> '''as if someone'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Sound-cancelling vs opacity-cancelling?<br /> <br /> ==Page 543==<br /> <br /> '''wraith of Pleiade Lafrisee'''<br /> <br /> Pleiade manifests one of her not-visible stars. Perhaps this sister has somehow twisted herself on an imaginary axis ala Dr. V. Ganesh Rao.<br /> <br /> '''monitory'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Warning, giving advice, by extension ominous or menacing.<br /> <br /> '''Against....the day....'''<br /> Note: this phrase happens at the exact halfway point of the novel: p.542.3<br /> <br /> '''He Who Must Come'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> The evil-doer who must come might be Adolf Hitler. It would make sense. The implication being that Europe is precipitating into a no-return situation. Capitalism cannot but end in WW2.&lt;br&gt;<br /> Ah, a lot more and less than capitalism going on here, especially if anyone specific like Hitler is meant. <br /> :When French writers use this phrase (''celui qui doit venir'') they '''do''' mean the Messiah . . . although a few devout quibblers point out that the Messiah has already come. It's rather tiresome Googling the phrase; the first 83 hits definitely refer to Christ and most of them quote the first verses of Matthew 11. But there's also a Camus reference (in English, I think) down at No. 90, if anyone has a JSTOR account:<br /> :links.jstor.org/sici?sici=0361-1299(1985)39%3A4%3C251%3ACFS%22M%3E2.0.CO%3B2-X <br /> <br /> Recalls Yeats' 'The Second Coming' once again: &quot;And what rough beast, its hour come round at last, Slouches towards Bethlehem to be born?&quot; [http://chumpsofchoice.blogspot.com/2007/05/casino-royale-in-flanders-field.html#c3637134446204467798 ]<br /> <br /> '''General Boulanger'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/General_Boulanger Georges Boulanger], French military man, and War Minister in the late 19th century. He was one of those men &quot;on a white horse&quot; that some conservatives looked to, as he urged an attack on Germany and the end of the French Republic with a return to monarchy. He was also notorious for his harsh reprisals against workers' demonstrations. &quot;'Boulangisme'&quot; threatened a coup in 1889, but the general's procrastination brought the crisis to an end.&lt;br&gt;<br /> In ''The Infernal Machine: A History of Terrorism''<br /> by Matthew Carr, 2007, Boulanger is called the &quot;father&quot; of fascism.<br /> <br /> '''what death and what transfiguration'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Allusion to Richard Strauss' tone poem &quot;Death and Transfiguration&quot; (''Tod und Verklärung''), premiered in 1890.<br /> <br /> '''''&quot;Zeker&quot;'''''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Dutch: certainly.<br /> <br /> '''''dead cert'''''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Dead certainty, sure thing.<br /> <br /> '''Von Schlieffen'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Alfred von Schlieffen was the author of a German war plan to win a two-front war against both France and Russia by quickly defeating France before Russian troops could be mobilized. The [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Schlieffen_Plan Schlieffen Plan] included an attack on France through Belgium, disregarding its neutrality.<br /> <br /> '''Wilhelm has offered Leopold part of France, the ancient Duchy of Burgundy'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> [http://www.crwflags.com/fotw/flags/fr-bg.html History of the duchy.] [http://www.freiburg-madison.de/freiburg_history/1386-1517_The%20Early%20Habsburgs.htm Map,] with portrait of Duke Charles the Rash.<br /> <br /> '''lowlands'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Title of Pynchon's first published story. Here, ass?<br /> <br /> ==Page 544==<br /> <br /> '''Place d'Armes'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Main square of Ostend; literally &quot;drill field&quot;.<br /> <br /> '''peau de soie'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> &quot;Skin of silk&quot; A heavy, smooth satin with very fine ribbing; somewhat dull in sheen compared with traditional silk finishes.<br /> <br /> '''Krafft-Ebing'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Richard Freiherr von Krafft-Ebing, Austro-German psychiatrist and author of ''Psychopathia Sexualis'' (1886), a pioneering study of deviant sexual behavior and fetishism. Coined both ''sadism'' and ''masochism'' as terms for these respective behaviors. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Richard_Freiherr_von_Krafft-Ebing Wikipedia entry].<br /> <br /> '''toque'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Toque here refers to a lady's hat, originally of fur but here in velvet, which is rather like a flattened chef's hat in shape.<br /> <br /> Proust: in ''À l'ombre des jeunes filles en fleurs'' the narrator first sees Albertine wearing a toque. There seem to be quite a few Proust themes and references running throughout the novel. Indeed '''Pliade''' is the French publisher of Proust's works. <br /> <br /> '''guipure'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Lace trim.<br /> <br /> '''midinette'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> A shopgirl or dressmakers apprentice. A milliner.<br /> <br /> '''Lambic'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> A distinctive Belgian style of beer. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lambic Wikipedia]<br /> <br /> '''sous'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> <br /> Coins. Originally Roman gold coins, latterly any kind of coin.<br /> <br /> Specifically small change. She is affecting modesty by claiming that a hat like hers can be had for pennies in any unpretentious shop. In France &quot;sou is used as slang for money, as in ''sans le sou''. 'I'm broke', 'without money'. It is also a slang term for the Canadian cent (standard French, cent).&quot; ([http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sou Wikipedia])<br /> <br /> '''mayonnaise'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Brautigan's &quot;Trout Fishing in America&quot; famously ends with the word mayonnaise. [http://books.google.com/books?vid=ISBN0395500761&amp;id=rbEjDovfyNMC&amp;pg=RA2-PA111&amp;lpg=RA2-PA111&amp;ots=ELKl5b_6Tx&amp;dq=mayonnaise+trout.fishing&amp;num=100&amp;sig=BiyXRqJXRGrMWbrBNgn8de2kpCo#PRA2-PA112,M1 GoogleBooks]<br /> <br /> '''ovoöleaginous'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Another Pynchonic word combination, here denoting the two main ingredients of mayonnaise: 1) eggs, and 2) oil. It's not &quot;fecoventilatory collision&quot; as seen in &quot;Vineland,&quot; but it's nice.<br /> <br /> '''Grenache'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Grape commonly used in Rhone Valley wines e.g. Chateauneuf du Pape.<br /> <br /> '''Chantilly'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> <br /> Region north of Paris.<br /> <br /> Here the reference is to crème chantilly otherwise known as whipped cream. Chantilly mayonnaise is made by incorporating the beaten egg whites for extra lightness.<br /> <br /> '''attainder'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Legislative act declaring that a person is guilty of a crime and setting punishment without the benefit of a formal trial. The Constitution forbids the federal government (Article I, Section 9, clause 3) and the state governments (Article I, Section 10, clause 1) from passing bills of attainder.<br /> [www.historycentral.com/Civics/B.html] <br /> <br /> ''''''Aux armes, citoyens''''''&lt;br&gt;<br /> ''To arms, citizens'', from the French national anthem, ''La Marseillaise'' (1792). Kit confused La Mayonnaise with La Marseillaise.&lt;br&gt;<br /> Not &quot;Le Marseillaise,&quot; you nitwit!<br /> <br /> '''Louis XV'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> King of France 1715-1774 [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Louis_XV]. <br /> <br /> '''Cléo de Mérode'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Glamorous French ballerina (1875-1966), later Follies Bergere dancer and famous beauty. Her reputed intimacy with King Leopold was only a rumor [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cleo_de_Merode]. The character Madame Leonora Armfeldt in Stephen Sondheim's ''A Little Night Music'' has some features in common with her.<br /> <br /> '''Marquise de Pompadour'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Mistress of Louis XV,once friend of Voltaire and a power behind official scenes.[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Madame_de_Pompadour].<br /> <br /> ==Page 545==<br /> <br /> '''duc de Richelieu'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Duc de Richelieu (1696-1788), marshal of France, was a grandnephew of Cardinal Richelieu, and born in Paris. Apart from his reputation as a man of exceptionally loose morals, he attained, in spite of a defective education, distinction as a diplomatist and general. ([http://www.1911encyclopedia.org/Louis_Francois_Armand_du_Plessis,_duc_de_Richelieu duc de Richelieu] and cf [[ATD_489-524#Page 490|page 490:duc de Richelieu]])<br /> <br /> '''dubious 'victory' in 1756'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> As part of the Seven Years' War (1756-1763), duc de Richelieu (1696-1788), a Marshal of France, won a victory in the Battle of Minorca (May 20, 1756) over John Byng (1704-1757), a British Admiral. In spring of 1756 John Byng was sent with a small and undermanned fleet to relieve the British ''Port Mahon'' on the Mediterranean island of Minorca. During the battle ensued, several British ships were badly damaged by the French squadron while others, including Byng's flagship, were still out of effective firing range. Instead of engaging the enemy directly, Byng decided to keep the formation, allowing the French fleet to get away undamaged. ([http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_Minorca Battle of Minorca]).<br /> <br /> '''the ill-fated Admiral Byng'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> John Byng, convicted by court-martial of failure &quot;to do his utmost&quot; in the battle, shot in 1757. Remembered because of (1) his being the last officer of flag rank to be put to death for conduct in battle and (2) Voltaire's gag in ''Candide:'' &quot;In this country it is good to kill an admiral from time to time in order to encourage the others.&quot;<br /> <br /> '''cantharides'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> &quot;Spanish fly,&quot; contact irritant sometimes ill-advisedly used as aphrodisiac.<br /> <br /> '''Sadean'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Pertaining to the Marquis de Sade. The acts the chef performs on the egg and oil have the same names as acts of Sadean sex. <br /> <br /> '''''n'est-ce pas?'''''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Right? (Isn't that so?)<br /> <br /> '''vetiver'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> A grass (Vetiveria zizanioides) of tropical India, cultivated for its aromatic roots that yield an oil used in perfumery.<br /> [www.answers.com/topic/vetiver]. So, a perfume with, llterallly, roots in India.<br /> <br /> Vetiver makes frequent appearances throughout ''À la recherche du temps perdu.''<br /> <br /> '''pip'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> A beaut; in current parlance, a hottie.<br /> <br /> '''Q.P. system'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Quaternion Probability, page 536.<br /> <br /> '''Usine Régionale'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> French: as translated in the text.<br /> <br /> ==Page 546==<br /> <br /> '''disjunctive effects of thunderstorms'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Folk wisdom says a thunderstorm will cause mayonnaise to separate (oil from yolks).<br /> <br /> '''cottonseed oil'''<br /> <br /> Mayonnaisse like Smegmo and Crisco is a hydrogenated fat; cottonseed oil is a common factor to all three. Indeed, the name Crisco derives from the intial sounds of &quot;'''crys'''tallized '''c'''ottonseed '''o'''il&quot;. Note in the next few pages a mention of Candlebrow -- underscoring a tie-in between Mayonnaisse and Smegmo. <br /> <br /> It may be of interest to note that hydrogenation may have a symbolic use for Pynchon. The process entails bubbling hydrogen through oil in the presence of a metal catalyst such as nickel, platinum, aluminum at 248 to 410 degrees. Remnants of these metals stay in the finished product, and when consumed can lead to an increase in heavy metals in the human body.<br /> <br /> Eating hydrogenated oils is like eating plastic. The body does not recognize that these molecules have been mutated and tries to use them as essential fatty acids. But they cannot perform the same function, and as a result hydrogenated oils can cause short circuits in the electrical flow that controls the heartbeat, nerve functions, cell division and mental balance. They also create free radicals (anarchists!) that are linked to cancers. Free radicals plus metal remnants are a major contributor to cancer, heart disease, immune system dysfunction, osteoporosis, depression, chronic fatigue, Alzheimers, and neurological diseases. It is estimated that over 200 million people have died prematurely because of the hydrogenated oils found in our diets. [http://www.drz.org/asp/newsletter/default.asp?xt2id=23] Not to mention innocent bystanders killed by mentally imbalanced people whose imbalance may stem from the ingestion of hydrogenated oils -- there may be some underlying reality to the &quot;Twinkie defense.&quot;<br /> <br /> '''lounge suit'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> A lounge suit is another name for business suit consisting of a matching jacket and trousers or skirt.<br /> <br /> '''congress shoes'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> ankle high shoes with elastic gussets in the sides (wordweb online)<br /> <br /> '''invisible hand'''<br /> <br /> Suggestive of Adam Smith's metaphor for market forces in economics.<br /> <br /> '''dripping-heads'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mayonnaise To make mayonnaise,] beat together egg yolks, salt, mustard and vinegar, then drip in oil while beating to form the emulsion. If you scale the process up for industrial production, you will automate the introduction of the oil, using nozzles that release it a drop at a time—but in a large vat you can have many such nozzles.<br /> <br /> '''''cuves d'agitation'''''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Vat or tank in which the mayonnaise is agitated or beaten.<br /> <br /> '''Clinique d'Urgence pour Sauvetage des Sauces'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> French: Emergency Clinic for Salvage of Sauces.<br /> <br /> ==Page 547==<br /> <br /> '''' ...engulfed in thick, slick, sour-smelling mayonnaise. ''''<br /> The whole Kit's experience in the mayonnaise factory is very much reminiscent to [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Roald_Dahl Roald Dahl]'s [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Charlie_and_the_Chocolate_Factory Charlie and the Chocolate Factory].<br /> <br /> '''''Cazzo, cretino'''''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Literally, &quot;Dick, cretin.&quot; ''Cazzo'' is a common Italian interjectionary obscenity, especially in the south. &quot;Cazzo, cretino,&quot; is akin to someone saying, &quot;Well shit, dummy,&quot; or &quot;F-ing moron!&quot;<br /> <br /> '''''È il cowboy!'''''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Italian: It's the cowboy!<br /> <br /> '''''vero?'''''&lt;br&gt;<br /> true? real?<br /> <br /> '''''Le bambole anarchiste, porca miseria'''''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Italian: Anarchist babes, oh boy.<br /> <br /> '''Oudenberg'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> A southeast suburb of Ostende.<br /> <br /> '''Quai de l'Entrepôt'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Warehouse Quay<br /> <br /> '''''ragazzi'''''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Italian: boys, guys.<br /> <br /> ==Page 548==<br /> <br /> '''General Boulanger'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> That the General was 'reactionary' and that the C of C bureaucracy had a 'defiant residue' of Boulangism, continues the characterization of the organization for which the Chums 'work'.&lt;br&gt;<br /> See p. 543 above, regarding a 2007 book in which Boulanger is called the 'father of fascism'.<br /> <br /> '''''timbres fictifs'''''&lt;br&gt;<br /> French: fictive postage stamps. Cf &quot;Lot 49&quot;.&lt;br&gt;<br /> Yes, stamps mean something in Pynchon's works; here, it seems important that these stamps are characterized as frauds.<br /> <br /> '''&quot;IIIb&quot;'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> As explained in the text.&lt;br&gt;<br /> &quot;Section IIIB (Intelligence) of the German High Command. After WWI, was funded by Alfred Hugenberg (financial backer of Nazi party)&quot;. From ''Sabotage'' by Sayers &amp; Kahn, 1942.[http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&amp;q=%22IIIB%27+%2B+INTELLIGENCE&amp;btnG=Search]. The authors state in the Forward, in 1942, &quot;that 'Nazi Germany' is the creation of spies and saboteurs&quot;. See ''V.'' &amp; ''Gravity's Rainbow'', of course. <br /> <br /> '''Germany might stand a better chance...'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> That is, if the French were to push into Alsace (per Boulanger) as the Germans executed the Schlieffen Plan [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Schlieffen_plan] for the encirclement of Paris, it would put the French at an even greater disadvantage...as actually happened in 1914. Had the Belgians and British not delayed the Germans in Flanders, and had the French railroads not performed speedily to bring the French troops back to the Marne, World War I could have had a very different outcome...an alternate history. <br /> <br /> '''revanchist'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Policies based on revenge, or a person following such policies. In General Boulanger's case, revenge against Germany for the Franco-Prussian War (that is, retaking Alsace, lost in 1871).<br /> <br /> '''the somewhat discomposed General'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Having died in 1891, the General by the time of the action is certainly somewhat '''de'''composed; brief biographies do not suggest he was ''non compos mentis,'' that is, mentally discomposed.<br /> <br /> ==Page 549==<br /> '''grow more and more invisible'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> What could be meant? Clearly, they inhabit bodies that people interact with?, as well as being characters in works of fiction.&lt;br&gt;<br /> Given what happens with the Chums as the story progresses [Spoiler bit, thematically], I suggest that their invisibility here<br /> means the entering of simple human life, to live out their lives 'anonymously' in history. I want to suggest this is largely a positive vision, indicated in other ways and places as well in TRPs work. Here is an overt bit of circumstantial evidence from Pynchon's introduction to Jim Dodge's novel ''Stone Junction''[http://www.themodernword.com/pynchon/pynchon_essays_stone.html]<br /> : <br /> &quot;Equally difficult for those who might wish to proceed through life<br /> anonymously and without trace has been the continuing assault against<br /> the once-reliable refuge of the cash or non-plastic economy. &quot;<br /> <br /> '''cackled Darby'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> (When did he lose his innocence?)<br /> <br /> '''a modification of any salsician metaphor toward the diminutive'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Salsician: pertaining to sausage. Lindsay says Suckling's penis is better compared to a wiener than a knockwurst.<br /> <br /> '''&quot;Why you little–and I do mean 'little'–&quot;'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Another Simpsons reference? <br /> <br /> Noseworth, the Master-At-Arms of the Chums division of this organization with a defiant residue of 'fascism', who had no smell to Pugnax early on,<br /> is called out, either for real or in a sex-bashing putdown, for homosexuality. cf. homosexuality as a metaphor in ''Gravity's Rainbow''. <br /> <br /> '''dunes between Nieuport and Dunkirk'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Nieuport is a Belgian seaport about 10 miles southwest of Ostend. Dunkirk is a French port (less than 10 miles inside the French border) about 20 miles southwest of Nieuport. The latter was a site of one of the bloodest battle in World War I. The general area between Niewport and Dunkirk was the well traversed battle fields of two world wars. (Dunkirk was (in)famous for the British Army's escape from the Nazi German's assault in World War II.)<br /> <br /> '''power-receivers'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Not information, energy.<br /> <br /> ==Page 550==<br /> <br /> '''Lot's wife''' &lt;br&gt;<br /> Angels of God led Lot and his family out of Sodom as it was being destroyed and told them not to look back at the mayhem. Lot's wife, Edith, imprudently looked back and was transfigured into a pillar of salt.<br /> <br /> '''Italian grotto'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> an imitating recess or structure made to resemble a natural Italian grotto.<br /> <br /> '''a highly developed taste, moreover, for human blood'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Since Pugnax developed this taste in the Carpathians, home of Castle Dracula, this seems a clear reference to Bram Stoker's novel. <br /> <br /> '''Carpathians'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Major mountain range running northwest-southeast through Poland, Slovakia, western Ukraine and Romania.<br /> <br /> '''Uhlans'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Uhlan regiments belonged to the light cavalry. They wore splendid uniforms (model for some U.S. marching band uniforms). [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Uhlan Wikipedia article.]<br /> <br /> '''Temesvár'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Now Timişoara, extreme western Romania.<br /> <br /> ==Page 551==<br /> <br /> '''...separated by only a slice of Time...'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Miles is beginning to experience Time almost as a spatial dimension, his personal vector as traversing (!) 4-dimensional space, or perhaps multidimensional space, the mathematics for which is being debated in Ostend.<br /> <br /> '''securing the mess decks'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> The Chums follow U.S. Navy idiom in orders (frequently prefixed with &quot;Now&quot;) and shipboard activities (&quot;secure&quot; meaning &quot;whatever you did before, undo it now,&quot; in this case put away the dishes and fold up the tables).<br /> <br /> '''Ryder Thorn'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Tolkienesque name? Or perhaps it's a nod to the Ryder-Waite Tarot deck and to Kevin Thorn (Kevin Matthew Fertig, 1977-), the American professional wrestler better known by his ring name Kevin Thorn who is currently signed to World Wrestling Entertainment wrestling on its ECW brand. He has appeared in vigniettes with Ariel (Shelly Martinez, 1980-), the tarot card reader, who spits blood at the camera while she &quot;predicted the future of ECW.&quot; Yup, a stretch...<br /> <br /> *The name also evokes the Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse.<br /> <br /> '''He was at Candlebrow.'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Presumably a 'trespasser.'<br /> <br /> '''the four-note chord in the context of timelessness'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> A melody is formed by notes following one another in time; a chord on the ukulele violates that practice by having all the notes sound at once. A really clever little passage.<br /> Note: Jazz musicians describe musical improvisations as horizontal (with the melody) or vertical (with the chord)<br /> <br /> ==Page 552==<br /> <br /> '''knuckle-duster'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Brass knuckles.<br /> <br /> '''Diksmuide'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> 20 kilometers south of Ostend (about halfway to Ypres).<br /> <br /> ==Page 553==<br /> <br /> '''The terrain was flat...lowlands'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Not, this time, a reference to Pynchon's ''Lowlands'', but to the two-dimensionality of Flanders, as in Edwin A. Abbott's ''Flatland'' [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Flatland]; most humans, like the inhabitants of Flanders and Abbott's Flatlanders, experience life in two dimensions. <br /> <br /> '''Somewhere up in the sky was Miles' home...'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Whereas Miles and the Chums of Chance, in contrast, live in three dimensions. The mathematicians gathered in Ostend are trying to calculate how to experience and use vectors to live in four dimensions; in a way, to experience Time as a kind of spatial dimension. Miles, on P. 551, is demonstrating the beginnings of an intuitive discovery of how to experience Time as an almost spatial dimension. Which would be a sort of &quot;time travel&quot;, or at least an expanded view of life and history.<br /> <br /> '''retted'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> soaked in water or exposed to moisture (as flax or hemp) to facilitate the removal of the fiber from the woody tissue by partial rotting.<br /> <br /> ==Page 554==<br /> <br /> '''Ypres and Menin'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Municipalities in West Flanders that were sites of some of the bloodiest battles of WWI. At the beginning of the war, the British and Belgian stand helped save Paris from encirclement by the Germans, and saved the Channel ports, but as Thorn points out, the area became the western anchor of the Western Front trench system. The several Battles of Ypres saw the first uses of poison gas (Mustard Gas, dichlorodiethylsulfide, was first called Yperite), the use of enormous mines, and the legendary mud of Passchendaele [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Passchendaele]. <br /> <br /> '''Ten years from now'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> (1914?) through 1918? and beyond?. Another paramorphic mirror--what do we now face. Whatever it is, it is nuclear.<br /> <br /> '''Bosch'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Hieronymous Bosch (1450-1516), Dutch painter of nightmares. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hieronymus_Bosch Wikipedia entry].<br /> <br /> '''Brueghel'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Pieter Brueghel the Elder(1525-1569), Flemish painter.[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pieter_Brueghel_the_Elder Wikipedia entry].<br /> <br /> '''League'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> League of Nations? The League of Nations was formed after WWI to prevent future wars. Didn't succeed.<br /> <br /> No. In this case a historical unit of length, approximately three miles - &quot;league on league&quot; = tremendous masses<br /> <br /> '''where the needles went and which way to rotate them'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> I.e., how to push Thorn's buttons; the image is from acupuncture.<br /> <br /> ==Page 555==<br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> '''simpletons at the fair'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Making Pynchon's metaphor explicit.<br /> <br /> '''Chopin E-minor Nocturne'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Frédéric Chopin (1810-49), a Polish pianist and composer ([http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fr%C3%A9d%C3%A9ric_Chopin Chopin]). He was born in Warsaw, Poland to a Polish morther and a French father. He went to Paris at the age of 20 and died there at the age of 39. He was widely regarded as one of the most famous and influential composers for the piano. From 1837-47 he had a 10-year stormy relationship with the French writer George Sand. His E-minor Nocturne is a 4-minute long Romantic style piano solo composed in 1827. (A ''nocturne'' is usually a musical composition that is inspired by, or evocative of, the night [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nocturne Nocturne].)<br /> <br /> '''owl-light'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> ???glimmering or imperfect light or twilight hours.<br /> <br /> ''''plasmic hysteresis''''&lt;br&gt;<br /> <br /> A coined term, apparently similar in meaning to Miles’ phrase “failure of physical translation.” Plasma would take an older meaning of “form” or “shape.&quot; Hysteresis, according to Webster's, refers to “a retardation in effect when the forces on an object are changed.” Hysteresis is used to describe magnetic phenomenon as well as plastic or elastic materials, that involve changes to a rest state that last beyond the forces that cause them. Examples include recordings on magnetic tape or a thumbprint slowly disappearing from putty. In the context of this passage, plasmic hysteresis appears to describe the lingering visage of someone who is no longer present – a hysteresis of form only and thus a failed physical translation. See [http://www.etymonline.com/index.php?search=plasma&amp;searchmode=none etymology of plasma] and this nifty explanation of [http://www.lassp.cornell.edu/sethna/hysteresis/WhatIsHysteresis.html hysteresis]. <br /> <br /> Hysteresis has also been used to refer to “loops” in time, certainly apropos in this case. I stumbled across an excellent example in a 1980 episode of Dr. Who, in which the eponymous Dr. is trapped in “chronic hysteresis,” an endless loop or return to a previous <br /> point in time – very similar to the situation of Ryder Thorn. [http://www.drwhoguide.com/who_5q.htm Check it out for yourself!] <br /> <br /> <br /> ==Annotation Index==<br /> {{ATD PbP}}</div>

MKOHUT https://against-the-day.pynchonwiki.com/wiki/index.php?title=ATD_525-556&diff=14123 2007-10-21T13:46:11Z

<p>MKOHUT: /* Page 549 */</p> <hr /> <div>:'''&lt;big&gt;Please keep these annotations SPOILER-FREE by not revealing information from later pages in the novel.&lt;/big&gt;'''&lt;p&gt;&lt;br&gt;<br /> <br /> ==Page 525==<br /> <br /> '''Ostend'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Cf [[ATD_489-524#Page 521|page 521:Ostend]], a seaport in northwest Belgium. Among English-speaking tourists, Ostend (or Ostende) is best known as a ferry port. Ships have shuttled between Dover and Ostend for more than 150 years, and today's high-speed catamarans move hundreds of passengers and vehicles between these two ports in just two hours. But this thousand-year-old city is a popular beach resort with Belgians, who flock to Ostend for sun, surfing, sailing and the ''Kursaal'' (Casino). The fishing harbor and old town draw many visitors. Ostend is the only Belgian coastal resort that is as lively in the summer as in the winter. For more and pictures [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ostend Ostend].<br /> <br /> '''Fishermen's Quai'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Fishermen's Quay, also called De Trap. The shrimp boats come home here from the sea in the morning. Along the quay many stands sell lots of seafoods.<br /> <br /> '''Boulevard van Isenghem'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> A major thoroughfare in Ostend, locally called ''Van Iseghemlaan'', extending diagonally from seafront southwest through the city.<br /> <br /> '''street-plausible'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Presentable.<br /> <br /> '''Quai de l'empereur'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Since Ostende is in the Flemish part of Belgium this should be the Keizerskaai, a street along the old part of the harbour, 1919 renamed Vindictivelaan.<br /> <br /> '''estaminet'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> According to the OED - A café in which smoking is allowed. Now, any small establishment selling alcoholic liquor. <br /> <br /> '''twelve-centime'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> one centime is the French eqivalent of one cent. A twelve-centime beer would cost 12/100 of a franc.<br /> <br /> '''Quaternions'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Cf [[ATD_119-148#Page 130|page 130:Quaternions]]. Quaternions are a non-communtative extension of complex numbers (Hamilton, 1843).&lt;br&gt;<br /> <br /> Analogy with the complex numbers (Cf [[ATD_119-148#Page 132|page 132:complex number]]) being represented as a sum of real and imaginary parts, a + b''i'', where ''i''² = −1, a quaternion is defined as a combination a + b''i'' + c''j'' + d''k'', where ''i''² = ''j''² = ''k''² = ''i j k'' = −1, and a, b, c, d are ''four'' explicit real numbers. The non-commutative property refers to ''i j = −j i = k; j k = −k j = i; k i = −i k = j''. (i.e. ''i j ≠ j i; j k ≠ k j; k i ≠ i k''; etc.) The using of ''i, j, k'', the imaginary numbers (Cf [[ATD_119-148#Page 133|page 133:imaginary number]]), led to the phrases of &quot;the ''ijk'' lot&quot; of page 533 and &quot;creature of ''i-j-k''&quot; of page 534.<br /> <br /> '''Kellner'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> German: waiter, barman. Use of the German word would be insulting to the Belgian barman.<br /> <br /> '''''demi'''''&lt;br&gt;<br /> A half-pint glass (25 centilitres, actually).<br /> <br /> '''Lambic'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Pron. ''lahm-BEEK.'' Unique Belgian beer style, sour and often thin in body.<br /> <br /> '''skimmer'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Straw hat (&quot;Panama&quot;).<br /> <br /> ==Page 526==<br /> <br /> '''biquaternion'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Or &quot;octonion,&quot; an innovation of English mathematician W.K. Clifford, [[ATD_243-272#Page_249|referred to on p. 249.]]<br /> <br /> '''Barry Nebulay'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Pun on a term from heraldry, ''barry nebuly.'' Barry (rhymes with &quot;starry,&quot; not &quot;carry&quot;) refers to a shield divided into an even number of parts by horizontal lines. Nebuly signals that the lines are deformed into stylized &quot;cloud&quot; shapes. [http://www.rarebooks.nd.edu/digital/heraldry/partitions.html Here you can see an example.] If a ''British'' author had a character with a heraldic name, it would suggest a pseudonym.<br /> <br /> '''University of Dublin'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> The Alma Mater of Hamilton, the father of Quaternion. He studied, graduated and taught at Trinity College, the University of Dublin, Ireland's oldest university.<br /> <br /> If University College, Dublin, then Joyce had graduated in 1902.&lt;br&gt;<br /> <br /> '''Quaternioneers'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Quaternion believers.<br /> <br /> '''Gibbsian Vectors'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Vector Analysis (or Vector Calculus) developed by Willard Gibbs (Cf [[ATD_26-56#Page 29|page 29:Professor Gibbs]]) in 1881 and 1884. It is a branch of calculus that deals with vectors and process involving vectors. It is much more easily applied to phsics and other applied sciences than Hamilton's Quaternions (Cf [[ATD_525-556#Page 525|page 525:Quaternions]]).&lt;br&gt;<br /> A vector is defined by not only a magnitude but also a direction, such as a velocity vector, ''v'' is defined by ''v'' = a''i'' + b''j'' + c''k'',<br /> where a, b, and c are the magnitudes of the velocity components in directions of ''i, j'' and ''k'' which are unit vectors, (not imaginary numbers as in Quaternion), with magnitude of 1. In three dimensional cases and ''xyz'' coordinate system is used then ''i, j, k'' are related to ''x, y, z'' directions (&quot;''xyz'' people&quot; of page 533); but they, in general, may be used irrespective of the notation of the coordinates.<br /> Mathematical operations (addition, subtraction, multiplication), differentiation (''curl'' — Cf [[ATD_318-335#Page 326|page 326:Curl]] and p. 536, ''Laplacian'' — Cf [[ATD_318-335#Page 326|page 326:Laplacian]] and p. 536, etc) and integration can be applied to vectors. It is interesting to know that one of the two multiplication operations is called cross product; for unit vectors (''i, j, k'') perpendicular to each other, then, ''i × i = j × j = k × k = 0'', ''i × j = k'', ''j × i = -k'', etc. ([http://web.mit.edu/wwmath/vectorc/summary.html Vector Calculus]).&lt;br&gt;<br /> A simple vector anyalysis example here: if ''k'', the unit vector, stands for the direction upward and g is the gravitational acceleration, then the acceleration vector, ''a'', for a projectile, is defined for downward action, (the ''i'' and ''j'' directions have zero components):&lt;br&gt;<br /> :''a'' = -g ''k''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Integrating ''a'' would give the velocity vector, ''v''&lt;br&gt;<br /> :''v'' = -g t ''k''&lt;br&gt;<br /> for zero initial velocity case, and t standing for time.&lt;br&gt;<br /> And integrating ''v'' would yield the position vector, ''h'', for the projectile&lt;br&gt;<br /> :''h'' = -½ g t² ''k''&lt;br&gt;<br /> toward the sea level.<br /> <br /> '''Quaternionists'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Quaternion believers, same as Quaternioneers.<br /> <br /> '''Tasmania'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Tasmania is an island of the southern coast of Australia. Known for its relative isolation, it was a prison for English convicts in the 1800s<br /> <br /> '''Having been inseparable from the rise of the electromagnetic'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> In his 1865 work ''The Dynamical Theory of the Electromagnetic Field'', James Clerk Maxwell unified electricity and magnetism. He put forth twenty equations, with twenty unknowns, in vector form (though different in notation and form than the equations that now bear his name) that completely described all known electromagnetic phenomena. In his 1873 treatise on the subject, he expressed the equations in the mathematics of quaternions. It appears that the quaternion form of the equations remained popular even though, at the behest of his publisher, Maxwell reverted to the 1865 form in the second edition (1881)--though they remain scattered throughout. In 1892 Oliver Heaviside (On the Forces, Stresses, and Fluxes of Energy in the Electromagnetic Field. ''Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society of London.'' A, Vol. 183. pp423-480), while spewing scientific vitriol at the Quaternionists, reformulated Maxwell's original 1865 equations (Heaviside chose to remove the vector potential and scalar fields from the equations; the inclusion of these terms had served as Maxwell's justification for the use of quaternions), and provided the notation still in use today. See this [http://www.zpenergy.com/modules.php?name=Downloads&amp;d_op=getit&amp;lid=60 PDF] for the evolution of Maxwell's equations.<br /> <br /> '''Hamiltonian devotees'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> The Quaternion faction, after William Hamilton, who devised the scheme.<br /> <br /> '''Grand Hôtel de la Nouvelle Digue'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> There is a Hotel Digue in the Seychelles; this is a New Hotel Digue by Pynchon? <br /> <br /> Grand Hotel of New Dyke, may be a made up hotel name.<br /> <br /> '''anterooms of death'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> This metaphor is sometimes applied to concentration camps. Here the lyric &quot;feel like I'm fixin' to die&quot; seems more apposite.<br /> <br /> '''Belgian Art Nouveau'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Art Nouveau, 1890(or 80) to 1914, explores a new style in the visual arts and architecture that developed in Europe and North America at the end of the 19th century. At its height (~1907), Art Nouveau was a concerted attempt to create an international style based on decoration. It was developed by a brilliant and energetic generation of artists and desisgners, who sought to fashion an art form appropriate to the post-Industrial Revolution modern age.&lt;br&gt;<br /> Brussels was one of the Art Nouveau centers and represented different style from the others. The jewelers there, accepted as artists rahter than craftsmen, (together with those in Paris) defined Art Nouveau in jewelery and achieved the most renown. ([http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Art_Nouveau Art Nouveau]).<br /> <br /> ==Page 527==<br /> <br /> '''dossing'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> British slang for &quot;sleeping&quot;, &quot;staying overnight&quot;<br /> <br /> '''Russian nihilists'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> :The following four are local, Belgian, not Russian, nihilists !<br /> <br /> '''Eugénie'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Female. Possibly named for Empress Eugénie (1826-1920), consort of French Emperor Napoleon III. Ultimately for St. Eugenia, 3rd-century Roman martyr whose feast is celebrated on December 25.<br /> <br /> '''Fatou'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Female. A pseudonym? In view of the date of the action, certainly not named after [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fatou the mathematician Fatou] (1878-1929).<br /> <br /> '''Denis'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Male. Named for St. Denis or Dionysius, patron saint of Paris and of France, 3rd-century bishop of Paris, martyr, beheaded on the hill now called Montmartre. &quot;Montjoie St. Denis!&quot; was a warcry used by French troops in the Middle Ages. His intercession is effective against demonic possession and headache.<br /> <br /> '''Policarpe'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Male. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Polycarp Saint Polycarp] was a Christian bishop of Smyrna (now İzmir in Turkey) in the second century. He was stabbed and died a martyr after an attempt to burn him at the stake failed. His intercession is sought against earache and dysentery.<br /> <br /> '''Young Congo'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Probably in reference to the [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Young_Turks Young Turks], a Turkish revolutionary movement<br /> <br /> '''Garde Civique'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> A part of the Belgian army. According to the [http://www.1911encyclopedia.org/Belgium 1911 Britannica], &quot;the mass of the garde civique does not pretend to possess military value. It is a defence against sedition and socialism.&quot;<br /> <br /> '''French Second Bureau boys'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Deuxieme Bureau; French Intelligence.<br /> <br /> '''''phalange'''''&lt;br&gt;<br /> French: phalanx. A military (here mock-military) group ready for combat. &lt;br&gt;<br /> <br /> It also conjures up memories of the early 19th century utopian socialist <br /> Charles Fourier, who theorized that people should live communally in &quot;phalanxes&quot; of a specific number based upon their &quot;passions.&quot; His solid ideas included equality of the sexes, but he also taught wacky things such as the moon being made of lemonade. Of particular relevance is his rejection of industrial civilization. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Utopian_socialism]<br /> <br /> '''&quot;...until something had happened, something too terrible to remember...&quot;'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Again this theme of an unknowable past transgression, here invoked almost as if the unknown signifies the other 'lateral' (a word which has cropped up at least a dozen times already) 'vector'.<br /> <br /> '''the Digue'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> French for &quot;dyke&quot;<br /> <br /> '''Congo... Belgians'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> The Belgian colonisation of the Congo was, as Conrad's ''Heart of Darkness'' makes clear, notable for its greed and brutality.<br /> <br /> '''Leopold, King of the Belgians'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> 1835-1909, reigned 1865-1909. A man of almost Nixonian fiendishness. In the Congo he acted as sole proprietor and absolute ruler. The positive outcomes of his exploitation include ''Heart of Darkness'' and the phrase &quot;crime against humanity.&quot;<br /> <br /> '''co-conscious'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> mental processes outside the main stream of consciousness but sometimes available to it — from Merriam-Webster's Medical Dictionary.<br /> <br /> '''Force Publique'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Belgian armed forces operating in the Belgian Congo ([http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Force_Publique Wikipedia]). &quot;King Leopold's private army&quot; may be a more accurate description.<br /> <br /> '''rubber worker'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> See above: One of the early missions of the FP was to increase rubber export quotas through forced labor and related atrocities.<br /> <br /> ==Page 528==<br /> <br /> '''''khâgne'''''&lt;br&gt;<br /> an informal term used by French students for Classes Préparatoires Littéraires, the two-year cycle of classes taken after the Baccalaureat (taken at age 17-18), to prepare for the entrance examination to the Ecole Normale Supeieure. ([http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kh%C3%A2gne khâgne]).<br /> <br /> '''Reclus'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> J. J. Élisée Reclus (1830-1905), French geographer but mainly educated in Germany. Several times he was forced to leave France because of his political views; he traveled widely in Europe, the British Isles, the United States, and South America and for many years lived in Switzerland. He was professor of comparative geography at the University of Brussels from 1895 to 1905. He had quite an extensive connection with various socialist and anarchist circles (met Bakunin while in Florence).Once he was imprisoned in Versailles in 1871 for his part in the ''Paris Commune''. In 1882 he initiated the ''Anti-marriage movement'' while in Geneva. [[http://academic.reed.edu/formosa/texts/reclusbio.html Reclus]).<br /> <br /> '''Stirnerite'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Follower of Max Stirner, 19th century German philosopher and author of ''The Ego and Its Own,'' a work influential in anarchist thought. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Max_Stirner Wikipedia entry].<br /> <br /> ''Max Stirner'''s (1806-56) attacks on systematic philosophy, his denial of absulutes, and his rejection of abstract concepts of any kind often places him among the first philosophical nihilists. For Stirner, achieving individual freedom is the only law; and the state, which necvessarily imperils freedom, must be destroyed. Even beyond the oppression of the state, though, are the constraints imposed by others because their very existence is an obstable compromising individual freedom. Thus Stirner argues that existence is an endless &quot;war of each against all&quot; (1845). (taken from the paragraph about Max Stirner in [http://www.iep.utm.edu/n/nihilism.htm#H1 Nihilism])&lt;br&gt;<br /> Sourcing here? Much complexity in properly understanding Stirner, who has some Pynchon-like qualities, to say the least. From the Stanford Dictionary of Philosophy&lt;br&gt;<br /> His major work:<br /> The Ego and Its Own<br /> Much of Stirner's prose—which is crowded with aphorisms, italicisation, and hyperbole—appears calculated to disconcert. Most striking, perhaps, is the use of word play. Rather than reach a conclusion through the conventional use of argument, Stirner often approaches a claim that he wishes to endorse by exploiting words with related etymologies or formal similarities. For example, he associates words for property (such as ‘Eigentum’) with words connoting distinctive individual characteristics (such as ‘Eigenheit’) in order to promote the claim that property is expressive of selfhood. (Stirner's account of egoistic property—see below—gives this apparently orthodox Hegelian claim a distinctive twist.)<br /> <br /> This rejection of conventional forms of intellectual discussion is linked to Stirner's substantive views about language and rationality. His unusual style reflects a conviction that both language and rationality are human products which have come to constrain and oppress their creators. Stirner maintains that accepted meanings and traditional standards of argumentation are underpinned by a conception of truth as a privileged realm beyond individual control. As a result, individuals who accept this conception are abandoning a potential area of creative self-expression in favour of adopting a subordinate role as servants of truth. In stark contrast, Stirner insists that the only legitimate restriction on the form of our language, or on the structure of our arguments, is that they should serve our individual ends. It is the frequent failure of ordinary meanings and standard forms of argument to satisfy his interpretation of this criterion which underpins Stirner's remorselessly idiosyncratic style.<br /> <br /> The Ego and Its Own has an intelligible, but scarcely transparent, structure. It is organised around a tripartite account of human experience, initially introduced in a description of the stages of an individual life. The first stage in this developmental narrative is the realistic one of childhood, in which children are constrained by material and natural forces such as their parents. Liberation from these external constraints is achieved with what Stirner calls the self-discovery of mind, as children find the means to outwit those forces in their own determination and cunning. The idealistic stage of youth, however, contains new internal sources of constraint, as individuals once more become enslaved, this time to the spiritual forces of conscience and reason. Only with the adulthood of egoism do individuals escape both material (external) and spiritual (internal) constraints, learning to value their personal satisfaction above all other considerations.<br /> <br /> Stirner portrays this dialectic of individual growth as an analogue of historical development, and it is a tripartite account of the latter which structures the remainder of the book. Human history is reduced to successive epochs of realism (the ancient, or pre-Christian, world), idealism (the modern, or Christian, world), and egoism (the future world). <br /> <br /> What about these &quot;successive epochs&quot; in understanding ATD?<br /> <br /> Stirner's major work, The Ego and Its Own has been reissued in English a number of times in Pynchon's lifetime,from the 60s on. (Not that TRP could not have read it in German!)<br /> <br /> '''''Anarcho-individualiste'''''&lt;br&gt;<br /> i.e. he has doctrinal differernces with Stirnerism, strictly speaking; see P. 324, and &quot;Eigenheit&quot;.<br /> <br /> '''Leopold'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> See p. 527.<br /> <br /> '''going down lately'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Being assassinated.<br /> <br /> '''Sipido'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Jean-Baptiste Sipido (1884-1959), a Belgian socialist. Accusing the Prince of Wales of causing thousands of inocents were killed in the Boer War in South Africa, on April 5, 1900, Sipido leaped onto the foot board of the royal compartment right before the train left the North Railway Station (Gare du Nord), Brussel, and fired two (or one? as reported in ''The Manchester Guardian'', or four? as stated in the text here) shots through the window but missed everyone inside. He was arrested, tried and acquitted. The leader of the House of Commons called the acquittal a &quot;grave and most unfortunate miscarriage of justice.&quot; ([http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jean-Baptiste_Sipido Sipido]).<br /> <br /> '''Prince... of Wales'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> (Maud Gonne's husband claimed to have been involved in another such plot.)<br /> <br /> '''Hippodrome'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Hippodrome Wellington, a horse racing track in Ostend built in 1883. The facility hosts both harness and flat racing events. ([http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hippodrome_Wellington Hippodrome]).<br /> <br /> '''Royal Bathing Hut... twenty francs'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> A bathing machine ([http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bathing_machine bathing machine])? The King of Belgium certainly would not want to be seen in a swimsuit on a public beach... It seems unlikely, though, that such a royal bathing machine would be for hire.<br /> <br /> '''twenty francs'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> ???<br /> <br /> ==Page 529==<br /> <br /> '''picric family'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> The explosive picric acid (2,4,6-trinitrophenol) and its derivatives. For picric acid, Brugère's powder and Designolle's powder, [http://encyclopedia.jrank.org/PER_PIG/PICRIC_ACID_or_TRINITROPHENOL_C.html see this Britannica article.]<br /> <br /> '''Brugère's powder'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> See &quot;picric family&quot; above.<br /> <br /> '''Designolle's'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> See &quot;picric family&quot; above.<br /> <br /> '''Monsieur Santos-Dumont'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Alberto Santos-Dumont (1873-1932), a pioneer of aviation from Brasil. Check out [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alberto_Santos-Dumont Wikipedia] to get a look at the way he was wearing his &quot;trademark Panama hat&quot;. <br /> <br /> '''Green Hour''' and '''''l'heure vertigineuse'''''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Absinthe-drinking time. The liqueur is green. In French, ''l'heure verte,'' so ''vertigineuse'' (vertiginous, causing dizziness) is a pun on the word for &quot;green.&quot;<br /> <br /> '''Rocco and Pino'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Rabid Quaternionists and sudden friends of Kit Traverse.<br /> :No, they were not mathematicians at all, let alone Quaternionists, but two &quot;Italian naval renegades&quot; !!<br /> ::&quot;Rocco and Pino&quot; are, in temperament, something like the &quot;Mason and Dixon&quot; of manned-torpedoes... cf. the &quot;torpedo&quot; (i.e., &quot;Electrick-Eel&quot;) of ''Mason &amp; Dixon''.<br /> <br /> '''Whitehead works in Fiume'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Anticipating GR's V2 works.<br /> <br /> ''Robert Whitehead'' (1823-1905), an English engineer. He developed the first self-propelled torpedo in 1866. He attended Manchester's Mechanics Institute, worked in a shipyard in Toulon (1844), France, and as a consultant engineer in Milan (1847), Italy. Later he moved to Trieste and in 1856 became a manager of a company called ''Founderia Mettali'' (later, ''Stabilimento Tecnico di Fiume'') in Fiume producing ship steam boilers and engines which were the most advanced of that era. He also developed the first self-propelled torpedo which was very popular. Whitehead's torpedo was propelled by a compressed air engine, carried 18lbs dynamites and a self-regulating device which kept the torpedo cruising at a constant preset depth. [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Robert_Whitehead Whitehead]].<br /> <br /> ''Fiume'' is now Rijeka, Croatia. Trieste is on the northwestern edge of the Istra Peninsula, Rijeka is east of it. [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rijeka Fiume]].<br /> <br /> Interesting sidebar: Whitehead's fortune from Fiume and the torpedo went solely to his granddaughter Agatha Whitehead, who married Baron von Trapp. The Von Trapp money came from Robert Whitehead, and most of the von Trapp singers were his great-grandchildren.<br /> <br /> '''''Alberta'''''&lt;br&gt;<br /> The [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Royal_yacht Wikipedia] entry on royal yachts goes back to the 17th century but doesn't include ''Alberta.'' The craft does get a mention in [http://www.bouncing-balls.com/timeline/people/nr_leopoldmorel.htm this page on Leopold and the Congo.]<br /> <br /> '''Siluro Dirigibile a Lenta Corsa'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> or S.L.C. &quot;slow course torpedo&quot;, &quot;slow-running torpedo&quot;. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Manned_torpedo Wikipedia] Italy‘s Navy was among the first to experiment with manned torpedos. Though according to [http://web.ukonline.co.uk/chalcraft/sm/chariots.html this site] this did not happen until 1935, Italian frogmen as early as October 31, 1918 made it into the harbour of Pula with the help of a modified german torpedo and sank the former Austrian but by then since a few hours Croatian/Slovenian/Bosnian battleship SMS ''Viribus Unitis''. [http://www.geocities.com/tegetthoff66/viribus.html website]<br /> <br /> The Wikipedia entry linked above doesn't contain the Italian word ''dirigibile'' (steerable), which sets up the torpedo as a counterpart of the dirigible ''Inconvenience.''<br /> <br /> :I suspect there's a connection between the torpedo and &quot;Not the usual lateener, in fact appearing to have neither sails, masts, nor oars&quot; in Miles' reversed vision, [[ATD_243-272#Page_250|page 250.]] Needs work, though.<br /> <br /> ==Page 530==<br /> <br /> '''exfiltrate'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Make a surreptitious escape (as &quot;infiltrate&quot; means to make a surreptitious entrance).<br /> <br /> '''''Macchè'''''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Italian: certainly not, not a chance. And in Pynchon's Italian is used as an all-purpose exclamation.<br /> <br /> '''''Ehi, stu gazz', categoria'''''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Stu gazz' is a dialect representation of ''sto cazzo'', literally meaning ''this dick here''. Normally you could translate the sense of the sentence as: ''yeah, why not, a fucking category! ''. -- blicero2 - 2007.02.22<br /> <br /> '''''mezzogiornismo'''''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Denigrating the Italian South. Mezzogiorno means ''midday'' in Italian but refers generally to Southern Italy.<br /> <br /> ==Page 531==<br /> <br /> '''Bruges'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> An exceptionally beautiful Belgian town of canals which is thus one of several towns known as the 'Venice of the north'. In the 14th cettury Burges already became an international finanacial and trading center, but<br /> started to decline in the 15th century. In the 20th century, however, the city was discovered by the international tourism and the medieval heritage turned out to be a new source of wealth. A new harbor of Zeebrugge, 10 miles outside of Bruges at the North Sea coast, brought new developments and new industries to the region. For the city and its history see ([http://www.trabel.com/brugge.htm Bruges]).<br /> <br /> '''Raoul's Atelier de la Vitesse'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> French: Ralph's Speed Shop.<br /> <br /> '''Ghent'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Belgian city, less than 30 miles southeast of Bruges, on the rail line about halfway between Ostend and Brussels. It is the fourth largest city of Belgium. It is bigger than Bruges but not as famous as a tourist attraction. But the city is a showcase of medieval Flemish wealth and commercial success. See ([http://www.trabel.com/gent.htm Ghent]).<br /> <br /> '''Daimler six-cylinder'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> ???<br /> <br /> '''a hundred horsepower'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> ???<br /> <br /> '''''guaglion'''''&lt;br&gt;<br /> italian (dialectal) = boy, young person<br /> <br /> '''Umeki Tsurigane'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Umeki is typically made with some combination of the various kanji for &quot;plum&quot; (ume) and &quot;tree&quot; (ki), though one has the ki being the character for &quot;ghost/devil&quot; and one obscure reading that's entirely redundant, where ume is &quot;plant&quot; (usually read ue). There is one where ume is the kanji for &quot;buried or embedded&quot;. Tsurigane, means a &quot;temple bell&quot;, which can stand alone or be followed by the grass kanji to mean &quot;bellflower&quot; (lots of botanical stuff happening here, if that means anything; hardly the only example in ''AtD''). Given the search for Shambhala going on, &quot;Buried Temple Bell&quot; seems a likely translation, at least at this point; the botanical meanings could perhaps emerge later.<br /> <br /> Or, another terrible name-pun? &quot;You make [m]e sore again.&quot; See another on P. [[ATD_748-767#Page_757| 757]]<br /> <br /> '''Professor Knott'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Cargill Knott (1856-1922), professor of physics; seismologist. See his biography [http://www.penicuikcdt.org.uk/Cargill_Knott.html here].<br /> <br /> ==Page 532==<br /> <br /> '''Kimura'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Cf [[ATD_26-56#Page 29|page 29:Kimura]] and [[ATD_318-335#Page 318|page 318:Shunkichi Kimura]].<br /> <br /> '''drover's sombrero'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Cowboy hat.<br /> <br /> '''furoshiki'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Japanese all-purpose cloth. Can be worn, used as wrapping, or used as a bag.<br /> <br /> '''taupe'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> A brownish gray.<br /> <br /> '''boilermakers and their helpers'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> [[ATD_358-373#Page_360|See annotation to p. 360.]]<br /> <br /> '''Anharmonic Pencil'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> ''Pencil'' is a term commonly used in Synthetic Geometry. Straight lines incident with a plane - coplanar lines - and passing through a common point are said to be concurrent lines and the set of all such concurrent coplanar lines is called the ''pencil''. (Cf [[ATD_429-459#Page 456|page 456:Pencil]]). For a figure and a not quite precise definition see [http://mathworld.wolfram.com/Pencil.html pencil]. If a, b, c and d, are four distinct coplanar lines and their double ratio λ = (abcd) = -1, then a, b, c, d are called a harmonic quadruple of lines; they are said to constitute a ''harmonic pencil''. A ''pencil'' which is not harmonic then is known as ''anharmonic pencil''. See Pencil (lines 8-9), Double Ratio λ (lines 32-35) and Harmonic Pencil (line 39) of [http://ca.geocities.com/ingsaler6/mathworld.html Mathworld].<br /> <br /> '''''Comptes rendus'''''&lt;br&gt;<br /> ''Comptes rendus des séances hebdomadaires,'' Proceedings of the weekly sessions (of the Academy of Sciences), published from 1835, later (ca. 1935) retitled ''Comptes rendus de l'Académie des sciences,'' Proceedings of the Academy of Sciences. (Notice that the academy didn't see the need to specify &quot;French.&quot; Take that, Royal Society of London!) For about a century, one of two journals so universally circulated and recognized that bibliographies nearly always cited them in nickname form: ''C.R.'' The other was ''Ber.,'' short for ''Berichte der Deutschen Chemischen Gesellschaft,'' Reports of the German Chemical Society (from 1868).<br /> <br /> '''De Forest'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Cf [[ATD_26-56#Page 29|page 29:De Forest]].<br /> <br /> '''Gibbs'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Cf [[ATD_26-56#Page 29|page 29:Professor Gibbs]].<br /> <br /> '''Maxwell Equations'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Cf [[ATD_57-80#Page 58|page 58:Maxwell Field Equations]].<br /> <br /> ==Page 533==<br /> <br /> '''aniline teal'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> The wallpaper dye; aniline dyes were the first synthetic dyes, discovered by [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/William_Perkin William Perkin] in 1858. Their intense and fade-resistant colors were very fashionable at the end of the nineteenth century. The dyes are also significant in ''GR'' as the products of I.G. Farben.<br /> <br /> '''Heavisiders'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Oliver Heaviside (May 18, 1850 – February 3, 1925) was a self-taught English electrical engineer, mathematician and physicist who adapted complex numbers to the study of electrical circuits, developed techniques for applying Laplace transforms to the solution of differential equations, reformulated Maxwell's field equations in terms of electric and magnetic forces and energy flux, and independently co-formulated vector analysis. Although at odds with the scientific establishment for most of his life, Heaviside changed the face of mathematics and science for years to come.[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Heaviside].<br /> <br /> '''Grassmanniacs'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Nineteenth century German mathematician and linguist, essentially the inventor/discoverer of vector space. Grassmann showed that once geometry is put into the algebraic form he advocated, then the number three has no privileged role as the number of spatial dimensions; the number of possible dimensions is in fact unbounded.[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hermann_Grassmann].<br /> <br /> '''in the mood for a clambake'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Anachronistic Broadway show tune? If so, the clambake in ''Carousel'' turns into a brawl; the assmebled factions of mathematicians could be in the mood for either a party or a brawl, apparently. <br /> <br /> '''Monopole de la Maison'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Monopole of the House, a fanciful name of a fanciful drink.&lt;br&gt;<br /> There is, since 1898, a well known restaurant called ''Monopole Lunch &amp; Sea Grill'' in Plattsburgh of upper New York state. ([http://www.monopole.org Monopole Restaurant]).&lt;br&gt;<br /> Most probably, it's the Magnetic monopole being referred here. In physics, a monopole is a magnet with a net magnetic charge, i.e. there is only one pole instead of two (so no net magnetic charge) as usual. ([http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Magnetic_monopole Monopole]). It's existence had been theoretically predicted by various particle theories (superstring theory, etc) but never been proved experimentally. Proving the existence of a monopole would certainly earn a Nobel Prize.<br /> <br /> '''Idiom Neutral'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> An invented language, like Esperanto. Idiom Neutral dictionaries first appeared in 1902. It looks like a simplified Latinate language and it grew out of Volapuk, another &quot;auxiliary language.&quot; It was abandoned by the ''Akademi Internasional de Lingu Universal'' in 1908.<br /> <br /> For a list of all the invented languages that linguists are keeping track of, including Klingon, try [http://linguistlist.org/forms/langs/GetListOfConstructedLgs.html Eastern Michigan's Linguist List]. And don't forget to click on the link to &quot;Browse sites devoted to constructed languages.&quot;<br /> <br /> '''phatic'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Basically, small talk or chatter. Words used to convey fellow-feeling rather than to impart information.<br /> <br /> '''''Kampf ums Dasein'''''&lt;br&gt;<br /> German: struggle for existence.<br /> <br /> '''Q-brother'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Fellow Quaternioneer or Fellow Quaternionist.<br /> <br /> '''We are the Jews of mathematics, wandering out here in our diaspora--some destined for the past, others the future, even a few able to set out at unknown angles from the simple line of Time, upon journeys that no one can predict''' &lt;br&gt;<br /> In keeping with the analogy of Judaism, those &quot;few&quot; people within the Quaternionists &quot;able to set out at unknown angles&quot; are most likely being compared to Kabbalists who claim to partake in a mystic &quot;journey to the Throne of God through the mythological realm of the seven heavens&quot; (Armstrong, A History of God--p. 247). Throne Mysticism in Kabbalah is explored extensively in Gravity's Rainbow.<br /> <br /> Perhaps this is obvious to some, but these &quot;Jews of Mathematics&quot; worship the Hamiltonian Tetractys [http://www.math.ucr.edu/home/baez/dublin/]; those other Jews worshipped the Tetragrammatron. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tetragrammaton] The proliferation of 4s continues.<br /> <br /> ==Page 534==<br /> <br /> '''Poiret gown'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> A gown designed by Paul Poiret (1879-1944), a French fashion designer based in Paris. &quot;In the annals of fashion history, Paul Poiret is best remembered for freeing women from corsets and further liberating them through pantaloons . . . it was Poiret's remarkable innovations in the cut and construction of cloting . . . Working with fabric directly onto the body, Poiret helped to pioneer a radical approach to dressmakeing that relied more on the skills of drapery than on those of tailoring.&quot; (from [http://www.metmuseum.org/special/se_event.asp?OccurrenceId={0DC3D00F-4611-4F91-8DC2-CC3C1A5C48D5} MetMuseum], <br /> New York Metropolitan Museum's Special Exhibitions, ''Poiret: King of Fashion'', May 9, 2007 to August 5, 2007). For a picture of Poiret gown see [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Image:Poiretgown.jpg Poiret Gown]. ''The New York Times'' reported on February 1, 2007 that A Poiret Gown Brings $5,500 at [http://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html?res=9B07EFDA1538F93AA15756C0A967948260 Christie's Auction] - the gown was made in 1913 when Poiret was at the height of his career. For his bio see [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Paul_Poiret Poiret].<br /> <br /> '''''green and long'''''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Pickle, or... what?<br /> : A green and long ''gherkin'' (a small, immature fruit of a variety of cucumber used in pickling).<br /> <br /> ==Page 535==<br /> <br /> '''no-name wine'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> 1970s idiom for common European practice?<br /> <br /> '''set theory'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Set theory deals with the properties of well-defined collections, or ''sets'', of entities - the ''elements'' or ''members'' of the set - conceived as a whole. The elements may be of a mathematical nature or non-mathematical. The set theory grew out of the German mathematician Georg Cantor's (1845-1918) study of infinite sets of real numbers. <br /> <br /> The ''language of sets'' has become an important tool for all branches of mathematics, but is of very little relevance to the practice of mathematics in everyday life. As a source of metaphors, however, it's been quite productive; &quot;subset,&quot; &quot;superset,&quot; &quot;universe,&quot; &quot;intersection&quot; and &quot;Venn diagram&quot; have found varying degrees of acceptance. Recasting Aristotle's syllogisms in set-theoretic language also makes them easier for many people to understand.<br /> <br /> '''Hamilton . . . early genius'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Hamilton, according to ''Chambers Biographical Dictionary'', &quot;at fifteen knew thirteen languages, had read Newton's ''Principia'', and commenced original investigations&quot;. At twenty-two, &quot;while still an undergraduate, he was appointed professor of Astronomy at Dublin and Irish Astronomer-Royal&quot;; at thirty &quot;he was knighted&quot;.<br /> <br /> '''Hamilton . . . in the grip of a first love'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> ???&lt;br&gt;<br /> Pynchon probably didn't mean Quaternion was Hamilton's first love, but its effect on him was similar to that of a first love. In 1843 at the age of 38 Hamilton invented the Quaternion, the first non-communtative algebra to be studied. He felt this would revolutionise mathematical physics, and he spent the rest of his life working on it. In 1853 he published a large volume, ''Lectures on Quaternions'', on his grand invention. The last seven years of his life, Hamilton was writing an 800-page book ''Elements of Quaternions'' modeling on Euclid's ''Elements''. The last chapter of the book was completed by his son after his death.<br /> <br /> '''the Walt Whitman of English physics'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Whitman pops up again, last seen on [[ATD_489-524#Page_491|page 491]].<br /> <br /> ==Page 536==<br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> '''Oscar Wilde'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Note that Wilde's Dorian Gray also undergoes a kind of bilocation.<br /> <br /> '''Kursaal'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Spa. Casino ?<br /> <br /> '''vectors'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> For serious minds see Cf [[ATD_525-556#Page 526|page 526:Gibbsian Vectors]], but let's follow Pynchon's lighter mood, here is a non-mathematical definition by Kamen (1995):<br /> :''Many things have more than direction;''<br /> :''The magnitude is also a question.''<br /> :''With acceleration or force,''<br /> :''And many more things, of course,''<br /> :''It's vectors that make the connection.''<br /> <br /> '''Curls'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Cf [[ATD_318-335#Page 326|page 326:Curl]]: curl is a vector operator that shows a vector field's rate of rotation.<br /> <br /> '''Laplacians'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Pierre-Simon, Marquis de Laplace (March 23, 1749 – March 5, 1827); French mathematician and astronomer who summarized and extended the work of his predecessors in his five volume Mécanique Céleste (Celestial Mechanics) (1799-1825), translating the geometrical study of mechanics used by Isaac Newton to one based on calculus, known as physical mechanics.<br /> <br /> He is also the discoverer of Laplace's equation. Although the Laplace transform is named in honor of Laplace, who used the transform in his work on probability theory, the transform was discovered originally by Leonhard Euler. The Laplace transform appears in all branches of mathematical physics — a field he took a leading role in forming. The Laplacian differential operator, much relied-upon in applied mathematics, is likewise named after him. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Laplace].<br /> <br /> :Cf [[ATD_318-335#Page 326|page 326:Laplacian]]: Laplacian is a differential operator named after Laplace. The text here was talking about mathematical operations and operators — rates of change, rotations, partial differentials, Curls, ''Laplacians'', . . .<br /> <br /> '''scream'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Scream motif.<br /> <br /> '''beginning to appal'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> By 1905 there had been years of outrage at conditions in the Belgian Congo, King Leopold's private fief. Conrad's ''Heart of Darkness'' had been published as a serial in Blackwood's Magazine in 1899 and as a book in 1902. There were missionaries' accounts of the brutality, and newspaper reports. Leopold and his apologists published rebuttals. The Norton Critical Edition of ''Heart of Darkness'' contains an extensive collection of both.<br /> <br /> '''baize'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Baize is a coarse woolen felt.<br /> <br /> ==Page 537==<br /> <br /> '''broken symmetries'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Broken_symmetry Broken symmetry] is a concept used widely in mathematics and physics. For a simplest explanation (good enough for the text here), this term means that an object breaks either rotational symmetry or translational sysmetry - when one can only rotate an object in certain angles or when one is able to tell if the object has been shifted sideways. For a little bit more detailed explanation see [http://www.lassp.cornell.edu/sethna/OrderParameters/BrokenSymmetry.html Identify the Broken Symmetry]; or even more [http://scienceweek.com/2005/sw050708-6.htm On Broken Symmetry].<br /> <br /> '''''sphinxe Khnopffienne'''''&lt;br&gt;<br /> refers to the Belgian symbolist painter Fernand Khnopff (1858-1921), famous for his painting &quot;The Caress&quot;, in which a female sphinx erotically lures a young man. The painting can be seen in the [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fernand_Khnopff wikipedia entry]<br /> <br /> '''Pléiade Lafrisée'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> in French, &quot;friser&quot; means to curl or twist. &quot;La frisée&quot; could mean &quot;curled,&quot; by extension &quot;twisted.&quot; The Pleiades is a cluster of hundreds of stars, though only a few are visible, sometimes referred to as The Seven Sisters. If Pleiades are Sisters, Pléiade is ''one'' Sister, so her name means Twisted Sister!<br /> <br /> '''''Conseilleuse'''''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Female consultant?<br /> <br /> ==Page 538==<br /> <br /> '''retroversion matrix'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> ???<br /> <br /> '''''Ma foi'''''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Literally &quot;My faith&quot;, i.e. &quot;By my faith!&quot;, a mild exclamation of incredulity.<br /> <br /> '''ten thousand francs'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> <br /> Based on currency conversions relative to gold, this is equivalent to<br /> about $30,000 US today.<br /> <br /> '''piker'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Someone cheap or cautious, possibly named after people from PIke County, Missouri, who came to California in the 1800s, looking for work. They were poor, hence cheap.<br /> <br /> '''what is a Quaternino?'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Cf [[ATD_525-556#Page 525|page 525:Quaternions]] for a mathematical definition. From ''The Random House Dictionary of the English Languages'', The Unabridged Edition (1966): Quaternion is &quot;a quantity or operator expressed as the sum of a real number and three complex numbers, equivalent to the ''quotient of two vectors''. The field of quaternions is not commutative under multiplication.&quot;.<br /> <br /> '''Bertie ('Mad Dog') Russell'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> 'Mad Dog' seems to be used with heavy irony here. Bertrand Russell was known most for his rationalism, so to speak, his work in modern logic. <br /> He did little in his public roles (at this time in AtD) that would have <br /> him referred to as &quot;crazy', as we say, beyond the social norm, &quot;mad&quot;. <br /> It might be argued that his use of 'logic' against philosophers such as Hegel and McTaggart within ''Against the Day'' showed up their 'madness'.<br /> (Many did think McTaggart was a bit...different...for seriously not believing in Time.) McTaggart broke with Russell after an early influential friendship---Russell was the younger man and the influenced one. He said he was an Hegelian because of McTaggart--Russell wrote in his<br /> Autobiography that McTaggart said he no longer wanted to meet/talk with him bcause he could no longer stand Russell's opinions.<br /> <br /> [http://nobelprize.org/nobel_prizes/literature/laureates/1950/russell-bio.html Bertrand Russell] (1872-1970) was a British mathematician, philosopher, logician and social critic. Best known for his work in mathermatical logic and analytic philosophy. In late spring of 1901 he discovered the so-called [http://plato.stanford.edu/entries/russell-paradox/ Russell Paradox], &quot;the most famous of the logical or set-theoretical paradoxes. The paradox arises within naive set theory by considering the set of all sets that are not members of themselves. Such a set appears to be a member of itself if and only if it is not a member of itself, hence the paradox.&quot; (On-line Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy). He won the 1950 Nobel Prize in Literature in &quot;recognition of his varied and significant writings in which he champions humanitarian ideals and freedom of thought&quot;.<br /> <br /> '''Barry Nebulay'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> nebulae: formed from the diffusion of gas in galaxies or as exploded stars (or the last ember-like stage of a star)&lt;br&gt; <br /> Most nebulae can be described as diffuse nebulae, which means that they are extended and contain no well-defined boundaries.[1] In visible light these nebulae may be divided into emission nebulae and reflection nebulae, a categorization that depends on how the light we see is created.<br /> <br /> '''Hegel... puns'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Probably refers to the fact that quite a lot of Hegel's philosophy deals with the is-ness of the world as we know and experience it.<br /> <br /> On page 787 of Bertrand Russell's ''History of Western Philosophy'' is a summary, perhaps, of this remark about Hegel's puns: &quot;as a result of analysis of the concept &quot;existence&quot;, modern logic has proved this [Cartesianism, refuted by Kant, reinstated by Hegel] argument invalid.....&quot;<br /> <br /> We know from other places that TRP himself seems to 'not like' Cartesianism. See 'cartesian' citations within this wiki.<br /> <br /> ==Page 539==<br /> <br /> '''a vector quotient'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> The result of one vector divided by another. According to the English dictionary definition of previous page this is just a Quaternion.<br /> <br /> '''unit vector'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Unit vector is a vector with magnitude of one. The unit vectors in 3-dimensional space, ''i, j, k'', associated with ''x, y, z'' directions are used in defining a general 3D vector (Cf [[ATD_525-556#Page 526|page 526:Gibbsian Vectors]]).<br /> <br /> '''''square root of minus one'''''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Imaginary number (Cf [[ATD_119-148#Page 132|page 133:Imaginary Number]]). The imaginary numbers ''i, j, k'' are used in defining a Quaternion (Cf [[ATD_525-556#Page 525|page 525:Quaternions]]).<br /> <br /> ''''Triangle Asana''''&lt;br&gt;<br /> A basic yoga pose. <br /> <br /> [http://yoga.org.nz/postures/yoga_positions_images_page.htm Here are images of several basic poses.]<br /> <br /> ''''Dr Rao abruptly vanished''''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Might be a reference to [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Martin_Gardner Martin Gardner]'s<br /> [http://www.amazon.com/No-Sided-Professor-Fantasy-Mystery-Philosophy/dp/0879753900 &quot;No-Sided Professor&quot;]<br /> <br /> ''''Quadrantal Versor Asana''''&lt;br&gt;<br /> A triangle pose taken that extra dimension.<br /> <br /> '''''&quot;Uwe moer!&quot;'''''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Looks a lot like the Dutch &quot;Uw moeder!&quot; - a cry of astonishment (&quot;Your mother!&quot;), the equivalent to the black English &quot;yo mama&quot;.<br /> <br /> '''noncommutative'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> A term typical to mathematics. A commutative equation is one that can operate in exact reverse and still yield the same results. 'Noncommutative' then suggests unidirectionality. The ability to go from point A to point B, but not from B to A.<br /> <br /> '''reticule'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> A woman's drawstring handbag; usually made of net or beading or brocade; also: A system of lines forming a pattern of squares at the focal plane of a telescope, used in micrometers.<br /> [http://www.astunit.com/tutorials/glossary.htm] <br /> :Isn't that sort of a red herring? &quot;[P]roducing from her reticule a . . . watch&quot; doesn't really allow of that second meaning. &lt;br&gt;<br /> :It could be a pun, since a reticule/ handbag always shows its pattern of lines, and a watch (timepiece) is drawn from it. Remember that, e.g. railroad lines of tracks, are a sign of industrialism encroaching on the natural and the spiritual.<br /> <br /> '''Vacheron &amp; Constantin watch'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Made by a Swiss company founded in 1755. From 1819 to 1970 the name was as in the text, then the &amp; dropped out. See the [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vacheron_Constantin Wikipedia entry.]<br /> <br /> '''hunting-case'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> For a pocket watch, a case with a hinged metal cover. More often called &quot;hunter case&quot; (and such a watch a &quot;hunter&quot;).<br /> <br /> ==Page 540==<br /> <br /> '''&quot;haar rekening, ja?&quot;'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> The bill, yes? (Dutch)?<br /> <br /> ''Her'' bill, yes? I.e., give the check to the lady.<br /> <br /> Given the presence of Chris 'Kit' Traverse here, this very much suggests a reference to Christopher 'Kit' Marlowe, Elizabethan poet, playwright and contemporary of Shakespeare. Marlowe was stabbed to death in 1593, in murky circumstances, ostensibly over a bill or 'reckoning', though he was widely believed to have been involved in some form of espionage.<br /> <br /> Strictly speaking &quot;haar rekening&quot; means that the lady pays for herself only. If Root wanted to make sure that Pléiade pays for the whole company he would have to say &quot;de hele rekening voor de dame&quot;. <br /> <br /> '''Piet Woevre'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> The Woëvre is a natural region of Lorraine in north-east France. It forms part of Lorraine plateau and lies largely in the department of Meuse. During World War I, there was much fighting there due to vast mineral resources that had been discovered in the Briey basin or Eastern Woevre at the end of the 19th century. &quot;Piet&quot; is Dutch for &quot;rock&quot; or &quot;stone&quot; and is a fairly common Dutch name, the English equivalent being Peter.<br /> <br /> If the surname is pronounced as in Dutch, Woevre is another Pynchon villain with a &quot;V&quot;-name (Vond, Weissman, Vibe). <br /> <br /> '''Force Publique'''&lt;br /&gt;<br /> The Force Publique (FP) was the official armed force for what is now the Democratic Republic of the Congo from 1885, (when the territory was known as the Congo Free State), through the period of direct Belgian rule (1908-60), until the beginning of the Second Republic in 1965. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Force_Publique Wikipedia entry]<br /> <br /> '''made him reach'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Possible allusion to a famous line, &quot;When I hear the word culture I reach for my gun.&quot; From Hanns Johst's biographical play ''Schlageter''. The original line is slightly different: &quot;Wenn ich Kultur höre ... entsichere ich meinen Browning,&quot; &quot;Whenever I hear of culture... I release the safety-catch of my Browning!&quot; (Act 1, Scene 1). It is spoken by another character in conversation with the young Schlageter. In the scene Schlageter and his wartime comrade Friedrich Thiemann are studying for a college examination, but then start disputing whether it's worthwhile doing so when the nation is not free. <br /> <br /> The line is often misattributed to better-known Nazis and others [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hanns_Johst].<br /> <br /> *In Jean-Luc Godard's 1963 film [http://www.chicagoreader.com/movies/archives/0997/09057.html ''Le Mépris'' (''Contempt'')], Jack Palance's character &quot;Jeremy Prokosch,&quot; an American movie-producer, intones to Fritz Lang: &quot;Whenever I hear the word culture, I reach for my checkbook.&quot;<br /> <br /> '''not unambiguous'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Ie, ambiguous.<br /> <br /> '''''rastaquoueres'''''&lt;br&gt;<br /> 8???<br /> <br /> '''de Decker'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> In Dutch/Flemish, the name means &quot;roofer.&quot; (''De'' in these names almost never means &quot;of, from&quot; as in French; it's nearly always the definite article.)<br /> <br /> ==Page 541==<br /> <br /> '''''bobbejaan'''''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Afrikaans: baboon. (Afrikaans is the language spoken by descendants of Dutch colonists in present-day South Africa. Some items identified as Dutch or Flemish in this wiki may really be Afrikaans.)<br /> <br /> The South African song &quot;Bobbejaan klim die berg&quot; (&quot;Bobbejaan climbed the hill&quot;) is the source of the stage name of Belgium's most famous country and western musician, Bobbejaan Schoepen (b. 1925). In 1943 he was suppressed by the Nazis after performing a South African song, &quot;Mamma, 'k wil 'n man hê&quot; (&quot;Mama, I want a man&quot;), which contains the line &quot;No, Mama, I don't want a German, because I don't like pork.&quot; He founded the Bobbejaanland theme park in Belgium, where he still lives.<br /> <br /> '''MKIV/ODC... Mark Four'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> This would be the Mark IV Ohmic Drift Compensator ([[ATD 557-587#Page 565|Page 565]]), a key component of the Q-weapon, which &quot;regulates how much light is allowed to enter the silvering of the mirror! Special kind of refraction! Calibrated against imaginary index! Dangerous! Of the essence!'&quot;<br /> <br /> '''not part of your remit'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Not included in your job description, instructions, authorization. &quot;Remit&quot; (noun) is usually a British usage.<br /> <br /> '''''gatkruiper'''''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Dutch/Flemish: brownnose, ass-kisser.<br /> <br /> '''one on her wrist'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> All the bruises reflect some refinement or artistry except this one, which may have been inflicted crudely.<br /> <br /> '''over the day'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Title motif?<br /> <br /> ==Page 542==<br /> <br /> '''trans-horizontic'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Across the horizon -- &quot; a screaming comes across the sky&quot;<br /> <br /> '''Edmund Whittaker'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Edmund Whittaker (1873-1956), an English mathematician. He is best known for his work in numerical analysis. And he contributed widely to applied mathematics, mathematical physics and the theory of special functions. He also worked on celestial mechanics and the history of applied mathermatics and physics. ([http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/E._T._Whittaker Whittaker]).<br /> <br /> The Sir Edmund Whittaker Memorial Prize is awarded every four years by the Edinburgh Mathematical Society to an outstanding young mathematician having a specified connection with Scotland [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sir_Edmund_Whittaker_Memorial_Prize]. <br /> <br /> '''louche'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> The cloudy effect caused by the addition of water to absinthe. Dictionary definition: &quot;of questionable taste or morality; decadent.&quot;<br /> <br /> '''cheval-glass'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Standing mirror in a freestanding vertical frame.<br /> <br /> '''as if someone'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Sound-cancelling vs opacity-cancelling?<br /> <br /> ==Page 543==<br /> <br /> '''wraith of Pleiade Lafrisee'''<br /> <br /> Pleiade manifests one of her not-visible stars. Perhaps this sister has somehow twisted herself on an imaginary axis ala Dr. V. Ganesh Rao.<br /> <br /> '''monitory'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Warning, giving advice, by extension ominous or menacing.<br /> <br /> '''Against....the day....'''<br /> Note: this phrase happens at the exact halfway point of the novel: p.542.3<br /> <br /> '''He Who Must Come'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> The evil-doer who must come might be Adolf Hitler. It would make sense. The implication being that Europe is precipitating into a no-return situation. Capitalism cannot but end in WW2.&lt;br&gt;<br /> Ah, a lot more and less than capitalism going on here, especially if anyone specific like Hitler is meant. <br /> :When French writers use this phrase (''celui qui doit venir'') they '''do''' mean the Messiah . . . although a few devout quibblers point out that the Messiah has already come. It's rather tiresome Googling the phrase; the first 83 hits definitely refer to Christ and most of them quote the first verses of Matthew 11. But there's also a Camus reference (in English, I think) down at No. 90, if anyone has a JSTOR account:<br /> :links.jstor.org/sici?sici=0361-1299(1985)39%3A4%3C251%3ACFS%22M%3E2.0.CO%3B2-X <br /> <br /> Recalls Yeats' 'The Second Coming' once again: &quot;And what rough beast, its hour come round at last, Slouches towards Bethlehem to be born?&quot; [http://chumpsofchoice.blogspot.com/2007/05/casino-royale-in-flanders-field.html#c3637134446204467798 ]<br /> <br /> '''General Boulanger'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/General_Boulanger Georges Boulanger], French military man, and War Minister in the late 19th century. He was one of those men &quot;on a white horse&quot; that some conservatives looked to, as he urged an attack on Germany and the end of the French Republic with a return to monarchy. He was also notorious for his harsh reprisals against workers' demonstrations. &quot;'Boulangisme'&quot; threatened a coup in 1889, but the general's procrastination brought the crisis to an end.&lt;br&gt;<br /> In ''The Infernal Machine: A History of Terrorism''<br /> by Matthew Carr, 2007, Boulanger is called the &quot;father&quot; of fascism.<br /> <br /> '''what death and what transfiguration'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Allusion to Richard Strauss' tone poem &quot;Death and Transfiguration&quot; (''Tod und Verklärung''), premiered in 1890.<br /> <br /> '''''&quot;Zeker&quot;'''''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Dutch: certainly.<br /> <br /> '''''dead cert'''''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Dead certainty, sure thing.<br /> <br /> '''Von Schlieffen'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Alfred von Schlieffen was the author of a German war plan to win a two-front war against both France and Russia by quickly defeating France before Russian troops could be mobilized. The [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Schlieffen_Plan Schlieffen Plan] included an attack on France through Belgium, disregarding its neutrality.<br /> <br /> '''Wilhelm has offered Leopold part of France, the ancient Duchy of Burgundy'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> [http://www.crwflags.com/fotw/flags/fr-bg.html History of the duchy.] [http://www.freiburg-madison.de/freiburg_history/1386-1517_The%20Early%20Habsburgs.htm Map,] with portrait of Duke Charles the Rash.<br /> <br /> '''lowlands'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Title of Pynchon's first published story. Here, ass?<br /> <br /> ==Page 544==<br /> <br /> '''Place d'Armes'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Main square of Ostend; literally &quot;drill field&quot;.<br /> <br /> '''peau de soie'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> &quot;Skin of silk&quot; A heavy, smooth satin with very fine ribbing; somewhat dull in sheen compared with traditional silk finishes.<br /> <br /> '''Krafft-Ebing'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Richard Freiherr von Krafft-Ebing, Austro-German psychiatrist and author of ''Psychopathia Sexualis'' (1886), a pioneering study of deviant sexual behavior and fetishism. Coined both ''sadism'' and ''masochism'' as terms for these respective behaviors. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Richard_Freiherr_von_Krafft-Ebing Wikipedia entry].<br /> <br /> '''toque'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Toque here refers to a lady's hat, originally of fur but here in velvet, which is rather like a flattened chef's hat in shape.<br /> <br /> Proust: in ''À l'ombre des jeunes filles en fleurs'' the narrator first sees Albertine wearing a toque. There seem to be quite a few Proust themes and references running throughout the novel. Indeed '''Pliade''' is the French publisher of Proust's works. <br /> <br /> '''guipure'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Lace trim.<br /> <br /> '''midinette'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> A shopgirl or dressmakers apprentice. A milliner.<br /> <br /> '''Lambic'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> A distinctive Belgian style of beer. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lambic Wikipedia]<br /> <br /> '''sous'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> <br /> Coins. Originally Roman gold coins, latterly any kind of coin.<br /> <br /> Specifically small change. She is affecting modesty by claiming that a hat like hers can be had for pennies in any unpretentious shop. In France &quot;sou is used as slang for money, as in ''sans le sou''. 'I'm broke', 'without money'. It is also a slang term for the Canadian cent (standard French, cent).&quot; ([http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sou Wikipedia])<br /> <br /> '''mayonnaise'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Brautigan's &quot;Trout Fishing in America&quot; famously ends with the word mayonnaise. [http://books.google.com/books?vid=ISBN0395500761&amp;id=rbEjDovfyNMC&amp;pg=RA2-PA111&amp;lpg=RA2-PA111&amp;ots=ELKl5b_6Tx&amp;dq=mayonnaise+trout.fishing&amp;num=100&amp;sig=BiyXRqJXRGrMWbrBNgn8de2kpCo#PRA2-PA112,M1 GoogleBooks]<br /> <br /> '''ovoöleaginous'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Another Pynchonic word combination, here denoting the two main ingredients of mayonnaise: 1) eggs, and 2) oil. It's not &quot;fecoventilatory collision&quot; as seen in &quot;Vineland,&quot; but it's nice.<br /> <br /> '''Grenache'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Grape commonly used in Rhone Valley wines e.g. Chateauneuf du Pape.<br /> <br /> '''Chantilly'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> <br /> Region north of Paris.<br /> <br /> Here the reference is to crème chantilly otherwise known as whipped cream. Chantilly mayonnaise is made by incorporating the beaten egg whites for extra lightness.<br /> <br /> '''attainder'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Legislative act declaring that a person is guilty of a crime and setting punishment without the benefit of a formal trial. The Constitution forbids the federal government (Article I, Section 9, clause 3) and the state governments (Article I, Section 10, clause 1) from passing bills of attainder.<br /> [www.historycentral.com/Civics/B.html] <br /> <br /> ''''''Aux armes, citoyens''''''&lt;br&gt;<br /> ''To arms, citizens'', from the French national anthem, ''La Marseillaise'' (1792). Kit confused La Mayonnaise with La Marseillaise.&lt;br&gt;<br /> Not &quot;Le Marseillaise,&quot; you nitwit!<br /> <br /> '''Louis XV'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> King of France 1715-1774 [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Louis_XV]. <br /> <br /> '''Cléo de Mérode'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Glamorous French ballerina (1875-1966), later Follies Bergere dancer and famous beauty. Her reputed intimacy with King Leopold was only a rumor [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cleo_de_Merode]. The character Madame Leonora Armfeldt in Stephen Sondheim's ''A Little Night Music'' has some features in common with her.<br /> <br /> '''Marquise de Pompadour'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Mistress of Louis XV,once friend of Voltaire and a power behind official scenes.[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Madame_de_Pompadour].<br /> <br /> ==Page 545==<br /> <br /> '''duc de Richelieu'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Duc de Richelieu (1696-1788), marshal of France, was a grandnephew of Cardinal Richelieu, and born in Paris. Apart from his reputation as a man of exceptionally loose morals, he attained, in spite of a defective education, distinction as a diplomatist and general. ([http://www.1911encyclopedia.org/Louis_Francois_Armand_du_Plessis,_duc_de_Richelieu duc de Richelieu] and cf [[ATD_489-524#Page 490|page 490:duc de Richelieu]])<br /> <br /> '''dubious 'victory' in 1756'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> As part of the Seven Years' War (1756-1763), duc de Richelieu (1696-1788), a Marshal of France, won a victory in the Battle of Minorca (May 20, 1756) over John Byng (1704-1757), a British Admiral. In spring of 1756 John Byng was sent with a small and undermanned fleet to relieve the British ''Port Mahon'' on the Mediterranean island of Minorca. During the battle ensued, several British ships were badly damaged by the French squadron while others, including Byng's flagship, were still out of effective firing range. Instead of engaging the enemy directly, Byng decided to keep the formation, allowing the French fleet to get away undamaged. ([http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_Minorca Battle of Minorca]).<br /> <br /> '''the ill-fated Admiral Byng'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> John Byng, convicted by court-martial of failure &quot;to do his utmost&quot; in the battle, shot in 1757. Remembered because of (1) his being the last officer of flag rank to be put to death for conduct in battle and (2) Voltaire's gag in ''Candide:'' &quot;In this country it is good to kill an admiral from time to time in order to encourage the others.&quot;<br /> <br /> '''cantharides'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> &quot;Spanish fly,&quot; contact irritant sometimes ill-advisedly used as aphrodisiac.<br /> <br /> '''Sadean'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Pertaining to the Marquis de Sade. The acts the chef performs on the egg and oil have the same names as acts of Sadean sex. <br /> <br /> '''''n'est-ce pas?'''''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Right? (Isn't that so?)<br /> <br /> '''vetiver'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> A grass (Vetiveria zizanioides) of tropical India, cultivated for its aromatic roots that yield an oil used in perfumery.<br /> [www.answers.com/topic/vetiver]. So, a perfume with, llterallly, roots in India.<br /> <br /> Vetiver makes frequent appearances throughout ''À la recherche du temps perdu.''<br /> <br /> '''pip'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> A beaut; in current parlance, a hottie.<br /> <br /> '''Q.P. system'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Quaternion Probability, page 536.<br /> <br /> '''Usine Régionale'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> French: as translated in the text.<br /> <br /> ==Page 546==<br /> <br /> '''disjunctive effects of thunderstorms'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Folk wisdom says a thunderstorm will cause mayonnaise to separate (oil from yolks).<br /> <br /> '''cottonseed oil'''<br /> <br /> Mayonnaisse like Smegmo and Crisco is a hydrogenated fat; cottonseed oil is a common factor to all three. Indeed, the name Crisco derives from the intial sounds of &quot;'''crys'''tallized '''c'''ottonseed '''o'''il&quot;. Note in the next few pages a mention of Candlebrow -- underscoring a tie-in between Mayonnaisse and Smegmo. <br /> <br /> It may be of interest to note that hydrogenation may have a symbolic use for Pynchon. The process entails bubbling hydrogen through oil in the presence of a metal catalyst such as nickel, platinum, aluminum at 248 to 410 degrees. Remnants of these metals stay in the finished product, and when consumed can lead to an increase in heavy metals in the human body.<br /> <br /> Eating hydrogenated oils is like eating plastic. The body does not recognize that these molecules have been mutated and tries to use them as essential fatty acids. But they cannot perform the same function, and as a result hydrogenated oils can cause short circuits in the electrical flow that controls the heartbeat, nerve functions, cell division and mental balance. They also create free radicals (anarchists!) that are linked to cancers. Free radicals plus metal remnants are a major contributor to cancer, heart disease, immune system dysfunction, osteoporosis, depression, chronic fatigue, Alzheimers, and neurological diseases. It is estimated that over 200 million people have died prematurely because of the hydrogenated oils found in our diets. [http://www.drz.org/asp/newsletter/default.asp?xt2id=23] Not to mention innocent bystanders killed by mentally imbalanced people whose imbalance may stem from the ingestion of hydrogenated oils -- there may be some underlying reality to the &quot;Twinkie defense.&quot;<br /> <br /> '''lounge suit'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> A lounge suit is another name for business suit consisting of a matching jacket and trousers or skirt.<br /> <br /> '''congress shoes'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> ankle high shoes with elastic gussets in the sides (wordweb online)<br /> <br /> '''invisible hand'''<br /> <br /> Suggestive of Adam Smith's metaphor for market forces in economics.<br /> <br /> '''dripping-heads'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mayonnaise To make mayonnaise,] beat together egg yolks, salt, mustard and vinegar, then drip in oil while beating to form the emulsion. If you scale the process up for industrial production, you will automate the introduction of the oil, using nozzles that release it a drop at a time—but in a large vat you can have many such nozzles.<br /> <br /> '''''cuves d'agitation'''''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Vat or tank in which the mayonnaise is agitated or beaten.<br /> <br /> '''Clinique d'Urgence pour Sauvetage des Sauces'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> French: Emergency Clinic for Salvage of Sauces.<br /> <br /> ==Page 547==<br /> <br /> '''' ...engulfed in thick, slick, sour-smelling mayonnaise. ''''<br /> The whole Kit's experience in the mayonnaise factory is very much reminiscent to [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Roald_Dahl Roald Dahl]'s [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Charlie_and_the_Chocolate_Factory Charlie and the Chocolate Factory].<br /> <br /> '''''Cazzo, cretino'''''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Literally, &quot;Dick, cretin.&quot; ''Cazzo'' is a common Italian interjectionary obscenity, especially in the south. &quot;Cazzo, cretino,&quot; is akin to someone saying, &quot;Well shit, dummy,&quot; or &quot;F-ing moron!&quot;<br /> <br /> '''''È il cowboy!'''''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Italian: It's the cowboy!<br /> <br /> '''''vero?'''''&lt;br&gt;<br /> true? real?<br /> <br /> '''''Le bambole anarchiste, porca miseria'''''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Italian: Anarchist babes, oh boy.<br /> <br /> '''Oudenberg'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> A southeast suburb of Ostende.<br /> <br /> '''Quai de l'Entrepôt'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Warehouse Quay<br /> <br /> '''''ragazzi'''''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Italian: boys, guys.<br /> <br /> ==Page 548==<br /> <br /> '''General Boulanger'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> That the General was 'reactionary' and that the C of C bureaucracy had a 'defiant residue' of Boulangism, continues the characterization of the organization for which the Chums 'work'.&lt;br&gt;<br /> See p. 543 above, regarding a 2007 book in which Boulanger is called the 'father of fascism'.<br /> <br /> '''''timbres fictifs'''''&lt;br&gt;<br /> French: fictive postage stamps. Cf &quot;Lot 49&quot;.&lt;br&gt;<br /> Yes, stamps mean something in Pynchon's works; here, it seems important that these stamps are characterized as frauds.<br /> <br /> '''&quot;IIIb&quot;'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> As explained in the text.&lt;br&gt;<br /> &quot;Section IIIB (Intelligence) of the German High Command. After WWI, was funded by Alfred Hugenberg (financial backer of Nazi party)&quot;. From ''Sabotage'' by Sayers &amp; Kahn, 1942.[http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&amp;q=%22IIIB%27+%2B+INTELLIGENCE&amp;btnG=Search]. The authors state in the Forward, in 1942, &quot;that 'Nazi Germany' is the creation of spies and saboteurs&quot;. See ''V.'' &amp; ''Gravity's Rainbow'', of course. <br /> <br /> '''Germany might stand a better chance...'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> That is, if the French were to push into Alsace (per Boulanger) as the Germans executed the Schlieffen Plan [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Schlieffen_plan] for the encirclement of Paris, it would put the French at an even greater disadvantage...as actually happened in 1914. Had the Belgians and British not delayed the Germans in Flanders, and had the French railroads not performed speedily to bring the French troops back to the Marne, World War I could have had a very different outcome...an alternate history. <br /> <br /> '''revanchist'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Policies based on revenge, or a person following such policies. In General Boulanger's case, revenge against Germany for the Franco-Prussian War (that is, retaking Alsace, lost in 1871).<br /> <br /> '''the somewhat discomposed General'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Having died in 1891, the General by the time of the action is certainly somewhat '''de'''composed; brief biographies do not suggest he was ''non compos mentis,'' that is, mentally discomposed.<br /> <br /> ==Page 549==<br /> '''grow more and more invisible'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> What could be meant? Clearly, they inhabit bodies that people interact with?, as well as being characters in works of fiction.&lt;br&gt;<br /> Given what happens with the Chums as the story progresses [Spoiler bit, thematically], I suggest that their invisibility here<br /> means the entering of simple human life, to live out their lives 'anonymously' in history. I want to suggest this is largely a positive vision, indicated in other ways and places as well in TRPs work. Here is an overt 'clue' from Pynchon's introduction to the novel ''Stone Junction'': <br /> &quot;Equally difficult for those who might wish to proceed through life<br /> anonymously and without trace has been the continuing assault against<br /> the once-reliable refuge of the cash or non-plastic economy. &quot;<br /> <br /> '''cackled Darby'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> (When did he lose his innocence?)<br /> <br /> '''a modification of any salsician metaphor toward the diminutive'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Salsician: pertaining to sausage. Lindsay says Suckling's penis is better compared to a wiener than a knockwurst.<br /> <br /> '''&quot;Why you little–and I do mean 'little'–&quot;'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Another Simpsons reference? <br /> <br /> Noseworth, the Master-At-Arms of the Chums division of this organization with a defiant residue of 'fascism', who had no smell to Pugnax early on,<br /> is called out, either for real or in a sex-bashing putdown, for homosexuality. cf. homosexuality as a metaphor in ''Gravity's Rainbow''. <br /> <br /> '''dunes between Nieuport and Dunkirk'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Nieuport is a Belgian seaport about 10 miles southwest of Ostend. Dunkirk is a French port (less than 10 miles inside the French border) about 20 miles southwest of Nieuport. The latter was a site of one of the bloodest battle in World War I. The general area between Niewport and Dunkirk was the well traversed battle fields of two world wars. (Dunkirk was (in)famous for the British Army's escape from the Nazi German's assault in World War II.)<br /> <br /> '''power-receivers'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Not information, energy.<br /> <br /> ==Page 550==<br /> <br /> '''Lot's wife''' &lt;br&gt;<br /> Angels of God led Lot and his family out of Sodom as it was being destroyed and told them not to look back at the mayhem. Lot's wife, Edith, imprudently looked back and was transfigured into a pillar of salt.<br /> <br /> '''Italian grotto'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> an imitating recess or structure made to resemble a natural Italian grotto.<br /> <br /> '''a highly developed taste, moreover, for human blood'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Since Pugnax developed this taste in the Carpathians, home of Castle Dracula, this seems a clear reference to Bram Stoker's novel. <br /> <br /> '''Carpathians'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Major mountain range running northwest-southeast through Poland, Slovakia, western Ukraine and Romania.<br /> <br /> '''Uhlans'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Uhlan regiments belonged to the light cavalry. They wore splendid uniforms (model for some U.S. marching band uniforms). [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Uhlan Wikipedia article.]<br /> <br /> '''Temesvár'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Now Timişoara, extreme western Romania.<br /> <br /> ==Page 551==<br /> <br /> '''...separated by only a slice of Time...'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Miles is beginning to experience Time almost as a spatial dimension, his personal vector as traversing (!) 4-dimensional space, or perhaps multidimensional space, the mathematics for which is being debated in Ostend.<br /> <br /> '''securing the mess decks'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> The Chums follow U.S. Navy idiom in orders (frequently prefixed with &quot;Now&quot;) and shipboard activities (&quot;secure&quot; meaning &quot;whatever you did before, undo it now,&quot; in this case put away the dishes and fold up the tables).<br /> <br /> '''Ryder Thorn'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Tolkienesque name? Or perhaps it's a nod to the Ryder-Waite Tarot deck and to Kevin Thorn (Kevin Matthew Fertig, 1977-), the American professional wrestler better known by his ring name Kevin Thorn who is currently signed to World Wrestling Entertainment wrestling on its ECW brand. He has appeared in vigniettes with Ariel (Shelly Martinez, 1980-), the tarot card reader, who spits blood at the camera while she &quot;predicted the future of ECW.&quot; Yup, a stretch...<br /> <br /> *The name also evokes the Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse.<br /> <br /> '''He was at Candlebrow.'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Presumably a 'trespasser.'<br /> <br /> '''the four-note chord in the context of timelessness'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> A melody is formed by notes following one another in time; a chord on the ukulele violates that practice by having all the notes sound at once. A really clever little passage.<br /> Note: Jazz musicians describe musical improvisations as horizontal (with the melody) or vertical (with the chord)<br /> <br /> ==Page 552==<br /> <br /> '''knuckle-duster'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Brass knuckles.<br /> <br /> '''Diksmuide'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> 20 kilometers south of Ostend (about halfway to Ypres).<br /> <br /> ==Page 553==<br /> <br /> '''The terrain was flat...lowlands'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Not, this time, a reference to Pynchon's ''Lowlands'', but to the two-dimensionality of Flanders, as in Edwin A. Abbott's ''Flatland'' [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Flatland]; most humans, like the inhabitants of Flanders and Abbott's Flatlanders, experience life in two dimensions. <br /> <br /> '''Somewhere up in the sky was Miles' home...'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Whereas Miles and the Chums of Chance, in contrast, live in three dimensions. The mathematicians gathered in Ostend are trying to calculate how to experience and use vectors to live in four dimensions; in a way, to experience Time as a kind of spatial dimension. Miles, on P. 551, is demonstrating the beginnings of an intuitive discovery of how to experience Time as an almost spatial dimension. Which would be a sort of &quot;time travel&quot;, or at least an expanded view of life and history.<br /> <br /> '''retted'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> soaked in water or exposed to moisture (as flax or hemp) to facilitate the removal of the fiber from the woody tissue by partial rotting.<br /> <br /> ==Page 554==<br /> <br /> '''Ypres and Menin'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Municipalities in West Flanders that were sites of some of the bloodiest battles of WWI. At the beginning of the war, the British and Belgian stand helped save Paris from encirclement by the Germans, and saved the Channel ports, but as Thorn points out, the area became the western anchor of the Western Front trench system. The several Battles of Ypres saw the first uses of poison gas (Mustard Gas, dichlorodiethylsulfide, was first called Yperite), the use of enormous mines, and the legendary mud of Passchendaele [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Passchendaele]. <br /> <br /> '''Ten years from now'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> (1914?) through 1918? and beyond?. Another paramorphic mirror--what do we now face. Whatever it is, it is nuclear.<br /> <br /> '''Bosch'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Hieronymous Bosch (1450-1516), Dutch painter of nightmares. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hieronymus_Bosch Wikipedia entry].<br /> <br /> '''Brueghel'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Pieter Brueghel the Elder(1525-1569), Flemish painter.[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pieter_Brueghel_the_Elder Wikipedia entry].<br /> <br /> '''League'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> League of Nations? The League of Nations was formed after WWI to prevent future wars. Didn't succeed.<br /> <br /> No. In this case a historical unit of length, approximately three miles - &quot;league on league&quot; = tremendous masses<br /> <br /> '''where the needles went and which way to rotate them'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> I.e., how to push Thorn's buttons; the image is from acupuncture.<br /> <br /> ==Page 555==<br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> '''simpletons at the fair'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Making Pynchon's metaphor explicit.<br /> <br /> '''Chopin E-minor Nocturne'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Frédéric Chopin (1810-49), a Polish pianist and composer ([http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fr%C3%A9d%C3%A9ric_Chopin Chopin]). He was born in Warsaw, Poland to a Polish morther and a French father. He went to Paris at the age of 20 and died there at the age of 39. He was widely regarded as one of the most famous and influential composers for the piano. From 1837-47 he had a 10-year stormy relationship with the French writer George Sand. His E-minor Nocturne is a 4-minute long Romantic style piano solo composed in 1827. (A ''nocturne'' is usually a musical composition that is inspired by, or evocative of, the night [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nocturne Nocturne].)<br /> <br /> '''owl-light'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> ???glimmering or imperfect light or twilight hours.<br /> <br /> ''''plasmic hysteresis''''&lt;br&gt;<br /> <br /> A coined term, apparently similar in meaning to Miles’ phrase “failure of physical translation.” Plasma would take an older meaning of “form” or “shape.&quot; Hysteresis, according to Webster's, refers to “a retardation in effect when the forces on an object are changed.” Hysteresis is used to describe magnetic phenomenon as well as plastic or elastic materials, that involve changes to a rest state that last beyond the forces that cause them. Examples include recordings on magnetic tape or a thumbprint slowly disappearing from putty. In the context of this passage, plasmic hysteresis appears to describe the lingering visage of someone who is no longer present – a hysteresis of form only and thus a failed physical translation. See [http://www.etymonline.com/index.php?search=plasma&amp;searchmode=none etymology of plasma] and this nifty explanation of [http://www.lassp.cornell.edu/sethna/hysteresis/WhatIsHysteresis.html hysteresis]. <br /> <br /> Hysteresis has also been used to refer to “loops” in time, certainly apropos in this case. I stumbled across an excellent example in a 1980 episode of Dr. Who, in which the eponymous Dr. is trapped in “chronic hysteresis,” an endless loop or return to a previous <br /> point in time – very similar to the situation of Ryder Thorn. [http://www.drwhoguide.com/who_5q.htm Check it out for yourself!] <br /> <br /> <br /> ==Annotation Index==<br /> {{ATD PbP}}</div>

MKOHUT https://against-the-day.pynchonwiki.com/wiki/index.php?title=ATD_1040-1062&diff=14104 2007-10-19T11:20:00Z

<p>MKOHUT: /* Page 1054 */</p> <hr /> <div>:'''&lt;big&gt;Please keep these annotations SPOILER-FREE by not revealing information from later pages in the novel.&lt;/big&gt;'''&lt;p&gt;&lt;br&gt;<br /> <br /> ==Page XX==<br /> <br /> '''Sample entry'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Please format like this.<br /> <br /> ==Page 1040==<br /> <br /> ==Page 1041==<br /> <br /> '''Dr. Ghloix'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> He was also the alienist of the Vormance expedition (page 132).<br /> <br /> '''shadow-factories'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Movie studios.<br /> <br /> '''Thetis Pomidor'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Thetis the Silver-Footed is a Nereid (sea nymph) in Greek mythology. She is the mother of Achilles, who seeks to prevent his death by dipping him in the water of the river Styx (holding him by the famously vulnerable heel), by trying to prevent him from joining the war at Troy, and by persuading him not to try to avenge Patroclus. In the end she has made for him the magnificent shield he carries in his duel with Hector.<br /> <br /> Pomidor is the Polish word for &quot;tomato&quot; (possibly other languages too). (A &quot;tomato&quot; = a &quot;hottie&quot; in mid 20th century slang).<br /> <br /> ==Page 1042==<br /> <br /> '''Erno Rapée'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> 1891-1945, Hungarian-born composer for American movies. He published a book of &quot;photoplay music&quot; for the silents.<br /> <br /> '''Shalimar'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Excessively evocative name for a detective's moll; [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shalimar the Wikipedia disambiguation page] leads to many of the meanings.<br /> <br /> '''Mezzanine Perkins'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Her given name suggests a physical attribute also called &quot;balcony,&quot; while her surname makes a nice fit with another desirable quality, &quot;perkiness.&quot;<br /> <br /> '''Chester LeStreet'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Chester le Street is a town in the north east of England. Home of Durham County Cricket club, amongst other things.<br /> <br /> TRP almost certainly picked up on the name during research for 'Mason &amp; Dixon'. Dixon was a native of County Durham, which is home to a number of odd place names (e.g. Pity Me, No Place). Chester-le-Street is roughly 15 miles south of Newcastle upon Tyne. <br /> <br /> I imagine TRP keeping long lists of potential character names from odd terminology which he runs across in his research...<br /> <br /> '''Vertex Club'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> The vertex is the intersection of two lines of an angle, the zero point on a graph/grid. Recalls the V Note in ''V.''.<br /> <br /> '''Miss Jardine Maraca'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Allusion to Beach Boys guitarist [http://www.aljardine.com Al Jardine,] who bears a reasonably common surname? Rude teenagers in the 1960s sometimes used the word &quot;maracas&quot; when they didn't want to come right out and refer to a girl's bazongas.<br /> <br /> ==Page 1043==<br /> <br /> '''the days just before the earthquake'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> The quake of June 29, 1925, destroyed the center of Santa Barbara and occasioned rebuilding to a &quot;Mission-style&quot; plan.<br /> <br /> '''chifferobe'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> From ''chiffonier'' + ''wardrobe'', a combination chest of drawers and wardrobe for hanging clothes. Pronounced &quot;SHIF-uh-rohb.&quot; Also ''chifforobe'', ''chiffrobe'', or ''chiffarobe''.<br /> <br /> The disposal of an old chifferobe is a plot point in Harper Lee's ''To Kill a Mockingbird''.<br /> <br /> '''hop'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Marijuana.<br /> <br /> ==Page 1044==<br /> <br /> '''smoked a Fatima'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Sometime in the mid-20th century, this American cigarette brand sponsored a radio program starring Basil Rathbone.<br /> <br /> ''Possibly not relevant, but given the marijuana reference, the choice of this particular cigarette brand also echoes the phrase &quot;smoke a fatty&quot;, i.e. a big joint of marijuana.''<br /> <br /> ==Page 1045==<br /> <br /> '''glass mattes'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Scenes painted on glass could be filmed along with the action, so that large or intricate backgrounds did not have to be built to full scale.<br /> <br /> ==Page 1046==<br /> <br /> '''Olga Nethersole'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> British actress and producer, 1863-1941; had successful tours in the U.S. and elsewhere.<br /> <br /> '''Mrs. Fiske'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> American actress Minnie Maddern Fiske, 1865-1932; a leading figure on the stage; made movies of two of her theatrical productions.<br /> <br /> ==Page 1047==<br /> <br /> '''Li'l Jailbirds'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Some points in common with the Little Tough Guys, Dead End Kids, East Side Kids and other movie series; [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Little_Tough_Guys see the Wikipedia entry.]<br /> <br /> '''one-reel comedies'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> A reel of film ran off in something over 12 minutes.<br /> <br /> '''orthochromatic film'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Film with low sensitivity to red light. The human face reflects a lot of red light, which made little impression on the film, so that faces tended to look dark in the projected image. Adaptations in the studio included green makeup to bring the face into highlight.<br /> <br /> '''birch beer'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Carbonated soft drink made with birch bark or oil, typically popular in northeastern U.S. and Newfoundland.<br /> <br /> '''stuffed peppers they liked to call &quot;mangoes&quot;'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> This term for bell peppers occurs in the Midwest and especially southern Ohio.<br /> <br /> ==Page 1048==<br /> <br /> '''a P.E. stop'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> &quot;P.E.&quot; stands for &quot;Pacific Electric.&quot; The Pacific Electric Railway (AAR reporting mark is PE), also known as the Red Car system, was a mass transit system in Southern California using streetcars, light rail and buses. At its greatest extent, around 1925, the system connected cities in Los Angeles and Orange Counties, and to Riverside County and San Bernardino County in the Inland Empire. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pacific_Electric_Railway Wikipedia]<br /> <br /> '''runs through the time between the picture was taken and now in a matter of seconds'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> The reason this may sound plausible is that analog computers were used in just this way to generate artillery firing tables. But in the artillery case, the parameters of motion were given; photographic film does not record this information.<br /> <br /> ==Page 1049==<br /> <br /> '''''Intolerance'''''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Intolerance: Love's Struggle Throughout the Ages (1916) was D.W. Griffith's follow-up to ''Birth of a Nation''.<br /> Intolerance and its effects are examined in four historical eras. In ancient Babylon, a mountain girl is caught up in the religious rivalry that leads to the city's downfall. In Judea, the hypocritical Pharisees condemn Jesus Christ. In 1572 Paris, unaware of the impending St. Bartholomew's Day Massacre, two young Huguenots prepare for marriage. Finally, in modern America, social reformers destroy the lives of a young woman and her beloved. The sets were reportedly spectacular, and on a huge scale.<br /> <br /> '''the ''Times'' bombing'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> [http://www.usc.edu/libraries/archives/la/scandals/times.html The Bombing of the ''Los Angles Times''], October 1, 1910.<br /> <br /> '''the constant term in the primitive, which differentiation has taken to zero'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Last part first: differentiation is the operation of finding the rate of change of a quantity; a constant doesn't change, so its differentiation yields a result of zero. The &quot;primitive&quot; is the function that was differentiated; if it contained a constant term, that has vanished and must be restored. Reconstruction of the primitive therefore involves reversing the differentiation (finding the &quot;indefinite integral&quot;) and setting the correct value of the constant term. By guesswork in this instance. No, it doesn't work, but remember that this is ''alchemy'' we're talking about.<br /> <br /> Or 'Pataphysics.<br /> <br /> Consider a pun on &quot;primitive&quot; in Pynchon's worldview...the primitive being a good thing, now vanished.<br /> <br /> ==Page 1050==<br /> <br /> '''his official . . . life . . . a completely different life'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> The reconstruction of the &quot;primitive&quot; (page 1049) entails fixing a value for the constant term. The operator can choose the &quot;official&quot; value and get Lew's &quot;supposed-to-be&quot; life as output, or can choose a different value and track some unofficial life. The machine can't tell the difference.<br /> <br /> '''Louis Le Prince'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> 1842-90. Inventor in 1888 of the &quot;chronophotographe&quot; process. Widely acknowledged to be first to photograph motion. He vanished from a train.<br /> <br /> ==Page 1051==<br /> <br /> '''mazuma'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Slang; Yiddish derived from Hebrew: money.<br /> <br /> ==Page 1052==<br /> <br /> '''a company-issued Bulldog'''&lt;br /&gt;<br /> A Bulldog is a small, &quot;snubbie&quot; revolver, with a very high power-to-weight ratio, perfect for carrying in the pocket as a concealed weapon or, in Deuce's case, in a shoulder holster. First referred to in the &quot;Beavers of the Brain&quot; song, [[ATD 171-198#Page 183|p. 183]]<br /> <br /> ==Page 1053==<br /> <br /> ''''em mick bastards bombed the ''Times'''''&lt;br&gt;<br /> James and Joseph McNamara ultimately pleaded guilty to the bombing (see [[#Page 1049|page 1049]] and [[#Page 1058|page 1058]]).<br /> <br /> '''dago dynamiters'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Deuce must have acquired this bit of alliterative bigotry somewhere and randomly dropped it into his rant.<br /> <br /> ==Page 1054==<br /> <br /> '''the Universal Dream Casino'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> a &quot;dream casino&quot; has been used by some writers to describe the 'ideal'<br /> gambling place as in the phrase, &quot;Bugsy Siegel's dream casino&quot; in Vegas.<br /> A 'dream casino'--real betting, it seems--company for women exists. <br /> From the context, and novel's themes, I suggest that this phrase means<br /> all of Lake's possible, fantasizable fates, played out as 'chance'.<br /> <br /> '''Chinese fourths'''&lt;br&gt; The interval of a fourth in music consists of 2 whole-tones plus one half-tone. The following are all fourths: from do to fa, re to sol, mi to la; fa to ti is a tritone. In the context here, the 2 notes in the interval are being played simultaneously. In the music of the Western world (North America, Europe, and Australia), if one plays parallel fourths (e.g., do-fa to re-sol, to mi-la), it sounds like Chinese music. Authentic Chinese music is played using an Eastern scale which is different from the Western scale people in the West are used to, which is why Chinese music might sound out of tune (&quot;jangling&quot;) to someone from the West.<br /> <br /> ==Page 1055==<br /> <br /> ==Page 1056==<br /> <br /> '''it's no longer possible to go back the way they came'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> A situation encountered before in ''AtD,'' for example Kit's predicament at the doubling of ''Stupendica.''<br /> <br /> ==Page 1057==<br /> <br /> ==Page 1058==<br /> <br /> '''it wasn't Haymarket . . . It wasn't Ludlow. It wasn't the Palmer raids'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Haymarket bombing; Colorado coal war; Justice Department campaign against American leftists under Woodrow Wilson's attorney general Alexander M. Palmer.<br /> <br /> '''Virgil Maraca'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> For Virgil, [[ATD_821-848#Page_825|see page 825.]]<br /> <br /> '''...when the land was free, before it got hijacked by capitalist Christer Republicans for their long term evil purposes....'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> and once again (say it with me) &quot;No reference to the present day is intended or should be inferred.&quot; <br /> <br /> <br /> '''Gray Otis . . . the McNamaras . . . Brother Darrow'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> the McNamaras were accused of dynamiting the Los Angeles Times building on October 1, 1910, resulting in the death of 21 persons. The crime was one of a nation-wide series intended to prevent the use of non-union materials and non-union labor. The defendants were strongly supported by the American Federation of Labor. Later the accused pleaded guilty, and James B. McNamara was sentenced to life imprisonment and John McNamara to imprisonment for 15 years. The pro-McNamara forces claimed that escaping gas, not a bomb, had destroyed the Times building. More extremist labor sympathizers charged that Otis himself had arranged the explosion.<br /> <br /> Harrison Gray Otis (1837-1917) was an American newspaper publisher who directed the Los Angeles Times from 1886 until after World War I, which he edited with an iron hand, becoming one of the most powerful figures in southern California. He made his newspaper a voice of Republican interests, and he opposed labor unions.<br /> <br /> The McNamara brothers trial, which ended just as it began with confessions of guilt by the McNamaras, set the cause of organized labor on the West Coast back by decades. [http://law.jrank.org/pages/2770/McNamara-Brothers-Trial-1911.html More...] <br /> <br /> It also nearly ruined the career of Clarence Darrow (1857-1938), one of America's leading criminal defense lawyers, who represented the McNamaras in the trial. Bert Franklin, on Darrow's payroll, was caught bribing two of the jurors in the McNamara trial. He plead ed guilty to jury tampering and he testified that Darrow had known and approved of the bribery efforts. <br /> <br /> Darrow was arrested and put on trial. When organized labor turned its back on Darrow's request for financial assistance, Darrow had to pay all the legal costs of the 13-week trial out of his own pocket. Darrow denied the charges, and on August 14 and 15, 1912, gave an impassioned closing speech to the jurors, in which he claimed that:<br /> <br /> :&quot;I am not on trial for having sought to bribe a man named Lockwood. I am on trial because I have been a lover of the poor, a friend of the oppressed, because I have stood by Labor for all these years.&quot;<br /> <br /> On August 15, 1912, the jury returned a verdict of not guilty after deliberating for less than an hour. [http://law.jrank.org/pages/2768/McNamara-Brothers-Trial-1911-Darrow-Tried-Bribing-Jurors.html More about Darrow's trial...]<br /> <br /> ==Page 1059==<br /> <br /> '''paradiddle'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> In this sense perhaps more often &quot;taradiddle.&quot; Fiddle, finagle, wriggle. In strict pedantic usage &quot;paradiddle&quot; is a kind of quadruple stroke on the snare drum. Nothing pedantic about it, LeStreet is the drummer in the house band at the Vertex Club and a paradiddle is a 4-beat exercise pattern on the snare drum. E.g., R-R-L-R-L-L-R-L or R-L-R-R-L-R-L-L or etc. (there are lots of paradiddles). The purpose is to play them fast enough so that it sounds like a roll. Different patterns produce rolls that sound distinct from each other, very important to a jazz drummer.<br /> <br /> '''a barnstormer's Curtis JN'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> An army surplus airplane from the World War, bought and flown by an itinerant pilot in aerobatic exhibitions. Nicknamed &quot;Jenny,&quot; the plane was pictured on a 1918 airmail stamp; some sheets had the center image printed upside down: the &quot;Jenny Invert.&quot;<br /> <br /> ==Page 1060==<br /> <br /> '''constant-term recalibration, or C.T.R.'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> [[ATD_1040-1062#Page_1050|See annotation to page 1050.]]<br /> <br /> '''spagyrist'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Alchemist, especially one seeking cures. Follower of Paracelsus.<br /> <br /> '''Doddling'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> (1) Frequent misspelling of &quot;dawdling.&quot; (2) Easy duty for an English bus conductor (e.g., issuing tickets but not supervising operations). (3) Sexual intercourse.<br /> <br /> '''Tree of Diana'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Branching possibilities, alternate histories branching out from any given moment.<br /> <br /> '''...one compassionate time-machine story, time travel in the name of love...'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Two come to mind: Robert Heinlein: ''The Door Into Summer'' and Jack Finney: ''Time and Again''. In both a protagonist succcessfully chases an impossible love through time.<br /> :And don't forget the special meaning of &quot;compassionate&quot; in ''AtD,'' &quot;the Compassionate&quot; = the Chums of Chance.<br /> <br /> A possibility: &quot;The Compassionate&quot; = &quot;The Kindly Ones&quot; = the Erinyes, or Furies, in Greek myth ? = The Chums of Chance.<br /> <br /> ==Page 1061==<br /> <br /> '''mathematical mists'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Recalls Kit's dream on P.566, of equations permitting a view into possible worlds.<br /> Also recalls Julian Barbour's work on probablity mists hovering over possible time capsules. Please see his book, [http://www.platonia.com/index.html ''The End of Time''] for more details.<br /> <br /> ==Page 1062==<br /> <br /> ==Annotation Index==<br /> {{ATD PbP}}</div>

MKOHUT https://against-the-day.pynchonwiki.com/wiki/index.php?title=ATD_1040-1062&diff=14103 2007-10-19T00:41:44Z

<p>MKOHUT: /* Page 1054 */</p> <hr /> <div>:'''&lt;big&gt;Please keep these annotations SPOILER-FREE by not revealing information from later pages in the novel.&lt;/big&gt;'''&lt;p&gt;&lt;br&gt;<br /> <br /> ==Page XX==<br /> <br /> '''Sample entry'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Please format like this.<br /> <br /> ==Page 1040==<br /> <br /> ==Page 1041==<br /> <br /> '''Dr. Ghloix'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> He was also the alienist of the Vormance expedition (page 132).<br /> <br /> '''shadow-factories'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Movie studios.<br /> <br /> '''Thetis Pomidor'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Thetis the Silver-Footed is a Nereid (sea nymph) in Greek mythology. She is the mother of Achilles, who seeks to prevent his death by dipping him in the water of the river Styx (holding him by the famously vulnerable heel), by trying to prevent him from joining the war at Troy, and by persuading him not to try to avenge Patroclus. In the end she has made for him the magnificent shield he carries in his duel with Hector.<br /> <br /> Pomidor is the Polish word for &quot;tomato&quot; (possibly other languages too). (A &quot;tomato&quot; = a &quot;hottie&quot; in mid 20th century slang).<br /> <br /> ==Page 1042==<br /> <br /> '''Erno Rapée'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> 1891-1945, Hungarian-born composer for American movies. He published a book of &quot;photoplay music&quot; for the silents.<br /> <br /> '''Shalimar'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Excessively evocative name for a detective's moll; [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shalimar the Wikipedia disambiguation page] leads to many of the meanings.<br /> <br /> '''Mezzanine Perkins'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Her given name suggests a physical attribute also called &quot;balcony,&quot; while her surname makes a nice fit with another desirable quality, &quot;perkiness.&quot;<br /> <br /> '''Chester LeStreet'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Chester le Street is a town in the north east of England. Home of Durham County Cricket club, amongst other things.<br /> <br /> TRP almost certainly picked up on the name during research for 'Mason &amp; Dixon'. Dixon was a native of County Durham, which is home to a number of odd place names (e.g. Pity Me, No Place). Chester-le-Street is roughly 15 miles south of Newcastle upon Tyne. <br /> <br /> I imagine TRP keeping long lists of potential character names from odd terminology which he runs across in his research...<br /> <br /> '''Vertex Club'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> The vertex is the intersection of two lines of an angle, the zero point on a graph/grid. Recalls the V Note in ''V.''.<br /> <br /> '''Miss Jardine Maraca'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Allusion to Beach Boys guitarist [http://www.aljardine.com Al Jardine,] who bears a reasonably common surname? Rude teenagers in the 1960s sometimes used the word &quot;maracas&quot; when they didn't want to come right out and refer to a girl's bazongas.<br /> <br /> ==Page 1043==<br /> <br /> '''the days just before the earthquake'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> The quake of June 29, 1925, destroyed the center of Santa Barbara and occasioned rebuilding to a &quot;Mission-style&quot; plan.<br /> <br /> '''chifferobe'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> From ''chiffonier'' + ''wardrobe'', a combination chest of drawers and wardrobe for hanging clothes. Pronounced &quot;SHIF-uh-rohb.&quot; Also ''chifforobe'', ''chiffrobe'', or ''chiffarobe''.<br /> <br /> The disposal of an old chifferobe is a plot point in Harper Lee's ''To Kill a Mockingbird''.<br /> <br /> '''hop'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Marijuana.<br /> <br /> ==Page 1044==<br /> <br /> '''smoked a Fatima'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Sometime in the mid-20th century, this American cigarette brand sponsored a radio program starring Basil Rathbone.<br /> <br /> ''Possibly not relevant, but given the marijuana reference, the choice of this particular cigarette brand also echoes the phrase &quot;smoke a fatty&quot;, i.e. a big joint of marijuana.''<br /> <br /> ==Page 1045==<br /> <br /> '''glass mattes'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Scenes painted on glass could be filmed along with the action, so that large or intricate backgrounds did not have to be built to full scale.<br /> <br /> ==Page 1046==<br /> <br /> '''Olga Nethersole'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> British actress and producer, 1863-1941; had successful tours in the U.S. and elsewhere.<br /> <br /> '''Mrs. Fiske'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> American actress Minnie Maddern Fiske, 1865-1932; a leading figure on the stage; made movies of two of her theatrical productions.<br /> <br /> ==Page 1047==<br /> <br /> '''Li'l Jailbirds'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Some points in common with the Little Tough Guys, Dead End Kids, East Side Kids and other movie series; [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Little_Tough_Guys see the Wikipedia entry.]<br /> <br /> '''one-reel comedies'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> A reel of film ran off in something over 12 minutes.<br /> <br /> '''orthochromatic film'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Film with low sensitivity to red light. The human face reflects a lot of red light, which made little impression on the film, so that faces tended to look dark in the projected image. Adaptations in the studio included green makeup to bring the face into highlight.<br /> <br /> '''birch beer'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Carbonated soft drink made with birch bark or oil, typically popular in northeastern U.S. and Newfoundland.<br /> <br /> '''stuffed peppers they liked to call &quot;mangoes&quot;'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> This term for bell peppers occurs in the Midwest and especially southern Ohio.<br /> <br /> ==Page 1048==<br /> <br /> '''a P.E. stop'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> &quot;P.E.&quot; stands for &quot;Pacific Electric.&quot; The Pacific Electric Railway (AAR reporting mark is PE), also known as the Red Car system, was a mass transit system in Southern California using streetcars, light rail and buses. At its greatest extent, around 1925, the system connected cities in Los Angeles and Orange Counties, and to Riverside County and San Bernardino County in the Inland Empire. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pacific_Electric_Railway Wikipedia]<br /> <br /> '''runs through the time between the picture was taken and now in a matter of seconds'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> The reason this may sound plausible is that analog computers were used in just this way to generate artillery firing tables. But in the artillery case, the parameters of motion were given; photographic film does not record this information.<br /> <br /> ==Page 1049==<br /> <br /> '''''Intolerance'''''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Intolerance: Love's Struggle Throughout the Ages (1916) was D.W. Griffith's follow-up to ''Birth of a Nation''.<br /> Intolerance and its effects are examined in four historical eras. In ancient Babylon, a mountain girl is caught up in the religious rivalry that leads to the city's downfall. In Judea, the hypocritical Pharisees condemn Jesus Christ. In 1572 Paris, unaware of the impending St. Bartholomew's Day Massacre, two young Huguenots prepare for marriage. Finally, in modern America, social reformers destroy the lives of a young woman and her beloved. The sets were reportedly spectacular, and on a huge scale.<br /> <br /> '''the ''Times'' bombing'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> [http://www.usc.edu/libraries/archives/la/scandals/times.html The Bombing of the ''Los Angles Times''], October 1, 1910.<br /> <br /> '''the constant term in the primitive, which differentiation has taken to zero'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Last part first: differentiation is the operation of finding the rate of change of a quantity; a constant doesn't change, so its differentiation yields a result of zero. The &quot;primitive&quot; is the function that was differentiated; if it contained a constant term, that has vanished and must be restored. Reconstruction of the primitive therefore involves reversing the differentiation (finding the &quot;indefinite integral&quot;) and setting the correct value of the constant term. By guesswork in this instance. No, it doesn't work, but remember that this is ''alchemy'' we're talking about.<br /> <br /> Or 'Pataphysics.<br /> <br /> Consider a pun on &quot;primitive&quot; in Pynchon's worldview...the primitive being a good thing, now vanished.<br /> <br /> ==Page 1050==<br /> <br /> '''his official . . . life . . . a completely different life'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> The reconstruction of the &quot;primitive&quot; (page 1049) entails fixing a value for the constant term. The operator can choose the &quot;official&quot; value and get Lew's &quot;supposed-to-be&quot; life as output, or can choose a different value and track some unofficial life. The machine can't tell the difference.<br /> <br /> '''Louis Le Prince'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> 1842-90. Inventor in 1888 of the &quot;chronophotographe&quot; process. Widely acknowledged to be first to photograph motion. He vanished from a train.<br /> <br /> ==Page 1051==<br /> <br /> '''mazuma'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Slang; Yiddish derived from Hebrew: money.<br /> <br /> ==Page 1052==<br /> <br /> '''a company-issued Bulldog'''&lt;br /&gt;<br /> A Bulldog is a small, &quot;snubbie&quot; revolver, with a very high power-to-weight ratio, perfect for carrying in the pocket as a concealed weapon or, in Deuce's case, in a shoulder holster. First referred to in the &quot;Beavers of the Brain&quot; song, [[ATD 171-198#Page 183|p. 183]]<br /> <br /> ==Page 1053==<br /> <br /> ''''em mick bastards bombed the ''Times'''''&lt;br&gt;<br /> James and Joseph McNamara ultimately pleaded guilty to the bombing (see [[#Page 1049|page 1049]] and [[#Page 1058|page 1058]]).<br /> <br /> '''dago dynamiters'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Deuce must have acquired this bit of alliterative bigotry somewhere and randomly dropped it into his rant.<br /> <br /> ==Page 1054==<br /> <br /> '''the Universal Dream Casino'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> ???<br /> <br /> '''Chinese fourths'''&lt;br&gt; The interval of a fourth in music consists of 2 whole-tones plus one half-tone. The following are all fourths: from do to fa, re to sol, mi to la; fa to ti is a tritone. In the context here, the 2 notes in the interval are being played simultaneously. In the music of the Western world (North America, Europe, and Australia), if one plays parallel fourths (e.g., do-fa to re-sol, to mi-la), it sounds like Chinese music. Authentic Chinese music is played using an Eastern scale which is different from the Western scale people in the West are used to, which is why Chinese music might sound out of tune (&quot;jangling&quot;) to someone from the West.<br /> <br /> ==Page 1055==<br /> <br /> ==Page 1056==<br /> <br /> '''it's no longer possible to go back the way they came'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> A situation encountered before in ''AtD,'' for example Kit's predicament at the doubling of ''Stupendica.''<br /> <br /> ==Page 1057==<br /> <br /> ==Page 1058==<br /> <br /> '''it wasn't Haymarket . . . It wasn't Ludlow. It wasn't the Palmer raids'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Haymarket bombing; Colorado coal war; Justice Department campaign against American leftists under Woodrow Wilson's attorney general Alexander M. Palmer.<br /> <br /> '''Virgil Maraca'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> For Virgil, [[ATD_821-848#Page_825|see page 825.]]<br /> <br /> '''...when the land was free, before it got hijacked by capitalist Christer Republicans for their long term evil purposes....'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> and once again (say it with me) &quot;No reference to the present day is intended or should be inferred.&quot; <br /> <br /> <br /> '''Gray Otis . . . the McNamaras . . . Brother Darrow'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> the McNamaras were accused of dynamiting the Los Angeles Times building on October 1, 1910, resulting in the death of 21 persons. The crime was one of a nation-wide series intended to prevent the use of non-union materials and non-union labor. The defendants were strongly supported by the American Federation of Labor. Later the accused pleaded guilty, and James B. McNamara was sentenced to life imprisonment and John McNamara to imprisonment for 15 years. The pro-McNamara forces claimed that escaping gas, not a bomb, had destroyed the Times building. More extremist labor sympathizers charged that Otis himself had arranged the explosion.<br /> <br /> Harrison Gray Otis (1837-1917) was an American newspaper publisher who directed the Los Angeles Times from 1886 until after World War I, which he edited with an iron hand, becoming one of the most powerful figures in southern California. He made his newspaper a voice of Republican interests, and he opposed labor unions.<br /> <br /> The McNamara brothers trial, which ended just as it began with confessions of guilt by the McNamaras, set the cause of organized labor on the West Coast back by decades. [http://law.jrank.org/pages/2770/McNamara-Brothers-Trial-1911.html More...] <br /> <br /> It also nearly ruined the career of Clarence Darrow (1857-1938), one of America's leading criminal defense lawyers, who represented the McNamaras in the trial. Bert Franklin, on Darrow's payroll, was caught bribing two of the jurors in the McNamara trial. He plead ed guilty to jury tampering and he testified that Darrow had known and approved of the bribery efforts. <br /> <br /> Darrow was arrested and put on trial. When organized labor turned its back on Darrow's request for financial assistance, Darrow had to pay all the legal costs of the 13-week trial out of his own pocket. Darrow denied the charges, and on August 14 and 15, 1912, gave an impassioned closing speech to the jurors, in which he claimed that:<br /> <br /> :&quot;I am not on trial for having sought to bribe a man named Lockwood. I am on trial because I have been a lover of the poor, a friend of the oppressed, because I have stood by Labor for all these years.&quot;<br /> <br /> On August 15, 1912, the jury returned a verdict of not guilty after deliberating for less than an hour. [http://law.jrank.org/pages/2768/McNamara-Brothers-Trial-1911-Darrow-Tried-Bribing-Jurors.html More about Darrow's trial...]<br /> <br /> ==Page 1059==<br /> <br /> '''paradiddle'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> In this sense perhaps more often &quot;taradiddle.&quot; Fiddle, finagle, wriggle. In strict pedantic usage &quot;paradiddle&quot; is a kind of quadruple stroke on the snare drum. Nothing pedantic about it, LeStreet is the drummer in the house band at the Vertex Club and a paradiddle is a 4-beat exercise pattern on the snare drum. E.g., R-R-L-R-L-L-R-L or R-L-R-R-L-R-L-L or etc. (there are lots of paradiddles). The purpose is to play them fast enough so that it sounds like a roll. Different patterns produce rolls that sound distinct from each other, very important to a jazz drummer.<br /> <br /> '''a barnstormer's Curtis JN'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> An army surplus airplane from the World War, bought and flown by an itinerant pilot in aerobatic exhibitions. Nicknamed &quot;Jenny,&quot; the plane was pictured on a 1918 airmail stamp; some sheets had the center image printed upside down: the &quot;Jenny Invert.&quot;<br /> <br /> ==Page 1060==<br /> <br /> '''constant-term recalibration, or C.T.R.'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> [[ATD_1040-1062#Page_1050|See annotation to page 1050.]]<br /> <br /> '''spagyrist'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Alchemist, especially one seeking cures. Follower of Paracelsus.<br /> <br /> '''Doddling'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> (1) Frequent misspelling of &quot;dawdling.&quot; (2) Easy duty for an English bus conductor (e.g., issuing tickets but not supervising operations). (3) Sexual intercourse.<br /> <br /> '''Tree of Diana'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Branching possibilities, alternate histories branching out from any given moment.<br /> <br /> '''...one compassionate time-machine story, time travel in the name of love...'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Two come to mind: Robert Heinlein: ''The Door Into Summer'' and Jack Finney: ''Time and Again''. In both a protagonist succcessfully chases an impossible love through time.<br /> :And don't forget the special meaning of &quot;compassionate&quot; in ''AtD,'' &quot;the Compassionate&quot; = the Chums of Chance.<br /> <br /> A possibility: &quot;The Compassionate&quot; = &quot;The Kindly Ones&quot; = the Erinyes, or Furies, in Greek myth ? = The Chums of Chance.<br /> <br /> ==Page 1061==<br /> <br /> '''mathematical mists'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Recalls Kit's dream on P.566, of equations permitting a view into possible worlds.<br /> Also recalls Julian Barbour's work on probablity mists hovering over possible time capsules. Please see his book, [http://www.platonia.com/index.html ''The End of Time''] for more details.<br /> <br /> ==Page 1062==<br /> <br /> ==Annotation Index==<br /> {{ATD PbP}}</div>

MKOHUT https://against-the-day.pynchonwiki.com/wiki/index.php?title=ATD_26-56&diff=14102 2007-10-18T23:53:49Z

<p>MKOHUT: /* Page 27 */</p> <hr /> <div>:'''&lt;big&gt;Please keep these annotations SPOILER-FREE by not revealing information from later pages in the novel.&lt;/big&gt;'''&lt;p&gt;&lt;br&gt;<br /> <br /> ==Page 26==<br /> <br /> '''egret plumes'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Some species of egrets were threatened with extinction in the 19th century because their plumes (also called ''aigrettes'') were much used in millinery. Problem is, the egrets grew the showy feathers only in breeding season, so that's when they were killed, hence no little egrets (egretlets?).<br /> <br /> '''Little Egypt'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> was the stage name for two popular exotic dancers, Ashea Wabe who danced at the Seeley banquet at the 1893 World's Fair and Farida Mazar Spyropoulos, also performing under the stage name Fatima, appeared at the &quot;Street in Cairo&quot; exhibition on the Midway at the World's Columbian Exposition, held in Chicago in 1893. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Little_Egypt_(dancer) Wikipedia entry] Also a 1961 [[Little_Egypt|song]] by the Coasters.<br /> <br /> ==Page 27==<br /> <br /> '''Bacchanale'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> From ''Samson et Dalila'', op. 47 (1877) [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Samson_and_Delilah_%28opera%29 Wikipedia entry]. Listen to a [http://themodernword.com/wiki/bacchanale.mp3 30 second MP3 sample]<br /> <br /> &quot;Bacchanalia&quot; describes not just the music but the dance too, in this context.<br /> <br /> '''from here to Timbuctoo'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Now known as [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Timbuktu Timbuktu,] a standard figure of speech for the other end of Creation.<br /> <br /> '''Maxim whirling machines...'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> This paragraph describes a number of real flying apparati: [http://invention.psychology.msstate.edu/i/Chanute/library/Prog_Aero_Oct1893.html This article] from October 1893 describes the Maxim whirling machine and others.<br /> <br /> '''ornithurgy'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Invented word? <br /> <br /> My guess is that it signifies something like bird-works:&lt;br&gt;<br /> ornith-&lt;br&gt; variant of ornitho; [New Latin orntho-, from Greek, from orns, ornth-, bird;] [http://www.thefreedictionary.com/ornitho-]&lt;br&gt;<br /> -urgy &lt;br&gt;[New Latin -rgia, from Greek -ourgi, from -ourgos, working, from ergon, work; see werg- in Indo-European roots [http://www.thefreedictionary.com/-urgy]<br /> <br /> '''Dally'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Merle's relationship with Dally is reminiscent of Ryan and Tatum O'Neal's characters in the 1973 Peter Bogdanovich film, &quot;Paper Moon&quot;. Merle's family situation (single father, smart aleck daughter, mother who took off) is identical to that of ''Vineland's'' protagonist Zoyd Wheeler.<br /> <br /> ==Page 28==<br /> <br /> '''''Imbottigliata!'''''&lt;br&gt;Italian for &quot;bottled&quot;.<br /> <br /> '''Dahlia Rideout'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> The Lolita motif is common in Pynchon's works. Other Lolitas include Bianca in [[http://gravitys-rainbow.pynchonwiki.com/wiki/ ''Gravity's Rainbow.'']<br /> <br /> :Dahlia is four or five years old! She is not a Lolita motif here. Lolita was twelve and Humbert was sick.<br /> <br /> '''in Randolph's face a degree of stupefaction one regrets to term characteristic'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Randolph &quot;froze&quot; previously, on page 12; evidently this is a trait already established in the ''Chums'' novels.<br /> <br /> '''fulminate me if she ain't'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> What an odd turn of phrase: set me off explosively.<br /> <br /> '''this Trouvé-screw unit over here'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Gustave Trouvé built advanced machinery from the 1860s to the 1890s; [http://invention.psychology.msstate.edu/i/Chanute/library/Prog_Screws_May1892.html his work on airscrews] was pivotal, and he also invented [http://www.electricrecordteam.com/history.htm the outboard motor.] Before Trouvé's design studies, propulsion in the air used sail-rotors like windmills or depended on slightly modified marine propellers.<br /> <br /> ==Page 29==<br /> <br /> '''Midway Plaisance'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> The big central concourse of the White City. &quot;Plaisance&quot; is an alternative (or Frenchified) spelling of &quot;pleasance,&quot; an esthetically appealing spot. According to [http://users.vnet.net/schulman/Columbian/columbian.html this very good site] on the Columbian Exposition, the Midway Plaisance lent its name to the midways of circuses ever after.<br /> <br /> '''a l'étouffée'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> French, meaning braised. So, braised alligator meat. Braised food, for instance crawfish, is a culinary specialty of New Orleans.<br /> <br /> In the New Orleans context, a recipe is pertinent because &quot;braise&quot; doesn't exactly tell the story of this Cajun preparation. The following is drastically abridged from, of all things, the obituary of Joe Daole (&quot;Joe Dale&quot;) in the ''Atlanta Journal-Constitution,'' April 21, 2007:<br /> :Saute onion, green pepper, celery, parsley and garlic in a great deal of butter. Add peeled and chopped tomatoes and seasonings. Simmer, covered, 5-10 minutes. Make a dark brown roux with oil and flour; add to vegetables. Add seafood stock and bring to a boil. Add peeled shrimp or crawfish tail meat and cook just 2-3 minutes. Serve over rice.<br /> <br /> '''Sloane Laboratory'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Yale's physics lab built 1882. Cf [[ATD_26-56#Page_33|page 33]].<br /> <br /> '''Professor Gibbs'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Josiah Williard Gibbs (1839-1903), American mathematical physicist. He was born in New Haven, Connecticut. In 1854 he went to Yale and won prizes for excellence in Latin and mathematics. He undertook research in engineering and received his Ph.D in 1863, the first doctorate in engineering to be conferred in the US. From 1866 to 1869 Gibbs studies in Europe - first in Paris, then in Berlin and finally in Heidelberg. He was professor at Yale from 1871 to 1903. He contributed substantially to the study of thermodynamics, and his most important work, ''On the Equilibrium of Heterogeneous Substances'' (1876 and 1878) and his &quot;phase rule&quot; established him as a founder of physical chemistry. Gibbs' work on vector analysis was also of major importance in pure mathematics. Gibbs was one of the greatest American scientists in the 19th century. ([http://www-history.mcs.st-andrews.ac.uk/Mathematicians/Gibbs.html Gibbs].)<br /> <br /> '''De Forest'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Lee De Forest (1873-1961), American inventor. He was born in Council Bluffs, Iowa and educated at Yale and Chicago. A pioneer of radio, he introduced the grid into the therm-ionic valve, and invented the audion (1907), feedback circuit (1912) and the four-electrode valve. He involved in first news by radio (1916). He also did much early work on sound reproduction and on television. He patented over 300 inventions in wireless telegraphy, radio, telephony, talking pictures, high-speed facsimile transmission, television, radiotherapy, radar, etc. He was called, sometimes, &quot;the father of radio.&quot; ([http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lee_De_Forest De Forest].)<br /> <br /> '''Kimura'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> He received his Ph.D degree in mathematics from Yale University in 1896. (Dissertation: ''Studies on General Spherical Functions''.) He published a paper ''On the Nabla of Quaternions'' in ''The Annals of Mathermatics'', Vol 10, No. 1/6 (1895-1896). In 1912, he published a paper called ''One-Waveness in Wireless Telegraphy; Pseudo-Impact Excitation'' in ''Physical Review'' of May 1912. (''Nabla'' is an early name for the &quot;del&quot; operator, symbolized by the inverted Greek letter Δ.)<br /> <br /> '''Ray Ipsow'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> In Latin ''re ipso'' means &quot;the thing itself.&quot; &quot;To the thing itself&quot; was the motto and rallying cry of the investigational method known as phenomenology [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Phenomenology Wikipedia entry] developed by Edmund Husserl [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Edmund_Husserl Wikipedia entry]. As the phrase indicates, it is a plea against abstraction--a theme of GR--- and for reality 'itself'.<br /> <br /> '''Outer Indianoplace'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Derogatory nickname for Indianapolis.<br /> <br /> '''down in New Orleans . . . that Khartoum business'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Evidently two Chums of Chance books we didn't know about. Perhaps ''The Chums of Chance and the Voodoo Priest'' and ''The Chums of Chance and the Mussulman Hordes.''<br /> <br /> '''Khartoum... Mahdi's army'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Khartoum is the capital of Sudan. The Mahdi army refered to here was an Islamic group in the 1880s that advocated a return to strict Islamic values and battled with the government of Khartoum and Egyptian armies.More on these convoluted events at the [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_Sudan_(1884-1898) Wikipedia entry].<br /> <br /> The concept of the Mahdi is far beyond this one historic event, however.<br /> In point of fact, the U.S. is fighting the [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mahdi_Army Mahdi Army] in Iraq right now.<br /> <br /> ==Page 30==<br /> <br /> '''contrary wind . . . Oltre Giubba, instead of down at Alex'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> From Khartoum you fly north by west to Alexandria. That wind was about as contrary as it could be: from Khartoum to Oltre Giuba is south by east. Now called [http://www.jubaland.org/ Jubaland,] Oltre Giuba (just one B, please, this isn't ''Pagliacci'') is [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Oltre_Giuba the southwesternmost part of Somalia,] across the Juba River from the rest. Not to be confused with Juba province in southern Sudan.<br /> :Oh, and the Oltre Giuba diversion must have taken place before ''Inconvenience'' was fitted with hydrogen steam power, else she could have flown against the wind.<br /> <br /> '''railroad watch'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> High-quality pocket watch. [http://www.pockethorology.org/Railroad/Railroad.htm [pix and info]]<br /> <br /> ==Page 31==<br /> <br /> '''Scarsdale Vibe'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Scarsdale NY boasts that it's Westchester County's wealthiest community, so a 'Scarsdale vibe' implies 'stinking of money'. Vibe is another Pynchon baddie whose last name starts with &quot;V&quot;, ''e.g.'', Brock Vond in ''Vineland.''<br /> <br /> '''&quot;The Juggernaut&quot;'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> The name of Vibe's private train derives from the Sanskrit Jagannātha, meaning &quot;Lord of the Universe&quot; one of the many names of Lord Krishna. &quot;Krishna&quot; itself means &quot;black&quot; or &quot;dark&quot; skinned. British colonial &quot;urban&quot; legend had it that Hindus sought to be crushed under the wheels of giant cars in Krishna's &quot;chariot procession&quot; at Puri as a way of gaining salvation. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Juggernaut see the Wikipedia entry.]<br /> <br /> Capitalism has often been described as a juggernaut. One of numerous uses:<br /> &quot;Even as leaders of nation states compete for power and prestige, the juggernaut of capitalism diminishes borders, weakens governments and, eventually,&quot; ...<br /> http://www.southpacific.arts.unsw.edu.au/resources/resource_nissology.htm -&lt;br&gt; <br /> :A leading sociologist, Anthony Giddens, is also responsible for the phrase, &quot;the juggernaut of modernity&quot;. See this incredibly relevant definition and analysis of this phrase: &quot;The most defining property of modernity, according to Giddens, is '''that we are disembedded from time and space'''. In pre-modern societies, space was the area in which one moved, time was the experience one had while moving. In modern societies, however, the social space is no longer confined by the boundaries set by the space in which one moves. One can now imagine what other spaces look like, even if he has never been there. In this regard, Giddens talks about virtual space and virtual time. Another distinctive property of modernity lies in the field of knowledge. In pre-modern societies, it were the elders who possessed the knowledge: they were definable in time and space. In modern societies we must rely on expert systems. These are not present in time and space, but we must trust them. Even if we trust them, we know that something could go wrong: there's always a risk we have to take. Also the technologies which we use, and which transform constraints into means, hold risks. Consequently, there is always a heightened sense of uncertainty in contemporary societies. It is also in this regard that Giddens uses the image of a 'juggernaut': modernity is said to be like an unsteerable juggernaut traveling through space.&quot; Wikipedia [[http://www.en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anthony_Giddens]]<br /> <br /> '''in disguise . . . bodyguards and secretaries . . . ebony stick'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Some great disguise!<br /> <br /> '''Foley Walker'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> &quot;Foley walker&quot; is a term used to indicate a sound-effects expert. Also known as a foley artist [http://www.natf.org/wad/foley.htm [cite]]<br /> <br /> Coalhouse Walker is a major character in Doctorow's ''Ragtime'', mentioned earlier as a book set within the same time period.<br /> <br /> Probably a stretch: &quot;One of the company's (i.e. Thiel‘s Detective Service Company) first employees was John F. Farley, a former U.S. Cavalry trooper. In 1885, Farley was appointed manager of Thiel's Denver office. Farley was known as the 'King of the Strikebreakers.' In 1895 Farley gave up any pretense of detective work and specialized in strike services, at one point allegedly earning $1 million from a strike in San Francisco. After a decade of strikebreaking, Farley retired—not having lost a single one of the 35 strike actions to which he had supplied personnel. Farley later became Denver's chief of police.&quot; [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thiel_Detective_Service_Company from Wikipedia]. The Denver city election results trial of 1889 invited media focus on corruption ties and payoffs between &quot;Soapy&quot; Smith (Criminal Boss of Denver), the mayor and Farley, the chief of police (see Note 6 in this [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Soapy_Smith Wikipedia entry])<br /> <br /> '''Forty-seventh and Ashland'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> [...] First, the story [...] about Ashland being named for the ashes of the Great Chicago Fire is an urban legend. Ashland Avenue, first known as Reuben Street, was already developed before the fire and was considered the height of suburban living on the West Side in the 1860s. <br /> [http://www.gapersblock.com/airbags/archives/ashland_the_great_fire_and_the_ruins_of_chicago/ [cite]] [...] The spread of movie palaces in the automobile age presaged the spread of commercial buildings from the Loop to the neighborhoods and suburbs. By 1930, Marshall Field &amp; Co. had created smaller versions of its downtown store in Evanston and Oak Park, while neighborhood retailers like Goldblatt's and Wieboldt's were moving downtown. Chicago developed regional shopping districts at 47th and Ashland, 63rd and Halsted, Irving Park and Pulaski, and many other locations. Certain areas catered to specialized industries, such as “Automobile Row” on South Michigan Avenue, or the Maxwell Street Market, an open-air European-style market that resisted every effort at modernization until its destruction in the 1990s. [...]<br /> [http://www.encyclopedia.chicagohistory.org/pages/316.html [cite]]<br /> [http://americanhistory.si.edu/onthemove/img/crops/478.jpg [photo]]<br /> <br /> ==Page 32==<br /> <br /> '''Second Corinthians'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> This exchange between Vibe and Ipsow refers specifically to 2 Corinthians 11:19 -- For ye suffer fools gladly, seeing ye yourselves are wise. <br /> [http://www.kingjamesversionofthebible.com/47-secondcorinthians.html [cite]]<br /> <br /> '''Ipsow's response to S. Vibe on lines 21-23( ...in these days need arises directly from criminal acts of the rich)''' can be seen as a direct paraphrase of Ch. 5 of the book of James: <br /> Now listen you rich.. you have hoarded wealth in the last days. Look! the wages you failed to pay the workers who mowed your fields cry out against you... you have lived in luxury and fattened yourself in the day of slaughter. You have condemned and killed innocent men ... James 5<br /> <br /> ==Page 33==<br /> <br /> '''&quot;Old Zip Coon&quot;'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> &quot;Old Zip Coon&quot; dates from as early as 1834 and is considered the original name for the 19th-century American folk song, 'Turkey in the Straw'. [[Old Zip Coon | lyrics]] [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Turkey_in_the_Straw Wikipedia] See also [http://www.stephen-foster-songs.de/Amsong59.htm] and [http://www.csufresno.edu:80/folklore/ballads/RJ19258.html].&lt;br&gt;<br /> The word &quot;coon&quot; may originate in America as a derogatory name for a Negro, but it was current in England too (therefore not &quot;for an African-American&quot;). For other occurrences of the word, with show business associations in every case, see text and annotations: [[#Page_48|page 48]], [[ATD_336-357#Page_344|page 344]], [[ATD_358-373#Page_369|page 369]] and [[ATD_397-428#Page 424|page 424.]]<br /> :In this contributor's boyhood, a brand of chewing tobacco heavily advertised on East Tennessee radio and television used the tune in its jingle, with lyrics close to:<br /> &lt;blockquote&gt;If you like a spicy taste&lt;br&gt;<br /> Every morning, night and noon,&lt;br&gt;<br /> Then you're bound to like the taste&lt;br&gt;<br /> When you chew Red Coon.&lt;/blockquote&gt;<br /> :The package at this time portrayed a raccoon, but it's possible a different image had come before.<br /> <br /> '''Dr. Tesla'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Nikola Tesla (1856-1943), American inventor. He was born in Croatia of Serbian parents. He studied at Graz (Austria), Prague and Paris. He discovered (1881) principle of rotating magnetic field, basis of practically all alternating-current (AC) machinery. Between 1882-1884 he was an engineer in Paris (1882-84) and constructed his first induction motor (1883). He emigrated to the United States (1884, naturalized in 1889). Worked for Thmoas Edison (1884-85) but left the Edison Works at Menlo Park (Edison opposed to AC idea) to concentrate on his own inventions, which include improved dynamos, transformers, electric bulbs, wireless communication (1897) and the high-frequency coil which bears his name. (Cf [[ATD_97-118#Page_97|page 97]] and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nikola_Tesla Tesla].)<br /> <br /> &lt;div id=&quot;rewrite&quot;&gt;'''violate . . . the essence of everything modern history is supposed to be'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Notice what he ''doesn't'' say: the principles of the free market, the essence of the capitalist economic system. As if modern history has already been written and such research would somehow undermine it.&lt;/div&gt;<br /> <br /> '''Sloane Lab'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Completed in 1912, was the gift of Henry T. Sloane, BA 1866, and William D. Sloane, MA HON. 1889. Of Longmeadow stone, it is Collegiate Gothic in style. Charles C. Haight was the architect. (An underground addition was constructed in 1958 to house a Van de Graaff machine-now removed. The John A. Hartford Foundation, Inc., and the U.S. Public Health Service financed it. Sloane Lab was the first University constructed on the Hillhouse Estate (less the three acres adjoining Sachem’s Wood). The property was a gift in 1910 of Mrs. Russell Sage, and called Pierson Sage Square. The University had wanted to acquire the land to develop into a turn-of-the-century “science park”. The well-known landscape architect, Frederick Law Olmstead advised in the land’s development. [217 Prospect Street] <br /> [http://www.facilities.yale.edu/campus/Building1.asp?lstBldg=1075 [cite]] and [http://www.facilities.yale.edu/images/BFS/1075.jpg [photo]].<br /> <br /> Interestingly, Frederick Law Olmstead was also pivital in the development of the grounds for the 1893 Columbian Exposition in Chicago. His famous &quot;Wooded Isle&quot; remains a centerpiece in Chicago's Jackson Park. [http://www.hydepark.org/parks/jpac/jpkhistoryandfair.htm [link]] and <br /> [http://www.hydepark.org/parks/pics/laggen4.JPG [photo]].<br /> <br /> For a more detailed account of Olmstead's landscape architecture as it relates to the 1893 World's Fair, see Erik Larson's ''The Devil in the White City''.<br /> <br /> :These would be anachronistic, but as the note for p29 above mentions, a lab existed by 1882.<br /> <br /> '''World-System'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Dr. Tesla's idea of providing electrical power that anyone could tap in for free alludes the birth of wireless internet before being monopolized by b(p)ig companies and corporate greed.<br /> <br /> ==Page 34==<br /> <br /> '''the most terrible weapon the world has seen . . . rational systems of control'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> This statement defines the threat—as the plutocrats see it—of free power (anarchy) and their justification for bending government and every other compelling force to stamp it out.<br /> <br /> '''out of the fish-market anarchy of all battling all'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Vibe quotes Thomas Hobbes, who in ''Leviathan'' (1651) described the primitive state of the human race as ''bellum omnium contra omnes,'' the war of all against all, which was ended only by the creation of the State. Note the change of &quot;war&quot; to &quot;anarchy.&quot; <br /> <br /> '''Pierpont'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> John Pierpont Morgan I (April 17, 1837 – March 31, 1913) was an American financier and banker, who dominated corporate finance and industrial consolidation.<br /> [...]<br /> In 1900, Morgan financed inventor Nikola Tesla and his Wardenclyffe Tower with $150,000 for experiments in radio. Tesla was unsuccessful and, in 1904, Morgan pulled out. Later, Tesla created an AC generator<br /> [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/J._P._Morgan [cite]]<br /> <br /> '''non-linear phenomena of scale'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Linear scaling means, for example, store twice as much charge, get twice as much voltage. An instance of behavior becoming nonlinear is when air insulation breaks down (arcs, lightning); here adding charge may lead to a ''decrease'' in voltage.<br /> <br /> '''Somble, Strool &amp; Fleshway'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Law firms in Pynchon have such charming names; compare Salitieri, Poore, Nash, de Brutus, and Short in [http://gravitys-rainbow.pynchonwiki.com/wiki/ ''Gravity's Rainbow''] or Warpe, Wistfull, Kubitschek and McMingus in [http://cl49.pynchonwiki.com/wiki/ ''The Crying of Lot 49'']. This one has more of a Dickensian sound. Somble could be a portmanteau of ''somber'' and ''tremble'' or ''some bull''; Strool, perhaps, of ''strait'' (= narrow) and ''cruel,'' or ''stool'' and ''drool''. &quot;Fleshway&quot; might suggest a reference to Samuel Butler's ''The Way of All Flesh,'' which was not published until 1903, but it seems more likely to go back to [http://www.gracecathedral.org/enrichment/brush_excerpts/brush_20041027.shtml a biblical phrase] associated with death.<br /> <br /> Using the onomatapeia technique such as in the ''Gravity's Rainbow'' law firm, we start to get 'Some Bull, is ('t) Drool And.......Help needed! How about &quot;some bull's strool and fleshway.&quot; Strool being the portmanteau of stool and drool, and fleshway being the meaty part of the flushway (g.i. tract, anus) -- you know, something like bullshit with the consitency of diarrhea.<br /> <br /> Incidentally, Strool is an actual surname as well as the name of a town in South Dakota.<br /> <br /> By the way, Thomas Hobbes' ''Leviathan'' (see &quot;all against all&quot; entry toward the top of this page) is also the source of Salitieri et al. (&quot;solitary, poor, nasty, brutish and short,&quot; describing the life of human beings in their primitive state).&lt;br&gt;<br /> <br /> '''vestiary'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Of, or relating to, clothing.<br /> <br /> ==Page 36==<br /> <br /> '''Fairgoers would see the ship overhead and yet not see it'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Useful property for a surveillance platform.<br /> <br /> '''Lew Basnight'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> &quot;Bas&quot; is French for &quot;low&quot;, though &quot;bas nuit&quot; means nothing in French.<br /> <br /> A detective named 'Lew' reminds us (who is &quot;us&quot;?) of Ross Macdonald's character Lew Archer which in turn recalls another detective, Miles Archer, partner of Sam Spade in San Francisco detective agency Spade &amp; Archer. This may be a bad pun on 'lube-ass night' and also might refer to the incident causing Lew to be shunned by his peers.<br /> <br /> [[image:beaver-on-the-brain.jpg|thumb|Beaver on the Brain T-Shirt|right]]Very possibly, Pynchon is having some fun here, working a whole sexual angle, naming his character after the phrase &quot;BAS night,&quot; meaning a boys' night out, &quot;BAS&quot; being an acronym for &quot;Bitches Ain't Shit&quot; from the [http://www.azlyrics.com/lyrics/drdre/bitchesaintshit.html &quot;song&quot; by Dr. Dre] (featuring Snoop Dogg, Dat Nigga Daz, Kurupt, Jewel). And, hey, Lew meets Nicholas Nookshaft, Grand Cohen of T.W.I.T. (Nookie Shaft? Twat crossed w/clit? A-and isn't that tetractys an inverted beaver?), where he meets Yashmeen, a ''very'' sexual woman. And then there's that whole &quot;Beavers of the Brain&quot; cyclomite episode ([[ATD 171-198#Page 183|p. 183]]) (Beavers, fercrissakes!). Perhaps something worth following up ... or not!<br /> <br /> It is possible Basnight is an Americanization of the German &quot;Fasnacht&quot;. &quot;Fastnacht or Fasnacht is the pre-Lenten carnival in Alemannic folklore in Switzerland, southern Germany, Alsace and western Austria. It is also known in parts of Pennsylvania Dutch Country as Fauschnaut Day and is celebrated on the day before Ash Wednesday, or the last Tuesday before Lent.&quot; [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fasnacht] <br /> <br /> &quot;A likely derivation is from PIE pwo- &quot;purify&quot; (cognate to pava-mana), or alternatively connected with Middle High German vaselen &quot;prosper, bud&quot; and interpreted as a fertility rite.&quot;<br /> <br /> Fasnacht Day is known in English as Shrove Tuesday. &quot;The word shrove is a past tense of the English verb &quot;shrive,&quot; which means to obtain absolution for one's sins by confessing and doing penance.&quot; [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shrove_Tuesday] All of this seems to tally well with the Basnight character.<br /> <br /> Another pun theory: on page 38, Lew is described as being in an ignorance &quot;black as night.&quot; This can be abbreviated to &quot;Basnight.&quot; <br /> Lew is pronounced &quot;loo,&quot; which of course is the British toilet.<br /> Lew Basnight then means, &quot;toilet, black as night.&quot; Just a thought...<br /> <br /> <br /> '''White City Investigations'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Since the White City dates from 01 May 1893, this ought to be later.<br /> <br /> The name recalls the White Visitation of [http://gravitys-rainbow.pynchonwiki.com/wiki/ ''Gravity's Rainbow'']. Any connection?<br /> <br /> ==Page 37==<br /> '''fictitiousness'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> On this and the previous page, there is a question raised of whether the Chums are fictional. Or it could be saying that such fantastical sights as the airship are easy to miss at the fair. <br /> <br /> It seems more likely that the comparison here is simply between that of the fair, a small, self-contained world of marvels (like all World's Fairs) and the &quot;real world&quot; outside its gates.<br /> <br /> There is lots more going on (and it's ''lots'' more interesting). Consider these passages on pages 36-37:<br /> *the . . . celebration possessed the exact degree of fictitiousness to permit the boys access and agency<br /> *The harsh nonfictional world waited outside the White City's limits<br /> *he (Lew) had not . . . heard of the Chums of Chance<br /> *every boy knows the Chums of Chance<br /> *you're not storybook characters. . . . Are you?<br /> Too much back-and-forth about fiction to be '''just''' about the exposition and the real world. Some premises that are implicit here:<br /> *The Chums know that they live in literature whether they have a &quot;real&quot; existence or not.<br /> *They know their books are popular with an audience of boys. (Lindsay is surprised that Lew didn't read them earlier, not that he isn't reading them now.)<br /> *Lew doesn't regard objective evidence (they are standing before him, he's ascended in their ship) as sufficient to rule out ambiguity (&quot;. . . Are you?&quot;).<br /> *The lads are able to experience and act only in a quasi-fictitious environment. Off the fairgrounds (in the WCI office), Randolph gives nothing but answers scripted for him by National.<br /> All this suggests that even the Chums aren't sure on what level they exist. They definitely have adventures, as recorded in their books, but they don't seem to have adventures ''not'' contained in the novels.<br /> What will happen if they come to the end of a ''Chums'' book while we are still reading ''AtD''?<br /> <br /> '''No more than Wyatt Earp or Nellie Bly'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> See the next two entries. Earp had a &quot;real&quot; life but people remember him chiefly because of stories written about him (and by him through ghostwriters, [http://baseportal.com/cgi-bin/baseportal.pl?htx=/zpub2000/sfentries&amp;cmd=list&amp;range=0,50&amp;Title~=E&amp;cmd=all&amp;Id=98 link 1], [http://www.ferncanyonpress.com/tombston/robbery.shtml link 2]). Bly entertained masses of people by having adventures and then writing about them. Each &quot;lived&quot; through a body of literature.<br /> <br /> '''Wyatt Earp'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> (1848–1929), was a teamster, sometime buffalo hunter, officer of the law in various Western frontier towns, gambler, and saloon-keeper in the Wild West and the U.S. mining frontier from California to Alaska. He is best known for his participation in the Gunfight at the O.K. Corral. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wyatt_Earp Wikipedia]<br /> <br /> '''Nellie Bly'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> (1864-1922) was an American journalist, author, industrialist, and charity worker. She is most famous for an undercover exposé in which she faked insanity to study a mental institution from within. She is also well-known for her record-breaking trip around the world. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nellie_Bly Wikipedia]<br /> <br /> '''Regarding Lew Basnight's malady...'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Again, there seems to be a character with a neurological illness; in this case it is presented as amnesia, but seizures also result in &quot;lost time&quot;. (See comments on Miles' &quot;electricity coming on&quot; on page 24.) Such maladies are more common than one supposes, and can offer a glimpse of other-worldliness akin to that of hallucinogenics, and epileptics have, at times, been considered to have access to past or future lives.<br /> <br /> '''making a point of pronouncing his name disrespectfully'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> The only way it could be done is, apparently, by saying Lube Ass Night. Well, that or tone of voice.<br /> <br /> '''the Upstate-Downstate Beast'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Illinois is one of three states with an Upstate, though one of them doesn't use the term Downstate (South Carolina divides itself into Upstate and Lowcountry). The nickname points to a traveling man, perhaps. &quot;Moral horror,&quot; &quot;denounced,&quot; &quot;revulsion&quot; probably fit with many crimes, though most of those would have led to a prison sentence and we don't have any information of Lew's serving time.<br /> <br /> '''&quot;Although the longer a fellow's name has been in the magazines, the harder it is to tell fiction from non-fiction.&quot;'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> May express Pynchon's reaction to the press' treatment of him over the years. In 1964, when Pynchon heard that the ''New York Herald Tribune'' was writing an article about him, Pynchon wrote to his agent that he assumed the piece &quot;will be riddled with the same lies, calumnies and all-around knavish disregard for my privacy&quot; as previous articles. (&quot;Pynchon's Letters Nudge His Mask,&quot; ''New York Times,'' 4 Mar 1998).<br /> <br /> '''Wensleydale'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> A type of cheese made in Yorkshire, England.<br /> <br /> ==Page 38==<br /> <br /> '''&quot;You have destroyed your name.&quot;'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Wensleydale using very strong language. He doesn't say &quot;destroyed your reputation&quot; or &quot;discredited your name&quot; but &quot;''destroyed'' your name.&quot; Does anyone else see this as suggesting Lew's name was not Lew Basnight before his sin?<br /> <br /> '''to plead with him to come back'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> A strange response, that Troth should ask the Upstate-Downstate Beast to return to her. You would think she'd prefer him as far away as he could get.<br /> <br /> '''one of your other wives'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> A direct reference to Lew's sin, or is Troth just pelting Lew with anything that's in reach?<br /> <br /> ==Page 39==<br /> <br /> '''kazoos'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> This silly instrument appears in several Pynchon novels.<br /> <br /> '''slow ritual movement'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Maybe tai chi, or anachronistic Gurdjieffian dance?<br /> <br /> '''Drave'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Possibly a back formation from 'Dravidians,' referring to David Koresh's Branch Davidians.<br /> : huh? [[User:Bleakhaus|Bleakhaus]] 16:23, 19 December 2006 (PST)<br /> : I have to second that &quot;huh?&quot; This seems exceedingly improbable. [[User:Kirkm|Kirkm]] 06:15, 15 February 2007 (PST)<br /> Another possibility is that Pynchon had in mind the Scottish noun &quot;drave,&quot; which the OED defines as a &quot;fishing expedition in which several men take part, each supplying a net and receiving a share of the profits made. Later, A haul (of fish); also, a shoal.&quot; This resonates with the evangelical role that Drave plays (Cf. Matthew 4:18, where Jesus addresses Peter and Matthew, &quot;And he saith unto them, Follow me, and I will make you fishers of men.&quot;)<br /> <br /> It should be noted, though, that there is also a [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Drave Drave river] in south central Europe, though there seems to be little textual evidence to support this association.<br /> <br /> '''Saratoga chips'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Potato chips were invented in Saratoga Springs, NY, and were often called Saratoga chips in the 19th century.<br /> <br /> '''Esthonia Hotel'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Atonia is a lack of normal muscle tension, but also, &quot;A frightening form of paralysis that occurs when a person suddenly finds himself or herself unable to move for a few minutes, most often upon falling asleep or waking up. Commonly called sleep paralysis, the condition is due to an ill-timed disconnection between the brain and the body.&quot; [http://www.medterms.com/script/main/art.asp?articlekey=9811 Definition] This could mean that the hotel in question is nothing more than an internal hallucination of Basnight's, further suggesting that his problem is one of neurological rather than simply moral or spiritual cause.<br /> :Could be, but at the same time let's not overlook the plain reading: Esthonia is an obsolete spelling of the country ''Estonia.''<br /> <br /> '''''liable for criminal penalties'''''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Law and the legal profession so far appear in AtD more than any other Pynchon novel (perhaps save ''The Crying of Lot 49''), and so far, like here, in a negative or confusing light, perhaps as part of the establishment Pynchon seems to rail against in the novel.<br /> <br /> ==Page 40==<br /> <br /> '''lofty regions no high-iron pioneer had yet dared'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wainwright_Building In the early 1890s] anything taller than about 10 stories would have qualified.<br /> <br /> '''remembrance stick'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Similar to keisaku in Zen Buddhism, an attempt by a sensei to alert students to their mindlessness in zazen (sitting meditation), usually administered by a stick. An English translation is stick of compassion. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kyosaku [Wikipedia]]<br /> <br /> Lew's performance of commonplace and strange chores is also similar to the way Zen training can proceed for novitiates.<br /> <br /> ==Page 41==<br /> <br /> '''you keep bouncing free. Avoiding penance and thereby definition'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> It is hard to tie Drave down philosophically. No connection between sin and penance, penance as destiny, penance happens or doesn't, and now this idea that penance ''defines'' one's existence.<br /> <br /> ==Page 42==<br /> <br /> '''Spring arrived'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> We've seen Lew pretty well through a year: summertime (p. 38) when Troth followed him to Chicago, autumn (p. 40) when he checked in at the Esthonia, winter (p. 41) as his bank account starved, now in the spring his moment of grace.<br /> <br /> '''scorcher cap'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> The cap of an early bicycling enthusiast. According to [http://www.velorution.biz/?p=1288 this] site, <br /> <br /> :&quot;In […]1892 [… a] bicyclist to be considered genuine had to be dressed in bicycle clothes. A man had to wear bicycle pants which were baggy at the top and tight to the legs below. Then he had to have bicycle socks and shoes. The shoes were made of canvass. Then he had to have a loose fitting grey colored short which we would designate now as a sport shirt. Then on his head he had to wear a tight fitting cap with a long bill in front, the longer the better up to a certain ceiling length. With this outfit and a bicycle with drop handlebars he was ready to appear in public as a real cyclist. If he could make 20 miles an hour on a good track he was called a 'scorcher,' the idea being that he was going so fast that he would scorch at least the end of his nose if nothing else.&quot;<br /> <br /> '''shirtwaists with huge shoulders'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Fashionable the year of the Fair; compare Chevrolette McAdoo's outfit, p. 26.<br /> <br /> '''He understood that things were exactly what they were.'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> This sentence sums up the entire experience at the Esthonia hotel, which seems to be a Zen-like initiation. Here, Lew Basnight seems to have attained some form of enlightenment, and the description (&quot;a condition...which he later came to think of as grace&quot;), along with this sentence, are almost textbook examples of Zen enlightenment. No lights flash, no changes are seen; one merely understands that things are what they are. After this experience, he leaves the hotel, and no longer needs to be there. He then embarks on his new career, in part because of his extreme ability to notice minute details; something that he was not said to have had before.<br /> :The sentence can also serve as a guide to readers of ''AtD.'' Even when it is tempting to speculate that &quot;this paragraph is about Richard Nixon&quot; or protest that &quot;you can't see Sirius on a summer evening,&quot; it is worth the effort to let the text mean what it means.<br /> <br /> ==Page 43==<br /> <br /> '''transfigured'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> In Lew's time of grace, he shows a changed face.<br /> <br /> '''leisurely rips through the fabric of the day'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> See below<br /> <br /> ==Page 44==<br /> <br /> '''He had learned to step to the side of the day.'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Through the book there are juxtapositions of things with and against the day (the 'title motif'). Here, we are told that Lew has learned to step &quot;to the side&quot; of the day. Possibly he is able to enter another plane? This is possible considering the dream-like hotel sequence on previous pages.<br /> :I think that the &quot;other plane&quot; interpretation is a bit of a stretch. The passage seems to imply that Lew has learned to will and maintain a degree of detachment from his surroundings, perhaps a relinquishment of his perceived control over events or his attempts to control them.<br /> <br /> '''it was apparently not as easy for anyone in &quot;Chicago&quot; to be that certain of his whereabouts'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> The quotes here may be to distinguish the fact that while technically living in Chicago, Lew sometimes exists or moves within a place or plane that others also living there don't see, or have access to.<br /> <br /> ==Page 45==<br /> <br /> '''two-headed eagle'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> As Holy Roman Emperor, the Austro-Hungarian emperor bore a two-headed eagle (each head crowned) as part of his arms. The Tsar of Russia also used a two-headed eagle, but it was triply crowned (one crown between the heads). The Serbian two-headed eagle appeared on a shield with one crown above it, and the Montenegrin one had a single crown between the heads. Other details of the envelope would serve to disambiguate.<br /> <br /> '''Trabants'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> &quot;Trabanten&quot; (German for 'satellites') originally - during the Thirty Years' War - were lightly armed foot soldiers; later this term was used for servants and/or bodyguards of high-ranking persons.<br /> <br /> '''&quot;have a lawyer explain civil liability to you&quot;'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Again, law. Pynchon must have boned up on legal jargon (or perhaps he got sued?). &lt;br&gt;<br /> Or he may simply read the newspaper; this concept is neither obscure nor complex.<br /> <br /> '''gumshoe'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Perhaps a bit too early to use this term; the Dictionary of American Slang dates it as &quot;by 1906&quot;.<br /> <br /> '''a couple a thousand hunkies'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> &quot;Hunkies&quot; was a slur against Hungarians and other eastern Europeans. The word may have morphed into &quot;honkies.&quot;<br /> <br /> '''Francis Ferdinand'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> This is indeed the same Franz Ferdinand whose assassination in 1914 triggered World War I. At the time of his appearance in AtD, he would have been 30, and his two passions throughout young adulthood and his 20s were travel and hunting (it is estimated that he shot more than 5,000 deer in his lifetime). [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Archduke_Franz_Ferdinand_of_Austria Wikipedia entry]. He did indeed attend the Chicago Exposition. [http://columbus.iit.edu/bookfair/ch27.html]<br /> <br /> A selection of Habsburgs, with ''AtD'' figures in '''''bold italic''''': <br /> *'''''Franz Joseph I''''' (1830-1916; sometimes anglicized as Francis Joseph) became Emperor of Austria, Apostolic King of Hungary, King of Croatia, Slavonia and Dalmatia, King of Bohemia in 1848 and occupied the throne until his death; even the [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Franz_Joseph_I_of_Austria Wikipedia entry,] which seeks to be exhaustive, resorts to &quot;etc.&quot; in the list of his titles<br /> :*[http://www.visualstatistics.net/East-West/Mayerling%20Tragedy/Mayerling%20tragedy.htm '''''Rudolph'''''] (1858-1889), Crown Prince, Franz Joseph's son, who died, apparently by suicide, with his mistress '''''Mary Vetsera''''' at the Mayerling hunting lodge<br /> *'''''Ferdinand Maximilian Joseph''''' (1832-1867), Franz Joseph's brother, set up as [http://www.casaimperial.org/emperador.htm Emperor Maximilian of Mexico] 1864-67 with French backing, executed<br /> *[http://www.geocities.com/henrivanoene/genaustria06.html ''Karl Ludwig''] (1833-96), Franz Joseph's brother, from whom the rest of the Habsburgs descended<br /> :*[[F|'''''Franz Ferdinand''''']] (1863-1914), Karl Ludwig's son, who became heir to the throne on his father's death and was [http://www.eyewitnesstohistory.com/duke.htm assassinated at Sarajevo] on June 28, 1914; the murder indirectly triggered the World War<br /> :*[http://ftp.cac.psu.edu/~saw/royal/r16.html ''Otto Franz''] (1865-1906), Karl Ludwig's son<br /> ::*[http://www.firstworldwar.com/bio/karl.htm ''Karl I''] (1888-1922), Otto's elder son, who succeeded Franz Joseph as Emperor and King (abdicated 1918 at the end of the World War) and became ancestor of half the Habsburgs living today<br /> ::*''Maximilian'' (1895-1952), Otto's younger son, ancestor of the other half<br /> :*[http://www.thepeerage.com/p11163.htm ''Ferdinand Karl Ludwig''] (1868-1915), Karl Ludwig's son<br /> *[http://worldroots.com/cgi-bin/gasteldb?@I13495@ ''Ludwig Viktor''] (1842-1919), Franz Joseph's brother<br /> <br /> See the annotation about Austria-Hungary on the next page.<br /> <br /> '''shive artist'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Someone proficient with a knife (shive=knife or razor).<br /> <br /> '''to rewrite history'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Hold on, '''re'''write? As Vibe did on [[#rewrite|page 33,]] Privett seems to reason that history has already been decided and some action would change it rather than generate a valid new history.<br /> <br /> ==Page 46==<br /> <br /> '''&quot;staff,&quot; a mixture of plaster and hemp fibers'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> [http://ftp.apci.net/~truax/1904wf/WF_Mem-Staff.htm [pix and info]]<br /> <br /> [http://users.vnet.net/schulman/Columbian/columbian.html One source] says it was jute, not hemp.<br /> <br /> According to [http://www.buildingstonemagazine.com/summer-06/historic.html ''Building Stone'' magazine,] the buildings were meant to be painted in bright colors, but the Chicago climate put the kibosh on that. Even keeping them white called for continuous repainting. <br /> <br /> The Museum of Science and Industry is the only structure surviving from the exposition. Built as the Palace of Fine Arts, it started out faced in staff but was later [http://www.aviewoncities.com/chicago/museumofscienceandindustry.htm rebuilt] to the original exterior design in limestone and marble.<br /> <br /> '''to counterfeit some deathless white stone'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> <br /> Given the many references throughout AtD to &quot;white&quot; and &quot;stones&quot; to ''counterfeit'' a ''deathless'' white stone seems portentous.<br /> <br /> '''&quot;In Austria,&quot; the Archduke was explaining, &quot;. . . the Chicago Stockyards might possibly be rented out . . . for a weekend's amusement&quot;'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> <br /> Pynchon continues his linking of the Stockyard killing-floor with the genocidal horrors of the 20th Century, it seems. See above. Heidegger (sic) made this connection somewhere and J.M Coetze's novel Elizabeth Costello uses it in a key chapter that was published separately. Researching the details. <br /> <br /> '''beaters who drive the animals toward the hunters . . . waiting to shoot them'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Skillful use of ambiguity: waiting to shoot the animals or the beaters?<br /> <br /> '''&quot;Hungarians occupy the lowest level of brute existence&quot;'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Even if the quote might be fictive, the Archduke's characterization is close to the point. Franz Ferdinand, a dour reactionary with aggressive ideas in foreign policy, had the reputation of an avowed Hungarophobe. The Compromise of 1867 created a dualistic Austro-Hungarian Monarchy, which the Archduke sought to transform in a &quot;trialistic&quot; way, giving an enivsioned southern Slav union of Croatia (which was united in a sub-confederation with Hungary), Bosnia and Dalmatia a status similar to that of the Kingdom of Hungary. Note how the Czechs, a population about twice as large as southwestern Slavs, were omitted from this scheme. The idea was evidently to weaken the Hungarian establishment, and recentralize power in Vienna. <br /> <br /> '''Mannlicher'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> A double-barreled rifle designed by Ferdinand Ritter von Mannlicher. It is reported that Archduke Franz Ferdinand had several of these made special for him.<br /> <br /> Interestingly enough, the rifle is also mentioned in ''Green Hills of Africa'' and ''The Short Happy Life of Francis Macomber'' by Ernest Hemingway, who used it extensively on hunting.<br /> <br /> Franz was eventually assassinated in Sarajevo. Coincidentally (?), fellow assassinee JFK was initially claimed to have been a victim of Lee Harvey Oswald's Mannlicher rifle.<br /> <br /> ==Page 47==<br /> <br /> '''K&amp;K Special Security'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> &quot;K&amp;K&quot; stands for &quot;Kaiserlich und Königlich,&quot; German for &quot;imperial and royal (kingly),&quot; to indicate the Austrian two titles of the ruler of the Dual Monarchy: King of Hungary and Emperor of Austria. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kaiserlich_und_königlich Wikipedia entry].<br /> <br /> '''Kuchenteigs-Verderbtheit'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> This is not a German word as far as I know and most likely not even a degenerate Habsburg or one of his officers would have used it (but then I haven't read Franz Ferdinand's account of his travels...). Sounds more like some Babelfish machine translation of &quot;pastry-depravity&quot; to me. I wonder what the German translator will make of this. My guess is, s/he will not make a &quot;typical German&quot; combined noun out of it, but turn the phrase to be able to use an adverb like &quot;mehlspeisennarrisch&quot; instead (what with in Austria and Bavaria there is a word for (mostly sweet) pastry: &quot;Mehlspeise&quot; (literally &quot;flour-meal), and &quot;narrisch&quot; is Austrian/Viennese for being (slightly) mad). But then, of course, there might be a pun intended I as a bad english-speaker just dont get. Maybe via the pronounciation? Check out this [http://www.dict.cc/?s=Kuchenteigs-Verderbtheit dictionary], head for &quot;continue searching&quot; and press &quot;voice output&quot; - voila, thats what &quot;Kuchenteigs-Verderbtheit&quot; sounds like.<br /> <br /> The term probably is made up, but the meaning is more like &quot;shameful addiction to cookie dough.&quot; In the context of detectives, what may be happening here is this: The Austrians have heard the canard that American policemen are addicted to doughnuts, but they misunderstand both ''doughnut'' and ''addicted.''<br /> <br /> Another possibility: Austrians have read that American detectives will do anything for dough.<br /> <br /> '''Boll Weevil Lounge'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> The boll weevil, a destructive cotton pest, first arrived in America (via Mexico) in 1892, only one year before the opening section of ATD. It is a fitting name for a &quot;Negro Bar&quot; as the boll weevil is the subject of dozens of blues songs. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Boll_weevil [Wikipedia]]<br /> <br /> 1893 is too soon for the songs and probably for the lounge too. Cotton was still king in the South; the big [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cotton_States_and_International_Exposition_%281895%29 Atlanta exposition] was two years in the future, and the economic dislocation had not properly begun. The boll weevil songs date from the teens-20s and later.<br /> <br /> '''...the only place in Chicago a man could find a decent orange phosphate...'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> A reference to the modern stereotype that black people like orange soda, here called a phosphate.<br /> <br /> ==Page 48==<br /> <br /> '''Wassermelone'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Watermelon; another black stereotype...<br /> <br /> '''grip cars'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> The lead cars in cable-car systems. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chicago_City_Railway [Wikipedia]]<br /> <br /> '''''deine Mutti'', as you would say'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Franz Ferdinand is attempting to engage the patrons of the Boll Weevil Lounge in a game of &quot;the dozens&quot;, an insult contest in which opponents make fun of each other's mothers. &quot;The dozens&quot; has its origins in the New Orleans slave trade. As with the boll weevil, &quot;the dozens&quot; is closely associated with blues music. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_dozens [Wikipedia]]<br /> <br /> '''the World's Fair, not the World's Ugly'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> A fairly sophisticated pun, if F.F.'s English is so rudimentary.<br /> <br /> '''''...'st los, Hund?'''''&lt;br&gt;<br /> German for &quot;'s up, dog?&quot;<br /> <br /> '''All Pimps Look Alike to Me'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> An early rag by Ernest Hogan was entitled All Coons Look Alike to Me; &quot;Hogan was evidently not the originator of the song's lyrics, having appropriated them after hearing a pianist in a Chicago salon playing a song titled &quot;All Pimps Look Alike to Me&quot;&quot;. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ernest_Hogan See this article.]&lt;br&gt;<br /> For more &quot;coon&quot; references see text and annotations: [[#Page_33|page 33]], [[ATD_336-357#Page_344|page 344]], [[ATD_358-373#Page_369|page 369]] and especially [[ATD_397-428#Page 424|page 424]].<br /> <br /> '''scapegrace'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Scoundrel.<br /> <br /> '''And when Franz Ferdinand pays, everybody pays!'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> WWI?<br /> <br /> '''keester'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Buttocks.<br /> <br /> ==Page 49==<br /> <br /> '''Kinsley's'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> A famous steakhouse at 105-107 Adams St. in downtown Chicago. The building was erected in 1885.<br /> <br /> '''At first Lew took it for a church'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> This could be an allusion to the film, ''On The Waterfront'', and a similar scene when Terry Malloy (Marlon Brando) is sent by Johnny Friendly and Co. to eavesdrop on a meeting being held in a church by local priest Father Barry (Karl Malden) along with workers from the docks who are fed up with Friendly and the Mob, especially in light of a recent death. Social themes of film seem apt as well. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/On_the_waterfront].<br /> <br /> Karl Malden (Mladen Sekulovich)incidentally was a product of this milieu, born in Chicago in 1912 to a Serb steelworker father and Czech seamstress mother. The Sekulovich family hails from Herzegovina.<br /> <br /> '''Welsbach mantles'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> One of the most important advances in the history of lighting, the Welsbach mantle (for a period so ubiquitous it became more commonly known simply as 'gas mantle') was first sold commercially in 1892 and quickly spread throughout Europe. It remained an important part of street lighting until the widespread introduction of electric lighting in the early 1900s. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gas_mantle Wikipedia entry].<br /> <br /> '''Reverend Moss Gatlin'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> A fictional character. Is he connected to Rev. Cherrycoke? They are both Reverends with strong political opinions and you can hear Pynchon's voice here very strong.<br /> <br /> Possible allusion to Reverend Fr. John M. Corridan, the real-life counterpart of Father Barry in ''On The Waterfront''. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_M._Corridan Wikipedia]<br /> <br /> Some real, or anyway nonfictional, anarchist preachers:<br /> *[http://www.lewrockwell.com/rothbard/rothbard107.html Thomas Olney,] 17th-century Baptist anarchist who was influential in Rhode Island<br /> *[http://www.loc.gov/catdir/description/hol055/96047023.html Rudolf Rocker] (1873-1958), nicknamed the &quot;anarchist rabbi&quot;<br /> *[http://recollectionbooks.com/bleed/gallery/galleryindex.htm Ferdinand Domela Nieuwenhuis,] Dutch minister who came to anarchism in 1897<br /> *[http://dwardmac.pitzer.edu/Anarchist_archives/critics/mckinley/chap4.html Albert Dahlquist and Joseph A. Wildman,] caught up in persecutions after the McKinley assassination (Dahlquist was nearly lynched; Wildman was tarred and feathered)<br /> *[http://portland.indymedia.org/en/2004/10/301208.shtml Father Frank Morales,] participant in Portland anti-globalization demonstrations<br /> *[http://www.deadanarchists.org/anton.html Hugh O. Pentecost,] who in 1889 was slated to address a meeting in commemoration of the Haymarket; Philadelphia authorities suppressed the gathering<br /> <br /> '''fascinators'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Hair adornments. [http://www.ribbonsandpearls.co.uk/catalogue/fascinators/fascinator_hair_accessories_intro.htm [pix]]<br /> <br /> '''bearing the insults of the day'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> See notes on [[ATD_26-56#Page_43|pages 43 and 44]] above.<br /> <br /> '''Blake's Jerusalem'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> The original lines From William Blake's poem are:<br /> <br /> I will not cease from mental fight,&lt;br&gt;<br /> Nor shall my sword sleep in my hand&lt;br&gt;<br /> Till we have built Jerusalem&lt;br&gt;<br /> In England's green and pleasant land.<br /> <br /> '''Fierce as the winter's tempest . . . Death's for the bought and sold!'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> This lyric does not come up in a Google search. It doesn't flow like any other lyric in Pynchon but reads like a rather good hymn text. No variations in the meter, no words broken for the sake of rhyme, no punctuation to show lengthened or chopped syllables. And yet thematically it is a seamless fit with the text around it. Are the lines original in ''AtD,'' or can their source be identified?<br /> <br /> ==Page 50==<br /> <br /> '''Picardy third'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> The use of a major chord at the end of a musical section in a minor key. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Picardy_third Wikipedia entry]<br /> <br /> ==Page 51==<br /> <br /> '''deadfalls'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Low points where refuse collects? Cf. Pynchon's story, Low-Lands?[http://www.thefreedictionary.com/deadfalls [def]]<br /> <br /> '''prophesiers who had seen America as it might be in visions America's wardens could not tolerate'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Coupled with the cover blurb Pynchon wrote: &quot;If it is not the world, it is what the world might be with a minor adjustment or two. According to some, this is one of the main purposes of fiction.&quot; Could ''Against the Day'' be Pynchon's prophecy of a future America?<br /> <br /> [[image:we_never_sleep.jpg|thumb|175px|right]]'''The Unsleeping Eye'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Reference to Pinkerton's competing PI agency. Pinkerton's National Detective Agency had a logo with an eye in the center, and below it read, &quot;We Never Sleep.&quot; See also [[ATD_1-25#Page_13|page 13]].<br /> <br /> '''bay rum'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> A type of cologne or after-shave. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bay_rum Wikipedia article]<br /> <br /> ==Page 52==<br /> <br /> '''''Inconvenience'''''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Lew Basnight's temporary presence on the airship may be the first clue as to why it's called ''Inconvenience''. Perhaps his growing sympathy for the anarchists will lead to greater involvement by him, the Chums, or at least the book in portraying the anarchist movement, which is viewed as an inconvenience to the ruling classes. Pynchon may consider his novel's message, similarly, as an inconvenient truth about America's past, present or both.<br /> <br /> :I thought it was just a polysyllable that sounds stately but means the opposite.--[[User:Robot|Robot]] 13:18, 5 December 2006 (PST)<br /> <br /> In ''Mason &amp; Dixon'', the willful reality of other people are referred to as inconveniences more than once.<br /> <br /> '''the whiteness of the place nearly unbearable'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Causing an effect something like snow blindness.<br /> <br /> '''some weeks till the fair closes'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> 30 October 1893.<br /> <br /> '''our future's all a blank'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Whoever the Chums get their orders from, they have not received any new ones yet. They look ahead and see a blank page.<br /> <br /> '''Freddie Turner'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Frederick Jackson Turner (1861 - 1932) was, with Charles A. Beard, the most influential American historian of the early 20th century. He is best known for ''The Significance of the Frontier in American History'', an essay which describes his views on how the idea of the frontier shaped the American character, and how the frontier drove American history and America's westward expansion. Excerpt: &quot;In this advance, the frontier is the outer edge of the wave &amp;#151; the meeting point between savagery and civilization.&quot; <br /> [http://www.fordham.edu/halsall/mod/1893turner.html eText here...]; [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Frederick_Jackson_Turner Wikipedia]<br /> <br /> ==Page 53==<br /> <br /> '''Here's where the Trail comes to an end at last'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> With the advent of the railroad, the West changed dramatically. Chicago became the stockyards and slaughterhouse of America, and cowboys only funneled their cattle in that direction, no longer simply following them on the range or leading them to more local places of slaughter. The cowboy had become a cog in the wheel of a mechanism of death.<br /> <br /> '''Blitz Instruments and Wackett Punches'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Mentioned in 1911 Britannica article 'Slaughter-house' [http://www.1911encyclopedia.org/Slaughter-house [etext]]<br /> <br /> '''charabanc'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> An open-topped bus for tourists.<br /> <br /> '''&quot;The frontier ends and disconnection begins&quot;'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Here, the free cowboy myth of Buffalo Bill's show is replaced by the grim reality of the stockyard worker.<br /> <br /> '''Cause and effect'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> A major theme in ''Gravity's Rainbow''.<br /> <br /> '''How the dickens do I know?'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> A possible reference to the novels of Charles Dickens, who critiques in such works as ''Hard Times'' (1854) the onset of urban decay, and the choked living and working conditions of the proletariat as the Industrial Revolution steams onward.&lt;br&gt;<br /> Or it may just be a standard euphemism; polite speakers were enjoined not to name the Devil.<br /> <br /> '''hob-raising years'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Hell-raising years; his early years. [http://www.thefreedictionary.com/hob Definition of &quot;hob&quot;.]<br /> <br /> ==Page 54==<br /> <br /> '''where you knew you could stand and piss would flow two ways at once.'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> The Professor is talking about growing up in Colorado, where the Continental Divide passes. It would be logical to suggest that, at the precise location of this divide, piss would indeed flow both east and west.<br /> :For Easterners at least, it's a well-known tourist ritual to pee right on the line.<br /> <br /> The best place to do this, for tourists, is at Cache La Poudre Lake, headwaters of the Colorado River on Trail Ridge Road (US 34) in Rocky Mountain National Park—it is exactly on the Divide, and water exits to East and West, Atlantic and Pacific.<br /> <br /> '''into the control of potent operatives who did not wish him well'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Describing Lew's movement now, but a few pages previously that of the stock at the slaughterhouse.<br /> <br /> '''Cheerfulness . . . a precarious commodity'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> The original narrator of the Chums passages has definitely been pushed aside now. They seem to be in a totally different book.<br /> <br /> ==Page 55==<br /> <br /> '''. . . they continued in a fragmented reverie which, . . . often announced some change in the works'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Good to notice when the Chums get like this again: i.e. unfocused, depressed, without direction, it may lead to patterns in the plot.<br /> :No Fair, no orders, no adventures: The Chums are between books!<br /> <br /> '''Speculation began to fill the day.'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> See note on [[ATD_26-56#Page_43|pages 43 and 44]] above.<br /> <br /> '''the ill-famed Hawk'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> In deepening autumn it is ''rehearsing'' &quot;swift descent, merciless assault, rapture of souls&quot;; at the end of the passage &quot;the temperature head[s] down.&quot; The Hawk appears to be a metaphor for winter or its storms. &lt;br&gt;([http://www.barrypopik.com/index.php/new_york_city/entry/the_hawk/ possible definition?])&lt;br&gt;<br /> :That is pretty conclusive. ''Hawk'' an established and documented metaphor for the winter wind.<br /> The Hawk is also one of the ubiquitous birds of prey in ATD. The words showing its lethal effect and the drop in temperature are Pynchon themes<br /> for evil. Evil comes from the lands of low temperatures. See GR.<br /> <br /> ==Annotation Index==<br /> {{ATD PbP}}</div>

MKOHUT https://against-the-day.pynchonwiki.com/wiki/index.php?title=ATD_525-556&diff=14101 2007-10-18T16:41:57Z

<p>MKOHUT: /* Page 548 */</p> <hr /> <div>:'''&lt;big&gt;Please keep these annotations SPOILER-FREE by not revealing information from later pages in the novel.&lt;/big&gt;'''&lt;p&gt;&lt;br&gt;<br /> <br /> ==Page 525==<br /> <br /> '''Ostend'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Cf [[ATD_489-524#Page 521|page 521:Ostend]], a seaport in northwest Belgium. Among English-speaking tourists, Ostend (or Ostende) is best known as a ferry port. Ships have shuttled between Dover and Ostend for more than 150 years, and today's high-speed catamarans move hundreds of passengers and vehicles between these two ports in just two hours. But this thousand-year-old city is a popular beach resort with Belgians, who flock to Ostend for sun, surfing, sailing and the ''Kursaal'' (Casino). The fishing harbor and old town draw many visitors. Ostend is the only Belgian coastal resort that is as lively in the summer as in the winter. For more and pictures [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ostend Ostend].<br /> <br /> '''Fishermen's Quai'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Fishermen's Quay, also called De Trap. The shrimp boats come home here from the sea in the morning. Along the quay many stands sell lots of seafoods.<br /> <br /> '''Boulevard van Isenghem'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> A major thoroughfare in Ostend, locally called ''Van Iseghemlaan'', extending diagonally from seafront southwest through the city.<br /> <br /> '''street-plausible'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Presentable.<br /> <br /> '''Quai de l'empereur'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Since Ostende is in the Flemish part of Belgium this should be the Keizerskaai, a street along the old part of the harbour, 1919 renamed Vindictivelaan.<br /> <br /> '''estaminet'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> According to the OED - A café in which smoking is allowed. Now, any small establishment selling alcoholic liquor. <br /> <br /> '''twelve-centime'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> one centime is the French eqivalent of one cent. A twelve-centime beer would cost 12/100 of a franc.<br /> <br /> '''Quaternions'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Cf [[ATD_119-148#Page 130|page 130:Quaternions]]. Quaternions are a non-communtative extension of complex numbers (Hamilton, 1843).&lt;br&gt;<br /> <br /> Analogy with the complex numbers (Cf [[ATD_119-148#Page 132|page 132:complex number]]) being represented as a sum of real and imaginary parts, a + b''i'', where ''i''² = −1, a quaternion is defined as a combination a + b''i'' + c''j'' + d''k'', where ''i''² = ''j''² = ''k''² = ''i j k'' = −1, and a, b, c, d are ''four'' explicit real numbers. The non-commutative property refers to ''i j = −j i = k; j k = −k j = i; k i = −i k = j''. (i.e. ''i j ≠ j i; j k ≠ k j; k i ≠ i k''; etc.) The using of ''i, j, k'', the imaginary numbers (Cf [[ATD_119-148#Page 133|page 133:imaginary number]]), led to the phrases of &quot;the ''ijk'' lot&quot; of page 533 and &quot;creature of ''i-j-k''&quot; of page 534.<br /> <br /> '''Kellner'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> German: waiter, barman. Use of the German word would be insulting to the Belgian barman.<br /> <br /> '''''demi'''''&lt;br&gt;<br /> A half-pint glass (25 centilitres, actually).<br /> <br /> '''Lambic'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Pron. ''lahm-BEEK.'' Unique Belgian beer style, sour and often thin in body.<br /> <br /> '''skimmer'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Straw hat (&quot;Panama&quot;).<br /> <br /> ==Page 526==<br /> <br /> '''biquaternion'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Or &quot;octonion,&quot; an innovation of English mathematician W.K. Clifford, [[ATD_243-272#Page_249|referred to on p. 249.]]<br /> <br /> '''Barry Nebulay'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Pun on a term from heraldry, ''barry nebuly.'' Barry (rhymes with &quot;starry,&quot; not &quot;carry&quot;) refers to a shield divided into an even number of parts by horizontal lines. Nebuly signals that the lines are deformed into stylized &quot;cloud&quot; shapes. [http://www.rarebooks.nd.edu/digital/heraldry/partitions.html Here you can see an example.] If a ''British'' author had a character with a heraldic name, it would suggest a pseudonym.<br /> <br /> '''University of Dublin'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> The Alma Mater of Hamilton, the father of Quaternion. He studied, graduated and taught at Trinity College, the University of Dublin, Ireland's oldest university.<br /> <br /> If University College, Dublin, then Joyce had graduated in 1902.&lt;br&gt;<br /> <br /> '''Quaternioneers'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Quaternion believers.<br /> <br /> '''Gibbsian Vectors'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Vector Analysis (or Vector Calculus) developed by Willard Gibbs (Cf [[ATD_26-56#Page 29|page 29:Professor Gibbs]]) in 1881 and 1884. It is a branch of calculus that deals with vectors and process involving vectors. It is much more easily applied to phsics and other applied sciences than Hamilton's Quaternions (Cf [[ATD_525-556#Page 525|page 525:Quaternions]]).&lt;br&gt;<br /> A vector is defined by not only a magnitude but also a direction, such as a velocity vector, ''v'' is defined by ''v'' = a''i'' + b''j'' + c''k'',<br /> where a, b, and c are the magnitudes of the velocity components in directions of ''i, j'' and ''k'' which are unit vectors, (not imaginary numbers as in Quaternion), with magnitude of 1. In three dimensional cases and ''xyz'' coordinate system is used then ''i, j, k'' are related to ''x, y, z'' directions (&quot;''xyz'' people&quot; of page 533); but they, in general, may be used irrespective of the notation of the coordinates.<br /> Mathematical operations (addition, subtraction, multiplication), differentiation (''curl'' — Cf [[ATD_318-335#Page 326|page 326:Curl]] and p. 536, ''Laplacian'' — Cf [[ATD_318-335#Page 326|page 326:Laplacian]] and p. 536, etc) and integration can be applied to vectors. It is interesting to know that one of the two multiplication operations is called cross product; for unit vectors (''i, j, k'') perpendicular to each other, then, ''i × i = j × j = k × k = 0'', ''i × j = k'', ''j × i = -k'', etc. ([http://web.mit.edu/wwmath/vectorc/summary.html Vector Calculus]).&lt;br&gt;<br /> A simple vector anyalysis example here: if ''k'', the unit vector, stands for the direction upward and g is the gravitational acceleration, then the acceleration vector, ''a'', for a projectile, is defined for downward action, (the ''i'' and ''j'' directions have zero components):&lt;br&gt;<br /> :''a'' = -g ''k''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Integrating ''a'' would give the velocity vector, ''v''&lt;br&gt;<br /> :''v'' = -g t ''k''&lt;br&gt;<br /> for zero initial velocity case, and t standing for time.&lt;br&gt;<br /> And integrating ''v'' would yield the position vector, ''h'', for the projectile&lt;br&gt;<br /> :''h'' = -½ g t² ''k''&lt;br&gt;<br /> toward the sea level.<br /> <br /> '''Quaternionists'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Quaternion believers, same as Quaternioneers.<br /> <br /> '''Tasmania'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Tasmania is an island of the southern coast of Australia. Known for its relative isolation, it was a prison for English convicts in the 1800s<br /> <br /> '''Having been inseparable from the rise of the electromagnetic'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> In his 1865 work ''The Dynamical Theory of the Electromagnetic Field'', James Clerk Maxwell unified electricity and magnetism. He put forth twenty equations, with twenty unknowns, in vector form (though different in notation and form than the equations that now bear his name) that completely described all known electromagnetic phenomena. In his 1873 treatise on the subject, he expressed the equations in the mathematics of quaternions. It appears that the quaternion form of the equations remained popular even though, at the behest of his publisher, Maxwell reverted to the 1865 form in the second edition (1881)--though they remain scattered throughout. In 1892 Oliver Heaviside (On the Forces, Stresses, and Fluxes of Energy in the Electromagnetic Field. ''Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society of London.'' A, Vol. 183. pp423-480), while spewing scientific vitriol at the Quaternionists, reformulated Maxwell's original 1865 equations (Heaviside chose to remove the vector potential and scalar fields from the equations; the inclusion of these terms had served as Maxwell's justification for the use of quaternions), and provided the notation still in use today. See this [http://www.zpenergy.com/modules.php?name=Downloads&amp;d_op=getit&amp;lid=60 PDF] for the evolution of Maxwell's equations.<br /> <br /> '''Hamiltonian devotees'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> The Quaternion faction, after William Hamilton, who devised the scheme.<br /> <br /> '''Grand Hôtel de la Nouvelle Digue'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> There is a Hotel Digue in the Seychelles; this is a New Hotel Digue by Pynchon? <br /> <br /> Grand Hotel of New Dyke, may be a made up hotel name.<br /> <br /> '''anterooms of death'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> This metaphor is sometimes applied to concentration camps. Here the lyric &quot;feel like I'm fixin' to die&quot; seems more apposite.<br /> <br /> '''Belgian Art Nouveau'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Art Nouveau, 1890(or 80) to 1914, explores a new style in the visual arts and architecture that developed in Europe and North America at the end of the 19th century. At its height (~1907), Art Nouveau was a concerted attempt to create an international style based on decoration. It was developed by a brilliant and energetic generation of artists and desisgners, who sought to fashion an art form appropriate to the post-Industrial Revolution modern age.&lt;br&gt;<br /> Brussels was one of the Art Nouveau centers and represented different style from the others. The jewelers there, accepted as artists rahter than craftsmen, (together with those in Paris) defined Art Nouveau in jewelery and achieved the most renown. ([http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Art_Nouveau Art Nouveau]).<br /> <br /> ==Page 527==<br /> <br /> '''dossing'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> British slang for &quot;sleeping&quot;, &quot;staying overnight&quot;<br /> <br /> '''Russian nihilists'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> :The following four are local, Belgian, not Russian, nihilists !<br /> <br /> '''Eugénie'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Female. Possibly named for Empress Eugénie (1826-1920), consort of French Emperor Napoleon III. Ultimately for St. Eugenia, 3rd-century Roman martyr whose feast is celebrated on December 25.<br /> <br /> '''Fatou'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Female. A pseudonym? In view of the date of the action, certainly not named after [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fatou the mathematician Fatou] (1878-1929).<br /> <br /> '''Denis'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Male. Named for St. Denis or Dionysius, patron saint of Paris and of France, 3rd-century bishop of Paris, martyr, beheaded on the hill now called Montmartre. &quot;Montjoie St. Denis!&quot; was a warcry used by French troops in the Middle Ages. His intercession is effective against demonic possession and headache.<br /> <br /> '''Policarpe'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Male. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Polycarp Saint Polycarp] was a Christian bishop of Smyrna (now İzmir in Turkey) in the second century. He was stabbed and died a martyr after an attempt to burn him at the stake failed. His intercession is sought against earache and dysentery.<br /> <br /> '''Young Congo'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Probably in reference to the [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Young_Turks Young Turks], a Turkish revolutionary movement<br /> <br /> '''Garde Civique'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> A part of the Belgian army. According to the [http://www.1911encyclopedia.org/Belgium 1911 Britannica], &quot;the mass of the garde civique does not pretend to possess military value. It is a defence against sedition and socialism.&quot;<br /> <br /> '''French Second Bureau boys'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Deuxieme Bureau; French Intelligence.<br /> <br /> '''''phalange'''''&lt;br&gt;<br /> French: phalanx. A military (here mock-military) group ready for combat. &lt;br&gt;<br /> <br /> It also conjures up memories of the early 19th century utopian socialist <br /> Charles Fourier, who theorized that people should live communally in &quot;phalanxes&quot; of a specific number based upon their &quot;passions.&quot; His solid ideas included equality of the sexes, but he also taught wacky things such as the moon being made of lemonade. Of particular relevance is his rejection of industrial civilization. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Utopian_socialism]<br /> <br /> '''&quot;...until something had happened, something too terrible to remember...&quot;'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Again this theme of an unknowable past transgression, here invoked almost as if the unknown signifies the other 'lateral' (a word which has cropped up at least a dozen times already) 'vector'.<br /> <br /> '''the Digue'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> French for &quot;dyke&quot;<br /> <br /> '''Congo... Belgians'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> The Belgian colonisation of the Congo was, as Conrad's ''Heart of Darkness'' makes clear, notable for its greed and brutality.<br /> <br /> '''Leopold, King of the Belgians'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> 1835-1909, reigned 1865-1909. A man of almost Nixonian fiendishness. In the Congo he acted as sole proprietor and absolute ruler. The positive outcomes of his exploitation include ''Heart of Darkness'' and the phrase &quot;crime against humanity.&quot;<br /> <br /> '''co-conscious'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> mental processes outside the main stream of consciousness but sometimes available to it — from Merriam-Webster's Medical Dictionary.<br /> <br /> '''Force Publique'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Belgian armed forces operating in the Belgian Congo ([http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Force_Publique Wikipedia]). &quot;King Leopold's private army&quot; may be a more accurate description.<br /> <br /> '''rubber worker'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> See above: One of the early missions of the FP was to increase rubber export quotas through forced labor and related atrocities.<br /> <br /> ==Page 528==<br /> <br /> '''''khâgne'''''&lt;br&gt;<br /> an informal term used by French students for Classes Préparatoires Littéraires, the two-year cycle of classes taken after the Baccalaureat (taken at age 17-18), to prepare for the entrance examination to the Ecole Normale Supeieure. ([http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kh%C3%A2gne khâgne]).<br /> <br /> '''Reclus'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> J. J. Élisée Reclus (1830-1905), French geographer but mainly educated in Germany. Several times he was forced to leave France because of his political views; he traveled widely in Europe, the British Isles, the United States, and South America and for many years lived in Switzerland. He was professor of comparative geography at the University of Brussels from 1895 to 1905. He had quite an extensive connection with various socialist and anarchist circles (met Bakunin while in Florence).Once he was imprisoned in Versailles in 1871 for his part in the ''Paris Commune''. In 1882 he initiated the ''Anti-marriage movement'' while in Geneva. [[http://academic.reed.edu/formosa/texts/reclusbio.html Reclus]).<br /> <br /> '''Stirnerite'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Follower of Max Stirner, 19th century German philosopher and author of ''The Ego and Its Own,'' a work influential in anarchist thought. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Max_Stirner Wikipedia entry].<br /> <br /> ''Max Stirner'''s (1806-56) attacks on systematic philosophy, his denial of absulutes, and his rejection of abstract concepts of any kind often places him among the first philosophical nihilists. For Stirner, achieving individual freedom is the only law; and the state, which necvessarily imperils freedom, must be destroyed. Even beyond the oppression of the state, though, are the constraints imposed by others because their very existence is an obstable compromising individual freedom. Thus Stirner argues that existence is an endless &quot;war of each against all&quot; (1845). (taken from the paragraph about Max Stirner in [http://www.iep.utm.edu/n/nihilism.htm#H1 Nihilism])&lt;br&gt;<br /> Sourcing here? Much complexity in properly understanding Stirner, who has some Pynchon-like qualities, to say the least. From the Stanford Dictionary of Philosophy&lt;br&gt;<br /> His major work:<br /> The Ego and Its Own<br /> Much of Stirner's prose—which is crowded with aphorisms, italicisation, and hyperbole—appears calculated to disconcert. Most striking, perhaps, is the use of word play. Rather than reach a conclusion through the conventional use of argument, Stirner often approaches a claim that he wishes to endorse by exploiting words with related etymologies or formal similarities. For example, he associates words for property (such as ‘Eigentum’) with words connoting distinctive individual characteristics (such as ‘Eigenheit’) in order to promote the claim that property is expressive of selfhood. (Stirner's account of egoistic property—see below—gives this apparently orthodox Hegelian claim a distinctive twist.)<br /> <br /> This rejection of conventional forms of intellectual discussion is linked to Stirner's substantive views about language and rationality. His unusual style reflects a conviction that both language and rationality are human products which have come to constrain and oppress their creators. Stirner maintains that accepted meanings and traditional standards of argumentation are underpinned by a conception of truth as a privileged realm beyond individual control. As a result, individuals who accept this conception are abandoning a potential area of creative self-expression in favour of adopting a subordinate role as servants of truth. In stark contrast, Stirner insists that the only legitimate restriction on the form of our language, or on the structure of our arguments, is that they should serve our individual ends. It is the frequent failure of ordinary meanings and standard forms of argument to satisfy his interpretation of this criterion which underpins Stirner's remorselessly idiosyncratic style.<br /> <br /> The Ego and Its Own has an intelligible, but scarcely transparent, structure. It is organised around a tripartite account of human experience, initially introduced in a description of the stages of an individual life. The first stage in this developmental narrative is the realistic one of childhood, in which children are constrained by material and natural forces such as their parents. Liberation from these external constraints is achieved with what Stirner calls the self-discovery of mind, as children find the means to outwit those forces in their own determination and cunning. The idealistic stage of youth, however, contains new internal sources of constraint, as individuals once more become enslaved, this time to the spiritual forces of conscience and reason. Only with the adulthood of egoism do individuals escape both material (external) and spiritual (internal) constraints, learning to value their personal satisfaction above all other considerations.<br /> <br /> Stirner portrays this dialectic of individual growth as an analogue of historical development, and it is a tripartite account of the latter which structures the remainder of the book. Human history is reduced to successive epochs of realism (the ancient, or pre-Christian, world), idealism (the modern, or Christian, world), and egoism (the future world). <br /> <br /> What about these &quot;successive epochs&quot; in understanding ATD?<br /> <br /> Stirner's major work, The Ego and Its Own has been reissued in English a number of times in Pynchon's lifetime,from the 60s on. (Not that TRP could not have read it in German!)<br /> <br /> '''''Anarcho-individualiste'''''&lt;br&gt;<br /> i.e. he has doctrinal differernces with Stirnerism, strictly speaking; see P. 324, and &quot;Eigenheit&quot;.<br /> <br /> '''Leopold'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> See p. 527.<br /> <br /> '''going down lately'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Being assassinated.<br /> <br /> '''Sipido'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Jean-Baptiste Sipido (1884-1959), a Belgian socialist. Accusing the Prince of Wales of causing thousands of inocents were killed in the Boer War in South Africa, on April 5, 1900, Sipido leaped onto the foot board of the royal compartment right before the train left the North Railway Station (Gare du Nord), Brussel, and fired two (or one? as reported in ''The Manchester Guardian'', or four? as stated in the text here) shots through the window but missed everyone inside. He was arrested, tried and acquitted. The leader of the House of Commons called the acquittal a &quot;grave and most unfortunate miscarriage of justice.&quot; ([http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jean-Baptiste_Sipido Sipido]).<br /> <br /> '''Prince... of Wales'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> (Maud Gonne's husband claimed to have been involved in another such plot.)<br /> <br /> '''Hippodrome'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Hippodrome Wellington, a horse racing track in Ostend built in 1883. The facility hosts both harness and flat racing events. ([http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hippodrome_Wellington Hippodrome]).<br /> <br /> '''Royal Bathing Hut... twenty francs'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> A bathing machine ([http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bathing_machine bathing machine])? The King of Belgium certainly would not want to be seen in a swimsuit on a public beach... It seems unlikely, though, that such a royal bathing machine would be for hire.<br /> <br /> '''twenty francs'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> ???<br /> <br /> ==Page 529==<br /> <br /> '''picric family'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> The explosive picric acid (2,4,6-trinitrophenol) and its derivatives. For picric acid, Brugère's powder and Designolle's powder, [http://encyclopedia.jrank.org/PER_PIG/PICRIC_ACID_or_TRINITROPHENOL_C.html see this Britannica article.]<br /> <br /> '''Brugère's powder'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> See &quot;picric family&quot; above.<br /> <br /> '''Designolle's'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> See &quot;picric family&quot; above.<br /> <br /> '''Monsieur Santos-Dumont'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Alberto Santos-Dumont (1873-1932), a pioneer of aviation from Brasil. Check out [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alberto_Santos-Dumont Wikipedia] to get a look at the way he was wearing his &quot;trademark Panama hat&quot;. <br /> <br /> '''Green Hour''' and '''''l'heure vertigineuse'''''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Absinthe-drinking time. The liqueur is green. In French, ''l'heure verte,'' so ''vertigineuse'' (vertiginous, causing dizziness) is a pun on the word for &quot;green.&quot;<br /> <br /> '''Rocco and Pino'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Rabid Quaternionists and sudden friends of Kit Traverse.<br /> :No, they were not mathematicians at all, let alone Quaternionists, but two &quot;Italian naval renegades&quot; !!<br /> ::&quot;Rocco and Pino&quot; are, in temperament, something like the &quot;Mason and Dixon&quot; of manned-torpedoes... cf. the &quot;torpedo&quot; (i.e., &quot;Electrick-Eel&quot;) of ''Mason &amp; Dixon''.<br /> <br /> '''Whitehead works in Fiume'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Anticipating GR's V2 works.<br /> <br /> ''Robert Whitehead'' (1823-1905), an English engineer. He developed the first self-propelled torpedo in 1866. He attended Manchester's Mechanics Institute, worked in a shipyard in Toulon (1844), France, and as a consultant engineer in Milan (1847), Italy. Later he moved to Trieste and in 1856 became a manager of a company called ''Founderia Mettali'' (later, ''Stabilimento Tecnico di Fiume'') in Fiume producing ship steam boilers and engines which were the most advanced of that era. He also developed the first self-propelled torpedo which was very popular. Whitehead's torpedo was propelled by a compressed air engine, carried 18lbs dynamites and a self-regulating device which kept the torpedo cruising at a constant preset depth. [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Robert_Whitehead Whitehead]].<br /> <br /> ''Fiume'' is now Rijeka, Croatia. Trieste is on the northwestern edge of the Istra Peninsula, Rijeka is east of it. [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rijeka Fiume]].<br /> <br /> Interesting sidebar: Whitehead's fortune from Fiume and the torpedo went solely to his granddaughter Agatha Whitehead, who married Baron von Trapp. The Von Trapp money came from Robert Whitehead, and most of the von Trapp singers were his great-grandchildren.<br /> <br /> '''''Alberta'''''&lt;br&gt;<br /> The [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Royal_yacht Wikipedia] entry on royal yachts goes back to the 17th century but doesn't include ''Alberta.'' The craft does get a mention in [http://www.bouncing-balls.com/timeline/people/nr_leopoldmorel.htm this page on Leopold and the Congo.]<br /> <br /> '''Siluro Dirigibile a Lenta Corsa'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> or S.L.C. &quot;slow course torpedo&quot;, &quot;slow-running torpedo&quot;. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Manned_torpedo Wikipedia] Italy‘s Navy was among the first to experiment with manned torpedos. Though according to [http://web.ukonline.co.uk/chalcraft/sm/chariots.html this site] this did not happen until 1935, Italian frogmen as early as October 31, 1918 made it into the harbour of Pula with the help of a modified german torpedo and sank the former Austrian but by then since a few hours Croatian/Slovenian/Bosnian battleship SMS ''Viribus Unitis''. [http://www.geocities.com/tegetthoff66/viribus.html website]<br /> <br /> The Wikipedia entry linked above doesn't contain the Italian word ''dirigibile'' (steerable), which sets up the torpedo as a counterpart of the dirigible ''Inconvenience.''<br /> <br /> :I suspect there's a connection between the torpedo and &quot;Not the usual lateener, in fact appearing to have neither sails, masts, nor oars&quot; in Miles' reversed vision, [[ATD_243-272#Page_250|page 250.]] Needs work, though.<br /> <br /> ==Page 530==<br /> <br /> '''exfiltrate'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Make a surreptitious escape (as &quot;infiltrate&quot; means to make a surreptitious entrance).<br /> <br /> '''''Macchè'''''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Italian: certainly not, not a chance. And in Pynchon's Italian is used as an all-purpose exclamation.<br /> <br /> '''''Ehi, stu gazz', categoria'''''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Stu gazz' is a dialect representation of ''sto cazzo'', literally meaning ''this dick here''. Normally you could translate the sense of the sentence as: ''yeah, why not, a fucking category! ''. -- blicero2 - 2007.02.22<br /> <br /> '''''mezzogiornismo'''''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Denigrating the Italian South. Mezzogiorno means ''midday'' in Italian but refers generally to Southern Italy.<br /> <br /> ==Page 531==<br /> <br /> '''Bruges'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> An exceptionally beautiful Belgian town of canals which is thus one of several towns known as the 'Venice of the north'. In the 14th cettury Burges already became an international finanacial and trading center, but<br /> started to decline in the 15th century. In the 20th century, however, the city was discovered by the international tourism and the medieval heritage turned out to be a new source of wealth. A new harbor of Zeebrugge, 10 miles outside of Bruges at the North Sea coast, brought new developments and new industries to the region. For the city and its history see ([http://www.trabel.com/brugge.htm Bruges]).<br /> <br /> '''Raoul's Atelier de la Vitesse'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> French: Ralph's Speed Shop.<br /> <br /> '''Ghent'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Belgian city, less than 30 miles southeast of Bruges, on the rail line about halfway between Ostend and Brussels. It is the fourth largest city of Belgium. It is bigger than Bruges but not as famous as a tourist attraction. But the city is a showcase of medieval Flemish wealth and commercial success. See ([http://www.trabel.com/gent.htm Ghent]).<br /> <br /> '''Daimler six-cylinder'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> ???<br /> <br /> '''a hundred horsepower'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> ???<br /> <br /> '''''guaglion'''''&lt;br&gt;<br /> italian (dialectal) = boy, young person<br /> <br /> '''Umeki Tsurigane'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Umeki is typically made with some combination of the various kanji for &quot;plum&quot; (ume) and &quot;tree&quot; (ki), though one has the ki being the character for &quot;ghost/devil&quot; and one obscure reading that's entirely redundant, where ume is &quot;plant&quot; (usually read ue). There is one where ume is the kanji for &quot;buried or embedded&quot;. Tsurigane, means a &quot;temple bell&quot;, which can stand alone or be followed by the grass kanji to mean &quot;bellflower&quot; (lots of botanical stuff happening here, if that means anything; hardly the only example in ''AtD''). Given the search for Shambhala going on, &quot;Buried Temple Bell&quot; seems a likely translation, at least at this point; the botanical meanings could perhaps emerge later.<br /> <br /> Or, another terrible name-pun? &quot;You make [m]e sore again.&quot; See another on P. [[ATD_748-767#Page_757| 757]]<br /> <br /> '''Professor Knott'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Cargill Knott (1856-1922), professor of physics; seismologist. See his biography [http://www.penicuikcdt.org.uk/Cargill_Knott.html here].<br /> <br /> ==Page 532==<br /> <br /> '''Kimura'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Cf [[ATD_26-56#Page 29|page 29:Kimura]] and [[ATD_318-335#Page 318|page 318:Shunkichi Kimura]].<br /> <br /> '''drover's sombrero'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Cowboy hat.<br /> <br /> '''furoshiki'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Japanese all-purpose cloth. Can be worn, used as wrapping, or used as a bag.<br /> <br /> '''taupe'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> A brownish gray.<br /> <br /> '''boilermakers and their helpers'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> [[ATD_358-373#Page_360|See annotation to p. 360.]]<br /> <br /> '''Anharmonic Pencil'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> ''Pencil'' is a term commonly used in Synthetic Geometry. Straight lines incident with a plane - coplanar lines - and passing through a common point are said to be concurrent lines and the set of all such concurrent coplanar lines is called the ''pencil''. (Cf [[ATD_429-459#Page 456|page 456:Pencil]]). For a figure and a not quite precise definition see [http://mathworld.wolfram.com/Pencil.html pencil]. If a, b, c and d, are four distinct coplanar lines and their double ratio λ = (abcd) = -1, then a, b, c, d are called a harmonic quadruple of lines; they are said to constitute a ''harmonic pencil''. A ''pencil'' which is not harmonic then is known as ''anharmonic pencil''. See Pencil (lines 8-9), Double Ratio λ (lines 32-35) and Harmonic Pencil (line 39) of [http://ca.geocities.com/ingsaler6/mathworld.html Mathworld].<br /> <br /> '''''Comptes rendus'''''&lt;br&gt;<br /> ''Comptes rendus des séances hebdomadaires,'' Proceedings of the weekly sessions (of the Academy of Sciences), published from 1835, later (ca. 1935) retitled ''Comptes rendus de l'Académie des sciences,'' Proceedings of the Academy of Sciences. (Notice that the academy didn't see the need to specify &quot;French.&quot; Take that, Royal Society of London!) For about a century, one of two journals so universally circulated and recognized that bibliographies nearly always cited them in nickname form: ''C.R.'' The other was ''Ber.,'' short for ''Berichte der Deutschen Chemischen Gesellschaft,'' Reports of the German Chemical Society (from 1868).<br /> <br /> '''De Forest'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Cf [[ATD_26-56#Page 29|page 29:De Forest]].<br /> <br /> '''Gibbs'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Cf [[ATD_26-56#Page 29|page 29:Professor Gibbs]].<br /> <br /> '''Maxwell Equations'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Cf [[ATD_57-80#Page 58|page 58:Maxwell Field Equations]].<br /> <br /> ==Page 533==<br /> <br /> '''aniline teal'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> The wallpaper dye; aniline dyes were the first synthetic dyes, discovered by [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/William_Perkin William Perkin] in 1858. Their intense and fade-resistant colors were very fashionable at the end of the nineteenth century. The dyes are also significant in ''GR'' as the products of I.G. Farben.<br /> <br /> '''Heavisiders'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Oliver Heaviside (May 18, 1850 – February 3, 1925) was a self-taught English electrical engineer, mathematician and physicist who adapted complex numbers to the study of electrical circuits, developed techniques for applying Laplace transforms to the solution of differential equations, reformulated Maxwell's field equations in terms of electric and magnetic forces and energy flux, and independently co-formulated vector analysis. Although at odds with the scientific establishment for most of his life, Heaviside changed the face of mathematics and science for years to come.[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Heaviside].<br /> <br /> '''Grassmanniacs'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Nineteenth century German mathematician and linguist, essentially the inventor/discoverer of vector space. Grassmann showed that once geometry is put into the algebraic form he advocated, then the number three has no privileged role as the number of spatial dimensions; the number of possible dimensions is in fact unbounded.[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hermann_Grassmann].<br /> <br /> '''in the mood for a clambake'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Anachronistic Broadway show tune? If so, the clambake in ''Carousel'' turns into a brawl; the assmebled factions of mathematicians could be in the mood for either a party or a brawl, apparently. <br /> <br /> '''Monopole de la Maison'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Monopole of the House, a fanciful name of a fanciful drink.&lt;br&gt;<br /> There is, since 1898, a well known restaurant called ''Monopole Lunch &amp; Sea Grill'' in Plattsburgh of upper New York state. ([http://www.monopole.org Monopole Restaurant]).&lt;br&gt;<br /> Most probably, it's the Magnetic monopole being referred here. In physics, a monopole is a magnet with a net magnetic charge, i.e. there is only one pole instead of two (so no net magnetic charge) as usual. ([http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Magnetic_monopole Monopole]). It's existence had been theoretically predicted by various particle theories (superstring theory, etc) but never been proved experimentally. Proving the existence of a monopole would certainly earn a Nobel Prize.<br /> <br /> '''Idiom Neutral'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> An invented language, like Esperanto. Idiom Neutral dictionaries first appeared in 1902. It looks like a simplified Latinate language and it grew out of Volapuk, another &quot;auxiliary language.&quot; It was abandoned by the ''Akademi Internasional de Lingu Universal'' in 1908.<br /> <br /> For a list of all the invented languages that linguists are keeping track of, including Klingon, try [http://linguistlist.org/forms/langs/GetListOfConstructedLgs.html Eastern Michigan's Linguist List]. And don't forget to click on the link to &quot;Browse sites devoted to constructed languages.&quot;<br /> <br /> '''phatic'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Basically, small talk or chatter. Words used to convey fellow-feeling rather than to impart information.<br /> <br /> '''''Kampf ums Dasein'''''&lt;br&gt;<br /> German: struggle for existence.<br /> <br /> '''Q-brother'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Fellow Quaternioneer or Fellow Quaternionist.<br /> <br /> '''We are the Jews of mathematics, wandering out here in our diaspora--some destined for the past, others the future, even a few able to set out at unknown angles from the simple line of Time, upon journeys that no one can predict''' &lt;br&gt;<br /> In keeping with the analogy of Judaism, those &quot;few&quot; people within the Quaternionists &quot;able to set out at unknown angles&quot; are most likely being compared to Kabbalists who claim to partake in a mystic &quot;journey to the Throne of God through the mythological realm of the seven heavens&quot; (Armstrong, A History of God--p. 247). Throne Mysticism in Kabbalah is explored extensively in Gravity's Rainbow.<br /> <br /> Perhaps this is obvious to some, but these &quot;Jews of Mathematics&quot; worship the Hamiltonian Tetractys [http://www.math.ucr.edu/home/baez/dublin/]; those other Jews worshipped the Tetragrammatron. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tetragrammaton] The proliferation of 4s continues.<br /> <br /> ==Page 534==<br /> <br /> '''Poiret gown'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> A gown designed by Paul Poiret (1879-1944), a French fashion designer based in Paris. &quot;In the annals of fashion history, Paul Poiret is best remembered for freeing women from corsets and further liberating them through pantaloons . . . it was Poiret's remarkable innovations in the cut and construction of cloting . . . Working with fabric directly onto the body, Poiret helped to pioneer a radical approach to dressmakeing that relied more on the skills of drapery than on those of tailoring.&quot; (from [http://www.metmuseum.org/special/se_event.asp?OccurrenceId={0DC3D00F-4611-4F91-8DC2-CC3C1A5C48D5} MetMuseum], <br /> New York Metropolitan Museum's Special Exhibitions, ''Poiret: King of Fashion'', May 9, 2007 to August 5, 2007). For a picture of Poiret gown see [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Image:Poiretgown.jpg Poiret Gown]. ''The New York Times'' reported on February 1, 2007 that A Poiret Gown Brings $5,500 at [http://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html?res=9B07EFDA1538F93AA15756C0A967948260 Christie's Auction] - the gown was made in 1913 when Poiret was at the height of his career. For his bio see [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Paul_Poiret Poiret].<br /> <br /> '''''green and long'''''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Pickle, or... what?<br /> : A green and long ''gherkin'' (a small, immature fruit of a variety of cucumber used in pickling).<br /> <br /> ==Page 535==<br /> <br /> '''no-name wine'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> 1970s idiom for common European practice?<br /> <br /> '''set theory'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Set theory deals with the properties of well-defined collections, or ''sets'', of entities - the ''elements'' or ''members'' of the set - conceived as a whole. The elements may be of a mathematical nature or non-mathematical. The set theory grew out of the German mathematician Georg Cantor's (1845-1918) study of infinite sets of real numbers. <br /> <br /> The ''language of sets'' has become an important tool for all branches of mathematics, but is of very little relevance to the practice of mathematics in everyday life. As a source of metaphors, however, it's been quite productive; &quot;subset,&quot; &quot;superset,&quot; &quot;universe,&quot; &quot;intersection&quot; and &quot;Venn diagram&quot; have found varying degrees of acceptance. Recasting Aristotle's syllogisms in set-theoretic language also makes them easier for many people to understand.<br /> <br /> '''Hamilton . . . early genius'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Hamilton, according to ''Chambers Biographical Dictionary'', &quot;at fifteen knew thirteen languages, had read Newton's ''Principia'', and commenced original investigations&quot;. At twenty-two, &quot;while still an undergraduate, he was appointed professor of Astronomy at Dublin and Irish Astronomer-Royal&quot;; at thirty &quot;he was knighted&quot;.<br /> <br /> '''Hamilton . . . in the grip of a first love'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> ???&lt;br&gt;<br /> Pynchon probably didn't mean Quaternion was Hamilton's first love, but its effect on him was similar to that of a first love. In 1843 at the age of 38 Hamilton invented the Quaternion, the first non-communtative algebra to be studied. He felt this would revolutionise mathematical physics, and he spent the rest of his life working on it. In 1853 he published a large volume, ''Lectures on Quaternions'', on his grand invention. The last seven years of his life, Hamilton was writing an 800-page book ''Elements of Quaternions'' modeling on Euclid's ''Elements''. The last chapter of the book was completed by his son after his death.<br /> <br /> '''the Walt Whitman of English physics'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Whitman pops up again, last seen on [[ATD_489-524#Page_491|page 491]].<br /> <br /> ==Page 536==<br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> '''Oscar Wilde'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Note that Wilde's Dorian Gray also undergoes a kind of bilocation.<br /> <br /> '''Kursaal'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Spa. Casino ?<br /> <br /> '''vectors'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> For serious minds see Cf [[ATD_525-556#Page 526|page 526:Gibbsian Vectors]], but let's follow Pynchon's lighter mood, here is a non-mathematical definition by Kamen (1995):<br /> :''Many things have more than direction;''<br /> :''The magnitude is also a question.''<br /> :''With acceleration or force,''<br /> :''And many more things, of course,''<br /> :''It's vectors that make the connection.''<br /> <br /> '''Curls'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Cf [[ATD_318-335#Page 326|page 326:Curl]]: curl is a vector operator that shows a vector field's rate of rotation.<br /> <br /> '''Laplacians'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Pierre-Simon, Marquis de Laplace (March 23, 1749 – March 5, 1827); French mathematician and astronomer who summarized and extended the work of his predecessors in his five volume Mécanique Céleste (Celestial Mechanics) (1799-1825), translating the geometrical study of mechanics used by Isaac Newton to one based on calculus, known as physical mechanics.<br /> <br /> He is also the discoverer of Laplace's equation. Although the Laplace transform is named in honor of Laplace, who used the transform in his work on probability theory, the transform was discovered originally by Leonhard Euler. The Laplace transform appears in all branches of mathematical physics — a field he took a leading role in forming. The Laplacian differential operator, much relied-upon in applied mathematics, is likewise named after him. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Laplace].<br /> <br /> :Cf [[ATD_318-335#Page 326|page 326:Laplacian]]: Laplacian is a differential operator named after Laplace. The text here was talking about mathematical operations and operators — rates of change, rotations, partial differentials, Curls, ''Laplacians'', . . .<br /> <br /> '''scream'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Scream motif.<br /> <br /> '''beginning to appal'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> By 1905 there had been years of outrage at conditions in the Belgian Congo, King Leopold's private fief. Conrad's ''Heart of Darkness'' had been published as a serial in Blackwood's Magazine in 1899 and as a book in 1902. There were missionaries' accounts of the brutality, and newspaper reports. Leopold and his apologists published rebuttals. The Norton Critical Edition of ''Heart of Darkness'' contains an extensive collection of both.<br /> <br /> '''baize'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Baize is a coarse woolen felt.<br /> <br /> ==Page 537==<br /> <br /> '''broken symmetries'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Broken_symmetry Broken symmetry] is a concept used widely in mathematics and physics. For a simplest explanation (good enough for the text here), this term means that an object breaks either rotational symmetry or translational sysmetry - when one can only rotate an object in certain angles or when one is able to tell if the object has been shifted sideways. For a little bit more detailed explanation see [http://www.lassp.cornell.edu/sethna/OrderParameters/BrokenSymmetry.html Identify the Broken Symmetry]; or even more [http://scienceweek.com/2005/sw050708-6.htm On Broken Symmetry].<br /> <br /> '''''sphinxe Khnopffienne'''''&lt;br&gt;<br /> refers to the Belgian symbolist painter Fernand Khnopff (1858-1921), famous for his painting &quot;The Caress&quot;, in which a female sphinx erotically lures a young man. The painting can be seen in the [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fernand_Khnopff wikipedia entry]<br /> <br /> '''Pléiade Lafrisée'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> in French, &quot;friser&quot; means to curl or twist. &quot;La frisée&quot; could mean &quot;curled,&quot; by extension &quot;twisted.&quot; The Pleiades is a cluster of hundreds of stars, though only a few are visible, sometimes referred to as The Seven Sisters. If Pleiades are Sisters, Pléiade is ''one'' Sister, so her name means Twisted Sister!<br /> <br /> '''''Conseilleuse'''''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Female consultant?<br /> <br /> ==Page 538==<br /> <br /> '''retroversion matrix'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> ???<br /> <br /> '''''Ma foi'''''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Literally &quot;My faith&quot;, i.e. &quot;By my faith!&quot;, a mild exclamation of incredulity.<br /> <br /> '''ten thousand francs'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> <br /> Based on currency conversions relative to gold, this is equivalent to<br /> about $30,000 US today.<br /> <br /> '''piker'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Someone cheap or cautious, possibly named after people from PIke County, Missouri, who came to California in the 1800s, looking for work. They were poor, hence cheap.<br /> <br /> '''what is a Quaternino?'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Cf [[ATD_525-556#Page 525|page 525:Quaternions]] for a mathematical definition. From ''The Random House Dictionary of the English Languages'', The Unabridged Edition (1966): Quaternion is &quot;a quantity or operator expressed as the sum of a real number and three complex numbers, equivalent to the ''quotient of two vectors''. The field of quaternions is not commutative under multiplication.&quot;.<br /> <br /> '''Bertie ('Mad Dog') Russell'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> 'Mad Dog' seems to be used with heavy irony here. Bertrand Russell was known most for his rationalism, so to speak, his work in modern logic. <br /> He did little in his public roles (at this time in AtD) that would have <br /> him referred to as &quot;crazy', as we say, beyond the social norm, &quot;mad&quot;. <br /> It might be argued that his use of 'logic' against philosophers such as Hegel and McTaggart within ''Against the Day'' showed up their 'madness'.<br /> (Many did think McTaggart was a bit...different...for seriously not believing in Time.) McTaggart broke with Russell after an early influential friendship---Russell was the younger man and the influenced one. He said he was an Hegelian because of McTaggart--Russell wrote in his<br /> Autobiography that McTaggart said he no longer wanted to meet/talk with him bcause he could no longer stand Russell's opinions.<br /> <br /> [http://nobelprize.org/nobel_prizes/literature/laureates/1950/russell-bio.html Bertrand Russell] (1872-1970) was a British mathematician, philosopher, logician and social critic. Best known for his work in mathermatical logic and analytic philosophy. In late spring of 1901 he discovered the so-called [http://plato.stanford.edu/entries/russell-paradox/ Russell Paradox], &quot;the most famous of the logical or set-theoretical paradoxes. The paradox arises within naive set theory by considering the set of all sets that are not members of themselves. Such a set appears to be a member of itself if and only if it is not a member of itself, hence the paradox.&quot; (On-line Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy). He won the 1950 Nobel Prize in Literature in &quot;recognition of his varied and significant writings in which he champions humanitarian ideals and freedom of thought&quot;.<br /> <br /> '''Barry Nebulay'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> nebulae: formed from the diffusion of gas in galaxies or as exploded stars (or the last ember-like stage of a star)&lt;br&gt; <br /> Most nebulae can be described as diffuse nebulae, which means that they are extended and contain no well-defined boundaries.[1] In visible light these nebulae may be divided into emission nebulae and reflection nebulae, a categorization that depends on how the light we see is created.<br /> <br /> '''Hegel... puns'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Probably refers to the fact that quite a lot of Hegel's philosophy deals with the is-ness of the world as we know and experience it.<br /> <br /> On page 787 of Bertrand Russell's ''History of Western Philosophy'' is a summary, perhaps, of this remark about Hegel's puns: &quot;as a result of analysis of the concept &quot;existence&quot;, modern logic has proved this [Cartesianism, refuted by Kant, reinstated by Hegel] argument invalid.....&quot;<br /> <br /> We know from other places that TRP himself seems to 'not like' Cartesianism. See 'cartesian' citations within this wiki.<br /> <br /> ==Page 539==<br /> <br /> '''a vector quotient'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> The result of one vector divided by another. According to the English dictionary definition of previous page this is just a Quaternion.<br /> <br /> '''unit vector'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Unit vector is a vector with magnitude of one. The unit vectors in 3-dimensional space, ''i, j, k'', associated with ''x, y, z'' directions are used in defining a general 3D vector (Cf [[ATD_525-556#Page 526|page 526:Gibbsian Vectors]]).<br /> <br /> '''''square root of minus one'''''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Imaginary number (Cf [[ATD_119-148#Page 132|page 133:Imaginary Number]]). The imaginary numbers ''i, j, k'' are used in defining a Quaternion (Cf [[ATD_525-556#Page 525|page 525:Quaternions]]).<br /> <br /> ''''Triangle Asana''''&lt;br&gt;<br /> A basic yoga pose. <br /> <br /> [http://yoga.org.nz/postures/yoga_positions_images_page.htm Here are images of several basic poses.]<br /> <br /> ''''Dr Rao abruptly vanished''''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Might be a reference to [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Martin_Gardner Martin Gardner]'s<br /> [http://www.amazon.com/No-Sided-Professor-Fantasy-Mystery-Philosophy/dp/0879753900 &quot;No-Sided Professor&quot;]<br /> <br /> ''''Quadrantal Versor Asana''''&lt;br&gt;<br /> A triangle pose taken that extra dimension.<br /> <br /> '''''&quot;Uwe moer!&quot;'''''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Looks a lot like the Dutch &quot;Uw moeder!&quot; - a cry of astonishment (&quot;Your mother!&quot;), the equivalent to the black English &quot;yo mama&quot;.<br /> <br /> '''noncommutative'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> A term typical to mathematics. A commutative equation is one that can operate in exact reverse and still yield the same results. 'Noncommutative' then suggests unidirectionality. The ability to go from point A to point B, but not from B to A.<br /> <br /> '''reticule'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> A woman's drawstring handbag; usually made of net or beading or brocade; also: A system of lines forming a pattern of squares at the focal plane of a telescope, used in micrometers.<br /> [http://www.astunit.com/tutorials/glossary.htm] <br /> :Isn't that sort of a red herring? &quot;[P]roducing from her reticule a . . . watch&quot; doesn't really allow of that second meaning. &lt;br&gt;<br /> :It could be a pun, since a reticule/ handbag always shows its pattern of lines, and a watch (timepiece) is drawn from it. Remember that, e.g. railroad lines of tracks, are a sign of industrialism encroaching on the natural and the spiritual.<br /> <br /> '''Vacheron &amp; Constantin watch'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Made by a Swiss company founded in 1755. From 1819 to 1970 the name was as in the text, then the &amp; dropped out. See the [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vacheron_Constantin Wikipedia entry.]<br /> <br /> '''hunting-case'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> For a pocket watch, a case with a hinged metal cover. More often called &quot;hunter case&quot; (and such a watch a &quot;hunter&quot;).<br /> <br /> ==Page 540==<br /> <br /> '''&quot;haar rekening, ja?&quot;'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> The bill, yes? (Dutch)?<br /> <br /> ''Her'' bill, yes? I.e., give the check to the lady.<br /> <br /> Given the presence of Chris 'Kit' Traverse here, this very much suggests a reference to Christopher 'Kit' Marlowe, Elizabethan poet, playwright and contemporary of Shakespeare. Marlowe was stabbed to death in 1593, in murky circumstances, ostensibly over a bill or 'reckoning', though he was widely believed to have been involved in some form of espionage.<br /> <br /> Strictly speaking &quot;haar rekening&quot; means that the lady pays for herself only. If Root wanted to make sure that Pléiade pays for the whole company he would have to say &quot;de hele rekening voor de dame&quot;. <br /> <br /> '''Piet Woevre'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> The Woëvre is a natural region of Lorraine in north-east France. It forms part of Lorraine plateau and lies largely in the department of Meuse. During World War I, there was much fighting there due to vast mineral resources that had been discovered in the Briey basin or Eastern Woevre at the end of the 19th century. &quot;Piet&quot; is Dutch for &quot;rock&quot; or &quot;stone&quot; and is a fairly common Dutch name, the English equivalent being Peter.<br /> <br /> If the surname is pronounced as in Dutch, Woevre is another Pynchon villain with a &quot;V&quot;-name (Vond, Weissman, Vibe). <br /> <br /> '''Force Publique'''&lt;br /&gt;<br /> The Force Publique (FP) was the official armed force for what is now the Democratic Republic of the Congo from 1885, (when the territory was known as the Congo Free State), through the period of direct Belgian rule (1908-60), until the beginning of the Second Republic in 1965. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Force_Publique Wikipedia entry]<br /> <br /> '''made him reach'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Possible allusion to a famous line, &quot;When I hear the word culture I reach for my gun.&quot; From Hanns Johst's biographical play ''Schlageter''. The original line is slightly different: &quot;Wenn ich Kultur höre ... entsichere ich meinen Browning,&quot; &quot;Whenever I hear of culture... I release the safety-catch of my Browning!&quot; (Act 1, Scene 1). It is spoken by another character in conversation with the young Schlageter. In the scene Schlageter and his wartime comrade Friedrich Thiemann are studying for a college examination, but then start disputing whether it's worthwhile doing so when the nation is not free. <br /> <br /> The line is often misattributed to better-known Nazis and others [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hanns_Johst].<br /> <br /> *In Jean-Luc Godard's 1963 film [http://www.chicagoreader.com/movies/archives/0997/09057.html ''Le Mépris'' (''Contempt'')], Jack Palance's character &quot;Jeremy Prokosch,&quot; an American movie-producer, intones to Fritz Lang: &quot;Whenever I hear the word culture, I reach for my checkbook.&quot;<br /> <br /> '''not unambiguous'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Ie, ambiguous.<br /> <br /> '''''rastaquoueres'''''&lt;br&gt;<br /> 8???<br /> <br /> '''de Decker'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> In Dutch/Flemish, the name means &quot;roofer.&quot; (''De'' in these names almost never means &quot;of, from&quot; as in French; it's nearly always the definite article.)<br /> <br /> ==Page 541==<br /> <br /> '''''bobbejaan'''''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Afrikaans: baboon. (Afrikaans is the language spoken by descendants of Dutch colonists in present-day South Africa. Some items identified as Dutch or Flemish in this wiki may really be Afrikaans.)<br /> <br /> The South African song &quot;Bobbejaan klim die berg&quot; (&quot;Bobbejaan climbed the hill&quot;) is the source of the stage name of Belgium's most famous country and western musician, Bobbejaan Schoepen (b. 1925). In 1943 he was suppressed by the Nazis after performing a South African song, &quot;Mamma, 'k wil 'n man hê&quot; (&quot;Mama, I want a man&quot;), which contains the line &quot;No, Mama, I don't want a German, because I don't like pork.&quot; He founded the Bobbejaanland theme park in Belgium, where he still lives.<br /> <br /> '''MKIV/ODC... Mark Four'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> This would be the Mark IV Ohmic Drift Compensator ([[ATD 557-587#Page 565|Page 565]]), a key component of the Q-weapon, which &quot;regulates how much light is allowed to enter the silvering of the mirror! Special kind of refraction! Calibrated against imaginary index! Dangerous! Of the essence!'&quot;<br /> <br /> '''not part of your remit'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Not included in your job description, instructions, authorization. &quot;Remit&quot; (noun) is usually a British usage.<br /> <br /> '''''gatkruiper'''''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Dutch/Flemish: brownnose, ass-kisser.<br /> <br /> '''one on her wrist'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> All the bruises reflect some refinement or artistry except this one, which may have been inflicted crudely.<br /> <br /> '''over the day'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Title motif?<br /> <br /> ==Page 542==<br /> <br /> '''trans-horizontic'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Across the horizon -- &quot; a screaming comes across the sky&quot;<br /> <br /> '''Edmund Whittaker'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Edmund Whittaker (1873-1956), an English mathematician. He is best known for his work in numerical analysis. And he contributed widely to applied mathematics, mathematical physics and the theory of special functions. He also worked on celestial mechanics and the history of applied mathermatics and physics. ([http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/E._T._Whittaker Whittaker]).<br /> <br /> The Sir Edmund Whittaker Memorial Prize is awarded every four years by the Edinburgh Mathematical Society to an outstanding young mathematician having a specified connection with Scotland [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sir_Edmund_Whittaker_Memorial_Prize]. <br /> <br /> '''louche'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> The cloudy effect caused by the addition of water to absinthe. Dictionary definition: &quot;of questionable taste or morality; decadent.&quot;<br /> <br /> '''cheval-glass'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Standing mirror in a freestanding vertical frame.<br /> <br /> '''as if someone'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Sound-cancelling vs opacity-cancelling?<br /> <br /> ==Page 543==<br /> <br /> '''wraith of Pleiade Lafrisee'''<br /> <br /> Pleiade manifests one of her not-visible stars. Perhaps this sister has somehow twisted herself on an imaginary axis ala Dr. V. Ganesh Rao.<br /> <br /> '''monitory'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Warning, giving advice, by extension ominous or menacing.<br /> <br /> '''Against....the day....'''<br /> Note: this phrase happens at the exact halfway point of the novel: p.542.3<br /> <br /> '''He Who Must Come'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> The evil-doer who must come might be Adolf Hitler. It would make sense. The implication being that Europe is precipitating into a no-return situation. Capitalism cannot but end in WW2.&lt;br&gt;<br /> Ah, a lot more and less than capitalism going on here, especially if anyone specific like Hitler is meant. <br /> :When French writers use this phrase (''celui qui doit venir'') they '''do''' mean the Messiah . . . although a few devout quibblers point out that the Messiah has already come. It's rather tiresome Googling the phrase; the first 83 hits definitely refer to Christ and most of them quote the first verses of Matthew 11. But there's also a Camus reference (in English, I think) down at No. 90, if anyone has a JSTOR account:<br /> :links.jstor.org/sici?sici=0361-1299(1985)39%3A4%3C251%3ACFS%22M%3E2.0.CO%3B2-X <br /> <br /> Recalls Yeats' 'The Second Coming' once again: &quot;And what rough beast, its hour come round at last, Slouches towards Bethlehem to be born?&quot; [http://chumpsofchoice.blogspot.com/2007/05/casino-royale-in-flanders-field.html#c3637134446204467798 ]<br /> <br /> '''General Boulanger'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/General_Boulanger Georges Boulanger], French military man, and War Minister in the late 19th century. He was one of those men &quot;on a white horse&quot; that some conservatives looked to, as he urged an attack on Germany and the end of the French Republic with a return to monarchy. He was also notorious for his harsh reprisals against workers' demonstrations. &quot;'Boulangisme'&quot; threatened a coup in 1889, but the general's procrastination brought the crisis to an end.&lt;br&gt;<br /> In ''The Infernal Machine: A History of Terrorism''<br /> by Matthew Carr, 2007, Boulanger is called the &quot;father&quot; of fascism.<br /> <br /> '''what death and what transfiguration'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Allusion to Richard Strauss' tone poem &quot;Death and Transfiguration&quot; (''Tod und Verklärung''), premiered in 1890.<br /> <br /> '''''&quot;Zeker&quot;'''''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Dutch: certainly.<br /> <br /> '''''dead cert'''''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Dead certainty, sure thing.<br /> <br /> '''Von Schlieffen'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Alfred von Schlieffen was the author of a German war plan to win a two-front war against both France and Russia by quickly defeating France before Russian troops could be mobilized. The [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Schlieffen_Plan Schlieffen Plan] included an attack on France through Belgium, disregarding its neutrality.<br /> <br /> '''Wilhelm has offered Leopold part of France, the ancient Duchy of Burgundy'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> [http://www.crwflags.com/fotw/flags/fr-bg.html History of the duchy.] [http://www.freiburg-madison.de/freiburg_history/1386-1517_The%20Early%20Habsburgs.htm Map,] with portrait of Duke Charles the Rash.<br /> <br /> '''lowlands'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Title of Pynchon's first published story. Here, ass?<br /> <br /> ==Page 544==<br /> <br /> '''Place d'Armes'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Main square of Ostend; literally &quot;drill field&quot;.<br /> <br /> '''peau de soie'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> &quot;Skin of silk&quot; A heavy, smooth satin with very fine ribbing; somewhat dull in sheen compared with traditional silk finishes.<br /> <br /> '''Krafft-Ebing'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Richard Freiherr von Krafft-Ebing, Austro-German psychiatrist and author of ''Psychopathia Sexualis'' (1886), a pioneering study of deviant sexual behavior and fetishism. Coined both ''sadism'' and ''masochism'' as terms for these respective behaviors. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Richard_Freiherr_von_Krafft-Ebing Wikipedia entry].<br /> <br /> '''toque'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Toque here refers to a lady's hat, originally of fur but here in velvet, which is rather like a flattened chef's hat in shape.<br /> <br /> Proust: in ''À l'ombre des jeunes filles en fleurs'' the narrator first sees Albertine wearing a toque. There seem to be quite a few Proust themes and references running throughout the novel. Indeed '''Pliade''' is the French publisher of Proust's works. <br /> <br /> '''guipure'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Lace trim.<br /> <br /> '''midinette'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> A shopgirl or dressmakers apprentice. A milliner.<br /> <br /> '''Lambic'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> A distinctive Belgian style of beer. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lambic Wikipedia]<br /> <br /> '''sous'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> <br /> Coins. Originally Roman gold coins, latterly any kind of coin.<br /> <br /> Specifically small change. She is affecting modesty by claiming that a hat like hers can be had for pennies in any unpretentious shop. In France &quot;sou is used as slang for money, as in ''sans le sou''. 'I'm broke', 'without money'. It is also a slang term for the Canadian cent (standard French, cent).&quot; ([http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sou Wikipedia])<br /> <br /> '''mayonnaise'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Brautigan's &quot;Trout Fishing in America&quot; famously ends with the word mayonnaise. [http://books.google.com/books?vid=ISBN0395500761&amp;id=rbEjDovfyNMC&amp;pg=RA2-PA111&amp;lpg=RA2-PA111&amp;ots=ELKl5b_6Tx&amp;dq=mayonnaise+trout.fishing&amp;num=100&amp;sig=BiyXRqJXRGrMWbrBNgn8de2kpCo#PRA2-PA112,M1 GoogleBooks]<br /> <br /> '''ovoöleaginous'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Another Pynchonic word combination, here denoting the two main ingredients of mayonnaise: 1) eggs, and 2) oil. It's not &quot;fecoventilatory collision&quot; as seen in &quot;Vineland,&quot; but it's nice.<br /> <br /> '''Grenache'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Grape commonly used in Rhone Valley wines e.g. Chateauneuf du Pape.<br /> <br /> '''Chantilly'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> <br /> Region north of Paris.<br /> <br /> Here the reference is to crème chantilly otherwise known as whipped cream. Chantilly mayonnaise is made by incorporating the beaten egg whites for extra lightness.<br /> <br /> '''attainder'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Legislative act declaring that a person is guilty of a crime and setting punishment without the benefit of a formal trial. The Constitution forbids the federal government (Article I, Section 9, clause 3) and the state governments (Article I, Section 10, clause 1) from passing bills of attainder.<br /> [www.historycentral.com/Civics/B.html] <br /> <br /> ''''''Aux armes, citoyens''''''&lt;br&gt;<br /> ''To arms, citizens'', from the French national anthem, ''La Marseillaise'' (1792). Kit confused La Mayonnaise with La Marseillaise.&lt;br&gt;<br /> Not &quot;Le Marseillaise,&quot; you nitwit!<br /> <br /> '''Louis XV'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> King of France 1715-1774 [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Louis_XV]. <br /> <br /> '''Cléo de Mérode'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Glamorous French ballerina (1875-1966), later Follies Bergere dancer and famous beauty. Her reputed intimacy with King Leopold was only a rumor [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cleo_de_Merode]. The character Madame Leonora Armfeldt in Stephen Sondheim's ''A Little Night Music'' has some features in common with her.<br /> <br /> '''Marquise de Pompadour'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Mistress of Louis XV,once friend of Voltaire and a power behind official scenes.[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Madame_de_Pompadour].<br /> <br /> ==Page 545==<br /> <br /> '''duc de Richelieu'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Duc de Richelieu (1696-1788), marshal of France, was a grandnephew of Cardinal Richelieu, and born in Paris. Apart from his reputation as a man of exceptionally loose morals, he attained, in spite of a defective education, distinction as a diplomatist and general. ([http://www.1911encyclopedia.org/Louis_Francois_Armand_du_Plessis,_duc_de_Richelieu duc de Richelieu] and cf [[ATD_489-524#Page 490|page 490:duc de Richelieu]])<br /> <br /> '''dubious 'victory' in 1756'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> As part of the Seven Years' War (1756-1763), duc de Richelieu (1696-1788), a Marshal of France, won a victory in the Battle of Minorca (May 20, 1756) over John Byng (1704-1757), a British Admiral. In spring of 1756 John Byng was sent with a small and undermanned fleet to relieve the British ''Port Mahon'' on the Mediterranean island of Minorca. During the battle ensued, several British ships were badly damaged by the French squadron while others, including Byng's flagship, were still out of effective firing range. Instead of engaging the enemy directly, Byng decided to keep the formation, allowing the French fleet to get away undamaged. ([http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_Minorca Battle of Minorca]).<br /> <br /> '''the ill-fated Admiral Byng'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> John Byng, convicted by court-martial of failure &quot;to do his utmost&quot; in the battle, shot in 1757. Remembered because of (1) his being the last officer of flag rank to be put to death for conduct in battle and (2) Voltaire's gag in ''Candide:'' &quot;In this country it is good to kill an admiral from time to time in order to encourage the others.&quot;<br /> <br /> '''cantharides'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> &quot;Spanish fly,&quot; contact irritant sometimes ill-advisedly used as aphrodisiac.<br /> <br /> '''Sadean'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Pertaining to the Marquis de Sade. The acts the chef performs on the egg and oil have the same names as acts of Sadean sex. <br /> <br /> '''''n'est-ce pas?'''''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Right? (Isn't that so?)<br /> <br /> '''vetiver'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> A grass (Vetiveria zizanioides) of tropical India, cultivated for its aromatic roots that yield an oil used in perfumery.<br /> [www.answers.com/topic/vetiver]. So, a perfume with, llterallly, roots in India.<br /> <br /> Vetiver makes frequent appearances throughout ''À la recherche du temps perdu.''<br /> <br /> '''pip'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> A beaut; in current parlance, a hottie.<br /> <br /> '''Q.P. system'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Quaternion Probability, page 536.<br /> <br /> '''Usine Régionale'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> French: as translated in the text.<br /> <br /> ==Page 546==<br /> <br /> '''disjunctive effects of thunderstorms'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Folk wisdom says a thunderstorm will cause mayonnaise to separate (oil from yolks).<br /> <br /> '''cottonseed oil'''<br /> <br /> Mayonnaisse like Smegmo and Crisco is a hydrogenated fat; cottonseed oil is a common factor to all three. Indeed, the name Crisco derives from the intial sounds of &quot;'''crys'''tallized '''c'''ottonseed '''o'''il&quot;. Note in the next few pages a mention of Candlebrow -- underscoring a tie-in between Mayonnaisse and Smegmo. <br /> <br /> It may be of interest to note that hydrogenation may have a symbolic use for Pynchon. The process entails bubbling hydrogen through oil in the presence of a metal catalyst such as nickel, platinum, aluminum at 248 to 410 degrees. Remnants of these metals stay in the finished product, and when consumed can lead to an increase in heavy metals in the human body.<br /> <br /> Eating hydrogenated oils is like eating plastic. The body does not recognize that these molecules have been mutated and tries to use them as essential fatty acids. But they cannot perform the same function, and as a result hydrogenated oils can cause short circuits in the electrical flow that controls the heartbeat, nerve functions, cell division and mental balance. They also create free radicals (anarchists!) that are linked to cancers. Free radicals plus metal remnants are a major contributor to cancer, heart disease, immune system dysfunction, osteoporosis, depression, chronic fatigue, Alzheimers, and neurological diseases. It is estimated that over 200 million people have died prematurely because of the hydrogenated oils found in our diets. [http://www.drz.org/asp/newsletter/default.asp?xt2id=23] Not to mention innocent bystanders killed by mentally imbalanced people whose imbalance may stem from the ingestion of hydrogenated oils -- there may be some underlying reality to the &quot;Twinkie defense.&quot;<br /> <br /> '''lounge suit'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> A lounge suit is another name for business suit consisting of a matching jacket and trousers or skirt.<br /> <br /> '''congress shoes'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> ankle high shoes with elastic gussets in the sides (wordweb online)<br /> <br /> '''invisible hand'''<br /> <br /> Suggestive of Adam Smith's metaphor for market forces in economics.<br /> <br /> '''dripping-heads'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mayonnaise To make mayonnaise,] beat together egg yolks, salt, mustard and vinegar, then drip in oil while beating to form the emulsion. If you scale the process up for industrial production, you will automate the introduction of the oil, using nozzles that release it a drop at a time—but in a large vat you can have many such nozzles.<br /> <br /> '''''cuves d'agitation'''''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Vat or tank in which the mayonnaise is agitated or beaten.<br /> <br /> '''Clinique d'Urgence pour Sauvetage des Sauces'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> French: Emergency Clinic for Salvage of Sauces.<br /> <br /> ==Page 547==<br /> <br /> '''' ...engulfed in thick, slick, sour-smelling mayonnaise. ''''<br /> The whole Kit's experience in the mayonnaise factory is very much reminiscent to [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Roald_Dahl Roald Dahl]'s [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Charlie_and_the_Chocolate_Factory Charlie and the Chocolate Factory].<br /> <br /> '''''Cazzo, cretino'''''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Literally, &quot;Dick, cretin.&quot; ''Cazzo'' is a common Italian interjectionary obscenity, especially in the south. &quot;Cazzo, cretino,&quot; is akin to someone saying, &quot;Well shit, dummy,&quot; or &quot;F-ing moron!&quot;<br /> <br /> '''''È il cowboy!'''''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Italian: It's the cowboy!<br /> <br /> '''''vero?'''''&lt;br&gt;<br /> true? real?<br /> <br /> '''''Le bambole anarchiste, porca miseria'''''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Italian: Anarchist babes, oh boy.<br /> <br /> '''Oudenberg'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> A southeast suburb of Ostende.<br /> <br /> '''Quai de l'Entrepôt'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Warehouse Quay<br /> <br /> '''''ragazzi'''''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Italian: boys, guys.<br /> <br /> ==Page 548==<br /> <br /> '''General Boulanger'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> That the General was 'reactionary' and that the C of C bureaucracy had a 'defiant residue' of Boulangism, continues the characterization of the organization for which the Chums 'work'.&lt;br&gt;<br /> See p. 543 above, regarding a 2007 book in which Boulanger is called the 'father of fascism'.<br /> <br /> '''''timbres fictifs'''''&lt;br&gt;<br /> French: fictive postage stamps. Cf &quot;Lot 49&quot;.&lt;br&gt;<br /> Yes, stamps mean something in Pynchon's works; here, it seems important that these stamps are characterized as frauds.<br /> <br /> '''&quot;IIIb&quot;'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> As explained in the text.&lt;br&gt;<br /> &quot;Section IIIB (Intelligence) of the German High Command. After WWI, was funded by Alfred Hugenberg (financial backer of Nazi party)&quot;. From ''Sabotage'' by Sayers &amp; Kahn, 1942.[http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&amp;q=%22IIIB%27+%2B+INTELLIGENCE&amp;btnG=Search]. The authors state in the Forward, in 1942, &quot;that 'Nazi Germany' is the creation of spies and saboteurs&quot;. See ''V.'' &amp; ''Gravity's Rainbow'', of course. <br /> <br /> '''Germany might stand a better chance...'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> That is, if the French were to push into Alsace (per Boulanger) as the Germans executed the Schlieffen Plan [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Schlieffen_plan] for the encirclement of Paris, it would put the French at an even greater disadvantage...as actually happened in 1914. Had the Belgians and British not delayed the Germans in Flanders, and had the French railroads not performed speedily to bring the French troops back to the Marne, World War I could have had a very different outcome...an alternate history. <br /> <br /> '''revanchist'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Policies based on revenge, or a person following such policies. In General Boulanger's case, revenge against Germany for the Franco-Prussian War (that is, retaking Alsace, lost in 1871).<br /> <br /> '''the somewhat discomposed General'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Having died in 1891, the General by the time of the action is certainly somewhat '''de'''composed; brief biographies do not suggest he was ''non compos mentis,'' that is, mentally discomposed.<br /> <br /> ==Page 549==<br /> '''cackled Darby'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> (When did he lose his innocence?)<br /> <br /> '''a modification of any salsician metaphor toward the diminutive'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Salsician: pertaining to sausage. Lindsay says Suckling's penis is better compared to a wiener than a knockwurst.<br /> <br /> '''&quot;Why you little–and I do mean 'little'–&quot;'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Another Simpsons reference? <br /> <br /> Noseworth, the Master-At-Arms of the Chums division of this organization with a defiant residue of 'fascism', who had no smell to Pugnax early on,<br /> is called out, either for real or in a sex-bashing putdown, for homosexuality. cf. homosexuality as a metaphor in ''Gravity's Rainbow''. <br /> <br /> '''dunes between Nieuport and Dunkirk'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Nieuport is a Belgian seaport about 10 miles southwest of Ostend. Dunkirk is a French port (less than 10 miles inside the French border) about 20 miles southwest of Nieuport. The latter was a site of one of the bloodest battle in World War I. The general area between Niewport and Dunkirk was the well traversed battle fields of two world wars. (Dunkirk was (in)famous for the British Army's escape from the Nazi German's assault in World War II.)<br /> <br /> '''power-receivers'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Not information, energy.<br /> <br /> ==Page 550==<br /> <br /> '''Lot's wife''' &lt;br&gt;<br /> Angels of God led Lot and his family out of Sodom as it was being destroyed and told them not to look back at the mayhem. Lot's wife, Edith, imprudently looked back and was transfigured into a pillar of salt.<br /> <br /> '''Italian grotto'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> an imitating recess or structure made to resemble a natural Italian grotto.<br /> <br /> '''a highly developed taste, moreover, for human blood'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Since Pugnax developed this taste in the Carpathians, home of Castle Dracula, this seems a clear reference to Bram Stoker's novel. <br /> <br /> '''Carpathians'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Major mountain range running northwest-southeast through Poland, Slovakia, western Ukraine and Romania.<br /> <br /> '''Uhlans'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Uhlan regiments belonged to the light cavalry. They wore splendid uniforms (model for some U.S. marching band uniforms). [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Uhlan Wikipedia article.]<br /> <br /> '''Temesvár'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Now Timişoara, extreme western Romania.<br /> <br /> ==Page 551==<br /> <br /> '''...separated by only a slice of Time...'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Miles is beginning to experience Time almost as a spatial dimension, his personal vector as traversing (!) 4-dimensional space, or perhaps multidimensional space, the mathematics for which is being debated in Ostend.<br /> <br /> '''securing the mess decks'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> The Chums follow U.S. Navy idiom in orders (frequently prefixed with &quot;Now&quot;) and shipboard activities (&quot;secure&quot; meaning &quot;whatever you did before, undo it now,&quot; in this case put away the dishes and fold up the tables).<br /> <br /> '''Ryder Thorn'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Tolkienesque name? Or perhaps it's a nod to the Ryder-Waite Tarot deck and to Kevin Thorn (Kevin Matthew Fertig, 1977-), the American professional wrestler better known by his ring name Kevin Thorn who is currently signed to World Wrestling Entertainment wrestling on its ECW brand. He has appeared in vigniettes with Ariel (Shelly Martinez, 1980-), the tarot card reader, who spits blood at the camera while she &quot;predicted the future of ECW.&quot; Yup, a stretch...<br /> <br /> *The name also evokes the Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse.<br /> <br /> '''He was at Candlebrow.'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Presumably a 'trespasser.'<br /> <br /> '''the four-note chord in the context of timelessness'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> A melody is formed by notes following one another in time; a chord on the ukulele violates that practice by having all the notes sound at once. A really clever little passage.<br /> Note: Jazz musicians describe musical improvisations as horizontal (with the melody) or vertical (with the chord)<br /> <br /> ==Page 552==<br /> <br /> '''knuckle-duster'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Brass knuckles.<br /> <br /> '''Diksmuide'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> 20 kilometers south of Ostend (about halfway to Ypres).<br /> <br /> ==Page 553==<br /> <br /> '''The terrain was flat...lowlands'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Not, this time, a reference to Pynchon's ''Lowlands'', but to the two-dimensionality of Flanders, as in Edwin A. Abbott's ''Flatland'' [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Flatland]; most humans, like the inhabitants of Flanders and Abbott's Flatlanders, experience life in two dimensions. <br /> <br /> '''Somewhere up in the sky was Miles' home...'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Whereas Miles and the Chums of Chance, in contrast, live in three dimensions. The mathematicians gathered in Ostend are trying to calculate how to experience and use vectors to live in four dimensions; in a way, to experience Time as a kind of spatial dimension. Miles, on P. 551, is demonstrating the beginnings of an intuitive discovery of how to experience Time as an almost spatial dimension. Which would be a sort of &quot;time travel&quot;, or at least an expanded view of life and history.<br /> <br /> '''retted'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> soaked in water or exposed to moisture (as flax or hemp) to facilitate the removal of the fiber from the woody tissue by partial rotting.<br /> <br /> ==Page 554==<br /> <br /> '''Ypres and Menin'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Municipalities in West Flanders that were sites of some of the bloodiest battles of WWI. At the beginning of the war, the British and Belgian stand helped save Paris from encirclement by the Germans, and saved the Channel ports, but as Thorn points out, the area became the western anchor of the Western Front trench system. The several Battles of Ypres saw the first uses of poison gas (Mustard Gas, dichlorodiethylsulfide, was first called Yperite), the use of enormous mines, and the legendary mud of Passchendaele [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Passchendaele]. <br /> <br /> '''Ten years from now'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> (1914?) through 1918? and beyond?. Another paramorphic mirror--what do we now face. Whatever it is, it is nuclear.<br /> <br /> '''Bosch'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Hieronymous Bosch (1450-1516), Dutch painter of nightmares. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hieronymus_Bosch Wikipedia entry].<br /> <br /> '''Brueghel'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Pieter Brueghel the Elder(1525-1569), Flemish painter.[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pieter_Brueghel_the_Elder Wikipedia entry].<br /> <br /> '''League'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> League of Nations? The League of Nations was formed after WWI to prevent future wars. Didn't succeed.<br /> <br /> No. In this case a historical unit of length, approximately three miles - &quot;league on league&quot; = tremendous masses<br /> <br /> '''where the needles went and which way to rotate them'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> I.e., how to push Thorn's buttons; the image is from acupuncture.<br /> <br /> ==Page 555==<br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> '''simpletons at the fair'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Making Pynchon's metaphor explicit.<br /> <br /> '''Chopin E-minor Nocturne'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Frédéric Chopin (1810-49), a Polish pianist and composer ([http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fr%C3%A9d%C3%A9ric_Chopin Chopin]). He was born in Warsaw, Poland to a Polish morther and a French father. He went to Paris at the age of 20 and died there at the age of 39. He was widely regarded as one of the most famous and influential composers for the piano. From 1837-47 he had a 10-year stormy relationship with the French writer George Sand. His E-minor Nocturne is a 4-minute long Romantic style piano solo composed in 1827. (A ''nocturne'' is usually a musical composition that is inspired by, or evocative of, the night [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nocturne Nocturne].)<br /> <br /> '''owl-light'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> ???glimmering or imperfect light or twilight hours.<br /> <br /> ''''plasmic hysteresis''''&lt;br&gt;<br /> <br /> A coined term, apparently similar in meaning to Miles’ phrase “failure of physical translation.” Plasma would take an older meaning of “form” or “shape.&quot; Hysteresis, according to Webster's, refers to “a retardation in effect when the forces on an object are changed.” Hysteresis is used to describe magnetic phenomenon as well as plastic or elastic materials, that involve changes to a rest state that last beyond the forces that cause them. Examples include recordings on magnetic tape or a thumbprint slowly disappearing from putty. In the context of this passage, plasmic hysteresis appears to describe the lingering visage of someone who is no longer present – a hysteresis of form only and thus a failed physical translation. See [http://www.etymonline.com/index.php?search=plasma&amp;searchmode=none etymology of plasma] and this nifty explanation of [http://www.lassp.cornell.edu/sethna/hysteresis/WhatIsHysteresis.html hysteresis]. <br /> <br /> Hysteresis has also been used to refer to “loops” in time, certainly apropos in this case. I stumbled across an excellent example in a 1980 episode of Dr. Who, in which the eponymous Dr. is trapped in “chronic hysteresis,” an endless loop or return to a previous <br /> point in time – very similar to the situation of Ryder Thorn. [http://www.drwhoguide.com/who_5q.htm Check it out for yourself!] <br /> <br /> <br /> ==Annotation Index==<br /> {{ATD PbP}}</div>

MKOHUT https://against-the-day.pynchonwiki.com/wiki/index.php?title=ATD_525-556&diff=14100 2007-10-18T16:40:20Z

<p>MKOHUT: /* Page 542 */</p> <hr /> <div>:'''&lt;big&gt;Please keep these annotations SPOILER-FREE by not revealing information from later pages in the novel.&lt;/big&gt;'''&lt;p&gt;&lt;br&gt;<br /> <br /> ==Page 525==<br /> <br /> '''Ostend'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Cf [[ATD_489-524#Page 521|page 521:Ostend]], a seaport in northwest Belgium. Among English-speaking tourists, Ostend (or Ostende) is best known as a ferry port. Ships have shuttled between Dover and Ostend for more than 150 years, and today's high-speed catamarans move hundreds of passengers and vehicles between these two ports in just two hours. But this thousand-year-old city is a popular beach resort with Belgians, who flock to Ostend for sun, surfing, sailing and the ''Kursaal'' (Casino). The fishing harbor and old town draw many visitors. Ostend is the only Belgian coastal resort that is as lively in the summer as in the winter. For more and pictures [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ostend Ostend].<br /> <br /> '''Fishermen's Quai'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Fishermen's Quay, also called De Trap. The shrimp boats come home here from the sea in the morning. Along the quay many stands sell lots of seafoods.<br /> <br /> '''Boulevard van Isenghem'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> A major thoroughfare in Ostend, locally called ''Van Iseghemlaan'', extending diagonally from seafront southwest through the city.<br /> <br /> '''street-plausible'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Presentable.<br /> <br /> '''Quai de l'empereur'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Since Ostende is in the Flemish part of Belgium this should be the Keizerskaai, a street along the old part of the harbour, 1919 renamed Vindictivelaan.<br /> <br /> '''estaminet'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> According to the OED - A café in which smoking is allowed. Now, any small establishment selling alcoholic liquor. <br /> <br /> '''twelve-centime'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> one centime is the French eqivalent of one cent. A twelve-centime beer would cost 12/100 of a franc.<br /> <br /> '''Quaternions'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Cf [[ATD_119-148#Page 130|page 130:Quaternions]]. Quaternions are a non-communtative extension of complex numbers (Hamilton, 1843).&lt;br&gt;<br /> <br /> Analogy with the complex numbers (Cf [[ATD_119-148#Page 132|page 132:complex number]]) being represented as a sum of real and imaginary parts, a + b''i'', where ''i''² = −1, a quaternion is defined as a combination a + b''i'' + c''j'' + d''k'', where ''i''² = ''j''² = ''k''² = ''i j k'' = −1, and a, b, c, d are ''four'' explicit real numbers. The non-commutative property refers to ''i j = −j i = k; j k = −k j = i; k i = −i k = j''. (i.e. ''i j ≠ j i; j k ≠ k j; k i ≠ i k''; etc.) The using of ''i, j, k'', the imaginary numbers (Cf [[ATD_119-148#Page 133|page 133:imaginary number]]), led to the phrases of &quot;the ''ijk'' lot&quot; of page 533 and &quot;creature of ''i-j-k''&quot; of page 534.<br /> <br /> '''Kellner'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> German: waiter, barman. Use of the German word would be insulting to the Belgian barman.<br /> <br /> '''''demi'''''&lt;br&gt;<br /> A half-pint glass (25 centilitres, actually).<br /> <br /> '''Lambic'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Pron. ''lahm-BEEK.'' Unique Belgian beer style, sour and often thin in body.<br /> <br /> '''skimmer'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Straw hat (&quot;Panama&quot;).<br /> <br /> ==Page 526==<br /> <br /> '''biquaternion'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Or &quot;octonion,&quot; an innovation of English mathematician W.K. Clifford, [[ATD_243-272#Page_249|referred to on p. 249.]]<br /> <br /> '''Barry Nebulay'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Pun on a term from heraldry, ''barry nebuly.'' Barry (rhymes with &quot;starry,&quot; not &quot;carry&quot;) refers to a shield divided into an even number of parts by horizontal lines. Nebuly signals that the lines are deformed into stylized &quot;cloud&quot; shapes. [http://www.rarebooks.nd.edu/digital/heraldry/partitions.html Here you can see an example.] If a ''British'' author had a character with a heraldic name, it would suggest a pseudonym.<br /> <br /> '''University of Dublin'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> The Alma Mater of Hamilton, the father of Quaternion. He studied, graduated and taught at Trinity College, the University of Dublin, Ireland's oldest university.<br /> <br /> If University College, Dublin, then Joyce had graduated in 1902.&lt;br&gt;<br /> <br /> '''Quaternioneers'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Quaternion believers.<br /> <br /> '''Gibbsian Vectors'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Vector Analysis (or Vector Calculus) developed by Willard Gibbs (Cf [[ATD_26-56#Page 29|page 29:Professor Gibbs]]) in 1881 and 1884. It is a branch of calculus that deals with vectors and process involving vectors. It is much more easily applied to phsics and other applied sciences than Hamilton's Quaternions (Cf [[ATD_525-556#Page 525|page 525:Quaternions]]).&lt;br&gt;<br /> A vector is defined by not only a magnitude but also a direction, such as a velocity vector, ''v'' is defined by ''v'' = a''i'' + b''j'' + c''k'',<br /> where a, b, and c are the magnitudes of the velocity components in directions of ''i, j'' and ''k'' which are unit vectors, (not imaginary numbers as in Quaternion), with magnitude of 1. In three dimensional cases and ''xyz'' coordinate system is used then ''i, j, k'' are related to ''x, y, z'' directions (&quot;''xyz'' people&quot; of page 533); but they, in general, may be used irrespective of the notation of the coordinates.<br /> Mathematical operations (addition, subtraction, multiplication), differentiation (''curl'' — Cf [[ATD_318-335#Page 326|page 326:Curl]] and p. 536, ''Laplacian'' — Cf [[ATD_318-335#Page 326|page 326:Laplacian]] and p. 536, etc) and integration can be applied to vectors. It is interesting to know that one of the two multiplication operations is called cross product; for unit vectors (''i, j, k'') perpendicular to each other, then, ''i × i = j × j = k × k = 0'', ''i × j = k'', ''j × i = -k'', etc. ([http://web.mit.edu/wwmath/vectorc/summary.html Vector Calculus]).&lt;br&gt;<br /> A simple vector anyalysis example here: if ''k'', the unit vector, stands for the direction upward and g is the gravitational acceleration, then the acceleration vector, ''a'', for a projectile, is defined for downward action, (the ''i'' and ''j'' directions have zero components):&lt;br&gt;<br /> :''a'' = -g ''k''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Integrating ''a'' would give the velocity vector, ''v''&lt;br&gt;<br /> :''v'' = -g t ''k''&lt;br&gt;<br /> for zero initial velocity case, and t standing for time.&lt;br&gt;<br /> And integrating ''v'' would yield the position vector, ''h'', for the projectile&lt;br&gt;<br /> :''h'' = -½ g t² ''k''&lt;br&gt;<br /> toward the sea level.<br /> <br /> '''Quaternionists'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Quaternion believers, same as Quaternioneers.<br /> <br /> '''Tasmania'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Tasmania is an island of the southern coast of Australia. Known for its relative isolation, it was a prison for English convicts in the 1800s<br /> <br /> '''Having been inseparable from the rise of the electromagnetic'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> In his 1865 work ''The Dynamical Theory of the Electromagnetic Field'', James Clerk Maxwell unified electricity and magnetism. He put forth twenty equations, with twenty unknowns, in vector form (though different in notation and form than the equations that now bear his name) that completely described all known electromagnetic phenomena. In his 1873 treatise on the subject, he expressed the equations in the mathematics of quaternions. It appears that the quaternion form of the equations remained popular even though, at the behest of his publisher, Maxwell reverted to the 1865 form in the second edition (1881)--though they remain scattered throughout. In 1892 Oliver Heaviside (On the Forces, Stresses, and Fluxes of Energy in the Electromagnetic Field. ''Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society of London.'' A, Vol. 183. pp423-480), while spewing scientific vitriol at the Quaternionists, reformulated Maxwell's original 1865 equations (Heaviside chose to remove the vector potential and scalar fields from the equations; the inclusion of these terms had served as Maxwell's justification for the use of quaternions), and provided the notation still in use today. See this [http://www.zpenergy.com/modules.php?name=Downloads&amp;d_op=getit&amp;lid=60 PDF] for the evolution of Maxwell's equations.<br /> <br /> '''Hamiltonian devotees'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> The Quaternion faction, after William Hamilton, who devised the scheme.<br /> <br /> '''Grand Hôtel de la Nouvelle Digue'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> There is a Hotel Digue in the Seychelles; this is a New Hotel Digue by Pynchon? <br /> <br /> Grand Hotel of New Dyke, may be a made up hotel name.<br /> <br /> '''anterooms of death'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> This metaphor is sometimes applied to concentration camps. Here the lyric &quot;feel like I'm fixin' to die&quot; seems more apposite.<br /> <br /> '''Belgian Art Nouveau'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Art Nouveau, 1890(or 80) to 1914, explores a new style in the visual arts and architecture that developed in Europe and North America at the end of the 19th century. At its height (~1907), Art Nouveau was a concerted attempt to create an international style based on decoration. It was developed by a brilliant and energetic generation of artists and desisgners, who sought to fashion an art form appropriate to the post-Industrial Revolution modern age.&lt;br&gt;<br /> Brussels was one of the Art Nouveau centers and represented different style from the others. The jewelers there, accepted as artists rahter than craftsmen, (together with those in Paris) defined Art Nouveau in jewelery and achieved the most renown. ([http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Art_Nouveau Art Nouveau]).<br /> <br /> ==Page 527==<br /> <br /> '''dossing'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> British slang for &quot;sleeping&quot;, &quot;staying overnight&quot;<br /> <br /> '''Russian nihilists'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> :The following four are local, Belgian, not Russian, nihilists !<br /> <br /> '''Eugénie'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Female. Possibly named for Empress Eugénie (1826-1920), consort of French Emperor Napoleon III. Ultimately for St. Eugenia, 3rd-century Roman martyr whose feast is celebrated on December 25.<br /> <br /> '''Fatou'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Female. A pseudonym? In view of the date of the action, certainly not named after [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fatou the mathematician Fatou] (1878-1929).<br /> <br /> '''Denis'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Male. Named for St. Denis or Dionysius, patron saint of Paris and of France, 3rd-century bishop of Paris, martyr, beheaded on the hill now called Montmartre. &quot;Montjoie St. Denis!&quot; was a warcry used by French troops in the Middle Ages. His intercession is effective against demonic possession and headache.<br /> <br /> '''Policarpe'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Male. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Polycarp Saint Polycarp] was a Christian bishop of Smyrna (now İzmir in Turkey) in the second century. He was stabbed and died a martyr after an attempt to burn him at the stake failed. His intercession is sought against earache and dysentery.<br /> <br /> '''Young Congo'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Probably in reference to the [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Young_Turks Young Turks], a Turkish revolutionary movement<br /> <br /> '''Garde Civique'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> A part of the Belgian army. According to the [http://www.1911encyclopedia.org/Belgium 1911 Britannica], &quot;the mass of the garde civique does not pretend to possess military value. It is a defence against sedition and socialism.&quot;<br /> <br /> '''French Second Bureau boys'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Deuxieme Bureau; French Intelligence.<br /> <br /> '''''phalange'''''&lt;br&gt;<br /> French: phalanx. A military (here mock-military) group ready for combat. &lt;br&gt;<br /> <br /> It also conjures up memories of the early 19th century utopian socialist <br /> Charles Fourier, who theorized that people should live communally in &quot;phalanxes&quot; of a specific number based upon their &quot;passions.&quot; His solid ideas included equality of the sexes, but he also taught wacky things such as the moon being made of lemonade. Of particular relevance is his rejection of industrial civilization. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Utopian_socialism]<br /> <br /> '''&quot;...until something had happened, something too terrible to remember...&quot;'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Again this theme of an unknowable past transgression, here invoked almost as if the unknown signifies the other 'lateral' (a word which has cropped up at least a dozen times already) 'vector'.<br /> <br /> '''the Digue'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> French for &quot;dyke&quot;<br /> <br /> '''Congo... Belgians'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> The Belgian colonisation of the Congo was, as Conrad's ''Heart of Darkness'' makes clear, notable for its greed and brutality.<br /> <br /> '''Leopold, King of the Belgians'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> 1835-1909, reigned 1865-1909. A man of almost Nixonian fiendishness. In the Congo he acted as sole proprietor and absolute ruler. The positive outcomes of his exploitation include ''Heart of Darkness'' and the phrase &quot;crime against humanity.&quot;<br /> <br /> '''co-conscious'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> mental processes outside the main stream of consciousness but sometimes available to it — from Merriam-Webster's Medical Dictionary.<br /> <br /> '''Force Publique'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Belgian armed forces operating in the Belgian Congo ([http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Force_Publique Wikipedia]). &quot;King Leopold's private army&quot; may be a more accurate description.<br /> <br /> '''rubber worker'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> See above: One of the early missions of the FP was to increase rubber export quotas through forced labor and related atrocities.<br /> <br /> ==Page 528==<br /> <br /> '''''khâgne'''''&lt;br&gt;<br /> an informal term used by French students for Classes Préparatoires Littéraires, the two-year cycle of classes taken after the Baccalaureat (taken at age 17-18), to prepare for the entrance examination to the Ecole Normale Supeieure. ([http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kh%C3%A2gne khâgne]).<br /> <br /> '''Reclus'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> J. J. Élisée Reclus (1830-1905), French geographer but mainly educated in Germany. Several times he was forced to leave France because of his political views; he traveled widely in Europe, the British Isles, the United States, and South America and for many years lived in Switzerland. He was professor of comparative geography at the University of Brussels from 1895 to 1905. He had quite an extensive connection with various socialist and anarchist circles (met Bakunin while in Florence).Once he was imprisoned in Versailles in 1871 for his part in the ''Paris Commune''. In 1882 he initiated the ''Anti-marriage movement'' while in Geneva. [[http://academic.reed.edu/formosa/texts/reclusbio.html Reclus]).<br /> <br /> '''Stirnerite'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Follower of Max Stirner, 19th century German philosopher and author of ''The Ego and Its Own,'' a work influential in anarchist thought. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Max_Stirner Wikipedia entry].<br /> <br /> ''Max Stirner'''s (1806-56) attacks on systematic philosophy, his denial of absulutes, and his rejection of abstract concepts of any kind often places him among the first philosophical nihilists. For Stirner, achieving individual freedom is the only law; and the state, which necvessarily imperils freedom, must be destroyed. Even beyond the oppression of the state, though, are the constraints imposed by others because their very existence is an obstable compromising individual freedom. Thus Stirner argues that existence is an endless &quot;war of each against all&quot; (1845). (taken from the paragraph about Max Stirner in [http://www.iep.utm.edu/n/nihilism.htm#H1 Nihilism])&lt;br&gt;<br /> Sourcing here? Much complexity in properly understanding Stirner, who has some Pynchon-like qualities, to say the least. From the Stanford Dictionary of Philosophy&lt;br&gt;<br /> His major work:<br /> The Ego and Its Own<br /> Much of Stirner's prose—which is crowded with aphorisms, italicisation, and hyperbole—appears calculated to disconcert. Most striking, perhaps, is the use of word play. Rather than reach a conclusion through the conventional use of argument, Stirner often approaches a claim that he wishes to endorse by exploiting words with related etymologies or formal similarities. For example, he associates words for property (such as ‘Eigentum’) with words connoting distinctive individual characteristics (such as ‘Eigenheit’) in order to promote the claim that property is expressive of selfhood. (Stirner's account of egoistic property—see below—gives this apparently orthodox Hegelian claim a distinctive twist.)<br /> <br /> This rejection of conventional forms of intellectual discussion is linked to Stirner's substantive views about language and rationality. His unusual style reflects a conviction that both language and rationality are human products which have come to constrain and oppress their creators. Stirner maintains that accepted meanings and traditional standards of argumentation are underpinned by a conception of truth as a privileged realm beyond individual control. As a result, individuals who accept this conception are abandoning a potential area of creative self-expression in favour of adopting a subordinate role as servants of truth. In stark contrast, Stirner insists that the only legitimate restriction on the form of our language, or on the structure of our arguments, is that they should serve our individual ends. It is the frequent failure of ordinary meanings and standard forms of argument to satisfy his interpretation of this criterion which underpins Stirner's remorselessly idiosyncratic style.<br /> <br /> The Ego and Its Own has an intelligible, but scarcely transparent, structure. It is organised around a tripartite account of human experience, initially introduced in a description of the stages of an individual life. The first stage in this developmental narrative is the realistic one of childhood, in which children are constrained by material and natural forces such as their parents. Liberation from these external constraints is achieved with what Stirner calls the self-discovery of mind, as children find the means to outwit those forces in their own determination and cunning. The idealistic stage of youth, however, contains new internal sources of constraint, as individuals once more become enslaved, this time to the spiritual forces of conscience and reason. Only with the adulthood of egoism do individuals escape both material (external) and spiritual (internal) constraints, learning to value their personal satisfaction above all other considerations.<br /> <br /> Stirner portrays this dialectic of individual growth as an analogue of historical development, and it is a tripartite account of the latter which structures the remainder of the book. Human history is reduced to successive epochs of realism (the ancient, or pre-Christian, world), idealism (the modern, or Christian, world), and egoism (the future world). <br /> <br /> What about these &quot;successive epochs&quot; in understanding ATD?<br /> <br /> Stirner's major work, The Ego and Its Own has been reissued in English a number of times in Pynchon's lifetime,from the 60s on. (Not that TRP could not have read it in German!)<br /> <br /> '''''Anarcho-individualiste'''''&lt;br&gt;<br /> i.e. he has doctrinal differernces with Stirnerism, strictly speaking; see P. 324, and &quot;Eigenheit&quot;.<br /> <br /> '''Leopold'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> See p. 527.<br /> <br /> '''going down lately'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Being assassinated.<br /> <br /> '''Sipido'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Jean-Baptiste Sipido (1884-1959), a Belgian socialist. Accusing the Prince of Wales of causing thousands of inocents were killed in the Boer War in South Africa, on April 5, 1900, Sipido leaped onto the foot board of the royal compartment right before the train left the North Railway Station (Gare du Nord), Brussel, and fired two (or one? as reported in ''The Manchester Guardian'', or four? as stated in the text here) shots through the window but missed everyone inside. He was arrested, tried and acquitted. The leader of the House of Commons called the acquittal a &quot;grave and most unfortunate miscarriage of justice.&quot; ([http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jean-Baptiste_Sipido Sipido]).<br /> <br /> '''Prince... of Wales'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> (Maud Gonne's husband claimed to have been involved in another such plot.)<br /> <br /> '''Hippodrome'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Hippodrome Wellington, a horse racing track in Ostend built in 1883. The facility hosts both harness and flat racing events. ([http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hippodrome_Wellington Hippodrome]).<br /> <br /> '''Royal Bathing Hut... twenty francs'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> A bathing machine ([http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bathing_machine bathing machine])? The King of Belgium certainly would not want to be seen in a swimsuit on a public beach... It seems unlikely, though, that such a royal bathing machine would be for hire.<br /> <br /> '''twenty francs'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> ???<br /> <br /> ==Page 529==<br /> <br /> '''picric family'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> The explosive picric acid (2,4,6-trinitrophenol) and its derivatives. For picric acid, Brugère's powder and Designolle's powder, [http://encyclopedia.jrank.org/PER_PIG/PICRIC_ACID_or_TRINITROPHENOL_C.html see this Britannica article.]<br /> <br /> '''Brugère's powder'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> See &quot;picric family&quot; above.<br /> <br /> '''Designolle's'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> See &quot;picric family&quot; above.<br /> <br /> '''Monsieur Santos-Dumont'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Alberto Santos-Dumont (1873-1932), a pioneer of aviation from Brasil. Check out [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alberto_Santos-Dumont Wikipedia] to get a look at the way he was wearing his &quot;trademark Panama hat&quot;. <br /> <br /> '''Green Hour''' and '''''l'heure vertigineuse'''''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Absinthe-drinking time. The liqueur is green. In French, ''l'heure verte,'' so ''vertigineuse'' (vertiginous, causing dizziness) is a pun on the word for &quot;green.&quot;<br /> <br /> '''Rocco and Pino'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Rabid Quaternionists and sudden friends of Kit Traverse.<br /> :No, they were not mathematicians at all, let alone Quaternionists, but two &quot;Italian naval renegades&quot; !!<br /> ::&quot;Rocco and Pino&quot; are, in temperament, something like the &quot;Mason and Dixon&quot; of manned-torpedoes... cf. the &quot;torpedo&quot; (i.e., &quot;Electrick-Eel&quot;) of ''Mason &amp; Dixon''.<br /> <br /> '''Whitehead works in Fiume'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Anticipating GR's V2 works.<br /> <br /> ''Robert Whitehead'' (1823-1905), an English engineer. He developed the first self-propelled torpedo in 1866. He attended Manchester's Mechanics Institute, worked in a shipyard in Toulon (1844), France, and as a consultant engineer in Milan (1847), Italy. Later he moved to Trieste and in 1856 became a manager of a company called ''Founderia Mettali'' (later, ''Stabilimento Tecnico di Fiume'') in Fiume producing ship steam boilers and engines which were the most advanced of that era. He also developed the first self-propelled torpedo which was very popular. Whitehead's torpedo was propelled by a compressed air engine, carried 18lbs dynamites and a self-regulating device which kept the torpedo cruising at a constant preset depth. [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Robert_Whitehead Whitehead]].<br /> <br /> ''Fiume'' is now Rijeka, Croatia. Trieste is on the northwestern edge of the Istra Peninsula, Rijeka is east of it. [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rijeka Fiume]].<br /> <br /> Interesting sidebar: Whitehead's fortune from Fiume and the torpedo went solely to his granddaughter Agatha Whitehead, who married Baron von Trapp. The Von Trapp money came from Robert Whitehead, and most of the von Trapp singers were his great-grandchildren.<br /> <br /> '''''Alberta'''''&lt;br&gt;<br /> The [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Royal_yacht Wikipedia] entry on royal yachts goes back to the 17th century but doesn't include ''Alberta.'' The craft does get a mention in [http://www.bouncing-balls.com/timeline/people/nr_leopoldmorel.htm this page on Leopold and the Congo.]<br /> <br /> '''Siluro Dirigibile a Lenta Corsa'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> or S.L.C. &quot;slow course torpedo&quot;, &quot;slow-running torpedo&quot;. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Manned_torpedo Wikipedia] Italy‘s Navy was among the first to experiment with manned torpedos. Though according to [http://web.ukonline.co.uk/chalcraft/sm/chariots.html this site] this did not happen until 1935, Italian frogmen as early as October 31, 1918 made it into the harbour of Pula with the help of a modified german torpedo and sank the former Austrian but by then since a few hours Croatian/Slovenian/Bosnian battleship SMS ''Viribus Unitis''. [http://www.geocities.com/tegetthoff66/viribus.html website]<br /> <br /> The Wikipedia entry linked above doesn't contain the Italian word ''dirigibile'' (steerable), which sets up the torpedo as a counterpart of the dirigible ''Inconvenience.''<br /> <br /> :I suspect there's a connection between the torpedo and &quot;Not the usual lateener, in fact appearing to have neither sails, masts, nor oars&quot; in Miles' reversed vision, [[ATD_243-272#Page_250|page 250.]] Needs work, though.<br /> <br /> ==Page 530==<br /> <br /> '''exfiltrate'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Make a surreptitious escape (as &quot;infiltrate&quot; means to make a surreptitious entrance).<br /> <br /> '''''Macchè'''''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Italian: certainly not, not a chance. And in Pynchon's Italian is used as an all-purpose exclamation.<br /> <br /> '''''Ehi, stu gazz', categoria'''''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Stu gazz' is a dialect representation of ''sto cazzo'', literally meaning ''this dick here''. Normally you could translate the sense of the sentence as: ''yeah, why not, a fucking category! ''. -- blicero2 - 2007.02.22<br /> <br /> '''''mezzogiornismo'''''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Denigrating the Italian South. Mezzogiorno means ''midday'' in Italian but refers generally to Southern Italy.<br /> <br /> ==Page 531==<br /> <br /> '''Bruges'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> An exceptionally beautiful Belgian town of canals which is thus one of several towns known as the 'Venice of the north'. In the 14th cettury Burges already became an international finanacial and trading center, but<br /> started to decline in the 15th century. In the 20th century, however, the city was discovered by the international tourism and the medieval heritage turned out to be a new source of wealth. A new harbor of Zeebrugge, 10 miles outside of Bruges at the North Sea coast, brought new developments and new industries to the region. For the city and its history see ([http://www.trabel.com/brugge.htm Bruges]).<br /> <br /> '''Raoul's Atelier de la Vitesse'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> French: Ralph's Speed Shop.<br /> <br /> '''Ghent'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Belgian city, less than 30 miles southeast of Bruges, on the rail line about halfway between Ostend and Brussels. It is the fourth largest city of Belgium. It is bigger than Bruges but not as famous as a tourist attraction. But the city is a showcase of medieval Flemish wealth and commercial success. See ([http://www.trabel.com/gent.htm Ghent]).<br /> <br /> '''Daimler six-cylinder'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> ???<br /> <br /> '''a hundred horsepower'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> ???<br /> <br /> '''''guaglion'''''&lt;br&gt;<br /> italian (dialectal) = boy, young person<br /> <br /> '''Umeki Tsurigane'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Umeki is typically made with some combination of the various kanji for &quot;plum&quot; (ume) and &quot;tree&quot; (ki), though one has the ki being the character for &quot;ghost/devil&quot; and one obscure reading that's entirely redundant, where ume is &quot;plant&quot; (usually read ue). There is one where ume is the kanji for &quot;buried or embedded&quot;. Tsurigane, means a &quot;temple bell&quot;, which can stand alone or be followed by the grass kanji to mean &quot;bellflower&quot; (lots of botanical stuff happening here, if that means anything; hardly the only example in ''AtD''). Given the search for Shambhala going on, &quot;Buried Temple Bell&quot; seems a likely translation, at least at this point; the botanical meanings could perhaps emerge later.<br /> <br /> Or, another terrible name-pun? &quot;You make [m]e sore again.&quot; See another on P. [[ATD_748-767#Page_757| 757]]<br /> <br /> '''Professor Knott'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Cargill Knott (1856-1922), professor of physics; seismologist. See his biography [http://www.penicuikcdt.org.uk/Cargill_Knott.html here].<br /> <br /> ==Page 532==<br /> <br /> '''Kimura'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Cf [[ATD_26-56#Page 29|page 29:Kimura]] and [[ATD_318-335#Page 318|page 318:Shunkichi Kimura]].<br /> <br /> '''drover's sombrero'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Cowboy hat.<br /> <br /> '''furoshiki'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Japanese all-purpose cloth. Can be worn, used as wrapping, or used as a bag.<br /> <br /> '''taupe'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> A brownish gray.<br /> <br /> '''boilermakers and their helpers'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> [[ATD_358-373#Page_360|See annotation to p. 360.]]<br /> <br /> '''Anharmonic Pencil'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> ''Pencil'' is a term commonly used in Synthetic Geometry. Straight lines incident with a plane - coplanar lines - and passing through a common point are said to be concurrent lines and the set of all such concurrent coplanar lines is called the ''pencil''. (Cf [[ATD_429-459#Page 456|page 456:Pencil]]). For a figure and a not quite precise definition see [http://mathworld.wolfram.com/Pencil.html pencil]. If a, b, c and d, are four distinct coplanar lines and their double ratio λ = (abcd) = -1, then a, b, c, d are called a harmonic quadruple of lines; they are said to constitute a ''harmonic pencil''. A ''pencil'' which is not harmonic then is known as ''anharmonic pencil''. See Pencil (lines 8-9), Double Ratio λ (lines 32-35) and Harmonic Pencil (line 39) of [http://ca.geocities.com/ingsaler6/mathworld.html Mathworld].<br /> <br /> '''''Comptes rendus'''''&lt;br&gt;<br /> ''Comptes rendus des séances hebdomadaires,'' Proceedings of the weekly sessions (of the Academy of Sciences), published from 1835, later (ca. 1935) retitled ''Comptes rendus de l'Académie des sciences,'' Proceedings of the Academy of Sciences. (Notice that the academy didn't see the need to specify &quot;French.&quot; Take that, Royal Society of London!) For about a century, one of two journals so universally circulated and recognized that bibliographies nearly always cited them in nickname form: ''C.R.'' The other was ''Ber.,'' short for ''Berichte der Deutschen Chemischen Gesellschaft,'' Reports of the German Chemical Society (from 1868).<br /> <br /> '''De Forest'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Cf [[ATD_26-56#Page 29|page 29:De Forest]].<br /> <br /> '''Gibbs'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Cf [[ATD_26-56#Page 29|page 29:Professor Gibbs]].<br /> <br /> '''Maxwell Equations'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Cf [[ATD_57-80#Page 58|page 58:Maxwell Field Equations]].<br /> <br /> ==Page 533==<br /> <br /> '''aniline teal'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> The wallpaper dye; aniline dyes were the first synthetic dyes, discovered by [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/William_Perkin William Perkin] in 1858. Their intense and fade-resistant colors were very fashionable at the end of the nineteenth century. The dyes are also significant in ''GR'' as the products of I.G. Farben.<br /> <br /> '''Heavisiders'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Oliver Heaviside (May 18, 1850 – February 3, 1925) was a self-taught English electrical engineer, mathematician and physicist who adapted complex numbers to the study of electrical circuits, developed techniques for applying Laplace transforms to the solution of differential equations, reformulated Maxwell's field equations in terms of electric and magnetic forces and energy flux, and independently co-formulated vector analysis. Although at odds with the scientific establishment for most of his life, Heaviside changed the face of mathematics and science for years to come.[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Heaviside].<br /> <br /> '''Grassmanniacs'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Nineteenth century German mathematician and linguist, essentially the inventor/discoverer of vector space. Grassmann showed that once geometry is put into the algebraic form he advocated, then the number three has no privileged role as the number of spatial dimensions; the number of possible dimensions is in fact unbounded.[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hermann_Grassmann].<br /> <br /> '''in the mood for a clambake'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Anachronistic Broadway show tune? If so, the clambake in ''Carousel'' turns into a brawl; the assmebled factions of mathematicians could be in the mood for either a party or a brawl, apparently. <br /> <br /> '''Monopole de la Maison'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Monopole of the House, a fanciful name of a fanciful drink.&lt;br&gt;<br /> There is, since 1898, a well known restaurant called ''Monopole Lunch &amp; Sea Grill'' in Plattsburgh of upper New York state. ([http://www.monopole.org Monopole Restaurant]).&lt;br&gt;<br /> Most probably, it's the Magnetic monopole being referred here. In physics, a monopole is a magnet with a net magnetic charge, i.e. there is only one pole instead of two (so no net magnetic charge) as usual. ([http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Magnetic_monopole Monopole]). It's existence had been theoretically predicted by various particle theories (superstring theory, etc) but never been proved experimentally. Proving the existence of a monopole would certainly earn a Nobel Prize.<br /> <br /> '''Idiom Neutral'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> An invented language, like Esperanto. Idiom Neutral dictionaries first appeared in 1902. It looks like a simplified Latinate language and it grew out of Volapuk, another &quot;auxiliary language.&quot; It was abandoned by the ''Akademi Internasional de Lingu Universal'' in 1908.<br /> <br /> For a list of all the invented languages that linguists are keeping track of, including Klingon, try [http://linguistlist.org/forms/langs/GetListOfConstructedLgs.html Eastern Michigan's Linguist List]. And don't forget to click on the link to &quot;Browse sites devoted to constructed languages.&quot;<br /> <br /> '''phatic'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Basically, small talk or chatter. Words used to convey fellow-feeling rather than to impart information.<br /> <br /> '''''Kampf ums Dasein'''''&lt;br&gt;<br /> German: struggle for existence.<br /> <br /> '''Q-brother'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Fellow Quaternioneer or Fellow Quaternionist.<br /> <br /> '''We are the Jews of mathematics, wandering out here in our diaspora--some destined for the past, others the future, even a few able to set out at unknown angles from the simple line of Time, upon journeys that no one can predict''' &lt;br&gt;<br /> In keeping with the analogy of Judaism, those &quot;few&quot; people within the Quaternionists &quot;able to set out at unknown angles&quot; are most likely being compared to Kabbalists who claim to partake in a mystic &quot;journey to the Throne of God through the mythological realm of the seven heavens&quot; (Armstrong, A History of God--p. 247). Throne Mysticism in Kabbalah is explored extensively in Gravity's Rainbow.<br /> <br /> Perhaps this is obvious to some, but these &quot;Jews of Mathematics&quot; worship the Hamiltonian Tetractys [http://www.math.ucr.edu/home/baez/dublin/]; those other Jews worshipped the Tetragrammatron. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tetragrammaton] The proliferation of 4s continues.<br /> <br /> ==Page 534==<br /> <br /> '''Poiret gown'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> A gown designed by Paul Poiret (1879-1944), a French fashion designer based in Paris. &quot;In the annals of fashion history, Paul Poiret is best remembered for freeing women from corsets and further liberating them through pantaloons . . . it was Poiret's remarkable innovations in the cut and construction of cloting . . . Working with fabric directly onto the body, Poiret helped to pioneer a radical approach to dressmakeing that relied more on the skills of drapery than on those of tailoring.&quot; (from [http://www.metmuseum.org/special/se_event.asp?OccurrenceId={0DC3D00F-4611-4F91-8DC2-CC3C1A5C48D5} MetMuseum], <br /> New York Metropolitan Museum's Special Exhibitions, ''Poiret: King of Fashion'', May 9, 2007 to August 5, 2007). For a picture of Poiret gown see [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Image:Poiretgown.jpg Poiret Gown]. ''The New York Times'' reported on February 1, 2007 that A Poiret Gown Brings $5,500 at [http://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html?res=9B07EFDA1538F93AA15756C0A967948260 Christie's Auction] - the gown was made in 1913 when Poiret was at the height of his career. For his bio see [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Paul_Poiret Poiret].<br /> <br /> '''''green and long'''''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Pickle, or... what?<br /> : A green and long ''gherkin'' (a small, immature fruit of a variety of cucumber used in pickling).<br /> <br /> ==Page 535==<br /> <br /> '''no-name wine'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> 1970s idiom for common European practice?<br /> <br /> '''set theory'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Set theory deals with the properties of well-defined collections, or ''sets'', of entities - the ''elements'' or ''members'' of the set - conceived as a whole. The elements may be of a mathematical nature or non-mathematical. The set theory grew out of the German mathematician Georg Cantor's (1845-1918) study of infinite sets of real numbers. <br /> <br /> The ''language of sets'' has become an important tool for all branches of mathematics, but is of very little relevance to the practice of mathematics in everyday life. As a source of metaphors, however, it's been quite productive; &quot;subset,&quot; &quot;superset,&quot; &quot;universe,&quot; &quot;intersection&quot; and &quot;Venn diagram&quot; have found varying degrees of acceptance. Recasting Aristotle's syllogisms in set-theoretic language also makes them easier for many people to understand.<br /> <br /> '''Hamilton . . . early genius'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Hamilton, according to ''Chambers Biographical Dictionary'', &quot;at fifteen knew thirteen languages, had read Newton's ''Principia'', and commenced original investigations&quot;. At twenty-two, &quot;while still an undergraduate, he was appointed professor of Astronomy at Dublin and Irish Astronomer-Royal&quot;; at thirty &quot;he was knighted&quot;.<br /> <br /> '''Hamilton . . . in the grip of a first love'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> ???&lt;br&gt;<br /> Pynchon probably didn't mean Quaternion was Hamilton's first love, but its effect on him was similar to that of a first love. In 1843 at the age of 38 Hamilton invented the Quaternion, the first non-communtative algebra to be studied. He felt this would revolutionise mathematical physics, and he spent the rest of his life working on it. In 1853 he published a large volume, ''Lectures on Quaternions'', on his grand invention. The last seven years of his life, Hamilton was writing an 800-page book ''Elements of Quaternions'' modeling on Euclid's ''Elements''. The last chapter of the book was completed by his son after his death.<br /> <br /> '''the Walt Whitman of English physics'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Whitman pops up again, last seen on [[ATD_489-524#Page_491|page 491]].<br /> <br /> ==Page 536==<br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> '''Oscar Wilde'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Note that Wilde's Dorian Gray also undergoes a kind of bilocation.<br /> <br /> '''Kursaal'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Spa. Casino ?<br /> <br /> '''vectors'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> For serious minds see Cf [[ATD_525-556#Page 526|page 526:Gibbsian Vectors]], but let's follow Pynchon's lighter mood, here is a non-mathematical definition by Kamen (1995):<br /> :''Many things have more than direction;''<br /> :''The magnitude is also a question.''<br /> :''With acceleration or force,''<br /> :''And many more things, of course,''<br /> :''It's vectors that make the connection.''<br /> <br /> '''Curls'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Cf [[ATD_318-335#Page 326|page 326:Curl]]: curl is a vector operator that shows a vector field's rate of rotation.<br /> <br /> '''Laplacians'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Pierre-Simon, Marquis de Laplace (March 23, 1749 – March 5, 1827); French mathematician and astronomer who summarized and extended the work of his predecessors in his five volume Mécanique Céleste (Celestial Mechanics) (1799-1825), translating the geometrical study of mechanics used by Isaac Newton to one based on calculus, known as physical mechanics.<br /> <br /> He is also the discoverer of Laplace's equation. Although the Laplace transform is named in honor of Laplace, who used the transform in his work on probability theory, the transform was discovered originally by Leonhard Euler. The Laplace transform appears in all branches of mathematical physics — a field he took a leading role in forming. The Laplacian differential operator, much relied-upon in applied mathematics, is likewise named after him. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Laplace].<br /> <br /> :Cf [[ATD_318-335#Page 326|page 326:Laplacian]]: Laplacian is a differential operator named after Laplace. The text here was talking about mathematical operations and operators — rates of change, rotations, partial differentials, Curls, ''Laplacians'', . . .<br /> <br /> '''scream'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Scream motif.<br /> <br /> '''beginning to appal'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> By 1905 there had been years of outrage at conditions in the Belgian Congo, King Leopold's private fief. Conrad's ''Heart of Darkness'' had been published as a serial in Blackwood's Magazine in 1899 and as a book in 1902. There were missionaries' accounts of the brutality, and newspaper reports. Leopold and his apologists published rebuttals. The Norton Critical Edition of ''Heart of Darkness'' contains an extensive collection of both.<br /> <br /> '''baize'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Baize is a coarse woolen felt.<br /> <br /> ==Page 537==<br /> <br /> '''broken symmetries'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Broken_symmetry Broken symmetry] is a concept used widely in mathematics and physics. For a simplest explanation (good enough for the text here), this term means that an object breaks either rotational symmetry or translational sysmetry - when one can only rotate an object in certain angles or when one is able to tell if the object has been shifted sideways. For a little bit more detailed explanation see [http://www.lassp.cornell.edu/sethna/OrderParameters/BrokenSymmetry.html Identify the Broken Symmetry]; or even more [http://scienceweek.com/2005/sw050708-6.htm On Broken Symmetry].<br /> <br /> '''''sphinxe Khnopffienne'''''&lt;br&gt;<br /> refers to the Belgian symbolist painter Fernand Khnopff (1858-1921), famous for his painting &quot;The Caress&quot;, in which a female sphinx erotically lures a young man. The painting can be seen in the [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fernand_Khnopff wikipedia entry]<br /> <br /> '''Pléiade Lafrisée'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> in French, &quot;friser&quot; means to curl or twist. &quot;La frisée&quot; could mean &quot;curled,&quot; by extension &quot;twisted.&quot; The Pleiades is a cluster of hundreds of stars, though only a few are visible, sometimes referred to as The Seven Sisters. If Pleiades are Sisters, Pléiade is ''one'' Sister, so her name means Twisted Sister!<br /> <br /> '''''Conseilleuse'''''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Female consultant?<br /> <br /> ==Page 538==<br /> <br /> '''retroversion matrix'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> ???<br /> <br /> '''''Ma foi'''''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Literally &quot;My faith&quot;, i.e. &quot;By my faith!&quot;, a mild exclamation of incredulity.<br /> <br /> '''ten thousand francs'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> <br /> Based on currency conversions relative to gold, this is equivalent to<br /> about $30,000 US today.<br /> <br /> '''piker'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Someone cheap or cautious, possibly named after people from PIke County, Missouri, who came to California in the 1800s, looking for work. They were poor, hence cheap.<br /> <br /> '''what is a Quaternino?'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Cf [[ATD_525-556#Page 525|page 525:Quaternions]] for a mathematical definition. From ''The Random House Dictionary of the English Languages'', The Unabridged Edition (1966): Quaternion is &quot;a quantity or operator expressed as the sum of a real number and three complex numbers, equivalent to the ''quotient of two vectors''. The field of quaternions is not commutative under multiplication.&quot;.<br /> <br /> '''Bertie ('Mad Dog') Russell'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> 'Mad Dog' seems to be used with heavy irony here. Bertrand Russell was known most for his rationalism, so to speak, his work in modern logic. <br /> He did little in his public roles (at this time in AtD) that would have <br /> him referred to as &quot;crazy', as we say, beyond the social norm, &quot;mad&quot;. <br /> It might be argued that his use of 'logic' against philosophers such as Hegel and McTaggart within ''Against the Day'' showed up their 'madness'.<br /> (Many did think McTaggart was a bit...different...for seriously not believing in Time.) McTaggart broke with Russell after an early influential friendship---Russell was the younger man and the influenced one. He said he was an Hegelian because of McTaggart--Russell wrote in his<br /> Autobiography that McTaggart said he no longer wanted to meet/talk with him bcause he could no longer stand Russell's opinions.<br /> <br /> [http://nobelprize.org/nobel_prizes/literature/laureates/1950/russell-bio.html Bertrand Russell] (1872-1970) was a British mathematician, philosopher, logician and social critic. Best known for his work in mathermatical logic and analytic philosophy. In late spring of 1901 he discovered the so-called [http://plato.stanford.edu/entries/russell-paradox/ Russell Paradox], &quot;the most famous of the logical or set-theoretical paradoxes. The paradox arises within naive set theory by considering the set of all sets that are not members of themselves. Such a set appears to be a member of itself if and only if it is not a member of itself, hence the paradox.&quot; (On-line Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy). He won the 1950 Nobel Prize in Literature in &quot;recognition of his varied and significant writings in which he champions humanitarian ideals and freedom of thought&quot;.<br /> <br /> '''Barry Nebulay'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> nebulae: formed from the diffusion of gas in galaxies or as exploded stars (or the last ember-like stage of a star)&lt;br&gt; <br /> Most nebulae can be described as diffuse nebulae, which means that they are extended and contain no well-defined boundaries.[1] In visible light these nebulae may be divided into emission nebulae and reflection nebulae, a categorization that depends on how the light we see is created.<br /> <br /> '''Hegel... puns'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Probably refers to the fact that quite a lot of Hegel's philosophy deals with the is-ness of the world as we know and experience it.<br /> <br /> On page 787 of Bertrand Russell's ''History of Western Philosophy'' is a summary, perhaps, of this remark about Hegel's puns: &quot;as a result of analysis of the concept &quot;existence&quot;, modern logic has proved this [Cartesianism, refuted by Kant, reinstated by Hegel] argument invalid.....&quot;<br /> <br /> We know from other places that TRP himself seems to 'not like' Cartesianism. See 'cartesian' citations within this wiki.<br /> <br /> ==Page 539==<br /> <br /> '''a vector quotient'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> The result of one vector divided by another. According to the English dictionary definition of previous page this is just a Quaternion.<br /> <br /> '''unit vector'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Unit vector is a vector with magnitude of one. The unit vectors in 3-dimensional space, ''i, j, k'', associated with ''x, y, z'' directions are used in defining a general 3D vector (Cf [[ATD_525-556#Page 526|page 526:Gibbsian Vectors]]).<br /> <br /> '''''square root of minus one'''''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Imaginary number (Cf [[ATD_119-148#Page 132|page 133:Imaginary Number]]). The imaginary numbers ''i, j, k'' are used in defining a Quaternion (Cf [[ATD_525-556#Page 525|page 525:Quaternions]]).<br /> <br /> ''''Triangle Asana''''&lt;br&gt;<br /> A basic yoga pose. <br /> <br /> [http://yoga.org.nz/postures/yoga_positions_images_page.htm Here are images of several basic poses.]<br /> <br /> ''''Dr Rao abruptly vanished''''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Might be a reference to [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Martin_Gardner Martin Gardner]'s<br /> [http://www.amazon.com/No-Sided-Professor-Fantasy-Mystery-Philosophy/dp/0879753900 &quot;No-Sided Professor&quot;]<br /> <br /> ''''Quadrantal Versor Asana''''&lt;br&gt;<br /> A triangle pose taken that extra dimension.<br /> <br /> '''''&quot;Uwe moer!&quot;'''''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Looks a lot like the Dutch &quot;Uw moeder!&quot; - a cry of astonishment (&quot;Your mother!&quot;), the equivalent to the black English &quot;yo mama&quot;.<br /> <br /> '''noncommutative'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> A term typical to mathematics. A commutative equation is one that can operate in exact reverse and still yield the same results. 'Noncommutative' then suggests unidirectionality. The ability to go from point A to point B, but not from B to A.<br /> <br /> '''reticule'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> A woman's drawstring handbag; usually made of net or beading or brocade; also: A system of lines forming a pattern of squares at the focal plane of a telescope, used in micrometers.<br /> [http://www.astunit.com/tutorials/glossary.htm] <br /> :Isn't that sort of a red herring? &quot;[P]roducing from her reticule a . . . watch&quot; doesn't really allow of that second meaning. &lt;br&gt;<br /> :It could be a pun, since a reticule/ handbag always shows its pattern of lines, and a watch (timepiece) is drawn from it. Remember that, e.g. railroad lines of tracks, are a sign of industrialism encroaching on the natural and the spiritual.<br /> <br /> '''Vacheron &amp; Constantin watch'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Made by a Swiss company founded in 1755. From 1819 to 1970 the name was as in the text, then the &amp; dropped out. See the [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vacheron_Constantin Wikipedia entry.]<br /> <br /> '''hunting-case'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> For a pocket watch, a case with a hinged metal cover. More often called &quot;hunter case&quot; (and such a watch a &quot;hunter&quot;).<br /> <br /> ==Page 540==<br /> <br /> '''&quot;haar rekening, ja?&quot;'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> The bill, yes? (Dutch)?<br /> <br /> ''Her'' bill, yes? I.e., give the check to the lady.<br /> <br /> Given the presence of Chris 'Kit' Traverse here, this very much suggests a reference to Christopher 'Kit' Marlowe, Elizabethan poet, playwright and contemporary of Shakespeare. Marlowe was stabbed to death in 1593, in murky circumstances, ostensibly over a bill or 'reckoning', though he was widely believed to have been involved in some form of espionage.<br /> <br /> Strictly speaking &quot;haar rekening&quot; means that the lady pays for herself only. If Root wanted to make sure that Pléiade pays for the whole company he would have to say &quot;de hele rekening voor de dame&quot;. <br /> <br /> '''Piet Woevre'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> The Woëvre is a natural region of Lorraine in north-east France. It forms part of Lorraine plateau and lies largely in the department of Meuse. During World War I, there was much fighting there due to vast mineral resources that had been discovered in the Briey basin or Eastern Woevre at the end of the 19th century. &quot;Piet&quot; is Dutch for &quot;rock&quot; or &quot;stone&quot; and is a fairly common Dutch name, the English equivalent being Peter.<br /> <br /> If the surname is pronounced as in Dutch, Woevre is another Pynchon villain with a &quot;V&quot;-name (Vond, Weissman, Vibe). <br /> <br /> '''Force Publique'''&lt;br /&gt;<br /> The Force Publique (FP) was the official armed force for what is now the Democratic Republic of the Congo from 1885, (when the territory was known as the Congo Free State), through the period of direct Belgian rule (1908-60), until the beginning of the Second Republic in 1965. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Force_Publique Wikipedia entry]<br /> <br /> '''made him reach'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Possible allusion to a famous line, &quot;When I hear the word culture I reach for my gun.&quot; From Hanns Johst's biographical play ''Schlageter''. The original line is slightly different: &quot;Wenn ich Kultur höre ... entsichere ich meinen Browning,&quot; &quot;Whenever I hear of culture... I release the safety-catch of my Browning!&quot; (Act 1, Scene 1). It is spoken by another character in conversation with the young Schlageter. In the scene Schlageter and his wartime comrade Friedrich Thiemann are studying for a college examination, but then start disputing whether it's worthwhile doing so when the nation is not free. <br /> <br /> The line is often misattributed to better-known Nazis and others [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hanns_Johst].<br /> <br /> *In Jean-Luc Godard's 1963 film [http://www.chicagoreader.com/movies/archives/0997/09057.html ''Le Mépris'' (''Contempt'')], Jack Palance's character &quot;Jeremy Prokosch,&quot; an American movie-producer, intones to Fritz Lang: &quot;Whenever I hear the word culture, I reach for my checkbook.&quot;<br /> <br /> '''not unambiguous'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Ie, ambiguous.<br /> <br /> '''''rastaquoueres'''''&lt;br&gt;<br /> 8???<br /> <br /> '''de Decker'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> In Dutch/Flemish, the name means &quot;roofer.&quot; (''De'' in these names almost never means &quot;of, from&quot; as in French; it's nearly always the definite article.)<br /> <br /> ==Page 541==<br /> <br /> '''''bobbejaan'''''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Afrikaans: baboon. (Afrikaans is the language spoken by descendants of Dutch colonists in present-day South Africa. Some items identified as Dutch or Flemish in this wiki may really be Afrikaans.)<br /> <br /> The South African song &quot;Bobbejaan klim die berg&quot; (&quot;Bobbejaan climbed the hill&quot;) is the source of the stage name of Belgium's most famous country and western musician, Bobbejaan Schoepen (b. 1925). In 1943 he was suppressed by the Nazis after performing a South African song, &quot;Mamma, 'k wil 'n man hê&quot; (&quot;Mama, I want a man&quot;), which contains the line &quot;No, Mama, I don't want a German, because I don't like pork.&quot; He founded the Bobbejaanland theme park in Belgium, where he still lives.<br /> <br /> '''MKIV/ODC... Mark Four'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> This would be the Mark IV Ohmic Drift Compensator ([[ATD 557-587#Page 565|Page 565]]), a key component of the Q-weapon, which &quot;regulates how much light is allowed to enter the silvering of the mirror! Special kind of refraction! Calibrated against imaginary index! Dangerous! Of the essence!'&quot;<br /> <br /> '''not part of your remit'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Not included in your job description, instructions, authorization. &quot;Remit&quot; (noun) is usually a British usage.<br /> <br /> '''''gatkruiper'''''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Dutch/Flemish: brownnose, ass-kisser.<br /> <br /> '''one on her wrist'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> All the bruises reflect some refinement or artistry except this one, which may have been inflicted crudely.<br /> <br /> '''over the day'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Title motif?<br /> <br /> ==Page 542==<br /> <br /> '''trans-horizontic'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Across the horizon -- &quot; a screaming comes across the sky&quot;<br /> <br /> '''Edmund Whittaker'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Edmund Whittaker (1873-1956), an English mathematician. He is best known for his work in numerical analysis. And he contributed widely to applied mathematics, mathematical physics and the theory of special functions. He also worked on celestial mechanics and the history of applied mathermatics and physics. ([http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/E._T._Whittaker Whittaker]).<br /> <br /> The Sir Edmund Whittaker Memorial Prize is awarded every four years by the Edinburgh Mathematical Society to an outstanding young mathematician having a specified connection with Scotland [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sir_Edmund_Whittaker_Memorial_Prize]. <br /> <br /> '''louche'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> The cloudy effect caused by the addition of water to absinthe. Dictionary definition: &quot;of questionable taste or morality; decadent.&quot;<br /> <br /> '''cheval-glass'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Standing mirror in a freestanding vertical frame.<br /> <br /> '''as if someone'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Sound-cancelling vs opacity-cancelling?<br /> <br /> ==Page 543==<br /> <br /> '''wraith of Pleiade Lafrisee'''<br /> <br /> Pleiade manifests one of her not-visible stars. Perhaps this sister has somehow twisted herself on an imaginary axis ala Dr. V. Ganesh Rao.<br /> <br /> '''monitory'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Warning, giving advice, by extension ominous or menacing.<br /> <br /> '''Against....the day....'''<br /> Note: this phrase happens at the exact halfway point of the novel: p.542.3<br /> <br /> '''He Who Must Come'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> The evil-doer who must come might be Adolf Hitler. It would make sense. The implication being that Europe is precipitating into a no-return situation. Capitalism cannot but end in WW2.&lt;br&gt;<br /> Ah, a lot more and less than capitalism going on here, especially if anyone specific like Hitler is meant. <br /> :When French writers use this phrase (''celui qui doit venir'') they '''do''' mean the Messiah . . . although a few devout quibblers point out that the Messiah has already come. It's rather tiresome Googling the phrase; the first 83 hits definitely refer to Christ and most of them quote the first verses of Matthew 11. But there's also a Camus reference (in English, I think) down at No. 90, if anyone has a JSTOR account:<br /> :links.jstor.org/sici?sici=0361-1299(1985)39%3A4%3C251%3ACFS%22M%3E2.0.CO%3B2-X <br /> <br /> Recalls Yeats' 'The Second Coming' once again: &quot;And what rough beast, its hour come round at last, Slouches towards Bethlehem to be born?&quot; [http://chumpsofchoice.blogspot.com/2007/05/casino-royale-in-flanders-field.html#c3637134446204467798 ]<br /> <br /> '''General Boulanger'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/General_Boulanger Georges Boulanger], French military man, and War Minister in the late 19th century. He was one of those men &quot;on a white horse&quot; that some conservatives looked to, as he urged an attack on Germany and the end of the French Republic with a return to monarchy. He was also notorious for his harsh reprisals against workers' demonstrations. &quot;'Boulangisme'&quot; threatened a coup in 1889, but the general's procrastination brought the crisis to an end.&lt;br&gt;<br /> In ''The Infernal Machine: A History of Terrorism''<br /> by Matthew Carr, 2007, Boulanger is called the &quot;father&quot; of fascism.<br /> <br /> '''what death and what transfiguration'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Allusion to Richard Strauss' tone poem &quot;Death and Transfiguration&quot; (''Tod und Verklärung''), premiered in 1890.<br /> <br /> '''''&quot;Zeker&quot;'''''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Dutch: certainly.<br /> <br /> '''''dead cert'''''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Dead certainty, sure thing.<br /> <br /> '''Von Schlieffen'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Alfred von Schlieffen was the author of a German war plan to win a two-front war against both France and Russia by quickly defeating France before Russian troops could be mobilized. The [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Schlieffen_Plan Schlieffen Plan] included an attack on France through Belgium, disregarding its neutrality.<br /> <br /> '''Wilhelm has offered Leopold part of France, the ancient Duchy of Burgundy'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> [http://www.crwflags.com/fotw/flags/fr-bg.html History of the duchy.] [http://www.freiburg-madison.de/freiburg_history/1386-1517_The%20Early%20Habsburgs.htm Map,] with portrait of Duke Charles the Rash.<br /> <br /> '''lowlands'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Title of Pynchon's first published story. Here, ass?<br /> <br /> ==Page 544==<br /> <br /> '''Place d'Armes'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Main square of Ostend; literally &quot;drill field&quot;.<br /> <br /> '''peau de soie'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> &quot;Skin of silk&quot; A heavy, smooth satin with very fine ribbing; somewhat dull in sheen compared with traditional silk finishes.<br /> <br /> '''Krafft-Ebing'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Richard Freiherr von Krafft-Ebing, Austro-German psychiatrist and author of ''Psychopathia Sexualis'' (1886), a pioneering study of deviant sexual behavior and fetishism. Coined both ''sadism'' and ''masochism'' as terms for these respective behaviors. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Richard_Freiherr_von_Krafft-Ebing Wikipedia entry].<br /> <br /> '''toque'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Toque here refers to a lady's hat, originally of fur but here in velvet, which is rather like a flattened chef's hat in shape.<br /> <br /> Proust: in ''À l'ombre des jeunes filles en fleurs'' the narrator first sees Albertine wearing a toque. There seem to be quite a few Proust themes and references running throughout the novel. Indeed '''Pliade''' is the French publisher of Proust's works. <br /> <br /> '''guipure'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Lace trim.<br /> <br /> '''midinette'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> A shopgirl or dressmakers apprentice. A milliner.<br /> <br /> '''Lambic'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> A distinctive Belgian style of beer. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lambic Wikipedia]<br /> <br /> '''sous'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> <br /> Coins. Originally Roman gold coins, latterly any kind of coin.<br /> <br /> Specifically small change. She is affecting modesty by claiming that a hat like hers can be had for pennies in any unpretentious shop. In France &quot;sou is used as slang for money, as in ''sans le sou''. 'I'm broke', 'without money'. It is also a slang term for the Canadian cent (standard French, cent).&quot; ([http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sou Wikipedia])<br /> <br /> '''mayonnaise'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Brautigan's &quot;Trout Fishing in America&quot; famously ends with the word mayonnaise. [http://books.google.com/books?vid=ISBN0395500761&amp;id=rbEjDovfyNMC&amp;pg=RA2-PA111&amp;lpg=RA2-PA111&amp;ots=ELKl5b_6Tx&amp;dq=mayonnaise+trout.fishing&amp;num=100&amp;sig=BiyXRqJXRGrMWbrBNgn8de2kpCo#PRA2-PA112,M1 GoogleBooks]<br /> <br /> '''ovoöleaginous'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Another Pynchonic word combination, here denoting the two main ingredients of mayonnaise: 1) eggs, and 2) oil. It's not &quot;fecoventilatory collision&quot; as seen in &quot;Vineland,&quot; but it's nice.<br /> <br /> '''Grenache'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Grape commonly used in Rhone Valley wines e.g. Chateauneuf du Pape.<br /> <br /> '''Chantilly'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> <br /> Region north of Paris.<br /> <br /> Here the reference is to crème chantilly otherwise known as whipped cream. Chantilly mayonnaise is made by incorporating the beaten egg whites for extra lightness.<br /> <br /> '''attainder'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Legislative act declaring that a person is guilty of a crime and setting punishment without the benefit of a formal trial. The Constitution forbids the federal government (Article I, Section 9, clause 3) and the state governments (Article I, Section 10, clause 1) from passing bills of attainder.<br /> [www.historycentral.com/Civics/B.html] <br /> <br /> ''''''Aux armes, citoyens''''''&lt;br&gt;<br /> ''To arms, citizens'', from the French national anthem, ''La Marseillaise'' (1792). Kit confused La Mayonnaise with La Marseillaise.&lt;br&gt;<br /> Not &quot;Le Marseillaise,&quot; you nitwit!<br /> <br /> '''Louis XV'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> King of France 1715-1774 [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Louis_XV]. <br /> <br /> '''Cléo de Mérode'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Glamorous French ballerina (1875-1966), later Follies Bergere dancer and famous beauty. Her reputed intimacy with King Leopold was only a rumor [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cleo_de_Merode]. The character Madame Leonora Armfeldt in Stephen Sondheim's ''A Little Night Music'' has some features in common with her.<br /> <br /> '''Marquise de Pompadour'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Mistress of Louis XV,once friend of Voltaire and a power behind official scenes.[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Madame_de_Pompadour].<br /> <br /> ==Page 545==<br /> <br /> '''duc de Richelieu'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Duc de Richelieu (1696-1788), marshal of France, was a grandnephew of Cardinal Richelieu, and born in Paris. Apart from his reputation as a man of exceptionally loose morals, he attained, in spite of a defective education, distinction as a diplomatist and general. ([http://www.1911encyclopedia.org/Louis_Francois_Armand_du_Plessis,_duc_de_Richelieu duc de Richelieu] and cf [[ATD_489-524#Page 490|page 490:duc de Richelieu]])<br /> <br /> '''dubious 'victory' in 1756'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> As part of the Seven Years' War (1756-1763), duc de Richelieu (1696-1788), a Marshal of France, won a victory in the Battle of Minorca (May 20, 1756) over John Byng (1704-1757), a British Admiral. In spring of 1756 John Byng was sent with a small and undermanned fleet to relieve the British ''Port Mahon'' on the Mediterranean island of Minorca. During the battle ensued, several British ships were badly damaged by the French squadron while others, including Byng's flagship, were still out of effective firing range. Instead of engaging the enemy directly, Byng decided to keep the formation, allowing the French fleet to get away undamaged. ([http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_Minorca Battle of Minorca]).<br /> <br /> '''the ill-fated Admiral Byng'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> John Byng, convicted by court-martial of failure &quot;to do his utmost&quot; in the battle, shot in 1757. Remembered because of (1) his being the last officer of flag rank to be put to death for conduct in battle and (2) Voltaire's gag in ''Candide:'' &quot;In this country it is good to kill an admiral from time to time in order to encourage the others.&quot;<br /> <br /> '''cantharides'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> &quot;Spanish fly,&quot; contact irritant sometimes ill-advisedly used as aphrodisiac.<br /> <br /> '''Sadean'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Pertaining to the Marquis de Sade. The acts the chef performs on the egg and oil have the same names as acts of Sadean sex. <br /> <br /> '''''n'est-ce pas?'''''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Right? (Isn't that so?)<br /> <br /> '''vetiver'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> A grass (Vetiveria zizanioides) of tropical India, cultivated for its aromatic roots that yield an oil used in perfumery.<br /> [www.answers.com/topic/vetiver]. So, a perfume with, llterallly, roots in India.<br /> <br /> Vetiver makes frequent appearances throughout ''À la recherche du temps perdu.''<br /> <br /> '''pip'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> A beaut; in current parlance, a hottie.<br /> <br /> '''Q.P. system'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Quaternion Probability, page 536.<br /> <br /> '''Usine Régionale'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> French: as translated in the text.<br /> <br /> ==Page 546==<br /> <br /> '''disjunctive effects of thunderstorms'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Folk wisdom says a thunderstorm will cause mayonnaise to separate (oil from yolks).<br /> <br /> '''cottonseed oil'''<br /> <br /> Mayonnaisse like Smegmo and Crisco is a hydrogenated fat; cottonseed oil is a common factor to all three. Indeed, the name Crisco derives from the intial sounds of &quot;'''crys'''tallized '''c'''ottonseed '''o'''il&quot;. Note in the next few pages a mention of Candlebrow -- underscoring a tie-in between Mayonnaisse and Smegmo. <br /> <br /> It may be of interest to note that hydrogenation may have a symbolic use for Pynchon. The process entails bubbling hydrogen through oil in the presence of a metal catalyst such as nickel, platinum, aluminum at 248 to 410 degrees. Remnants of these metals stay in the finished product, and when consumed can lead to an increase in heavy metals in the human body.<br /> <br /> Eating hydrogenated oils is like eating plastic. The body does not recognize that these molecules have been mutated and tries to use them as essential fatty acids. But they cannot perform the same function, and as a result hydrogenated oils can cause short circuits in the electrical flow that controls the heartbeat, nerve functions, cell division and mental balance. They also create free radicals (anarchists!) that are linked to cancers. Free radicals plus metal remnants are a major contributor to cancer, heart disease, immune system dysfunction, osteoporosis, depression, chronic fatigue, Alzheimers, and neurological diseases. It is estimated that over 200 million people have died prematurely because of the hydrogenated oils found in our diets. [http://www.drz.org/asp/newsletter/default.asp?xt2id=23] Not to mention innocent bystanders killed by mentally imbalanced people whose imbalance may stem from the ingestion of hydrogenated oils -- there may be some underlying reality to the &quot;Twinkie defense.&quot;<br /> <br /> '''lounge suit'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> A lounge suit is another name for business suit consisting of a matching jacket and trousers or skirt.<br /> <br /> '''congress shoes'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> ankle high shoes with elastic gussets in the sides (wordweb online)<br /> <br /> '''invisible hand'''<br /> <br /> Suggestive of Adam Smith's metaphor for market forces in economics.<br /> <br /> '''dripping-heads'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mayonnaise To make mayonnaise,] beat together egg yolks, salt, mustard and vinegar, then drip in oil while beating to form the emulsion. If you scale the process up for industrial production, you will automate the introduction of the oil, using nozzles that release it a drop at a time—but in a large vat you can have many such nozzles.<br /> <br /> '''''cuves d'agitation'''''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Vat or tank in which the mayonnaise is agitated or beaten.<br /> <br /> '''Clinique d'Urgence pour Sauvetage des Sauces'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> French: Emergency Clinic for Salvage of Sauces.<br /> <br /> ==Page 547==<br /> <br /> '''' ...engulfed in thick, slick, sour-smelling mayonnaise. ''''<br /> The whole Kit's experience in the mayonnaise factory is very much reminiscent to [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Roald_Dahl Roald Dahl]'s [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Charlie_and_the_Chocolate_Factory Charlie and the Chocolate Factory].<br /> <br /> '''''Cazzo, cretino'''''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Literally, &quot;Dick, cretin.&quot; ''Cazzo'' is a common Italian interjectionary obscenity, especially in the south. &quot;Cazzo, cretino,&quot; is akin to someone saying, &quot;Well shit, dummy,&quot; or &quot;F-ing moron!&quot;<br /> <br /> '''''È il cowboy!'''''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Italian: It's the cowboy!<br /> <br /> '''''vero?'''''&lt;br&gt;<br /> true? real?<br /> <br /> '''''Le bambole anarchiste, porca miseria'''''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Italian: Anarchist babes, oh boy.<br /> <br /> '''Oudenberg'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> A southeast suburb of Ostende.<br /> <br /> '''Quai de l'Entrepôt'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Warehouse Quay<br /> <br /> '''''ragazzi'''''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Italian: boys, guys.<br /> <br /> ==Page 548==<br /> <br /> '''General Boulanger'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> That the General was 'reactionary' and that the C of C bureaucracy had a 'defiant residue' of Boulangism, continues the characterization of the organization for which the Chums 'work'.&lt;br&gt;<br /> See p. 543 above, regarding a 2007 book in which Boulanger is called the 'father of fascism'.<br /> <br /> '''''timbres fictifs'''''&lt;br&gt;<br /> French: fictive postage stamps. Cf &quot;Lot 49&quot;.&lt;br&gt;<br /> Yes, stamps mean something in Pynchon's works; here, it seems important that these stamps are characterized as frauds.<br /> <br /> '''&quot;IIIb&quot;'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> As explained in the text.&lt;br&gt;<br /> &quot;Section IIIB (Intelligence) of the German High Command. After WWI, was funded by Alfred Hugenberg (financial backer of Nazi party)&quot;. From ''Sabotage'' by Sayers &amp; Kahn, 1942.[http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&amp;q=%22IIIB%27+%2B+INTELLIGENCE&amp;btnG=Search]. The authors state in the Forward, in 1942, &quot;that 'Nazi Germany' is the creation of spies and saboteurs&quot;. See ''Gravity's Rainbow'', of course. <br /> <br /> '''Germany might stand a better chance...'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> That is, if the French were to push into Alsace (per Boulanger) as the Germans executed the Schlieffen Plan [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Schlieffen_plan] for the encirclement of Paris, it would put the French at an even greater disadvantage...as actually happened in 1914. Had the Belgians and British not delayed the Germans in Flanders, and had the French railroads not performed speedily to bring the French troops back to the Marne, World War I could have had a very different outcome...an alternate history. <br /> <br /> '''revanchist'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Policies based on revenge, or a person following such policies. In General Boulanger's case, revenge against Germany for the Franco-Prussian War (that is, retaking Alsace, lost in 1871).<br /> <br /> '''the somewhat discomposed General'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Having died in 1891, the General by the time of the action is certainly somewhat '''de'''composed; brief biographies do not suggest he was ''non compos mentis,'' that is, mentally discomposed.<br /> <br /> ==Page 549==<br /> '''cackled Darby'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> (When did he lose his innocence?)<br /> <br /> '''a modification of any salsician metaphor toward the diminutive'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Salsician: pertaining to sausage. Lindsay says Suckling's penis is better compared to a wiener than a knockwurst.<br /> <br /> '''&quot;Why you little–and I do mean 'little'–&quot;'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Another Simpsons reference? <br /> <br /> Noseworth, the Master-At-Arms of the Chums division of this organization with a defiant residue of 'fascism', who had no smell to Pugnax early on,<br /> is called out, either for real or in a sex-bashing putdown, for homosexuality. cf. homosexuality as a metaphor in ''Gravity's Rainbow''. <br /> <br /> '''dunes between Nieuport and Dunkirk'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Nieuport is a Belgian seaport about 10 miles southwest of Ostend. Dunkirk is a French port (less than 10 miles inside the French border) about 20 miles southwest of Nieuport. The latter was a site of one of the bloodest battle in World War I. The general area between Niewport and Dunkirk was the well traversed battle fields of two world wars. (Dunkirk was (in)famous for the British Army's escape from the Nazi German's assault in World War II.)<br /> <br /> '''power-receivers'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Not information, energy.<br /> <br /> ==Page 550==<br /> <br /> '''Lot's wife''' &lt;br&gt;<br /> Angels of God led Lot and his family out of Sodom as it was being destroyed and told them not to look back at the mayhem. Lot's wife, Edith, imprudently looked back and was transfigured into a pillar of salt.<br /> <br /> '''Italian grotto'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> an imitating recess or structure made to resemble a natural Italian grotto.<br /> <br /> '''a highly developed taste, moreover, for human blood'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Since Pugnax developed this taste in the Carpathians, home of Castle Dracula, this seems a clear reference to Bram Stoker's novel. <br /> <br /> '''Carpathians'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Major mountain range running northwest-southeast through Poland, Slovakia, western Ukraine and Romania.<br /> <br /> '''Uhlans'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Uhlan regiments belonged to the light cavalry. They wore splendid uniforms (model for some U.S. marching band uniforms). [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Uhlan Wikipedia article.]<br /> <br /> '''Temesvár'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Now Timişoara, extreme western Romania.<br /> <br /> ==Page 551==<br /> <br /> '''...separated by only a slice of Time...'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Miles is beginning to experience Time almost as a spatial dimension, his personal vector as traversing (!) 4-dimensional space, or perhaps multidimensional space, the mathematics for which is being debated in Ostend.<br /> <br /> '''securing the mess decks'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> The Chums follow U.S. Navy idiom in orders (frequently prefixed with &quot;Now&quot;) and shipboard activities (&quot;secure&quot; meaning &quot;whatever you did before, undo it now,&quot; in this case put away the dishes and fold up the tables).<br /> <br /> '''Ryder Thorn'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Tolkienesque name? Or perhaps it's a nod to the Ryder-Waite Tarot deck and to Kevin Thorn (Kevin Matthew Fertig, 1977-), the American professional wrestler better known by his ring name Kevin Thorn who is currently signed to World Wrestling Entertainment wrestling on its ECW brand. He has appeared in vigniettes with Ariel (Shelly Martinez, 1980-), the tarot card reader, who spits blood at the camera while she &quot;predicted the future of ECW.&quot; Yup, a stretch...<br /> <br /> *The name also evokes the Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse.<br /> <br /> '''He was at Candlebrow.'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Presumably a 'trespasser.'<br /> <br /> '''the four-note chord in the context of timelessness'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> A melody is formed by notes following one another in time; a chord on the ukulele violates that practice by having all the notes sound at once. A really clever little passage.<br /> Note: Jazz musicians describe musical improvisations as horizontal (with the melody) or vertical (with the chord)<br /> <br /> ==Page 552==<br /> <br /> '''knuckle-duster'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Brass knuckles.<br /> <br /> '''Diksmuide'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> 20 kilometers south of Ostend (about halfway to Ypres).<br /> <br /> ==Page 553==<br /> <br /> '''The terrain was flat...lowlands'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Not, this time, a reference to Pynchon's ''Lowlands'', but to the two-dimensionality of Flanders, as in Edwin A. Abbott's ''Flatland'' [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Flatland]; most humans, like the inhabitants of Flanders and Abbott's Flatlanders, experience life in two dimensions. <br /> <br /> '''Somewhere up in the sky was Miles' home...'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Whereas Miles and the Chums of Chance, in contrast, live in three dimensions. The mathematicians gathered in Ostend are trying to calculate how to experience and use vectors to live in four dimensions; in a way, to experience Time as a kind of spatial dimension. Miles, on P. 551, is demonstrating the beginnings of an intuitive discovery of how to experience Time as an almost spatial dimension. Which would be a sort of &quot;time travel&quot;, or at least an expanded view of life and history.<br /> <br /> '''retted'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> soaked in water or exposed to moisture (as flax or hemp) to facilitate the removal of the fiber from the woody tissue by partial rotting.<br /> <br /> ==Page 554==<br /> <br /> '''Ypres and Menin'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Municipalities in West Flanders that were sites of some of the bloodiest battles of WWI. At the beginning of the war, the British and Belgian stand helped save Paris from encirclement by the Germans, and saved the Channel ports, but as Thorn points out, the area became the western anchor of the Western Front trench system. The several Battles of Ypres saw the first uses of poison gas (Mustard Gas, dichlorodiethylsulfide, was first called Yperite), the use of enormous mines, and the legendary mud of Passchendaele [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Passchendaele]. <br /> <br /> '''Ten years from now'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> (1914?) through 1918? and beyond?. Another paramorphic mirror--what do we now face. Whatever it is, it is nuclear.<br /> <br /> '''Bosch'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Hieronymous Bosch (1450-1516), Dutch painter of nightmares. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hieronymus_Bosch Wikipedia entry].<br /> <br /> '''Brueghel'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Pieter Brueghel the Elder(1525-1569), Flemish painter.[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pieter_Brueghel_the_Elder Wikipedia entry].<br /> <br /> '''League'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> League of Nations? The League of Nations was formed after WWI to prevent future wars. Didn't succeed.<br /> <br /> No. In this case a historical unit of length, approximately three miles - &quot;league on league&quot; = tremendous masses<br /> <br /> '''where the needles went and which way to rotate them'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> I.e., how to push Thorn's buttons; the image is from acupuncture.<br /> <br /> ==Page 555==<br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> '''simpletons at the fair'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Making Pynchon's metaphor explicit.<br /> <br /> '''Chopin E-minor Nocturne'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Frédéric Chopin (1810-49), a Polish pianist and composer ([http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fr%C3%A9d%C3%A9ric_Chopin Chopin]). He was born in Warsaw, Poland to a Polish morther and a French father. He went to Paris at the age of 20 and died there at the age of 39. He was widely regarded as one of the most famous and influential composers for the piano. From 1837-47 he had a 10-year stormy relationship with the French writer George Sand. His E-minor Nocturne is a 4-minute long Romantic style piano solo composed in 1827. (A ''nocturne'' is usually a musical composition that is inspired by, or evocative of, the night [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nocturne Nocturne].)<br /> <br /> '''owl-light'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> ???glimmering or imperfect light or twilight hours.<br /> <br /> ''''plasmic hysteresis''''&lt;br&gt;<br /> <br /> A coined term, apparently similar in meaning to Miles’ phrase “failure of physical translation.” Plasma would take an older meaning of “form” or “shape.&quot; Hysteresis, according to Webster's, refers to “a retardation in effect when the forces on an object are changed.” Hysteresis is used to describe magnetic phenomenon as well as plastic or elastic materials, that involve changes to a rest state that last beyond the forces that cause them. Examples include recordings on magnetic tape or a thumbprint slowly disappearing from putty. In the context of this passage, plasmic hysteresis appears to describe the lingering visage of someone who is no longer present – a hysteresis of form only and thus a failed physical translation. See [http://www.etymonline.com/index.php?search=plasma&amp;searchmode=none etymology of plasma] and this nifty explanation of [http://www.lassp.cornell.edu/sethna/hysteresis/WhatIsHysteresis.html hysteresis]. <br /> <br /> Hysteresis has also been used to refer to “loops” in time, certainly apropos in this case. I stumbled across an excellent example in a 1980 episode of Dr. Who, in which the eponymous Dr. is trapped in “chronic hysteresis,” an endless loop or return to a previous <br /> point in time – very similar to the situation of Ryder Thorn. [http://www.drwhoguide.com/who_5q.htm Check it out for yourself!] <br /> <br /> <br /> ==Annotation Index==<br /> {{ATD PbP}}</div>

MKOHUT https://against-the-day.pynchonwiki.com/wiki/index.php?title=ATD_525-556&diff=14099 2007-10-18T16:39:10Z

<p>MKOHUT: /* Page 525 */</p> <hr /> <div>:'''&lt;big&gt;Please keep these annotations SPOILER-FREE by not revealing information from later pages in the novel.&lt;/big&gt;'''&lt;p&gt;&lt;br&gt;<br /> <br /> ==Page 525==<br /> <br /> '''Ostend'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Cf [[ATD_489-524#Page 521|page 521:Ostend]], a seaport in northwest Belgium. Among English-speaking tourists, Ostend (or Ostende) is best known as a ferry port. Ships have shuttled between Dover and Ostend for more than 150 years, and today's high-speed catamarans move hundreds of passengers and vehicles between these two ports in just two hours. But this thousand-year-old city is a popular beach resort with Belgians, who flock to Ostend for sun, surfing, sailing and the ''Kursaal'' (Casino). The fishing harbor and old town draw many visitors. Ostend is the only Belgian coastal resort that is as lively in the summer as in the winter. For more and pictures [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ostend Ostend].<br /> <br /> '''Fishermen's Quai'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Fishermen's Quay, also called De Trap. The shrimp boats come home here from the sea in the morning. Along the quay many stands sell lots of seafoods.<br /> <br /> '''Boulevard van Isenghem'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> A major thoroughfare in Ostend, locally called ''Van Iseghemlaan'', extending diagonally from seafront southwest through the city.<br /> <br /> '''street-plausible'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Presentable.<br /> <br /> '''Quai de l'empereur'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Since Ostende is in the Flemish part of Belgium this should be the Keizerskaai, a street along the old part of the harbour, 1919 renamed Vindictivelaan.<br /> <br /> '''estaminet'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> According to the OED - A café in which smoking is allowed. Now, any small establishment selling alcoholic liquor. <br /> <br /> '''twelve-centime'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> one centime is the French eqivalent of one cent. A twelve-centime beer would cost 12/100 of a franc.<br /> <br /> '''Quaternions'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Cf [[ATD_119-148#Page 130|page 130:Quaternions]]. Quaternions are a non-communtative extension of complex numbers (Hamilton, 1843).&lt;br&gt;<br /> <br /> Analogy with the complex numbers (Cf [[ATD_119-148#Page 132|page 132:complex number]]) being represented as a sum of real and imaginary parts, a + b''i'', where ''i''² = −1, a quaternion is defined as a combination a + b''i'' + c''j'' + d''k'', where ''i''² = ''j''² = ''k''² = ''i j k'' = −1, and a, b, c, d are ''four'' explicit real numbers. The non-commutative property refers to ''i j = −j i = k; j k = −k j = i; k i = −i k = j''. (i.e. ''i j ≠ j i; j k ≠ k j; k i ≠ i k''; etc.) The using of ''i, j, k'', the imaginary numbers (Cf [[ATD_119-148#Page 133|page 133:imaginary number]]), led to the phrases of &quot;the ''ijk'' lot&quot; of page 533 and &quot;creature of ''i-j-k''&quot; of page 534.<br /> <br /> '''Kellner'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> German: waiter, barman. Use of the German word would be insulting to the Belgian barman.<br /> <br /> '''''demi'''''&lt;br&gt;<br /> A half-pint glass (25 centilitres, actually).<br /> <br /> '''Lambic'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Pron. ''lahm-BEEK.'' Unique Belgian beer style, sour and often thin in body.<br /> <br /> '''skimmer'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Straw hat (&quot;Panama&quot;).<br /> <br /> ==Page 526==<br /> <br /> '''biquaternion'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Or &quot;octonion,&quot; an innovation of English mathematician W.K. Clifford, [[ATD_243-272#Page_249|referred to on p. 249.]]<br /> <br /> '''Barry Nebulay'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Pun on a term from heraldry, ''barry nebuly.'' Barry (rhymes with &quot;starry,&quot; not &quot;carry&quot;) refers to a shield divided into an even number of parts by horizontal lines. Nebuly signals that the lines are deformed into stylized &quot;cloud&quot; shapes. [http://www.rarebooks.nd.edu/digital/heraldry/partitions.html Here you can see an example.] If a ''British'' author had a character with a heraldic name, it would suggest a pseudonym.<br /> <br /> '''University of Dublin'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> The Alma Mater of Hamilton, the father of Quaternion. He studied, graduated and taught at Trinity College, the University of Dublin, Ireland's oldest university.<br /> <br /> If University College, Dublin, then Joyce had graduated in 1902.&lt;br&gt;<br /> <br /> '''Quaternioneers'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Quaternion believers.<br /> <br /> '''Gibbsian Vectors'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Vector Analysis (or Vector Calculus) developed by Willard Gibbs (Cf [[ATD_26-56#Page 29|page 29:Professor Gibbs]]) in 1881 and 1884. It is a branch of calculus that deals with vectors and process involving vectors. It is much more easily applied to phsics and other applied sciences than Hamilton's Quaternions (Cf [[ATD_525-556#Page 525|page 525:Quaternions]]).&lt;br&gt;<br /> A vector is defined by not only a magnitude but also a direction, such as a velocity vector, ''v'' is defined by ''v'' = a''i'' + b''j'' + c''k'',<br /> where a, b, and c are the magnitudes of the velocity components in directions of ''i, j'' and ''k'' which are unit vectors, (not imaginary numbers as in Quaternion), with magnitude of 1. In three dimensional cases and ''xyz'' coordinate system is used then ''i, j, k'' are related to ''x, y, z'' directions (&quot;''xyz'' people&quot; of page 533); but they, in general, may be used irrespective of the notation of the coordinates.<br /> Mathematical operations (addition, subtraction, multiplication), differentiation (''curl'' — Cf [[ATD_318-335#Page 326|page 326:Curl]] and p. 536, ''Laplacian'' — Cf [[ATD_318-335#Page 326|page 326:Laplacian]] and p. 536, etc) and integration can be applied to vectors. It is interesting to know that one of the two multiplication operations is called cross product; for unit vectors (''i, j, k'') perpendicular to each other, then, ''i × i = j × j = k × k = 0'', ''i × j = k'', ''j × i = -k'', etc. ([http://web.mit.edu/wwmath/vectorc/summary.html Vector Calculus]).&lt;br&gt;<br /> A simple vector anyalysis example here: if ''k'', the unit vector, stands for the direction upward and g is the gravitational acceleration, then the acceleration vector, ''a'', for a projectile, is defined for downward action, (the ''i'' and ''j'' directions have zero components):&lt;br&gt;<br /> :''a'' = -g ''k''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Integrating ''a'' would give the velocity vector, ''v''&lt;br&gt;<br /> :''v'' = -g t ''k''&lt;br&gt;<br /> for zero initial velocity case, and t standing for time.&lt;br&gt;<br /> And integrating ''v'' would yield the position vector, ''h'', for the projectile&lt;br&gt;<br /> :''h'' = -½ g t² ''k''&lt;br&gt;<br /> toward the sea level.<br /> <br /> '''Quaternionists'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Quaternion believers, same as Quaternioneers.<br /> <br /> '''Tasmania'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Tasmania is an island of the southern coast of Australia. Known for its relative isolation, it was a prison for English convicts in the 1800s<br /> <br /> '''Having been inseparable from the rise of the electromagnetic'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> In his 1865 work ''The Dynamical Theory of the Electromagnetic Field'', James Clerk Maxwell unified electricity and magnetism. He put forth twenty equations, with twenty unknowns, in vector form (though different in notation and form than the equations that now bear his name) that completely described all known electromagnetic phenomena. In his 1873 treatise on the subject, he expressed the equations in the mathematics of quaternions. It appears that the quaternion form of the equations remained popular even though, at the behest of his publisher, Maxwell reverted to the 1865 form in the second edition (1881)--though they remain scattered throughout. In 1892 Oliver Heaviside (On the Forces, Stresses, and Fluxes of Energy in the Electromagnetic Field. ''Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society of London.'' A, Vol. 183. pp423-480), while spewing scientific vitriol at the Quaternionists, reformulated Maxwell's original 1865 equations (Heaviside chose to remove the vector potential and scalar fields from the equations; the inclusion of these terms had served as Maxwell's justification for the use of quaternions), and provided the notation still in use today. See this [http://www.zpenergy.com/modules.php?name=Downloads&amp;d_op=getit&amp;lid=60 PDF] for the evolution of Maxwell's equations.<br /> <br /> '''Hamiltonian devotees'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> The Quaternion faction, after William Hamilton, who devised the scheme.<br /> <br /> '''Grand Hôtel de la Nouvelle Digue'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> There is a Hotel Digue in the Seychelles; this is a New Hotel Digue by Pynchon? <br /> <br /> Grand Hotel of New Dyke, may be a made up hotel name.<br /> <br /> '''anterooms of death'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> This metaphor is sometimes applied to concentration camps. Here the lyric &quot;feel like I'm fixin' to die&quot; seems more apposite.<br /> <br /> '''Belgian Art Nouveau'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Art Nouveau, 1890(or 80) to 1914, explores a new style in the visual arts and architecture that developed in Europe and North America at the end of the 19th century. At its height (~1907), Art Nouveau was a concerted attempt to create an international style based on decoration. It was developed by a brilliant and energetic generation of artists and desisgners, who sought to fashion an art form appropriate to the post-Industrial Revolution modern age.&lt;br&gt;<br /> Brussels was one of the Art Nouveau centers and represented different style from the others. The jewelers there, accepted as artists rahter than craftsmen, (together with those in Paris) defined Art Nouveau in jewelery and achieved the most renown. ([http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Art_Nouveau Art Nouveau]).<br /> <br /> ==Page 527==<br /> <br /> '''dossing'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> British slang for &quot;sleeping&quot;, &quot;staying overnight&quot;<br /> <br /> '''Russian nihilists'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> :The following four are local, Belgian, not Russian, nihilists !<br /> <br /> '''Eugénie'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Female. Possibly named for Empress Eugénie (1826-1920), consort of French Emperor Napoleon III. Ultimately for St. Eugenia, 3rd-century Roman martyr whose feast is celebrated on December 25.<br /> <br /> '''Fatou'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Female. A pseudonym? In view of the date of the action, certainly not named after [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fatou the mathematician Fatou] (1878-1929).<br /> <br /> '''Denis'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Male. Named for St. Denis or Dionysius, patron saint of Paris and of France, 3rd-century bishop of Paris, martyr, beheaded on the hill now called Montmartre. &quot;Montjoie St. Denis!&quot; was a warcry used by French troops in the Middle Ages. His intercession is effective against demonic possession and headache.<br /> <br /> '''Policarpe'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Male. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Polycarp Saint Polycarp] was a Christian bishop of Smyrna (now İzmir in Turkey) in the second century. He was stabbed and died a martyr after an attempt to burn him at the stake failed. His intercession is sought against earache and dysentery.<br /> <br /> '''Young Congo'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Probably in reference to the [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Young_Turks Young Turks], a Turkish revolutionary movement<br /> <br /> '''Garde Civique'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> A part of the Belgian army. According to the [http://www.1911encyclopedia.org/Belgium 1911 Britannica], &quot;the mass of the garde civique does not pretend to possess military value. It is a defence against sedition and socialism.&quot;<br /> <br /> '''French Second Bureau boys'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Deuxieme Bureau; French Intelligence.<br /> <br /> '''''phalange'''''&lt;br&gt;<br /> French: phalanx. A military (here mock-military) group ready for combat. &lt;br&gt;<br /> <br /> It also conjures up memories of the early 19th century utopian socialist <br /> Charles Fourier, who theorized that people should live communally in &quot;phalanxes&quot; of a specific number based upon their &quot;passions.&quot; His solid ideas included equality of the sexes, but he also taught wacky things such as the moon being made of lemonade. Of particular relevance is his rejection of industrial civilization. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Utopian_socialism]<br /> <br /> '''&quot;...until something had happened, something too terrible to remember...&quot;'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Again this theme of an unknowable past transgression, here invoked almost as if the unknown signifies the other 'lateral' (a word which has cropped up at least a dozen times already) 'vector'.<br /> <br /> '''the Digue'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> French for &quot;dyke&quot;<br /> <br /> '''Congo... Belgians'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> The Belgian colonisation of the Congo was, as Conrad's ''Heart of Darkness'' makes clear, notable for its greed and brutality.<br /> <br /> '''Leopold, King of the Belgians'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> 1835-1909, reigned 1865-1909. A man of almost Nixonian fiendishness. In the Congo he acted as sole proprietor and absolute ruler. The positive outcomes of his exploitation include ''Heart of Darkness'' and the phrase &quot;crime against humanity.&quot;<br /> <br /> '''co-conscious'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> mental processes outside the main stream of consciousness but sometimes available to it — from Merriam-Webster's Medical Dictionary.<br /> <br /> '''Force Publique'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Belgian armed forces operating in the Belgian Congo ([http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Force_Publique Wikipedia]). &quot;King Leopold's private army&quot; may be a more accurate description.<br /> <br /> '''rubber worker'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> See above: One of the early missions of the FP was to increase rubber export quotas through forced labor and related atrocities.<br /> <br /> ==Page 528==<br /> <br /> '''''khâgne'''''&lt;br&gt;<br /> an informal term used by French students for Classes Préparatoires Littéraires, the two-year cycle of classes taken after the Baccalaureat (taken at age 17-18), to prepare for the entrance examination to the Ecole Normale Supeieure. ([http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kh%C3%A2gne khâgne]).<br /> <br /> '''Reclus'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> J. J. Élisée Reclus (1830-1905), French geographer but mainly educated in Germany. Several times he was forced to leave France because of his political views; he traveled widely in Europe, the British Isles, the United States, and South America and for many years lived in Switzerland. He was professor of comparative geography at the University of Brussels from 1895 to 1905. He had quite an extensive connection with various socialist and anarchist circles (met Bakunin while in Florence).Once he was imprisoned in Versailles in 1871 for his part in the ''Paris Commune''. In 1882 he initiated the ''Anti-marriage movement'' while in Geneva. [[http://academic.reed.edu/formosa/texts/reclusbio.html Reclus]).<br /> <br /> '''Stirnerite'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Follower of Max Stirner, 19th century German philosopher and author of ''The Ego and Its Own,'' a work influential in anarchist thought. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Max_Stirner Wikipedia entry].<br /> <br /> ''Max Stirner'''s (1806-56) attacks on systematic philosophy, his denial of absulutes, and his rejection of abstract concepts of any kind often places him among the first philosophical nihilists. For Stirner, achieving individual freedom is the only law; and the state, which necvessarily imperils freedom, must be destroyed. Even beyond the oppression of the state, though, are the constraints imposed by others because their very existence is an obstable compromising individual freedom. Thus Stirner argues that existence is an endless &quot;war of each against all&quot; (1845). (taken from the paragraph about Max Stirner in [http://www.iep.utm.edu/n/nihilism.htm#H1 Nihilism])&lt;br&gt;<br /> Sourcing here? Much complexity in properly understanding Stirner, who has some Pynchon-like qualities, to say the least. From the Stanford Dictionary of Philosophy&lt;br&gt;<br /> His major work:<br /> The Ego and Its Own<br /> Much of Stirner's prose—which is crowded with aphorisms, italicisation, and hyperbole—appears calculated to disconcert. Most striking, perhaps, is the use of word play. Rather than reach a conclusion through the conventional use of argument, Stirner often approaches a claim that he wishes to endorse by exploiting words with related etymologies or formal similarities. For example, he associates words for property (such as ‘Eigentum’) with words connoting distinctive individual characteristics (such as ‘Eigenheit’) in order to promote the claim that property is expressive of selfhood. (Stirner's account of egoistic property—see below—gives this apparently orthodox Hegelian claim a distinctive twist.)<br /> <br /> This rejection of conventional forms of intellectual discussion is linked to Stirner's substantive views about language and rationality. His unusual style reflects a conviction that both language and rationality are human products which have come to constrain and oppress their creators. Stirner maintains that accepted meanings and traditional standards of argumentation are underpinned by a conception of truth as a privileged realm beyond individual control. As a result, individuals who accept this conception are abandoning a potential area of creative self-expression in favour of adopting a subordinate role as servants of truth. In stark contrast, Stirner insists that the only legitimate restriction on the form of our language, or on the structure of our arguments, is that they should serve our individual ends. It is the frequent failure of ordinary meanings and standard forms of argument to satisfy his interpretation of this criterion which underpins Stirner's remorselessly idiosyncratic style.<br /> <br /> The Ego and Its Own has an intelligible, but scarcely transparent, structure. It is organised around a tripartite account of human experience, initially introduced in a description of the stages of an individual life. The first stage in this developmental narrative is the realistic one of childhood, in which children are constrained by material and natural forces such as their parents. Liberation from these external constraints is achieved with what Stirner calls the self-discovery of mind, as children find the means to outwit those forces in their own determination and cunning. The idealistic stage of youth, however, contains new internal sources of constraint, as individuals once more become enslaved, this time to the spiritual forces of conscience and reason. Only with the adulthood of egoism do individuals escape both material (external) and spiritual (internal) constraints, learning to value their personal satisfaction above all other considerations.<br /> <br /> Stirner portrays this dialectic of individual growth as an analogue of historical development, and it is a tripartite account of the latter which structures the remainder of the book. Human history is reduced to successive epochs of realism (the ancient, or pre-Christian, world), idealism (the modern, or Christian, world), and egoism (the future world). <br /> <br /> What about these &quot;successive epochs&quot; in understanding ATD?<br /> <br /> Stirner's major work, The Ego and Its Own has been reissued in English a number of times in Pynchon's lifetime,from the 60s on. (Not that TRP could not have read it in German!)<br /> <br /> '''''Anarcho-individualiste'''''&lt;br&gt;<br /> i.e. he has doctrinal differernces with Stirnerism, strictly speaking; see P. 324, and &quot;Eigenheit&quot;.<br /> <br /> '''Leopold'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> See p. 527.<br /> <br /> '''going down lately'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Being assassinated.<br /> <br /> '''Sipido'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Jean-Baptiste Sipido (1884-1959), a Belgian socialist. Accusing the Prince of Wales of causing thousands of inocents were killed in the Boer War in South Africa, on April 5, 1900, Sipido leaped onto the foot board of the royal compartment right before the train left the North Railway Station (Gare du Nord), Brussel, and fired two (or one? as reported in ''The Manchester Guardian'', or four? as stated in the text here) shots through the window but missed everyone inside. He was arrested, tried and acquitted. The leader of the House of Commons called the acquittal a &quot;grave and most unfortunate miscarriage of justice.&quot; ([http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jean-Baptiste_Sipido Sipido]).<br /> <br /> '''Prince... of Wales'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> (Maud Gonne's husband claimed to have been involved in another such plot.)<br /> <br /> '''Hippodrome'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Hippodrome Wellington, a horse racing track in Ostend built in 1883. The facility hosts both harness and flat racing events. ([http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hippodrome_Wellington Hippodrome]).<br /> <br /> '''Royal Bathing Hut... twenty francs'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> A bathing machine ([http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bathing_machine bathing machine])? The King of Belgium certainly would not want to be seen in a swimsuit on a public beach... It seems unlikely, though, that such a royal bathing machine would be for hire.<br /> <br /> '''twenty francs'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> ???<br /> <br /> ==Page 529==<br /> <br /> '''picric family'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> The explosive picric acid (2,4,6-trinitrophenol) and its derivatives. For picric acid, Brugère's powder and Designolle's powder, [http://encyclopedia.jrank.org/PER_PIG/PICRIC_ACID_or_TRINITROPHENOL_C.html see this Britannica article.]<br /> <br /> '''Brugère's powder'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> See &quot;picric family&quot; above.<br /> <br /> '''Designolle's'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> See &quot;picric family&quot; above.<br /> <br /> '''Monsieur Santos-Dumont'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Alberto Santos-Dumont (1873-1932), a pioneer of aviation from Brasil. Check out [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alberto_Santos-Dumont Wikipedia] to get a look at the way he was wearing his &quot;trademark Panama hat&quot;. <br /> <br /> '''Green Hour''' and '''''l'heure vertigineuse'''''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Absinthe-drinking time. The liqueur is green. In French, ''l'heure verte,'' so ''vertigineuse'' (vertiginous, causing dizziness) is a pun on the word for &quot;green.&quot;<br /> <br /> '''Rocco and Pino'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Rabid Quaternionists and sudden friends of Kit Traverse.<br /> :No, they were not mathematicians at all, let alone Quaternionists, but two &quot;Italian naval renegades&quot; !!<br /> ::&quot;Rocco and Pino&quot; are, in temperament, something like the &quot;Mason and Dixon&quot; of manned-torpedoes... cf. the &quot;torpedo&quot; (i.e., &quot;Electrick-Eel&quot;) of ''Mason &amp; Dixon''.<br /> <br /> '''Whitehead works in Fiume'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Anticipating GR's V2 works.<br /> <br /> ''Robert Whitehead'' (1823-1905), an English engineer. He developed the first self-propelled torpedo in 1866. He attended Manchester's Mechanics Institute, worked in a shipyard in Toulon (1844), France, and as a consultant engineer in Milan (1847), Italy. Later he moved to Trieste and in 1856 became a manager of a company called ''Founderia Mettali'' (later, ''Stabilimento Tecnico di Fiume'') in Fiume producing ship steam boilers and engines which were the most advanced of that era. He also developed the first self-propelled torpedo which was very popular. Whitehead's torpedo was propelled by a compressed air engine, carried 18lbs dynamites and a self-regulating device which kept the torpedo cruising at a constant preset depth. [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Robert_Whitehead Whitehead]].<br /> <br /> ''Fiume'' is now Rijeka, Croatia. Trieste is on the northwestern edge of the Istra Peninsula, Rijeka is east of it. [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rijeka Fiume]].<br /> <br /> Interesting sidebar: Whitehead's fortune from Fiume and the torpedo went solely to his granddaughter Agatha Whitehead, who married Baron von Trapp. The Von Trapp money came from Robert Whitehead, and most of the von Trapp singers were his great-grandchildren.<br /> <br /> '''''Alberta'''''&lt;br&gt;<br /> The [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Royal_yacht Wikipedia] entry on royal yachts goes back to the 17th century but doesn't include ''Alberta.'' The craft does get a mention in [http://www.bouncing-balls.com/timeline/people/nr_leopoldmorel.htm this page on Leopold and the Congo.]<br /> <br /> '''Siluro Dirigibile a Lenta Corsa'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> or S.L.C. &quot;slow course torpedo&quot;, &quot;slow-running torpedo&quot;. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Manned_torpedo Wikipedia] Italy‘s Navy was among the first to experiment with manned torpedos. Though according to [http://web.ukonline.co.uk/chalcraft/sm/chariots.html this site] this did not happen until 1935, Italian frogmen as early as October 31, 1918 made it into the harbour of Pula with the help of a modified german torpedo and sank the former Austrian but by then since a few hours Croatian/Slovenian/Bosnian battleship SMS ''Viribus Unitis''. [http://www.geocities.com/tegetthoff66/viribus.html website]<br /> <br /> The Wikipedia entry linked above doesn't contain the Italian word ''dirigibile'' (steerable), which sets up the torpedo as a counterpart of the dirigible ''Inconvenience.''<br /> <br /> :I suspect there's a connection between the torpedo and &quot;Not the usual lateener, in fact appearing to have neither sails, masts, nor oars&quot; in Miles' reversed vision, [[ATD_243-272#Page_250|page 250.]] Needs work, though.<br /> <br /> ==Page 530==<br /> <br /> '''exfiltrate'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Make a surreptitious escape (as &quot;infiltrate&quot; means to make a surreptitious entrance).<br /> <br /> '''''Macchè'''''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Italian: certainly not, not a chance. And in Pynchon's Italian is used as an all-purpose exclamation.<br /> <br /> '''''Ehi, stu gazz', categoria'''''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Stu gazz' is a dialect representation of ''sto cazzo'', literally meaning ''this dick here''. Normally you could translate the sense of the sentence as: ''yeah, why not, a fucking category! ''. -- blicero2 - 2007.02.22<br /> <br /> '''''mezzogiornismo'''''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Denigrating the Italian South. Mezzogiorno means ''midday'' in Italian but refers generally to Southern Italy.<br /> <br /> ==Page 531==<br /> <br /> '''Bruges'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> An exceptionally beautiful Belgian town of canals which is thus one of several towns known as the 'Venice of the north'. In the 14th cettury Burges already became an international finanacial and trading center, but<br /> started to decline in the 15th century. In the 20th century, however, the city was discovered by the international tourism and the medieval heritage turned out to be a new source of wealth. A new harbor of Zeebrugge, 10 miles outside of Bruges at the North Sea coast, brought new developments and new industries to the region. For the city and its history see ([http://www.trabel.com/brugge.htm Bruges]).<br /> <br /> '''Raoul's Atelier de la Vitesse'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> French: Ralph's Speed Shop.<br /> <br /> '''Ghent'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Belgian city, less than 30 miles southeast of Bruges, on the rail line about halfway between Ostend and Brussels. It is the fourth largest city of Belgium. It is bigger than Bruges but not as famous as a tourist attraction. But the city is a showcase of medieval Flemish wealth and commercial success. See ([http://www.trabel.com/gent.htm Ghent]).<br /> <br /> '''Daimler six-cylinder'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> ???<br /> <br /> '''a hundred horsepower'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> ???<br /> <br /> '''''guaglion'''''&lt;br&gt;<br /> italian (dialectal) = boy, young person<br /> <br /> '''Umeki Tsurigane'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Umeki is typically made with some combination of the various kanji for &quot;plum&quot; (ume) and &quot;tree&quot; (ki), though one has the ki being the character for &quot;ghost/devil&quot; and one obscure reading that's entirely redundant, where ume is &quot;plant&quot; (usually read ue). There is one where ume is the kanji for &quot;buried or embedded&quot;. Tsurigane, means a &quot;temple bell&quot;, which can stand alone or be followed by the grass kanji to mean &quot;bellflower&quot; (lots of botanical stuff happening here, if that means anything; hardly the only example in ''AtD''). Given the search for Shambhala going on, &quot;Buried Temple Bell&quot; seems a likely translation, at least at this point; the botanical meanings could perhaps emerge later.<br /> <br /> Or, another terrible name-pun? &quot;You make [m]e sore again.&quot; See another on P. [[ATD_748-767#Page_757| 757]]<br /> <br /> '''Professor Knott'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Cargill Knott (1856-1922), professor of physics; seismologist. See his biography [http://www.penicuikcdt.org.uk/Cargill_Knott.html here].<br /> <br /> ==Page 532==<br /> <br /> '''Kimura'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Cf [[ATD_26-56#Page 29|page 29:Kimura]] and [[ATD_318-335#Page 318|page 318:Shunkichi Kimura]].<br /> <br /> '''drover's sombrero'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Cowboy hat.<br /> <br /> '''furoshiki'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Japanese all-purpose cloth. Can be worn, used as wrapping, or used as a bag.<br /> <br /> '''taupe'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> A brownish gray.<br /> <br /> '''boilermakers and their helpers'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> [[ATD_358-373#Page_360|See annotation to p. 360.]]<br /> <br /> '''Anharmonic Pencil'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> ''Pencil'' is a term commonly used in Synthetic Geometry. Straight lines incident with a plane - coplanar lines - and passing through a common point are said to be concurrent lines and the set of all such concurrent coplanar lines is called the ''pencil''. (Cf [[ATD_429-459#Page 456|page 456:Pencil]]). For a figure and a not quite precise definition see [http://mathworld.wolfram.com/Pencil.html pencil]. If a, b, c and d, are four distinct coplanar lines and their double ratio λ = (abcd) = -1, then a, b, c, d are called a harmonic quadruple of lines; they are said to constitute a ''harmonic pencil''. A ''pencil'' which is not harmonic then is known as ''anharmonic pencil''. See Pencil (lines 8-9), Double Ratio λ (lines 32-35) and Harmonic Pencil (line 39) of [http://ca.geocities.com/ingsaler6/mathworld.html Mathworld].<br /> <br /> '''''Comptes rendus'''''&lt;br&gt;<br /> ''Comptes rendus des séances hebdomadaires,'' Proceedings of the weekly sessions (of the Academy of Sciences), published from 1835, later (ca. 1935) retitled ''Comptes rendus de l'Académie des sciences,'' Proceedings of the Academy of Sciences. (Notice that the academy didn't see the need to specify &quot;French.&quot; Take that, Royal Society of London!) For about a century, one of two journals so universally circulated and recognized that bibliographies nearly always cited them in nickname form: ''C.R.'' The other was ''Ber.,'' short for ''Berichte der Deutschen Chemischen Gesellschaft,'' Reports of the German Chemical Society (from 1868).<br /> <br /> '''De Forest'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Cf [[ATD_26-56#Page 29|page 29:De Forest]].<br /> <br /> '''Gibbs'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Cf [[ATD_26-56#Page 29|page 29:Professor Gibbs]].<br /> <br /> '''Maxwell Equations'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Cf [[ATD_57-80#Page 58|page 58:Maxwell Field Equations]].<br /> <br /> ==Page 533==<br /> <br /> '''aniline teal'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> The wallpaper dye; aniline dyes were the first synthetic dyes, discovered by [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/William_Perkin William Perkin] in 1858. Their intense and fade-resistant colors were very fashionable at the end of the nineteenth century. The dyes are also significant in ''GR'' as the products of I.G. Farben.<br /> <br /> '''Heavisiders'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Oliver Heaviside (May 18, 1850 – February 3, 1925) was a self-taught English electrical engineer, mathematician and physicist who adapted complex numbers to the study of electrical circuits, developed techniques for applying Laplace transforms to the solution of differential equations, reformulated Maxwell's field equations in terms of electric and magnetic forces and energy flux, and independently co-formulated vector analysis. Although at odds with the scientific establishment for most of his life, Heaviside changed the face of mathematics and science for years to come.[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Heaviside].<br /> <br /> '''Grassmanniacs'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Nineteenth century German mathematician and linguist, essentially the inventor/discoverer of vector space. Grassmann showed that once geometry is put into the algebraic form he advocated, then the number three has no privileged role as the number of spatial dimensions; the number of possible dimensions is in fact unbounded.[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hermann_Grassmann].<br /> <br /> '''in the mood for a clambake'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Anachronistic Broadway show tune? If so, the clambake in ''Carousel'' turns into a brawl; the assmebled factions of mathematicians could be in the mood for either a party or a brawl, apparently. <br /> <br /> '''Monopole de la Maison'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Monopole of the House, a fanciful name of a fanciful drink.&lt;br&gt;<br /> There is, since 1898, a well known restaurant called ''Monopole Lunch &amp; Sea Grill'' in Plattsburgh of upper New York state. ([http://www.monopole.org Monopole Restaurant]).&lt;br&gt;<br /> Most probably, it's the Magnetic monopole being referred here. In physics, a monopole is a magnet with a net magnetic charge, i.e. there is only one pole instead of two (so no net magnetic charge) as usual. ([http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Magnetic_monopole Monopole]). It's existence had been theoretically predicted by various particle theories (superstring theory, etc) but never been proved experimentally. Proving the existence of a monopole would certainly earn a Nobel Prize.<br /> <br /> '''Idiom Neutral'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> An invented language, like Esperanto. Idiom Neutral dictionaries first appeared in 1902. It looks like a simplified Latinate language and it grew out of Volapuk, another &quot;auxiliary language.&quot; It was abandoned by the ''Akademi Internasional de Lingu Universal'' in 1908.<br /> <br /> For a list of all the invented languages that linguists are keeping track of, including Klingon, try [http://linguistlist.org/forms/langs/GetListOfConstructedLgs.html Eastern Michigan's Linguist List]. And don't forget to click on the link to &quot;Browse sites devoted to constructed languages.&quot;<br /> <br /> '''phatic'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Basically, small talk or chatter. Words used to convey fellow-feeling rather than to impart information.<br /> <br /> '''''Kampf ums Dasein'''''&lt;br&gt;<br /> German: struggle for existence.<br /> <br /> '''Q-brother'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Fellow Quaternioneer or Fellow Quaternionist.<br /> <br /> '''We are the Jews of mathematics, wandering out here in our diaspora--some destined for the past, others the future, even a few able to set out at unknown angles from the simple line of Time, upon journeys that no one can predict''' &lt;br&gt;<br /> In keeping with the analogy of Judaism, those &quot;few&quot; people within the Quaternionists &quot;able to set out at unknown angles&quot; are most likely being compared to Kabbalists who claim to partake in a mystic &quot;journey to the Throne of God through the mythological realm of the seven heavens&quot; (Armstrong, A History of God--p. 247). Throne Mysticism in Kabbalah is explored extensively in Gravity's Rainbow.<br /> <br /> Perhaps this is obvious to some, but these &quot;Jews of Mathematics&quot; worship the Hamiltonian Tetractys [http://www.math.ucr.edu/home/baez/dublin/]; those other Jews worshipped the Tetragrammatron. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tetragrammaton] The proliferation of 4s continues.<br /> <br /> ==Page 534==<br /> <br /> '''Poiret gown'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> A gown designed by Paul Poiret (1879-1944), a French fashion designer based in Paris. &quot;In the annals of fashion history, Paul Poiret is best remembered for freeing women from corsets and further liberating them through pantaloons . . . it was Poiret's remarkable innovations in the cut and construction of cloting . . . Working with fabric directly onto the body, Poiret helped to pioneer a radical approach to dressmakeing that relied more on the skills of drapery than on those of tailoring.&quot; (from [http://www.metmuseum.org/special/se_event.asp?OccurrenceId={0DC3D00F-4611-4F91-8DC2-CC3C1A5C48D5} MetMuseum], <br /> New York Metropolitan Museum's Special Exhibitions, ''Poiret: King of Fashion'', May 9, 2007 to August 5, 2007). For a picture of Poiret gown see [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Image:Poiretgown.jpg Poiret Gown]. ''The New York Times'' reported on February 1, 2007 that A Poiret Gown Brings $5,500 at [http://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html?res=9B07EFDA1538F93AA15756C0A967948260 Christie's Auction] - the gown was made in 1913 when Poiret was at the height of his career. For his bio see [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Paul_Poiret Poiret].<br /> <br /> '''''green and long'''''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Pickle, or... what?<br /> : A green and long ''gherkin'' (a small, immature fruit of a variety of cucumber used in pickling).<br /> <br /> ==Page 535==<br /> <br /> '''no-name wine'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> 1970s idiom for common European practice?<br /> <br /> '''set theory'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Set theory deals with the properties of well-defined collections, or ''sets'', of entities - the ''elements'' or ''members'' of the set - conceived as a whole. The elements may be of a mathematical nature or non-mathematical. The set theory grew out of the German mathematician Georg Cantor's (1845-1918) study of infinite sets of real numbers. <br /> <br /> The ''language of sets'' has become an important tool for all branches of mathematics, but is of very little relevance to the practice of mathematics in everyday life. As a source of metaphors, however, it's been quite productive; &quot;subset,&quot; &quot;superset,&quot; &quot;universe,&quot; &quot;intersection&quot; and &quot;Venn diagram&quot; have found varying degrees of acceptance. Recasting Aristotle's syllogisms in set-theoretic language also makes them easier for many people to understand.<br /> <br /> '''Hamilton . . . early genius'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Hamilton, according to ''Chambers Biographical Dictionary'', &quot;at fifteen knew thirteen languages, had read Newton's ''Principia'', and commenced original investigations&quot;. At twenty-two, &quot;while still an undergraduate, he was appointed professor of Astronomy at Dublin and Irish Astronomer-Royal&quot;; at thirty &quot;he was knighted&quot;.<br /> <br /> '''Hamilton . . . in the grip of a first love'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> ???&lt;br&gt;<br /> Pynchon probably didn't mean Quaternion was Hamilton's first love, but its effect on him was similar to that of a first love. In 1843 at the age of 38 Hamilton invented the Quaternion, the first non-communtative algebra to be studied. He felt this would revolutionise mathematical physics, and he spent the rest of his life working on it. In 1853 he published a large volume, ''Lectures on Quaternions'', on his grand invention. The last seven years of his life, Hamilton was writing an 800-page book ''Elements of Quaternions'' modeling on Euclid's ''Elements''. The last chapter of the book was completed by his son after his death.<br /> <br /> '''the Walt Whitman of English physics'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Whitman pops up again, last seen on [[ATD_489-524#Page_491|page 491]].<br /> <br /> ==Page 536==<br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> '''Oscar Wilde'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Note that Wilde's Dorian Gray also undergoes a kind of bilocation.<br /> <br /> '''Kursaal'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Spa. Casino ?<br /> <br /> '''vectors'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> For serious minds see Cf [[ATD_525-556#Page 526|page 526:Gibbsian Vectors]], but let's follow Pynchon's lighter mood, here is a non-mathematical definition by Kamen (1995):<br /> :''Many things have more than direction;''<br /> :''The magnitude is also a question.''<br /> :''With acceleration or force,''<br /> :''And many more things, of course,''<br /> :''It's vectors that make the connection.''<br /> <br /> '''Curls'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Cf [[ATD_318-335#Page 326|page 326:Curl]]: curl is a vector operator that shows a vector field's rate of rotation.<br /> <br /> '''Laplacians'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Pierre-Simon, Marquis de Laplace (March 23, 1749 – March 5, 1827); French mathematician and astronomer who summarized and extended the work of his predecessors in his five volume Mécanique Céleste (Celestial Mechanics) (1799-1825), translating the geometrical study of mechanics used by Isaac Newton to one based on calculus, known as physical mechanics.<br /> <br /> He is also the discoverer of Laplace's equation. Although the Laplace transform is named in honor of Laplace, who used the transform in his work on probability theory, the transform was discovered originally by Leonhard Euler. The Laplace transform appears in all branches of mathematical physics — a field he took a leading role in forming. The Laplacian differential operator, much relied-upon in applied mathematics, is likewise named after him. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Laplace].<br /> <br /> :Cf [[ATD_318-335#Page 326|page 326:Laplacian]]: Laplacian is a differential operator named after Laplace. The text here was talking about mathematical operations and operators — rates of change, rotations, partial differentials, Curls, ''Laplacians'', . . .<br /> <br /> '''scream'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Scream motif.<br /> <br /> '''beginning to appal'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> By 1905 there had been years of outrage at conditions in the Belgian Congo, King Leopold's private fief. Conrad's ''Heart of Darkness'' had been published as a serial in Blackwood's Magazine in 1899 and as a book in 1902. There were missionaries' accounts of the brutality, and newspaper reports. Leopold and his apologists published rebuttals. The Norton Critical Edition of ''Heart of Darkness'' contains an extensive collection of both.<br /> <br /> '''baize'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Baize is a coarse woolen felt.<br /> <br /> ==Page 537==<br /> <br /> '''broken symmetries'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Broken_symmetry Broken symmetry] is a concept used widely in mathematics and physics. For a simplest explanation (good enough for the text here), this term means that an object breaks either rotational symmetry or translational sysmetry - when one can only rotate an object in certain angles or when one is able to tell if the object has been shifted sideways. For a little bit more detailed explanation see [http://www.lassp.cornell.edu/sethna/OrderParameters/BrokenSymmetry.html Identify the Broken Symmetry]; or even more [http://scienceweek.com/2005/sw050708-6.htm On Broken Symmetry].<br /> <br /> '''''sphinxe Khnopffienne'''''&lt;br&gt;<br /> refers to the Belgian symbolist painter Fernand Khnopff (1858-1921), famous for his painting &quot;The Caress&quot;, in which a female sphinx erotically lures a young man. The painting can be seen in the [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fernand_Khnopff wikipedia entry]<br /> <br /> '''Pléiade Lafrisée'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> in French, &quot;friser&quot; means to curl or twist. &quot;La frisée&quot; could mean &quot;curled,&quot; by extension &quot;twisted.&quot; The Pleiades is a cluster of hundreds of stars, though only a few are visible, sometimes referred to as The Seven Sisters. If Pleiades are Sisters, Pléiade is ''one'' Sister, so her name means Twisted Sister!<br /> <br /> '''''Conseilleuse'''''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Female consultant?<br /> <br /> ==Page 538==<br /> <br /> '''retroversion matrix'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> ???<br /> <br /> '''''Ma foi'''''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Literally &quot;My faith&quot;, i.e. &quot;By my faith!&quot;, a mild exclamation of incredulity.<br /> <br /> '''ten thousand francs'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> <br /> Based on currency conversions relative to gold, this is equivalent to<br /> about $30,000 US today.<br /> <br /> '''piker'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Someone cheap or cautious, possibly named after people from PIke County, Missouri, who came to California in the 1800s, looking for work. They were poor, hence cheap.<br /> <br /> '''what is a Quaternino?'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Cf [[ATD_525-556#Page 525|page 525:Quaternions]] for a mathematical definition. From ''The Random House Dictionary of the English Languages'', The Unabridged Edition (1966): Quaternion is &quot;a quantity or operator expressed as the sum of a real number and three complex numbers, equivalent to the ''quotient of two vectors''. The field of quaternions is not commutative under multiplication.&quot;.<br /> <br /> '''Bertie ('Mad Dog') Russell'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> 'Mad Dog' seems to be used with heavy irony here. Bertrand Russell was known most for his rationalism, so to speak, his work in modern logic. <br /> He did little in his public roles (at this time in AtD) that would have <br /> him referred to as &quot;crazy', as we say, beyond the social norm, &quot;mad&quot;. <br /> It might be argued that his use of 'logic' against philosophers such as Hegel and McTaggart within ''Against the Day'' showed up their 'madness'.<br /> (Many did think McTaggart was a bit...different...for seriously not believing in Time.) McTaggart broke with Russell after an early influential friendship---Russell was the younger man and the influenced one. He said he was an Hegelian because of McTaggart--Russell wrote in his<br /> Autobiography that McTaggart said he no longer wanted to meet/talk with him bcause he could no longer stand Russell's opinions.<br /> <br /> [http://nobelprize.org/nobel_prizes/literature/laureates/1950/russell-bio.html Bertrand Russell] (1872-1970) was a British mathematician, philosopher, logician and social critic. Best known for his work in mathermatical logic and analytic philosophy. In late spring of 1901 he discovered the so-called [http://plato.stanford.edu/entries/russell-paradox/ Russell Paradox], &quot;the most famous of the logical or set-theoretical paradoxes. The paradox arises within naive set theory by considering the set of all sets that are not members of themselves. Such a set appears to be a member of itself if and only if it is not a member of itself, hence the paradox.&quot; (On-line Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy). He won the 1950 Nobel Prize in Literature in &quot;recognition of his varied and significant writings in which he champions humanitarian ideals and freedom of thought&quot;.<br /> <br /> '''Barry Nebulay'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> nebulae: formed from the diffusion of gas in galaxies or as exploded stars (or the last ember-like stage of a star)&lt;br&gt; <br /> Most nebulae can be described as diffuse nebulae, which means that they are extended and contain no well-defined boundaries.[1] In visible light these nebulae may be divided into emission nebulae and reflection nebulae, a categorization that depends on how the light we see is created.<br /> <br /> '''Hegel... puns'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Probably refers to the fact that quite a lot of Hegel's philosophy deals with the is-ness of the world as we know and experience it.<br /> <br /> On page 787 of Bertrand Russell's ''History of Western Philosophy'' is a summary, perhaps, of this remark about Hegel's puns: &quot;as a result of analysis of the concept &quot;existence&quot;, modern logic has proved this [Cartesianism, refuted by Kant, reinstated by Hegel] argument invalid.....&quot;<br /> <br /> We know from other places that TRP himself seems to 'not like' Cartesianism. See 'cartesian' citations within this wiki.<br /> <br /> ==Page 539==<br /> <br /> '''a vector quotient'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> The result of one vector divided by another. According to the English dictionary definition of previous page this is just a Quaternion.<br /> <br /> '''unit vector'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Unit vector is a vector with magnitude of one. The unit vectors in 3-dimensional space, ''i, j, k'', associated with ''x, y, z'' directions are used in defining a general 3D vector (Cf [[ATD_525-556#Page 526|page 526:Gibbsian Vectors]]).<br /> <br /> '''''square root of minus one'''''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Imaginary number (Cf [[ATD_119-148#Page 132|page 133:Imaginary Number]]). The imaginary numbers ''i, j, k'' are used in defining a Quaternion (Cf [[ATD_525-556#Page 525|page 525:Quaternions]]).<br /> <br /> ''''Triangle Asana''''&lt;br&gt;<br /> A basic yoga pose. <br /> <br /> [http://yoga.org.nz/postures/yoga_positions_images_page.htm Here are images of several basic poses.]<br /> <br /> ''''Dr Rao abruptly vanished''''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Might be a reference to [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Martin_Gardner Martin Gardner]'s<br /> [http://www.amazon.com/No-Sided-Professor-Fantasy-Mystery-Philosophy/dp/0879753900 &quot;No-Sided Professor&quot;]<br /> <br /> ''''Quadrantal Versor Asana''''&lt;br&gt;<br /> A triangle pose taken that extra dimension.<br /> <br /> '''''&quot;Uwe moer!&quot;'''''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Looks a lot like the Dutch &quot;Uw moeder!&quot; - a cry of astonishment (&quot;Your mother!&quot;), the equivalent to the black English &quot;yo mama&quot;.<br /> <br /> '''noncommutative'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> A term typical to mathematics. A commutative equation is one that can operate in exact reverse and still yield the same results. 'Noncommutative' then suggests unidirectionality. The ability to go from point A to point B, but not from B to A.<br /> <br /> '''reticule'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> A woman's drawstring handbag; usually made of net or beading or brocade; also: A system of lines forming a pattern of squares at the focal plane of a telescope, used in micrometers.<br /> [http://www.astunit.com/tutorials/glossary.htm] <br /> :Isn't that sort of a red herring? &quot;[P]roducing from her reticule a . . . watch&quot; doesn't really allow of that second meaning. &lt;br&gt;<br /> :It could be a pun, since a reticule/ handbag always shows its pattern of lines, and a watch (timepiece) is drawn from it. Remember that, e.g. railroad lines of tracks, are a sign of industrialism encroaching on the natural and the spiritual.<br /> <br /> '''Vacheron &amp; Constantin watch'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Made by a Swiss company founded in 1755. From 1819 to 1970 the name was as in the text, then the &amp; dropped out. See the [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vacheron_Constantin Wikipedia entry.]<br /> <br /> '''hunting-case'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> For a pocket watch, a case with a hinged metal cover. More often called &quot;hunter case&quot; (and such a watch a &quot;hunter&quot;).<br /> <br /> ==Page 540==<br /> <br /> '''&quot;haar rekening, ja?&quot;'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> The bill, yes? (Dutch)?<br /> <br /> ''Her'' bill, yes? I.e., give the check to the lady.<br /> <br /> Given the presence of Chris 'Kit' Traverse here, this very much suggests a reference to Christopher 'Kit' Marlowe, Elizabethan poet, playwright and contemporary of Shakespeare. Marlowe was stabbed to death in 1593, in murky circumstances, ostensibly over a bill or 'reckoning', though he was widely believed to have been involved in some form of espionage.<br /> <br /> Strictly speaking &quot;haar rekening&quot; means that the lady pays for herself only. If Root wanted to make sure that Pléiade pays for the whole company he would have to say &quot;de hele rekening voor de dame&quot;. <br /> <br /> '''Piet Woevre'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> The Woëvre is a natural region of Lorraine in north-east France. It forms part of Lorraine plateau and lies largely in the department of Meuse. During World War I, there was much fighting there due to vast mineral resources that had been discovered in the Briey basin or Eastern Woevre at the end of the 19th century. &quot;Piet&quot; is Dutch for &quot;rock&quot; or &quot;stone&quot; and is a fairly common Dutch name, the English equivalent being Peter.<br /> <br /> If the surname is pronounced as in Dutch, Woevre is another Pynchon villain with a &quot;V&quot;-name (Vond, Weissman, Vibe). <br /> <br /> '''Force Publique'''&lt;br /&gt;<br /> The Force Publique (FP) was the official armed force for what is now the Democratic Republic of the Congo from 1885, (when the territory was known as the Congo Free State), through the period of direct Belgian rule (1908-60), until the beginning of the Second Republic in 1965. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Force_Publique Wikipedia entry]<br /> <br /> '''made him reach'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Possible allusion to a famous line, &quot;When I hear the word culture I reach for my gun.&quot; From Hanns Johst's biographical play ''Schlageter''. The original line is slightly different: &quot;Wenn ich Kultur höre ... entsichere ich meinen Browning,&quot; &quot;Whenever I hear of culture... I release the safety-catch of my Browning!&quot; (Act 1, Scene 1). It is spoken by another character in conversation with the young Schlageter. In the scene Schlageter and his wartime comrade Friedrich Thiemann are studying for a college examination, but then start disputing whether it's worthwhile doing so when the nation is not free. <br /> <br /> The line is often misattributed to better-known Nazis and others [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hanns_Johst].<br /> <br /> *In Jean-Luc Godard's 1963 film [http://www.chicagoreader.com/movies/archives/0997/09057.html ''Le Mépris'' (''Contempt'')], Jack Palance's character &quot;Jeremy Prokosch,&quot; an American movie-producer, intones to Fritz Lang: &quot;Whenever I hear the word culture, I reach for my checkbook.&quot;<br /> <br /> '''not unambiguous'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Ie, ambiguous.<br /> <br /> '''''rastaquoueres'''''&lt;br&gt;<br /> 8???<br /> <br /> '''de Decker'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> In Dutch/Flemish, the name means &quot;roofer.&quot; (''De'' in these names almost never means &quot;of, from&quot; as in French; it's nearly always the definite article.)<br /> <br /> ==Page 541==<br /> <br /> '''''bobbejaan'''''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Afrikaans: baboon. (Afrikaans is the language spoken by descendants of Dutch colonists in present-day South Africa. Some items identified as Dutch or Flemish in this wiki may really be Afrikaans.)<br /> <br /> The South African song &quot;Bobbejaan klim die berg&quot; (&quot;Bobbejaan climbed the hill&quot;) is the source of the stage name of Belgium's most famous country and western musician, Bobbejaan Schoepen (b. 1925). In 1943 he was suppressed by the Nazis after performing a South African song, &quot;Mamma, 'k wil 'n man hê&quot; (&quot;Mama, I want a man&quot;), which contains the line &quot;No, Mama, I don't want a German, because I don't like pork.&quot; He founded the Bobbejaanland theme park in Belgium, where he still lives.<br /> <br /> '''MKIV/ODC... Mark Four'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> This would be the Mark IV Ohmic Drift Compensator ([[ATD 557-587#Page 565|Page 565]]), a key component of the Q-weapon, which &quot;regulates how much light is allowed to enter the silvering of the mirror! Special kind of refraction! Calibrated against imaginary index! Dangerous! Of the essence!'&quot;<br /> <br /> '''not part of your remit'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Not included in your job description, instructions, authorization. &quot;Remit&quot; (noun) is usually a British usage.<br /> <br /> '''''gatkruiper'''''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Dutch/Flemish: brownnose, ass-kisser.<br /> <br /> '''one on her wrist'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> All the bruises reflect some refinement or artistry except this one, which may have been inflicted crudely.<br /> <br /> '''over the day'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Title motif?<br /> <br /> ==Page 542==<br /> <br /> '''trans-horizontic'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> ???<br /> Across the horizon -- &quot; a screaming comes across the sky&quot;<br /> <br /> '''Edmund Whittaker'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Edmund Whittaker (1873-1956), an English mathematician. He is best known for his work in numerical analysis. And he contributed widely to applied mathematics, mathematical physics and the theory of special functions. He also worked on celestial mechanics and the history of applied mathermatics and physics. ([http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/E._T._Whittaker Whittaker]).<br /> <br /> The Sir Edmund Whittaker Memorial Prize is awarded every four years by the Edinburgh Mathematical Society to an outstanding young mathematician having a specified connection with Scotland [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sir_Edmund_Whittaker_Memorial_Prize]. <br /> <br /> '''louche'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> The cloudy effect caused by the addition of water to absinthe. Dictionary definition: &quot;of questionable taste or morality; decadent.&quot;<br /> <br /> '''cheval-glass'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Standing mirror in a freestanding vertical frame.<br /> <br /> '''as if someone'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Sound-cancelling vs opacity-cancelling?<br /> <br /> ==Page 543==<br /> <br /> '''wraith of Pleiade Lafrisee'''<br /> <br /> Pleiade manifests one of her not-visible stars. Perhaps this sister has somehow twisted herself on an imaginary axis ala Dr. V. Ganesh Rao.<br /> <br /> '''monitory'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Warning, giving advice, by extension ominous or menacing.<br /> <br /> '''Against....the day....'''<br /> Note: this phrase happens at the exact halfway point of the novel: p.542.3<br /> <br /> '''He Who Must Come'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> The evil-doer who must come might be Adolf Hitler. It would make sense. The implication being that Europe is precipitating into a no-return situation. Capitalism cannot but end in WW2.&lt;br&gt;<br /> Ah, a lot more and less than capitalism going on here, especially if anyone specific like Hitler is meant. <br /> :When French writers use this phrase (''celui qui doit venir'') they '''do''' mean the Messiah . . . although a few devout quibblers point out that the Messiah has already come. It's rather tiresome Googling the phrase; the first 83 hits definitely refer to Christ and most of them quote the first verses of Matthew 11. But there's also a Camus reference (in English, I think) down at No. 90, if anyone has a JSTOR account:<br /> :links.jstor.org/sici?sici=0361-1299(1985)39%3A4%3C251%3ACFS%22M%3E2.0.CO%3B2-X <br /> <br /> Recalls Yeats' 'The Second Coming' once again: &quot;And what rough beast, its hour come round at last, Slouches towards Bethlehem to be born?&quot; [http://chumpsofchoice.blogspot.com/2007/05/casino-royale-in-flanders-field.html#c3637134446204467798 ]<br /> <br /> '''General Boulanger'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/General_Boulanger Georges Boulanger], French military man, and War Minister in the late 19th century. He was one of those men &quot;on a white horse&quot; that some conservatives looked to, as he urged an attack on Germany and the end of the French Republic with a return to monarchy. He was also notorious for his harsh reprisals against workers' demonstrations. &quot;'Boulangisme'&quot; threatened a coup in 1889, but the general's procrastination brought the crisis to an end.&lt;br&gt;<br /> In ''The Infernal Machine: A History of Terrorism''<br /> by Matthew Carr, 2007, Boulanger is called the &quot;father&quot; of fascism.<br /> <br /> '''what death and what transfiguration'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Allusion to Richard Strauss' tone poem &quot;Death and Transfiguration&quot; (''Tod und Verklärung''), premiered in 1890.<br /> <br /> '''''&quot;Zeker&quot;'''''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Dutch: certainly.<br /> <br /> '''''dead cert'''''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Dead certainty, sure thing.<br /> <br /> '''Von Schlieffen'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Alfred von Schlieffen was the author of a German war plan to win a two-front war against both France and Russia by quickly defeating France before Russian troops could be mobilized. The [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Schlieffen_Plan Schlieffen Plan] included an attack on France through Belgium, disregarding its neutrality.<br /> <br /> '''Wilhelm has offered Leopold part of France, the ancient Duchy of Burgundy'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> [http://www.crwflags.com/fotw/flags/fr-bg.html History of the duchy.] [http://www.freiburg-madison.de/freiburg_history/1386-1517_The%20Early%20Habsburgs.htm Map,] with portrait of Duke Charles the Rash.<br /> <br /> '''lowlands'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Title of Pynchon's first published story. Here, ass?<br /> <br /> ==Page 544==<br /> <br /> '''Place d'Armes'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Main square of Ostend; literally &quot;drill field&quot;.<br /> <br /> '''peau de soie'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> &quot;Skin of silk&quot; A heavy, smooth satin with very fine ribbing; somewhat dull in sheen compared with traditional silk finishes.<br /> <br /> '''Krafft-Ebing'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Richard Freiherr von Krafft-Ebing, Austro-German psychiatrist and author of ''Psychopathia Sexualis'' (1886), a pioneering study of deviant sexual behavior and fetishism. Coined both ''sadism'' and ''masochism'' as terms for these respective behaviors. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Richard_Freiherr_von_Krafft-Ebing Wikipedia entry].<br /> <br /> '''toque'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Toque here refers to a lady's hat, originally of fur but here in velvet, which is rather like a flattened chef's hat in shape.<br /> <br /> Proust: in ''À l'ombre des jeunes filles en fleurs'' the narrator first sees Albertine wearing a toque. There seem to be quite a few Proust themes and references running throughout the novel. Indeed '''Pliade''' is the French publisher of Proust's works. <br /> <br /> '''guipure'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Lace trim.<br /> <br /> '''midinette'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> A shopgirl or dressmakers apprentice. A milliner.<br /> <br /> '''Lambic'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> A distinctive Belgian style of beer. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lambic Wikipedia]<br /> <br /> '''sous'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> <br /> Coins. Originally Roman gold coins, latterly any kind of coin.<br /> <br /> Specifically small change. She is affecting modesty by claiming that a hat like hers can be had for pennies in any unpretentious shop. In France &quot;sou is used as slang for money, as in ''sans le sou''. 'I'm broke', 'without money'. It is also a slang term for the Canadian cent (standard French, cent).&quot; ([http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sou Wikipedia])<br /> <br /> '''mayonnaise'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Brautigan's &quot;Trout Fishing in America&quot; famously ends with the word mayonnaise. [http://books.google.com/books?vid=ISBN0395500761&amp;id=rbEjDovfyNMC&amp;pg=RA2-PA111&amp;lpg=RA2-PA111&amp;ots=ELKl5b_6Tx&amp;dq=mayonnaise+trout.fishing&amp;num=100&amp;sig=BiyXRqJXRGrMWbrBNgn8de2kpCo#PRA2-PA112,M1 GoogleBooks]<br /> <br /> '''ovoöleaginous'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Another Pynchonic word combination, here denoting the two main ingredients of mayonnaise: 1) eggs, and 2) oil. It's not &quot;fecoventilatory collision&quot; as seen in &quot;Vineland,&quot; but it's nice.<br /> <br /> '''Grenache'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Grape commonly used in Rhone Valley wines e.g. Chateauneuf du Pape.<br /> <br /> '''Chantilly'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> <br /> Region north of Paris.<br /> <br /> Here the reference is to crème chantilly otherwise known as whipped cream. Chantilly mayonnaise is made by incorporating the beaten egg whites for extra lightness.<br /> <br /> '''attainder'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Legislative act declaring that a person is guilty of a crime and setting punishment without the benefit of a formal trial. The Constitution forbids the federal government (Article I, Section 9, clause 3) and the state governments (Article I, Section 10, clause 1) from passing bills of attainder.<br /> [www.historycentral.com/Civics/B.html] <br /> <br /> ''''''Aux armes, citoyens''''''&lt;br&gt;<br /> ''To arms, citizens'', from the French national anthem, ''La Marseillaise'' (1792). Kit confused La Mayonnaise with La Marseillaise.&lt;br&gt;<br /> Not &quot;Le Marseillaise,&quot; you nitwit!<br /> <br /> '''Louis XV'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> King of France 1715-1774 [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Louis_XV]. <br /> <br /> '''Cléo de Mérode'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Glamorous French ballerina (1875-1966), later Follies Bergere dancer and famous beauty. Her reputed intimacy with King Leopold was only a rumor [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cleo_de_Merode]. The character Madame Leonora Armfeldt in Stephen Sondheim's ''A Little Night Music'' has some features in common with her.<br /> <br /> '''Marquise de Pompadour'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Mistress of Louis XV,once friend of Voltaire and a power behind official scenes.[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Madame_de_Pompadour].<br /> <br /> ==Page 545==<br /> <br /> '''duc de Richelieu'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Duc de Richelieu (1696-1788), marshal of France, was a grandnephew of Cardinal Richelieu, and born in Paris. Apart from his reputation as a man of exceptionally loose morals, he attained, in spite of a defective education, distinction as a diplomatist and general. ([http://www.1911encyclopedia.org/Louis_Francois_Armand_du_Plessis,_duc_de_Richelieu duc de Richelieu] and cf [[ATD_489-524#Page 490|page 490:duc de Richelieu]])<br /> <br /> '''dubious 'victory' in 1756'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> As part of the Seven Years' War (1756-1763), duc de Richelieu (1696-1788), a Marshal of France, won a victory in the Battle of Minorca (May 20, 1756) over John Byng (1704-1757), a British Admiral. In spring of 1756 John Byng was sent with a small and undermanned fleet to relieve the British ''Port Mahon'' on the Mediterranean island of Minorca. During the battle ensued, several British ships were badly damaged by the French squadron while others, including Byng's flagship, were still out of effective firing range. Instead of engaging the enemy directly, Byng decided to keep the formation, allowing the French fleet to get away undamaged. ([http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_Minorca Battle of Minorca]).<br /> <br /> '''the ill-fated Admiral Byng'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> John Byng, convicted by court-martial of failure &quot;to do his utmost&quot; in the battle, shot in 1757. Remembered because of (1) his being the last officer of flag rank to be put to death for conduct in battle and (2) Voltaire's gag in ''Candide:'' &quot;In this country it is good to kill an admiral from time to time in order to encourage the others.&quot;<br /> <br /> '''cantharides'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> &quot;Spanish fly,&quot; contact irritant sometimes ill-advisedly used as aphrodisiac.<br /> <br /> '''Sadean'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Pertaining to the Marquis de Sade. The acts the chef performs on the egg and oil have the same names as acts of Sadean sex. <br /> <br /> '''''n'est-ce pas?'''''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Right? (Isn't that so?)<br /> <br /> '''vetiver'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> A grass (Vetiveria zizanioides) of tropical India, cultivated for its aromatic roots that yield an oil used in perfumery.<br /> [www.answers.com/topic/vetiver]. So, a perfume with, llterallly, roots in India.<br /> <br /> Vetiver makes frequent appearances throughout ''À la recherche du temps perdu.''<br /> <br /> '''pip'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> A beaut; in current parlance, a hottie.<br /> <br /> '''Q.P. system'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Quaternion Probability, page 536.<br /> <br /> '''Usine Régionale'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> French: as translated in the text.<br /> <br /> ==Page 546==<br /> <br /> '''disjunctive effects of thunderstorms'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Folk wisdom says a thunderstorm will cause mayonnaise to separate (oil from yolks).<br /> <br /> '''cottonseed oil'''<br /> <br /> Mayonnaisse like Smegmo and Crisco is a hydrogenated fat; cottonseed oil is a common factor to all three. Indeed, the name Crisco derives from the intial sounds of &quot;'''crys'''tallized '''c'''ottonseed '''o'''il&quot;. Note in the next few pages a mention of Candlebrow -- underscoring a tie-in between Mayonnaisse and Smegmo. <br /> <br /> It may be of interest to note that hydrogenation may have a symbolic use for Pynchon. The process entails bubbling hydrogen through oil in the presence of a metal catalyst such as nickel, platinum, aluminum at 248 to 410 degrees. Remnants of these metals stay in the finished product, and when consumed can lead to an increase in heavy metals in the human body.<br /> <br /> Eating hydrogenated oils is like eating plastic. The body does not recognize that these molecules have been mutated and tries to use them as essential fatty acids. But they cannot perform the same function, and as a result hydrogenated oils can cause short circuits in the electrical flow that controls the heartbeat, nerve functions, cell division and mental balance. They also create free radicals (anarchists!) that are linked to cancers. Free radicals plus metal remnants are a major contributor to cancer, heart disease, immune system dysfunction, osteoporosis, depression, chronic fatigue, Alzheimers, and neurological diseases. It is estimated that over 200 million people have died prematurely because of the hydrogenated oils found in our diets. [http://www.drz.org/asp/newsletter/default.asp?xt2id=23] Not to mention innocent bystanders killed by mentally imbalanced people whose imbalance may stem from the ingestion of hydrogenated oils -- there may be some underlying reality to the &quot;Twinkie defense.&quot;<br /> <br /> '''lounge suit'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> A lounge suit is another name for business suit consisting of a matching jacket and trousers or skirt.<br /> <br /> '''congress shoes'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> ankle high shoes with elastic gussets in the sides (wordweb online)<br /> <br /> '''invisible hand'''<br /> <br /> Suggestive of Adam Smith's metaphor for market forces in economics.<br /> <br /> '''dripping-heads'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mayonnaise To make mayonnaise,] beat together egg yolks, salt, mustard and vinegar, then drip in oil while beating to form the emulsion. If you scale the process up for industrial production, you will automate the introduction of the oil, using nozzles that release it a drop at a time—but in a large vat you can have many such nozzles.<br /> <br /> '''''cuves d'agitation'''''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Vat or tank in which the mayonnaise is agitated or beaten.<br /> <br /> '''Clinique d'Urgence pour Sauvetage des Sauces'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> French: Emergency Clinic for Salvage of Sauces.<br /> <br /> ==Page 547==<br /> <br /> '''' ...engulfed in thick, slick, sour-smelling mayonnaise. ''''<br /> The whole Kit's experience in the mayonnaise factory is very much reminiscent to [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Roald_Dahl Roald Dahl]'s [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Charlie_and_the_Chocolate_Factory Charlie and the Chocolate Factory].<br /> <br /> '''''Cazzo, cretino'''''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Literally, &quot;Dick, cretin.&quot; ''Cazzo'' is a common Italian interjectionary obscenity, especially in the south. &quot;Cazzo, cretino,&quot; is akin to someone saying, &quot;Well shit, dummy,&quot; or &quot;F-ing moron!&quot;<br /> <br /> '''''È il cowboy!'''''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Italian: It's the cowboy!<br /> <br /> '''''vero?'''''&lt;br&gt;<br /> true? real?<br /> <br /> '''''Le bambole anarchiste, porca miseria'''''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Italian: Anarchist babes, oh boy.<br /> <br /> '''Oudenberg'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> A southeast suburb of Ostende.<br /> <br /> '''Quai de l'Entrepôt'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Warehouse Quay<br /> <br /> '''''ragazzi'''''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Italian: boys, guys.<br /> <br /> ==Page 548==<br /> <br /> '''General Boulanger'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> That the General was 'reactionary' and that the C of C bureaucracy had a 'defiant residue' of Boulangism, continues the characterization of the organization for which the Chums 'work'.&lt;br&gt;<br /> See p. 543 above, regarding a 2007 book in which Boulanger is called the 'father of fascism'.<br /> <br /> '''''timbres fictifs'''''&lt;br&gt;<br /> French: fictive postage stamps. Cf &quot;Lot 49&quot;.&lt;br&gt;<br /> Yes, stamps mean something in Pynchon's works; here, it seems important that these stamps are characterized as frauds.<br /> <br /> '''&quot;IIIb&quot;'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> As explained in the text.&lt;br&gt;<br /> &quot;Section IIIB (Intelligence) of the German High Command. After WWI, was funded by Alfred Hugenberg (financial backer of Nazi party)&quot;. From ''Sabotage'' by Sayers &amp; Kahn, 1942.[http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&amp;q=%22IIIB%27+%2B+INTELLIGENCE&amp;btnG=Search]. The authors state in the Forward, in 1942, &quot;that 'Nazi Germany' is the creation of spies and saboteurs&quot;. See ''Gravity's Rainbow'', of course. <br /> <br /> '''Germany might stand a better chance...'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> That is, if the French were to push into Alsace (per Boulanger) as the Germans executed the Schlieffen Plan [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Schlieffen_plan] for the encirclement of Paris, it would put the French at an even greater disadvantage...as actually happened in 1914. Had the Belgians and British not delayed the Germans in Flanders, and had the French railroads not performed speedily to bring the French troops back to the Marne, World War I could have had a very different outcome...an alternate history. <br /> <br /> '''revanchist'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Policies based on revenge, or a person following such policies. In General Boulanger's case, revenge against Germany for the Franco-Prussian War (that is, retaking Alsace, lost in 1871).<br /> <br /> '''the somewhat discomposed General'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Having died in 1891, the General by the time of the action is certainly somewhat '''de'''composed; brief biographies do not suggest he was ''non compos mentis,'' that is, mentally discomposed.<br /> <br /> ==Page 549==<br /> '''cackled Darby'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> (When did he lose his innocence?)<br /> <br /> '''a modification of any salsician metaphor toward the diminutive'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Salsician: pertaining to sausage. Lindsay says Suckling's penis is better compared to a wiener than a knockwurst.<br /> <br /> '''&quot;Why you little–and I do mean 'little'–&quot;'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Another Simpsons reference? <br /> <br /> Noseworth, the Master-At-Arms of the Chums division of this organization with a defiant residue of 'fascism', who had no smell to Pugnax early on,<br /> is called out, either for real or in a sex-bashing putdown, for homosexuality. cf. homosexuality as a metaphor in ''Gravity's Rainbow''. <br /> <br /> '''dunes between Nieuport and Dunkirk'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Nieuport is a Belgian seaport about 10 miles southwest of Ostend. Dunkirk is a French port (less than 10 miles inside the French border) about 20 miles southwest of Nieuport. The latter was a site of one of the bloodest battle in World War I. The general area between Niewport and Dunkirk was the well traversed battle fields of two world wars. (Dunkirk was (in)famous for the British Army's escape from the Nazi German's assault in World War II.)<br /> <br /> '''power-receivers'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Not information, energy.<br /> <br /> ==Page 550==<br /> <br /> '''Lot's wife''' &lt;br&gt;<br /> Angels of God led Lot and his family out of Sodom as it was being destroyed and told them not to look back at the mayhem. Lot's wife, Edith, imprudently looked back and was transfigured into a pillar of salt.<br /> <br /> '''Italian grotto'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> an imitating recess or structure made to resemble a natural Italian grotto.<br /> <br /> '''a highly developed taste, moreover, for human blood'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Since Pugnax developed this taste in the Carpathians, home of Castle Dracula, this seems a clear reference to Bram Stoker's novel. <br /> <br /> '''Carpathians'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Major mountain range running northwest-southeast through Poland, Slovakia, western Ukraine and Romania.<br /> <br /> '''Uhlans'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Uhlan regiments belonged to the light cavalry. They wore splendid uniforms (model for some U.S. marching band uniforms). [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Uhlan Wikipedia article.]<br /> <br /> '''Temesvár'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Now Timişoara, extreme western Romania.<br /> <br /> ==Page 551==<br /> <br /> '''...separated by only a slice of Time...'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Miles is beginning to experience Time almost as a spatial dimension, his personal vector as traversing (!) 4-dimensional space, or perhaps multidimensional space, the mathematics for which is being debated in Ostend.<br /> <br /> '''securing the mess decks'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> The Chums follow U.S. Navy idiom in orders (frequently prefixed with &quot;Now&quot;) and shipboard activities (&quot;secure&quot; meaning &quot;whatever you did before, undo it now,&quot; in this case put away the dishes and fold up the tables).<br /> <br /> '''Ryder Thorn'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Tolkienesque name? Or perhaps it's a nod to the Ryder-Waite Tarot deck and to Kevin Thorn (Kevin Matthew Fertig, 1977-), the American professional wrestler better known by his ring name Kevin Thorn who is currently signed to World Wrestling Entertainment wrestling on its ECW brand. He has appeared in vigniettes with Ariel (Shelly Martinez, 1980-), the tarot card reader, who spits blood at the camera while she &quot;predicted the future of ECW.&quot; Yup, a stretch...<br /> <br /> *The name also evokes the Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse.<br /> <br /> '''He was at Candlebrow.'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Presumably a 'trespasser.'<br /> <br /> '''the four-note chord in the context of timelessness'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> A melody is formed by notes following one another in time; a chord on the ukulele violates that practice by having all the notes sound at once. A really clever little passage.<br /> Note: Jazz musicians describe musical improvisations as horizontal (with the melody) or vertical (with the chord)<br /> <br /> ==Page 552==<br /> <br /> '''knuckle-duster'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Brass knuckles.<br /> <br /> '''Diksmuide'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> 20 kilometers south of Ostend (about halfway to Ypres).<br /> <br /> ==Page 553==<br /> <br /> '''The terrain was flat...lowlands'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Not, this time, a reference to Pynchon's ''Lowlands'', but to the two-dimensionality of Flanders, as in Edwin A. Abbott's ''Flatland'' [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Flatland]; most humans, like the inhabitants of Flanders and Abbott's Flatlanders, experience life in two dimensions. <br /> <br /> '''Somewhere up in the sky was Miles' home...'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Whereas Miles and the Chums of Chance, in contrast, live in three dimensions. The mathematicians gathered in Ostend are trying to calculate how to experience and use vectors to live in four dimensions; in a way, to experience Time as a kind of spatial dimension. Miles, on P. 551, is demonstrating the beginnings of an intuitive discovery of how to experience Time as an almost spatial dimension. Which would be a sort of &quot;time travel&quot;, or at least an expanded view of life and history.<br /> <br /> '''retted'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> soaked in water or exposed to moisture (as flax or hemp) to facilitate the removal of the fiber from the woody tissue by partial rotting.<br /> <br /> ==Page 554==<br /> <br /> '''Ypres and Menin'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Municipalities in West Flanders that were sites of some of the bloodiest battles of WWI. At the beginning of the war, the British and Belgian stand helped save Paris from encirclement by the Germans, and saved the Channel ports, but as Thorn points out, the area became the western anchor of the Western Front trench system. The several Battles of Ypres saw the first uses of poison gas (Mustard Gas, dichlorodiethylsulfide, was first called Yperite), the use of enormous mines, and the legendary mud of Passchendaele [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Passchendaele]. <br /> <br /> '''Ten years from now'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> (1914?) through 1918? and beyond?. Another paramorphic mirror--what do we now face. Whatever it is, it is nuclear.<br /> <br /> '''Bosch'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Hieronymous Bosch (1450-1516), Dutch painter of nightmares. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hieronymus_Bosch Wikipedia entry].<br /> <br /> '''Brueghel'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Pieter Brueghel the Elder(1525-1569), Flemish painter.[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pieter_Brueghel_the_Elder Wikipedia entry].<br /> <br /> '''League'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> League of Nations? The League of Nations was formed after WWI to prevent future wars. Didn't succeed.<br /> <br /> No. In this case a historical unit of length, approximately three miles - &quot;league on league&quot; = tremendous masses<br /> <br /> '''where the needles went and which way to rotate them'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> I.e., how to push Thorn's buttons; the image is from acupuncture.<br /> <br /> ==Page 555==<br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> '''simpletons at the fair'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Making Pynchon's metaphor explicit.<br /> <br /> '''Chopin E-minor Nocturne'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Frédéric Chopin (1810-49), a Polish pianist and composer ([http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fr%C3%A9d%C3%A9ric_Chopin Chopin]). He was born in Warsaw, Poland to a Polish morther and a French father. He went to Paris at the age of 20 and died there at the age of 39. He was widely regarded as one of the most famous and influential composers for the piano. From 1837-47 he had a 10-year stormy relationship with the French writer George Sand. His E-minor Nocturne is a 4-minute long Romantic style piano solo composed in 1827. (A ''nocturne'' is usually a musical composition that is inspired by, or evocative of, the night [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nocturne Nocturne].)<br /> <br /> '''owl-light'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> ???glimmering or imperfect light or twilight hours.<br /> <br /> ''''plasmic hysteresis''''&lt;br&gt;<br /> <br /> A coined term, apparently similar in meaning to Miles’ phrase “failure of physical translation.” Plasma would take an older meaning of “form” or “shape.&quot; Hysteresis, according to Webster's, refers to “a retardation in effect when the forces on an object are changed.” Hysteresis is used to describe magnetic phenomenon as well as plastic or elastic materials, that involve changes to a rest state that last beyond the forces that cause them. Examples include recordings on magnetic tape or a thumbprint slowly disappearing from putty. In the context of this passage, plasmic hysteresis appears to describe the lingering visage of someone who is no longer present – a hysteresis of form only and thus a failed physical translation. See [http://www.etymonline.com/index.php?search=plasma&amp;searchmode=none etymology of plasma] and this nifty explanation of [http://www.lassp.cornell.edu/sethna/hysteresis/WhatIsHysteresis.html hysteresis]. <br /> <br /> Hysteresis has also been used to refer to “loops” in time, certainly apropos in this case. I stumbled across an excellent example in a 1980 episode of Dr. Who, in which the eponymous Dr. is trapped in “chronic hysteresis,” an endless loop or return to a previous <br /> point in time – very similar to the situation of Ryder Thorn. [http://www.drwhoguide.com/who_5q.htm Check it out for yourself!] <br /> <br /> <br /> ==Annotation Index==<br /> {{ATD PbP}}</div>

MKOHUT https://against-the-day.pynchonwiki.com/wiki/index.php?title=ATD_525-556&diff=14098 2007-10-18T15:34:04Z

<p>MKOHUT: /* Page 549 */</p> <hr /> <div>:'''&lt;big&gt;Please keep these annotations SPOILER-FREE by not revealing information from later pages in the novel.&lt;/big&gt;'''&lt;p&gt;&lt;br&gt;<br /> <br /> ==Page 525==<br /> <br /> '''Ostend'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Cf [[ATD_489-524#Page 521|page 521:Ostend]], a seaport in northwest Belgium. Among English-speaking tourists, Ostend (or Ostende) is best known as a ferry port. Ships have shuttled between Dover and Ostend for more than 150 years, and today's high-speed catamarans move hundreds of passengers and vehicles between these two ports in just two hours. But this thousand-year-old city is a popular beach resort with Belgians, who flock to Ostend for sun, surfing, sailing and the ''Kursaal'' (Casino). The fishing harbor and old town draw many visitors. Ostend is the only Belgian coastal resort that is as lively in the summer as in the winter. For more and pictures [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ostend Ostend].<br /> <br /> '''Fishermen's Quai'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Fishermen's Quay, also called De Trap. The shrimp boats come home here from the sea in the morning. Along the quay many stands sell lots of seafoods.<br /> <br /> '''Boulevard van Isenghem'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> A major thoroughfare in Ostend, locally called ''Van Iseghemlaan'', extending diagonally from seafront southwest through the city.<br /> <br /> '''street-plausible'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Presentable.<br /> <br /> '''Quai de l'empereur'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Since Ostende is in the Flemish part of Belgium this should be the Keizerskaai, a street along the old part of the harbour, 1919 renamed Vindictivelaan.<br /> <br /> '''estaminet'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> According to the OED - A café in which smoking is allowed. Now, any small establishment selling alcoholic liquor. <br /> <br /> '''twelve-centime'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> one centime is the French eqivalent of one cent. A twelve-centime beer would cost 12/100 of a franc.<br /> <br /> '''Quaternions'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Cf [[ATD_119-148#Page 130|page 130:Quaternions]]. Quaternions are a non-communtative extension of compelx numbers (Hamilton, 1843).&lt;br&gt;<br /> <br /> Analogy with the complex numbers (Cf [[ATD_119-148#Page 132|page 132:complex number]]) being represented as a sum of real and imaginary parts, a + b''i'', where ''i''² = −1, a quaternion is defined as a combination a + b''i'' + c''j'' + d''k'', where ''i''² = ''j''² = ''k''² = ''i j k'' = −1, and a, b, c, d are ''four'' explicit real numbers. The non-commutative property refers to ''i j = −j i = k; j k = −k j = i; k i = −i k = j''. (i.e. ''i j ≠ j i; j k ≠ k j; k i ≠ i k''; etc.) The using of ''i, j, k'', the imaginary numbers (Cf [[ATD_119-148#Page 133|page 133:imaginary number]]), led to the phrases of &quot;the ''ijk'' lot&quot; of page 533 and &quot;creature of ''i-j-k''&quot; of page 534.<br /> <br /> '''Kellner'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> German: waiter, barman. Use of the German word would be insulting to the Belgian barman.<br /> <br /> '''''demi'''''&lt;br&gt;<br /> A half-pint glass (25 centilitres, actually).<br /> <br /> '''Lambic'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Pron. ''lahm-BEEK.'' Unique Belgian beer style, sour and often thin in body.<br /> <br /> '''skimmer'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Straw hat (&quot;Panama&quot;).<br /> <br /> ==Page 526==<br /> <br /> '''biquaternion'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Or &quot;octonion,&quot; an innovation of English mathematician W.K. Clifford, [[ATD_243-272#Page_249|referred to on p. 249.]]<br /> <br /> '''Barry Nebulay'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Pun on a term from heraldry, ''barry nebuly.'' Barry (rhymes with &quot;starry,&quot; not &quot;carry&quot;) refers to a shield divided into an even number of parts by horizontal lines. Nebuly signals that the lines are deformed into stylized &quot;cloud&quot; shapes. [http://www.rarebooks.nd.edu/digital/heraldry/partitions.html Here you can see an example.] If a ''British'' author had a character with a heraldic name, it would suggest a pseudonym.<br /> <br /> '''University of Dublin'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> The Alma Mater of Hamilton, the father of Quaternion. He studied, graduated and taught at Trinity College, the University of Dublin, Ireland's oldest university.<br /> <br /> If University College, Dublin, then Joyce had graduated in 1902.&lt;br&gt;<br /> <br /> '''Quaternioneers'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Quaternion believers.<br /> <br /> '''Gibbsian Vectors'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Vector Analysis (or Vector Calculus) developed by Willard Gibbs (Cf [[ATD_26-56#Page 29|page 29:Professor Gibbs]]) in 1881 and 1884. It is a branch of calculus that deals with vectors and process involving vectors. It is much more easily applied to phsics and other applied sciences than Hamilton's Quaternions (Cf [[ATD_525-556#Page 525|page 525:Quaternions]]).&lt;br&gt;<br /> A vector is defined by not only a magnitude but also a direction, such as a velocity vector, ''v'' is defined by ''v'' = a''i'' + b''j'' + c''k'',<br /> where a, b, and c are the magnitudes of the velocity components in directions of ''i, j'' and ''k'' which are unit vectors, (not imaginary numbers as in Quaternion), with magnitude of 1. In three dimensional cases and ''xyz'' coordinate system is used then ''i, j, k'' are related to ''x, y, z'' directions (&quot;''xyz'' people&quot; of page 533); but they, in general, may be used irrespective of the notation of the coordinates.<br /> Mathematical operations (addition, subtraction, multiplication), differentiation (''curl'' — Cf [[ATD_318-335#Page 326|page 326:Curl]] and p. 536, ''Laplacian'' — Cf [[ATD_318-335#Page 326|page 326:Laplacian]] and p. 536, etc) and integration can be applied to vectors. It is interesting to know that one of the two multiplication operations is called cross product; for unit vectors (''i, j, k'') perpendicular to each other, then, ''i × i = j × j = k × k = 0'', ''i × j = k'', ''j × i = -k'', etc. ([http://web.mit.edu/wwmath/vectorc/summary.html Vector Calculus]).&lt;br&gt;<br /> A simple vector anyalysis example here: if ''k'', the unit vector, stands for the direction upward and g is the gravitational acceleration, then the acceleration vector, ''a'', for a projectile, is defined for downward action, (the ''i'' and ''j'' directions have zero components):&lt;br&gt;<br /> :''a'' = -g ''k''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Integrating ''a'' would give the velocity vector, ''v''&lt;br&gt;<br /> :''v'' = -g t ''k''&lt;br&gt;<br /> for zero initial velocity case, and t standing for time.&lt;br&gt;<br /> And integrating ''v'' would yield the position vector, ''h'', for the projectile&lt;br&gt;<br /> :''h'' = -½ g t² ''k''&lt;br&gt;<br /> toward the sea level.<br /> <br /> '''Quaternionists'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Quaternion believers, same as Quaternioneers.<br /> <br /> '''Tasmania'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Tasmania is an island of the southern coast of Australia. Known for its relative isolation, it was a prison for English convicts in the 1800s<br /> <br /> '''Having been inseparable from the rise of the electromagnetic'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> In his 1865 work ''The Dynamical Theory of the Electromagnetic Field'', James Clerk Maxwell unified electricity and magnetism. He put forth twenty equations, with twenty unknowns, in vector form (though different in notation and form than the equations that now bear his name) that completely described all known electromagnetic phenomena. In his 1873 treatise on the subject, he expressed the equations in the mathematics of quaternions. It appears that the quaternion form of the equations remained popular even though, at the behest of his publisher, Maxwell reverted to the 1865 form in the second edition (1881)--though they remain scattered throughout. In 1892 Oliver Heaviside (On the Forces, Stresses, and Fluxes of Energy in the Electromagnetic Field. ''Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society of London.'' A, Vol. 183. pp423-480), while spewing scientific vitriol at the Quaternionists, reformulated Maxwell's original 1865 equations (Heaviside chose to remove the vector potential and scalar fields from the equations; the inclusion of these terms had served as Maxwell's justification for the use of quaternions), and provided the notation still in use today. See this [http://www.zpenergy.com/modules.php?name=Downloads&amp;d_op=getit&amp;lid=60 PDF] for the evolution of Maxwell's equations.<br /> <br /> '''Hamiltonian devotees'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> The Quaternion faction, after William Hamilton, who devised the scheme.<br /> <br /> '''Grand Hôtel de la Nouvelle Digue'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> There is a Hotel Digue in the Seychelles; this is a New Hotel Digue by Pynchon? <br /> <br /> Grand Hotel of New Dyke, may be a made up hotel name.<br /> <br /> '''anterooms of death'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> This metaphor is sometimes applied to concentration camps. Here the lyric &quot;feel like I'm fixin' to die&quot; seems more apposite.<br /> <br /> '''Belgian Art Nouveau'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Art Nouveau, 1890(or 80) to 1914, explores a new style in the visual arts and architecture that developed in Europe and North America at the end of the 19th century. At its height (~1907), Art Nouveau was a concerted attempt to create an international style based on decoration. It was developed by a brilliant and energetic generation of artists and desisgners, who sought to fashion an art form appropriate to the post-Industrial Revolution modern age.&lt;br&gt;<br /> Brussels was one of the Art Nouveau centers and represented different style from the others. The jewelers there, accepted as artists rahter than craftsmen, (together with those in Paris) defined Art Nouveau in jewelery and achieved the most renown. ([http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Art_Nouveau Art Nouveau]).<br /> <br /> ==Page 527==<br /> <br /> '''dossing'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> British slang for &quot;sleeping&quot;, &quot;staying overnight&quot;<br /> <br /> '''Russian nihilists'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> :The following four are local, Belgian, not Russian, nihilists !<br /> <br /> '''Eugénie'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Female. Possibly named for Empress Eugénie (1826-1920), consort of French Emperor Napoleon III. Ultimately for St. Eugenia, 3rd-century Roman martyr whose feast is celebrated on December 25.<br /> <br /> '''Fatou'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Female. A pseudonym? In view of the date of the action, certainly not named after [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fatou the mathematician Fatou] (1878-1929).<br /> <br /> '''Denis'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Male. Named for St. Denis or Dionysius, patron saint of Paris and of France, 3rd-century bishop of Paris, martyr, beheaded on the hill now called Montmartre. &quot;Montjoie St. Denis!&quot; was a warcry used by French troops in the Middle Ages. His intercession is effective against demonic possession and headache.<br /> <br /> '''Policarpe'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Male. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Polycarp Saint Polycarp] was a Christian bishop of Smyrna (now İzmir in Turkey) in the second century. He was stabbed and died a martyr after an attempt to burn him at the stake failed. His intercession is sought against earache and dysentery.<br /> <br /> '''Young Congo'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Probably in reference to the [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Young_Turks Young Turks], a Turkish revolutionary movement<br /> <br /> '''Garde Civique'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> A part of the Belgian army. According to the [http://www.1911encyclopedia.org/Belgium 1911 Britannica], &quot;the mass of the garde civique does not pretend to possess military value. It is a defence against sedition and socialism.&quot;<br /> <br /> '''French Second Bureau boys'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Deuxieme Bureau; French Intelligence.<br /> <br /> '''''phalange'''''&lt;br&gt;<br /> French: phalanx. A military (here mock-military) group ready for combat. &lt;br&gt;<br /> <br /> It also conjures up memories of the early 19th century utopian socialist <br /> Charles Fourier, who theorized that people should live communally in &quot;phalanxes&quot; of a specific number based upon their &quot;passions.&quot; His solid ideas included equality of the sexes, but he also taught wacky things such as the moon being made of lemonade. Of particular relevance is his rejection of industrial civilization. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Utopian_socialism]<br /> <br /> '''&quot;...until something had happened, something too terrible to remember...&quot;'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Again this theme of an unknowable past transgression, here invoked almost as if the unknown signifies the other 'lateral' (a word which has cropped up at least a dozen times already) 'vector'.<br /> <br /> '''the Digue'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> French for &quot;dyke&quot;<br /> <br /> '''Congo... Belgians'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> The Belgian colonisation of the Congo was, as Conrad's ''Heart of Darkness'' makes clear, notable for its greed and brutality.<br /> <br /> '''Leopold, King of the Belgians'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> 1835-1909, reigned 1865-1909. A man of almost Nixonian fiendishness. In the Congo he acted as sole proprietor and absolute ruler. The positive outcomes of his exploitation include ''Heart of Darkness'' and the phrase &quot;crime against humanity.&quot;<br /> <br /> '''co-conscious'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> mental processes outside the main stream of consciousness but sometimes available to it — from Merriam-Webster's Medical Dictionary.<br /> <br /> '''Force Publique'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Belgian armed forces operating in the Belgian Congo ([http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Force_Publique Wikipedia]). &quot;King Leopold's private army&quot; may be a more accurate description.<br /> <br /> '''rubber worker'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> See above: One of the early missions of the FP was to increase rubber export quotas through forced labor and related atrocities.<br /> <br /> ==Page 528==<br /> <br /> '''''khâgne'''''&lt;br&gt;<br /> an informal term used by French students for Classes Préparatoires Littéraires, the two-year cycle of classes taken after the Baccalaureat (taken at age 17-18), to prepare for the entrance examination to the Ecole Normale Supeieure. ([http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kh%C3%A2gne khâgne]).<br /> <br /> '''Reclus'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> J. J. Élisée Reclus (1830-1905), French geographer but mainly educated in Germany. Several times he was forced to leave France because of his political views; he traveled widely in Europe, the British Isles, the United States, and South America and for many years lived in Switzerland. He was professor of comparative geography at the University of Brussels from 1895 to 1905. He had quite an extensive connection with various socialist and anarchist circles (met Bakunin while in Florence).Once he was imprisoned in Versailles in 1871 for his part in the ''Paris Commune''. In 1882 he initiated the ''Anti-marriage movement'' while in Geneva. [[http://academic.reed.edu/formosa/texts/reclusbio.html Reclus]).<br /> <br /> '''Stirnerite'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Follower of Max Stirner, 19th century German philosopher and author of ''The Ego and Its Own,'' a work influential in anarchist thought. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Max_Stirner Wikipedia entry].<br /> <br /> ''Max Stirner'''s (1806-56) attacks on systematic philosophy, his denial of absulutes, and his rejection of abstract concepts of any kind often places him among the first philosophical nihilists. For Stirner, achieving individual freedom is the only law; and the state, which necvessarily imperils freedom, must be destroyed. Even beyond the oppression of the state, though, are the constraints imposed by others because their very existence is an obstable compromising individual freedom. Thus Stirner argues that existence is an endless &quot;war of each against all&quot; (1845). (taken from the paragraph about Max Stirner in [http://www.iep.utm.edu/n/nihilism.htm#H1 Nihilism])&lt;br&gt;<br /> Sourcing here? Much complexity in properly understanding Stirner, who has some Pynchon-like qualities, to say the least. From the Stanford Dictionary of Philosophy&lt;br&gt;<br /> His major work:<br /> The Ego and Its Own<br /> Much of Stirner's prose—which is crowded with aphorisms, italicisation, and hyperbole—appears calculated to disconcert. Most striking, perhaps, is the use of word play. Rather than reach a conclusion through the conventional use of argument, Stirner often approaches a claim that he wishes to endorse by exploiting words with related etymologies or formal similarities. For example, he associates words for property (such as ‘Eigentum’) with words connoting distinctive individual characteristics (such as ‘Eigenheit’) in order to promote the claim that property is expressive of selfhood. (Stirner's account of egoistic property—see below—gives this apparently orthodox Hegelian claim a distinctive twist.)<br /> <br /> This rejection of conventional forms of intellectual discussion is linked to Stirner's substantive views about language and rationality. His unusual style reflects a conviction that both language and rationality are human products which have come to constrain and oppress their creators. Stirner maintains that accepted meanings and traditional standards of argumentation are underpinned by a conception of truth as a privileged realm beyond individual control. As a result, individuals who accept this conception are abandoning a potential area of creative self-expression in favour of adopting a subordinate role as servants of truth. In stark contrast, Stirner insists that the only legitimate restriction on the form of our language, or on the structure of our arguments, is that they should serve our individual ends. It is the frequent failure of ordinary meanings and standard forms of argument to satisfy his interpretation of this criterion which underpins Stirner's remorselessly idiosyncratic style.<br /> <br /> The Ego and Its Own has an intelligible, but scarcely transparent, structure. It is organised around a tripartite account of human experience, initially introduced in a description of the stages of an individual life. The first stage in this developmental narrative is the realistic one of childhood, in which children are constrained by material and natural forces such as their parents. Liberation from these external constraints is achieved with what Stirner calls the self-discovery of mind, as children find the means to outwit those forces in their own determination and cunning. The idealistic stage of youth, however, contains new internal sources of constraint, as individuals once more become enslaved, this time to the spiritual forces of conscience and reason. Only with the adulthood of egoism do individuals escape both material (external) and spiritual (internal) constraints, learning to value their personal satisfaction above all other considerations.<br /> <br /> Stirner portrays this dialectic of individual growth as an analogue of historical development, and it is a tripartite account of the latter which structures the remainder of the book. Human history is reduced to successive epochs of realism (the ancient, or pre-Christian, world), idealism (the modern, or Christian, world), and egoism (the future world). <br /> <br /> What about these &quot;successive epochs&quot; in understanding ATD?<br /> <br /> Stirner's major work, The Ego and Its Own has been reissued in English a number of times in Pynchon's lifetime,from the 60s on. (Not that TRP could not have read it in German!)<br /> <br /> '''''Anarcho-individualiste'''''&lt;br&gt;<br /> i.e. he has doctrinal differernces with Stirnerism, strictly speaking; see P. 324, and &quot;Eigenheit&quot;.<br /> <br /> '''Leopold'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> See p. 527.<br /> <br /> '''going down lately'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Being assassinated.<br /> <br /> '''Sipido'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Jean-Baptiste Sipido (1884-1959), a Belgian socialist. Accusing the Prince of Wales of causing thousands of inocents were killed in the Boer War in South Africa, on April 5, 1900, Sipido leaped onto the foot board of the royal compartment right before the train left the North Railway Station (Gare du Nord), Brussel, and fired two (or one? as reported in ''The Manchester Guardian'', or four? as stated in the text here) shots through the window but missed everyone inside. He was arrested, tried and acquitted. The leader of the House of Commons called the acquittal a &quot;grave and most unfortunate miscarriage of justice.&quot; ([http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jean-Baptiste_Sipido Sipido]).<br /> <br /> '''Prince... of Wales'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> (Maud Gonne's husband claimed to have been involved in another such plot.)<br /> <br /> '''Hippodrome'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Hippodrome Wellington, a horse racing track in Ostend built in 1883. The facility hosts both harness and flat racing events. ([http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hippodrome_Wellington Hippodrome]).<br /> <br /> '''Royal Bathing Hut... twenty francs'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> A bathing machine ([http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bathing_machine bathing machine])? The King of Belgium certainly would not want to be seen in a swimsuit on a public beach... It seems unlikely, though, that such a royal bathing machine would be for hire.<br /> <br /> '''twenty francs'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> ???<br /> <br /> ==Page 529==<br /> <br /> '''picric family'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> The explosive picric acid (2,4,6-trinitrophenol) and its derivatives. For picric acid, Brugère's powder and Designolle's powder, [http://encyclopedia.jrank.org/PER_PIG/PICRIC_ACID_or_TRINITROPHENOL_C.html see this Britannica article.]<br /> <br /> '''Brugère's powder'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> See &quot;picric family&quot; above.<br /> <br /> '''Designolle's'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> See &quot;picric family&quot; above.<br /> <br /> '''Monsieur Santos-Dumont'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Alberto Santos-Dumont (1873-1932), a pioneer of aviation from Brasil. Check out [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alberto_Santos-Dumont Wikipedia] to get a look at the way he was wearing his &quot;trademark Panama hat&quot;. <br /> <br /> '''Green Hour''' and '''''l'heure vertigineuse'''''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Absinthe-drinking time. The liqueur is green. In French, ''l'heure verte,'' so ''vertigineuse'' (vertiginous, causing dizziness) is a pun on the word for &quot;green.&quot;<br /> <br /> '''Rocco and Pino'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Rabid Quaternionists and sudden friends of Kit Traverse.<br /> :No, they were not mathematicians at all, let alone Quaternionists, but two &quot;Italian naval renegades&quot; !!<br /> ::&quot;Rocco and Pino&quot; are, in temperament, something like the &quot;Mason and Dixon&quot; of manned-torpedoes... cf. the &quot;torpedo&quot; (i.e., &quot;Electrick-Eel&quot;) of ''Mason &amp; Dixon''.<br /> <br /> '''Whitehead works in Fiume'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Anticipating GR's V2 works.<br /> <br /> ''Robert Whitehead'' (1823-1905), an English engineer. He developed the first self-propelled torpedo in 1866. He attended Manchester's Mechanics Institute, worked in a shipyard in Toulon (1844), France, and as a consultant engineer in Milan (1847), Italy. Later he moved to Trieste and in 1856 became a manager of a company called ''Founderia Mettali'' (later, ''Stabilimento Tecnico di Fiume'') in Fiume producing ship steam boilers and engines which were the most advanced of that era. He also developed the first self-propelled torpedo which was very popular. Whitehead's torpedo was propelled by a compressed air engine, carried 18lbs dynamites and a self-regulating device which kept the torpedo cruising at a constant preset depth. [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Robert_Whitehead Whitehead]].<br /> <br /> ''Fiume'' is now Rijeka, Croatia. Trieste is on the northwestern edge of the Istra Peninsula, Rijeka is east of it. [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rijeka Fiume]].<br /> <br /> Interesting sidebar: Whitehead's fortune from Fiume and the torpedo went solely to his granddaughter Agatha Whitehead, who married Baron von Trapp. The Von Trapp money came from Robert Whitehead, and most of the von Trapp singers were his great-grandchildren.<br /> <br /> '''''Alberta'''''&lt;br&gt;<br /> The [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Royal_yacht Wikipedia] entry on royal yachts goes back to the 17th century but doesn't include ''Alberta.'' The craft does get a mention in [http://www.bouncing-balls.com/timeline/people/nr_leopoldmorel.htm this page on Leopold and the Congo.]<br /> <br /> '''Siluro Dirigibile a Lenta Corsa'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> or S.L.C. &quot;slow course torpedo&quot;, &quot;slow-running torpedo&quot;. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Manned_torpedo Wikipedia] Italy‘s Navy was among the first to experiment with manned torpedos. Though according to [http://web.ukonline.co.uk/chalcraft/sm/chariots.html this site] this did not happen until 1935, Italian frogmen as early as October 31, 1918 made it into the harbour of Pula with the help of a modified german torpedo and sank the former Austrian but by then since a few hours Croatian/Slovenian/Bosnian battleship SMS ''Viribus Unitis''. [http://www.geocities.com/tegetthoff66/viribus.html website]<br /> <br /> The Wikipedia entry linked above doesn't contain the Italian word ''dirigibile'' (steerable), which sets up the torpedo as a counterpart of the dirigible ''Inconvenience.''<br /> <br /> :I suspect there's a connection between the torpedo and &quot;Not the usual lateener, in fact appearing to have neither sails, masts, nor oars&quot; in Miles' reversed vision, [[ATD_243-272#Page_250|page 250.]] Needs work, though.<br /> <br /> ==Page 530==<br /> <br /> '''exfiltrate'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Make a surreptitious escape (as &quot;infiltrate&quot; means to make a surreptitious entrance).<br /> <br /> '''''Macchè'''''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Italian: certainly not, not a chance. And in Pynchon's Italian is used as an all-purpose exclamation.<br /> <br /> '''''Ehi, stu gazz', categoria'''''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Stu gazz' is a dialect representation of ''sto cazzo'', literally meaning ''this dick here''. Normally you could translate the sense of the sentence as: ''yeah, why not, a fucking category! ''. -- blicero2 - 2007.02.22<br /> <br /> '''''mezzogiornismo'''''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Denigrating the Italian South. Mezzogiorno means ''midday'' in Italian but refers generally to Southern Italy.<br /> <br /> ==Page 531==<br /> <br /> '''Bruges'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> An exceptionally beautiful Belgian town of canals which is thus one of several towns known as the 'Venice of the north'. In the 14th cettury Burges already became an international finanacial and trading center, but<br /> started to decline in the 15th century. In the 20th century, however, the city was discovered by the international tourism and the medieval heritage turned out to be a new source of wealth. A new harbor of Zeebrugge, 10 miles outside of Bruges at the North Sea coast, brought new developments and new industries to the region. For the city and its history see ([http://www.trabel.com/brugge.htm Bruges]).<br /> <br /> '''Raoul's Atelier de la Vitesse'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> French: Ralph's Speed Shop.<br /> <br /> '''Ghent'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Belgian city, less than 30 miles southeast of Bruges, on the rail line about halfway between Ostend and Brussels. It is the fourth largest city of Belgium. It is bigger than Bruges but not as famous as a tourist attraction. But the city is a showcase of medieval Flemish wealth and commercial success. See ([http://www.trabel.com/gent.htm Ghent]).<br /> <br /> '''Daimler six-cylinder'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> ???<br /> <br /> '''a hundred horsepower'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> ???<br /> <br /> '''''guaglion'''''&lt;br&gt;<br /> italian (dialectal) = boy, young person<br /> <br /> '''Umeki Tsurigane'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Umeki is typically made with some combination of the various kanji for &quot;plum&quot; (ume) and &quot;tree&quot; (ki), though one has the ki being the character for &quot;ghost/devil&quot; and one obscure reading that's entirely redundant, where ume is &quot;plant&quot; (usually read ue). There is one where ume is the kanji for &quot;buried or embedded&quot;. Tsurigane, means a &quot;temple bell&quot;, which can stand alone or be followed by the grass kanji to mean &quot;bellflower&quot; (lots of botanical stuff happening here, if that means anything; hardly the only example in ''AtD''). Given the search for Shambhala going on, &quot;Buried Temple Bell&quot; seems a likely translation, at least at this point; the botanical meanings could perhaps emerge later.<br /> <br /> Or, another terrible name-pun? &quot;You make [m]e sore again.&quot; See another on P. [[ATD_748-767#Page_757| 757]]<br /> <br /> '''Professor Knott'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Cargill Knott (1856-1922), professor of physics; seismologist. See his biography [http://www.penicuikcdt.org.uk/Cargill_Knott.html here].<br /> <br /> ==Page 532==<br /> <br /> '''Kimura'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Cf [[ATD_26-56#Page 29|page 29:Kimura]] and [[ATD_318-335#Page 318|page 318:Shunkichi Kimura]].<br /> <br /> '''drover's sombrero'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Cowboy hat.<br /> <br /> '''furoshiki'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Japanese all-purpose cloth. Can be worn, used as wrapping, or used as a bag.<br /> <br /> '''taupe'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> A brownish gray.<br /> <br /> '''boilermakers and their helpers'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> [[ATD_358-373#Page_360|See annotation to p. 360.]]<br /> <br /> '''Anharmonic Pencil'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> ''Pencil'' is a term commonly used in Synthetic Geometry. Straight lines incident with a plane - coplanar lines - and passing through a common point are said to be concurrent lines and the set of all such concurrent coplanar lines is called the ''pencil''. (Cf [[ATD_429-459#Page 456|page 456:Pencil]]). For a figure and a not quite precise definition see [http://mathworld.wolfram.com/Pencil.html pencil]. If a, b, c and d, are four distinct coplanar lines and their double ratio λ = (abcd) = -1, then a, b, c, d are called a harmonic quadruple of lines; they are said to constitute a ''harmonic pencil''. A ''pencil'' which is not harmonic then is known as ''anharmonic pencil''. See Pencil (lines 8-9), Double Ratio λ (lines 32-35) and Harmonic Pencil (line 39) of [http://ca.geocities.com/ingsaler6/mathworld.html Mathworld].<br /> <br /> '''''Comptes rendus'''''&lt;br&gt;<br /> ''Comptes rendus des séances hebdomadaires,'' Proceedings of the weekly sessions (of the Academy of Sciences), published from 1835, later (ca. 1935) retitled ''Comptes rendus de l'Académie des sciences,'' Proceedings of the Academy of Sciences. (Notice that the academy didn't see the need to specify &quot;French.&quot; Take that, Royal Society of London!) For about a century, one of two journals so universally circulated and recognized that bibliographies nearly always cited them in nickname form: ''C.R.'' The other was ''Ber.,'' short for ''Berichte der Deutschen Chemischen Gesellschaft,'' Reports of the German Chemical Society (from 1868).<br /> <br /> '''De Forest'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Cf [[ATD_26-56#Page 29|page 29:De Forest]].<br /> <br /> '''Gibbs'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Cf [[ATD_26-56#Page 29|page 29:Professor Gibbs]].<br /> <br /> '''Maxwell Equations'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Cf [[ATD_57-80#Page 58|page 58:Maxwell Field Equations]].<br /> <br /> ==Page 533==<br /> <br /> '''aniline teal'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> The wallpaper dye; aniline dyes were the first synthetic dyes, discovered by [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/William_Perkin William Perkin] in 1858. Their intense and fade-resistant colors were very fashionable at the end of the nineteenth century. The dyes are also significant in ''GR'' as the products of I.G. Farben.<br /> <br /> '''Heavisiders'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Oliver Heaviside (May 18, 1850 – February 3, 1925) was a self-taught English electrical engineer, mathematician and physicist who adapted complex numbers to the study of electrical circuits, developed techniques for applying Laplace transforms to the solution of differential equations, reformulated Maxwell's field equations in terms of electric and magnetic forces and energy flux, and independently co-formulated vector analysis. Although at odds with the scientific establishment for most of his life, Heaviside changed the face of mathematics and science for years to come.[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Heaviside].<br /> <br /> '''Grassmanniacs'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Nineteenth century German mathematician and linguist, essentially the inventor/discoverer of vector space. Grassmann showed that once geometry is put into the algebraic form he advocated, then the number three has no privileged role as the number of spatial dimensions; the number of possible dimensions is in fact unbounded.[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hermann_Grassmann].<br /> <br /> '''in the mood for a clambake'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Anachronistic Broadway show tune? If so, the clambake in ''Carousel'' turns into a brawl; the assmebled factions of mathematicians could be in the mood for either a party or a brawl, apparently. <br /> <br /> '''Monopole de la Maison'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Monopole of the House, a fanciful name of a fanciful drink.&lt;br&gt;<br /> There is, since 1898, a well known restaurant called ''Monopole Lunch &amp; Sea Grill'' in Plattsburgh of upper New York state. ([http://www.monopole.org Monopole Restaurant]).&lt;br&gt;<br /> Most probably, it's the Magnetic monopole being referred here. In physics, a monopole is a magnet with a net magnetic charge, i.e. there is only one pole instead of two (so no net magnetic charge) as usual. ([http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Magnetic_monopole Monopole]). It's existence had been theoretically predicted by various particle theories (superstring theory, etc) but never been proved experimentally. Proving the existence of a monopole would certainly earn a Nobel Prize.<br /> <br /> '''Idiom Neutral'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> An invented language, like Esperanto. Idiom Neutral dictionaries first appeared in 1902. It looks like a simplified Latinate language and it grew out of Volapuk, another &quot;auxiliary language.&quot; It was abandoned by the ''Akademi Internasional de Lingu Universal'' in 1908.<br /> <br /> For a list of all the invented languages that linguists are keeping track of, including Klingon, try [http://linguistlist.org/forms/langs/GetListOfConstructedLgs.html Eastern Michigan's Linguist List]. And don't forget to click on the link to &quot;Browse sites devoted to constructed languages.&quot;<br /> <br /> '''phatic'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Basically, small talk or chatter. Words used to convey fellow-feeling rather than to impart information.<br /> <br /> '''''Kampf ums Dasein'''''&lt;br&gt;<br /> German: struggle for existence.<br /> <br /> '''Q-brother'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Fellow Quaternioneer or Fellow Quaternionist.<br /> <br /> '''We are the Jews of mathematics, wandering out here in our diaspora--some destined for the past, others the future, even a few able to set out at unknown angles from the simple line of Time, upon journeys that no one can predict''' &lt;br&gt;<br /> In keeping with the analogy of Judaism, those &quot;few&quot; people within the Quaternionists &quot;able to set out at unknown angles&quot; are most likely being compared to Kabbalists who claim to partake in a mystic &quot;journey to the Throne of God through the mythological realm of the seven heavens&quot; (Armstrong, A History of God--p. 247). Throne Mysticism in Kabbalah is explored extensively in Gravity's Rainbow.<br /> <br /> Perhaps this is obvious to some, but these &quot;Jews of Mathematics&quot; worship the Hamiltonian Tetractys [http://www.math.ucr.edu/home/baez/dublin/]; those other Jews worshipped the Tetragrammatron. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tetragrammaton] The proliferation of 4s continues.<br /> <br /> ==Page 534==<br /> <br /> '''Poiret gown'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> A gown designed by Paul Poiret (1879-1944), a French fashion designer based in Paris. &quot;In the annals of fashion history, Paul Poiret is best remembered for freeing women from corsets and further liberating them through pantaloons . . . it was Poiret's remarkable innovations in the cut and construction of cloting . . . Working with fabric directly onto the body, Poiret helped to pioneer a radical approach to dressmakeing that relied more on the skills of drapery than on those of tailoring.&quot; (from [http://www.metmuseum.org/special/se_event.asp?OccurrenceId={0DC3D00F-4611-4F91-8DC2-CC3C1A5C48D5} MetMuseum], <br /> New York Metropolitan Museum's Special Exhibitions, ''Poiret: King of Fashion'', May 9, 2007 to August 5, 2007). For a picture of Poiret gown see [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Image:Poiretgown.jpg Poiret Gown]. ''The New York Times'' reported on February 1, 2007 that A Poiret Gown Brings $5,500 at [http://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html?res=9B07EFDA1538F93AA15756C0A967948260 Christie's Auction] - the gown was made in 1913 when Poiret was at the height of his career. For his bio see [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Paul_Poiret Poiret].<br /> <br /> '''''green and long'''''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Pickle, or... what?<br /> : A green and long ''gherkin'' (a small, immature fruit of a variety of cucumber used in pickling).<br /> <br /> ==Page 535==<br /> <br /> '''no-name wine'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> 1970s idiom for common European practice?<br /> <br /> '''set theory'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Set theory deals with the properties of well-defined collections, or ''sets'', of entities - the ''elements'' or ''members'' of the set - conceived as a whole. The elements may be of a mathematical nature or non-mathematical. The set theory grew out of the German mathematician Georg Cantor's (1845-1918) study of infinite sets of real numbers. <br /> <br /> The ''language of sets'' has become an important tool for all branches of mathematics, but is of very little relevance to the practice of mathematics in everyday life. As a source of metaphors, however, it's been quite productive; &quot;subset,&quot; &quot;superset,&quot; &quot;universe,&quot; &quot;intersection&quot; and &quot;Venn diagram&quot; have found varying degrees of acceptance. Recasting Aristotle's syllogisms in set-theoretic language also makes them easier for many people to understand.<br /> <br /> '''Hamilton . . . early genius'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Hamilton, according to ''Chambers Biographical Dictionary'', &quot;at fifteen knew thirteen languages, had read Newton's ''Principia'', and commenced original investigations&quot;. At twenty-two, &quot;while still an undergraduate, he was appointed professor of Astronomy at Dublin and Irish Astronomer-Royal&quot;; at thirty &quot;he was knighted&quot;.<br /> <br /> '''Hamilton . . . in the grip of a first love'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> ???&lt;br&gt;<br /> Pynchon probably didn't mean Quaternion was Hamilton's first love, but its effect on him was similar to that of a first love. In 1843 at the age of 38 Hamilton invented the Quaternion, the first non-communtative algebra to be studied. He felt this would revolutionise mathematical physics, and he spent the rest of his life working on it. In 1853 he published a large volume, ''Lectures on Quaternions'', on his grand invention. The last seven years of his life, Hamilton was writing an 800-page book ''Elements of Quaternions'' modeling on Euclid's ''Elements''. The last chapter of the book was completed by his son after his death.<br /> <br /> '''the Walt Whitman of English physics'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Whitman pops up again, last seen on [[ATD_489-524#Page_491|page 491]].<br /> <br /> ==Page 536==<br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> '''Oscar Wilde'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Note that Wilde's Dorian Gray also undergoes a kind of bilocation.<br /> <br /> '''Kursaal'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Spa. Casino ?<br /> <br /> '''vectors'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> For serious minds see Cf [[ATD_525-556#Page 526|page 526:Gibbsian Vectors]], but let's follow Pynchon's lighter mood, here is a non-mathematical definition by Kamen (1995):<br /> :''Many things have more than direction;''<br /> :''The magnitude is also a question.''<br /> :''With acceleration or force,''<br /> :''And many more things, of course,''<br /> :''It's vectors that make the connection.''<br /> <br /> '''Curls'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Cf [[ATD_318-335#Page 326|page 326:Curl]]: curl is a vector operator that shows a vector field's rate of rotation.<br /> <br /> '''Laplacians'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Pierre-Simon, Marquis de Laplace (March 23, 1749 – March 5, 1827); French mathematician and astronomer who summarized and extended the work of his predecessors in his five volume Mécanique Céleste (Celestial Mechanics) (1799-1825), translating the geometrical study of mechanics used by Isaac Newton to one based on calculus, known as physical mechanics.<br /> <br /> He is also the discoverer of Laplace's equation. Although the Laplace transform is named in honor of Laplace, who used the transform in his work on probability theory, the transform was discovered originally by Leonhard Euler. The Laplace transform appears in all branches of mathematical physics — a field he took a leading role in forming. The Laplacian differential operator, much relied-upon in applied mathematics, is likewise named after him. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Laplace].<br /> <br /> :Cf [[ATD_318-335#Page 326|page 326:Laplacian]]: Laplacian is a differential operator named after Laplace. The text here was talking about mathematical operations and operators — rates of change, rotations, partial differentials, Curls, ''Laplacians'', . . .<br /> <br /> '''scream'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Scream motif.<br /> <br /> '''beginning to appal'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> By 1905 there had been years of outrage at conditions in the Belgian Congo, King Leopold's private fief. Conrad's ''Heart of Darkness'' had been published as a serial in Blackwood's Magazine in 1899 and as a book in 1902. There were missionaries' accounts of the brutality, and newspaper reports. Leopold and his apologists published rebuttals. The Norton Critical Edition of ''Heart of Darkness'' contains an extensive collection of both.<br /> <br /> '''baize'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Baize is a coarse woolen felt.<br /> <br /> ==Page 537==<br /> <br /> '''broken symmetries'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Broken_symmetry Broken symmetry] is a concept used widely in mathematics and physics. For a simplest explanation (good enough for the text here), this term means that an object breaks either rotational symmetry or translational sysmetry - when one can only rotate an object in certain angles or when one is able to tell if the object has been shifted sideways. For a little bit more detailed explanation see [http://www.lassp.cornell.edu/sethna/OrderParameters/BrokenSymmetry.html Identify the Broken Symmetry]; or even more [http://scienceweek.com/2005/sw050708-6.htm On Broken Symmetry].<br /> <br /> '''''sphinxe Khnopffienne'''''&lt;br&gt;<br /> refers to the Belgian symbolist painter Fernand Khnopff (1858-1921), famous for his painting &quot;The Caress&quot;, in which a female sphinx erotically lures a young man. The painting can be seen in the [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fernand_Khnopff wikipedia entry]<br /> <br /> '''Pléiade Lafrisée'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> in French, &quot;friser&quot; means to curl or twist. &quot;La frisée&quot; could mean &quot;curled,&quot; by extension &quot;twisted.&quot; The Pleiades is a cluster of hundreds of stars, though only a few are visible, sometimes referred to as The Seven Sisters. If Pleiades are Sisters, Pléiade is ''one'' Sister, so her name means Twisted Sister!<br /> <br /> '''''Conseilleuse'''''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Female consultant?<br /> <br /> ==Page 538==<br /> <br /> '''retroversion matrix'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> ???<br /> <br /> '''''Ma foi'''''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Literally &quot;My faith&quot;, i.e. &quot;By my faith!&quot;, a mild exclamation of incredulity.<br /> <br /> '''ten thousand francs'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> <br /> Based on currency conversions relative to gold, this is equivalent to<br /> about $30,000 US today.<br /> <br /> '''piker'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Someone cheap or cautious, possibly named after people from PIke County, Missouri, who came to California in the 1800s, looking for work. They were poor, hence cheap.<br /> <br /> '''what is a Quaternino?'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Cf [[ATD_525-556#Page 525|page 525:Quaternions]] for a mathematical definition. From ''The Random House Dictionary of the English Languages'', The Unabridged Edition (1966): Quaternion is &quot;a quantity or operator expressed as the sum of a real number and three complex numbers, equivalent to the ''quotient of two vectors''. The field of quaternions is not commutative under multiplication.&quot;.<br /> <br /> '''Bertie ('Mad Dog') Russell'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> 'Mad Dog' seems to be used with heavy irony here. Bertrand Russell was known most for his rationalism, so to speak, his work in modern logic. <br /> He did little in his public roles (at this time in AtD) that would have <br /> him referred to as &quot;crazy', as we say, beyond the social norm, &quot;mad&quot;. <br /> It might be argued that his use of 'logic' against philosophers such as Hegel and McTaggart within ''Against the Day'' showed up their 'madness'.<br /> (Many did think McTaggart was a bit...different...for seriously not believing in Time.) McTaggart broke with Russell after an early influential friendship---Russell was the younger man and the influenced one. He said he was an Hegelian because of McTaggart--Russell wrote in his<br /> Autobiography that McTaggart said he no longer wanted to meet/talk with him bcause he could no longer stand Russell's opinions.<br /> <br /> [http://nobelprize.org/nobel_prizes/literature/laureates/1950/russell-bio.html Bertrand Russell] (1872-1970) was a British mathematician, philosopher, logician and social critic. Best known for his work in mathermatical logic and analytic philosophy. In late spring of 1901 he discovered the so-called [http://plato.stanford.edu/entries/russell-paradox/ Russell Paradox], &quot;the most famous of the logical or set-theoretical paradoxes. The paradox arises within naive set theory by considering the set of all sets that are not members of themselves. Such a set appears to be a member of itself if and only if it is not a member of itself, hence the paradox.&quot; (On-line Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy). He won the 1950 Nobel Prize in Literature in &quot;recognition of his varied and significant writings in which he champions humanitarian ideals and freedom of thought&quot;.<br /> <br /> '''Barry Nebulay'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> nebulae: formed from the diffusion of gas in galaxies or as exploded stars (or the last ember-like stage of a star)&lt;br&gt; <br /> Most nebulae can be described as diffuse nebulae, which means that they are extended and contain no well-defined boundaries.[1] In visible light these nebulae may be divided into emission nebulae and reflection nebulae, a categorization that depends on how the light we see is created.<br /> <br /> '''Hegel... puns'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Probably refers to the fact that quite a lot of Hegel's philosophy deals with the is-ness of the world as we know and experience it.<br /> <br /> On page 787 of Bertrand Russell's ''History of Western Philosophy'' is a summary, perhaps, of this remark about Hegel's puns: &quot;as a result of analysis of the concept &quot;existence&quot;, modern logic has proved this [Cartesianism, refuted by Kant, reinstated by Hegel] argument invalid.....&quot;<br /> <br /> We know from other places that TRP himself seems to 'not like' Cartesianism. See 'cartesian' citations within this wiki.<br /> <br /> ==Page 539==<br /> <br /> '''a vector quotient'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> The result of one vector divided by another. According to the English dictionary definition of previous page this is just a Quaternion.<br /> <br /> '''unit vector'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Unit vector is a vector with magnitude of one. The unit vectors in 3-dimensional space, ''i, j, k'', associated with ''x, y, z'' directions are used in defining a general 3D vector (Cf [[ATD_525-556#Page 526|page 526:Gibbsian Vectors]]).<br /> <br /> '''''square root of minus one'''''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Imaginary number (Cf [[ATD_119-148#Page 132|page 133:Imaginary Number]]). The imaginary numbers ''i, j, k'' are used in defining a Quaternion (Cf [[ATD_525-556#Page 525|page 525:Quaternions]]).<br /> <br /> ''''Triangle Asana''''&lt;br&gt;<br /> A basic yoga pose. <br /> <br /> [http://yoga.org.nz/postures/yoga_positions_images_page.htm Here are images of several basic poses.]<br /> <br /> ''''Dr Rao abruptly vanished''''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Might be a reference to [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Martin_Gardner Martin Gardner]'s<br /> [http://www.amazon.com/No-Sided-Professor-Fantasy-Mystery-Philosophy/dp/0879753900 &quot;No-Sided Professor&quot;]<br /> <br /> ''''Quadrantal Versor Asana''''&lt;br&gt;<br /> A triangle pose taken that extra dimension.<br /> <br /> '''''&quot;Uwe moer!&quot;'''''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Looks a lot like the Dutch &quot;Uw moeder!&quot; - a cry of astonishment (&quot;Your mother!&quot;), the equivalent to the black English &quot;yo mama&quot;.<br /> <br /> '''noncommutative'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> A term typical to mathematics. A commutative equation is one that can operate in exact reverse and still yield the same results. 'Noncommutative' then suggests unidirectionality. The ability to go from point A to point B, but not from B to A.<br /> <br /> '''reticule'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> A woman's drawstring handbag; usually made of net or beading or brocade; also: A system of lines forming a pattern of squares at the focal plane of a telescope, used in micrometers.<br /> [http://www.astunit.com/tutorials/glossary.htm] <br /> :Isn't that sort of a red herring? &quot;[P]roducing from her reticule a . . . watch&quot; doesn't really allow of that second meaning. &lt;br&gt;<br /> :It could be a pun, since a reticule/ handbag always shows its pattern of lines, and a watch (timepiece) is drawn from it. Remember that, e.g. railroad lines of tracks, are a sign of industrialism encroaching on the natural and the spiritual.<br /> <br /> '''Vacheron &amp; Constantin watch'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Made by a Swiss company founded in 1755. From 1819 to 1970 the name was as in the text, then the &amp; dropped out. See the [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vacheron_Constantin Wikipedia entry.]<br /> <br /> '''hunting-case'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> For a pocket watch, a case with a hinged metal cover. More often called &quot;hunter case&quot; (and such a watch a &quot;hunter&quot;).<br /> <br /> ==Page 540==<br /> <br /> '''&quot;haar rekening, ja?&quot;'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> The bill, yes? (Dutch)?<br /> <br /> ''Her'' bill, yes? I.e., give the check to the lady.<br /> <br /> Given the presence of Chris 'Kit' Traverse here, this very much suggests a reference to Christopher 'Kit' Marlowe, Elizabethan poet, playwright and contemporary of Shakespeare. Marlowe was stabbed to death in 1593, in murky circumstances, ostensibly over a bill or 'reckoning', though he was widely believed to have been involved in some form of espionage.<br /> <br /> Strictly speaking &quot;haar rekening&quot; means that the lady pays for herself only. If Root wanted to make sure that Pléiade pays for the whole company he would have to say &quot;de hele rekening voor de dame&quot;. <br /> <br /> '''Piet Woevre'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> The Woëvre is a natural region of Lorraine in north-east France. It forms part of Lorraine plateau and lies largely in the department of Meuse. During World War I, there was much fighting there due to vast mineral resources that had been discovered in the Briey basin or Eastern Woevre at the end of the 19th century. &quot;Piet&quot; is Dutch for &quot;rock&quot; or &quot;stone&quot; and is a fairly common Dutch name, the English equivalent being Peter.<br /> <br /> If the surname is pronounced as in Dutch, Woevre is another Pynchon villain with a &quot;V&quot;-name (Vond, Weissman, Vibe). <br /> <br /> '''Force Publique'''&lt;br /&gt;<br /> The Force Publique (FP) was the official armed force for what is now the Democratic Republic of the Congo from 1885, (when the territory was known as the Congo Free State), through the period of direct Belgian rule (1908-60), until the beginning of the Second Republic in 1965. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Force_Publique Wikipedia entry]<br /> <br /> '''made him reach'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Possible allusion to a famous line, &quot;When I hear the word culture I reach for my gun.&quot; From Hanns Johst's biographical play ''Schlageter''. The original line is slightly different: &quot;Wenn ich Kultur höre ... entsichere ich meinen Browning,&quot; &quot;Whenever I hear of culture... I release the safety-catch of my Browning!&quot; (Act 1, Scene 1). It is spoken by another character in conversation with the young Schlageter. In the scene Schlageter and his wartime comrade Friedrich Thiemann are studying for a college examination, but then start disputing whether it's worthwhile doing so when the nation is not free. <br /> <br /> The line is often misattributed to better-known Nazis and others [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hanns_Johst].<br /> <br /> *In Jean-Luc Godard's 1963 film [http://www.chicagoreader.com/movies/archives/0997/09057.html ''Le Mépris'' (''Contempt'')], Jack Palance's character &quot;Jeremy Prokosch,&quot; an American movie-producer, intones to Fritz Lang: &quot;Whenever I hear the word culture, I reach for my checkbook.&quot;<br /> <br /> '''not unambiguous'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Ie, ambiguous.<br /> <br /> '''''rastaquoueres'''''&lt;br&gt;<br /> 8???<br /> <br /> '''de Decker'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> In Dutch/Flemish, the name means &quot;roofer.&quot; (''De'' in these names almost never means &quot;of, from&quot; as in French; it's nearly always the definite article.)<br /> <br /> ==Page 541==<br /> <br /> '''''bobbejaan'''''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Afrikaans: baboon. (Afrikaans is the language spoken by descendants of Dutch colonists in present-day South Africa. Some items identified as Dutch or Flemish in this wiki may really be Afrikaans.)<br /> <br /> The South African song &quot;Bobbejaan klim die berg&quot; (&quot;Bobbejaan climbed the hill&quot;) is the source of the stage name of Belgium's most famous country and western musician, Bobbejaan Schoepen (b. 1925). In 1943 he was suppressed by the Nazis after performing a South African song, &quot;Mamma, 'k wil 'n man hê&quot; (&quot;Mama, I want a man&quot;), which contains the line &quot;No, Mama, I don't want a German, because I don't like pork.&quot; He founded the Bobbejaanland theme park in Belgium, where he still lives.<br /> <br /> '''MKIV/ODC... Mark Four'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> This would be the Mark IV Ohmic Drift Compensator ([[ATD 557-587#Page 565|Page 565]]), a key component of the Q-weapon, which &quot;regulates how much light is allowed to enter the silvering of the mirror! Special kind of refraction! Calibrated against imaginary index! Dangerous! Of the essence!'&quot;<br /> <br /> '''not part of your remit'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Not included in your job description, instructions, authorization. &quot;Remit&quot; (noun) is usually a British usage.<br /> <br /> '''''gatkruiper'''''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Dutch/Flemish: brownnose, ass-kisser.<br /> <br /> '''one on her wrist'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> All the bruises reflect some refinement or artistry except this one, which may have been inflicted crudely.<br /> <br /> '''over the day'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Title motif?<br /> <br /> ==Page 542==<br /> <br /> '''trans-horizontic'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> ???<br /> Across the horizon -- &quot; a screaming comes across the sky&quot;<br /> <br /> '''Edmund Whittaker'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Edmund Whittaker (1873-1956), an English mathematician. He is best known for his work in numerical analysis. And he contributed widely to applied mathematics, mathematical physics and the theory of special functions. He also worked on celestial mechanics and the history of applied mathermatics and physics. ([http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/E._T._Whittaker Whittaker]).<br /> <br /> The Sir Edmund Whittaker Memorial Prize is awarded every four years by the Edinburgh Mathematical Society to an outstanding young mathematician having a specified connection with Scotland [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sir_Edmund_Whittaker_Memorial_Prize]. <br /> <br /> '''louche'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> The cloudy effect caused by the addition of water to absinthe. Dictionary definition: &quot;of questionable taste or morality; decadent.&quot;<br /> <br /> '''cheval-glass'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Standing mirror in a freestanding vertical frame.<br /> <br /> '''as if someone'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Sound-cancelling vs opacity-cancelling?<br /> <br /> ==Page 543==<br /> <br /> '''wraith of Pleiade Lafrisee'''<br /> <br /> Pleiade manifests one of her not-visible stars. Perhaps this sister has somehow twisted herself on an imaginary axis ala Dr. V. Ganesh Rao.<br /> <br /> '''monitory'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Warning, giving advice, by extension ominous or menacing.<br /> <br /> '''Against....the day....'''<br /> Note: this phrase happens at the exact halfway point of the novel: p.542.3<br /> <br /> '''He Who Must Come'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> The evil-doer who must come might be Adolf Hitler. It would make sense. The implication being that Europe is precipitating into a no-return situation. Capitalism cannot but end in WW2.&lt;br&gt;<br /> Ah, a lot more and less than capitalism going on here, especially if anyone specific like Hitler is meant. <br /> :When French writers use this phrase (''celui qui doit venir'') they '''do''' mean the Messiah . . . although a few devout quibblers point out that the Messiah has already come. It's rather tiresome Googling the phrase; the first 83 hits definitely refer to Christ and most of them quote the first verses of Matthew 11. But there's also a Camus reference (in English, I think) down at No. 90, if anyone has a JSTOR account:<br /> :links.jstor.org/sici?sici=0361-1299(1985)39%3A4%3C251%3ACFS%22M%3E2.0.CO%3B2-X <br /> <br /> Recalls Yeats' 'The Second Coming' once again: &quot;And what rough beast, its hour come round at last, Slouches towards Bethlehem to be born?&quot; [http://chumpsofchoice.blogspot.com/2007/05/casino-royale-in-flanders-field.html#c3637134446204467798 ]<br /> <br /> '''General Boulanger'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/General_Boulanger Georges Boulanger], French military man, and War Minister in the late 19th century. He was one of those men &quot;on a white horse&quot; that some conservatives looked to, as he urged an attack on Germany and the end of the French Republic with a return to monarchy. He was also notorious for his harsh reprisals against workers' demonstrations. &quot;'Boulangisme'&quot; threatened a coup in 1889, but the general's procrastination brought the crisis to an end.&lt;br&gt;<br /> In ''The Infernal Machine: A History of Terrorism''<br /> by Matthew Carr, 2007, Boulanger is called the &quot;father&quot; of fascism.<br /> <br /> '''what death and what transfiguration'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Allusion to Richard Strauss' tone poem &quot;Death and Transfiguration&quot; (''Tod und Verklärung''), premiered in 1890.<br /> <br /> '''''&quot;Zeker&quot;'''''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Dutch: certainly.<br /> <br /> '''''dead cert'''''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Dead certainty, sure thing.<br /> <br /> '''Von Schlieffen'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Alfred von Schlieffen was the author of a German war plan to win a two-front war against both France and Russia by quickly defeating France before Russian troops could be mobilized. The [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Schlieffen_Plan Schlieffen Plan] included an attack on France through Belgium, disregarding its neutrality.<br /> <br /> '''Wilhelm has offered Leopold part of France, the ancient Duchy of Burgundy'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> [http://www.crwflags.com/fotw/flags/fr-bg.html History of the duchy.] [http://www.freiburg-madison.de/freiburg_history/1386-1517_The%20Early%20Habsburgs.htm Map,] with portrait of Duke Charles the Rash.<br /> <br /> '''lowlands'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Title of Pynchon's first published story. Here, ass?<br /> <br /> ==Page 544==<br /> <br /> '''Place d'Armes'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Main square of Ostend; literally &quot;drill field&quot;.<br /> <br /> '''peau de soie'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> &quot;Skin of silk&quot; A heavy, smooth satin with very fine ribbing; somewhat dull in sheen compared with traditional silk finishes.<br /> <br /> '''Krafft-Ebing'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Richard Freiherr von Krafft-Ebing, Austro-German psychiatrist and author of ''Psychopathia Sexualis'' (1886), a pioneering study of deviant sexual behavior and fetishism. Coined both ''sadism'' and ''masochism'' as terms for these respective behaviors. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Richard_Freiherr_von_Krafft-Ebing Wikipedia entry].<br /> <br /> '''toque'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Toque here refers to a lady's hat, originally of fur but here in velvet, which is rather like a flattened chef's hat in shape.<br /> <br /> Proust: in ''À l'ombre des jeunes filles en fleurs'' the narrator first sees Albertine wearing a toque. There seem to be quite a few Proust themes and references running throughout the novel. Indeed '''Pliade''' is the French publisher of Proust's works. <br /> <br /> '''guipure'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Lace trim.<br /> <br /> '''midinette'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> A shopgirl or dressmakers apprentice. A milliner.<br /> <br /> '''Lambic'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> A distinctive Belgian style of beer. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lambic Wikipedia]<br /> <br /> '''sous'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> <br /> Coins. Originally Roman gold coins, latterly any kind of coin.<br /> <br /> Specifically small change. She is affecting modesty by claiming that a hat like hers can be had for pennies in any unpretentious shop. In France &quot;sou is used as slang for money, as in ''sans le sou''. 'I'm broke', 'without money'. It is also a slang term for the Canadian cent (standard French, cent).&quot; ([http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sou Wikipedia])<br /> <br /> '''mayonnaise'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Brautigan's &quot;Trout Fishing in America&quot; famously ends with the word mayonnaise. [http://books.google.com/books?vid=ISBN0395500761&amp;id=rbEjDovfyNMC&amp;pg=RA2-PA111&amp;lpg=RA2-PA111&amp;ots=ELKl5b_6Tx&amp;dq=mayonnaise+trout.fishing&amp;num=100&amp;sig=BiyXRqJXRGrMWbrBNgn8de2kpCo#PRA2-PA112,M1 GoogleBooks]<br /> <br /> '''ovoöleaginous'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Another Pynchonic word combination, here denoting the two main ingredients of mayonnaise: 1) eggs, and 2) oil. It's not &quot;fecoventilatory collision&quot; as seen in &quot;Vineland,&quot; but it's nice.<br /> <br /> '''Grenache'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Grape commonly used in Rhone Valley wines e.g. Chateauneuf du Pape.<br /> <br /> '''Chantilly'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> <br /> Region north of Paris.<br /> <br /> Here the reference is to crème chantilly otherwise known as whipped cream. Chantilly mayonnaise is made by incorporating the beaten egg whites for extra lightness.<br /> <br /> '''attainder'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Legislative act declaring that a person is guilty of a crime and setting punishment without the benefit of a formal trial. The Constitution forbids the federal government (Article I, Section 9, clause 3) and the state governments (Article I, Section 10, clause 1) from passing bills of attainder.<br /> [www.historycentral.com/Civics/B.html] <br /> <br /> ''''''Aux armes, citoyens''''''&lt;br&gt;<br /> ''To arms, citizens'', from the French national anthem, ''La Marseillaise'' (1792). Kit confused La Mayonnaise with La Marseillaise.&lt;br&gt;<br /> Not &quot;Le Marseillaise,&quot; you nitwit!<br /> <br /> '''Louis XV'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> King of France 1715-1774 [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Louis_XV]. <br /> <br /> '''Cléo de Mérode'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Glamorous French ballerina (1875-1966), later Follies Bergere dancer and famous beauty. Her reputed intimacy with King Leopold was only a rumor [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cleo_de_Merode]. The character Madame Leonora Armfeldt in Stephen Sondheim's ''A Little Night Music'' has some features in common with her.<br /> <br /> '''Marquise de Pompadour'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Mistress of Louis XV,once friend of Voltaire and a power behind official scenes.[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Madame_de_Pompadour].<br /> <br /> ==Page 545==<br /> <br /> '''duc de Richelieu'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Duc de Richelieu (1696-1788), marshal of France, was a grandnephew of Cardinal Richelieu, and born in Paris. Apart from his reputation as a man of exceptionally loose morals, he attained, in spite of a defective education, distinction as a diplomatist and general. ([http://www.1911encyclopedia.org/Louis_Francois_Armand_du_Plessis,_duc_de_Richelieu duc de Richelieu] and cf [[ATD_489-524#Page 490|page 490:duc de Richelieu]])<br /> <br /> '''dubious 'victory' in 1756'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> As part of the Seven Years' War (1756-1763), duc de Richelieu (1696-1788), a Marshal of France, won a victory in the Battle of Minorca (May 20, 1756) over John Byng (1704-1757), a British Admiral. In spring of 1756 John Byng was sent with a small and undermanned fleet to relieve the British ''Port Mahon'' on the Mediterranean island of Minorca. During the battle ensued, several British ships were badly damaged by the French squadron while others, including Byng's flagship, were still out of effective firing range. Instead of engaging the enemy directly, Byng decided to keep the formation, allowing the French fleet to get away undamaged. ([http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_Minorca Battle of Minorca]).<br /> <br /> '''the ill-fated Admiral Byng'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> John Byng, convicted by court-martial of failure &quot;to do his utmost&quot; in the battle, shot in 1757. Remembered because of (1) his being the last officer of flag rank to be put to death for conduct in battle and (2) Voltaire's gag in ''Candide:'' &quot;In this country it is good to kill an admiral from time to time in order to encourage the others.&quot;<br /> <br /> '''cantharides'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> &quot;Spanish fly,&quot; contact irritant sometimes ill-advisedly used as aphrodisiac.<br /> <br /> '''Sadean'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Pertaining to the Marquis de Sade. The acts the chef performs on the egg and oil have the same names as acts of Sadean sex. <br /> <br /> '''''n'est-ce pas?'''''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Right? (Isn't that so?)<br /> <br /> '''vetiver'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> A grass (Vetiveria zizanioides) of tropical India, cultivated for its aromatic roots that yield an oil used in perfumery.<br /> [www.answers.com/topic/vetiver]. So, a perfume with, llterallly, roots in India.<br /> <br /> Vetiver makes frequent appearances throughout ''À la recherche du temps perdu.''<br /> <br /> '''pip'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> A beaut; in current parlance, a hottie.<br /> <br /> '''Q.P. system'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Quaternion Probability, page 536.<br /> <br /> '''Usine Régionale'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> French: as translated in the text.<br /> <br /> ==Page 546==<br /> <br /> '''disjunctive effects of thunderstorms'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Folk wisdom says a thunderstorm will cause mayonnaise to separate (oil from yolks).<br /> <br /> '''cottonseed oil'''<br /> <br /> Mayonnaisse like Smegmo and Crisco is a hydrogenated fat; cottonseed oil is a common factor to all three. Indeed, the name Crisco derives from the intial sounds of &quot;'''crys'''tallized '''c'''ottonseed '''o'''il&quot;. Note in the next few pages a mention of Candlebrow -- underscoring a tie-in between Mayonnaisse and Smegmo. <br /> <br /> It may be of interest to note that hydrogenation may have a symbolic use for Pynchon. The process entails bubbling hydrogen through oil in the presence of a metal catalyst such as nickel, platinum, aluminum at 248 to 410 degrees. Remnants of these metals stay in the finished product, and when consumed can lead to an increase in heavy metals in the human body.<br /> <br /> Eating hydrogenated oils is like eating plastic. The body does not recognize that these molecules have been mutated and tries to use them as essential fatty acids. But they cannot perform the same function, and as a result hydrogenated oils can cause short circuits in the electrical flow that controls the heartbeat, nerve functions, cell division and mental balance. They also create free radicals (anarchists!) that are linked to cancers. Free radicals plus metal remnants are a major contributor to cancer, heart disease, immune system dysfunction, osteoporosis, depression, chronic fatigue, Alzheimers, and neurological diseases. It is estimated that over 200 million people have died prematurely because of the hydrogenated oils found in our diets. [http://www.drz.org/asp/newsletter/default.asp?xt2id=23] Not to mention innocent bystanders killed by mentally imbalanced people whose imbalance may stem from the ingestion of hydrogenated oils -- there may be some underlying reality to the &quot;Twinkie defense.&quot;<br /> <br /> '''lounge suit'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> A lounge suit is another name for business suit consisting of a matching jacket and trousers or skirt.<br /> <br /> '''congress shoes'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> ankle high shoes with elastic gussets in the sides (wordweb online)<br /> <br /> '''invisible hand'''<br /> <br /> Suggestive of Adam Smith's metaphor for market forces in economics.<br /> <br /> '''dripping-heads'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mayonnaise To make mayonnaise,] beat together egg yolks, salt, mustard and vinegar, then drip in oil while beating to form the emulsion. If you scale the process up for industrial production, you will automate the introduction of the oil, using nozzles that release it a drop at a time—but in a large vat you can have many such nozzles.<br /> <br /> '''''cuves d'agitation'''''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Vat or tank in which the mayonnaise is agitated or beaten.<br /> <br /> '''Clinique d'Urgence pour Sauvetage des Sauces'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> French: Emergency Clinic for Salvage of Sauces.<br /> <br /> ==Page 547==<br /> <br /> '''' ...engulfed in thick, slick, sour-smelling mayonnaise. ''''<br /> The whole Kit's experience in the mayonnaise factory is very much reminiscent to [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Roald_Dahl Roald Dahl]'s [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Charlie_and_the_Chocolate_Factory Charlie and the Chocolate Factory].<br /> <br /> '''''Cazzo, cretino'''''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Literally, &quot;Dick, cretin.&quot; ''Cazzo'' is a common Italian interjectionary obscenity, especially in the south. &quot;Cazzo, cretino,&quot; is akin to someone saying, &quot;Well shit, dummy,&quot; or &quot;F-ing moron!&quot;<br /> <br /> '''''È il cowboy!'''''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Italian: It's the cowboy!<br /> <br /> '''''vero?'''''&lt;br&gt;<br /> true? real?<br /> <br /> '''''Le bambole anarchiste, porca miseria'''''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Italian: Anarchist babes, oh boy.<br /> <br /> '''Oudenberg'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> A southeast suburb of Ostende.<br /> <br /> '''Quai de l'Entrepôt'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Warehouse Quay<br /> <br /> '''''ragazzi'''''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Italian: boys, guys.<br /> <br /> ==Page 548==<br /> <br /> '''General Boulanger'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> That the General was 'reactionary' and that the C of C bureaucracy had a 'defiant residue' of Boulangism, continues the characterization of the organization for which the Chums 'work'.&lt;br&gt;<br /> See p. 543 above, regarding a 2007 book in which Boulanger is called the 'father of fascism'.<br /> <br /> '''''timbres fictifs'''''&lt;br&gt;<br /> French: fictive postage stamps. Cf &quot;Lot 49&quot;.&lt;br&gt;<br /> Yes, stamps mean something in Pynchon's works; here, it seems important that these stamps are characterized as frauds.<br /> <br /> '''&quot;IIIb&quot;'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> As explained in the text.&lt;br&gt;<br /> &quot;Section IIIB (Intelligence) of the German High Command. After WWI, was funded by Alfred Hugenberg (financial backer of Nazi party)&quot;. From ''Sabotage'' by Sayers &amp; Kahn, 1942.[http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&amp;q=%22IIIB%27+%2B+INTELLIGENCE&amp;btnG=Search]. The authors state in the Forward, in 1942, &quot;that 'Nazi Germany' is the creation of spies and saboteurs&quot;. See ''Gravity's Rainbow'', of course. <br /> <br /> '''Germany might stand a better chance...'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> That is, if the French were to push into Alsace (per Boulanger) as the Germans executed the Schlieffen Plan [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Schlieffen_plan] for the encirclement of Paris, it would put the French at an even greater disadvantage...as actually happened in 1914. Had the Belgians and British not delayed the Germans in Flanders, and had the French railroads not performed speedily to bring the French troops back to the Marne, World War I could have had a very different outcome...an alternate history. <br /> <br /> '''revanchist'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Policies based on revenge, or a person following such policies. In General Boulanger's case, revenge against Germany for the Franco-Prussian War (that is, retaking Alsace, lost in 1871).<br /> <br /> '''the somewhat discomposed General'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Having died in 1891, the General by the time of the action is certainly somewhat '''de'''composed; brief biographies do not suggest he was ''non compos mentis,'' that is, mentally discomposed.<br /> <br /> ==Page 549==<br /> '''cackled Darby'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> (When did he lose his innocence?)<br /> <br /> '''a modification of any salsician metaphor toward the diminutive'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Salsician: pertaining to sausage. Lindsay says Suckling's penis is better compared to a wiener than a knockwurst.<br /> <br /> '''&quot;Why you little–and I do mean 'little'–&quot;'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Another Simpsons reference? <br /> <br /> Noseworth, the Master-At-Arms of the Chums division of this organization with a defiant residue of 'fascism', who had no smell to Pugnax early on,<br /> is called out, either for real or in a sex-bashing putdown, for homosexuality. cf. homosexuality as a metaphor in ''Gravity's Rainbow''. <br /> <br /> '''dunes between Nieuport and Dunkirk'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Nieuport is a Belgian seaport about 10 miles southwest of Ostend. Dunkirk is a French port (less than 10 miles inside the French border) about 20 miles southwest of Nieuport. The latter was a site of one of the bloodest battle in World War I. The general area between Niewport and Dunkirk was the well traversed battle fields of two world wars. (Dunkirk was (in)famous for the British Army's escape from the Nazi German's assault in World War II.)<br /> <br /> '''power-receivers'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Not information, energy.<br /> <br /> ==Page 550==<br /> <br /> '''Lot's wife''' &lt;br&gt;<br /> Angels of God led Lot and his family out of Sodom as it was being destroyed and told them not to look back at the mayhem. Lot's wife, Edith, imprudently looked back and was transfigured into a pillar of salt.<br /> <br /> '''Italian grotto'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> an imitating recess or structure made to resemble a natural Italian grotto.<br /> <br /> '''a highly developed taste, moreover, for human blood'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Since Pugnax developed this taste in the Carpathians, home of Castle Dracula, this seems a clear reference to Bram Stoker's novel. <br /> <br /> '''Carpathians'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Major mountain range running northwest-southeast through Poland, Slovakia, western Ukraine and Romania.<br /> <br /> '''Uhlans'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Uhlan regiments belonged to the light cavalry. They wore splendid uniforms (model for some U.S. marching band uniforms). [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Uhlan Wikipedia article.]<br /> <br /> '''Temesvár'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Now Timişoara, extreme western Romania.<br /> <br /> ==Page 551==<br /> <br /> '''...separated by only a slice of Time...'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Miles is beginning to experience Time almost as a spatial dimension, his personal vector as traversing (!) 4-dimensional space, or perhaps multidimensional space, the mathematics for which is being debated in Ostend.<br /> <br /> '''securing the mess decks'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> The Chums follow U.S. Navy idiom in orders (frequently prefixed with &quot;Now&quot;) and shipboard activities (&quot;secure&quot; meaning &quot;whatever you did before, undo it now,&quot; in this case put away the dishes and fold up the tables).<br /> <br /> '''Ryder Thorn'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Tolkienesque name? Or perhaps it's a nod to the Ryder-Waite Tarot deck and to Kevin Thorn (Kevin Matthew Fertig, 1977-), the American professional wrestler better known by his ring name Kevin Thorn who is currently signed to World Wrestling Entertainment wrestling on its ECW brand. He has appeared in vigniettes with Ariel (Shelly Martinez, 1980-), the tarot card reader, who spits blood at the camera while she &quot;predicted the future of ECW.&quot; Yup, a stretch...<br /> <br /> *The name also evokes the Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse.<br /> <br /> '''He was at Candlebrow.'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Presumably a 'trespasser.'<br /> <br /> '''the four-note chord in the context of timelessness'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> A melody is formed by notes following one another in time; a chord on the ukulele violates that practice by having all the notes sound at once. A really clever little passage.<br /> Note: Jazz musicians describe musical improvisations as horizontal (with the melody) or vertical (with the chord)<br /> <br /> ==Page 552==<br /> <br /> '''knuckle-duster'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Brass knuckles.<br /> <br /> '''Diksmuide'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> 20 kilometers south of Ostend (about halfway to Ypres).<br /> <br /> ==Page 553==<br /> <br /> '''The terrain was flat...lowlands'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Not, this time, a reference to Pynchon's ''Lowlands'', but to the two-dimensionality of Flanders, as in Edwin A. Abbott's ''Flatland'' [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Flatland]; most humans, like the inhabitants of Flanders and Abbott's Flatlanders, experience life in two dimensions. <br /> <br /> '''Somewhere up in the sky was Miles' home...'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Whereas Miles and the Chums of Chance, in contrast, live in three dimensions. The mathematicians gathered in Ostend are trying to calculate how to experience and use vectors to live in four dimensions; in a way, to experience Time as a kind of spatial dimension. Miles, on P. 551, is demonstrating the beginnings of an intuitive discovery of how to experience Time as an almost spatial dimension. Which would be a sort of &quot;time travel&quot;, or at least an expanded view of life and history.<br /> <br /> '''retted'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> soaked in water or exposed to moisture (as flax or hemp) to facilitate the removal of the fiber from the woody tissue by partial rotting.<br /> <br /> ==Page 554==<br /> <br /> '''Ypres and Menin'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Municipalities in West Flanders that were sites of some of the bloodiest battles of WWI. At the beginning of the war, the British and Belgian stand helped save Paris from encirclement by the Germans, and saved the Channel ports, but as Thorn points out, the area became the western anchor of the Western Front trench system. The several Battles of Ypres saw the first uses of poison gas (Mustard Gas, dichlorodiethylsulfide, was first called Yperite), the use of enormous mines, and the legendary mud of Passchendaele [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Passchendaele]. <br /> <br /> '''Ten years from now'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> (1914?) through 1918? and beyond?. Another paramorphic mirror--what do we now face. Whatever it is, it is nuclear.<br /> <br /> '''Bosch'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Hieronymous Bosch (1450-1516), Dutch painter of nightmares. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hieronymus_Bosch Wikipedia entry].<br /> <br /> '''Brueghel'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Pieter Brueghel the Elder(1525-1569), Flemish painter.[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pieter_Brueghel_the_Elder Wikipedia entry].<br /> <br /> '''League'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> League of Nations? The League of Nations was formed after WWI to prevent future wars. Didn't succeed.<br /> <br /> No. In this case a historical unit of length, approximately three miles - &quot;league on league&quot; = tremendous masses<br /> <br /> '''where the needles went and which way to rotate them'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> I.e., how to push Thorn's buttons; the image is from acupuncture.<br /> <br /> ==Page 555==<br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> '''simpletons at the fair'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Making Pynchon's metaphor explicit.<br /> <br /> '''Chopin E-minor Nocturne'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Frédéric Chopin (1810-49), a Polish pianist and composer ([http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fr%C3%A9d%C3%A9ric_Chopin Chopin]). He was born in Warsaw, Poland to a Polish morther and a French father. He went to Paris at the age of 20 and died there at the age of 39. He was widely regarded as one of the most famous and influential composers for the piano. From 1837-47 he had a 10-year stormy relationship with the French writer George Sand. His E-minor Nocturne is a 4-minute long Romantic style piano solo composed in 1827. (A ''nocturne'' is usually a musical composition that is inspired by, or evocative of, the night [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nocturne Nocturne].)<br /> <br /> '''owl-light'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> ???glimmering or imperfect light or twilight hours.<br /> <br /> ''''plasmic hysteresis''''&lt;br&gt;<br /> <br /> A coined term, apparently similar in meaning to Miles’ phrase “failure of physical translation.” Plasma would take an older meaning of “form” or “shape.&quot; Hysteresis, according to Webster's, refers to “a retardation in effect when the forces on an object are changed.” Hysteresis is used to describe magnetic phenomenon as well as plastic or elastic materials, that involve changes to a rest state that last beyond the forces that cause them. Examples include recordings on magnetic tape or a thumbprint slowly disappearing from putty. In the context of this passage, plasmic hysteresis appears to describe the lingering visage of someone who is no longer present – a hysteresis of form only and thus a failed physical translation. See [http://www.etymonline.com/index.php?search=plasma&amp;searchmode=none etymology of plasma] and this nifty explanation of [http://www.lassp.cornell.edu/sethna/hysteresis/WhatIsHysteresis.html hysteresis]. <br /> <br /> Hysteresis has also been used to refer to “loops” in time, certainly apropos in this case. I stumbled across an excellent example in a 1980 episode of Dr. Who, in which the eponymous Dr. is trapped in “chronic hysteresis,” an endless loop or return to a previous <br /> point in time – very similar to the situation of Ryder Thorn. [http://www.drwhoguide.com/who_5q.htm Check it out for yourself!] <br /> <br /> <br /> ==Annotation Index==<br /> {{ATD PbP}}</div>

MKOHUT https://against-the-day.pynchonwiki.com/wiki/index.php?title=ATD_525-556&diff=14097 2007-10-18T14:25:37Z

<p>MKOHUT: /* Page 548 */</p> <hr /> <div>:'''&lt;big&gt;Please keep these annotations SPOILER-FREE by not revealing information from later pages in the novel.&lt;/big&gt;'''&lt;p&gt;&lt;br&gt;<br /> <br /> ==Page 525==<br /> <br /> '''Ostend'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Cf [[ATD_489-524#Page 521|page 521:Ostend]], a seaport in northwest Belgium. Among English-speaking tourists, Ostend (or Ostende) is best known as a ferry port. Ships have shuttled between Dover and Ostend for more than 150 years, and today's high-speed catamarans move hundreds of passengers and vehicles between these two ports in just two hours. But this thousand-year-old city is a popular beach resort with Belgians, who flock to Ostend for sun, surfing, sailing and the ''Kursaal'' (Casino). The fishing harbor and old town draw many visitors. Ostend is the only Belgian coastal resort that is as lively in the summer as in the winter. For more and pictures [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ostend Ostend].<br /> <br /> '''Fishermen's Quai'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Fishermen's Quay, also called De Trap. The shrimp boats come home here from the sea in the morning. Along the quay many stands sell lots of seafoods.<br /> <br /> '''Boulevard van Isenghem'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> A major thoroughfare in Ostend, locally called ''Van Iseghemlaan'', extending diagonally from seafront southwest through the city.<br /> <br /> '''street-plausible'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Presentable.<br /> <br /> '''Quai de l'empereur'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Since Ostende is in the Flemish part of Belgium this should be the Keizerskaai, a street along the old part of the harbour, 1919 renamed Vindictivelaan.<br /> <br /> '''estaminet'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> According to the OED - A café in which smoking is allowed. Now, any small establishment selling alcoholic liquor. <br /> <br /> '''twelve-centime'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> one centime is the French eqivalent of one cent. A twelve-centime beer would cost 12/100 of a franc.<br /> <br /> '''Quaternions'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Cf [[ATD_119-148#Page 130|page 130:Quaternions]]. Quaternions are a non-communtative extension of compelx numbers (Hamilton, 1843).&lt;br&gt;<br /> <br /> Analogy with the complex numbers (Cf [[ATD_119-148#Page 132|page 132:complex number]]) being represented as a sum of real and imaginary parts, a + b''i'', where ''i''² = −1, a quaternion is defined as a combination a + b''i'' + c''j'' + d''k'', where ''i''² = ''j''² = ''k''² = ''i j k'' = −1, and a, b, c, d are ''four'' explicit real numbers. The non-commutative property refers to ''i j = −j i = k; j k = −k j = i; k i = −i k = j''. (i.e. ''i j ≠ j i; j k ≠ k j; k i ≠ i k''; etc.) The using of ''i, j, k'', the imaginary numbers (Cf [[ATD_119-148#Page 133|page 133:imaginary number]]), led to the phrases of &quot;the ''ijk'' lot&quot; of page 533 and &quot;creature of ''i-j-k''&quot; of page 534.<br /> <br /> '''Kellner'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> German: waiter, barman. Use of the German word would be insulting to the Belgian barman.<br /> <br /> '''''demi'''''&lt;br&gt;<br /> A half-pint glass (25 centilitres, actually).<br /> <br /> '''Lambic'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Pron. ''lahm-BEEK.'' Unique Belgian beer style, sour and often thin in body.<br /> <br /> '''skimmer'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Straw hat (&quot;Panama&quot;).<br /> <br /> ==Page 526==<br /> <br /> '''biquaternion'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Or &quot;octonion,&quot; an innovation of English mathematician W.K. Clifford, [[ATD_243-272#Page_249|referred to on p. 249.]]<br /> <br /> '''Barry Nebulay'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Pun on a term from heraldry, ''barry nebuly.'' Barry (rhymes with &quot;starry,&quot; not &quot;carry&quot;) refers to a shield divided into an even number of parts by horizontal lines. Nebuly signals that the lines are deformed into stylized &quot;cloud&quot; shapes. [http://www.rarebooks.nd.edu/digital/heraldry/partitions.html Here you can see an example.] If a ''British'' author had a character with a heraldic name, it would suggest a pseudonym.<br /> <br /> '''University of Dublin'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> The Alma Mater of Hamilton, the father of Quaternion. He studied, graduated and taught at Trinity College, the University of Dublin, Ireland's oldest university.<br /> <br /> If University College, Dublin, then Joyce had graduated in 1902.&lt;br&gt;<br /> <br /> '''Quaternioneers'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Quaternion believers.<br /> <br /> '''Gibbsian Vectors'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Vector Analysis (or Vector Calculus) developed by Willard Gibbs (Cf [[ATD_26-56#Page 29|page 29:Professor Gibbs]]) in 1881 and 1884. It is a branch of calculus that deals with vectors and process involving vectors. It is much more easily applied to phsics and other applied sciences than Hamilton's Quaternions (Cf [[ATD_525-556#Page 525|page 525:Quaternions]]).&lt;br&gt;<br /> A vector is defined by not only a magnitude but also a direction, such as a velocity vector, ''v'' is defined by ''v'' = a''i'' + b''j'' + c''k'',<br /> where a, b, and c are the magnitudes of the velocity components in directions of ''i, j'' and ''k'' which are unit vectors, (not imaginary numbers as in Quaternion), with magnitude of 1. In three dimensional cases and ''xyz'' coordinate system is used then ''i, j, k'' are related to ''x, y, z'' directions (&quot;''xyz'' people&quot; of page 533); but they, in general, may be used irrespective of the notation of the coordinates.<br /> Mathematical operations (addition, subtraction, multiplication), differentiation (''curl'' — Cf [[ATD_318-335#Page 326|page 326:Curl]] and p. 536, ''Laplacian'' — Cf [[ATD_318-335#Page 326|page 326:Laplacian]] and p. 536, etc) and integration can be applied to vectors. It is interesting to know that one of the two multiplication operations is called cross product; for unit vectors (''i, j, k'') perpendicular to each other, then, ''i × i = j × j = k × k = 0'', ''i × j = k'', ''j × i = -k'', etc. ([http://web.mit.edu/wwmath/vectorc/summary.html Vector Calculus]).&lt;br&gt;<br /> A simple vector anyalysis example here: if ''k'', the unit vector, stands for the direction upward and g is the gravitational acceleration, then the acceleration vector, ''a'', for a projectile, is defined for downward action, (the ''i'' and ''j'' directions have zero components):&lt;br&gt;<br /> :''a'' = -g ''k''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Integrating ''a'' would give the velocity vector, ''v''&lt;br&gt;<br /> :''v'' = -g t ''k''&lt;br&gt;<br /> for zero initial velocity case, and t standing for time.&lt;br&gt;<br /> And integrating ''v'' would yield the position vector, ''h'', for the projectile&lt;br&gt;<br /> :''h'' = -½ g t² ''k''&lt;br&gt;<br /> toward the sea level.<br /> <br /> '''Quaternionists'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Quaternion believers, same as Quaternioneers.<br /> <br /> '''Tasmania'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Tasmania is an island of the southern coast of Australia. Known for its relative isolation, it was a prison for English convicts in the 1800s<br /> <br /> '''Having been inseparable from the rise of the electromagnetic'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> In his 1865 work ''The Dynamical Theory of the Electromagnetic Field'', James Clerk Maxwell unified electricity and magnetism. He put forth twenty equations, with twenty unknowns, in vector form (though different in notation and form than the equations that now bear his name) that completely described all known electromagnetic phenomena. In his 1873 treatise on the subject, he expressed the equations in the mathematics of quaternions. It appears that the quaternion form of the equations remained popular even though, at the behest of his publisher, Maxwell reverted to the 1865 form in the second edition (1881)--though they remain scattered throughout. In 1892 Oliver Heaviside (On the Forces, Stresses, and Fluxes of Energy in the Electromagnetic Field. ''Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society of London.'' A, Vol. 183. pp423-480), while spewing scientific vitriol at the Quaternionists, reformulated Maxwell's original 1865 equations (Heaviside chose to remove the vector potential and scalar fields from the equations; the inclusion of these terms had served as Maxwell's justification for the use of quaternions), and provided the notation still in use today. See this [http://www.zpenergy.com/modules.php?name=Downloads&amp;d_op=getit&amp;lid=60 PDF] for the evolution of Maxwell's equations.<br /> <br /> '''Hamiltonian devotees'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> The Quaternion faction, after William Hamilton, who devised the scheme.<br /> <br /> '''Grand Hôtel de la Nouvelle Digue'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> There is a Hotel Digue in the Seychelles; this is a New Hotel Digue by Pynchon? <br /> <br /> Grand Hotel of New Dyke, may be a made up hotel name.<br /> <br /> '''anterooms of death'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> This metaphor is sometimes applied to concentration camps. Here the lyric &quot;feel like I'm fixin' to die&quot; seems more apposite.<br /> <br /> '''Belgian Art Nouveau'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Art Nouveau, 1890(or 80) to 1914, explores a new style in the visual arts and architecture that developed in Europe and North America at the end of the 19th century. At its height (~1907), Art Nouveau was a concerted attempt to create an international style based on decoration. It was developed by a brilliant and energetic generation of artists and desisgners, who sought to fashion an art form appropriate to the post-Industrial Revolution modern age.&lt;br&gt;<br /> Brussels was one of the Art Nouveau centers and represented different style from the others. The jewelers there, accepted as artists rahter than craftsmen, (together with those in Paris) defined Art Nouveau in jewelery and achieved the most renown. ([http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Art_Nouveau Art Nouveau]).<br /> <br /> ==Page 527==<br /> <br /> '''dossing'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> British slang for &quot;sleeping&quot;, &quot;staying overnight&quot;<br /> <br /> '''Russian nihilists'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> :The following four are local, Belgian, not Russian, nihilists !<br /> <br /> '''Eugénie'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Female. Possibly named for Empress Eugénie (1826-1920), consort of French Emperor Napoleon III. Ultimately for St. Eugenia, 3rd-century Roman martyr whose feast is celebrated on December 25.<br /> <br /> '''Fatou'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Female. A pseudonym? In view of the date of the action, certainly not named after [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fatou the mathematician Fatou] (1878-1929).<br /> <br /> '''Denis'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Male. Named for St. Denis or Dionysius, patron saint of Paris and of France, 3rd-century bishop of Paris, martyr, beheaded on the hill now called Montmartre. &quot;Montjoie St. Denis!&quot; was a warcry used by French troops in the Middle Ages. His intercession is effective against demonic possession and headache.<br /> <br /> '''Policarpe'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Male. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Polycarp Saint Polycarp] was a Christian bishop of Smyrna (now İzmir in Turkey) in the second century. He was stabbed and died a martyr after an attempt to burn him at the stake failed. His intercession is sought against earache and dysentery.<br /> <br /> '''Young Congo'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Probably in reference to the [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Young_Turks Young Turks], a Turkish revolutionary movement<br /> <br /> '''Garde Civique'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> A part of the Belgian army. According to the [http://www.1911encyclopedia.org/Belgium 1911 Britannica], &quot;the mass of the garde civique does not pretend to possess military value. It is a defence against sedition and socialism.&quot;<br /> <br /> '''French Second Bureau boys'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Deuxieme Bureau; French Intelligence.<br /> <br /> '''''phalange'''''&lt;br&gt;<br /> French: phalanx. A military (here mock-military) group ready for combat. &lt;br&gt;<br /> <br /> It also conjures up memories of the early 19th century utopian socialist <br /> Charles Fourier, who theorized that people should live communally in &quot;phalanxes&quot; of a specific number based upon their &quot;passions.&quot; His solid ideas included equality of the sexes, but he also taught wacky things such as the moon being made of lemonade. Of particular relevance is his rejection of industrial civilization. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Utopian_socialism]<br /> <br /> '''&quot;...until something had happened, something too terrible to remember...&quot;'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Again this theme of an unknowable past transgression, here invoked almost as if the unknown signifies the other 'lateral' (a word which has cropped up at least a dozen times already) 'vector'.<br /> <br /> '''the Digue'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> French for &quot;dyke&quot;<br /> <br /> '''Congo... Belgians'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> The Belgian colonisation of the Congo was, as Conrad's ''Heart of Darkness'' makes clear, notable for its greed and brutality.<br /> <br /> '''Leopold, King of the Belgians'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> 1835-1909, reigned 1865-1909. A man of almost Nixonian fiendishness. In the Congo he acted as sole proprietor and absolute ruler. The positive outcomes of his exploitation include ''Heart of Darkness'' and the phrase &quot;crime against humanity.&quot;<br /> <br /> '''co-conscious'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> mental processes outside the main stream of consciousness but sometimes available to it — from Merriam-Webster's Medical Dictionary.<br /> <br /> '''Force Publique'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Belgian armed forces operating in the Belgian Congo ([http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Force_Publique Wikipedia]). &quot;King Leopold's private army&quot; may be a more accurate description.<br /> <br /> '''rubber worker'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> See above: One of the early missions of the FP was to increase rubber export quotas through forced labor and related atrocities.<br /> <br /> ==Page 528==<br /> <br /> '''''khâgne'''''&lt;br&gt;<br /> an informal term used by French students for Classes Préparatoires Littéraires, the two-year cycle of classes taken after the Baccalaureat (taken at age 17-18), to prepare for the entrance examination to the Ecole Normale Supeieure. ([http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kh%C3%A2gne khâgne]).<br /> <br /> '''Reclus'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> J. J. Élisée Reclus (1830-1905), French geographer but mainly educated in Germany. Several times he was forced to leave France because of his political views; he traveled widely in Europe, the British Isles, the United States, and South America and for many years lived in Switzerland. He was professor of comparative geography at the University of Brussels from 1895 to 1905. He had quite an extensive connection with various socialist and anarchist circles (met Bakunin while in Florence).Once he was imprisoned in Versailles in 1871 for his part in the ''Paris Commune''. In 1882 he initiated the ''Anti-marriage movement'' while in Geneva. [[http://academic.reed.edu/formosa/texts/reclusbio.html Reclus]).<br /> <br /> '''Stirnerite'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Follower of Max Stirner, 19th century German philosopher and author of ''The Ego and Its Own,'' a work influential in anarchist thought. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Max_Stirner Wikipedia entry].<br /> <br /> ''Max Stirner'''s (1806-56) attacks on systematic philosophy, his denial of absulutes, and his rejection of abstract concepts of any kind often places him among the first philosophical nihilists. For Stirner, achieving individual freedom is the only law; and the state, which necvessarily imperils freedom, must be destroyed. Even beyond the oppression of the state, though, are the constraints imposed by others because their very existence is an obstable compromising individual freedom. Thus Stirner argues that existence is an endless &quot;war of each against all&quot; (1845). (taken from the paragraph about Max Stirner in [http://www.iep.utm.edu/n/nihilism.htm#H1 Nihilism])&lt;br&gt;<br /> Sourcing here? Much complexity in properly understanding Stirner, who has some Pynchon-like qualities, to say the least. From the Stanford Dictionary of Philosophy&lt;br&gt;<br /> His major work:<br /> The Ego and Its Own<br /> Much of Stirner's prose—which is crowded with aphorisms, italicisation, and hyperbole—appears calculated to disconcert. Most striking, perhaps, is the use of word play. Rather than reach a conclusion through the conventional use of argument, Stirner often approaches a claim that he wishes to endorse by exploiting words with related etymologies or formal similarities. For example, he associates words for property (such as ‘Eigentum’) with words connoting distinctive individual characteristics (such as ‘Eigenheit’) in order to promote the claim that property is expressive of selfhood. (Stirner's account of egoistic property—see below—gives this apparently orthodox Hegelian claim a distinctive twist.)<br /> <br /> This rejection of conventional forms of intellectual discussion is linked to Stirner's substantive views about language and rationality. His unusual style reflects a conviction that both language and rationality are human products which have come to constrain and oppress their creators. Stirner maintains that accepted meanings and traditional standards of argumentation are underpinned by a conception of truth as a privileged realm beyond individual control. As a result, individuals who accept this conception are abandoning a potential area of creative self-expression in favour of adopting a subordinate role as servants of truth. In stark contrast, Stirner insists that the only legitimate restriction on the form of our language, or on the structure of our arguments, is that they should serve our individual ends. It is the frequent failure of ordinary meanings and standard forms of argument to satisfy his interpretation of this criterion which underpins Stirner's remorselessly idiosyncratic style.<br /> <br /> The Ego and Its Own has an intelligible, but scarcely transparent, structure. It is organised around a tripartite account of human experience, initially introduced in a description of the stages of an individual life. The first stage in this developmental narrative is the realistic one of childhood, in which children are constrained by material and natural forces such as their parents. Liberation from these external constraints is achieved with what Stirner calls the self-discovery of mind, as children find the means to outwit those forces in their own determination and cunning. The idealistic stage of youth, however, contains new internal sources of constraint, as individuals once more become enslaved, this time to the spiritual forces of conscience and reason. Only with the adulthood of egoism do individuals escape both material (external) and spiritual (internal) constraints, learning to value their personal satisfaction above all other considerations.<br /> <br /> Stirner portrays this dialectic of individual growth as an analogue of historical development, and it is a tripartite account of the latter which structures the remainder of the book. Human history is reduced to successive epochs of realism (the ancient, or pre-Christian, world), idealism (the modern, or Christian, world), and egoism (the future world). <br /> <br /> What about these &quot;successive epochs&quot; in understanding ATD?<br /> <br /> Stirner's major work, The Ego and Its Own has been reissued in English a number of times in Pynchon's lifetime,from the 60s on. (Not that TRP could not have read it in German!)<br /> <br /> '''''Anarcho-individualiste'''''&lt;br&gt;<br /> i.e. he has doctrinal differernces with Stirnerism, strictly speaking; see P. 324, and &quot;Eigenheit&quot;.<br /> <br /> '''Leopold'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> See p. 527.<br /> <br /> '''going down lately'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Being assassinated.<br /> <br /> '''Sipido'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Jean-Baptiste Sipido (1884-1959), a Belgian socialist. Accusing the Prince of Wales of causing thousands of inocents were killed in the Boer War in South Africa, on April 5, 1900, Sipido leaped onto the foot board of the royal compartment right before the train left the North Railway Station (Gare du Nord), Brussel, and fired two (or one? as reported in ''The Manchester Guardian'', or four? as stated in the text here) shots through the window but missed everyone inside. He was arrested, tried and acquitted. The leader of the House of Commons called the acquittal a &quot;grave and most unfortunate miscarriage of justice.&quot; ([http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jean-Baptiste_Sipido Sipido]).<br /> <br /> '''Prince... of Wales'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> (Maud Gonne's husband claimed to have been involved in another such plot.)<br /> <br /> '''Hippodrome'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Hippodrome Wellington, a horse racing track in Ostend built in 1883. The facility hosts both harness and flat racing events. ([http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hippodrome_Wellington Hippodrome]).<br /> <br /> '''Royal Bathing Hut... twenty francs'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> A bathing machine ([http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bathing_machine bathing machine])? The King of Belgium certainly would not want to be seen in a swimsuit on a public beach... It seems unlikely, though, that such a royal bathing machine would be for hire.<br /> <br /> '''twenty francs'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> ???<br /> <br /> ==Page 529==<br /> <br /> '''picric family'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> The explosive picric acid (2,4,6-trinitrophenol) and its derivatives. For picric acid, Brugère's powder and Designolle's powder, [http://encyclopedia.jrank.org/PER_PIG/PICRIC_ACID_or_TRINITROPHENOL_C.html see this Britannica article.]<br /> <br /> '''Brugère's powder'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> See &quot;picric family&quot; above.<br /> <br /> '''Designolle's'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> See &quot;picric family&quot; above.<br /> <br /> '''Monsieur Santos-Dumont'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Alberto Santos-Dumont (1873-1932), a pioneer of aviation from Brasil. Check out [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alberto_Santos-Dumont Wikipedia] to get a look at the way he was wearing his &quot;trademark Panama hat&quot;. <br /> <br /> '''Green Hour''' and '''''l'heure vertigineuse'''''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Absinthe-drinking time. The liqueur is green. In French, ''l'heure verte,'' so ''vertigineuse'' (vertiginous, causing dizziness) is a pun on the word for &quot;green.&quot;<br /> <br /> '''Rocco and Pino'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Rabid Quaternionists and sudden friends of Kit Traverse.<br /> :No, they were not mathematicians at all, let alone Quaternionists, but two &quot;Italian naval renegades&quot; !!<br /> ::&quot;Rocco and Pino&quot; are, in temperament, something like the &quot;Mason and Dixon&quot; of manned-torpedoes... cf. the &quot;torpedo&quot; (i.e., &quot;Electrick-Eel&quot;) of ''Mason &amp; Dixon''.<br /> <br /> '''Whitehead works in Fiume'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Anticipating GR's V2 works.<br /> <br /> ''Robert Whitehead'' (1823-1905), an English engineer. He developed the first self-propelled torpedo in 1866. He attended Manchester's Mechanics Institute, worked in a shipyard in Toulon (1844), France, and as a consultant engineer in Milan (1847), Italy. Later he moved to Trieste and in 1856 became a manager of a company called ''Founderia Mettali'' (later, ''Stabilimento Tecnico di Fiume'') in Fiume producing ship steam boilers and engines which were the most advanced of that era. He also developed the first self-propelled torpedo which was very popular. Whitehead's torpedo was propelled by a compressed air engine, carried 18lbs dynamites and a self-regulating device which kept the torpedo cruising at a constant preset depth. [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Robert_Whitehead Whitehead]].<br /> <br /> ''Fiume'' is now Rijeka, Croatia. Trieste is on the northwestern edge of the Istra Peninsula, Rijeka is east of it. [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rijeka Fiume]].<br /> <br /> Interesting sidebar: Whitehead's fortune from Fiume and the torpedo went solely to his granddaughter Agatha Whitehead, who married Baron von Trapp. The Von Trapp money came from Robert Whitehead, and most of the von Trapp singers were his great-grandchildren.<br /> <br /> '''''Alberta'''''&lt;br&gt;<br /> The [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Royal_yacht Wikipedia] entry on royal yachts goes back to the 17th century but doesn't include ''Alberta.'' The craft does get a mention in [http://www.bouncing-balls.com/timeline/people/nr_leopoldmorel.htm this page on Leopold and the Congo.]<br /> <br /> '''Siluro Dirigibile a Lenta Corsa'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> or S.L.C. &quot;slow course torpedo&quot;, &quot;slow-running torpedo&quot;. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Manned_torpedo Wikipedia] Italy‘s Navy was among the first to experiment with manned torpedos. Though according to [http://web.ukonline.co.uk/chalcraft/sm/chariots.html this site] this did not happen until 1935, Italian frogmen as early as October 31, 1918 made it into the harbour of Pula with the help of a modified german torpedo and sank the former Austrian but by then since a few hours Croatian/Slovenian/Bosnian battleship SMS ''Viribus Unitis''. [http://www.geocities.com/tegetthoff66/viribus.html website]<br /> <br /> The Wikipedia entry linked above doesn't contain the Italian word ''dirigibile'' (steerable), which sets up the torpedo as a counterpart of the dirigible ''Inconvenience.''<br /> <br /> :I suspect there's a connection between the torpedo and &quot;Not the usual lateener, in fact appearing to have neither sails, masts, nor oars&quot; in Miles' reversed vision, [[ATD_243-272#Page_250|page 250.]] Needs work, though.<br /> <br /> ==Page 530==<br /> <br /> '''exfiltrate'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Make a surreptitious escape (as &quot;infiltrate&quot; means to make a surreptitious entrance).<br /> <br /> '''''Macchè'''''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Italian: certainly not, not a chance. And in Pynchon's Italian is used as an all-purpose exclamation.<br /> <br /> '''''Ehi, stu gazz', categoria'''''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Stu gazz' is a dialect representation of ''sto cazzo'', literally meaning ''this dick here''. Normally you could translate the sense of the sentence as: ''yeah, why not, a fucking category! ''. -- blicero2 - 2007.02.22<br /> <br /> '''''mezzogiornismo'''''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Denigrating the Italian South. Mezzogiorno means ''midday'' in Italian but refers generally to Southern Italy.<br /> <br /> ==Page 531==<br /> <br /> '''Bruges'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> An exceptionally beautiful Belgian town of canals which is thus one of several towns known as the 'Venice of the north'. In the 14th cettury Burges already became an international finanacial and trading center, but<br /> started to decline in the 15th century. In the 20th century, however, the city was discovered by the international tourism and the medieval heritage turned out to be a new source of wealth. A new harbor of Zeebrugge, 10 miles outside of Bruges at the North Sea coast, brought new developments and new industries to the region. For the city and its history see ([http://www.trabel.com/brugge.htm Bruges]).<br /> <br /> '''Raoul's Atelier de la Vitesse'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> French: Ralph's Speed Shop.<br /> <br /> '''Ghent'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Belgian city, less than 30 miles southeast of Bruges, on the rail line about halfway between Ostend and Brussels. It is the fourth largest city of Belgium. It is bigger than Bruges but not as famous as a tourist attraction. But the city is a showcase of medieval Flemish wealth and commercial success. See ([http://www.trabel.com/gent.htm Ghent]).<br /> <br /> '''Daimler six-cylinder'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> ???<br /> <br /> '''a hundred horsepower'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> ???<br /> <br /> '''''guaglion'''''&lt;br&gt;<br /> italian (dialectal) = boy, young person<br /> <br /> '''Umeki Tsurigane'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Umeki is typically made with some combination of the various kanji for &quot;plum&quot; (ume) and &quot;tree&quot; (ki), though one has the ki being the character for &quot;ghost/devil&quot; and one obscure reading that's entirely redundant, where ume is &quot;plant&quot; (usually read ue). There is one where ume is the kanji for &quot;buried or embedded&quot;. Tsurigane, means a &quot;temple bell&quot;, which can stand alone or be followed by the grass kanji to mean &quot;bellflower&quot; (lots of botanical stuff happening here, if that means anything; hardly the only example in ''AtD''). Given the search for Shambhala going on, &quot;Buried Temple Bell&quot; seems a likely translation, at least at this point; the botanical meanings could perhaps emerge later.<br /> <br /> Or, another terrible name-pun? &quot;You make [m]e sore again.&quot; See another on P. [[ATD_748-767#Page_757| 757]]<br /> <br /> '''Professor Knott'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Cargill Knott (1856-1922), professor of physics; seismologist. See his biography [http://www.penicuikcdt.org.uk/Cargill_Knott.html here].<br /> <br /> ==Page 532==<br /> <br /> '''Kimura'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Cf [[ATD_26-56#Page 29|page 29:Kimura]] and [[ATD_318-335#Page 318|page 318:Shunkichi Kimura]].<br /> <br /> '''drover's sombrero'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Cowboy hat.<br /> <br /> '''furoshiki'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Japanese all-purpose cloth. Can be worn, used as wrapping, or used as a bag.<br /> <br /> '''taupe'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> A brownish gray.<br /> <br /> '''boilermakers and their helpers'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> [[ATD_358-373#Page_360|See annotation to p. 360.]]<br /> <br /> '''Anharmonic Pencil'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> ''Pencil'' is a term commonly used in Synthetic Geometry. Straight lines incident with a plane - coplanar lines - and passing through a common point are said to be concurrent lines and the set of all such concurrent coplanar lines is called the ''pencil''. (Cf [[ATD_429-459#Page 456|page 456:Pencil]]). For a figure and a not quite precise definition see [http://mathworld.wolfram.com/Pencil.html pencil]. If a, b, c and d, are four distinct coplanar lines and their double ratio λ = (abcd) = -1, then a, b, c, d are called a harmonic quadruple of lines; they are said to constitute a ''harmonic pencil''. A ''pencil'' which is not harmonic then is known as ''anharmonic pencil''. See Pencil (lines 8-9), Double Ratio λ (lines 32-35) and Harmonic Pencil (line 39) of [http://ca.geocities.com/ingsaler6/mathworld.html Mathworld].<br /> <br /> '''''Comptes rendus'''''&lt;br&gt;<br /> ''Comptes rendus des séances hebdomadaires,'' Proceedings of the weekly sessions (of the Academy of Sciences), published from 1835, later (ca. 1935) retitled ''Comptes rendus de l'Académie des sciences,'' Proceedings of the Academy of Sciences. (Notice that the academy didn't see the need to specify &quot;French.&quot; Take that, Royal Society of London!) For about a century, one of two journals so universally circulated and recognized that bibliographies nearly always cited them in nickname form: ''C.R.'' The other was ''Ber.,'' short for ''Berichte der Deutschen Chemischen Gesellschaft,'' Reports of the German Chemical Society (from 1868).<br /> <br /> '''De Forest'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Cf [[ATD_26-56#Page 29|page 29:De Forest]].<br /> <br /> '''Gibbs'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Cf [[ATD_26-56#Page 29|page 29:Professor Gibbs]].<br /> <br /> '''Maxwell Equations'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Cf [[ATD_57-80#Page 58|page 58:Maxwell Field Equations]].<br /> <br /> ==Page 533==<br /> <br /> '''aniline teal'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> The wallpaper dye; aniline dyes were the first synthetic dyes, discovered by [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/William_Perkin William Perkin] in 1858. Their intense and fade-resistant colors were very fashionable at the end of the nineteenth century. The dyes are also significant in ''GR'' as the products of I.G. Farben.<br /> <br /> '''Heavisiders'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Oliver Heaviside (May 18, 1850 – February 3, 1925) was a self-taught English electrical engineer, mathematician and physicist who adapted complex numbers to the study of electrical circuits, developed techniques for applying Laplace transforms to the solution of differential equations, reformulated Maxwell's field equations in terms of electric and magnetic forces and energy flux, and independently co-formulated vector analysis. Although at odds with the scientific establishment for most of his life, Heaviside changed the face of mathematics and science for years to come.[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Heaviside].<br /> <br /> '''Grassmanniacs'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Nineteenth century German mathematician and linguist, essentially the inventor/discoverer of vector space. Grassmann showed that once geometry is put into the algebraic form he advocated, then the number three has no privileged role as the number of spatial dimensions; the number of possible dimensions is in fact unbounded.[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hermann_Grassmann].<br /> <br /> '''in the mood for a clambake'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Anachronistic Broadway show tune? If so, the clambake in ''Carousel'' turns into a brawl; the assmebled factions of mathematicians could be in the mood for either a party or a brawl, apparently. <br /> <br /> '''Monopole de la Maison'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Monopole of the House, a fanciful name of a fanciful drink.&lt;br&gt;<br /> There is, since 1898, a well known restaurant called ''Monopole Lunch &amp; Sea Grill'' in Plattsburgh of upper New York state. ([http://www.monopole.org Monopole Restaurant]).&lt;br&gt;<br /> Most probably, it's the Magnetic monopole being referred here. In physics, a monopole is a magnet with a net magnetic charge, i.e. there is only one pole instead of two (so no net magnetic charge) as usual. ([http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Magnetic_monopole Monopole]). It's existence had been theoretically predicted by various particle theories (superstring theory, etc) but never been proved experimentally. Proving the existence of a monopole would certainly earn a Nobel Prize.<br /> <br /> '''Idiom Neutral'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> An invented language, like Esperanto. Idiom Neutral dictionaries first appeared in 1902. It looks like a simplified Latinate language and it grew out of Volapuk, another &quot;auxiliary language.&quot; It was abandoned by the ''Akademi Internasional de Lingu Universal'' in 1908.<br /> <br /> For a list of all the invented languages that linguists are keeping track of, including Klingon, try [http://linguistlist.org/forms/langs/GetListOfConstructedLgs.html Eastern Michigan's Linguist List]. And don't forget to click on the link to &quot;Browse sites devoted to constructed languages.&quot;<br /> <br /> '''phatic'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Basically, small talk or chatter. Words used to convey fellow-feeling rather than to impart information.<br /> <br /> '''''Kampf ums Dasein'''''&lt;br&gt;<br /> German: struggle for existence.<br /> <br /> '''Q-brother'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Fellow Quaternioneer or Fellow Quaternionist.<br /> <br /> '''We are the Jews of mathematics, wandering out here in our diaspora--some destined for the past, others the future, even a few able to set out at unknown angles from the simple line of Time, upon journeys that no one can predict''' &lt;br&gt;<br /> In keeping with the analogy of Judaism, those &quot;few&quot; people within the Quaternionists &quot;able to set out at unknown angles&quot; are most likely being compared to Kabbalists who claim to partake in a mystic &quot;journey to the Throne of God through the mythological realm of the seven heavens&quot; (Armstrong, A History of God--p. 247). Throne Mysticism in Kabbalah is explored extensively in Gravity's Rainbow.<br /> <br /> Perhaps this is obvious to some, but these &quot;Jews of Mathematics&quot; worship the Hamiltonian Tetractys [http://www.math.ucr.edu/home/baez/dublin/]; those other Jews worshipped the Tetragrammatron. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tetragrammaton] The proliferation of 4s continues.<br /> <br /> ==Page 534==<br /> <br /> '''Poiret gown'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> A gown designed by Paul Poiret (1879-1944), a French fashion designer based in Paris. &quot;In the annals of fashion history, Paul Poiret is best remembered for freeing women from corsets and further liberating them through pantaloons . . . it was Poiret's remarkable innovations in the cut and construction of cloting . . . Working with fabric directly onto the body, Poiret helped to pioneer a radical approach to dressmakeing that relied more on the skills of drapery than on those of tailoring.&quot; (from [http://www.metmuseum.org/special/se_event.asp?OccurrenceId={0DC3D00F-4611-4F91-8DC2-CC3C1A5C48D5} MetMuseum], <br /> New York Metropolitan Museum's Special Exhibitions, ''Poiret: King of Fashion'', May 9, 2007 to August 5, 2007). For a picture of Poiret gown see [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Image:Poiretgown.jpg Poiret Gown]. ''The New York Times'' reported on February 1, 2007 that A Poiret Gown Brings $5,500 at [http://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html?res=9B07EFDA1538F93AA15756C0A967948260 Christie's Auction] - the gown was made in 1913 when Poiret was at the height of his career. For his bio see [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Paul_Poiret Poiret].<br /> <br /> '''''green and long'''''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Pickle, or... what?<br /> : A green and long ''gherkin'' (a small, immature fruit of a variety of cucumber used in pickling).<br /> <br /> ==Page 535==<br /> <br /> '''no-name wine'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> 1970s idiom for common European practice?<br /> <br /> '''set theory'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Set theory deals with the properties of well-defined collections, or ''sets'', of entities - the ''elements'' or ''members'' of the set - conceived as a whole. The elements may be of a mathematical nature or non-mathematical. The set theory grew out of the German mathematician Georg Cantor's (1845-1918) study of infinite sets of real numbers. <br /> <br /> The ''language of sets'' has become an important tool for all branches of mathematics, but is of very little relevance to the practice of mathematics in everyday life. As a source of metaphors, however, it's been quite productive; &quot;subset,&quot; &quot;superset,&quot; &quot;universe,&quot; &quot;intersection&quot; and &quot;Venn diagram&quot; have found varying degrees of acceptance. Recasting Aristotle's syllogisms in set-theoretic language also makes them easier for many people to understand.<br /> <br /> '''Hamilton . . . early genius'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Hamilton, according to ''Chambers Biographical Dictionary'', &quot;at fifteen knew thirteen languages, had read Newton's ''Principia'', and commenced original investigations&quot;. At twenty-two, &quot;while still an undergraduate, he was appointed professor of Astronomy at Dublin and Irish Astronomer-Royal&quot;; at thirty &quot;he was knighted&quot;.<br /> <br /> '''Hamilton . . . in the grip of a first love'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> ???&lt;br&gt;<br /> Pynchon probably didn't mean Quaternion was Hamilton's first love, but its effect on him was similar to that of a first love. In 1843 at the age of 38 Hamilton invented the Quaternion, the first non-communtative algebra to be studied. He felt this would revolutionise mathematical physics, and he spent the rest of his life working on it. In 1853 he published a large volume, ''Lectures on Quaternions'', on his grand invention. The last seven years of his life, Hamilton was writing an 800-page book ''Elements of Quaternions'' modeling on Euclid's ''Elements''. The last chapter of the book was completed by his son after his death.<br /> <br /> '''the Walt Whitman of English physics'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Whitman pops up again, last seen on [[ATD_489-524#Page_491|page 491]].<br /> <br /> ==Page 536==<br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> '''Oscar Wilde'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Note that Wilde's Dorian Gray also undergoes a kind of bilocation.<br /> <br /> '''Kursaal'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Spa. Casino ?<br /> <br /> '''vectors'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> For serious minds see Cf [[ATD_525-556#Page 526|page 526:Gibbsian Vectors]], but let's follow Pynchon's lighter mood, here is a non-mathematical definition by Kamen (1995):<br /> :''Many things have more than direction;''<br /> :''The magnitude is also a question.''<br /> :''With acceleration or force,''<br /> :''And many more things, of course,''<br /> :''It's vectors that make the connection.''<br /> <br /> '''Curls'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Cf [[ATD_318-335#Page 326|page 326:Curl]]: curl is a vector operator that shows a vector field's rate of rotation.<br /> <br /> '''Laplacians'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Pierre-Simon, Marquis de Laplace (March 23, 1749 – March 5, 1827); French mathematician and astronomer who summarized and extended the work of his predecessors in his five volume Mécanique Céleste (Celestial Mechanics) (1799-1825), translating the geometrical study of mechanics used by Isaac Newton to one based on calculus, known as physical mechanics.<br /> <br /> He is also the discoverer of Laplace's equation. Although the Laplace transform is named in honor of Laplace, who used the transform in his work on probability theory, the transform was discovered originally by Leonhard Euler. The Laplace transform appears in all branches of mathematical physics — a field he took a leading role in forming. The Laplacian differential operator, much relied-upon in applied mathematics, is likewise named after him. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Laplace].<br /> <br /> :Cf [[ATD_318-335#Page 326|page 326:Laplacian]]: Laplacian is a differential operator named after Laplace. The text here was talking about mathematical operations and operators — rates of change, rotations, partial differentials, Curls, ''Laplacians'', . . .<br /> <br /> '''scream'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Scream motif.<br /> <br /> '''beginning to appal'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> By 1905 there had been years of outrage at conditions in the Belgian Congo, King Leopold's private fief. Conrad's ''Heart of Darkness'' had been published as a serial in Blackwood's Magazine in 1899 and as a book in 1902. There were missionaries' accounts of the brutality, and newspaper reports. Leopold and his apologists published rebuttals. The Norton Critical Edition of ''Heart of Darkness'' contains an extensive collection of both.<br /> <br /> '''baize'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Baize is a coarse woolen felt.<br /> <br /> ==Page 537==<br /> <br /> '''broken symmetries'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Broken_symmetry Broken symmetry] is a concept used widely in mathematics and physics. For a simplest explanation (good enough for the text here), this term means that an object breaks either rotational symmetry or translational sysmetry - when one can only rotate an object in certain angles or when one is able to tell if the object has been shifted sideways. For a little bit more detailed explanation see [http://www.lassp.cornell.edu/sethna/OrderParameters/BrokenSymmetry.html Identify the Broken Symmetry]; or even more [http://scienceweek.com/2005/sw050708-6.htm On Broken Symmetry].<br /> <br /> '''''sphinxe Khnopffienne'''''&lt;br&gt;<br /> refers to the Belgian symbolist painter Fernand Khnopff (1858-1921), famous for his painting &quot;The Caress&quot;, in which a female sphinx erotically lures a young man. The painting can be seen in the [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fernand_Khnopff wikipedia entry]<br /> <br /> '''Pléiade Lafrisée'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> in French, &quot;friser&quot; means to curl or twist. &quot;La frisée&quot; could mean &quot;curled,&quot; by extension &quot;twisted.&quot; The Pleiades is a cluster of hundreds of stars, though only a few are visible, sometimes referred to as The Seven Sisters. If Pleiades are Sisters, Pléiade is ''one'' Sister, so her name means Twisted Sister!<br /> <br /> '''''Conseilleuse'''''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Female consultant?<br /> <br /> ==Page 538==<br /> <br /> '''retroversion matrix'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> ???<br /> <br /> '''''Ma foi'''''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Literally &quot;My faith&quot;, i.e. &quot;By my faith!&quot;, a mild exclamation of incredulity.<br /> <br /> '''ten thousand francs'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> <br /> Based on currency conversions relative to gold, this is equivalent to<br /> about $30,000 US today.<br /> <br /> '''piker'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Someone cheap or cautious, possibly named after people from PIke County, Missouri, who came to California in the 1800s, looking for work. They were poor, hence cheap.<br /> <br /> '''what is a Quaternino?'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Cf [[ATD_525-556#Page 525|page 525:Quaternions]] for a mathematical definition. From ''The Random House Dictionary of the English Languages'', The Unabridged Edition (1966): Quaternion is &quot;a quantity or operator expressed as the sum of a real number and three complex numbers, equivalent to the ''quotient of two vectors''. The field of quaternions is not commutative under multiplication.&quot;.<br /> <br /> '''Bertie ('Mad Dog') Russell'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> 'Mad Dog' seems to be used with heavy irony here. Bertrand Russell was known most for his rationalism, so to speak, his work in modern logic. <br /> He did little in his public roles (at this time in AtD) that would have <br /> him referred to as &quot;crazy', as we say, beyond the social norm, &quot;mad&quot;. <br /> It might be argued that his use of 'logic' against philosophers such as Hegel and McTaggart within ''Against the Day'' showed up their 'madness'.<br /> (Many did think McTaggart was a bit...different...for seriously not believing in Time.) McTaggart broke with Russell after an early influential friendship---Russell was the younger man and the influenced one. He said he was an Hegelian because of McTaggart--Russell wrote in his<br /> Autobiography that McTaggart said he no longer wanted to meet/talk with him bcause he could no longer stand Russell's opinions.<br /> <br /> [http://nobelprize.org/nobel_prizes/literature/laureates/1950/russell-bio.html Bertrand Russell] (1872-1970) was a British mathematician, philosopher, logician and social critic. Best known for his work in mathermatical logic and analytic philosophy. In late spring of 1901 he discovered the so-called [http://plato.stanford.edu/entries/russell-paradox/ Russell Paradox], &quot;the most famous of the logical or set-theoretical paradoxes. The paradox arises within naive set theory by considering the set of all sets that are not members of themselves. Such a set appears to be a member of itself if and only if it is not a member of itself, hence the paradox.&quot; (On-line Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy). He won the 1950 Nobel Prize in Literature in &quot;recognition of his varied and significant writings in which he champions humanitarian ideals and freedom of thought&quot;.<br /> <br /> '''Barry Nebulay'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> nebulae: formed from the diffusion of gas in galaxies or as exploded stars (or the last ember-like stage of a star)&lt;br&gt; <br /> Most nebulae can be described as diffuse nebulae, which means that they are extended and contain no well-defined boundaries.[1] In visible light these nebulae may be divided into emission nebulae and reflection nebulae, a categorization that depends on how the light we see is created.<br /> <br /> '''Hegel... puns'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Probably refers to the fact that quite a lot of Hegel's philosophy deals with the is-ness of the world as we know and experience it.<br /> <br /> On page 787 of Bertrand Russell's ''History of Western Philosophy'' is a summary, perhaps, of this remark about Hegel's puns: &quot;as a result of analysis of the concept &quot;existence&quot;, modern logic has proved this [Cartesianism, refuted by Kant, reinstated by Hegel] argument invalid.....&quot;<br /> <br /> We know from other places that TRP himself seems to 'not like' Cartesianism. See 'cartesian' citations within this wiki.<br /> <br /> ==Page 539==<br /> <br /> '''a vector quotient'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> The result of one vector divided by another. According to the English dictionary definition of previous page this is just a Quaternion.<br /> <br /> '''unit vector'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Unit vector is a vector with magnitude of one. The unit vectors in 3-dimensional space, ''i, j, k'', associated with ''x, y, z'' directions are used in defining a general 3D vector (Cf [[ATD_525-556#Page 526|page 526:Gibbsian Vectors]]).<br /> <br /> '''''square root of minus one'''''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Imaginary number (Cf [[ATD_119-148#Page 132|page 133:Imaginary Number]]). The imaginary numbers ''i, j, k'' are used in defining a Quaternion (Cf [[ATD_525-556#Page 525|page 525:Quaternions]]).<br /> <br /> ''''Triangle Asana''''&lt;br&gt;<br /> A basic yoga pose. <br /> <br /> [http://yoga.org.nz/postures/yoga_positions_images_page.htm Here are images of several basic poses.]<br /> <br /> ''''Dr Rao abruptly vanished''''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Might be a reference to [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Martin_Gardner Martin Gardner]'s<br /> [http://www.amazon.com/No-Sided-Professor-Fantasy-Mystery-Philosophy/dp/0879753900 &quot;No-Sided Professor&quot;]<br /> <br /> ''''Quadrantal Versor Asana''''&lt;br&gt;<br /> A triangle pose taken that extra dimension.<br /> <br /> '''''&quot;Uwe moer!&quot;'''''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Looks a lot like the Dutch &quot;Uw moeder!&quot; - a cry of astonishment (&quot;Your mother!&quot;), the equivalent to the black English &quot;yo mama&quot;.<br /> <br /> '''noncommutative'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> A term typical to mathematics. A commutative equation is one that can operate in exact reverse and still yield the same results. 'Noncommutative' then suggests unidirectionality. The ability to go from point A to point B, but not from B to A.<br /> <br /> '''reticule'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> A woman's drawstring handbag; usually made of net or beading or brocade; also: A system of lines forming a pattern of squares at the focal plane of a telescope, used in micrometers.<br /> [http://www.astunit.com/tutorials/glossary.htm] <br /> :Isn't that sort of a red herring? &quot;[P]roducing from her reticule a . . . watch&quot; doesn't really allow of that second meaning. &lt;br&gt;<br /> :It could be a pun, since a reticule/ handbag always shows its pattern of lines, and a watch (timepiece) is drawn from it. Remember that, e.g. railroad lines of tracks, are a sign of industrialism encroaching on the natural and the spiritual.<br /> <br /> '''Vacheron &amp; Constantin watch'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Made by a Swiss company founded in 1755. From 1819 to 1970 the name was as in the text, then the &amp; dropped out. See the [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vacheron_Constantin Wikipedia entry.]<br /> <br /> '''hunting-case'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> For a pocket watch, a case with a hinged metal cover. More often called &quot;hunter case&quot; (and such a watch a &quot;hunter&quot;).<br /> <br /> ==Page 540==<br /> <br /> '''&quot;haar rekening, ja?&quot;'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> The bill, yes? (Dutch)?<br /> <br /> ''Her'' bill, yes? I.e., give the check to the lady.<br /> <br /> Given the presence of Chris 'Kit' Traverse here, this very much suggests a reference to Christopher 'Kit' Marlowe, Elizabethan poet, playwright and contemporary of Shakespeare. Marlowe was stabbed to death in 1593, in murky circumstances, ostensibly over a bill or 'reckoning', though he was widely believed to have been involved in some form of espionage.<br /> <br /> Strictly speaking &quot;haar rekening&quot; means that the lady pays for herself only. If Root wanted to make sure that Pléiade pays for the whole company he would have to say &quot;de hele rekening voor de dame&quot;. <br /> <br /> '''Piet Woevre'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> The Woëvre is a natural region of Lorraine in north-east France. It forms part of Lorraine plateau and lies largely in the department of Meuse. During World War I, there was much fighting there due to vast mineral resources that had been discovered in the Briey basin or Eastern Woevre at the end of the 19th century. &quot;Piet&quot; is Dutch for &quot;rock&quot; or &quot;stone&quot; and is a fairly common Dutch name, the English equivalent being Peter.<br /> <br /> If the surname is pronounced as in Dutch, Woevre is another Pynchon villain with a &quot;V&quot;-name (Vond, Weissman, Vibe). <br /> <br /> '''Force Publique'''&lt;br /&gt;<br /> The Force Publique (FP) was the official armed force for what is now the Democratic Republic of the Congo from 1885, (when the territory was known as the Congo Free State), through the period of direct Belgian rule (1908-60), until the beginning of the Second Republic in 1965. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Force_Publique Wikipedia entry]<br /> <br /> '''made him reach'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Possible allusion to a famous line, &quot;When I hear the word culture I reach for my gun.&quot; From Hanns Johst's biographical play ''Schlageter''. The original line is slightly different: &quot;Wenn ich Kultur höre ... entsichere ich meinen Browning,&quot; &quot;Whenever I hear of culture... I release the safety-catch of my Browning!&quot; (Act 1, Scene 1). It is spoken by another character in conversation with the young Schlageter. In the scene Schlageter and his wartime comrade Friedrich Thiemann are studying for a college examination, but then start disputing whether it's worthwhile doing so when the nation is not free. <br /> <br /> The line is often misattributed to better-known Nazis and others [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hanns_Johst].<br /> <br /> *In Jean-Luc Godard's 1963 film [http://www.chicagoreader.com/movies/archives/0997/09057.html ''Le Mépris'' (''Contempt'')], Jack Palance's character &quot;Jeremy Prokosch,&quot; an American movie-producer, intones to Fritz Lang: &quot;Whenever I hear the word culture, I reach for my checkbook.&quot;<br /> <br /> '''not unambiguous'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Ie, ambiguous.<br /> <br /> '''''rastaquoueres'''''&lt;br&gt;<br /> 8???<br /> <br /> '''de Decker'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> In Dutch/Flemish, the name means &quot;roofer.&quot; (''De'' in these names almost never means &quot;of, from&quot; as in French; it's nearly always the definite article.)<br /> <br /> ==Page 541==<br /> <br /> '''''bobbejaan'''''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Afrikaans: baboon. (Afrikaans is the language spoken by descendants of Dutch colonists in present-day South Africa. Some items identified as Dutch or Flemish in this wiki may really be Afrikaans.)<br /> <br /> The South African song &quot;Bobbejaan klim die berg&quot; (&quot;Bobbejaan climbed the hill&quot;) is the source of the stage name of Belgium's most famous country and western musician, Bobbejaan Schoepen (b. 1925). In 1943 he was suppressed by the Nazis after performing a South African song, &quot;Mamma, 'k wil 'n man hê&quot; (&quot;Mama, I want a man&quot;), which contains the line &quot;No, Mama, I don't want a German, because I don't like pork.&quot; He founded the Bobbejaanland theme park in Belgium, where he still lives.<br /> <br /> '''MKIV/ODC... Mark Four'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> This would be the Mark IV Ohmic Drift Compensator ([[ATD 557-587#Page 565|Page 565]]), a key component of the Q-weapon, which &quot;regulates how much light is allowed to enter the silvering of the mirror! Special kind of refraction! Calibrated against imaginary index! Dangerous! Of the essence!'&quot;<br /> <br /> '''not part of your remit'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Not included in your job description, instructions, authorization. &quot;Remit&quot; (noun) is usually a British usage.<br /> <br /> '''''gatkruiper'''''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Dutch/Flemish: brownnose, ass-kisser.<br /> <br /> '''one on her wrist'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> All the bruises reflect some refinement or artistry except this one, which may have been inflicted crudely.<br /> <br /> '''over the day'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Title motif?<br /> <br /> ==Page 542==<br /> <br /> '''trans-horizontic'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> ???<br /> Across the horizon -- &quot; a screaming comes across the sky&quot;<br /> <br /> '''Edmund Whittaker'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Edmund Whittaker (1873-1956), an English mathematician. He is best known for his work in numerical analysis. And he contributed widely to applied mathematics, mathematical physics and the theory of special functions. He also worked on celestial mechanics and the history of applied mathermatics and physics. ([http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/E._T._Whittaker Whittaker]).<br /> <br /> The Sir Edmund Whittaker Memorial Prize is awarded every four years by the Edinburgh Mathematical Society to an outstanding young mathematician having a specified connection with Scotland [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sir_Edmund_Whittaker_Memorial_Prize]. <br /> <br /> '''louche'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> The cloudy effect caused by the addition of water to absinthe. Dictionary definition: &quot;of questionable taste or morality; decadent.&quot;<br /> <br /> '''cheval-glass'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Standing mirror in a freestanding vertical frame.<br /> <br /> '''as if someone'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Sound-cancelling vs opacity-cancelling?<br /> <br /> ==Page 543==<br /> <br /> '''wraith of Pleiade Lafrisee'''<br /> <br /> Pleiade manifests one of her not-visible stars. Perhaps this sister has somehow twisted herself on an imaginary axis ala Dr. V. Ganesh Rao.<br /> <br /> '''monitory'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Warning, giving advice, by extension ominous or menacing.<br /> <br /> '''Against....the day....'''<br /> Note: this phrase happens at the exact halfway point of the novel: p.542.3<br /> <br /> '''He Who Must Come'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> The evil-doer who must come might be Adolf Hitler. It would make sense. The implication being that Europe is precipitating into a no-return situation. Capitalism cannot but end in WW2.&lt;br&gt;<br /> Ah, a lot more and less than capitalism going on here, especially if anyone specific like Hitler is meant. <br /> :When French writers use this phrase (''celui qui doit venir'') they '''do''' mean the Messiah . . . although a few devout quibblers point out that the Messiah has already come. It's rather tiresome Googling the phrase; the first 83 hits definitely refer to Christ and most of them quote the first verses of Matthew 11. But there's also a Camus reference (in English, I think) down at No. 90, if anyone has a JSTOR account:<br /> :links.jstor.org/sici?sici=0361-1299(1985)39%3A4%3C251%3ACFS%22M%3E2.0.CO%3B2-X <br /> <br /> Recalls Yeats' 'The Second Coming' once again: &quot;And what rough beast, its hour come round at last, Slouches towards Bethlehem to be born?&quot; [http://chumpsofchoice.blogspot.com/2007/05/casino-royale-in-flanders-field.html#c3637134446204467798 ]<br /> <br /> '''General Boulanger'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/General_Boulanger Georges Boulanger], French military man, and War Minister in the late 19th century. He was one of those men &quot;on a white horse&quot; that some conservatives looked to, as he urged an attack on Germany and the end of the French Republic with a return to monarchy. He was also notorious for his harsh reprisals against workers' demonstrations. &quot;'Boulangisme'&quot; threatened a coup in 1889, but the general's procrastination brought the crisis to an end.&lt;br&gt;<br /> In ''The Infernal Machine: A History of Terrorism''<br /> by Matthew Carr, 2007, Boulanger is called the &quot;father&quot; of fascism.<br /> <br /> '''what death and what transfiguration'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Allusion to Richard Strauss' tone poem &quot;Death and Transfiguration&quot; (''Tod und Verklärung''), premiered in 1890.<br /> <br /> '''''&quot;Zeker&quot;'''''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Dutch: certainly.<br /> <br /> '''''dead cert'''''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Dead certainty, sure thing.<br /> <br /> '''Von Schlieffen'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Alfred von Schlieffen was the author of a German war plan to win a two-front war against both France and Russia by quickly defeating France before Russian troops could be mobilized. The [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Schlieffen_Plan Schlieffen Plan] included an attack on France through Belgium, disregarding its neutrality.<br /> <br /> '''Wilhelm has offered Leopold part of France, the ancient Duchy of Burgundy'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> [http://www.crwflags.com/fotw/flags/fr-bg.html History of the duchy.] [http://www.freiburg-madison.de/freiburg_history/1386-1517_The%20Early%20Habsburgs.htm Map,] with portrait of Duke Charles the Rash.<br /> <br /> '''lowlands'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Title of Pynchon's first published story. Here, ass?<br /> <br /> ==Page 544==<br /> <br /> '''Place d'Armes'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Main square of Ostend; literally &quot;drill field&quot;.<br /> <br /> '''peau de soie'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> &quot;Skin of silk&quot; A heavy, smooth satin with very fine ribbing; somewhat dull in sheen compared with traditional silk finishes.<br /> <br /> '''Krafft-Ebing'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Richard Freiherr von Krafft-Ebing, Austro-German psychiatrist and author of ''Psychopathia Sexualis'' (1886), a pioneering study of deviant sexual behavior and fetishism. Coined both ''sadism'' and ''masochism'' as terms for these respective behaviors. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Richard_Freiherr_von_Krafft-Ebing Wikipedia entry].<br /> <br /> '''toque'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Toque here refers to a lady's hat, originally of fur but here in velvet, which is rather like a flattened chef's hat in shape.<br /> <br /> Proust: in ''À l'ombre des jeunes filles en fleurs'' the narrator first sees Albertine wearing a toque. There seem to be quite a few Proust themes and references running throughout the novel. Indeed '''Pliade''' is the French publisher of Proust's works. <br /> <br /> '''guipure'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Lace trim.<br /> <br /> '''midinette'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> A shopgirl or dressmakers apprentice. A milliner.<br /> <br /> '''Lambic'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> A distinctive Belgian style of beer. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lambic Wikipedia]<br /> <br /> '''sous'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> <br /> Coins. Originally Roman gold coins, latterly any kind of coin.<br /> <br /> Specifically small change. She is affecting modesty by claiming that a hat like hers can be had for pennies in any unpretentious shop. In France &quot;sou is used as slang for money, as in ''sans le sou''. 'I'm broke', 'without money'. It is also a slang term for the Canadian cent (standard French, cent).&quot; ([http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sou Wikipedia])<br /> <br /> '''mayonnaise'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Brautigan's &quot;Trout Fishing in America&quot; famously ends with the word mayonnaise. [http://books.google.com/books?vid=ISBN0395500761&amp;id=rbEjDovfyNMC&amp;pg=RA2-PA111&amp;lpg=RA2-PA111&amp;ots=ELKl5b_6Tx&amp;dq=mayonnaise+trout.fishing&amp;num=100&amp;sig=BiyXRqJXRGrMWbrBNgn8de2kpCo#PRA2-PA112,M1 GoogleBooks]<br /> <br /> '''ovoöleaginous'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Another Pynchonic word combination, here denoting the two main ingredients of mayonnaise: 1) eggs, and 2) oil. It's not &quot;fecoventilatory collision&quot; as seen in &quot;Vineland,&quot; but it's nice.<br /> <br /> '''Grenache'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Grape commonly used in Rhone Valley wines e.g. Chateauneuf du Pape.<br /> <br /> '''Chantilly'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> <br /> Region north of Paris.<br /> <br /> Here the reference is to crème chantilly otherwise known as whipped cream. Chantilly mayonnaise is made by incorporating the beaten egg whites for extra lightness.<br /> <br /> '''attainder'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Legislative act declaring that a person is guilty of a crime and setting punishment without the benefit of a formal trial. The Constitution forbids the federal government (Article I, Section 9, clause 3) and the state governments (Article I, Section 10, clause 1) from passing bills of attainder.<br /> [www.historycentral.com/Civics/B.html] <br /> <br /> ''''''Aux armes, citoyens''''''&lt;br&gt;<br /> ''To arms, citizens'', from the French national anthem, ''La Marseillaise'' (1792). Kit confused La Mayonnaise with La Marseillaise.&lt;br&gt;<br /> Not &quot;Le Marseillaise,&quot; you nitwit!<br /> <br /> '''Louis XV'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> King of France 1715-1774 [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Louis_XV]. <br /> <br /> '''Cléo de Mérode'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Glamorous French ballerina (1875-1966), later Follies Bergere dancer and famous beauty. Her reputed intimacy with King Leopold was only a rumor [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cleo_de_Merode]. The character Madame Leonora Armfeldt in Stephen Sondheim's ''A Little Night Music'' has some features in common with her.<br /> <br /> '''Marquise de Pompadour'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Mistress of Louis XV,once friend of Voltaire and a power behind official scenes.[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Madame_de_Pompadour].<br /> <br /> ==Page 545==<br /> <br /> '''duc de Richelieu'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Duc de Richelieu (1696-1788), marshal of France, was a grandnephew of Cardinal Richelieu, and born in Paris. Apart from his reputation as a man of exceptionally loose morals, he attained, in spite of a defective education, distinction as a diplomatist and general. ([http://www.1911encyclopedia.org/Louis_Francois_Armand_du_Plessis,_duc_de_Richelieu duc de Richelieu] and cf [[ATD_489-524#Page 490|page 490:duc de Richelieu]])<br /> <br /> '''dubious 'victory' in 1756'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> As part of the Seven Years' War (1756-1763), duc de Richelieu (1696-1788), a Marshal of France, won a victory in the Battle of Minorca (May 20, 1756) over John Byng (1704-1757), a British Admiral. In spring of 1756 John Byng was sent with a small and undermanned fleet to relieve the British ''Port Mahon'' on the Mediterranean island of Minorca. During the battle ensued, several British ships were badly damaged by the French squadron while others, including Byng's flagship, were still out of effective firing range. Instead of engaging the enemy directly, Byng decided to keep the formation, allowing the French fleet to get away undamaged. ([http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_Minorca Battle of Minorca]).<br /> <br /> '''the ill-fated Admiral Byng'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> John Byng, convicted by court-martial of failure &quot;to do his utmost&quot; in the battle, shot in 1757. Remembered because of (1) his being the last officer of flag rank to be put to death for conduct in battle and (2) Voltaire's gag in ''Candide:'' &quot;In this country it is good to kill an admiral from time to time in order to encourage the others.&quot;<br /> <br /> '''cantharides'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> &quot;Spanish fly,&quot; contact irritant sometimes ill-advisedly used as aphrodisiac.<br /> <br /> '''Sadean'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Pertaining to the Marquis de Sade. The acts the chef performs on the egg and oil have the same names as acts of Sadean sex. <br /> <br /> '''''n'est-ce pas?'''''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Right? (Isn't that so?)<br /> <br /> '''vetiver'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> A grass (Vetiveria zizanioides) of tropical India, cultivated for its aromatic roots that yield an oil used in perfumery.<br /> [www.answers.com/topic/vetiver]. So, a perfume with, llterallly, roots in India.<br /> <br /> Vetiver makes frequent appearances throughout ''À la recherche du temps perdu.''<br /> <br /> '''pip'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> A beaut; in current parlance, a hottie.<br /> <br /> '''Q.P. system'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Quaternion Probability, page 536.<br /> <br /> '''Usine Régionale'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> French: as translated in the text.<br /> <br /> ==Page 546==<br /> <br /> '''disjunctive effects of thunderstorms'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Folk wisdom says a thunderstorm will cause mayonnaise to separate (oil from yolks).<br /> <br /> '''cottonseed oil'''<br /> <br /> Mayonnaisse like Smegmo and Crisco is a hydrogenated fat; cottonseed oil is a common factor to all three. Indeed, the name Crisco derives from the intial sounds of &quot;'''crys'''tallized '''c'''ottonseed '''o'''il&quot;. Note in the next few pages a mention of Candlebrow -- underscoring a tie-in between Mayonnaisse and Smegmo. <br /> <br /> It may be of interest to note that hydrogenation may have a symbolic use for Pynchon. The process entails bubbling hydrogen through oil in the presence of a metal catalyst such as nickel, platinum, aluminum at 248 to 410 degrees. Remnants of these metals stay in the finished product, and when consumed can lead to an increase in heavy metals in the human body.<br /> <br /> Eating hydrogenated oils is like eating plastic. The body does not recognize that these molecules have been mutated and tries to use them as essential fatty acids. But they cannot perform the same function, and as a result hydrogenated oils can cause short circuits in the electrical flow that controls the heartbeat, nerve functions, cell division and mental balance. They also create free radicals (anarchists!) that are linked to cancers. Free radicals plus metal remnants are a major contributor to cancer, heart disease, immune system dysfunction, osteoporosis, depression, chronic fatigue, Alzheimers, and neurological diseases. It is estimated that over 200 million people have died prematurely because of the hydrogenated oils found in our diets. [http://www.drz.org/asp/newsletter/default.asp?xt2id=23] Not to mention innocent bystanders killed by mentally imbalanced people whose imbalance may stem from the ingestion of hydrogenated oils -- there may be some underlying reality to the &quot;Twinkie defense.&quot;<br /> <br /> '''lounge suit'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> A lounge suit is another name for business suit consisting of a matching jacket and trousers or skirt.<br /> <br /> '''congress shoes'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> ankle high shoes with elastic gussets in the sides (wordweb online)<br /> <br /> '''invisible hand'''<br /> <br /> Suggestive of Adam Smith's metaphor for market forces in economics.<br /> <br /> '''dripping-heads'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mayonnaise To make mayonnaise,] beat together egg yolks, salt, mustard and vinegar, then drip in oil while beating to form the emulsion. If you scale the process up for industrial production, you will automate the introduction of the oil, using nozzles that release it a drop at a time—but in a large vat you can have many such nozzles.<br /> <br /> '''''cuves d'agitation'''''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Vat or tank in which the mayonnaise is agitated or beaten.<br /> <br /> '''Clinique d'Urgence pour Sauvetage des Sauces'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> French: Emergency Clinic for Salvage of Sauces.<br /> <br /> ==Page 547==<br /> <br /> '''' ...engulfed in thick, slick, sour-smelling mayonnaise. ''''<br /> The whole Kit's experience in the mayonnaise factory is very much reminiscent to [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Roald_Dahl Roald Dahl]'s [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Charlie_and_the_Chocolate_Factory Charlie and the Chocolate Factory].<br /> <br /> '''''Cazzo, cretino'''''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Literally, &quot;Dick, cretin.&quot; ''Cazzo'' is a common Italian interjectionary obscenity, especially in the south. &quot;Cazzo, cretino,&quot; is akin to someone saying, &quot;Well shit, dummy,&quot; or &quot;F-ing moron!&quot;<br /> <br /> '''''È il cowboy!'''''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Italian: It's the cowboy!<br /> <br /> '''''vero?'''''&lt;br&gt;<br /> true? real?<br /> <br /> '''''Le bambole anarchiste, porca miseria'''''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Italian: Anarchist babes, oh boy.<br /> <br /> '''Oudenberg'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> A southeast suburb of Ostende.<br /> <br /> '''Quai de l'Entrepôt'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Warehouse Quay<br /> <br /> '''''ragazzi'''''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Italian: boys, guys.<br /> <br /> ==Page 548==<br /> <br /> '''General Boulanger'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> That the General was 'reactionary' and that the C of C bureaucracy had a 'defiant residue' of Boulangism, continues the characterization of the organization for which the Chums 'work'.&lt;br&gt;<br /> See p. 543 above, regarding a 2007 book in which Boulanger is called the 'father of fascism'.<br /> <br /> '''''timbres fictifs'''''&lt;br&gt;<br /> French: fictive postage stamps. Cf &quot;Lot 49&quot;.&lt;br&gt;<br /> Yes, stamps mean something in Pynchon's works; here, it seems important that these stamps are characterized as frauds.<br /> <br /> '''&quot;IIIb&quot;'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> As explained in the text.&lt;br&gt;<br /> &quot;Section IIIB (Intelligence) of the German High Command. After WWI, was funded by Alfred Hugenberg (financial backer of Nazi party)&quot;. From ''Sabotage'' by Sayers &amp; Kahn, 1942.[http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&amp;q=%22IIIB%27+%2B+INTELLIGENCE&amp;btnG=Search]. The authors state in the Forward, in 1942, &quot;that 'Nazi Germany' is the creation of spies and saboteurs&quot;. See ''Gravity's Rainbow'', of course. <br /> <br /> '''Germany might stand a better chance...'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> That is, if the French were to push into Alsace (per Boulanger) as the Germans executed the Schlieffen Plan [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Schlieffen_plan] for the encirclement of Paris, it would put the French at an even greater disadvantage...as actually happened in 1914. Had the Belgians and British not delayed the Germans in Flanders, and had the French railroads not performed speedily to bring the French troops back to the Marne, World War I could have had a very different outcome...an alternate history. <br /> <br /> '''revanchist'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Policies based on revenge, or a person following such policies. In General Boulanger's case, revenge against Germany for the Franco-Prussian War (that is, retaking Alsace, lost in 1871).<br /> <br /> '''the somewhat discomposed General'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Having died in 1891, the General by the time of the action is certainly somewhat '''de'''composed; brief biographies do not suggest he was ''non compos mentis,'' that is, mentally discomposed.<br /> <br /> ==Page 549==<br /> <br /> '''cackled Darby'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> (When did he lose his innocence?)<br /> <br /> '''a modification of any salsician metaphor toward the diminutive'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Salsician: pertaining to sausage. Lindsay says Suckling's penis is better compared to a wiener than a knockwurst.<br /> <br /> '''&quot;Why you little–and I do mean 'little'–&quot;'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Another Simpsons reference? <br /> <br /> '''dunes between Nieuport and Dunkirk'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Nieuport is a Belgian seaport about 10 miles southwest of Ostend. Dunkirk is a French port (less than 10 miles inside the French border) about 20 miles southwest of Nieuport. The latter was a site of one of the bloodest battle in World War I. The general area between Niewport and Dunkirk was the well traversed battle fields of two world wars. (Dunkirk was (in)famous for the British Army's escape from the Nazi German's assault in World War II.)<br /> <br /> '''power-receivers'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Not information, energy.<br /> <br /> ==Page 550==<br /> <br /> '''Lot's wife''' &lt;br&gt;<br /> Angels of God led Lot and his family out of Sodom as it was being destroyed and told them not to look back at the mayhem. Lot's wife, Edith, imprudently looked back and was transfigured into a pillar of salt.<br /> <br /> '''Italian grotto'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> an imitating recess or structure made to resemble a natural Italian grotto.<br /> <br /> '''a highly developed taste, moreover, for human blood'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Since Pugnax developed this taste in the Carpathians, home of Castle Dracula, this seems a clear reference to Bram Stoker's novel. <br /> <br /> '''Carpathians'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Major mountain range running northwest-southeast through Poland, Slovakia, western Ukraine and Romania.<br /> <br /> '''Uhlans'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Uhlan regiments belonged to the light cavalry. They wore splendid uniforms (model for some U.S. marching band uniforms). [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Uhlan Wikipedia article.]<br /> <br /> '''Temesvár'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Now Timişoara, extreme western Romania.<br /> <br /> ==Page 551==<br /> <br /> '''...separated by only a slice of Time...'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Miles is beginning to experience Time almost as a spatial dimension, his personal vector as traversing (!) 4-dimensional space, or perhaps multidimensional space, the mathematics for which is being debated in Ostend.<br /> <br /> '''securing the mess decks'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> The Chums follow U.S. Navy idiom in orders (frequently prefixed with &quot;Now&quot;) and shipboard activities (&quot;secure&quot; meaning &quot;whatever you did before, undo it now,&quot; in this case put away the dishes and fold up the tables).<br /> <br /> '''Ryder Thorn'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Tolkienesque name? Or perhaps it's a nod to the Ryder-Waite Tarot deck and to Kevin Thorn (Kevin Matthew Fertig, 1977-), the American professional wrestler better known by his ring name Kevin Thorn who is currently signed to World Wrestling Entertainment wrestling on its ECW brand. He has appeared in vigniettes with Ariel (Shelly Martinez, 1980-), the tarot card reader, who spits blood at the camera while she &quot;predicted the future of ECW.&quot; Yup, a stretch...<br /> <br /> *The name also evokes the Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse.<br /> <br /> '''He was at Candlebrow.'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Presumably a 'trespasser.'<br /> <br /> '''the four-note chord in the context of timelessness'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> A melody is formed by notes following one another in time; a chord on the ukulele violates that practice by having all the notes sound at once. A really clever little passage.<br /> Note: Jazz musicians describe musical improvisations as horizontal (with the melody) or vertical (with the chord)<br /> <br /> ==Page 552==<br /> <br /> '''knuckle-duster'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Brass knuckles.<br /> <br /> '''Diksmuide'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> 20 kilometers south of Ostend (about halfway to Ypres).<br /> <br /> ==Page 553==<br /> <br /> '''The terrain was flat...lowlands'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Not, this time, a reference to Pynchon's ''Lowlands'', but to the two-dimensionality of Flanders, as in Edwin A. Abbott's ''Flatland'' [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Flatland]; most humans, like the inhabitants of Flanders and Abbott's Flatlanders, experience life in two dimensions. <br /> <br /> '''Somewhere up in the sky was Miles' home...'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Whereas Miles and the Chums of Chance, in contrast, live in three dimensions. The mathematicians gathered in Ostend are trying to calculate how to experience and use vectors to live in four dimensions; in a way, to experience Time as a kind of spatial dimension. Miles, on P. 551, is demonstrating the beginnings of an intuitive discovery of how to experience Time as an almost spatial dimension. Which would be a sort of &quot;time travel&quot;, or at least an expanded view of life and history.<br /> <br /> '''retted'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> soaked in water or exposed to moisture (as flax or hemp) to facilitate the removal of the fiber from the woody tissue by partial rotting.<br /> <br /> ==Page 554==<br /> <br /> '''Ypres and Menin'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Municipalities in West Flanders that were sites of some of the bloodiest battles of WWI. At the beginning of the war, the British and Belgian stand helped save Paris from encirclement by the Germans, and saved the Channel ports, but as Thorn points out, the area became the western anchor of the Western Front trench system. The several Battles of Ypres saw the first uses of poison gas (Mustard Gas, dichlorodiethylsulfide, was first called Yperite), the use of enormous mines, and the legendary mud of Passchendaele [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Passchendaele]. <br /> <br /> '''Ten years from now'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> (1914?) through 1918? and beyond?. Another paramorphic mirror--what do we now face. Whatever it is, it is nuclear.<br /> <br /> '''Bosch'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Hieronymous Bosch (1450-1516), Dutch painter of nightmares. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hieronymus_Bosch Wikipedia entry].<br /> <br /> '''Brueghel'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Pieter Brueghel the Elder(1525-1569), Flemish painter.[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pieter_Brueghel_the_Elder Wikipedia entry].<br /> <br /> '''League'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> League of Nations? The League of Nations was formed after WWI to prevent future wars. Didn't succeed.<br /> <br /> No. In this case a historical unit of length, approximately three miles - &quot;league on league&quot; = tremendous masses<br /> <br /> '''where the needles went and which way to rotate them'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> I.e., how to push Thorn's buttons; the image is from acupuncture.<br /> <br /> ==Page 555==<br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> '''simpletons at the fair'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Making Pynchon's metaphor explicit.<br /> <br /> '''Chopin E-minor Nocturne'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Frédéric Chopin (1810-49), a Polish pianist and composer ([http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fr%C3%A9d%C3%A9ric_Chopin Chopin]). He was born in Warsaw, Poland to a Polish morther and a French father. He went to Paris at the age of 20 and died there at the age of 39. He was widely regarded as one of the most famous and influential composers for the piano. From 1837-47 he had a 10-year stormy relationship with the French writer George Sand. His E-minor Nocturne is a 4-minute long Romantic style piano solo composed in 1827. (A ''nocturne'' is usually a musical composition that is inspired by, or evocative of, the night [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nocturne Nocturne].)<br /> <br /> '''owl-light'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> ???glimmering or imperfect light or twilight hours.<br /> <br /> ''''plasmic hysteresis''''&lt;br&gt;<br /> <br /> A coined term, apparently similar in meaning to Miles’ phrase “failure of physical translation.” Plasma would take an older meaning of “form” or “shape.&quot; Hysteresis, according to Webster's, refers to “a retardation in effect when the forces on an object are changed.” Hysteresis is used to describe magnetic phenomenon as well as plastic or elastic materials, that involve changes to a rest state that last beyond the forces that cause them. Examples include recordings on magnetic tape or a thumbprint slowly disappearing from putty. In the context of this passage, plasmic hysteresis appears to describe the lingering visage of someone who is no longer present – a hysteresis of form only and thus a failed physical translation. See [http://www.etymonline.com/index.php?search=plasma&amp;searchmode=none etymology of plasma] and this nifty explanation of [http://www.lassp.cornell.edu/sethna/hysteresis/WhatIsHysteresis.html hysteresis]. <br /> <br /> Hysteresis has also been used to refer to “loops” in time, certainly apropos in this case. I stumbled across an excellent example in a 1980 episode of Dr. Who, in which the eponymous Dr. is trapped in “chronic hysteresis,” an endless loop or return to a previous <br /> point in time – very similar to the situation of Ryder Thorn. [http://www.drwhoguide.com/who_5q.htm Check it out for yourself!] <br /> <br /> <br /> ==Annotation Index==<br /> {{ATD PbP}}</div>

MKOHUT https://against-the-day.pynchonwiki.com/wiki/index.php?title=ATD_525-556&diff=14096 2007-10-18T14:23:02Z

<p>MKOHUT: /* Page 543 */</p> <hr /> <div>:'''&lt;big&gt;Please keep these annotations SPOILER-FREE by not revealing information from later pages in the novel.&lt;/big&gt;'''&lt;p&gt;&lt;br&gt;<br /> <br /> ==Page 525==<br /> <br /> '''Ostend'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Cf [[ATD_489-524#Page 521|page 521:Ostend]], a seaport in northwest Belgium. Among English-speaking tourists, Ostend (or Ostende) is best known as a ferry port. Ships have shuttled between Dover and Ostend for more than 150 years, and today's high-speed catamarans move hundreds of passengers and vehicles between these two ports in just two hours. But this thousand-year-old city is a popular beach resort with Belgians, who flock to Ostend for sun, surfing, sailing and the ''Kursaal'' (Casino). The fishing harbor and old town draw many visitors. Ostend is the only Belgian coastal resort that is as lively in the summer as in the winter. For more and pictures [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ostend Ostend].<br /> <br /> '''Fishermen's Quai'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Fishermen's Quay, also called De Trap. The shrimp boats come home here from the sea in the morning. Along the quay many stands sell lots of seafoods.<br /> <br /> '''Boulevard van Isenghem'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> A major thoroughfare in Ostend, locally called ''Van Iseghemlaan'', extending diagonally from seafront southwest through the city.<br /> <br /> '''street-plausible'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Presentable.<br /> <br /> '''Quai de l'empereur'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Since Ostende is in the Flemish part of Belgium this should be the Keizerskaai, a street along the old part of the harbour, 1919 renamed Vindictivelaan.<br /> <br /> '''estaminet'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> According to the OED - A café in which smoking is allowed. Now, any small establishment selling alcoholic liquor. <br /> <br /> '''twelve-centime'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> one centime is the French eqivalent of one cent. A twelve-centime beer would cost 12/100 of a franc.<br /> <br /> '''Quaternions'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Cf [[ATD_119-148#Page 130|page 130:Quaternions]]. Quaternions are a non-communtative extension of compelx numbers (Hamilton, 1843).&lt;br&gt;<br /> <br /> Analogy with the complex numbers (Cf [[ATD_119-148#Page 132|page 132:complex number]]) being represented as a sum of real and imaginary parts, a + b''i'', where ''i''² = −1, a quaternion is defined as a combination a + b''i'' + c''j'' + d''k'', where ''i''² = ''j''² = ''k''² = ''i j k'' = −1, and a, b, c, d are ''four'' explicit real numbers. The non-commutative property refers to ''i j = −j i = k; j k = −k j = i; k i = −i k = j''. (i.e. ''i j ≠ j i; j k ≠ k j; k i ≠ i k''; etc.) The using of ''i, j, k'', the imaginary numbers (Cf [[ATD_119-148#Page 133|page 133:imaginary number]]), led to the phrases of &quot;the ''ijk'' lot&quot; of page 533 and &quot;creature of ''i-j-k''&quot; of page 534.<br /> <br /> '''Kellner'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> German: waiter, barman. Use of the German word would be insulting to the Belgian barman.<br /> <br /> '''''demi'''''&lt;br&gt;<br /> A half-pint glass (25 centilitres, actually).<br /> <br /> '''Lambic'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Pron. ''lahm-BEEK.'' Unique Belgian beer style, sour and often thin in body.<br /> <br /> '''skimmer'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Straw hat (&quot;Panama&quot;).<br /> <br /> ==Page 526==<br /> <br /> '''biquaternion'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Or &quot;octonion,&quot; an innovation of English mathematician W.K. Clifford, [[ATD_243-272#Page_249|referred to on p. 249.]]<br /> <br /> '''Barry Nebulay'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Pun on a term from heraldry, ''barry nebuly.'' Barry (rhymes with &quot;starry,&quot; not &quot;carry&quot;) refers to a shield divided into an even number of parts by horizontal lines. Nebuly signals that the lines are deformed into stylized &quot;cloud&quot; shapes. [http://www.rarebooks.nd.edu/digital/heraldry/partitions.html Here you can see an example.] If a ''British'' author had a character with a heraldic name, it would suggest a pseudonym.<br /> <br /> '''University of Dublin'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> The Alma Mater of Hamilton, the father of Quaternion. He studied, graduated and taught at Trinity College, the University of Dublin, Ireland's oldest university.<br /> <br /> If University College, Dublin, then Joyce had graduated in 1902.&lt;br&gt;<br /> <br /> '''Quaternioneers'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Quaternion believers.<br /> <br /> '''Gibbsian Vectors'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Vector Analysis (or Vector Calculus) developed by Willard Gibbs (Cf [[ATD_26-56#Page 29|page 29:Professor Gibbs]]) in 1881 and 1884. It is a branch of calculus that deals with vectors and process involving vectors. It is much more easily applied to phsics and other applied sciences than Hamilton's Quaternions (Cf [[ATD_525-556#Page 525|page 525:Quaternions]]).&lt;br&gt;<br /> A vector is defined by not only a magnitude but also a direction, such as a velocity vector, ''v'' is defined by ''v'' = a''i'' + b''j'' + c''k'',<br /> where a, b, and c are the magnitudes of the velocity components in directions of ''i, j'' and ''k'' which are unit vectors, (not imaginary numbers as in Quaternion), with magnitude of 1. In three dimensional cases and ''xyz'' coordinate system is used then ''i, j, k'' are related to ''x, y, z'' directions (&quot;''xyz'' people&quot; of page 533); but they, in general, may be used irrespective of the notation of the coordinates.<br /> Mathematical operations (addition, subtraction, multiplication), differentiation (''curl'' — Cf [[ATD_318-335#Page 326|page 326:Curl]] and p. 536, ''Laplacian'' — Cf [[ATD_318-335#Page 326|page 326:Laplacian]] and p. 536, etc) and integration can be applied to vectors. It is interesting to know that one of the two multiplication operations is called cross product; for unit vectors (''i, j, k'') perpendicular to each other, then, ''i × i = j × j = k × k = 0'', ''i × j = k'', ''j × i = -k'', etc. ([http://web.mit.edu/wwmath/vectorc/summary.html Vector Calculus]).&lt;br&gt;<br /> A simple vector anyalysis example here: if ''k'', the unit vector, stands for the direction upward and g is the gravitational acceleration, then the acceleration vector, ''a'', for a projectile, is defined for downward action, (the ''i'' and ''j'' directions have zero components):&lt;br&gt;<br /> :''a'' = -g ''k''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Integrating ''a'' would give the velocity vector, ''v''&lt;br&gt;<br /> :''v'' = -g t ''k''&lt;br&gt;<br /> for zero initial velocity case, and t standing for time.&lt;br&gt;<br /> And integrating ''v'' would yield the position vector, ''h'', for the projectile&lt;br&gt;<br /> :''h'' = -½ g t² ''k''&lt;br&gt;<br /> toward the sea level.<br /> <br /> '''Quaternionists'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Quaternion believers, same as Quaternioneers.<br /> <br /> '''Tasmania'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Tasmania is an island of the southern coast of Australia. Known for its relative isolation, it was a prison for English convicts in the 1800s<br /> <br /> '''Having been inseparable from the rise of the electromagnetic'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> In his 1865 work ''The Dynamical Theory of the Electromagnetic Field'', James Clerk Maxwell unified electricity and magnetism. He put forth twenty equations, with twenty unknowns, in vector form (though different in notation and form than the equations that now bear his name) that completely described all known electromagnetic phenomena. In his 1873 treatise on the subject, he expressed the equations in the mathematics of quaternions. It appears that the quaternion form of the equations remained popular even though, at the behest of his publisher, Maxwell reverted to the 1865 form in the second edition (1881)--though they remain scattered throughout. In 1892 Oliver Heaviside (On the Forces, Stresses, and Fluxes of Energy in the Electromagnetic Field. ''Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society of London.'' A, Vol. 183. pp423-480), while spewing scientific vitriol at the Quaternionists, reformulated Maxwell's original 1865 equations (Heaviside chose to remove the vector potential and scalar fields from the equations; the inclusion of these terms had served as Maxwell's justification for the use of quaternions), and provided the notation still in use today. See this [http://www.zpenergy.com/modules.php?name=Downloads&amp;d_op=getit&amp;lid=60 PDF] for the evolution of Maxwell's equations.<br /> <br /> '''Hamiltonian devotees'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> The Quaternion faction, after William Hamilton, who devised the scheme.<br /> <br /> '''Grand Hôtel de la Nouvelle Digue'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> There is a Hotel Digue in the Seychelles; this is a New Hotel Digue by Pynchon? <br /> <br /> Grand Hotel of New Dyke, may be a made up hotel name.<br /> <br /> '''anterooms of death'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> This metaphor is sometimes applied to concentration camps. Here the lyric &quot;feel like I'm fixin' to die&quot; seems more apposite.<br /> <br /> '''Belgian Art Nouveau'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Art Nouveau, 1890(or 80) to 1914, explores a new style in the visual arts and architecture that developed in Europe and North America at the end of the 19th century. At its height (~1907), Art Nouveau was a concerted attempt to create an international style based on decoration. It was developed by a brilliant and energetic generation of artists and desisgners, who sought to fashion an art form appropriate to the post-Industrial Revolution modern age.&lt;br&gt;<br /> Brussels was one of the Art Nouveau centers and represented different style from the others. The jewelers there, accepted as artists rahter than craftsmen, (together with those in Paris) defined Art Nouveau in jewelery and achieved the most renown. ([http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Art_Nouveau Art Nouveau]).<br /> <br /> ==Page 527==<br /> <br /> '''dossing'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> British slang for &quot;sleeping&quot;, &quot;staying overnight&quot;<br /> <br /> '''Russian nihilists'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> :The following four are local, Belgian, not Russian, nihilists !<br /> <br /> '''Eugénie'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Female. Possibly named for Empress Eugénie (1826-1920), consort of French Emperor Napoleon III. Ultimately for St. Eugenia, 3rd-century Roman martyr whose feast is celebrated on December 25.<br /> <br /> '''Fatou'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Female. A pseudonym? In view of the date of the action, certainly not named after [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fatou the mathematician Fatou] (1878-1929).<br /> <br /> '''Denis'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Male. Named for St. Denis or Dionysius, patron saint of Paris and of France, 3rd-century bishop of Paris, martyr, beheaded on the hill now called Montmartre. &quot;Montjoie St. Denis!&quot; was a warcry used by French troops in the Middle Ages. His intercession is effective against demonic possession and headache.<br /> <br /> '''Policarpe'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Male. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Polycarp Saint Polycarp] was a Christian bishop of Smyrna (now İzmir in Turkey) in the second century. He was stabbed and died a martyr after an attempt to burn him at the stake failed. His intercession is sought against earache and dysentery.<br /> <br /> '''Young Congo'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Probably in reference to the [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Young_Turks Young Turks], a Turkish revolutionary movement<br /> <br /> '''Garde Civique'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> A part of the Belgian army. According to the [http://www.1911encyclopedia.org/Belgium 1911 Britannica], &quot;the mass of the garde civique does not pretend to possess military value. It is a defence against sedition and socialism.&quot;<br /> <br /> '''French Second Bureau boys'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Deuxieme Bureau; French Intelligence.<br /> <br /> '''''phalange'''''&lt;br&gt;<br /> French: phalanx. A military (here mock-military) group ready for combat. &lt;br&gt;<br /> <br /> It also conjures up memories of the early 19th century utopian socialist <br /> Charles Fourier, who theorized that people should live communally in &quot;phalanxes&quot; of a specific number based upon their &quot;passions.&quot; His solid ideas included equality of the sexes, but he also taught wacky things such as the moon being made of lemonade. Of particular relevance is his rejection of industrial civilization. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Utopian_socialism]<br /> <br /> '''&quot;...until something had happened, something too terrible to remember...&quot;'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Again this theme of an unknowable past transgression, here invoked almost as if the unknown signifies the other 'lateral' (a word which has cropped up at least a dozen times already) 'vector'.<br /> <br /> '''the Digue'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> French for &quot;dyke&quot;<br /> <br /> '''Congo... Belgians'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> The Belgian colonisation of the Congo was, as Conrad's ''Heart of Darkness'' makes clear, notable for its greed and brutality.<br /> <br /> '''Leopold, King of the Belgians'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> 1835-1909, reigned 1865-1909. A man of almost Nixonian fiendishness. In the Congo he acted as sole proprietor and absolute ruler. The positive outcomes of his exploitation include ''Heart of Darkness'' and the phrase &quot;crime against humanity.&quot;<br /> <br /> '''co-conscious'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> mental processes outside the main stream of consciousness but sometimes available to it — from Merriam-Webster's Medical Dictionary.<br /> <br /> '''Force Publique'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Belgian armed forces operating in the Belgian Congo ([http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Force_Publique Wikipedia]). &quot;King Leopold's private army&quot; may be a more accurate description.<br /> <br /> '''rubber worker'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> See above: One of the early missions of the FP was to increase rubber export quotas through forced labor and related atrocities.<br /> <br /> ==Page 528==<br /> <br /> '''''khâgne'''''&lt;br&gt;<br /> an informal term used by French students for Classes Préparatoires Littéraires, the two-year cycle of classes taken after the Baccalaureat (taken at age 17-18), to prepare for the entrance examination to the Ecole Normale Supeieure. ([http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kh%C3%A2gne khâgne]).<br /> <br /> '''Reclus'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> J. J. Élisée Reclus (1830-1905), French geographer but mainly educated in Germany. Several times he was forced to leave France because of his political views; he traveled widely in Europe, the British Isles, the United States, and South America and for many years lived in Switzerland. He was professor of comparative geography at the University of Brussels from 1895 to 1905. He had quite an extensive connection with various socialist and anarchist circles (met Bakunin while in Florence).Once he was imprisoned in Versailles in 1871 for his part in the ''Paris Commune''. In 1882 he initiated the ''Anti-marriage movement'' while in Geneva. [[http://academic.reed.edu/formosa/texts/reclusbio.html Reclus]).<br /> <br /> '''Stirnerite'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Follower of Max Stirner, 19th century German philosopher and author of ''The Ego and Its Own,'' a work influential in anarchist thought. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Max_Stirner Wikipedia entry].<br /> <br /> ''Max Stirner'''s (1806-56) attacks on systematic philosophy, his denial of absulutes, and his rejection of abstract concepts of any kind often places him among the first philosophical nihilists. For Stirner, achieving individual freedom is the only law; and the state, which necvessarily imperils freedom, must be destroyed. Even beyond the oppression of the state, though, are the constraints imposed by others because their very existence is an obstable compromising individual freedom. Thus Stirner argues that existence is an endless &quot;war of each against all&quot; (1845). (taken from the paragraph about Max Stirner in [http://www.iep.utm.edu/n/nihilism.htm#H1 Nihilism])&lt;br&gt;<br /> Sourcing here? Much complexity in properly understanding Stirner, who has some Pynchon-like qualities, to say the least. From the Stanford Dictionary of Philosophy&lt;br&gt;<br /> His major work:<br /> The Ego and Its Own<br /> Much of Stirner's prose—which is crowded with aphorisms, italicisation, and hyperbole—appears calculated to disconcert. Most striking, perhaps, is the use of word play. Rather than reach a conclusion through the conventional use of argument, Stirner often approaches a claim that he wishes to endorse by exploiting words with related etymologies or formal similarities. For example, he associates words for property (such as ‘Eigentum’) with words connoting distinctive individual characteristics (such as ‘Eigenheit’) in order to promote the claim that property is expressive of selfhood. (Stirner's account of egoistic property—see below—gives this apparently orthodox Hegelian claim a distinctive twist.)<br /> <br /> This rejection of conventional forms of intellectual discussion is linked to Stirner's substantive views about language and rationality. His unusual style reflects a conviction that both language and rationality are human products which have come to constrain and oppress their creators. Stirner maintains that accepted meanings and traditional standards of argumentation are underpinned by a conception of truth as a privileged realm beyond individual control. As a result, individuals who accept this conception are abandoning a potential area of creative self-expression in favour of adopting a subordinate role as servants of truth. In stark contrast, Stirner insists that the only legitimate restriction on the form of our language, or on the structure of our arguments, is that they should serve our individual ends. It is the frequent failure of ordinary meanings and standard forms of argument to satisfy his interpretation of this criterion which underpins Stirner's remorselessly idiosyncratic style.<br /> <br /> The Ego and Its Own has an intelligible, but scarcely transparent, structure. It is organised around a tripartite account of human experience, initially introduced in a description of the stages of an individual life. The first stage in this developmental narrative is the realistic one of childhood, in which children are constrained by material and natural forces such as their parents. Liberation from these external constraints is achieved with what Stirner calls the self-discovery of mind, as children find the means to outwit those forces in their own determination and cunning. The idealistic stage of youth, however, contains new internal sources of constraint, as individuals once more become enslaved, this time to the spiritual forces of conscience and reason. Only with the adulthood of egoism do individuals escape both material (external) and spiritual (internal) constraints, learning to value their personal satisfaction above all other considerations.<br /> <br /> Stirner portrays this dialectic of individual growth as an analogue of historical development, and it is a tripartite account of the latter which structures the remainder of the book. Human history is reduced to successive epochs of realism (the ancient, or pre-Christian, world), idealism (the modern, or Christian, world), and egoism (the future world). <br /> <br /> What about these &quot;successive epochs&quot; in understanding ATD?<br /> <br /> Stirner's major work, The Ego and Its Own has been reissued in English a number of times in Pynchon's lifetime,from the 60s on. (Not that TRP could not have read it in German!)<br /> <br /> '''''Anarcho-individualiste'''''&lt;br&gt;<br /> i.e. he has doctrinal differernces with Stirnerism, strictly speaking; see P. 324, and &quot;Eigenheit&quot;.<br /> <br /> '''Leopold'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> See p. 527.<br /> <br /> '''going down lately'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Being assassinated.<br /> <br /> '''Sipido'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Jean-Baptiste Sipido (1884-1959), a Belgian socialist. Accusing the Prince of Wales of causing thousands of inocents were killed in the Boer War in South Africa, on April 5, 1900, Sipido leaped onto the foot board of the royal compartment right before the train left the North Railway Station (Gare du Nord), Brussel, and fired two (or one? as reported in ''The Manchester Guardian'', or four? as stated in the text here) shots through the window but missed everyone inside. He was arrested, tried and acquitted. The leader of the House of Commons called the acquittal a &quot;grave and most unfortunate miscarriage of justice.&quot; ([http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jean-Baptiste_Sipido Sipido]).<br /> <br /> '''Prince... of Wales'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> (Maud Gonne's husband claimed to have been involved in another such plot.)<br /> <br /> '''Hippodrome'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Hippodrome Wellington, a horse racing track in Ostend built in 1883. The facility hosts both harness and flat racing events. ([http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hippodrome_Wellington Hippodrome]).<br /> <br /> '''Royal Bathing Hut... twenty francs'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> A bathing machine ([http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bathing_machine bathing machine])? The King of Belgium certainly would not want to be seen in a swimsuit on a public beach... It seems unlikely, though, that such a royal bathing machine would be for hire.<br /> <br /> '''twenty francs'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> ???<br /> <br /> ==Page 529==<br /> <br /> '''picric family'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> The explosive picric acid (2,4,6-trinitrophenol) and its derivatives. For picric acid, Brugère's powder and Designolle's powder, [http://encyclopedia.jrank.org/PER_PIG/PICRIC_ACID_or_TRINITROPHENOL_C.html see this Britannica article.]<br /> <br /> '''Brugère's powder'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> See &quot;picric family&quot; above.<br /> <br /> '''Designolle's'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> See &quot;picric family&quot; above.<br /> <br /> '''Monsieur Santos-Dumont'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Alberto Santos-Dumont (1873-1932), a pioneer of aviation from Brasil. Check out [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alberto_Santos-Dumont Wikipedia] to get a look at the way he was wearing his &quot;trademark Panama hat&quot;. <br /> <br /> '''Green Hour''' and '''''l'heure vertigineuse'''''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Absinthe-drinking time. The liqueur is green. In French, ''l'heure verte,'' so ''vertigineuse'' (vertiginous, causing dizziness) is a pun on the word for &quot;green.&quot;<br /> <br /> '''Rocco and Pino'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Rabid Quaternionists and sudden friends of Kit Traverse.<br /> :No, they were not mathematicians at all, let alone Quaternionists, but two &quot;Italian naval renegades&quot; !!<br /> ::&quot;Rocco and Pino&quot; are, in temperament, something like the &quot;Mason and Dixon&quot; of manned-torpedoes... cf. the &quot;torpedo&quot; (i.e., &quot;Electrick-Eel&quot;) of ''Mason &amp; Dixon''.<br /> <br /> '''Whitehead works in Fiume'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Anticipating GR's V2 works.<br /> <br /> ''Robert Whitehead'' (1823-1905), an English engineer. He developed the first self-propelled torpedo in 1866. He attended Manchester's Mechanics Institute, worked in a shipyard in Toulon (1844), France, and as a consultant engineer in Milan (1847), Italy. Later he moved to Trieste and in 1856 became a manager of a company called ''Founderia Mettali'' (later, ''Stabilimento Tecnico di Fiume'') in Fiume producing ship steam boilers and engines which were the most advanced of that era. He also developed the first self-propelled torpedo which was very popular. Whitehead's torpedo was propelled by a compressed air engine, carried 18lbs dynamites and a self-regulating device which kept the torpedo cruising at a constant preset depth. [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Robert_Whitehead Whitehead]].<br /> <br /> ''Fiume'' is now Rijeka, Croatia. Trieste is on the northwestern edge of the Istra Peninsula, Rijeka is east of it. [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rijeka Fiume]].<br /> <br /> Interesting sidebar: Whitehead's fortune from Fiume and the torpedo went solely to his granddaughter Agatha Whitehead, who married Baron von Trapp. The Von Trapp money came from Robert Whitehead, and most of the von Trapp singers were his great-grandchildren.<br /> <br /> '''''Alberta'''''&lt;br&gt;<br /> The [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Royal_yacht Wikipedia] entry on royal yachts goes back to the 17th century but doesn't include ''Alberta.'' The craft does get a mention in [http://www.bouncing-balls.com/timeline/people/nr_leopoldmorel.htm this page on Leopold and the Congo.]<br /> <br /> '''Siluro Dirigibile a Lenta Corsa'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> or S.L.C. &quot;slow course torpedo&quot;, &quot;slow-running torpedo&quot;. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Manned_torpedo Wikipedia] Italy‘s Navy was among the first to experiment with manned torpedos. Though according to [http://web.ukonline.co.uk/chalcraft/sm/chariots.html this site] this did not happen until 1935, Italian frogmen as early as October 31, 1918 made it into the harbour of Pula with the help of a modified german torpedo and sank the former Austrian but by then since a few hours Croatian/Slovenian/Bosnian battleship SMS ''Viribus Unitis''. [http://www.geocities.com/tegetthoff66/viribus.html website]<br /> <br /> The Wikipedia entry linked above doesn't contain the Italian word ''dirigibile'' (steerable), which sets up the torpedo as a counterpart of the dirigible ''Inconvenience.''<br /> <br /> :I suspect there's a connection between the torpedo and &quot;Not the usual lateener, in fact appearing to have neither sails, masts, nor oars&quot; in Miles' reversed vision, [[ATD_243-272#Page_250|page 250.]] Needs work, though.<br /> <br /> ==Page 530==<br /> <br /> '''exfiltrate'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Make a surreptitious escape (as &quot;infiltrate&quot; means to make a surreptitious entrance).<br /> <br /> '''''Macchè'''''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Italian: certainly not, not a chance. And in Pynchon's Italian is used as an all-purpose exclamation.<br /> <br /> '''''Ehi, stu gazz', categoria'''''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Stu gazz' is a dialect representation of ''sto cazzo'', literally meaning ''this dick here''. Normally you could translate the sense of the sentence as: ''yeah, why not, a fucking category! ''. -- blicero2 - 2007.02.22<br /> <br /> '''''mezzogiornismo'''''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Denigrating the Italian South. Mezzogiorno means ''midday'' in Italian but refers generally to Southern Italy.<br /> <br /> ==Page 531==<br /> <br /> '''Bruges'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> An exceptionally beautiful Belgian town of canals which is thus one of several towns known as the 'Venice of the north'. In the 14th cettury Burges already became an international finanacial and trading center, but<br /> started to decline in the 15th century. In the 20th century, however, the city was discovered by the international tourism and the medieval heritage turned out to be a new source of wealth. A new harbor of Zeebrugge, 10 miles outside of Bruges at the North Sea coast, brought new developments and new industries to the region. For the city and its history see ([http://www.trabel.com/brugge.htm Bruges]).<br /> <br /> '''Raoul's Atelier de la Vitesse'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> French: Ralph's Speed Shop.<br /> <br /> '''Ghent'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Belgian city, less than 30 miles southeast of Bruges, on the rail line about halfway between Ostend and Brussels. It is the fourth largest city of Belgium. It is bigger than Bruges but not as famous as a tourist attraction. But the city is a showcase of medieval Flemish wealth and commercial success. See ([http://www.trabel.com/gent.htm Ghent]).<br /> <br /> '''Daimler six-cylinder'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> ???<br /> <br /> '''a hundred horsepower'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> ???<br /> <br /> '''''guaglion'''''&lt;br&gt;<br /> italian (dialectal) = boy, young person<br /> <br /> '''Umeki Tsurigane'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Umeki is typically made with some combination of the various kanji for &quot;plum&quot; (ume) and &quot;tree&quot; (ki), though one has the ki being the character for &quot;ghost/devil&quot; and one obscure reading that's entirely redundant, where ume is &quot;plant&quot; (usually read ue). There is one where ume is the kanji for &quot;buried or embedded&quot;. Tsurigane, means a &quot;temple bell&quot;, which can stand alone or be followed by the grass kanji to mean &quot;bellflower&quot; (lots of botanical stuff happening here, if that means anything; hardly the only example in ''AtD''). Given the search for Shambhala going on, &quot;Buried Temple Bell&quot; seems a likely translation, at least at this point; the botanical meanings could perhaps emerge later.<br /> <br /> Or, another terrible name-pun? &quot;You make [m]e sore again.&quot; See another on P. [[ATD_748-767#Page_757| 757]]<br /> <br /> '''Professor Knott'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Cargill Knott (1856-1922), professor of physics; seismologist. See his biography [http://www.penicuikcdt.org.uk/Cargill_Knott.html here].<br /> <br /> ==Page 532==<br /> <br /> '''Kimura'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Cf [[ATD_26-56#Page 29|page 29:Kimura]] and [[ATD_318-335#Page 318|page 318:Shunkichi Kimura]].<br /> <br /> '''drover's sombrero'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Cowboy hat.<br /> <br /> '''furoshiki'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Japanese all-purpose cloth. Can be worn, used as wrapping, or used as a bag.<br /> <br /> '''taupe'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> A brownish gray.<br /> <br /> '''boilermakers and their helpers'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> [[ATD_358-373#Page_360|See annotation to p. 360.]]<br /> <br /> '''Anharmonic Pencil'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> ''Pencil'' is a term commonly used in Synthetic Geometry. Straight lines incident with a plane - coplanar lines - and passing through a common point are said to be concurrent lines and the set of all such concurrent coplanar lines is called the ''pencil''. (Cf [[ATD_429-459#Page 456|page 456:Pencil]]). For a figure and a not quite precise definition see [http://mathworld.wolfram.com/Pencil.html pencil]. If a, b, c and d, are four distinct coplanar lines and their double ratio λ = (abcd) = -1, then a, b, c, d are called a harmonic quadruple of lines; they are said to constitute a ''harmonic pencil''. A ''pencil'' which is not harmonic then is known as ''anharmonic pencil''. See Pencil (lines 8-9), Double Ratio λ (lines 32-35) and Harmonic Pencil (line 39) of [http://ca.geocities.com/ingsaler6/mathworld.html Mathworld].<br /> <br /> '''''Comptes rendus'''''&lt;br&gt;<br /> ''Comptes rendus des séances hebdomadaires,'' Proceedings of the weekly sessions (of the Academy of Sciences), published from 1835, later (ca. 1935) retitled ''Comptes rendus de l'Académie des sciences,'' Proceedings of the Academy of Sciences. (Notice that the academy didn't see the need to specify &quot;French.&quot; Take that, Royal Society of London!) For about a century, one of two journals so universally circulated and recognized that bibliographies nearly always cited them in nickname form: ''C.R.'' The other was ''Ber.,'' short for ''Berichte der Deutschen Chemischen Gesellschaft,'' Reports of the German Chemical Society (from 1868).<br /> <br /> '''De Forest'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Cf [[ATD_26-56#Page 29|page 29:De Forest]].<br /> <br /> '''Gibbs'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Cf [[ATD_26-56#Page 29|page 29:Professor Gibbs]].<br /> <br /> '''Maxwell Equations'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Cf [[ATD_57-80#Page 58|page 58:Maxwell Field Equations]].<br /> <br /> ==Page 533==<br /> <br /> '''aniline teal'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> The wallpaper dye; aniline dyes were the first synthetic dyes, discovered by [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/William_Perkin William Perkin] in 1858. Their intense and fade-resistant colors were very fashionable at the end of the nineteenth century. The dyes are also significant in ''GR'' as the products of I.G. Farben.<br /> <br /> '''Heavisiders'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Oliver Heaviside (May 18, 1850 – February 3, 1925) was a self-taught English electrical engineer, mathematician and physicist who adapted complex numbers to the study of electrical circuits, developed techniques for applying Laplace transforms to the solution of differential equations, reformulated Maxwell's field equations in terms of electric and magnetic forces and energy flux, and independently co-formulated vector analysis. Although at odds with the scientific establishment for most of his life, Heaviside changed the face of mathematics and science for years to come.[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Heaviside].<br /> <br /> '''Grassmanniacs'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Nineteenth century German mathematician and linguist, essentially the inventor/discoverer of vector space. Grassmann showed that once geometry is put into the algebraic form he advocated, then the number three has no privileged role as the number of spatial dimensions; the number of possible dimensions is in fact unbounded.[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hermann_Grassmann].<br /> <br /> '''in the mood for a clambake'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Anachronistic Broadway show tune? If so, the clambake in ''Carousel'' turns into a brawl; the assmebled factions of mathematicians could be in the mood for either a party or a brawl, apparently. <br /> <br /> '''Monopole de la Maison'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Monopole of the House, a fanciful name of a fanciful drink.&lt;br&gt;<br /> There is, since 1898, a well known restaurant called ''Monopole Lunch &amp; Sea Grill'' in Plattsburgh of upper New York state. ([http://www.monopole.org Monopole Restaurant]).&lt;br&gt;<br /> Most probably, it's the Magnetic monopole being referred here. In physics, a monopole is a magnet with a net magnetic charge, i.e. there is only one pole instead of two (so no net magnetic charge) as usual. ([http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Magnetic_monopole Monopole]). It's existence had been theoretically predicted by various particle theories (superstring theory, etc) but never been proved experimentally. Proving the existence of a monopole would certainly earn a Nobel Prize.<br /> <br /> '''Idiom Neutral'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> An invented language, like Esperanto. Idiom Neutral dictionaries first appeared in 1902. It looks like a simplified Latinate language and it grew out of Volapuk, another &quot;auxiliary language.&quot; It was abandoned by the ''Akademi Internasional de Lingu Universal'' in 1908.<br /> <br /> For a list of all the invented languages that linguists are keeping track of, including Klingon, try [http://linguistlist.org/forms/langs/GetListOfConstructedLgs.html Eastern Michigan's Linguist List]. And don't forget to click on the link to &quot;Browse sites devoted to constructed languages.&quot;<br /> <br /> '''phatic'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Basically, small talk or chatter. Words used to convey fellow-feeling rather than to impart information.<br /> <br /> '''''Kampf ums Dasein'''''&lt;br&gt;<br /> German: struggle for existence.<br /> <br /> '''Q-brother'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Fellow Quaternioneer or Fellow Quaternionist.<br /> <br /> '''We are the Jews of mathematics, wandering out here in our diaspora--some destined for the past, others the future, even a few able to set out at unknown angles from the simple line of Time, upon journeys that no one can predict''' &lt;br&gt;<br /> In keeping with the analogy of Judaism, those &quot;few&quot; people within the Quaternionists &quot;able to set out at unknown angles&quot; are most likely being compared to Kabbalists who claim to partake in a mystic &quot;journey to the Throne of God through the mythological realm of the seven heavens&quot; (Armstrong, A History of God--p. 247). Throne Mysticism in Kabbalah is explored extensively in Gravity's Rainbow.<br /> <br /> Perhaps this is obvious to some, but these &quot;Jews of Mathematics&quot; worship the Hamiltonian Tetractys [http://www.math.ucr.edu/home/baez/dublin/]; those other Jews worshipped the Tetragrammatron. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tetragrammaton] The proliferation of 4s continues.<br /> <br /> ==Page 534==<br /> <br /> '''Poiret gown'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> A gown designed by Paul Poiret (1879-1944), a French fashion designer based in Paris. &quot;In the annals of fashion history, Paul Poiret is best remembered for freeing women from corsets and further liberating them through pantaloons . . . it was Poiret's remarkable innovations in the cut and construction of cloting . . . Working with fabric directly onto the body, Poiret helped to pioneer a radical approach to dressmakeing that relied more on the skills of drapery than on those of tailoring.&quot; (from [http://www.metmuseum.org/special/se_event.asp?OccurrenceId={0DC3D00F-4611-4F91-8DC2-CC3C1A5C48D5} MetMuseum], <br /> New York Metropolitan Museum's Special Exhibitions, ''Poiret: King of Fashion'', May 9, 2007 to August 5, 2007). For a picture of Poiret gown see [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Image:Poiretgown.jpg Poiret Gown]. ''The New York Times'' reported on February 1, 2007 that A Poiret Gown Brings $5,500 at [http://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html?res=9B07EFDA1538F93AA15756C0A967948260 Christie's Auction] - the gown was made in 1913 when Poiret was at the height of his career. For his bio see [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Paul_Poiret Poiret].<br /> <br /> '''''green and long'''''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Pickle, or... what?<br /> : A green and long ''gherkin'' (a small, immature fruit of a variety of cucumber used in pickling).<br /> <br /> ==Page 535==<br /> <br /> '''no-name wine'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> 1970s idiom for common European practice?<br /> <br /> '''set theory'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Set theory deals with the properties of well-defined collections, or ''sets'', of entities - the ''elements'' or ''members'' of the set - conceived as a whole. The elements may be of a mathematical nature or non-mathematical. The set theory grew out of the German mathematician Georg Cantor's (1845-1918) study of infinite sets of real numbers. <br /> <br /> The ''language of sets'' has become an important tool for all branches of mathematics, but is of very little relevance to the practice of mathematics in everyday life. As a source of metaphors, however, it's been quite productive; &quot;subset,&quot; &quot;superset,&quot; &quot;universe,&quot; &quot;intersection&quot; and &quot;Venn diagram&quot; have found varying degrees of acceptance. Recasting Aristotle's syllogisms in set-theoretic language also makes them easier for many people to understand.<br /> <br /> '''Hamilton . . . early genius'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Hamilton, according to ''Chambers Biographical Dictionary'', &quot;at fifteen knew thirteen languages, had read Newton's ''Principia'', and commenced original investigations&quot;. At twenty-two, &quot;while still an undergraduate, he was appointed professor of Astronomy at Dublin and Irish Astronomer-Royal&quot;; at thirty &quot;he was knighted&quot;.<br /> <br /> '''Hamilton . . . in the grip of a first love'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> ???&lt;br&gt;<br /> Pynchon probably didn't mean Quaternion was Hamilton's first love, but its effect on him was similar to that of a first love. In 1843 at the age of 38 Hamilton invented the Quaternion, the first non-communtative algebra to be studied. He felt this would revolutionise mathematical physics, and he spent the rest of his life working on it. In 1853 he published a large volume, ''Lectures on Quaternions'', on his grand invention. The last seven years of his life, Hamilton was writing an 800-page book ''Elements of Quaternions'' modeling on Euclid's ''Elements''. The last chapter of the book was completed by his son after his death.<br /> <br /> '''the Walt Whitman of English physics'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Whitman pops up again, last seen on [[ATD_489-524#Page_491|page 491]].<br /> <br /> ==Page 536==<br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> '''Oscar Wilde'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Note that Wilde's Dorian Gray also undergoes a kind of bilocation.<br /> <br /> '''Kursaal'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Spa. Casino ?<br /> <br /> '''vectors'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> For serious minds see Cf [[ATD_525-556#Page 526|page 526:Gibbsian Vectors]], but let's follow Pynchon's lighter mood, here is a non-mathematical definition by Kamen (1995):<br /> :''Many things have more than direction;''<br /> :''The magnitude is also a question.''<br /> :''With acceleration or force,''<br /> :''And many more things, of course,''<br /> :''It's vectors that make the connection.''<br /> <br /> '''Curls'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Cf [[ATD_318-335#Page 326|page 326:Curl]]: curl is a vector operator that shows a vector field's rate of rotation.<br /> <br /> '''Laplacians'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Pierre-Simon, Marquis de Laplace (March 23, 1749 – March 5, 1827); French mathematician and astronomer who summarized and extended the work of his predecessors in his five volume Mécanique Céleste (Celestial Mechanics) (1799-1825), translating the geometrical study of mechanics used by Isaac Newton to one based on calculus, known as physical mechanics.<br /> <br /> He is also the discoverer of Laplace's equation. Although the Laplace transform is named in honor of Laplace, who used the transform in his work on probability theory, the transform was discovered originally by Leonhard Euler. The Laplace transform appears in all branches of mathematical physics — a field he took a leading role in forming. The Laplacian differential operator, much relied-upon in applied mathematics, is likewise named after him. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Laplace].<br /> <br /> :Cf [[ATD_318-335#Page 326|page 326:Laplacian]]: Laplacian is a differential operator named after Laplace. The text here was talking about mathematical operations and operators — rates of change, rotations, partial differentials, Curls, ''Laplacians'', . . .<br /> <br /> '''scream'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Scream motif.<br /> <br /> '''beginning to appal'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> By 1905 there had been years of outrage at conditions in the Belgian Congo, King Leopold's private fief. Conrad's ''Heart of Darkness'' had been published as a serial in Blackwood's Magazine in 1899 and as a book in 1902. There were missionaries' accounts of the brutality, and newspaper reports. Leopold and his apologists published rebuttals. The Norton Critical Edition of ''Heart of Darkness'' contains an extensive collection of both.<br /> <br /> '''baize'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Baize is a coarse woolen felt.<br /> <br /> ==Page 537==<br /> <br /> '''broken symmetries'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Broken_symmetry Broken symmetry] is a concept used widely in mathematics and physics. For a simplest explanation (good enough for the text here), this term means that an object breaks either rotational symmetry or translational sysmetry - when one can only rotate an object in certain angles or when one is able to tell if the object has been shifted sideways. For a little bit more detailed explanation see [http://www.lassp.cornell.edu/sethna/OrderParameters/BrokenSymmetry.html Identify the Broken Symmetry]; or even more [http://scienceweek.com/2005/sw050708-6.htm On Broken Symmetry].<br /> <br /> '''''sphinxe Khnopffienne'''''&lt;br&gt;<br /> refers to the Belgian symbolist painter Fernand Khnopff (1858-1921), famous for his painting &quot;The Caress&quot;, in which a female sphinx erotically lures a young man. The painting can be seen in the [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fernand_Khnopff wikipedia entry]<br /> <br /> '''Pléiade Lafrisée'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> in French, &quot;friser&quot; means to curl or twist. &quot;La frisée&quot; could mean &quot;curled,&quot; by extension &quot;twisted.&quot; The Pleiades is a cluster of hundreds of stars, though only a few are visible, sometimes referred to as The Seven Sisters. If Pleiades are Sisters, Pléiade is ''one'' Sister, so her name means Twisted Sister!<br /> <br /> '''''Conseilleuse'''''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Female consultant?<br /> <br /> ==Page 538==<br /> <br /> '''retroversion matrix'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> ???<br /> <br /> '''''Ma foi'''''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Literally &quot;My faith&quot;, i.e. &quot;By my faith!&quot;, a mild exclamation of incredulity.<br /> <br /> '''ten thousand francs'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> <br /> Based on currency conversions relative to gold, this is equivalent to<br /> about $30,000 US today.<br /> <br /> '''piker'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Someone cheap or cautious, possibly named after people from PIke County, Missouri, who came to California in the 1800s, looking for work. They were poor, hence cheap.<br /> <br /> '''what is a Quaternino?'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Cf [[ATD_525-556#Page 525|page 525:Quaternions]] for a mathematical definition. From ''The Random House Dictionary of the English Languages'', The Unabridged Edition (1966): Quaternion is &quot;a quantity or operator expressed as the sum of a real number and three complex numbers, equivalent to the ''quotient of two vectors''. The field of quaternions is not commutative under multiplication.&quot;.<br /> <br /> '''Bertie ('Mad Dog') Russell'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> 'Mad Dog' seems to be used with heavy irony here. Bertrand Russell was known most for his rationalism, so to speak, his work in modern logic. <br /> He did little in his public roles (at this time in AtD) that would have <br /> him referred to as &quot;crazy', as we say, beyond the social norm, &quot;mad&quot;. <br /> It might be argued that his use of 'logic' against philosophers such as Hegel and McTaggart within ''Against the Day'' showed up their 'madness'.<br /> (Many did think McTaggart was a bit...different...for seriously not believing in Time.) McTaggart broke with Russell after an early influential friendship---Russell was the younger man and the influenced one. He said he was an Hegelian because of McTaggart--Russell wrote in his<br /> Autobiography that McTaggart said he no longer wanted to meet/talk with him bcause he could no longer stand Russell's opinions.<br /> <br /> [http://nobelprize.org/nobel_prizes/literature/laureates/1950/russell-bio.html Bertrand Russell] (1872-1970) was a British mathematician, philosopher, logician and social critic. Best known for his work in mathermatical logic and analytic philosophy. In late spring of 1901 he discovered the so-called [http://plato.stanford.edu/entries/russell-paradox/ Russell Paradox], &quot;the most famous of the logical or set-theoretical paradoxes. The paradox arises within naive set theory by considering the set of all sets that are not members of themselves. Such a set appears to be a member of itself if and only if it is not a member of itself, hence the paradox.&quot; (On-line Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy). He won the 1950 Nobel Prize in Literature in &quot;recognition of his varied and significant writings in which he champions humanitarian ideals and freedom of thought&quot;.<br /> <br /> '''Barry Nebulay'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> nebulae: formed from the diffusion of gas in galaxies or as exploded stars (or the last ember-like stage of a star)&lt;br&gt; <br /> Most nebulae can be described as diffuse nebulae, which means that they are extended and contain no well-defined boundaries.[1] In visible light these nebulae may be divided into emission nebulae and reflection nebulae, a categorization that depends on how the light we see is created.<br /> <br /> '''Hegel... puns'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Probably refers to the fact that quite a lot of Hegel's philosophy deals with the is-ness of the world as we know and experience it.<br /> <br /> On page 787 of Bertrand Russell's ''History of Western Philosophy'' is a summary, perhaps, of this remark about Hegel's puns: &quot;as a result of analysis of the concept &quot;existence&quot;, modern logic has proved this [Cartesianism, refuted by Kant, reinstated by Hegel] argument invalid.....&quot;<br /> <br /> We know from other places that TRP himself seems to 'not like' Cartesianism. See 'cartesian' citations within this wiki.<br /> <br /> ==Page 539==<br /> <br /> '''a vector quotient'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> The result of one vector divided by another. According to the English dictionary definition of previous page this is just a Quaternion.<br /> <br /> '''unit vector'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Unit vector is a vector with magnitude of one. The unit vectors in 3-dimensional space, ''i, j, k'', associated with ''x, y, z'' directions are used in defining a general 3D vector (Cf [[ATD_525-556#Page 526|page 526:Gibbsian Vectors]]).<br /> <br /> '''''square root of minus one'''''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Imaginary number (Cf [[ATD_119-148#Page 132|page 133:Imaginary Number]]). The imaginary numbers ''i, j, k'' are used in defining a Quaternion (Cf [[ATD_525-556#Page 525|page 525:Quaternions]]).<br /> <br /> ''''Triangle Asana''''&lt;br&gt;<br /> A basic yoga pose. <br /> <br /> [http://yoga.org.nz/postures/yoga_positions_images_page.htm Here are images of several basic poses.]<br /> <br /> ''''Dr Rao abruptly vanished''''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Might be a reference to [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Martin_Gardner Martin Gardner]'s<br /> [http://www.amazon.com/No-Sided-Professor-Fantasy-Mystery-Philosophy/dp/0879753900 &quot;No-Sided Professor&quot;]<br /> <br /> ''''Quadrantal Versor Asana''''&lt;br&gt;<br /> A triangle pose taken that extra dimension.<br /> <br /> '''''&quot;Uwe moer!&quot;'''''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Looks a lot like the Dutch &quot;Uw moeder!&quot; - a cry of astonishment (&quot;Your mother!&quot;), the equivalent to the black English &quot;yo mama&quot;.<br /> <br /> '''noncommutative'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> A term typical to mathematics. A commutative equation is one that can operate in exact reverse and still yield the same results. 'Noncommutative' then suggests unidirectionality. The ability to go from point A to point B, but not from B to A.<br /> <br /> '''reticule'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> A woman's drawstring handbag; usually made of net or beading or brocade; also: A system of lines forming a pattern of squares at the focal plane of a telescope, used in micrometers.<br /> [http://www.astunit.com/tutorials/glossary.htm] <br /> :Isn't that sort of a red herring? &quot;[P]roducing from her reticule a . . . watch&quot; doesn't really allow of that second meaning. &lt;br&gt;<br /> :It could be a pun, since a reticule/ handbag always shows its pattern of lines, and a watch (timepiece) is drawn from it. Remember that, e.g. railroad lines of tracks, are a sign of industrialism encroaching on the natural and the spiritual.<br /> <br /> '''Vacheron &amp; Constantin watch'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Made by a Swiss company founded in 1755. From 1819 to 1970 the name was as in the text, then the &amp; dropped out. See the [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vacheron_Constantin Wikipedia entry.]<br /> <br /> '''hunting-case'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> For a pocket watch, a case with a hinged metal cover. More often called &quot;hunter case&quot; (and such a watch a &quot;hunter&quot;).<br /> <br /> ==Page 540==<br /> <br /> '''&quot;haar rekening, ja?&quot;'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> The bill, yes? (Dutch)?<br /> <br /> ''Her'' bill, yes? I.e., give the check to the lady.<br /> <br /> Given the presence of Chris 'Kit' Traverse here, this very much suggests a reference to Christopher 'Kit' Marlowe, Elizabethan poet, playwright and contemporary of Shakespeare. Marlowe was stabbed to death in 1593, in murky circumstances, ostensibly over a bill or 'reckoning', though he was widely believed to have been involved in some form of espionage.<br /> <br /> Strictly speaking &quot;haar rekening&quot; means that the lady pays for herself only. If Root wanted to make sure that Pléiade pays for the whole company he would have to say &quot;de hele rekening voor de dame&quot;. <br /> <br /> '''Piet Woevre'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> The Woëvre is a natural region of Lorraine in north-east France. It forms part of Lorraine plateau and lies largely in the department of Meuse. During World War I, there was much fighting there due to vast mineral resources that had been discovered in the Briey basin or Eastern Woevre at the end of the 19th century. &quot;Piet&quot; is Dutch for &quot;rock&quot; or &quot;stone&quot; and is a fairly common Dutch name, the English equivalent being Peter.<br /> <br /> If the surname is pronounced as in Dutch, Woevre is another Pynchon villain with a &quot;V&quot;-name (Vond, Weissman, Vibe). <br /> <br /> '''Force Publique'''&lt;br /&gt;<br /> The Force Publique (FP) was the official armed force for what is now the Democratic Republic of the Congo from 1885, (when the territory was known as the Congo Free State), through the period of direct Belgian rule (1908-60), until the beginning of the Second Republic in 1965. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Force_Publique Wikipedia entry]<br /> <br /> '''made him reach'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Possible allusion to a famous line, &quot;When I hear the word culture I reach for my gun.&quot; From Hanns Johst's biographical play ''Schlageter''. The original line is slightly different: &quot;Wenn ich Kultur höre ... entsichere ich meinen Browning,&quot; &quot;Whenever I hear of culture... I release the safety-catch of my Browning!&quot; (Act 1, Scene 1). It is spoken by another character in conversation with the young Schlageter. In the scene Schlageter and his wartime comrade Friedrich Thiemann are studying for a college examination, but then start disputing whether it's worthwhile doing so when the nation is not free. <br /> <br /> The line is often misattributed to better-known Nazis and others [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hanns_Johst].<br /> <br /> *In Jean-Luc Godard's 1963 film [http://www.chicagoreader.com/movies/archives/0997/09057.html ''Le Mépris'' (''Contempt'')], Jack Palance's character &quot;Jeremy Prokosch,&quot; an American movie-producer, intones to Fritz Lang: &quot;Whenever I hear the word culture, I reach for my checkbook.&quot;<br /> <br /> '''not unambiguous'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Ie, ambiguous.<br /> <br /> '''''rastaquoueres'''''&lt;br&gt;<br /> 8???<br /> <br /> '''de Decker'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> In Dutch/Flemish, the name means &quot;roofer.&quot; (''De'' in these names almost never means &quot;of, from&quot; as in French; it's nearly always the definite article.)<br /> <br /> ==Page 541==<br /> <br /> '''''bobbejaan'''''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Afrikaans: baboon. (Afrikaans is the language spoken by descendants of Dutch colonists in present-day South Africa. Some items identified as Dutch or Flemish in this wiki may really be Afrikaans.)<br /> <br /> The South African song &quot;Bobbejaan klim die berg&quot; (&quot;Bobbejaan climbed the hill&quot;) is the source of the stage name of Belgium's most famous country and western musician, Bobbejaan Schoepen (b. 1925). In 1943 he was suppressed by the Nazis after performing a South African song, &quot;Mamma, 'k wil 'n man hê&quot; (&quot;Mama, I want a man&quot;), which contains the line &quot;No, Mama, I don't want a German, because I don't like pork.&quot; He founded the Bobbejaanland theme park in Belgium, where he still lives.<br /> <br /> '''MKIV/ODC... Mark Four'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> This would be the Mark IV Ohmic Drift Compensator ([[ATD 557-587#Page 565|Page 565]]), a key component of the Q-weapon, which &quot;regulates how much light is allowed to enter the silvering of the mirror! Special kind of refraction! Calibrated against imaginary index! Dangerous! Of the essence!'&quot;<br /> <br /> '''not part of your remit'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Not included in your job description, instructions, authorization. &quot;Remit&quot; (noun) is usually a British usage.<br /> <br /> '''''gatkruiper'''''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Dutch/Flemish: brownnose, ass-kisser.<br /> <br /> '''one on her wrist'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> All the bruises reflect some refinement or artistry except this one, which may have been inflicted crudely.<br /> <br /> '''over the day'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Title motif?<br /> <br /> ==Page 542==<br /> <br /> '''trans-horizontic'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> ???<br /> Across the horizon -- &quot; a screaming comes across the sky&quot;<br /> <br /> '''Edmund Whittaker'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Edmund Whittaker (1873-1956), an English mathematician. He is best known for his work in numerical analysis. And he contributed widely to applied mathematics, mathematical physics and the theory of special functions. He also worked on celestial mechanics and the history of applied mathermatics and physics. ([http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/E._T._Whittaker Whittaker]).<br /> <br /> The Sir Edmund Whittaker Memorial Prize is awarded every four years by the Edinburgh Mathematical Society to an outstanding young mathematician having a specified connection with Scotland [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sir_Edmund_Whittaker_Memorial_Prize]. <br /> <br /> '''louche'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> The cloudy effect caused by the addition of water to absinthe. Dictionary definition: &quot;of questionable taste or morality; decadent.&quot;<br /> <br /> '''cheval-glass'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Standing mirror in a freestanding vertical frame.<br /> <br /> '''as if someone'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Sound-cancelling vs opacity-cancelling?<br /> <br /> ==Page 543==<br /> <br /> '''wraith of Pleiade Lafrisee'''<br /> <br /> Pleiade manifests one of her not-visible stars. Perhaps this sister has somehow twisted herself on an imaginary axis ala Dr. V. Ganesh Rao.<br /> <br /> '''monitory'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Warning, giving advice, by extension ominous or menacing.<br /> <br /> '''Against....the day....'''<br /> Note: this phrase happens at the exact halfway point of the novel: p.542.3<br /> <br /> '''He Who Must Come'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> The evil-doer who must come might be Adolf Hitler. It would make sense. The implication being that Europe is precipitating into a no-return situation. Capitalism cannot but end in WW2.&lt;br&gt;<br /> Ah, a lot more and less than capitalism going on here, especially if anyone specific like Hitler is meant. <br /> :When French writers use this phrase (''celui qui doit venir'') they '''do''' mean the Messiah . . . although a few devout quibblers point out that the Messiah has already come. It's rather tiresome Googling the phrase; the first 83 hits definitely refer to Christ and most of them quote the first verses of Matthew 11. But there's also a Camus reference (in English, I think) down at No. 90, if anyone has a JSTOR account:<br /> :links.jstor.org/sici?sici=0361-1299(1985)39%3A4%3C251%3ACFS%22M%3E2.0.CO%3B2-X <br /> <br /> Recalls Yeats' 'The Second Coming' once again: &quot;And what rough beast, its hour come round at last, Slouches towards Bethlehem to be born?&quot; [http://chumpsofchoice.blogspot.com/2007/05/casino-royale-in-flanders-field.html#c3637134446204467798 ]<br /> <br /> '''General Boulanger'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/General_Boulanger Georges Boulanger], French military man, and War Minister in the late 19th century. He was one of those men &quot;on a white horse&quot; that some conservatives looked to, as he urged an attack on Germany and the end of the French Republic with a return to monarchy. He was also notorious for his harsh reprisals against workers' demonstrations. &quot;'Boulangisme'&quot; threatened a coup in 1889, but the general's procrastination brought the crisis to an end.&lt;br&gt;<br /> In ''The Infernal Machine: A History of Terrorism''<br /> by Matthew Carr, 2007, Boulanger is called the &quot;father&quot; of fascism.<br /> <br /> '''what death and what transfiguration'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Allusion to Richard Strauss' tone poem &quot;Death and Transfiguration&quot; (''Tod und Verklärung''), premiered in 1890.<br /> <br /> '''''&quot;Zeker&quot;'''''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Dutch: certainly.<br /> <br /> '''''dead cert'''''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Dead certainty, sure thing.<br /> <br /> '''Von Schlieffen'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Alfred von Schlieffen was the author of a German war plan to win a two-front war against both France and Russia by quickly defeating France before Russian troops could be mobilized. The [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Schlieffen_Plan Schlieffen Plan] included an attack on France through Belgium, disregarding its neutrality.<br /> <br /> '''Wilhelm has offered Leopold part of France, the ancient Duchy of Burgundy'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> [http://www.crwflags.com/fotw/flags/fr-bg.html History of the duchy.] [http://www.freiburg-madison.de/freiburg_history/1386-1517_The%20Early%20Habsburgs.htm Map,] with portrait of Duke Charles the Rash.<br /> <br /> '''lowlands'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Title of Pynchon's first published story. Here, ass?<br /> <br /> ==Page 544==<br /> <br /> '''Place d'Armes'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Main square of Ostend; literally &quot;drill field&quot;.<br /> <br /> '''peau de soie'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> &quot;Skin of silk&quot; A heavy, smooth satin with very fine ribbing; somewhat dull in sheen compared with traditional silk finishes.<br /> <br /> '''Krafft-Ebing'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Richard Freiherr von Krafft-Ebing, Austro-German psychiatrist and author of ''Psychopathia Sexualis'' (1886), a pioneering study of deviant sexual behavior and fetishism. Coined both ''sadism'' and ''masochism'' as terms for these respective behaviors. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Richard_Freiherr_von_Krafft-Ebing Wikipedia entry].<br /> <br /> '''toque'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Toque here refers to a lady's hat, originally of fur but here in velvet, which is rather like a flattened chef's hat in shape.<br /> <br /> Proust: in ''À l'ombre des jeunes filles en fleurs'' the narrator first sees Albertine wearing a toque. There seem to be quite a few Proust themes and references running throughout the novel. Indeed '''Pliade''' is the French publisher of Proust's works. <br /> <br /> '''guipure'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Lace trim.<br /> <br /> '''midinette'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> A shopgirl or dressmakers apprentice. A milliner.<br /> <br /> '''Lambic'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> A distinctive Belgian style of beer. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lambic Wikipedia]<br /> <br /> '''sous'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> <br /> Coins. Originally Roman gold coins, latterly any kind of coin.<br /> <br /> Specifically small change. She is affecting modesty by claiming that a hat like hers can be had for pennies in any unpretentious shop. In France &quot;sou is used as slang for money, as in ''sans le sou''. 'I'm broke', 'without money'. It is also a slang term for the Canadian cent (standard French, cent).&quot; ([http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sou Wikipedia])<br /> <br /> '''mayonnaise'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Brautigan's &quot;Trout Fishing in America&quot; famously ends with the word mayonnaise. [http://books.google.com/books?vid=ISBN0395500761&amp;id=rbEjDovfyNMC&amp;pg=RA2-PA111&amp;lpg=RA2-PA111&amp;ots=ELKl5b_6Tx&amp;dq=mayonnaise+trout.fishing&amp;num=100&amp;sig=BiyXRqJXRGrMWbrBNgn8de2kpCo#PRA2-PA112,M1 GoogleBooks]<br /> <br /> '''ovoöleaginous'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Another Pynchonic word combination, here denoting the two main ingredients of mayonnaise: 1) eggs, and 2) oil. It's not &quot;fecoventilatory collision&quot; as seen in &quot;Vineland,&quot; but it's nice.<br /> <br /> '''Grenache'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Grape commonly used in Rhone Valley wines e.g. Chateauneuf du Pape.<br /> <br /> '''Chantilly'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> <br /> Region north of Paris.<br /> <br /> Here the reference is to crème chantilly otherwise known as whipped cream. Chantilly mayonnaise is made by incorporating the beaten egg whites for extra lightness.<br /> <br /> '''attainder'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Legislative act declaring that a person is guilty of a crime and setting punishment without the benefit of a formal trial. The Constitution forbids the federal government (Article I, Section 9, clause 3) and the state governments (Article I, Section 10, clause 1) from passing bills of attainder.<br /> [www.historycentral.com/Civics/B.html] <br /> <br /> ''''''Aux armes, citoyens''''''&lt;br&gt;<br /> ''To arms, citizens'', from the French national anthem, ''La Marseillaise'' (1792). Kit confused La Mayonnaise with La Marseillaise.&lt;br&gt;<br /> Not &quot;Le Marseillaise,&quot; you nitwit!<br /> <br /> '''Louis XV'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> King of France 1715-1774 [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Louis_XV]. <br /> <br /> '''Cléo de Mérode'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Glamorous French ballerina (1875-1966), later Follies Bergere dancer and famous beauty. Her reputed intimacy with King Leopold was only a rumor [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cleo_de_Merode]. The character Madame Leonora Armfeldt in Stephen Sondheim's ''A Little Night Music'' has some features in common with her.<br /> <br /> '''Marquise de Pompadour'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Mistress of Louis XV,once friend of Voltaire and a power behind official scenes.[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Madame_de_Pompadour].<br /> <br /> ==Page 545==<br /> <br /> '''duc de Richelieu'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Duc de Richelieu (1696-1788), marshal of France, was a grandnephew of Cardinal Richelieu, and born in Paris. Apart from his reputation as a man of exceptionally loose morals, he attained, in spite of a defective education, distinction as a diplomatist and general. ([http://www.1911encyclopedia.org/Louis_Francois_Armand_du_Plessis,_duc_de_Richelieu duc de Richelieu] and cf [[ATD_489-524#Page 490|page 490:duc de Richelieu]])<br /> <br /> '''dubious 'victory' in 1756'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> As part of the Seven Years' War (1756-1763), duc de Richelieu (1696-1788), a Marshal of France, won a victory in the Battle of Minorca (May 20, 1756) over John Byng (1704-1757), a British Admiral. In spring of 1756 John Byng was sent with a small and undermanned fleet to relieve the British ''Port Mahon'' on the Mediterranean island of Minorca. During the battle ensued, several British ships were badly damaged by the French squadron while others, including Byng's flagship, were still out of effective firing range. Instead of engaging the enemy directly, Byng decided to keep the formation, allowing the French fleet to get away undamaged. ([http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_Minorca Battle of Minorca]).<br /> <br /> '''the ill-fated Admiral Byng'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> John Byng, convicted by court-martial of failure &quot;to do his utmost&quot; in the battle, shot in 1757. Remembered because of (1) his being the last officer of flag rank to be put to death for conduct in battle and (2) Voltaire's gag in ''Candide:'' &quot;In this country it is good to kill an admiral from time to time in order to encourage the others.&quot;<br /> <br /> '''cantharides'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> &quot;Spanish fly,&quot; contact irritant sometimes ill-advisedly used as aphrodisiac.<br /> <br /> '''Sadean'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Pertaining to the Marquis de Sade. The acts the chef performs on the egg and oil have the same names as acts of Sadean sex. <br /> <br /> '''''n'est-ce pas?'''''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Right? (Isn't that so?)<br /> <br /> '''vetiver'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> A grass (Vetiveria zizanioides) of tropical India, cultivated for its aromatic roots that yield an oil used in perfumery.<br /> [www.answers.com/topic/vetiver]. So, a perfume with, llterallly, roots in India.<br /> <br /> Vetiver makes frequent appearances throughout ''À la recherche du temps perdu.''<br /> <br /> '''pip'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> A beaut; in current parlance, a hottie.<br /> <br /> '''Q.P. system'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Quaternion Probability, page 536.<br /> <br /> '''Usine Régionale'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> French: as translated in the text.<br /> <br /> ==Page 546==<br /> <br /> '''disjunctive effects of thunderstorms'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Folk wisdom says a thunderstorm will cause mayonnaise to separate (oil from yolks).<br /> <br /> '''cottonseed oil'''<br /> <br /> Mayonnaisse like Smegmo and Crisco is a hydrogenated fat; cottonseed oil is a common factor to all three. Indeed, the name Crisco derives from the intial sounds of &quot;'''crys'''tallized '''c'''ottonseed '''o'''il&quot;. Note in the next few pages a mention of Candlebrow -- underscoring a tie-in between Mayonnaisse and Smegmo. <br /> <br /> It may be of interest to note that hydrogenation may have a symbolic use for Pynchon. The process entails bubbling hydrogen through oil in the presence of a metal catalyst such as nickel, platinum, aluminum at 248 to 410 degrees. Remnants of these metals stay in the finished product, and when consumed can lead to an increase in heavy metals in the human body.<br /> <br /> Eating hydrogenated oils is like eating plastic. The body does not recognize that these molecules have been mutated and tries to use them as essential fatty acids. But they cannot perform the same function, and as a result hydrogenated oils can cause short circuits in the electrical flow that controls the heartbeat, nerve functions, cell division and mental balance. They also create free radicals (anarchists!) that are linked to cancers. Free radicals plus metal remnants are a major contributor to cancer, heart disease, immune system dysfunction, osteoporosis, depression, chronic fatigue, Alzheimers, and neurological diseases. It is estimated that over 200 million people have died prematurely because of the hydrogenated oils found in our diets. [http://www.drz.org/asp/newsletter/default.asp?xt2id=23] Not to mention innocent bystanders killed by mentally imbalanced people whose imbalance may stem from the ingestion of hydrogenated oils -- there may be some underlying reality to the &quot;Twinkie defense.&quot;<br /> <br /> '''lounge suit'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> A lounge suit is another name for business suit consisting of a matching jacket and trousers or skirt.<br /> <br /> '''congress shoes'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> ankle high shoes with elastic gussets in the sides (wordweb online)<br /> <br /> '''invisible hand'''<br /> <br /> Suggestive of Adam Smith's metaphor for market forces in economics.<br /> <br /> '''dripping-heads'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mayonnaise To make mayonnaise,] beat together egg yolks, salt, mustard and vinegar, then drip in oil while beating to form the emulsion. If you scale the process up for industrial production, you will automate the introduction of the oil, using nozzles that release it a drop at a time—but in a large vat you can have many such nozzles.<br /> <br /> '''''cuves d'agitation'''''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Vat or tank in which the mayonnaise is agitated or beaten.<br /> <br /> '''Clinique d'Urgence pour Sauvetage des Sauces'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> French: Emergency Clinic for Salvage of Sauces.<br /> <br /> ==Page 547==<br /> <br /> '''' ...engulfed in thick, slick, sour-smelling mayonnaise. ''''<br /> The whole Kit's experience in the mayonnaise factory is very much reminiscent to [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Roald_Dahl Roald Dahl]'s [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Charlie_and_the_Chocolate_Factory Charlie and the Chocolate Factory].<br /> <br /> '''''Cazzo, cretino'''''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Literally, &quot;Dick, cretin.&quot; ''Cazzo'' is a common Italian interjectionary obscenity, especially in the south. &quot;Cazzo, cretino,&quot; is akin to someone saying, &quot;Well shit, dummy,&quot; or &quot;F-ing moron!&quot;<br /> <br /> '''''È il cowboy!'''''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Italian: It's the cowboy!<br /> <br /> '''''vero?'''''&lt;br&gt;<br /> true? real?<br /> <br /> '''''Le bambole anarchiste, porca miseria'''''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Italian: Anarchist babes, oh boy.<br /> <br /> '''Oudenberg'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> A southeast suburb of Ostende.<br /> <br /> '''Quai de l'Entrepôt'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Warehouse Quay<br /> <br /> '''''ragazzi'''''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Italian: boys, guys.<br /> <br /> ==Page 548==<br /> <br /> '''General Boulanger'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Georges_Boulanger General Boulanger]. That he was 'reactionary' and that the C of C bureaucracy had a 'defiant residue' of Boulangism, continues the characterization of the organization for which the Chums 'work'.<br /> <br /> '''''timbres fictifs'''''&lt;br&gt;<br /> French: fictive postage stamps. Cf &quot;Lot 49&quot;.&lt;br&gt;<br /> Yes, stamps mean something in Pynchon's works; here, it seems important that these stamps are characterized as frauds.<br /> <br /> '''&quot;IIIb&quot;'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> As explained in the text.&lt;br&gt;<br /> &quot;Section IIIB (Intelligence) of the German High Command. After WWI, was funded by Alfred Hugenberg (financial backer of Nazi party)&quot;. From ''Sabotage'' by Sayers &amp; Kahn, 1942.[http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&amp;q=%22IIIB%27+%2B+INTELLIGENCE&amp;btnG=Search]. The authors state in the Forward, in 1942, &quot;that 'Nazi Germany' is the creation of spies and saboteurs&quot;. See ''Gravity's Rainbow'', of course. <br /> <br /> '''Germany might stand a better chance...'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> That is, if the French were to push into Alsace (per Boulanger) as the Germans executed the Schlieffen Plan [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Schlieffen_plan] for the encirclement of Paris, it would put the French at an even greater disadvantage...as actually happened in 1914. Had the Belgians and British not delayed the Germans in Flanders, and had the French railroads not performed speedily to bring the French troops back to the Marne, World War I could have had a very different outcome...an alternate history. <br /> <br /> '''revanchist'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Policies based on revenge, or a person following such policies. In General Boulanger's case, revenge against Germany for the Franco-Prussian War (that is, retaking Alsace, lost in 1871).<br /> <br /> '''the somewhat discomposed General'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Having died in 1891, the General by the time of the action is certainly somewhat '''de'''composed; brief biographies do not suggest he was ''non compos mentis,'' that is, mentally discomposed.<br /> <br /> ==Page 549==<br /> <br /> '''cackled Darby'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> (When did he lose his innocence?)<br /> <br /> '''a modification of any salsician metaphor toward the diminutive'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Salsician: pertaining to sausage. Lindsay says Suckling's penis is better compared to a wiener than a knockwurst.<br /> <br /> '''&quot;Why you little–and I do mean 'little'–&quot;'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Another Simpsons reference? <br /> <br /> '''dunes between Nieuport and Dunkirk'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Nieuport is a Belgian seaport about 10 miles southwest of Ostend. Dunkirk is a French port (less than 10 miles inside the French border) about 20 miles southwest of Nieuport. The latter was a site of one of the bloodest battle in World War I. The general area between Niewport and Dunkirk was the well traversed battle fields of two world wars. (Dunkirk was (in)famous for the British Army's escape from the Nazi German's assault in World War II.)<br /> <br /> '''power-receivers'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Not information, energy.<br /> <br /> ==Page 550==<br /> <br /> '''Lot's wife''' &lt;br&gt;<br /> Angels of God led Lot and his family out of Sodom as it was being destroyed and told them not to look back at the mayhem. Lot's wife, Edith, imprudently looked back and was transfigured into a pillar of salt.<br /> <br /> '''Italian grotto'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> an imitating recess or structure made to resemble a natural Italian grotto.<br /> <br /> '''a highly developed taste, moreover, for human blood'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Since Pugnax developed this taste in the Carpathians, home of Castle Dracula, this seems a clear reference to Bram Stoker's novel. <br /> <br /> '''Carpathians'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Major mountain range running northwest-southeast through Poland, Slovakia, western Ukraine and Romania.<br /> <br /> '''Uhlans'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Uhlan regiments belonged to the light cavalry. They wore splendid uniforms (model for some U.S. marching band uniforms). [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Uhlan Wikipedia article.]<br /> <br /> '''Temesvár'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Now Timişoara, extreme western Romania.<br /> <br /> ==Page 551==<br /> <br /> '''...separated by only a slice of Time...'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Miles is beginning to experience Time almost as a spatial dimension, his personal vector as traversing (!) 4-dimensional space, or perhaps multidimensional space, the mathematics for which is being debated in Ostend.<br /> <br /> '''securing the mess decks'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> The Chums follow U.S. Navy idiom in orders (frequently prefixed with &quot;Now&quot;) and shipboard activities (&quot;secure&quot; meaning &quot;whatever you did before, undo it now,&quot; in this case put away the dishes and fold up the tables).<br /> <br /> '''Ryder Thorn'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Tolkienesque name? Or perhaps it's a nod to the Ryder-Waite Tarot deck and to Kevin Thorn (Kevin Matthew Fertig, 1977-), the American professional wrestler better known by his ring name Kevin Thorn who is currently signed to World Wrestling Entertainment wrestling on its ECW brand. He has appeared in vigniettes with Ariel (Shelly Martinez, 1980-), the tarot card reader, who spits blood at the camera while she &quot;predicted the future of ECW.&quot; Yup, a stretch...<br /> <br /> *The name also evokes the Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse.<br /> <br /> '''He was at Candlebrow.'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Presumably a 'trespasser.'<br /> <br /> '''the four-note chord in the context of timelessness'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> A melody is formed by notes following one another in time; a chord on the ukulele violates that practice by having all the notes sound at once. A really clever little passage.<br /> Note: Jazz musicians describe musical improvisations as horizontal (with the melody) or vertical (with the chord)<br /> <br /> ==Page 552==<br /> <br /> '''knuckle-duster'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Brass knuckles.<br /> <br /> '''Diksmuide'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> 20 kilometers south of Ostend (about halfway to Ypres).<br /> <br /> ==Page 553==<br /> <br /> '''The terrain was flat...lowlands'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Not, this time, a reference to Pynchon's ''Lowlands'', but to the two-dimensionality of Flanders, as in Edwin A. Abbott's ''Flatland'' [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Flatland]; most humans, like the inhabitants of Flanders and Abbott's Flatlanders, experience life in two dimensions. <br /> <br /> '''Somewhere up in the sky was Miles' home...'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Whereas Miles and the Chums of Chance, in contrast, live in three dimensions. The mathematicians gathered in Ostend are trying to calculate how to experience and use vectors to live in four dimensions; in a way, to experience Time as a kind of spatial dimension. Miles, on P. 551, is demonstrating the beginnings of an intuitive discovery of how to experience Time as an almost spatial dimension. Which would be a sort of &quot;time travel&quot;, or at least an expanded view of life and history.<br /> <br /> '''retted'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> soaked in water or exposed to moisture (as flax or hemp) to facilitate the removal of the fiber from the woody tissue by partial rotting.<br /> <br /> ==Page 554==<br /> <br /> '''Ypres and Menin'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Municipalities in West Flanders that were sites of some of the bloodiest battles of WWI. At the beginning of the war, the British and Belgian stand helped save Paris from encirclement by the Germans, and saved the Channel ports, but as Thorn points out, the area became the western anchor of the Western Front trench system. The several Battles of Ypres saw the first uses of poison gas (Mustard Gas, dichlorodiethylsulfide, was first called Yperite), the use of enormous mines, and the legendary mud of Passchendaele [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Passchendaele]. <br /> <br /> '''Ten years from now'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> (1914?) through 1918? and beyond?. Another paramorphic mirror--what do we now face. Whatever it is, it is nuclear.<br /> <br /> '''Bosch'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Hieronymous Bosch (1450-1516), Dutch painter of nightmares. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hieronymus_Bosch Wikipedia entry].<br /> <br /> '''Brueghel'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Pieter Brueghel the Elder(1525-1569), Flemish painter.[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pieter_Brueghel_the_Elder Wikipedia entry].<br /> <br /> '''League'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> League of Nations? The League of Nations was formed after WWI to prevent future wars. Didn't succeed.<br /> <br /> No. In this case a historical unit of length, approximately three miles - &quot;league on league&quot; = tremendous masses<br /> <br /> '''where the needles went and which way to rotate them'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> I.e., how to push Thorn's buttons; the image is from acupuncture.<br /> <br /> ==Page 555==<br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> '''simpletons at the fair'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Making Pynchon's metaphor explicit.<br /> <br /> '''Chopin E-minor Nocturne'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Frédéric Chopin (1810-49), a Polish pianist and composer ([http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fr%C3%A9d%C3%A9ric_Chopin Chopin]). He was born in Warsaw, Poland to a Polish morther and a French father. He went to Paris at the age of 20 and died there at the age of 39. He was widely regarded as one of the most famous and influential composers for the piano. From 1837-47 he had a 10-year stormy relationship with the French writer George Sand. His E-minor Nocturne is a 4-minute long Romantic style piano solo composed in 1827. (A ''nocturne'' is usually a musical composition that is inspired by, or evocative of, the night [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nocturne Nocturne].)<br /> <br /> '''owl-light'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> ???glimmering or imperfect light or twilight hours.<br /> <br /> ''''plasmic hysteresis''''&lt;br&gt;<br /> <br /> A coined term, apparently similar in meaning to Miles’ phrase “failure of physical translation.” Plasma would take an older meaning of “form” or “shape.&quot; Hysteresis, according to Webster's, refers to “a retardation in effect when the forces on an object are changed.” Hysteresis is used to describe magnetic phenomenon as well as plastic or elastic materials, that involve changes to a rest state that last beyond the forces that cause them. Examples include recordings on magnetic tape or a thumbprint slowly disappearing from putty. In the context of this passage, plasmic hysteresis appears to describe the lingering visage of someone who is no longer present – a hysteresis of form only and thus a failed physical translation. See [http://www.etymonline.com/index.php?search=plasma&amp;searchmode=none etymology of plasma] and this nifty explanation of [http://www.lassp.cornell.edu/sethna/hysteresis/WhatIsHysteresis.html hysteresis]. <br /> <br /> Hysteresis has also been used to refer to “loops” in time, certainly apropos in this case. I stumbled across an excellent example in a 1980 episode of Dr. Who, in which the eponymous Dr. is trapped in “chronic hysteresis,” an endless loop or return to a previous <br /> point in time – very similar to the situation of Ryder Thorn. [http://www.drwhoguide.com/who_5q.htm Check it out for yourself!] <br /> <br /> <br /> ==Annotation Index==<br /> {{ATD PbP}}</div>

MKOHUT https://against-the-day.pynchonwiki.com/wiki/index.php?title=ATD_525-556&diff=14094 2007-10-17T18:26:58Z

<p>MKOHUT: /* Page 548 */</p> <hr /> <div>:'''&lt;big&gt;Please keep these annotations SPOILER-FREE by not revealing information from later pages in the novel.&lt;/big&gt;'''&lt;p&gt;&lt;br&gt;<br /> <br /> ==Page 525==<br /> <br /> '''Ostend'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Cf [[ATD_489-524#Page 521|page 521:Ostend]], a seaport in northwest Belgium. Among English-speaking tourists, Ostend (or Ostende) is best known as a ferry port. Ships have shuttled between Dover and Ostend for more than 150 years, and today's high-speed catamarans move hundreds of passengers and vehicles between these two ports in just two hours. But this thousand-year-old city is a popular beach resort with Belgians, who flock to Ostend for sun, surfing, sailing and the ''Kursaal'' (Casino). The fishing harbor and old town draw many visitors. Ostend is the only Belgian coastal resort that is as lively in the summer as in the winter. For more and pictures [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ostend Ostend].<br /> <br /> '''Fishermen's Quai'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Fishermen's Quay, also called De Trap. The shrimp boats come home here from the sea in the morning. Along the quay many stands sell lots of seafoods.<br /> <br /> '''Boulevard van Isenghem'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> A major thoroughfare in Ostend, locally called ''Van Iseghemlaan'', extending diagonally from seafront southwest through the city.<br /> <br /> '''street-plausible'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Presentable.<br /> <br /> '''Quai de l'empereur'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Since Ostende is in the Flemish part of Belgium this should be the Keizerskaai, a street along the old part of the harbour, 1919 renamed Vindictivelaan.<br /> <br /> '''estaminet'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> According to the OED - A café in which smoking is allowed. Now, any small establishment selling alcoholic liquor. <br /> <br /> '''twelve-centime'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> one centime is the French eqivalent of one cent. A twelve-centime beer would cost 12/100 of a franc.<br /> <br /> '''Quaternions'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Cf [[ATD_119-148#Page 130|page 130:Quaternions]]. Quaternions are a non-communtative extension of compelx numbers (Hamilton, 1843).&lt;br&gt;<br /> <br /> Analogy with the complex numbers (Cf [[ATD_119-148#Page 132|page 132:complex number]]) being represented as a sum of real and imaginary parts, a + b''i'', where ''i''² = −1, a quaternion is defined as a combination a + b''i'' + c''j'' + d''k'', where ''i''² = ''j''² = ''k''² = ''i j k'' = −1, and a, b, c, d are ''four'' explicit real numbers. The non-commutative property refers to ''i j = −j i = k; j k = −k j = i; k i = −i k = j''. (i.e. ''i j ≠ j i; j k ≠ k j; k i ≠ i k''; etc.) The using of ''i, j, k'', the imaginary numbers (Cf [[ATD_119-148#Page 133|page 133:imaginary number]]), led to the phrases of &quot;the ''ijk'' lot&quot; of page 533 and &quot;creature of ''i-j-k''&quot; of page 534.<br /> <br /> '''Kellner'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> German: waiter, barman. Use of the German word would be insulting to the Belgian barman.<br /> <br /> '''''demi'''''&lt;br&gt;<br /> A half-pint glass (25 centilitres, actually).<br /> <br /> '''Lambic'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Pron. ''lahm-BEEK.'' Unique Belgian beer style, sour and often thin in body.<br /> <br /> '''skimmer'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Straw hat (&quot;Panama&quot;).<br /> <br /> ==Page 526==<br /> <br /> '''biquaternion'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Or &quot;octonion,&quot; an innovation of English mathematician W.K. Clifford, [[ATD_243-272#Page_249|referred to on p. 249.]]<br /> <br /> '''Barry Nebulay'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Pun on a term from heraldry, ''barry nebuly.'' Barry (rhymes with &quot;starry,&quot; not &quot;carry&quot;) refers to a shield divided into an even number of parts by horizontal lines. Nebuly signals that the lines are deformed into stylized &quot;cloud&quot; shapes. [http://www.rarebooks.nd.edu/digital/heraldry/partitions.html Here you can see an example.] If a ''British'' author had a character with a heraldic name, it would suggest a pseudonym.<br /> <br /> '''University of Dublin'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> The Alma Mater of Hamilton, the father of Quaternion. He studied, graduated and taught at Trinity College, the University of Dublin, Ireland's oldest university.<br /> <br /> If University College, Dublin, then Joyce had graduated in 1902.&lt;br&gt;<br /> <br /> '''Quaternioneers'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Quaternion believers.<br /> <br /> '''Gibbsian Vectors'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Vector Analysis (or Vector Calculus) developed by Willard Gibbs (Cf [[ATD_26-56#Page 29|page 29:Professor Gibbs]]) in 1881 and 1884. It is a branch of calculus that deals with vectors and process involving vectors. It is much more easily applied to phsics and other applied sciences than Hamilton's Quaternions (Cf [[ATD_525-556#Page 525|page 525:Quaternions]]).&lt;br&gt;<br /> A vector is defined by not only a magnitude but also a direction, such as a velocity vector, ''v'' is defined by ''v'' = a''i'' + b''j'' + c''k'',<br /> where a, b, and c are the magnitudes of the velocity components in directions of ''i, j'' and ''k'' which are unit vectors, (not imaginary numbers as in Quaternion), with magnitude of 1. In three dimensional cases and ''xyz'' coordinate system is used then ''i, j, k'' are related to ''x, y, z'' directions (&quot;''xyz'' people&quot; of page 533); but they, in general, may be used irrespective of the notation of the coordinates.<br /> Mathematical operations (addition, subtraction, multiplication), differentiation (''curl'' — Cf [[ATD_318-335#Page 326|page 326:Curl]] and p. 536, ''Laplacian'' — Cf [[ATD_318-335#Page 326|page 326:Laplacian]] and p. 536, etc) and integration can be applied to vectors. It is interesting to know that one of the two multiplication operations is called cross product; for unit vectors (''i, j, k'') perpendicular to each other, then, ''i × i = j × j = k × k = 0'', ''i × j = k'', ''j × i = -k'', etc. ([http://web.mit.edu/wwmath/vectorc/summary.html Vector Calculus]).&lt;br&gt;<br /> A simple vector anyalysis example here: if ''k'', the unit vector, stands for the direction upward and g is the gravitational acceleration, then the acceleration vector, ''a'', for a projectile, is defined for downward action, (the ''i'' and ''j'' directions have zero components):&lt;br&gt;<br /> :''a'' = -g ''k''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Integrating ''a'' would give the velocity vector, ''v''&lt;br&gt;<br /> :''v'' = -g t ''k''&lt;br&gt;<br /> for zero initial velocity case, and t standing for time.&lt;br&gt;<br /> And integrating ''v'' would yield the position vector, ''h'', for the projectile&lt;br&gt;<br /> :''h'' = -½ g t² ''k''&lt;br&gt;<br /> toward the sea level.<br /> <br /> '''Quaternionists'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Quaternion believers, same as Quaternioneers.<br /> <br /> '''Tasmania'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Tasmania is an island of the southern coast of Australia. Known for its relative isolation, it was a prison for English convicts in the 1800s<br /> <br /> '''Having been inseparable from the rise of the electromagnetic'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> In his 1865 work ''The Dynamical Theory of the Electromagnetic Field'', James Clerk Maxwell unified electricity and magnetism. He put forth twenty equations, with twenty unknowns, in vector form (though different in notation and form than the equations that now bear his name) that completely described all known electromagnetic phenomena. In his 1873 treatise on the subject, he expressed the equations in the mathematics of quaternions. It appears that the quaternion form of the equations remained popular even though, at the behest of his publisher, Maxwell reverted to the 1865 form in the second edition (1881)--though they remain scattered throughout. In 1892 Oliver Heaviside (On the Forces, Stresses, and Fluxes of Energy in the Electromagnetic Field. ''Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society of London.'' A, Vol. 183. pp423-480), while spewing scientific vitriol at the Quaternionists, reformulated Maxwell's original 1865 equations (Heaviside chose to remove the vector potential and scalar fields from the equations; the inclusion of these terms had served as Maxwell's justification for the use of quaternions), and provided the notation still in use today. See this [http://www.zpenergy.com/modules.php?name=Downloads&amp;d_op=getit&amp;lid=60 PDF] for the evolution of Maxwell's equations.<br /> <br /> '''Hamiltonian devotees'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> The Quaternion faction, after William Hamilton, who devised the scheme.<br /> <br /> '''Grand Hôtel de la Nouvelle Digue'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> There is a Hotel Digue in the Seychelles; this is a New Hotel Digue by Pynchon? <br /> <br /> Grand Hotel of New Dyke, may be a made up hotel name.<br /> <br /> '''anterooms of death'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> This metaphor is sometimes applied to concentration camps. Here the lyric &quot;feel like I'm fixin' to die&quot; seems more apposite.<br /> <br /> '''Belgian Art Nouveau'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Art Nouveau, 1890(or 80) to 1914, explores a new style in the visual arts and architecture that developed in Europe and North America at the end of the 19th century. At its height (~1907), Art Nouveau was a concerted attempt to create an international style based on decoration. It was developed by a brilliant and energetic generation of artists and desisgners, who sought to fashion an art form appropriate to the post-Industrial Revolution modern age.&lt;br&gt;<br /> Brussels was one of the Art Nouveau centers and represented different style from the others. The jewelers there, accepted as artists rahter than craftsmen, (together with those in Paris) defined Art Nouveau in jewelery and achieved the most renown. ([http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Art_Nouveau Art Nouveau]).<br /> <br /> ==Page 527==<br /> <br /> '''dossing'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> British slang for &quot;sleeping&quot;, &quot;staying overnight&quot;<br /> <br /> '''Russian nihilists'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> :The following four are local, Belgian, not Russian, nihilists !<br /> <br /> '''Eugénie'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Female. Possibly named for Empress Eugénie (1826-1920), consort of French Emperor Napoleon III. Ultimately for St. Eugenia, 3rd-century Roman martyr whose feast is celebrated on December 25.<br /> <br /> '''Fatou'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Female. A pseudonym? In view of the date of the action, certainly not named after [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fatou the mathematician Fatou] (1878-1929).<br /> <br /> '''Denis'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Male. Named for St. Denis or Dionysius, patron saint of Paris and of France, 3rd-century bishop of Paris, martyr, beheaded on the hill now called Montmartre. &quot;Montjoie St. Denis!&quot; was a warcry used by French troops in the Middle Ages. His intercession is effective against demonic possession and headache.<br /> <br /> '''Policarpe'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Male. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Polycarp Saint Polycarp] was a Christian bishop of Smyrna (now İzmir in Turkey) in the second century. He was stabbed and died a martyr after an attempt to burn him at the stake failed. His intercession is sought against earache and dysentery.<br /> <br /> '''Young Congo'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Probably in reference to the [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Young_Turks Young Turks], a Turkish revolutionary movement<br /> <br /> '''Garde Civique'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> A part of the Belgian army. According to the [http://www.1911encyclopedia.org/Belgium 1911 Britannica], &quot;the mass of the garde civique does not pretend to possess military value. It is a defence against sedition and socialism.&quot;<br /> <br /> '''French Second Bureau boys'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Deuxieme Bureau; French Intelligence.<br /> <br /> '''''phalange'''''&lt;br&gt;<br /> French: phalanx. A military (here mock-military) group ready for combat. &lt;br&gt;<br /> <br /> It also conjures up memories of the early 19th century utopian socialist <br /> Charles Fourier, who theorized that people should live communally in &quot;phalanxes&quot; of a specific number based upon their &quot;passions.&quot; His solid ideas included equality of the sexes, but he also taught wacky things such as the moon being made of lemonade. Of particular relevance is his rejection of industrial civilization. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Utopian_socialism]<br /> <br /> '''&quot;...until something had happened, something too terrible to remember...&quot;'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Again this theme of an unknowable past transgression, here invoked almost as if the unknown signifies the other 'lateral' (a word which has cropped up at least a dozen times already) 'vector'.<br /> <br /> '''the Digue'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> French for &quot;dyke&quot;<br /> <br /> '''Congo... Belgians'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> The Belgian colonisation of the Congo was, as Conrad's ''Heart of Darkness'' makes clear, notable for its greed and brutality.<br /> <br /> '''Leopold, King of the Belgians'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> 1835-1909, reigned 1865-1909. A man of almost Nixonian fiendishness. In the Congo he acted as sole proprietor and absolute ruler. The positive outcomes of his exploitation include ''Heart of Darkness'' and the phrase &quot;crime against humanity.&quot;<br /> <br /> '''co-conscious'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> mental processes outside the main stream of consciousness but sometimes available to it — from Merriam-Webster's Medical Dictionary.<br /> <br /> '''Force Publique'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Belgian armed forces operating in the Belgian Congo ([http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Force_Publique Wikipedia]). &quot;King Leopold's private army&quot; may be a more accurate description.<br /> <br /> '''rubber worker'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> See above: One of the early missions of the FP was to increase rubber export quotas through forced labor and related atrocities.<br /> <br /> ==Page 528==<br /> <br /> '''''khâgne'''''&lt;br&gt;<br /> an informal term used by French students for Classes Préparatoires Littéraires, the two-year cycle of classes taken after the Baccalaureat (taken at age 17-18), to prepare for the entrance examination to the Ecole Normale Supeieure. ([http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kh%C3%A2gne khâgne]).<br /> <br /> '''Reclus'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> J. J. Élisée Reclus (1830-1905), French geographer but mainly educated in Germany. Several times he was forced to leave France because of his political views; he traveled widely in Europe, the British Isles, the United States, and South America and for many years lived in Switzerland. He was professor of comparative geography at the University of Brussels from 1895 to 1905. He had quite an extensive connection with various socialist and anarchist circles (met Bakunin while in Florence).Once he was imprisoned in Versailles in 1871 for his part in the ''Paris Commune''. In 1882 he initiated the ''Anti-marriage movement'' while in Geneva. [[http://academic.reed.edu/formosa/texts/reclusbio.html Reclus]).<br /> <br /> '''Stirnerite'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Follower of Max Stirner, 19th century German philosopher and author of ''The Ego and Its Own,'' a work influential in anarchist thought. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Max_Stirner Wikipedia entry].<br /> <br /> ''Max Stirner'''s (1806-56) attacks on systematic philosophy, his denial of absulutes, and his rejection of abstract concepts of any kind often places him among the first philosophical nihilists. For Stirner, achieving individual freedom is the only law; and the state, which necvessarily imperils freedom, must be destroyed. Even beyond the oppression of the state, though, are the constraints imposed by others because their very existence is an obstable compromising individual freedom. Thus Stirner argues that existence is an endless &quot;war of each against all&quot; (1845). (taken from the paragraph about Max Stirner in [http://www.iep.utm.edu/n/nihilism.htm#H1 Nihilism])&lt;br&gt;<br /> Sourcing here? Much complexity in properly understanding Stirner, who has some Pynchon-like qualities, to say the least. From the Stanford Dictionary of Philosophy&lt;br&gt;<br /> His major work:<br /> The Ego and Its Own<br /> Much of Stirner's prose—which is crowded with aphorisms, italicisation, and hyperbole—appears calculated to disconcert. Most striking, perhaps, is the use of word play. Rather than reach a conclusion through the conventional use of argument, Stirner often approaches a claim that he wishes to endorse by exploiting words with related etymologies or formal similarities. For example, he associates words for property (such as ‘Eigentum’) with words connoting distinctive individual characteristics (such as ‘Eigenheit’) in order to promote the claim that property is expressive of selfhood. (Stirner's account of egoistic property—see below—gives this apparently orthodox Hegelian claim a distinctive twist.)<br /> <br /> This rejection of conventional forms of intellectual discussion is linked to Stirner's substantive views about language and rationality. His unusual style reflects a conviction that both language and rationality are human products which have come to constrain and oppress their creators. Stirner maintains that accepted meanings and traditional standards of argumentation are underpinned by a conception of truth as a privileged realm beyond individual control. As a result, individuals who accept this conception are abandoning a potential area of creative self-expression in favour of adopting a subordinate role as servants of truth. In stark contrast, Stirner insists that the only legitimate restriction on the form of our language, or on the structure of our arguments, is that they should serve our individual ends. It is the frequent failure of ordinary meanings and standard forms of argument to satisfy his interpretation of this criterion which underpins Stirner's remorselessly idiosyncratic style.<br /> <br /> The Ego and Its Own has an intelligible, but scarcely transparent, structure. It is organised around a tripartite account of human experience, initially introduced in a description of the stages of an individual life. The first stage in this developmental narrative is the realistic one of childhood, in which children are constrained by material and natural forces such as their parents. Liberation from these external constraints is achieved with what Stirner calls the self-discovery of mind, as children find the means to outwit those forces in their own determination and cunning. The idealistic stage of youth, however, contains new internal sources of constraint, as individuals once more become enslaved, this time to the spiritual forces of conscience and reason. Only with the adulthood of egoism do individuals escape both material (external) and spiritual (internal) constraints, learning to value their personal satisfaction above all other considerations.<br /> <br /> Stirner portrays this dialectic of individual growth as an analogue of historical development, and it is a tripartite account of the latter which structures the remainder of the book. Human history is reduced to successive epochs of realism (the ancient, or pre-Christian, world), idealism (the modern, or Christian, world), and egoism (the future world). <br /> <br /> What about these &quot;successive epochs&quot; in understanding ATD?<br /> <br /> Stirner's major work, The Ego and Its Own has been reissued in English a number of times in Pynchon's lifetime,from the 60s on. (Not that TRP could not have read it in German!)<br /> <br /> '''''Anarcho-individualiste'''''&lt;br&gt;<br /> i.e. he has doctrinal differernces with Stirnerism, strictly speaking; see P. 324, and &quot;Eigenheit&quot;.<br /> <br /> '''Leopold'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> See p. 527.<br /> <br /> '''going down lately'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Being assassinated.<br /> <br /> '''Sipido'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Jean-Baptiste Sipido (1884-1959), a Belgian socialist. Accusing the Prince of Wales of causing thousands of inocents were killed in the Boer War in South Africa, on April 5, 1900, Sipido leaped onto the foot board of the royal compartment right before the train left the North Railway Station (Gare du Nord), Brussel, and fired two (or one? as reported in ''The Manchester Guardian'', or four? as stated in the text here) shots through the window but missed everyone inside. He was arrested, tried and acquitted. The leader of the House of Commons called the acquittal a &quot;grave and most unfortunate miscarriage of justice.&quot; ([http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jean-Baptiste_Sipido Sipido]).<br /> <br /> '''Prince... of Wales'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> (Maud Gonne's husband claimed to have been involved in another such plot.)<br /> <br /> '''Hippodrome'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Hippodrome Wellington, a horse racing track in Ostend built in 1883. The facility hosts both harness and flat racing events. ([http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hippodrome_Wellington Hippodrome]).<br /> <br /> '''Royal Bathing Hut... twenty francs'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> A bathing machine ([http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bathing_machine bathing machine])? The King of Belgium certainly would not want to be seen in a swimsuit on a public beach... It seems unlikely, though, that such a royal bathing machine would be for hire.<br /> <br /> '''twenty francs'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> ???<br /> <br /> ==Page 529==<br /> <br /> '''picric family'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> The explosive picric acid (2,4,6-trinitrophenol) and its derivatives. For picric acid, Brugère's powder and Designolle's powder, [http://encyclopedia.jrank.org/PER_PIG/PICRIC_ACID_or_TRINITROPHENOL_C.html see this Britannica article.]<br /> <br /> '''Brugère's powder'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> See &quot;picric family&quot; above.<br /> <br /> '''Designolle's'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> See &quot;picric family&quot; above.<br /> <br /> '''Monsieur Santos-Dumont'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Alberto Santos-Dumont (1873-1932), a pioneer of aviation from Brasil. Check out [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alberto_Santos-Dumont Wikipedia] to get a look at the way he was wearing his &quot;trademark Panama hat&quot;. <br /> <br /> '''Green Hour''' and '''''l'heure vertigineuse'''''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Absinthe-drinking time. The liqueur is green. In French, ''l'heure verte,'' so ''vertigineuse'' (vertiginous, causing dizziness) is a pun on the word for &quot;green.&quot;<br /> <br /> '''Rocco and Pino'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Rabid Quaternionists and sudden friends of Kit Traverse.<br /> :No, they were not mathematicians at all, let alone Quaternionists, but two &quot;Italian naval renegades&quot; !!<br /> ::&quot;Rocco and Pino&quot; are, in temperament, something like the &quot;Mason and Dixon&quot; of manned-torpedoes... cf. the &quot;torpedo&quot; (i.e., &quot;Electrick-Eel&quot;) of ''Mason &amp; Dixon''.<br /> <br /> '''Whitehead works in Fiume'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Anticipating GR's V2 works.<br /> <br /> ''Robert Whitehead'' (1823-1905), an English engineer. He developed the first self-propelled torpedo in 1866. He attended Manchester's Mechanics Institute, worked in a shipyard in Toulon (1844), France, and as a consultant engineer in Milan (1847), Italy. Later he moved to Trieste and in 1856 became a manager of a company called ''Founderia Mettali'' (later, ''Stabilimento Tecnico di Fiume'') in Fiume producing ship steam boilers and engines which were the most advanced of that era. He also developed the first self-propelled torpedo which was very popular. Whitehead's torpedo was propelled by a compressed air engine, carried 18lbs dynamites and a self-regulating device which kept the torpedo cruising at a constant preset depth. [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Robert_Whitehead Whitehead]].<br /> <br /> ''Fiume'' is now Rijeka, Croatia. Trieste is on the northwestern edge of the Istra Peninsula, Rijeka is east of it. [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rijeka Fiume]].<br /> <br /> Interesting sidebar: Whitehead's fortune from Fiume and the torpedo went solely to his granddaughter Agatha Whitehead, who married Baron von Trapp. The Von Trapp money came from Robert Whitehead, and most of the von Trapp singers were his great-grandchildren.<br /> <br /> '''''Alberta'''''&lt;br&gt;<br /> The [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Royal_yacht Wikipedia] entry on royal yachts goes back to the 17th century but doesn't include ''Alberta.'' The craft does get a mention in [http://www.bouncing-balls.com/timeline/people/nr_leopoldmorel.htm this page on Leopold and the Congo.]<br /> <br /> '''Siluro Dirigibile a Lenta Corsa'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> or S.L.C. &quot;slow course torpedo&quot;, &quot;slow-running torpedo&quot;. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Manned_torpedo Wikipedia] Italy‘s Navy was among the first to experiment with manned torpedos. Though according to [http://web.ukonline.co.uk/chalcraft/sm/chariots.html this site] this did not happen until 1935, Italian frogmen as early as October 31, 1918 made it into the harbour of Pula with the help of a modified german torpedo and sank the former Austrian but by then since a few hours Croatian/Slovenian/Bosnian battleship SMS ''Viribus Unitis''. [http://www.geocities.com/tegetthoff66/viribus.html website]<br /> <br /> The Wikipedia entry linked above doesn't contain the Italian word ''dirigibile'' (steerable), which sets up the torpedo as a counterpart of the dirigible ''Inconvenience.''<br /> <br /> :I suspect there's a connection between the torpedo and &quot;Not the usual lateener, in fact appearing to have neither sails, masts, nor oars&quot; in Miles' reversed vision, [[ATD_243-272#Page_250|page 250.]] Needs work, though.<br /> <br /> ==Page 530==<br /> <br /> '''exfiltrate'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Make a surreptitious escape (as &quot;infiltrate&quot; means to make a surreptitious entrance).<br /> <br /> '''''Macchè'''''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Italian: certainly not, not a chance. And in Pynchon's Italian is used as an all-purpose exclamation.<br /> <br /> '''''Ehi, stu gazz', categoria'''''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Stu gazz' is a dialect representation of ''sto cazzo'', literally meaning ''this dick here''. Normally you could translate the sense of the sentence as: ''yeah, why not, a fucking category! ''. -- blicero2 - 2007.02.22<br /> <br /> '''''mezzogiornismo'''''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Denigrating the Italian South. Mezzogiorno means ''midday'' in Italian but refers generally to Southern Italy.<br /> <br /> ==Page 531==<br /> <br /> '''Bruges'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> An exceptionally beautiful Belgian town of canals which is thus one of several towns known as the 'Venice of the north'. In the 14th cettury Burges already became an international finanacial and trading center, but<br /> started to decline in the 15th century. In the 20th century, however, the city was discovered by the international tourism and the medieval heritage turned out to be a new source of wealth. A new harbor of Zeebrugge, 10 miles outside of Bruges at the North Sea coast, brought new developments and new industries to the region. For the city and its history see ([http://www.trabel.com/brugge.htm Bruges]).<br /> <br /> '''Raoul's Atelier de la Vitesse'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> French: Ralph's Speed Shop.<br /> <br /> '''Ghent'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Belgian city, less than 30 miles southeast of Bruges, on the rail line about halfway between Ostend and Brussels. It is the fourth largest city of Belgium. It is bigger than Bruges but not as famous as a tourist attraction. But the city is a showcase of medieval Flemish wealth and commercial success. See ([http://www.trabel.com/gent.htm Ghent]).<br /> <br /> '''Daimler six-cylinder'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> ???<br /> <br /> '''a hundred horsepower'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> ???<br /> <br /> '''''guaglion'''''&lt;br&gt;<br /> italian (dialectal) = boy, young person<br /> <br /> '''Umeki Tsurigane'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Umeki is typically made with some combination of the various kanji for &quot;plum&quot; (ume) and &quot;tree&quot; (ki), though one has the ki being the character for &quot;ghost/devil&quot; and one obscure reading that's entirely redundant, where ume is &quot;plant&quot; (usually read ue). There is one where ume is the kanji for &quot;buried or embedded&quot;. Tsurigane, means a &quot;temple bell&quot;, which can stand alone or be followed by the grass kanji to mean &quot;bellflower&quot; (lots of botanical stuff happening here, if that means anything; hardly the only example in ''AtD''). Given the search for Shambhala going on, &quot;Buried Temple Bell&quot; seems a likely translation, at least at this point; the botanical meanings could perhaps emerge later.<br /> <br /> Or, another terrible name-pun? &quot;You make [m]e sore again.&quot; See another on P. [[ATD_748-767#Page_757| 757]]<br /> <br /> '''Professor Knott'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Cargill Knott (1856-1922), professor of physics; seismologist. See his biography [http://www.penicuikcdt.org.uk/Cargill_Knott.html here].<br /> <br /> ==Page 532==<br /> <br /> '''Kimura'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Cf [[ATD_26-56#Page 29|page 29:Kimura]] and [[ATD_318-335#Page 318|page 318:Shunkichi Kimura]].<br /> <br /> '''drover's sombrero'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Cowboy hat.<br /> <br /> '''furoshiki'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Japanese all-purpose cloth. Can be worn, used as wrapping, or used as a bag.<br /> <br /> '''taupe'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> A brownish gray.<br /> <br /> '''boilermakers and their helpers'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> [[ATD_358-373#Page_360|See annotation to p. 360.]]<br /> <br /> '''Anharmonic Pencil'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> ''Pencil'' is a term commonly used in Synthetic Geometry. Straight lines incident with a plane - coplanar lines - and passing through a common point are said to be concurrent lines and the set of all such concurrent coplanar lines is called the ''pencil''. (Cf [[ATD_429-459#Page 456|page 456:Pencil]]). For a figure and a not quite precise definition see [http://mathworld.wolfram.com/Pencil.html pencil]. If a, b, c and d, are four distinct coplanar lines and their double ratio λ = (abcd) = -1, then a, b, c, d are called a harmonic quadruple of lines; they are said to constitute a ''harmonic pencil''. A ''pencil'' which is not harmonic then is known as ''anharmonic pencil''. See Pencil (lines 8-9), Double Ratio λ (lines 32-35) and Harmonic Pencil (line 39) of [http://ca.geocities.com/ingsaler6/mathworld.html Mathworld].<br /> <br /> '''''Comptes rendus'''''&lt;br&gt;<br /> ''Comptes rendus des séances hebdomadaires,'' Proceedings of the weekly sessions (of the Academy of Sciences), published from 1835, later (ca. 1935) retitled ''Comptes rendus de l'Académie des sciences,'' Proceedings of the Academy of Sciences. (Notice that the academy didn't see the need to specify &quot;French.&quot; Take that, Royal Society of London!) For about a century, one of two journals so universally circulated and recognized that bibliographies nearly always cited them in nickname form: ''C.R.'' The other was ''Ber.,'' short for ''Berichte der Deutschen Chemischen Gesellschaft,'' Reports of the German Chemical Society (from 1868).<br /> <br /> '''De Forest'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Cf [[ATD_26-56#Page 29|page 29:De Forest]].<br /> <br /> '''Gibbs'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Cf [[ATD_26-56#Page 29|page 29:Professor Gibbs]].<br /> <br /> '''Maxwell Equations'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Cf [[ATD_57-80#Page 58|page 58:Maxwell Field Equations]].<br /> <br /> ==Page 533==<br /> <br /> '''aniline teal'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> The wallpaper dye; aniline dyes were the first synthetic dyes, discovered by [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/William_Perkin William Perkin] in 1858. Their intense and fade-resistant colors were very fashionable at the end of the nineteenth century. The dyes are also significant in ''GR'' as the products of I.G. Farben.<br /> <br /> '''Heavisiders'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Oliver Heaviside (May 18, 1850 – February 3, 1925) was a self-taught English electrical engineer, mathematician and physicist who adapted complex numbers to the study of electrical circuits, developed techniques for applying Laplace transforms to the solution of differential equations, reformulated Maxwell's field equations in terms of electric and magnetic forces and energy flux, and independently co-formulated vector analysis. Although at odds with the scientific establishment for most of his life, Heaviside changed the face of mathematics and science for years to come.[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Heaviside].<br /> <br /> '''Grassmanniacs'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Nineteenth century German mathematician and linguist, essentially the inventor/discoverer of vector space. Grassmann showed that once geometry is put into the algebraic form he advocated, then the number three has no privileged role as the number of spatial dimensions; the number of possible dimensions is in fact unbounded.[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hermann_Grassmann].<br /> <br /> '''in the mood for a clambake'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Anachronistic Broadway show tune? If so, the clambake in ''Carousel'' turns into a brawl; the assmebled factions of mathematicians could be in the mood for either a party or a brawl, apparently. <br /> <br /> '''Monopole de la Maison'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Monopole of the House, a fanciful name of a fanciful drink.&lt;br&gt;<br /> There is, since 1898, a well known restaurant called ''Monopole Lunch &amp; Sea Grill'' in Plattsburgh of upper New York state. ([http://www.monopole.org Monopole Restaurant]).&lt;br&gt;<br /> Most probably, it's the Magnetic monopole being referred here. In physics, a monopole is a magnet with a net magnetic charge, i.e. there is only one pole instead of two (so no net magnetic charge) as usual. ([http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Magnetic_monopole Monopole]). It's existence had been theoretically predicted by various particle theories (superstring theory, etc) but never been proved experimentally. Proving the existence of a monopole would certainly earn a Nobel Prize.<br /> <br /> '''Idiom Neutral'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> An invented language, like Esperanto. Idiom Neutral dictionaries first appeared in 1902. It looks like a simplified Latinate language and it grew out of Volapuk, another &quot;auxiliary language.&quot; It was abandoned by the ''Akademi Internasional de Lingu Universal'' in 1908.<br /> <br /> For a list of all the invented languages that linguists are keeping track of, including Klingon, try [http://linguistlist.org/forms/langs/GetListOfConstructedLgs.html Eastern Michigan's Linguist List]. And don't forget to click on the link to &quot;Browse sites devoted to constructed languages.&quot;<br /> <br /> '''phatic'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Basically, small talk or chatter. Words used to convey fellow-feeling rather than to impart information.<br /> <br /> '''''Kampf ums Dasein'''''&lt;br&gt;<br /> German: struggle for existence.<br /> <br /> '''Q-brother'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Fellow Quaternioneer or Fellow Quaternionist.<br /> <br /> '''We are the Jews of mathematics, wandering out here in our diaspora--some destined for the past, others the future, even a few able to set out at unknown angles from the simple line of Time, upon journeys that no one can predict''' &lt;br&gt;<br /> In keeping with the analogy of Judaism, those &quot;few&quot; people within the Quaternionists &quot;able to set out at unknown angles&quot; are most likely being compared to Kabbalists who claim to partake in a mystic &quot;journey to the Throne of God through the mythological realm of the seven heavens&quot; (Armstrong, A History of God--p. 247). Throne Mysticism in Kabbalah is explored extensively in Gravity's Rainbow.<br /> <br /> Perhaps this is obvious to some, but these &quot;Jews of Mathematics&quot; worship the Hamiltonian Tetractys [http://www.math.ucr.edu/home/baez/dublin/]; those other Jews worshipped the Tetragrammatron. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tetragrammaton] The proliferation of 4s continues.<br /> <br /> ==Page 534==<br /> <br /> '''Poiret gown'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> A gown designed by Paul Poiret (1879-1944), a French fashion designer based in Paris. &quot;In the annals of fashion history, Paul Poiret is best remembered for freeing women from corsets and further liberating them through pantaloons . . . it was Poiret's remarkable innovations in the cut and construction of cloting . . . Working with fabric directly onto the body, Poiret helped to pioneer a radical approach to dressmakeing that relied more on the skills of drapery than on those of tailoring.&quot; (from [http://www.metmuseum.org/special/se_event.asp?OccurrenceId={0DC3D00F-4611-4F91-8DC2-CC3C1A5C48D5} MetMuseum], <br /> New York Metropolitan Museum's Special Exhibitions, ''Poiret: King of Fashion'', May 9, 2007 to August 5, 2007). For a picture of Poiret gown see [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Image:Poiretgown.jpg Poiret Gown]. ''The New York Times'' reported on February 1, 2007 that A Poiret Gown Brings $5,500 at [http://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html?res=9B07EFDA1538F93AA15756C0A967948260 Christie's Auction] - the gown was made in 1913 when Poiret was at the height of his career. For his bio see [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Paul_Poiret Poiret].<br /> <br /> '''''green and long'''''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Pickle, or... what?<br /> : A green and long ''gherkin'' (a small, immature fruit of a variety of cucumber used in pickling).<br /> <br /> ==Page 535==<br /> <br /> '''no-name wine'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> 1970s idiom for common European practice?<br /> <br /> '''set theory'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Set theory deals with the properties of well-defined collections, or ''sets'', of entities - the ''elements'' or ''members'' of the set - conceived as a whole. The elements may be of a mathematical nature or non-mathematical. The set theory grew out of the German mathematician Georg Cantor's (1845-1918) study of infinite sets of real numbers. <br /> <br /> The ''language of sets'' has become an important tool for all branches of mathematics, but is of very little relevance to the practice of mathematics in everyday life. As a source of metaphors, however, it's been quite productive; &quot;subset,&quot; &quot;superset,&quot; &quot;universe,&quot; &quot;intersection&quot; and &quot;Venn diagram&quot; have found varying degrees of acceptance. Recasting Aristotle's syllogisms in set-theoretic language also makes them easier for many people to understand.<br /> <br /> '''Hamilton . . . early genius'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Hamilton, according to ''Chambers Biographical Dictionary'', &quot;at fifteen knew thirteen languages, had read Newton's ''Principia'', and commenced original investigations&quot;. At twenty-two, &quot;while still an undergraduate, he was appointed professor of Astronomy at Dublin and Irish Astronomer-Royal&quot;; at thirty &quot;he was knighted&quot;.<br /> <br /> '''Hamilton . . . in the grip of a first love'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> ???&lt;br&gt;<br /> Pynchon probably didn't mean Quaternion was Hamilton's first love, but its effect on him was similar to that of a first love. In 1843 at the age of 38 Hamilton invented the Quaternion, the first non-communtative algebra to be studied. He felt this would revolutionise mathematical physics, and he spent the rest of his life working on it. In 1853 he published a large volume, ''Lectures on Quaternions'', on his grand invention. The last seven years of his life, Hamilton was writing an 800-page book ''Elements of Quaternions'' modeling on Euclid's ''Elements''. The last chapter of the book was completed by his son after his death.<br /> <br /> '''the Walt Whitman of English physics'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Whitman pops up again, last seen on [[ATD_489-524#Page_491|page 491]].<br /> <br /> ==Page 536==<br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> '''Oscar Wilde'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Note that Wilde's Dorian Gray also undergoes a kind of bilocation.<br /> <br /> '''Kursaal'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Spa. Casino ?<br /> <br /> '''vectors'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> For serious minds see Cf [[ATD_525-556#Page 526|page 526:Gibbsian Vectors]], but let's follow Pynchon's lighter mood, here is a non-mathematical definition by Kamen (1995):<br /> :''Many things have more than direction;''<br /> :''The magnitude is also a question.''<br /> :''With acceleration or force,''<br /> :''And many more things, of course,''<br /> :''It's vectors that make the connection.''<br /> <br /> '''Curls'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Cf [[ATD_318-335#Page 326|page 326:Curl]]: curl is a vector operator that shows a vector field's rate of rotation.<br /> <br /> '''Laplacians'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Pierre-Simon, Marquis de Laplace (March 23, 1749 – March 5, 1827); French mathematician and astronomer who summarized and extended the work of his predecessors in his five volume Mécanique Céleste (Celestial Mechanics) (1799-1825), translating the geometrical study of mechanics used by Isaac Newton to one based on calculus, known as physical mechanics.<br /> <br /> He is also the discoverer of Laplace's equation. Although the Laplace transform is named in honor of Laplace, who used the transform in his work on probability theory, the transform was discovered originally by Leonhard Euler. The Laplace transform appears in all branches of mathematical physics — a field he took a leading role in forming. The Laplacian differential operator, much relied-upon in applied mathematics, is likewise named after him. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Laplace].<br /> <br /> :Cf [[ATD_318-335#Page 326|page 326:Laplacian]]: Laplacian is a differential operator named after Laplace. The text here was talking about mathematical operations and operators — rates of change, rotations, partial differentials, Curls, ''Laplacians'', . . .<br /> <br /> '''scream'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Scream motif.<br /> <br /> '''beginning to appal'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> By 1905 there had been years of outrage at conditions in the Belgian Congo, King Leopold's private fief. Conrad's ''Heart of Darkness'' had been published as a serial in Blackwood's Magazine in 1899 and as a book in 1902. There were missionaries' accounts of the brutality, and newspaper reports. Leopold and his apologists published rebuttals. The Norton Critical Edition of ''Heart of Darkness'' contains an extensive collection of both.<br /> <br /> '''baize'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Baize is a coarse woolen felt.<br /> <br /> ==Page 537==<br /> <br /> '''broken symmetries'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Broken_symmetry Broken symmetry] is a concept used widely in mathematics and physics. For a simplest explanation (good enough for the text here), this term means that an object breaks either rotational symmetry or translational sysmetry - when one can only rotate an object in certain angles or when one is able to tell if the object has been shifted sideways. For a little bit more detailed explanation see [http://www.lassp.cornell.edu/sethna/OrderParameters/BrokenSymmetry.html Identify the Broken Symmetry]; or even more [http://scienceweek.com/2005/sw050708-6.htm On Broken Symmetry].<br /> <br /> '''''sphinxe Khnopffienne'''''&lt;br&gt;<br /> refers to the Belgian symbolist painter Fernand Khnopff (1858-1921), famous for his painting &quot;The Caress&quot;, in which a female sphinx erotically lures a young man. The painting can be seen in the [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fernand_Khnopff wikipedia entry]<br /> <br /> '''Pléiade Lafrisée'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> in French, &quot;friser&quot; means to curl or twist. &quot;La frisée&quot; could mean &quot;curled,&quot; by extension &quot;twisted.&quot; The Pleiades is a cluster of hundreds of stars, though only a few are visible, sometimes referred to as The Seven Sisters. If Pleiades are Sisters, Pléiade is ''one'' Sister, so her name means Twisted Sister!<br /> <br /> '''''Conseilleuse'''''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Female consultant?<br /> <br /> ==Page 538==<br /> <br /> '''retroversion matrix'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> ???<br /> <br /> '''''Ma foi'''''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Literally &quot;My faith&quot;, i.e. &quot;By my faith!&quot;, a mild exclamation of incredulity.<br /> <br /> '''ten thousand francs'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> <br /> Based on currency conversions relative to gold, this is equivalent to<br /> about $30,000 US today.<br /> <br /> '''piker'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Someone cheap or cautious, possibly named after people from PIke County, Missouri, who came to California in the 1800s, looking for work. They were poor, hence cheap.<br /> <br /> '''what is a Quaternino?'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Cf [[ATD_525-556#Page 525|page 525:Quaternions]] for a mathematical definition. From ''The Random House Dictionary of the English Languages'', The Unabridged Edition (1966): Quaternion is &quot;a quantity or operator expressed as the sum of a real number and three complex numbers, equivalent to the ''quotient of two vectors''. The field of quaternions is not commutative under multiplication.&quot;.<br /> <br /> '''Bertie ('Mad Dog') Russell'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> 'Mad Dog' seems to be used with heavy irony here. Bertrand Russell was known most for his rationalism, so to speak, his work in modern logic. <br /> He did little in his public roles (at this time in AtD) that would have <br /> him referred to as &quot;crazy', as we say, beyond the social norm, &quot;mad&quot;. <br /> It might be argued that his use of 'logic' against philosophers such as Hegel and McTaggart within ''Against the Day'' showed up their 'madness'.<br /> (Many did think McTaggart was a bit...different...for seriously not believing in Time.) McTaggart broke with Russell after an early influential friendship---Russell was the younger man and the influenced one. He said he was an Hegelian because of McTaggart--Russell wrote in his<br /> Autobiography that McTaggart said he no longer wanted to meet/talk with him bcause he could no longer stand Russell's opinions.<br /> <br /> [http://nobelprize.org/nobel_prizes/literature/laureates/1950/russell-bio.html Bertrand Russell] (1872-1970) was a British mathematician, philosopher, logician and social critic. Best known for his work in mathermatical logic and analytic philosophy. In late spring of 1901 he discovered the so-called [http://plato.stanford.edu/entries/russell-paradox/ Russell Paradox], &quot;the most famous of the logical or set-theoretical paradoxes. The paradox arises within naive set theory by considering the set of all sets that are not members of themselves. Such a set appears to be a member of itself if and only if it is not a member of itself, hence the paradox.&quot; (On-line Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy). He won the 1950 Nobel Prize in Literature in &quot;recognition of his varied and significant writings in which he champions humanitarian ideals and freedom of thought&quot;.<br /> <br /> '''Barry Nebulay'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> nebulae: formed from the diffusion of gas in galaxies or as exploded stars (or the last ember-like stage of a star)&lt;br&gt; <br /> Most nebulae can be described as diffuse nebulae, which means that they are extended and contain no well-defined boundaries.[1] In visible light these nebulae may be divided into emission nebulae and reflection nebulae, a categorization that depends on how the light we see is created.<br /> <br /> '''Hegel... puns'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Probably refers to the fact that quite a lot of Hegel's philosophy deals with the is-ness of the world as we know and experience it.<br /> <br /> On page 787 of Bertrand Russell's ''History of Western Philosophy'' is a summary, perhaps, of this remark about Hegel's puns: &quot;as a result of analysis of the concept &quot;existence&quot;, modern logic has proved this [Cartesianism, refuted by Kant, reinstated by Hegel] argument invalid.....&quot;<br /> <br /> We know from other places that TRP himself seems to 'not like' Cartesianism. See 'cartesian' citations within this wiki.<br /> <br /> ==Page 539==<br /> <br /> '''a vector quotient'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> The result of one vector divided by another. According to the English dictionary definition of previous page this is just a Quaternion.<br /> <br /> '''unit vector'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Unit vector is a vector with magnitude of one. The unit vectors in 3-dimensional space, ''i, j, k'', associated with ''x, y, z'' directions are used in defining a general 3D vector (Cf [[ATD_525-556#Page 526|page 526:Gibbsian Vectors]]).<br /> <br /> '''''square root of minus one'''''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Imaginary number (Cf [[ATD_119-148#Page 132|page 133:Imaginary Number]]). The imaginary numbers ''i, j, k'' are used in defining a Quaternion (Cf [[ATD_525-556#Page 525|page 525:Quaternions]]).<br /> <br /> ''''Triangle Asana''''&lt;br&gt;<br /> A basic yoga pose. <br /> <br /> [http://yoga.org.nz/postures/yoga_positions_images_page.htm Here are images of several basic poses.]<br /> <br /> ''''Dr Rao abruptly vanished''''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Might be a reference to [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Martin_Gardner Martin Gardner]'s<br /> [http://www.amazon.com/No-Sided-Professor-Fantasy-Mystery-Philosophy/dp/0879753900 &quot;No-Sided Professor&quot;]<br /> <br /> ''''Quadrantal Versor Asana''''&lt;br&gt;<br /> A triangle pose taken that extra dimension.<br /> <br /> '''''&quot;Uwe moer!&quot;'''''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Looks a lot like the Dutch &quot;Uw moeder!&quot; - a cry of astonishment (&quot;Your mother!&quot;), the equivalent to the black English &quot;yo mama&quot;.<br /> <br /> '''noncommutative'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> A term typical to mathematics. A commutative equation is one that can operate in exact reverse and still yield the same results. 'Noncommutative' then suggests unidirectionality. The ability to go from point A to point B, but not from B to A.<br /> <br /> '''reticule'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> A woman's drawstring handbag; usually made of net or beading or brocade; also: A system of lines forming a pattern of squares at the focal plane of a telescope, used in micrometers.<br /> [http://www.astunit.com/tutorials/glossary.htm] <br /> :Isn't that sort of a red herring? &quot;[P]roducing from her reticule a . . . watch&quot; doesn't really allow of that second meaning. &lt;br&gt;<br /> :It could be a pun, since a reticule/ handbag always shows its pattern of lines, and a watch (timepiece) is drawn from it. Remember that, e.g. railroad lines of tracks, are a sign of industrialism encroaching on the natural and the spiritual.<br /> <br /> '''Vacheron &amp; Constantin watch'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Made by a Swiss company founded in 1755. From 1819 to 1970 the name was as in the text, then the &amp; dropped out. See the [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vacheron_Constantin Wikipedia entry.]<br /> <br /> '''hunting-case'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> For a pocket watch, a case with a hinged metal cover. More often called &quot;hunter case&quot; (and such a watch a &quot;hunter&quot;).<br /> <br /> ==Page 540==<br /> <br /> '''&quot;haar rekening, ja?&quot;'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> The bill, yes? (Dutch)?<br /> <br /> ''Her'' bill, yes? I.e., give the check to the lady.<br /> <br /> Given the presence of Chris 'Kit' Traverse here, this very much suggests a reference to Christopher 'Kit' Marlowe, Elizabethan poet, playwright and contemporary of Shakespeare. Marlowe was stabbed to death in 1593, in murky circumstances, ostensibly over a bill or 'reckoning', though he was widely believed to have been involved in some form of espionage.<br /> <br /> Strictly speaking &quot;haar rekening&quot; means that the lady pays for herself only. If Root wanted to make sure that Pléiade pays for the whole company he would have to say &quot;de hele rekening voor de dame&quot;. <br /> <br /> '''Piet Woevre'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> The Woëvre is a natural region of Lorraine in north-east France. It forms part of Lorraine plateau and lies largely in the department of Meuse. During World War I, there was much fighting there due to vast mineral resources that had been discovered in the Briey basin or Eastern Woevre at the end of the 19th century. &quot;Piet&quot; is Dutch for &quot;rock&quot; or &quot;stone&quot; and is a fairly common Dutch name, the English equivalent being Peter.<br /> <br /> If the surname is pronounced as in Dutch, Woevre is another Pynchon villain with a &quot;V&quot;-name (Vond, Weissman, Vibe). <br /> <br /> '''Force Publique'''&lt;br /&gt;<br /> The Force Publique (FP) was the official armed force for what is now the Democratic Republic of the Congo from 1885, (when the territory was known as the Congo Free State), through the period of direct Belgian rule (1908-60), until the beginning of the Second Republic in 1965. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Force_Publique Wikipedia entry]<br /> <br /> '''made him reach'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Possible allusion to a famous line, &quot;When I hear the word culture I reach for my gun.&quot; From Hanns Johst's biographical play ''Schlageter''. The original line is slightly different: &quot;Wenn ich Kultur höre ... entsichere ich meinen Browning,&quot; &quot;Whenever I hear of culture... I release the safety-catch of my Browning!&quot; (Act 1, Scene 1). It is spoken by another character in conversation with the young Schlageter. In the scene Schlageter and his wartime comrade Friedrich Thiemann are studying for a college examination, but then start disputing whether it's worthwhile doing so when the nation is not free. <br /> <br /> The line is often misattributed to better-known Nazis and others [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hanns_Johst].<br /> <br /> *In Jean-Luc Godard's 1963 film [http://www.chicagoreader.com/movies/archives/0997/09057.html ''Le Mépris'' (''Contempt'')], Jack Palance's character &quot;Jeremy Prokosch,&quot; an American movie-producer, intones to Fritz Lang: &quot;Whenever I hear the word culture, I reach for my checkbook.&quot;<br /> <br /> '''not unambiguous'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Ie, ambiguous.<br /> <br /> '''''rastaquoueres'''''&lt;br&gt;<br /> 8???<br /> <br /> '''de Decker'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> In Dutch/Flemish, the name means &quot;roofer.&quot; (''De'' in these names almost never means &quot;of, from&quot; as in French; it's nearly always the definite article.)<br /> <br /> ==Page 541==<br /> <br /> '''''bobbejaan'''''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Afrikaans: baboon. (Afrikaans is the language spoken by descendants of Dutch colonists in present-day South Africa. Some items identified as Dutch or Flemish in this wiki may really be Afrikaans.)<br /> <br /> The South African song &quot;Bobbejaan klim die berg&quot; (&quot;Bobbejaan climbed the hill&quot;) is the source of the stage name of Belgium's most famous country and western musician, Bobbejaan Schoepen (b. 1925). In 1943 he was suppressed by the Nazis after performing a South African song, &quot;Mamma, 'k wil 'n man hê&quot; (&quot;Mama, I want a man&quot;), which contains the line &quot;No, Mama, I don't want a German, because I don't like pork.&quot; He founded the Bobbejaanland theme park in Belgium, where he still lives.<br /> <br /> '''MKIV/ODC... Mark Four'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> This would be the Mark IV Ohmic Drift Compensator ([[ATD 557-587#Page 565|Page 565]]), a key component of the Q-weapon, which &quot;regulates how much light is allowed to enter the silvering of the mirror! Special kind of refraction! Calibrated against imaginary index! Dangerous! Of the essence!'&quot;<br /> <br /> '''not part of your remit'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Not included in your job description, instructions, authorization. &quot;Remit&quot; (noun) is usually a British usage.<br /> <br /> '''''gatkruiper'''''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Dutch/Flemish: brownnose, ass-kisser.<br /> <br /> '''one on her wrist'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> All the bruises reflect some refinement or artistry except this one, which may have been inflicted crudely.<br /> <br /> '''over the day'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Title motif?<br /> <br /> ==Page 542==<br /> <br /> '''trans-horizontic'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> ???<br /> Across the horizon -- &quot; a screaming comes across the sky&quot;<br /> <br /> '''Edmund Whittaker'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Edmund Whittaker (1873-1956), an English mathematician. He is best known for his work in numerical analysis. And he contributed widely to applied mathematics, mathematical physics and the theory of special functions. He also worked on celestial mechanics and the history of applied mathermatics and physics. ([http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/E._T._Whittaker Whittaker]).<br /> <br /> The Sir Edmund Whittaker Memorial Prize is awarded every four years by the Edinburgh Mathematical Society to an outstanding young mathematician having a specified connection with Scotland [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sir_Edmund_Whittaker_Memorial_Prize]. <br /> <br /> '''louche'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> The cloudy effect caused by the addition of water to absinthe. Dictionary definition: &quot;of questionable taste or morality; decadent.&quot;<br /> <br /> '''cheval-glass'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Standing mirror in a freestanding vertical frame.<br /> <br /> '''as if someone'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Sound-cancelling vs opacity-cancelling?<br /> <br /> ==Page 543==<br /> <br /> '''wraith of Pleiade Lafrisee'''<br /> <br /> Pleiade manifests one of her not-visible stars. Perhaps this sister has somehow twisted herself on an imaginary axis ala Dr. V. Ganesh Rao.<br /> <br /> '''monitory'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Warning, giving advice, by extension ominous or menacing.<br /> <br /> '''Against....the day....'''<br /> Note: this phrase happens at the exact halfway point of the novel: p.542.3<br /> <br /> '''He Who Must Come'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> The evil-doer who must come might be Adolf Hitler. It would make sense. The implication being that Europe is precipitating into a no-return situation. Capitalism cannot but end in WW2.&lt;br&gt;<br /> Ah, a lot more and less than capitalism going on here, especially if anyone specific like Hitler is meant. <br /> :When French writers use this phrase (''celui qui doit venir'') they '''do''' mean the Messiah . . . although a few devout quibblers point out that the Messiah has already come. It's rather tiresome Googling the phrase; the first 83 hits definitely refer to Christ and most of them quote the first verses of Matthew 11. But there's also a Camus reference (in English, I think) down at No. 90, if anyone has a JSTOR account:<br /> :links.jstor.org/sici?sici=0361-1299(1985)39%3A4%3C251%3ACFS%22M%3E2.0.CO%3B2-X <br /> <br /> Recalls Yeats' 'The Second Coming' once again: &quot;And what rough beast, its hour come round at last, Slouches towards Bethlehem to be born?&quot; [http://chumpsofchoice.blogspot.com/2007/05/casino-royale-in-flanders-field.html#c3637134446204467798 ]<br /> <br /> '''General Boulanger'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/General_Boulanger Georges Boulanger], French military man, and War Minister in the late 19th century. He was one of those men &quot;on a white horse&quot; that some conservatives looked to, as he urged an attack on Germany and the end of the French Republic with a return to monarchy. He was also notorious for his harsh reprisals against workers' demonstrations. &quot;'Boulangisme'&quot; threatened a coup in 1889, but the general's procrastination brought the crisis to an end.<br /> <br /> '''what death and what transfiguration'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Allusion to Richard Strauss' tone poem &quot;Death and Transfiguration&quot; (''Tod und Verklärung''), premiered in 1890.<br /> <br /> '''''&quot;Zeker&quot;'''''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Dutch: certainly.<br /> <br /> '''''dead cert'''''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Dead certainty, sure thing.<br /> <br /> '''Von Schlieffen'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Alfred von Schlieffen was the author of a German war plan to win a two-front war against both France and Russia by quickly defeating France before Russian troops could be mobilized. The [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Schlieffen_Plan Schlieffen Plan] included an attack on France through Belgium, disregarding its neutrality.<br /> <br /> '''Wilhelm has offered Leopold part of France, the ancient Duchy of Burgundy'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> [http://www.crwflags.com/fotw/flags/fr-bg.html History of the duchy.] [http://www.freiburg-madison.de/freiburg_history/1386-1517_The%20Early%20Habsburgs.htm Map,] with portrait of Duke Charles the Rash.<br /> <br /> '''lowlands'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Title of Pynchon's first published story. Here, ass?<br /> <br /> ==Page 544==<br /> <br /> '''Place d'Armes'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Main square of Ostend; literally &quot;drill field&quot;.<br /> <br /> '''peau de soie'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> &quot;Skin of silk&quot; A heavy, smooth satin with very fine ribbing; somewhat dull in sheen compared with traditional silk finishes.<br /> <br /> '''Krafft-Ebing'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Richard Freiherr von Krafft-Ebing, Austro-German psychiatrist and author of ''Psychopathia Sexualis'' (1886), a pioneering study of deviant sexual behavior and fetishism. Coined both ''sadism'' and ''masochism'' as terms for these respective behaviors. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Richard_Freiherr_von_Krafft-Ebing Wikipedia entry].<br /> <br /> '''toque'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Toque here refers to a lady's hat, originally of fur but here in velvet, which is rather like a flattened chef's hat in shape.<br /> <br /> Proust: in ''À l'ombre des jeunes filles en fleurs'' the narrator first sees Albertine wearing a toque. There seem to be quite a few Proust themes and references running throughout the novel. Indeed '''Pliade''' is the French publisher of Proust's works. <br /> <br /> '''guipure'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Lace trim.<br /> <br /> '''midinette'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> A shopgirl or dressmakers apprentice. A milliner.<br /> <br /> '''Lambic'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> A distinctive Belgian style of beer. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lambic Wikipedia]<br /> <br /> '''sous'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> <br /> Coins. Originally Roman gold coins, latterly any kind of coin.<br /> <br /> Specifically small change. She is affecting modesty by claiming that a hat like hers can be had for pennies in any unpretentious shop. In France &quot;sou is used as slang for money, as in ''sans le sou''. 'I'm broke', 'without money'. It is also a slang term for the Canadian cent (standard French, cent).&quot; ([http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sou Wikipedia])<br /> <br /> '''mayonnaise'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Brautigan's &quot;Trout Fishing in America&quot; famously ends with the word mayonnaise. [http://books.google.com/books?vid=ISBN0395500761&amp;id=rbEjDovfyNMC&amp;pg=RA2-PA111&amp;lpg=RA2-PA111&amp;ots=ELKl5b_6Tx&amp;dq=mayonnaise+trout.fishing&amp;num=100&amp;sig=BiyXRqJXRGrMWbrBNgn8de2kpCo#PRA2-PA112,M1 GoogleBooks]<br /> <br /> '''ovoöleaginous'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Another Pynchonic word combination, here denoting the two main ingredients of mayonnaise: 1) eggs, and 2) oil. It's not &quot;fecoventilatory collision&quot; as seen in &quot;Vineland,&quot; but it's nice.<br /> <br /> '''Grenache'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Grape commonly used in Rhone Valley wines e.g. Chateauneuf du Pape.<br /> <br /> '''Chantilly'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> <br /> Region north of Paris.<br /> <br /> Here the reference is to crème chantilly otherwise known as whipped cream. Chantilly mayonnaise is made by incorporating the beaten egg whites for extra lightness.<br /> <br /> '''attainder'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Legislative act declaring that a person is guilty of a crime and setting punishment without the benefit of a formal trial. The Constitution forbids the federal government (Article I, Section 9, clause 3) and the state governments (Article I, Section 10, clause 1) from passing bills of attainder.<br /> [www.historycentral.com/Civics/B.html] <br /> <br /> ''''''Aux armes, citoyens''''''&lt;br&gt;<br /> ''To arms, citizens'', from the French national anthem, ''La Marseillaise'' (1792). Kit confused La Mayonnaise with La Marseillaise.&lt;br&gt;<br /> Not &quot;Le Marseillaise,&quot; you nitwit!<br /> <br /> '''Louis XV'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> King of France 1715-1774 [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Louis_XV]. <br /> <br /> '''Cléo de Mérode'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Glamorous French ballerina (1875-1966), later Follies Bergere dancer and famous beauty. Her reputed intimacy with King Leopold was only a rumor [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cleo_de_Merode]. The character Madame Leonora Armfeldt in Stephen Sondheim's ''A Little Night Music'' has some features in common with her.<br /> <br /> '''Marquise de Pompadour'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Mistress of Louis XV,once friend of Voltaire and a power behind official scenes.[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Madame_de_Pompadour].<br /> <br /> ==Page 545==<br /> <br /> '''duc de Richelieu'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Duc de Richelieu (1696-1788), marshal of France, was a grandnephew of Cardinal Richelieu, and born in Paris. Apart from his reputation as a man of exceptionally loose morals, he attained, in spite of a defective education, distinction as a diplomatist and general. ([http://www.1911encyclopedia.org/Louis_Francois_Armand_du_Plessis,_duc_de_Richelieu duc de Richelieu] and cf [[ATD_489-524#Page 490|page 490:duc de Richelieu]])<br /> <br /> '''dubious 'victory' in 1756'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> As part of the Seven Years' War (1756-1763), duc de Richelieu (1696-1788), a Marshal of France, won a victory in the Battle of Minorca (May 20, 1756) over John Byng (1704-1757), a British Admiral. In spring of 1756 John Byng was sent with a small and undermanned fleet to relieve the British ''Port Mahon'' on the Mediterranean island of Minorca. During the battle ensued, several British ships were badly damaged by the French squadron while others, including Byng's flagship, were still out of effective firing range. Instead of engaging the enemy directly, Byng decided to keep the formation, allowing the French fleet to get away undamaged. ([http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_Minorca Battle of Minorca]).<br /> <br /> '''the ill-fated Admiral Byng'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> John Byng, convicted by court-martial of failure &quot;to do his utmost&quot; in the battle, shot in 1757. Remembered because of (1) his being the last officer of flag rank to be put to death for conduct in battle and (2) Voltaire's gag in ''Candide:'' &quot;In this country it is good to kill an admiral from time to time in order to encourage the others.&quot;<br /> <br /> '''cantharides'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> &quot;Spanish fly,&quot; contact irritant sometimes ill-advisedly used as aphrodisiac.<br /> <br /> '''Sadean'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Pertaining to the Marquis de Sade. The acts the chef performs on the egg and oil have the same names as acts of Sadean sex. <br /> <br /> '''''n'est-ce pas?'''''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Right? (Isn't that so?)<br /> <br /> '''vetiver'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> A grass (Vetiveria zizanioides) of tropical India, cultivated for its aromatic roots that yield an oil used in perfumery.<br /> [www.answers.com/topic/vetiver]. So, a perfume with, llterallly, roots in India.<br /> <br /> Vetiver makes frequent appearances throughout ''À la recherche du temps perdu.''<br /> <br /> '''pip'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> A beaut; in current parlance, a hottie.<br /> <br /> '''Q.P. system'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Quaternion Probability, page 536.<br /> <br /> '''Usine Régionale'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> French: as translated in the text.<br /> <br /> ==Page 546==<br /> <br /> '''disjunctive effects of thunderstorms'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Folk wisdom says a thunderstorm will cause mayonnaise to separate (oil from yolks).<br /> <br /> '''cottonseed oil'''<br /> <br /> Mayonnaisse like Smegmo and Crisco is a hydrogenated fat; cottonseed oil is a common factor to all three. Indeed, the name Crisco derives from the intial sounds of &quot;'''crys'''tallized '''c'''ottonseed '''o'''il&quot;. Note in the next few pages a mention of Candlebrow -- underscoring a tie-in between Mayonnaisse and Smegmo. <br /> <br /> It may be of interest to note that hydrogenation may have a symbolic use for Pynchon. The process entails bubbling hydrogen through oil in the presence of a metal catalyst such as nickel, platinum, aluminum at 248 to 410 degrees. Remnants of these metals stay in the finished product, and when consumed can lead to an increase in heavy metals in the human body.<br /> <br /> Eating hydrogenated oils is like eating plastic. The body does not recognize that these molecules have been mutated and tries to use them as essential fatty acids. But they cannot perform the same function, and as a result hydrogenated oils can cause short circuits in the electrical flow that controls the heartbeat, nerve functions, cell division and mental balance. They also create free radicals (anarchists!) that are linked to cancers. Free radicals plus metal remnants are a major contributor to cancer, heart disease, immune system dysfunction, osteoporosis, depression, chronic fatigue, Alzheimers, and neurological diseases. It is estimated that over 200 million people have died prematurely because of the hydrogenated oils found in our diets. [http://www.drz.org/asp/newsletter/default.asp?xt2id=23] Not to mention innocent bystanders killed by mentally imbalanced people whose imbalance may stem from the ingestion of hydrogenated oils -- there may be some underlying reality to the &quot;Twinkie defense.&quot;<br /> <br /> '''lounge suit'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> A lounge suit is another name for business suit consisting of a matching jacket and trousers or skirt.<br /> <br /> '''congress shoes'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> ankle high shoes with elastic gussets in the sides (wordweb online)<br /> <br /> '''invisible hand'''<br /> <br /> Suggestive of Adam Smith's metaphor for market forces in economics.<br /> <br /> '''dripping-heads'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mayonnaise To make mayonnaise,] beat together egg yolks, salt, mustard and vinegar, then drip in oil while beating to form the emulsion. If you scale the process up for industrial production, you will automate the introduction of the oil, using nozzles that release it a drop at a time—but in a large vat you can have many such nozzles.<br /> <br /> '''''cuves d'agitation'''''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Vat or tank in which the mayonnaise is agitated or beaten.<br /> <br /> '''Clinique d'Urgence pour Sauvetage des Sauces'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> French: Emergency Clinic for Salvage of Sauces.<br /> <br /> ==Page 547==<br /> <br /> '''' ...engulfed in thick, slick, sour-smelling mayonnaise. ''''<br /> The whole Kit's experience in the mayonnaise factory is very much reminiscent to [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Roald_Dahl Roald Dahl]'s [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Charlie_and_the_Chocolate_Factory Charlie and the Chocolate Factory].<br /> <br /> '''''Cazzo, cretino'''''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Literally, &quot;Dick, cretin.&quot; ''Cazzo'' is a common Italian interjectionary obscenity, especially in the south. &quot;Cazzo, cretino,&quot; is akin to someone saying, &quot;Well shit, dummy,&quot; or &quot;F-ing moron!&quot;<br /> <br /> '''''È il cowboy!'''''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Italian: It's the cowboy!<br /> <br /> '''''vero?'''''&lt;br&gt;<br /> true? real?<br /> <br /> '''''Le bambole anarchiste, porca miseria'''''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Italian: Anarchist babes, oh boy.<br /> <br /> '''Oudenberg'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> A southeast suburb of Ostende.<br /> <br /> '''Quai de l'Entrepôt'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Warehouse Quay<br /> <br /> '''''ragazzi'''''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Italian: boys, guys.<br /> <br /> ==Page 548==<br /> <br /> '''General Boulanger'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Georges_Boulanger General Boulanger]. That he was 'reactionary' and that the C of C bureaucracy had a 'defiant residue' of Boulangism, continues the characterization of the organization for which the Chums 'work'.<br /> <br /> '''''timbres fictifs'''''&lt;br&gt;<br /> French: fictive postage stamps. Cf &quot;Lot 49&quot;.&lt;br&gt;<br /> Yes, stamps mean something in Pynchon's works; here, it seems important that these stamps are characterized as frauds.<br /> <br /> '''&quot;IIIb&quot;'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> As explained in the text.&lt;br&gt;<br /> &quot;Section IIIB (Intelligence) of the German High Command. After WWI, was funded by Alfred Hugenberg (financial backer of Nazi party)&quot;. From ''Sabotage'' by Sayers &amp; Kahn, 1942.[http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&amp;q=%22IIIB%27+%2B+INTELLIGENCE&amp;btnG=Search]. The authors state in the Forward, in 1942, &quot;that 'Nazi Germany' is the creation of spies and saboteurs&quot;. See ''Gravity's Rainbow'', of course. <br /> <br /> '''Germany might stand a better chance...'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> That is, if the French were to push into Alsace (per Boulanger) as the Germans executed the Schlieffen Plan [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Schlieffen_plan] for the encirclement of Paris, it would put the French at an even greater disadvantage...as actually happened in 1914. Had the Belgians and British not delayed the Germans in Flanders, and had the French railroads not performed speedily to bring the French troops back to the Marne, World War I could have had a very different outcome...an alternate history. <br /> <br /> '''revanchist'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Policies based on revenge, or a person following such policies. In General Boulanger's case, revenge against Germany for the Franco-Prussian War (that is, retaking Alsace, lost in 1871).<br /> <br /> '''the somewhat discomposed General'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Having died in 1891, the General by the time of the action is certainly somewhat '''de'''composed; brief biographies do not suggest he was ''non compos mentis,'' that is, mentally discomposed.<br /> <br /> ==Page 549==<br /> <br /> '''cackled Darby'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> (When did he lose his innocence?)<br /> <br /> '''a modification of any salsician metaphor toward the diminutive'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Salsician: pertaining to sausage. Lindsay says Suckling's penis is better compared to a wiener than a knockwurst.<br /> <br /> '''&quot;Why you little–and I do mean 'little'–&quot;'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Another Simpsons reference? <br /> <br /> '''dunes between Nieuport and Dunkirk'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Nieuport is a Belgian seaport about 10 miles southwest of Ostend. Dunkirk is a French port (less than 10 miles inside the French border) about 20 miles southwest of Nieuport. The latter was a site of one of the bloodest battle in World War I. The general area between Niewport and Dunkirk was the well traversed battle fields of two world wars. (Dunkirk was (in)famous for the British Army's escape from the Nazi German's assault in World War II.)<br /> <br /> '''power-receivers'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Not information, energy.<br /> <br /> ==Page 550==<br /> <br /> '''Lot's wife''' &lt;br&gt;<br /> Angels of God led Lot and his family out of Sodom as it was being destroyed and told them not to look back at the mayhem. Lot's wife, Edith, imprudently looked back and was transfigured into a pillar of salt.<br /> <br /> '''Italian grotto'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> an imitating recess or structure made to resemble a natural Italian grotto.<br /> <br /> '''a highly developed taste, moreover, for human blood'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Since Pugnax developed this taste in the Carpathians, home of Castle Dracula, this seems a clear reference to Bram Stoker's novel. <br /> <br /> '''Carpathians'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Major mountain range running northwest-southeast through Poland, Slovakia, western Ukraine and Romania.<br /> <br /> '''Uhlans'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Uhlan regiments belonged to the light cavalry. They wore splendid uniforms (model for some U.S. marching band uniforms). [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Uhlan Wikipedia article.]<br /> <br /> '''Temesvár'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Now Timişoara, extreme western Romania.<br /> <br /> ==Page 551==<br /> <br /> '''...separated by only a slice of Time...'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Miles is beginning to experience Time almost as a spatial dimension, his personal vector as traversing (!) 4-dimensional space, or perhaps multidimensional space, the mathematics for which is being debated in Ostend.<br /> <br /> '''securing the mess decks'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> The Chums follow U.S. Navy idiom in orders (frequently prefixed with &quot;Now&quot;) and shipboard activities (&quot;secure&quot; meaning &quot;whatever you did before, undo it now,&quot; in this case put away the dishes and fold up the tables).<br /> <br /> '''Ryder Thorn'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Tolkienesque name? Or perhaps it's a nod to the Ryder-Waite Tarot deck and to Kevin Thorn (Kevin Matthew Fertig, 1977-), the American professional wrestler better known by his ring name Kevin Thorn who is currently signed to World Wrestling Entertainment wrestling on its ECW brand. He has appeared in vigniettes with Ariel (Shelly Martinez, 1980-), the tarot card reader, who spits blood at the camera while she &quot;predicted the future of ECW.&quot; Yup, a stretch...<br /> <br /> *The name also evokes the Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse.<br /> <br /> '''He was at Candlebrow.'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Presumably a 'trespasser.'<br /> <br /> '''the four-note chord in the context of timelessness'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> A melody is formed by notes following one another in time; a chord on the ukulele violates that practice by having all the notes sound at once. A really clever little passage.<br /> Note: Jazz musicians describe musical improvisations as horizontal (with the melody) or vertical (with the chord)<br /> <br /> ==Page 552==<br /> <br /> '''knuckle-duster'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Brass knuckles.<br /> <br /> '''Diksmuide'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> 20 kilometers south of Ostend (about halfway to Ypres).<br /> <br /> ==Page 553==<br /> <br /> '''The terrain was flat...lowlands'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Not, this time, a reference to Pynchon's ''Lowlands'', but to the two-dimensionality of Flanders, as in Edwin A. Abbott's ''Flatland'' [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Flatland]; most humans, like the inhabitants of Flanders and Abbott's Flatlanders, experience life in two dimensions. <br /> <br /> '''Somewhere up in the sky was Miles' home...'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Whereas Miles and the Chums of Chance, in contrast, live in three dimensions. The mathematicians gathered in Ostend are trying to calculate how to experience and use vectors to live in four dimensions; in a way, to experience Time as a kind of spatial dimension. Miles, on P. 551, is demonstrating the beginnings of an intuitive discovery of how to experience Time as an almost spatial dimension. Which would be a sort of &quot;time travel&quot;, or at least an expanded view of life and history.<br /> <br /> '''retted'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> soaked in water or exposed to moisture (as flax or hemp) to facilitate the removal of the fiber from the woody tissue by partial rotting.<br /> <br /> ==Page 554==<br /> <br /> '''Ypres and Menin'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Municipalities in West Flanders that were sites of some of the bloodiest battles of WWI. At the beginning of the war, the British and Belgian stand helped save Paris from encirclement by the Germans, and saved the Channel ports, but as Thorn points out, the area became the western anchor of the Western Front trench system. The several Battles of Ypres saw the first uses of poison gas (Mustard Gas, dichlorodiethylsulfide, was first called Yperite), the use of enormous mines, and the legendary mud of Passchendaele [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Passchendaele]. <br /> <br /> '''Ten years from now'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> (1914?) through 1918? and beyond?. Another paramorphic mirror--what do we now face. Whatever it is, it is nuclear.<br /> <br /> '''Bosch'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Hieronymous Bosch (1450-1516), Dutch painter of nightmares. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hieronymus_Bosch Wikipedia entry].<br /> <br /> '''Brueghel'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Pieter Brueghel the Elder(1525-1569), Flemish painter.[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pieter_Brueghel_the_Elder Wikipedia entry].<br /> <br /> '''League'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> League of Nations? The League of Nations was formed after WWI to prevent future wars. Didn't succeed.<br /> <br /> No. In this case a historical unit of length, approximately three miles - &quot;league on league&quot; = tremendous masses<br /> <br /> '''where the needles went and which way to rotate them'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> I.e., how to push Thorn's buttons; the image is from acupuncture.<br /> <br /> ==Page 555==<br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> '''simpletons at the fair'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Making Pynchon's metaphor explicit.<br /> <br /> '''Chopin E-minor Nocturne'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Frédéric Chopin (1810-49), a Polish pianist and composer ([http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fr%C3%A9d%C3%A9ric_Chopin Chopin]). He was born in Warsaw, Poland to a Polish morther and a French father. He went to Paris at the age of 20 and died there at the age of 39. He was widely regarded as one of the most famous and influential composers for the piano. From 1837-47 he had a 10-year stormy relationship with the French writer George Sand. His E-minor Nocturne is a 4-minute long Romantic style piano solo composed in 1827. (A ''nocturne'' is usually a musical composition that is inspired by, or evocative of, the night [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nocturne Nocturne].)<br /> <br /> '''owl-light'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> ???glimmering or imperfect light or twilight hours.<br /> <br /> ''''plasmic hysteresis''''&lt;br&gt;<br /> <br /> A coined term, apparently similar in meaning to Miles’ phrase “failure of physical translation.” Plasma would take an older meaning of “form” or “shape.&quot; Hysteresis, according to Webster's, refers to “a retardation in effect when the forces on an object are changed.” Hysteresis is used to describe magnetic phenomenon as well as plastic or elastic materials, that involve changes to a rest state that last beyond the forces that cause them. Examples include recordings on magnetic tape or a thumbprint slowly disappearing from putty. In the context of this passage, plasmic hysteresis appears to describe the lingering visage of someone who is no longer present – a hysteresis of form only and thus a failed physical translation. See [http://www.etymonline.com/index.php?search=plasma&amp;searchmode=none etymology of plasma] and this nifty explanation of [http://www.lassp.cornell.edu/sethna/hysteresis/WhatIsHysteresis.html hysteresis]. <br /> <br /> Hysteresis has also been used to refer to “loops” in time, certainly apropos in this case. I stumbled across an excellent example in a 1980 episode of Dr. Who, in which the eponymous Dr. is trapped in “chronic hysteresis,” an endless loop or return to a previous <br /> point in time – very similar to the situation of Ryder Thorn. [http://www.drwhoguide.com/who_5q.htm Check it out for yourself!] <br /> <br /> <br /> ==Annotation Index==<br /> {{ATD PbP}}</div>

MKOHUT https://against-the-day.pynchonwiki.com/wiki/index.php?title=ATD_525-556&diff=14093 2007-10-17T18:23:00Z

<p>MKOHUT: /* Page 548 */</p> <hr /> <div>:'''&lt;big&gt;Please keep these annotations SPOILER-FREE by not revealing information from later pages in the novel.&lt;/big&gt;'''&lt;p&gt;&lt;br&gt;<br /> <br /> ==Page 525==<br /> <br /> '''Ostend'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Cf [[ATD_489-524#Page 521|page 521:Ostend]], a seaport in northwest Belgium. Among English-speaking tourists, Ostend (or Ostende) is best known as a ferry port. Ships have shuttled between Dover and Ostend for more than 150 years, and today's high-speed catamarans move hundreds of passengers and vehicles between these two ports in just two hours. But this thousand-year-old city is a popular beach resort with Belgians, who flock to Ostend for sun, surfing, sailing and the ''Kursaal'' (Casino). The fishing harbor and old town draw many visitors. Ostend is the only Belgian coastal resort that is as lively in the summer as in the winter. For more and pictures [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ostend Ostend].<br /> <br /> '''Fishermen's Quai'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Fishermen's Quay, also called De Trap. The shrimp boats come home here from the sea in the morning. Along the quay many stands sell lots of seafoods.<br /> <br /> '''Boulevard van Isenghem'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> A major thoroughfare in Ostend, locally called ''Van Iseghemlaan'', extending diagonally from seafront southwest through the city.<br /> <br /> '''street-plausible'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Presentable.<br /> <br /> '''Quai de l'empereur'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Since Ostende is in the Flemish part of Belgium this should be the Keizerskaai, a street along the old part of the harbour, 1919 renamed Vindictivelaan.<br /> <br /> '''estaminet'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> According to the OED - A café in which smoking is allowed. Now, any small establishment selling alcoholic liquor. <br /> <br /> '''twelve-centime'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> one centime is the French eqivalent of one cent. A twelve-centime beer would cost 12/100 of a franc.<br /> <br /> '''Quaternions'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Cf [[ATD_119-148#Page 130|page 130:Quaternions]]. Quaternions are a non-communtative extension of compelx numbers (Hamilton, 1843).&lt;br&gt;<br /> <br /> Analogy with the complex numbers (Cf [[ATD_119-148#Page 132|page 132:complex number]]) being represented as a sum of real and imaginary parts, a + b''i'', where ''i''² = −1, a quaternion is defined as a combination a + b''i'' + c''j'' + d''k'', where ''i''² = ''j''² = ''k''² = ''i j k'' = −1, and a, b, c, d are ''four'' explicit real numbers. The non-commutative property refers to ''i j = −j i = k; j k = −k j = i; k i = −i k = j''. (i.e. ''i j ≠ j i; j k ≠ k j; k i ≠ i k''; etc.) The using of ''i, j, k'', the imaginary numbers (Cf [[ATD_119-148#Page 133|page 133:imaginary number]]), led to the phrases of &quot;the ''ijk'' lot&quot; of page 533 and &quot;creature of ''i-j-k''&quot; of page 534.<br /> <br /> '''Kellner'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> German: waiter, barman. Use of the German word would be insulting to the Belgian barman.<br /> <br /> '''''demi'''''&lt;br&gt;<br /> A half-pint glass (25 centilitres, actually).<br /> <br /> '''Lambic'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Pron. ''lahm-BEEK.'' Unique Belgian beer style, sour and often thin in body.<br /> <br /> '''skimmer'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Straw hat (&quot;Panama&quot;).<br /> <br /> ==Page 526==<br /> <br /> '''biquaternion'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Or &quot;octonion,&quot; an innovation of English mathematician W.K. Clifford, [[ATD_243-272#Page_249|referred to on p. 249.]]<br /> <br /> '''Barry Nebulay'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Pun on a term from heraldry, ''barry nebuly.'' Barry (rhymes with &quot;starry,&quot; not &quot;carry&quot;) refers to a shield divided into an even number of parts by horizontal lines. Nebuly signals that the lines are deformed into stylized &quot;cloud&quot; shapes. [http://www.rarebooks.nd.edu/digital/heraldry/partitions.html Here you can see an example.] If a ''British'' author had a character with a heraldic name, it would suggest a pseudonym.<br /> <br /> '''University of Dublin'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> The Alma Mater of Hamilton, the father of Quaternion. He studied, graduated and taught at Trinity College, the University of Dublin, Ireland's oldest university.<br /> <br /> If University College, Dublin, then Joyce had graduated in 1902.&lt;br&gt;<br /> <br /> '''Quaternioneers'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Quaternion believers.<br /> <br /> '''Gibbsian Vectors'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Vector Analysis (or Vector Calculus) developed by Willard Gibbs (Cf [[ATD_26-56#Page 29|page 29:Professor Gibbs]]) in 1881 and 1884. It is a branch of calculus that deals with vectors and process involving vectors. It is much more easily applied to phsics and other applied sciences than Hamilton's Quaternions (Cf [[ATD_525-556#Page 525|page 525:Quaternions]]).&lt;br&gt;<br /> A vector is defined by not only a magnitude but also a direction, such as a velocity vector, ''v'' is defined by ''v'' = a''i'' + b''j'' + c''k'',<br /> where a, b, and c are the magnitudes of the velocity components in directions of ''i, j'' and ''k'' which are unit vectors, (not imaginary numbers as in Quaternion), with magnitude of 1. In three dimensional cases and ''xyz'' coordinate system is used then ''i, j, k'' are related to ''x, y, z'' directions (&quot;''xyz'' people&quot; of page 533); but they, in general, may be used irrespective of the notation of the coordinates.<br /> Mathematical operations (addition, subtraction, multiplication), differentiation (''curl'' — Cf [[ATD_318-335#Page 326|page 326:Curl]] and p. 536, ''Laplacian'' — Cf [[ATD_318-335#Page 326|page 326:Laplacian]] and p. 536, etc) and integration can be applied to vectors. It is interesting to know that one of the two multiplication operations is called cross product; for unit vectors (''i, j, k'') perpendicular to each other, then, ''i × i = j × j = k × k = 0'', ''i × j = k'', ''j × i = -k'', etc. ([http://web.mit.edu/wwmath/vectorc/summary.html Vector Calculus]).&lt;br&gt;<br /> A simple vector anyalysis example here: if ''k'', the unit vector, stands for the direction upward and g is the gravitational acceleration, then the acceleration vector, ''a'', for a projectile, is defined for downward action, (the ''i'' and ''j'' directions have zero components):&lt;br&gt;<br /> :''a'' = -g ''k''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Integrating ''a'' would give the velocity vector, ''v''&lt;br&gt;<br /> :''v'' = -g t ''k''&lt;br&gt;<br /> for zero initial velocity case, and t standing for time.&lt;br&gt;<br /> And integrating ''v'' would yield the position vector, ''h'', for the projectile&lt;br&gt;<br /> :''h'' = -½ g t² ''k''&lt;br&gt;<br /> toward the sea level.<br /> <br /> '''Quaternionists'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Quaternion believers, same as Quaternioneers.<br /> <br /> '''Tasmania'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Tasmania is an island of the southern coast of Australia. Known for its relative isolation, it was a prison for English convicts in the 1800s<br /> <br /> '''Having been inseparable from the rise of the electromagnetic'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> In his 1865 work ''The Dynamical Theory of the Electromagnetic Field'', James Clerk Maxwell unified electricity and magnetism. He put forth twenty equations, with twenty unknowns, in vector form (though different in notation and form than the equations that now bear his name) that completely described all known electromagnetic phenomena. In his 1873 treatise on the subject, he expressed the equations in the mathematics of quaternions. It appears that the quaternion form of the equations remained popular even though, at the behest of his publisher, Maxwell reverted to the 1865 form in the second edition (1881)--though they remain scattered throughout. In 1892 Oliver Heaviside (On the Forces, Stresses, and Fluxes of Energy in the Electromagnetic Field. ''Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society of London.'' A, Vol. 183. pp423-480), while spewing scientific vitriol at the Quaternionists, reformulated Maxwell's original 1865 equations (Heaviside chose to remove the vector potential and scalar fields from the equations; the inclusion of these terms had served as Maxwell's justification for the use of quaternions), and provided the notation still in use today. See this [http://www.zpenergy.com/modules.php?name=Downloads&amp;d_op=getit&amp;lid=60 PDF] for the evolution of Maxwell's equations.<br /> <br /> '''Hamiltonian devotees'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> The Quaternion faction, after William Hamilton, who devised the scheme.<br /> <br /> '''Grand Hôtel de la Nouvelle Digue'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> There is a Hotel Digue in the Seychelles; this is a New Hotel Digue by Pynchon? <br /> <br /> Grand Hotel of New Dyke, may be a made up hotel name.<br /> <br /> '''anterooms of death'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> This metaphor is sometimes applied to concentration camps. Here the lyric &quot;feel like I'm fixin' to die&quot; seems more apposite.<br /> <br /> '''Belgian Art Nouveau'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Art Nouveau, 1890(or 80) to 1914, explores a new style in the visual arts and architecture that developed in Europe and North America at the end of the 19th century. At its height (~1907), Art Nouveau was a concerted attempt to create an international style based on decoration. It was developed by a brilliant and energetic generation of artists and desisgners, who sought to fashion an art form appropriate to the post-Industrial Revolution modern age.&lt;br&gt;<br /> Brussels was one of the Art Nouveau centers and represented different style from the others. The jewelers there, accepted as artists rahter than craftsmen, (together with those in Paris) defined Art Nouveau in jewelery and achieved the most renown. ([http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Art_Nouveau Art Nouveau]).<br /> <br /> ==Page 527==<br /> <br /> '''dossing'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> British slang for &quot;sleeping&quot;, &quot;staying overnight&quot;<br /> <br /> '''Russian nihilists'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> :The following four are local, Belgian, not Russian, nihilists !<br /> <br /> '''Eugénie'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Female. Possibly named for Empress Eugénie (1826-1920), consort of French Emperor Napoleon III. Ultimately for St. Eugenia, 3rd-century Roman martyr whose feast is celebrated on December 25.<br /> <br /> '''Fatou'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Female. A pseudonym? In view of the date of the action, certainly not named after [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fatou the mathematician Fatou] (1878-1929).<br /> <br /> '''Denis'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Male. Named for St. Denis or Dionysius, patron saint of Paris and of France, 3rd-century bishop of Paris, martyr, beheaded on the hill now called Montmartre. &quot;Montjoie St. Denis!&quot; was a warcry used by French troops in the Middle Ages. His intercession is effective against demonic possession and headache.<br /> <br /> '''Policarpe'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Male. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Polycarp Saint Polycarp] was a Christian bishop of Smyrna (now İzmir in Turkey) in the second century. He was stabbed and died a martyr after an attempt to burn him at the stake failed. His intercession is sought against earache and dysentery.<br /> <br /> '''Young Congo'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Probably in reference to the [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Young_Turks Young Turks], a Turkish revolutionary movement<br /> <br /> '''Garde Civique'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> A part of the Belgian army. According to the [http://www.1911encyclopedia.org/Belgium 1911 Britannica], &quot;the mass of the garde civique does not pretend to possess military value. It is a defence against sedition and socialism.&quot;<br /> <br /> '''French Second Bureau boys'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Deuxieme Bureau; French Intelligence.<br /> <br /> '''''phalange'''''&lt;br&gt;<br /> French: phalanx. A military (here mock-military) group ready for combat. &lt;br&gt;<br /> <br /> It also conjures up memories of the early 19th century utopian socialist <br /> Charles Fourier, who theorized that people should live communally in &quot;phalanxes&quot; of a specific number based upon their &quot;passions.&quot; His solid ideas included equality of the sexes, but he also taught wacky things such as the moon being made of lemonade. Of particular relevance is his rejection of industrial civilization. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Utopian_socialism]<br /> <br /> '''&quot;...until something had happened, something too terrible to remember...&quot;'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Again this theme of an unknowable past transgression, here invoked almost as if the unknown signifies the other 'lateral' (a word which has cropped up at least a dozen times already) 'vector'.<br /> <br /> '''the Digue'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> French for &quot;dyke&quot;<br /> <br /> '''Congo... Belgians'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> The Belgian colonisation of the Congo was, as Conrad's ''Heart of Darkness'' makes clear, notable for its greed and brutality.<br /> <br /> '''Leopold, King of the Belgians'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> 1835-1909, reigned 1865-1909. A man of almost Nixonian fiendishness. In the Congo he acted as sole proprietor and absolute ruler. The positive outcomes of his exploitation include ''Heart of Darkness'' and the phrase &quot;crime against humanity.&quot;<br /> <br /> '''co-conscious'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> mental processes outside the main stream of consciousness but sometimes available to it — from Merriam-Webster's Medical Dictionary.<br /> <br /> '''Force Publique'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Belgian armed forces operating in the Belgian Congo ([http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Force_Publique Wikipedia]). &quot;King Leopold's private army&quot; may be a more accurate description.<br /> <br /> '''rubber worker'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> See above: One of the early missions of the FP was to increase rubber export quotas through forced labor and related atrocities.<br /> <br /> ==Page 528==<br /> <br /> '''''khâgne'''''&lt;br&gt;<br /> an informal term used by French students for Classes Préparatoires Littéraires, the two-year cycle of classes taken after the Baccalaureat (taken at age 17-18), to prepare for the entrance examination to the Ecole Normale Supeieure. ([http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kh%C3%A2gne khâgne]).<br /> <br /> '''Reclus'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> J. J. Élisée Reclus (1830-1905), French geographer but mainly educated in Germany. Several times he was forced to leave France because of his political views; he traveled widely in Europe, the British Isles, the United States, and South America and for many years lived in Switzerland. He was professor of comparative geography at the University of Brussels from 1895 to 1905. He had quite an extensive connection with various socialist and anarchist circles (met Bakunin while in Florence).Once he was imprisoned in Versailles in 1871 for his part in the ''Paris Commune''. In 1882 he initiated the ''Anti-marriage movement'' while in Geneva. [[http://academic.reed.edu/formosa/texts/reclusbio.html Reclus]).<br /> <br /> '''Stirnerite'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Follower of Max Stirner, 19th century German philosopher and author of ''The Ego and Its Own,'' a work influential in anarchist thought. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Max_Stirner Wikipedia entry].<br /> <br /> ''Max Stirner'''s (1806-56) attacks on systematic philosophy, his denial of absulutes, and his rejection of abstract concepts of any kind often places him among the first philosophical nihilists. For Stirner, achieving individual freedom is the only law; and the state, which necvessarily imperils freedom, must be destroyed. Even beyond the oppression of the state, though, are the constraints imposed by others because their very existence is an obstable compromising individual freedom. Thus Stirner argues that existence is an endless &quot;war of each against all&quot; (1845). (taken from the paragraph about Max Stirner in [http://www.iep.utm.edu/n/nihilism.htm#H1 Nihilism])&lt;br&gt;<br /> Sourcing here? Much complexity in properly understanding Stirner, who has some Pynchon-like qualities, to say the least. From the Stanford Dictionary of Philosophy&lt;br&gt;<br /> His major work:<br /> The Ego and Its Own<br /> Much of Stirner's prose—which is crowded with aphorisms, italicisation, and hyperbole—appears calculated to disconcert. Most striking, perhaps, is the use of word play. Rather than reach a conclusion through the conventional use of argument, Stirner often approaches a claim that he wishes to endorse by exploiting words with related etymologies or formal similarities. For example, he associates words for property (such as ‘Eigentum’) with words connoting distinctive individual characteristics (such as ‘Eigenheit’) in order to promote the claim that property is expressive of selfhood. (Stirner's account of egoistic property—see below—gives this apparently orthodox Hegelian claim a distinctive twist.)<br /> <br /> This rejection of conventional forms of intellectual discussion is linked to Stirner's substantive views about language and rationality. His unusual style reflects a conviction that both language and rationality are human products which have come to constrain and oppress their creators. Stirner maintains that accepted meanings and traditional standards of argumentation are underpinned by a conception of truth as a privileged realm beyond individual control. As a result, individuals who accept this conception are abandoning a potential area of creative self-expression in favour of adopting a subordinate role as servants of truth. In stark contrast, Stirner insists that the only legitimate restriction on the form of our language, or on the structure of our arguments, is that they should serve our individual ends. It is the frequent failure of ordinary meanings and standard forms of argument to satisfy his interpretation of this criterion which underpins Stirner's remorselessly idiosyncratic style.<br /> <br /> The Ego and Its Own has an intelligible, but scarcely transparent, structure. It is organised around a tripartite account of human experience, initially introduced in a description of the stages of an individual life. The first stage in this developmental narrative is the realistic one of childhood, in which children are constrained by material and natural forces such as their parents. Liberation from these external constraints is achieved with what Stirner calls the self-discovery of mind, as children find the means to outwit those forces in their own determination and cunning. The idealistic stage of youth, however, contains new internal sources of constraint, as individuals once more become enslaved, this time to the spiritual forces of conscience and reason. Only with the adulthood of egoism do individuals escape both material (external) and spiritual (internal) constraints, learning to value their personal satisfaction above all other considerations.<br /> <br /> Stirner portrays this dialectic of individual growth as an analogue of historical development, and it is a tripartite account of the latter which structures the remainder of the book. Human history is reduced to successive epochs of realism (the ancient, or pre-Christian, world), idealism (the modern, or Christian, world), and egoism (the future world). <br /> <br /> What about these &quot;successive epochs&quot; in understanding ATD?<br /> <br /> Stirner's major work, The Ego and Its Own has been reissued in English a number of times in Pynchon's lifetime,from the 60s on. (Not that TRP could not have read it in German!)<br /> <br /> '''''Anarcho-individualiste'''''&lt;br&gt;<br /> i.e. he has doctrinal differernces with Stirnerism, strictly speaking; see P. 324, and &quot;Eigenheit&quot;.<br /> <br /> '''Leopold'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> See p. 527.<br /> <br /> '''going down lately'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Being assassinated.<br /> <br /> '''Sipido'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Jean-Baptiste Sipido (1884-1959), a Belgian socialist. Accusing the Prince of Wales of causing thousands of inocents were killed in the Boer War in South Africa, on April 5, 1900, Sipido leaped onto the foot board of the royal compartment right before the train left the North Railway Station (Gare du Nord), Brussel, and fired two (or one? as reported in ''The Manchester Guardian'', or four? as stated in the text here) shots through the window but missed everyone inside. He was arrested, tried and acquitted. The leader of the House of Commons called the acquittal a &quot;grave and most unfortunate miscarriage of justice.&quot; ([http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jean-Baptiste_Sipido Sipido]).<br /> <br /> '''Prince... of Wales'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> (Maud Gonne's husband claimed to have been involved in another such plot.)<br /> <br /> '''Hippodrome'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Hippodrome Wellington, a horse racing track in Ostend built in 1883. The facility hosts both harness and flat racing events. ([http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hippodrome_Wellington Hippodrome]).<br /> <br /> '''Royal Bathing Hut... twenty francs'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> A bathing machine ([http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bathing_machine bathing machine])? The King of Belgium certainly would not want to be seen in a swimsuit on a public beach... It seems unlikely, though, that such a royal bathing machine would be for hire.<br /> <br /> '''twenty francs'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> ???<br /> <br /> ==Page 529==<br /> <br /> '''picric family'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> The explosive picric acid (2,4,6-trinitrophenol) and its derivatives. For picric acid, Brugère's powder and Designolle's powder, [http://encyclopedia.jrank.org/PER_PIG/PICRIC_ACID_or_TRINITROPHENOL_C.html see this Britannica article.]<br /> <br /> '''Brugère's powder'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> See &quot;picric family&quot; above.<br /> <br /> '''Designolle's'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> See &quot;picric family&quot; above.<br /> <br /> '''Monsieur Santos-Dumont'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Alberto Santos-Dumont (1873-1932), a pioneer of aviation from Brasil. Check out [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alberto_Santos-Dumont Wikipedia] to get a look at the way he was wearing his &quot;trademark Panama hat&quot;. <br /> <br /> '''Green Hour''' and '''''l'heure vertigineuse'''''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Absinthe-drinking time. The liqueur is green. In French, ''l'heure verte,'' so ''vertigineuse'' (vertiginous, causing dizziness) is a pun on the word for &quot;green.&quot;<br /> <br /> '''Rocco and Pino'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Rabid Quaternionists and sudden friends of Kit Traverse.<br /> :No, they were not mathematicians at all, let alone Quaternionists, but two &quot;Italian naval renegades&quot; !!<br /> ::&quot;Rocco and Pino&quot; are, in temperament, something like the &quot;Mason and Dixon&quot; of manned-torpedoes... cf. the &quot;torpedo&quot; (i.e., &quot;Electrick-Eel&quot;) of ''Mason &amp; Dixon''.<br /> <br /> '''Whitehead works in Fiume'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Anticipating GR's V2 works.<br /> <br /> ''Robert Whitehead'' (1823-1905), an English engineer. He developed the first self-propelled torpedo in 1866. He attended Manchester's Mechanics Institute, worked in a shipyard in Toulon (1844), France, and as a consultant engineer in Milan (1847), Italy. Later he moved to Trieste and in 1856 became a manager of a company called ''Founderia Mettali'' (later, ''Stabilimento Tecnico di Fiume'') in Fiume producing ship steam boilers and engines which were the most advanced of that era. He also developed the first self-propelled torpedo which was very popular. Whitehead's torpedo was propelled by a compressed air engine, carried 18lbs dynamites and a self-regulating device which kept the torpedo cruising at a constant preset depth. [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Robert_Whitehead Whitehead]].<br /> <br /> ''Fiume'' is now Rijeka, Croatia. Trieste is on the northwestern edge of the Istra Peninsula, Rijeka is east of it. [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rijeka Fiume]].<br /> <br /> Interesting sidebar: Whitehead's fortune from Fiume and the torpedo went solely to his granddaughter Agatha Whitehead, who married Baron von Trapp. The Von Trapp money came from Robert Whitehead, and most of the von Trapp singers were his great-grandchildren.<br /> <br /> '''''Alberta'''''&lt;br&gt;<br /> The [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Royal_yacht Wikipedia] entry on royal yachts goes back to the 17th century but doesn't include ''Alberta.'' The craft does get a mention in [http://www.bouncing-balls.com/timeline/people/nr_leopoldmorel.htm this page on Leopold and the Congo.]<br /> <br /> '''Siluro Dirigibile a Lenta Corsa'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> or S.L.C. &quot;slow course torpedo&quot;, &quot;slow-running torpedo&quot;. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Manned_torpedo Wikipedia] Italy‘s Navy was among the first to experiment with manned torpedos. Though according to [http://web.ukonline.co.uk/chalcraft/sm/chariots.html this site] this did not happen until 1935, Italian frogmen as early as October 31, 1918 made it into the harbour of Pula with the help of a modified german torpedo and sank the former Austrian but by then since a few hours Croatian/Slovenian/Bosnian battleship SMS ''Viribus Unitis''. [http://www.geocities.com/tegetthoff66/viribus.html website]<br /> <br /> The Wikipedia entry linked above doesn't contain the Italian word ''dirigibile'' (steerable), which sets up the torpedo as a counterpart of the dirigible ''Inconvenience.''<br /> <br /> :I suspect there's a connection between the torpedo and &quot;Not the usual lateener, in fact appearing to have neither sails, masts, nor oars&quot; in Miles' reversed vision, [[ATD_243-272#Page_250|page 250.]] Needs work, though.<br /> <br /> ==Page 530==<br /> <br /> '''exfiltrate'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Make a surreptitious escape (as &quot;infiltrate&quot; means to make a surreptitious entrance).<br /> <br /> '''''Macchè'''''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Italian: certainly not, not a chance. And in Pynchon's Italian is used as an all-purpose exclamation.<br /> <br /> '''''Ehi, stu gazz', categoria'''''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Stu gazz' is a dialect representation of ''sto cazzo'', literally meaning ''this dick here''. Normally you could translate the sense of the sentence as: ''yeah, why not, a fucking category! ''. -- blicero2 - 2007.02.22<br /> <br /> '''''mezzogiornismo'''''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Denigrating the Italian South. Mezzogiorno means ''midday'' in Italian but refers generally to Southern Italy.<br /> <br /> ==Page 531==<br /> <br /> '''Bruges'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> An exceptionally beautiful Belgian town of canals which is thus one of several towns known as the 'Venice of the north'. In the 14th cettury Burges already became an international finanacial and trading center, but<br /> started to decline in the 15th century. In the 20th century, however, the city was discovered by the international tourism and the medieval heritage turned out to be a new source of wealth. A new harbor of Zeebrugge, 10 miles outside of Bruges at the North Sea coast, brought new developments and new industries to the region. For the city and its history see ([http://www.trabel.com/brugge.htm Bruges]).<br /> <br /> '''Raoul's Atelier de la Vitesse'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> French: Ralph's Speed Shop.<br /> <br /> '''Ghent'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Belgian city, less than 30 miles southeast of Bruges, on the rail line about halfway between Ostend and Brussels. It is the fourth largest city of Belgium. It is bigger than Bruges but not as famous as a tourist attraction. But the city is a showcase of medieval Flemish wealth and commercial success. See ([http://www.trabel.com/gent.htm Ghent]).<br /> <br /> '''Daimler six-cylinder'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> ???<br /> <br /> '''a hundred horsepower'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> ???<br /> <br /> '''''guaglion'''''&lt;br&gt;<br /> italian (dialectal) = boy, young person<br /> <br /> '''Umeki Tsurigane'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Umeki is typically made with some combination of the various kanji for &quot;plum&quot; (ume) and &quot;tree&quot; (ki), though one has the ki being the character for &quot;ghost/devil&quot; and one obscure reading that's entirely redundant, where ume is &quot;plant&quot; (usually read ue). There is one where ume is the kanji for &quot;buried or embedded&quot;. Tsurigane, means a &quot;temple bell&quot;, which can stand alone or be followed by the grass kanji to mean &quot;bellflower&quot; (lots of botanical stuff happening here, if that means anything; hardly the only example in ''AtD''). Given the search for Shambhala going on, &quot;Buried Temple Bell&quot; seems a likely translation, at least at this point; the botanical meanings could perhaps emerge later.<br /> <br /> Or, another terrible name-pun? &quot;You make [m]e sore again.&quot; See another on P. [[ATD_748-767#Page_757| 757]]<br /> <br /> '''Professor Knott'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Cargill Knott (1856-1922), professor of physics; seismologist. See his biography [http://www.penicuikcdt.org.uk/Cargill_Knott.html here].<br /> <br /> ==Page 532==<br /> <br /> '''Kimura'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Cf [[ATD_26-56#Page 29|page 29:Kimura]] and [[ATD_318-335#Page 318|page 318:Shunkichi Kimura]].<br /> <br /> '''drover's sombrero'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Cowboy hat.<br /> <br /> '''furoshiki'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Japanese all-purpose cloth. Can be worn, used as wrapping, or used as a bag.<br /> <br /> '''taupe'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> A brownish gray.<br /> <br /> '''boilermakers and their helpers'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> [[ATD_358-373#Page_360|See annotation to p. 360.]]<br /> <br /> '''Anharmonic Pencil'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> ''Pencil'' is a term commonly used in Synthetic Geometry. Straight lines incident with a plane - coplanar lines - and passing through a common point are said to be concurrent lines and the set of all such concurrent coplanar lines is called the ''pencil''. (Cf [[ATD_429-459#Page 456|page 456:Pencil]]). For a figure and a not quite precise definition see [http://mathworld.wolfram.com/Pencil.html pencil]. If a, b, c and d, are four distinct coplanar lines and their double ratio λ = (abcd) = -1, then a, b, c, d are called a harmonic quadruple of lines; they are said to constitute a ''harmonic pencil''. A ''pencil'' which is not harmonic then is known as ''anharmonic pencil''. See Pencil (lines 8-9), Double Ratio λ (lines 32-35) and Harmonic Pencil (line 39) of [http://ca.geocities.com/ingsaler6/mathworld.html Mathworld].<br /> <br /> '''''Comptes rendus'''''&lt;br&gt;<br /> ''Comptes rendus des séances hebdomadaires,'' Proceedings of the weekly sessions (of the Academy of Sciences), published from 1835, later (ca. 1935) retitled ''Comptes rendus de l'Académie des sciences,'' Proceedings of the Academy of Sciences. (Notice that the academy didn't see the need to specify &quot;French.&quot; Take that, Royal Society of London!) For about a century, one of two journals so universally circulated and recognized that bibliographies nearly always cited them in nickname form: ''C.R.'' The other was ''Ber.,'' short for ''Berichte der Deutschen Chemischen Gesellschaft,'' Reports of the German Chemical Society (from 1868).<br /> <br /> '''De Forest'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Cf [[ATD_26-56#Page 29|page 29:De Forest]].<br /> <br /> '''Gibbs'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Cf [[ATD_26-56#Page 29|page 29:Professor Gibbs]].<br /> <br /> '''Maxwell Equations'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Cf [[ATD_57-80#Page 58|page 58:Maxwell Field Equations]].<br /> <br /> ==Page 533==<br /> <br /> '''aniline teal'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> The wallpaper dye; aniline dyes were the first synthetic dyes, discovered by [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/William_Perkin William Perkin] in 1858. Their intense and fade-resistant colors were very fashionable at the end of the nineteenth century. The dyes are also significant in ''GR'' as the products of I.G. Farben.<br /> <br /> '''Heavisiders'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Oliver Heaviside (May 18, 1850 – February 3, 1925) was a self-taught English electrical engineer, mathematician and physicist who adapted complex numbers to the study of electrical circuits, developed techniques for applying Laplace transforms to the solution of differential equations, reformulated Maxwell's field equations in terms of electric and magnetic forces and energy flux, and independently co-formulated vector analysis. Although at odds with the scientific establishment for most of his life, Heaviside changed the face of mathematics and science for years to come.[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Heaviside].<br /> <br /> '''Grassmanniacs'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Nineteenth century German mathematician and linguist, essentially the inventor/discoverer of vector space. Grassmann showed that once geometry is put into the algebraic form he advocated, then the number three has no privileged role as the number of spatial dimensions; the number of possible dimensions is in fact unbounded.[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hermann_Grassmann].<br /> <br /> '''in the mood for a clambake'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Anachronistic Broadway show tune? If so, the clambake in ''Carousel'' turns into a brawl; the assmebled factions of mathematicians could be in the mood for either a party or a brawl, apparently. <br /> <br /> '''Monopole de la Maison'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Monopole of the House, a fanciful name of a fanciful drink.&lt;br&gt;<br /> There is, since 1898, a well known restaurant called ''Monopole Lunch &amp; Sea Grill'' in Plattsburgh of upper New York state. ([http://www.monopole.org Monopole Restaurant]).&lt;br&gt;<br /> Most probably, it's the Magnetic monopole being referred here. In physics, a monopole is a magnet with a net magnetic charge, i.e. there is only one pole instead of two (so no net magnetic charge) as usual. ([http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Magnetic_monopole Monopole]). It's existence had been theoretically predicted by various particle theories (superstring theory, etc) but never been proved experimentally. Proving the existence of a monopole would certainly earn a Nobel Prize.<br /> <br /> '''Idiom Neutral'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> An invented language, like Esperanto. Idiom Neutral dictionaries first appeared in 1902. It looks like a simplified Latinate language and it grew out of Volapuk, another &quot;auxiliary language.&quot; It was abandoned by the ''Akademi Internasional de Lingu Universal'' in 1908.<br /> <br /> For a list of all the invented languages that linguists are keeping track of, including Klingon, try [http://linguistlist.org/forms/langs/GetListOfConstructedLgs.html Eastern Michigan's Linguist List]. And don't forget to click on the link to &quot;Browse sites devoted to constructed languages.&quot;<br /> <br /> '''phatic'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Basically, small talk or chatter. Words used to convey fellow-feeling rather than to impart information.<br /> <br /> '''''Kampf ums Dasein'''''&lt;br&gt;<br /> German: struggle for existence.<br /> <br /> '''Q-brother'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Fellow Quaternioneer or Fellow Quaternionist.<br /> <br /> '''We are the Jews of mathematics, wandering out here in our diaspora--some destined for the past, others the future, even a few able to set out at unknown angles from the simple line of Time, upon journeys that no one can predict''' &lt;br&gt;<br /> In keeping with the analogy of Judaism, those &quot;few&quot; people within the Quaternionists &quot;able to set out at unknown angles&quot; are most likely being compared to Kabbalists who claim to partake in a mystic &quot;journey to the Throne of God through the mythological realm of the seven heavens&quot; (Armstrong, A History of God--p. 247). Throne Mysticism in Kabbalah is explored extensively in Gravity's Rainbow.<br /> <br /> Perhaps this is obvious to some, but these &quot;Jews of Mathematics&quot; worship the Hamiltonian Tetractys [http://www.math.ucr.edu/home/baez/dublin/]; those other Jews worshipped the Tetragrammatron. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tetragrammaton] The proliferation of 4s continues.<br /> <br /> ==Page 534==<br /> <br /> '''Poiret gown'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> A gown designed by Paul Poiret (1879-1944), a French fashion designer based in Paris. &quot;In the annals of fashion history, Paul Poiret is best remembered for freeing women from corsets and further liberating them through pantaloons . . . it was Poiret's remarkable innovations in the cut and construction of cloting . . . Working with fabric directly onto the body, Poiret helped to pioneer a radical approach to dressmakeing that relied more on the skills of drapery than on those of tailoring.&quot; (from [http://www.metmuseum.org/special/se_event.asp?OccurrenceId={0DC3D00F-4611-4F91-8DC2-CC3C1A5C48D5} MetMuseum], <br /> New York Metropolitan Museum's Special Exhibitions, ''Poiret: King of Fashion'', May 9, 2007 to August 5, 2007). For a picture of Poiret gown see [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Image:Poiretgown.jpg Poiret Gown]. ''The New York Times'' reported on February 1, 2007 that A Poiret Gown Brings $5,500 at [http://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html?res=9B07EFDA1538F93AA15756C0A967948260 Christie's Auction] - the gown was made in 1913 when Poiret was at the height of his career. For his bio see [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Paul_Poiret Poiret].<br /> <br /> '''''green and long'''''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Pickle, or... what?<br /> : A green and long ''gherkin'' (a small, immature fruit of a variety of cucumber used in pickling).<br /> <br /> ==Page 535==<br /> <br /> '''no-name wine'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> 1970s idiom for common European practice?<br /> <br /> '''set theory'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Set theory deals with the properties of well-defined collections, or ''sets'', of entities - the ''elements'' or ''members'' of the set - conceived as a whole. The elements may be of a mathematical nature or non-mathematical. The set theory grew out of the German mathematician Georg Cantor's (1845-1918) study of infinite sets of real numbers. <br /> <br /> The ''language of sets'' has become an important tool for all branches of mathematics, but is of very little relevance to the practice of mathematics in everyday life. As a source of metaphors, however, it's been quite productive; &quot;subset,&quot; &quot;superset,&quot; &quot;universe,&quot; &quot;intersection&quot; and &quot;Venn diagram&quot; have found varying degrees of acceptance. Recasting Aristotle's syllogisms in set-theoretic language also makes them easier for many people to understand.<br /> <br /> '''Hamilton . . . early genius'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Hamilton, according to ''Chambers Biographical Dictionary'', &quot;at fifteen knew thirteen languages, had read Newton's ''Principia'', and commenced original investigations&quot;. At twenty-two, &quot;while still an undergraduate, he was appointed professor of Astronomy at Dublin and Irish Astronomer-Royal&quot;; at thirty &quot;he was knighted&quot;.<br /> <br /> '''Hamilton . . . in the grip of a first love'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> ???&lt;br&gt;<br /> Pynchon probably didn't mean Quaternion was Hamilton's first love, but its effect on him was similar to that of a first love. In 1843 at the age of 38 Hamilton invented the Quaternion, the first non-communtative algebra to be studied. He felt this would revolutionise mathematical physics, and he spent the rest of his life working on it. In 1853 he published a large volume, ''Lectures on Quaternions'', on his grand invention. The last seven years of his life, Hamilton was writing an 800-page book ''Elements of Quaternions'' modeling on Euclid's ''Elements''. The last chapter of the book was completed by his son after his death.<br /> <br /> '''the Walt Whitman of English physics'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Whitman pops up again, last seen on [[ATD_489-524#Page_491|page 491]].<br /> <br /> ==Page 536==<br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> '''Oscar Wilde'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Note that Wilde's Dorian Gray also undergoes a kind of bilocation.<br /> <br /> '''Kursaal'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Spa. Casino ?<br /> <br /> '''vectors'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> For serious minds see Cf [[ATD_525-556#Page 526|page 526:Gibbsian Vectors]], but let's follow Pynchon's lighter mood, here is a non-mathematical definition by Kamen (1995):<br /> :''Many things have more than direction;''<br /> :''The magnitude is also a question.''<br /> :''With acceleration or force,''<br /> :''And many more things, of course,''<br /> :''It's vectors that make the connection.''<br /> <br /> '''Curls'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Cf [[ATD_318-335#Page 326|page 326:Curl]]: curl is a vector operator that shows a vector field's rate of rotation.<br /> <br /> '''Laplacians'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Pierre-Simon, Marquis de Laplace (March 23, 1749 – March 5, 1827); French mathematician and astronomer who summarized and extended the work of his predecessors in his five volume Mécanique Céleste (Celestial Mechanics) (1799-1825), translating the geometrical study of mechanics used by Isaac Newton to one based on calculus, known as physical mechanics.<br /> <br /> He is also the discoverer of Laplace's equation. Although the Laplace transform is named in honor of Laplace, who used the transform in his work on probability theory, the transform was discovered originally by Leonhard Euler. The Laplace transform appears in all branches of mathematical physics — a field he took a leading role in forming. The Laplacian differential operator, much relied-upon in applied mathematics, is likewise named after him. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Laplace].<br /> <br /> :Cf [[ATD_318-335#Page 326|page 326:Laplacian]]: Laplacian is a differential operator named after Laplace. The text here was talking about mathematical operations and operators — rates of change, rotations, partial differentials, Curls, ''Laplacians'', . . .<br /> <br /> '''scream'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Scream motif.<br /> <br /> '''beginning to appal'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> By 1905 there had been years of outrage at conditions in the Belgian Congo, King Leopold's private fief. Conrad's ''Heart of Darkness'' had been published as a serial in Blackwood's Magazine in 1899 and as a book in 1902. There were missionaries' accounts of the brutality, and newspaper reports. Leopold and his apologists published rebuttals. The Norton Critical Edition of ''Heart of Darkness'' contains an extensive collection of both.<br /> <br /> '''baize'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Baize is a coarse woolen felt.<br /> <br /> ==Page 537==<br /> <br /> '''broken symmetries'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Broken_symmetry Broken symmetry] is a concept used widely in mathematics and physics. For a simplest explanation (good enough for the text here), this term means that an object breaks either rotational symmetry or translational sysmetry - when one can only rotate an object in certain angles or when one is able to tell if the object has been shifted sideways. For a little bit more detailed explanation see [http://www.lassp.cornell.edu/sethna/OrderParameters/BrokenSymmetry.html Identify the Broken Symmetry]; or even more [http://scienceweek.com/2005/sw050708-6.htm On Broken Symmetry].<br /> <br /> '''''sphinxe Khnopffienne'''''&lt;br&gt;<br /> refers to the Belgian symbolist painter Fernand Khnopff (1858-1921), famous for his painting &quot;The Caress&quot;, in which a female sphinx erotically lures a young man. The painting can be seen in the [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fernand_Khnopff wikipedia entry]<br /> <br /> '''Pléiade Lafrisée'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> in French, &quot;friser&quot; means to curl or twist. &quot;La frisée&quot; could mean &quot;curled,&quot; by extension &quot;twisted.&quot; The Pleiades is a cluster of hundreds of stars, though only a few are visible, sometimes referred to as The Seven Sisters. If Pleiades are Sisters, Pléiade is ''one'' Sister, so her name means Twisted Sister!<br /> <br /> '''''Conseilleuse'''''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Female consultant?<br /> <br /> ==Page 538==<br /> <br /> '''retroversion matrix'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> ???<br /> <br /> '''''Ma foi'''''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Literally &quot;My faith&quot;, i.e. &quot;By my faith!&quot;, a mild exclamation of incredulity.<br /> <br /> '''ten thousand francs'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> <br /> Based on currency conversions relative to gold, this is equivalent to<br /> about $30,000 US today.<br /> <br /> '''piker'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Someone cheap or cautious, possibly named after people from PIke County, Missouri, who came to California in the 1800s, looking for work. They were poor, hence cheap.<br /> <br /> '''what is a Quaternino?'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Cf [[ATD_525-556#Page 525|page 525:Quaternions]] for a mathematical definition. From ''The Random House Dictionary of the English Languages'', The Unabridged Edition (1966): Quaternion is &quot;a quantity or operator expressed as the sum of a real number and three complex numbers, equivalent to the ''quotient of two vectors''. The field of quaternions is not commutative under multiplication.&quot;.<br /> <br /> '''Bertie ('Mad Dog') Russell'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> 'Mad Dog' seems to be used with heavy irony here. Bertrand Russell was known most for his rationalism, so to speak, his work in modern logic. <br /> He did little in his public roles (at this time in AtD) that would have <br /> him referred to as &quot;crazy', as we say, beyond the social norm, &quot;mad&quot;. <br /> It might be argued that his use of 'logic' against philosophers such as Hegel and McTaggart within ''Against the Day'' showed up their 'madness'.<br /> (Many did think McTaggart was a bit...different...for seriously not believing in Time.) McTaggart broke with Russell after an early influential friendship---Russell was the younger man and the influenced one. He said he was an Hegelian because of McTaggart--Russell wrote in his<br /> Autobiography that McTaggart said he no longer wanted to meet/talk with him bcause he could no longer stand Russell's opinions.<br /> <br /> [http://nobelprize.org/nobel_prizes/literature/laureates/1950/russell-bio.html Bertrand Russell] (1872-1970) was a British mathematician, philosopher, logician and social critic. Best known for his work in mathermatical logic and analytic philosophy. In late spring of 1901 he discovered the so-called [http://plato.stanford.edu/entries/russell-paradox/ Russell Paradox], &quot;the most famous of the logical or set-theoretical paradoxes. The paradox arises within naive set theory by considering the set of all sets that are not members of themselves. Such a set appears to be a member of itself if and only if it is not a member of itself, hence the paradox.&quot; (On-line Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy). He won the 1950 Nobel Prize in Literature in &quot;recognition of his varied and significant writings in which he champions humanitarian ideals and freedom of thought&quot;.<br /> <br /> '''Barry Nebulay'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> nebulae: formed from the diffusion of gas in galaxies or as exploded stars (or the last ember-like stage of a star)&lt;br&gt; <br /> Most nebulae can be described as diffuse nebulae, which means that they are extended and contain no well-defined boundaries.[1] In visible light these nebulae may be divided into emission nebulae and reflection nebulae, a categorization that depends on how the light we see is created.<br /> <br /> '''Hegel... puns'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Probably refers to the fact that quite a lot of Hegel's philosophy deals with the is-ness of the world as we know and experience it.<br /> <br /> On page 787 of Bertrand Russell's ''History of Western Philosophy'' is a summary, perhaps, of this remark about Hegel's puns: &quot;as a result of analysis of the concept &quot;existence&quot;, modern logic has proved this [Cartesianism, refuted by Kant, reinstated by Hegel] argument invalid.....&quot;<br /> <br /> We know from other places that TRP himself seems to 'not like' Cartesianism. See 'cartesian' citations within this wiki.<br /> <br /> ==Page 539==<br /> <br /> '''a vector quotient'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> The result of one vector divided by another. According to the English dictionary definition of previous page this is just a Quaternion.<br /> <br /> '''unit vector'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Unit vector is a vector with magnitude of one. The unit vectors in 3-dimensional space, ''i, j, k'', associated with ''x, y, z'' directions are used in defining a general 3D vector (Cf [[ATD_525-556#Page 526|page 526:Gibbsian Vectors]]).<br /> <br /> '''''square root of minus one'''''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Imaginary number (Cf [[ATD_119-148#Page 132|page 133:Imaginary Number]]). The imaginary numbers ''i, j, k'' are used in defining a Quaternion (Cf [[ATD_525-556#Page 525|page 525:Quaternions]]).<br /> <br /> ''''Triangle Asana''''&lt;br&gt;<br /> A basic yoga pose. <br /> <br /> [http://yoga.org.nz/postures/yoga_positions_images_page.htm Here are images of several basic poses.]<br /> <br /> ''''Dr Rao abruptly vanished''''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Might be a reference to [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Martin_Gardner Martin Gardner]'s<br /> [http://www.amazon.com/No-Sided-Professor-Fantasy-Mystery-Philosophy/dp/0879753900 &quot;No-Sided Professor&quot;]<br /> <br /> ''''Quadrantal Versor Asana''''&lt;br&gt;<br /> A triangle pose taken that extra dimension.<br /> <br /> '''''&quot;Uwe moer!&quot;'''''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Looks a lot like the Dutch &quot;Uw moeder!&quot; - a cry of astonishment (&quot;Your mother!&quot;), the equivalent to the black English &quot;yo mama&quot;.<br /> <br /> '''noncommutative'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> A term typical to mathematics. A commutative equation is one that can operate in exact reverse and still yield the same results. 'Noncommutative' then suggests unidirectionality. The ability to go from point A to point B, but not from B to A.<br /> <br /> '''reticule'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> A woman's drawstring handbag; usually made of net or beading or brocade; also: A system of lines forming a pattern of squares at the focal plane of a telescope, used in micrometers.<br /> [http://www.astunit.com/tutorials/glossary.htm] <br /> :Isn't that sort of a red herring? &quot;[P]roducing from her reticule a . . . watch&quot; doesn't really allow of that second meaning. &lt;br&gt;<br /> :It could be a pun, since a reticule/ handbag always shows its pattern of lines, and a watch (timepiece) is drawn from it. Remember that, e.g. railroad lines of tracks, are a sign of industrialism encroaching on the natural and the spiritual.<br /> <br /> '''Vacheron &amp; Constantin watch'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Made by a Swiss company founded in 1755. From 1819 to 1970 the name was as in the text, then the &amp; dropped out. See the [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vacheron_Constantin Wikipedia entry.]<br /> <br /> '''hunting-case'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> For a pocket watch, a case with a hinged metal cover. More often called &quot;hunter case&quot; (and such a watch a &quot;hunter&quot;).<br /> <br /> ==Page 540==<br /> <br /> '''&quot;haar rekening, ja?&quot;'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> The bill, yes? (Dutch)?<br /> <br /> ''Her'' bill, yes? I.e., give the check to the lady.<br /> <br /> Given the presence of Chris 'Kit' Traverse here, this very much suggests a reference to Christopher 'Kit' Marlowe, Elizabethan poet, playwright and contemporary of Shakespeare. Marlowe was stabbed to death in 1593, in murky circumstances, ostensibly over a bill or 'reckoning', though he was widely believed to have been involved in some form of espionage.<br /> <br /> Strictly speaking &quot;haar rekening&quot; means that the lady pays for herself only. If Root wanted to make sure that Pléiade pays for the whole company he would have to say &quot;de hele rekening voor de dame&quot;. <br /> <br /> '''Piet Woevre'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> The Woëvre is a natural region of Lorraine in north-east France. It forms part of Lorraine plateau and lies largely in the department of Meuse. During World War I, there was much fighting there due to vast mineral resources that had been discovered in the Briey basin or Eastern Woevre at the end of the 19th century. &quot;Piet&quot; is Dutch for &quot;rock&quot; or &quot;stone&quot; and is a fairly common Dutch name, the English equivalent being Peter.<br /> <br /> If the surname is pronounced as in Dutch, Woevre is another Pynchon villain with a &quot;V&quot;-name (Vond, Weissman, Vibe). <br /> <br /> '''Force Publique'''&lt;br /&gt;<br /> The Force Publique (FP) was the official armed force for what is now the Democratic Republic of the Congo from 1885, (when the territory was known as the Congo Free State), through the period of direct Belgian rule (1908-60), until the beginning of the Second Republic in 1965. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Force_Publique Wikipedia entry]<br /> <br /> '''made him reach'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Possible allusion to a famous line, &quot;When I hear the word culture I reach for my gun.&quot; From Hanns Johst's biographical play ''Schlageter''. The original line is slightly different: &quot;Wenn ich Kultur höre ... entsichere ich meinen Browning,&quot; &quot;Whenever I hear of culture... I release the safety-catch of my Browning!&quot; (Act 1, Scene 1). It is spoken by another character in conversation with the young Schlageter. In the scene Schlageter and his wartime comrade Friedrich Thiemann are studying for a college examination, but then start disputing whether it's worthwhile doing so when the nation is not free. <br /> <br /> The line is often misattributed to better-known Nazis and others [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hanns_Johst].<br /> <br /> *In Jean-Luc Godard's 1963 film [http://www.chicagoreader.com/movies/archives/0997/09057.html ''Le Mépris'' (''Contempt'')], Jack Palance's character &quot;Jeremy Prokosch,&quot; an American movie-producer, intones to Fritz Lang: &quot;Whenever I hear the word culture, I reach for my checkbook.&quot;<br /> <br /> '''not unambiguous'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Ie, ambiguous.<br /> <br /> '''''rastaquoueres'''''&lt;br&gt;<br /> 8???<br /> <br /> '''de Decker'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> In Dutch/Flemish, the name means &quot;roofer.&quot; (''De'' in these names almost never means &quot;of, from&quot; as in French; it's nearly always the definite article.)<br /> <br /> ==Page 541==<br /> <br /> '''''bobbejaan'''''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Afrikaans: baboon. (Afrikaans is the language spoken by descendants of Dutch colonists in present-day South Africa. Some items identified as Dutch or Flemish in this wiki may really be Afrikaans.)<br /> <br /> The South African song &quot;Bobbejaan klim die berg&quot; (&quot;Bobbejaan climbed the hill&quot;) is the source of the stage name of Belgium's most famous country and western musician, Bobbejaan Schoepen (b. 1925). In 1943 he was suppressed by the Nazis after performing a South African song, &quot;Mamma, 'k wil 'n man hê&quot; (&quot;Mama, I want a man&quot;), which contains the line &quot;No, Mama, I don't want a German, because I don't like pork.&quot; He founded the Bobbejaanland theme park in Belgium, where he still lives.<br /> <br /> '''MKIV/ODC... Mark Four'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> This would be the Mark IV Ohmic Drift Compensator ([[ATD 557-587#Page 565|Page 565]]), a key component of the Q-weapon, which &quot;regulates how much light is allowed to enter the silvering of the mirror! Special kind of refraction! Calibrated against imaginary index! Dangerous! Of the essence!'&quot;<br /> <br /> '''not part of your remit'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Not included in your job description, instructions, authorization. &quot;Remit&quot; (noun) is usually a British usage.<br /> <br /> '''''gatkruiper'''''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Dutch/Flemish: brownnose, ass-kisser.<br /> <br /> '''one on her wrist'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> All the bruises reflect some refinement or artistry except this one, which may have been inflicted crudely.<br /> <br /> '''over the day'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Title motif?<br /> <br /> ==Page 542==<br /> <br /> '''trans-horizontic'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> ???<br /> Across the horizon -- &quot; a screaming comes across the sky&quot;<br /> <br /> '''Edmund Whittaker'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Edmund Whittaker (1873-1956), an English mathematician. He is best known for his work in numerical analysis. And he contributed widely to applied mathematics, mathematical physics and the theory of special functions. He also worked on celestial mechanics and the history of applied mathermatics and physics. ([http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/E._T._Whittaker Whittaker]).<br /> <br /> The Sir Edmund Whittaker Memorial Prize is awarded every four years by the Edinburgh Mathematical Society to an outstanding young mathematician having a specified connection with Scotland [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sir_Edmund_Whittaker_Memorial_Prize]. <br /> <br /> '''louche'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> The cloudy effect caused by the addition of water to absinthe. Dictionary definition: &quot;of questionable taste or morality; decadent.&quot;<br /> <br /> '''cheval-glass'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Standing mirror in a freestanding vertical frame.<br /> <br /> '''as if someone'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Sound-cancelling vs opacity-cancelling?<br /> <br /> ==Page 543==<br /> <br /> '''wraith of Pleiade Lafrisee'''<br /> <br /> Pleiade manifests one of her not-visible stars. Perhaps this sister has somehow twisted herself on an imaginary axis ala Dr. V. Ganesh Rao.<br /> <br /> '''monitory'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Warning, giving advice, by extension ominous or menacing.<br /> <br /> '''Against....the day....'''<br /> Note: this phrase happens at the exact halfway point of the novel: p.542.3<br /> <br /> '''He Who Must Come'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> The evil-doer who must come might be Adolf Hitler. It would make sense. The implication being that Europe is precipitating into a no-return situation. Capitalism cannot but end in WW2.&lt;br&gt;<br /> Ah, a lot more and less than capitalism going on here, especially if anyone specific like Hitler is meant. <br /> :When French writers use this phrase (''celui qui doit venir'') they '''do''' mean the Messiah . . . although a few devout quibblers point out that the Messiah has already come. It's rather tiresome Googling the phrase; the first 83 hits definitely refer to Christ and most of them quote the first verses of Matthew 11. But there's also a Camus reference (in English, I think) down at No. 90, if anyone has a JSTOR account:<br /> :links.jstor.org/sici?sici=0361-1299(1985)39%3A4%3C251%3ACFS%22M%3E2.0.CO%3B2-X <br /> <br /> Recalls Yeats' 'The Second Coming' once again: &quot;And what rough beast, its hour come round at last, Slouches towards Bethlehem to be born?&quot; [http://chumpsofchoice.blogspot.com/2007/05/casino-royale-in-flanders-field.html#c3637134446204467798 ]<br /> <br /> '''General Boulanger'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/General_Boulanger Georges Boulanger], French military man, and War Minister in the late 19th century. He was one of those men &quot;on a white horse&quot; that some conservatives looked to, as he urged an attack on Germany and the end of the French Republic with a return to monarchy. He was also notorious for his harsh reprisals against workers' demonstrations. &quot;'Boulangisme'&quot; threatened a coup in 1889, but the general's procrastination brought the crisis to an end.<br /> <br /> '''what death and what transfiguration'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Allusion to Richard Strauss' tone poem &quot;Death and Transfiguration&quot; (''Tod und Verklärung''), premiered in 1890.<br /> <br /> '''''&quot;Zeker&quot;'''''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Dutch: certainly.<br /> <br /> '''''dead cert'''''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Dead certainty, sure thing.<br /> <br /> '''Von Schlieffen'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Alfred von Schlieffen was the author of a German war plan to win a two-front war against both France and Russia by quickly defeating France before Russian troops could be mobilized. The [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Schlieffen_Plan Schlieffen Plan] included an attack on France through Belgium, disregarding its neutrality.<br /> <br /> '''Wilhelm has offered Leopold part of France, the ancient Duchy of Burgundy'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> [http://www.crwflags.com/fotw/flags/fr-bg.html History of the duchy.] [http://www.freiburg-madison.de/freiburg_history/1386-1517_The%20Early%20Habsburgs.htm Map,] with portrait of Duke Charles the Rash.<br /> <br /> '''lowlands'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Title of Pynchon's first published story. Here, ass?<br /> <br /> ==Page 544==<br /> <br /> '''Place d'Armes'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Main square of Ostend; literally &quot;drill field&quot;.<br /> <br /> '''peau de soie'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> &quot;Skin of silk&quot; A heavy, smooth satin with very fine ribbing; somewhat dull in sheen compared with traditional silk finishes.<br /> <br /> '''Krafft-Ebing'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Richard Freiherr von Krafft-Ebing, Austro-German psychiatrist and author of ''Psychopathia Sexualis'' (1886), a pioneering study of deviant sexual behavior and fetishism. Coined both ''sadism'' and ''masochism'' as terms for these respective behaviors. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Richard_Freiherr_von_Krafft-Ebing Wikipedia entry].<br /> <br /> '''toque'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Toque here refers to a lady's hat, originally of fur but here in velvet, which is rather like a flattened chef's hat in shape.<br /> <br /> Proust: in ''À l'ombre des jeunes filles en fleurs'' the narrator first sees Albertine wearing a toque. There seem to be quite a few Proust themes and references running throughout the novel. Indeed '''Pliade''' is the French publisher of Proust's works. <br /> <br /> '''guipure'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Lace trim.<br /> <br /> '''midinette'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> A shopgirl or dressmakers apprentice. A milliner.<br /> <br /> '''Lambic'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> A distinctive Belgian style of beer. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lambic Wikipedia]<br /> <br /> '''sous'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> <br /> Coins. Originally Roman gold coins, latterly any kind of coin.<br /> <br /> Specifically small change. She is affecting modesty by claiming that a hat like hers can be had for pennies in any unpretentious shop. In France &quot;sou is used as slang for money, as in ''sans le sou''. 'I'm broke', 'without money'. It is also a slang term for the Canadian cent (standard French, cent).&quot; ([http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sou Wikipedia])<br /> <br /> '''mayonnaise'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Brautigan's &quot;Trout Fishing in America&quot; famously ends with the word mayonnaise. [http://books.google.com/books?vid=ISBN0395500761&amp;id=rbEjDovfyNMC&amp;pg=RA2-PA111&amp;lpg=RA2-PA111&amp;ots=ELKl5b_6Tx&amp;dq=mayonnaise+trout.fishing&amp;num=100&amp;sig=BiyXRqJXRGrMWbrBNgn8de2kpCo#PRA2-PA112,M1 GoogleBooks]<br /> <br /> '''ovoöleaginous'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Another Pynchonic word combination, here denoting the two main ingredients of mayonnaise: 1) eggs, and 2) oil. It's not &quot;fecoventilatory collision&quot; as seen in &quot;Vineland,&quot; but it's nice.<br /> <br /> '''Grenache'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Grape commonly used in Rhone Valley wines e.g. Chateauneuf du Pape.<br /> <br /> '''Chantilly'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> <br /> Region north of Paris.<br /> <br /> Here the reference is to crème chantilly otherwise known as whipped cream. Chantilly mayonnaise is made by incorporating the beaten egg whites for extra lightness.<br /> <br /> '''attainder'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Legislative act declaring that a person is guilty of a crime and setting punishment without the benefit of a formal trial. The Constitution forbids the federal government (Article I, Section 9, clause 3) and the state governments (Article I, Section 10, clause 1) from passing bills of attainder.<br /> [www.historycentral.com/Civics/B.html] <br /> <br /> ''''''Aux armes, citoyens''''''&lt;br&gt;<br /> ''To arms, citizens'', from the French national anthem, ''La Marseillaise'' (1792). Kit confused La Mayonnaise with La Marseillaise.&lt;br&gt;<br /> Not &quot;Le Marseillaise,&quot; you nitwit!<br /> <br /> '''Louis XV'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> King of France 1715-1774 [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Louis_XV]. <br /> <br /> '''Cléo de Mérode'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Glamorous French ballerina (1875-1966), later Follies Bergere dancer and famous beauty. Her reputed intimacy with King Leopold was only a rumor [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cleo_de_Merode]. The character Madame Leonora Armfeldt in Stephen Sondheim's ''A Little Night Music'' has some features in common with her.<br /> <br /> '''Marquise de Pompadour'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Mistress of Louis XV,once friend of Voltaire and a power behind official scenes.[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Madame_de_Pompadour].<br /> <br /> ==Page 545==<br /> <br /> '''duc de Richelieu'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Duc de Richelieu (1696-1788), marshal of France, was a grandnephew of Cardinal Richelieu, and born in Paris. Apart from his reputation as a man of exceptionally loose morals, he attained, in spite of a defective education, distinction as a diplomatist and general. ([http://www.1911encyclopedia.org/Louis_Francois_Armand_du_Plessis,_duc_de_Richelieu duc de Richelieu] and cf [[ATD_489-524#Page 490|page 490:duc de Richelieu]])<br /> <br /> '''dubious 'victory' in 1756'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> As part of the Seven Years' War (1756-1763), duc de Richelieu (1696-1788), a Marshal of France, won a victory in the Battle of Minorca (May 20, 1756) over John Byng (1704-1757), a British Admiral. In spring of 1756 John Byng was sent with a small and undermanned fleet to relieve the British ''Port Mahon'' on the Mediterranean island of Minorca. During the battle ensued, several British ships were badly damaged by the French squadron while others, including Byng's flagship, were still out of effective firing range. Instead of engaging the enemy directly, Byng decided to keep the formation, allowing the French fleet to get away undamaged. ([http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_Minorca Battle of Minorca]).<br /> <br /> '''the ill-fated Admiral Byng'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> John Byng, convicted by court-martial of failure &quot;to do his utmost&quot; in the battle, shot in 1757. Remembered because of (1) his being the last officer of flag rank to be put to death for conduct in battle and (2) Voltaire's gag in ''Candide:'' &quot;In this country it is good to kill an admiral from time to time in order to encourage the others.&quot;<br /> <br /> '''cantharides'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> &quot;Spanish fly,&quot; contact irritant sometimes ill-advisedly used as aphrodisiac.<br /> <br /> '''Sadean'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Pertaining to the Marquis de Sade. The acts the chef performs on the egg and oil have the same names as acts of Sadean sex. <br /> <br /> '''''n'est-ce pas?'''''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Right? (Isn't that so?)<br /> <br /> '''vetiver'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> A grass (Vetiveria zizanioides) of tropical India, cultivated for its aromatic roots that yield an oil used in perfumery.<br /> [www.answers.com/topic/vetiver]. So, a perfume with, llterallly, roots in India.<br /> <br /> Vetiver makes frequent appearances throughout ''À la recherche du temps perdu.''<br /> <br /> '''pip'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> A beaut; in current parlance, a hottie.<br /> <br /> '''Q.P. system'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Quaternion Probability, page 536.<br /> <br /> '''Usine Régionale'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> French: as translated in the text.<br /> <br /> ==Page 546==<br /> <br /> '''disjunctive effects of thunderstorms'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Folk wisdom says a thunderstorm will cause mayonnaise to separate (oil from yolks).<br /> <br /> '''cottonseed oil'''<br /> <br /> Mayonnaisse like Smegmo and Crisco is a hydrogenated fat; cottonseed oil is a common factor to all three. Indeed, the name Crisco derives from the intial sounds of &quot;'''crys'''tallized '''c'''ottonseed '''o'''il&quot;. Note in the next few pages a mention of Candlebrow -- underscoring a tie-in between Mayonnaisse and Smegmo. <br /> <br /> It may be of interest to note that hydrogenation may have a symbolic use for Pynchon. The process entails bubbling hydrogen through oil in the presence of a metal catalyst such as nickel, platinum, aluminum at 248 to 410 degrees. Remnants of these metals stay in the finished product, and when consumed can lead to an increase in heavy metals in the human body.<br /> <br /> Eating hydrogenated oils is like eating plastic. The body does not recognize that these molecules have been mutated and tries to use them as essential fatty acids. But they cannot perform the same function, and as a result hydrogenated oils can cause short circuits in the electrical flow that controls the heartbeat, nerve functions, cell division and mental balance. They also create free radicals (anarchists!) that are linked to cancers. Free radicals plus metal remnants are a major contributor to cancer, heart disease, immune system dysfunction, osteoporosis, depression, chronic fatigue, Alzheimers, and neurological diseases. It is estimated that over 200 million people have died prematurely because of the hydrogenated oils found in our diets. [http://www.drz.org/asp/newsletter/default.asp?xt2id=23] Not to mention innocent bystanders killed by mentally imbalanced people whose imbalance may stem from the ingestion of hydrogenated oils -- there may be some underlying reality to the &quot;Twinkie defense.&quot;<br /> <br /> '''lounge suit'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> A lounge suit is another name for business suit consisting of a matching jacket and trousers or skirt.<br /> <br /> '''congress shoes'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> ankle high shoes with elastic gussets in the sides (wordweb online)<br /> <br /> '''invisible hand'''<br /> <br /> Suggestive of Adam Smith's metaphor for market forces in economics.<br /> <br /> '''dripping-heads'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mayonnaise To make mayonnaise,] beat together egg yolks, salt, mustard and vinegar, then drip in oil while beating to form the emulsion. If you scale the process up for industrial production, you will automate the introduction of the oil, using nozzles that release it a drop at a time—but in a large vat you can have many such nozzles.<br /> <br /> '''''cuves d'agitation'''''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Vat or tank in which the mayonnaise is agitated or beaten.<br /> <br /> '''Clinique d'Urgence pour Sauvetage des Sauces'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> French: Emergency Clinic for Salvage of Sauces.<br /> <br /> ==Page 547==<br /> <br /> '''' ...engulfed in thick, slick, sour-smelling mayonnaise. ''''<br /> The whole Kit's experience in the mayonnaise factory is very much reminiscent to [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Roald_Dahl Roald Dahl]'s [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Charlie_and_the_Chocolate_Factory Charlie and the Chocolate Factory].<br /> <br /> '''''Cazzo, cretino'''''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Literally, &quot;Dick, cretin.&quot; ''Cazzo'' is a common Italian interjectionary obscenity, especially in the south. &quot;Cazzo, cretino,&quot; is akin to someone saying, &quot;Well shit, dummy,&quot; or &quot;F-ing moron!&quot;<br /> <br /> '''''È il cowboy!'''''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Italian: It's the cowboy!<br /> <br /> '''''vero?'''''&lt;br&gt;<br /> true? real?<br /> <br /> '''''Le bambole anarchiste, porca miseria'''''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Italian: Anarchist babes, oh boy.<br /> <br /> '''Oudenberg'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> A southeast suburb of Ostende.<br /> <br /> '''Quai de l'Entrepôt'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Warehouse Quay<br /> <br /> '''''ragazzi'''''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Italian: boys, guys.<br /> <br /> ==Page 548==<br /> <br /> '''General Boulanger'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Georges_Boulanger General Boulanger]. That he was 'reactionary' and that the C of C bureaucracy had a 'defiant residue' of Boulangism, continues the characterization of the organization for which the Chums 'work'.<br /> <br /> '''''timbres fictifs'''''&lt;br&gt;<br /> French: fictive postage stamps. Cf &quot;Lot 49&quot;.&lt;br&gt;<br /> Yes, stamps mean something in Pynchon's works; here, it seems important that these stamps are characterized as frauds.<br /> <br /> '''&quot;IIIb&quot;'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> As explained in the text.&lt;br&gt;<br /> &quot;Section IIIB (Intelligence) of the German High Command. after WWI, was funded by Alfred Hugenberg (financial backer of Nazi party)&quot;. From ''Sabotage'' by Sayers &amp; Kuhn, 1942.[http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&amp;q=%22IIIB%27+%2B+INTELLIGENCE&amp;btnG=Search] <br /> <br /> <br /> '''Germany might stand a better chance...'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> That is, if the French were to push into Alsace (per Boulanger) as the Germans executed the Schlieffen Plan [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Schlieffen_plan] for the encirclement of Paris, it would put the French at an even greater disadvantage...as actually happened in 1914. Had the Belgians and British not delayed the Germans in Flanders, and had the French railroads not performed speedily to bring the French troops back to the Marne, World War I could have had a very different outcome...an alternate history. <br /> <br /> '''revanchist'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Policies based on revenge, or a person following such policies. In General Boulanger's case, revenge against Germany for the Franco-Prussian War (that is, retaking Alsace, lost in 1871).<br /> <br /> '''the somewhat discomposed General'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Having died in 1891, the General by the time of the action is certainly somewhat '''de'''composed; brief biographies do not suggest he was ''non compos mentis,'' that is, mentally discomposed.<br /> <br /> ==Page 549==<br /> <br /> '''cackled Darby'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> (When did he lose his innocence?)<br /> <br /> '''a modification of any salsician metaphor toward the diminutive'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Salsician: pertaining to sausage. Lindsay says Suckling's penis is better compared to a wiener than a knockwurst.<br /> <br /> '''&quot;Why you little–and I do mean 'little'–&quot;'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Another Simpsons reference? <br /> <br /> '''dunes between Nieuport and Dunkirk'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Nieuport is a Belgian seaport about 10 miles southwest of Ostend. Dunkirk is a French port (less than 10 miles inside the French border) about 20 miles southwest of Nieuport. The latter was a site of one of the bloodest battle in World War I. The general area between Niewport and Dunkirk was the well traversed battle fields of two world wars. (Dunkirk was (in)famous for the British Army's escape from the Nazi German's assault in World War II.)<br /> <br /> '''power-receivers'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Not information, energy.<br /> <br /> ==Page 550==<br /> <br /> '''Lot's wife''' &lt;br&gt;<br /> Angels of God led Lot and his family out of Sodom as it was being destroyed and told them not to look back at the mayhem. Lot's wife, Edith, imprudently looked back and was transfigured into a pillar of salt.<br /> <br /> '''Italian grotto'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> an imitating recess or structure made to resemble a natural Italian grotto.<br /> <br /> '''a highly developed taste, moreover, for human blood'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Since Pugnax developed this taste in the Carpathians, home of Castle Dracula, this seems a clear reference to Bram Stoker's novel. <br /> <br /> '''Carpathians'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Major mountain range running northwest-southeast through Poland, Slovakia, western Ukraine and Romania.<br /> <br /> '''Uhlans'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Uhlan regiments belonged to the light cavalry. They wore splendid uniforms (model for some U.S. marching band uniforms). [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Uhlan Wikipedia article.]<br /> <br /> '''Temesvár'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Now Timişoara, extreme western Romania.<br /> <br /> ==Page 551==<br /> <br /> '''...separated by only a slice of Time...'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Miles is beginning to experience Time almost as a spatial dimension, his personal vector as traversing (!) 4-dimensional space, or perhaps multidimensional space, the mathematics for which is being debated in Ostend.<br /> <br /> '''securing the mess decks'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> The Chums follow U.S. Navy idiom in orders (frequently prefixed with &quot;Now&quot;) and shipboard activities (&quot;secure&quot; meaning &quot;whatever you did before, undo it now,&quot; in this case put away the dishes and fold up the tables).<br /> <br /> '''Ryder Thorn'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Tolkienesque name? Or perhaps it's a nod to the Ryder-Waite Tarot deck and to Kevin Thorn (Kevin Matthew Fertig, 1977-), the American professional wrestler better known by his ring name Kevin Thorn who is currently signed to World Wrestling Entertainment wrestling on its ECW brand. He has appeared in vigniettes with Ariel (Shelly Martinez, 1980-), the tarot card reader, who spits blood at the camera while she &quot;predicted the future of ECW.&quot; Yup, a stretch...<br /> <br /> *The name also evokes the Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse.<br /> <br /> '''He was at Candlebrow.'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Presumably a 'trespasser.'<br /> <br /> '''the four-note chord in the context of timelessness'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> A melody is formed by notes following one another in time; a chord on the ukulele violates that practice by having all the notes sound at once. A really clever little passage.<br /> Note: Jazz musicians describe musical improvisations as horizontal (with the melody) or vertical (with the chord)<br /> <br /> ==Page 552==<br /> <br /> '''knuckle-duster'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Brass knuckles.<br /> <br /> '''Diksmuide'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> 20 kilometers south of Ostend (about halfway to Ypres).<br /> <br /> ==Page 553==<br /> <br /> '''The terrain was flat...lowlands'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Not, this time, a reference to Pynchon's ''Lowlands'', but to the two-dimensionality of Flanders, as in Edwin A. Abbott's ''Flatland'' [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Flatland]; most humans, like the inhabitants of Flanders and Abbott's Flatlanders, experience life in two dimensions. <br /> <br /> '''Somewhere up in the sky was Miles' home...'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Whereas Miles and the Chums of Chance, in contrast, live in three dimensions. The mathematicians gathered in Ostend are trying to calculate how to experience and use vectors to live in four dimensions; in a way, to experience Time as a kind of spatial dimension. Miles, on P. 551, is demonstrating the beginnings of an intuitive discovery of how to experience Time as an almost spatial dimension. Which would be a sort of &quot;time travel&quot;, or at least an expanded view of life and history.<br /> <br /> '''retted'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> soaked in water or exposed to moisture (as flax or hemp) to facilitate the removal of the fiber from the woody tissue by partial rotting.<br /> <br /> ==Page 554==<br /> <br /> '''Ypres and Menin'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Municipalities in West Flanders that were sites of some of the bloodiest battles of WWI. At the beginning of the war, the British and Belgian stand helped save Paris from encirclement by the Germans, and saved the Channel ports, but as Thorn points out, the area became the western anchor of the Western Front trench system. The several Battles of Ypres saw the first uses of poison gas (Mustard Gas, dichlorodiethylsulfide, was first called Yperite), the use of enormous mines, and the legendary mud of Passchendaele [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Passchendaele]. <br /> <br /> '''Ten years from now'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> (1914?) through 1918? and beyond?. Another paramorphic mirror--what do we now face. Whatever it is, it is nuclear.<br /> <br /> '''Bosch'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Hieronymous Bosch (1450-1516), Dutch painter of nightmares. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hieronymus_Bosch Wikipedia entry].<br /> <br /> '''Brueghel'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Pieter Brueghel the Elder(1525-1569), Flemish painter.[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pieter_Brueghel_the_Elder Wikipedia entry].<br /> <br /> '''League'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> League of Nations? The League of Nations was formed after WWI to prevent future wars. Didn't succeed.<br /> <br /> No. In this case a historical unit of length, approximately three miles - &quot;league on league&quot; = tremendous masses<br /> <br /> '''where the needles went and which way to rotate them'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> I.e., how to push Thorn's buttons; the image is from acupuncture.<br /> <br /> ==Page 555==<br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> '''simpletons at the fair'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Making Pynchon's metaphor explicit.<br /> <br /> '''Chopin E-minor Nocturne'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Frédéric Chopin (1810-49), a Polish pianist and composer ([http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fr%C3%A9d%C3%A9ric_Chopin Chopin]). He was born in Warsaw, Poland to a Polish morther and a French father. He went to Paris at the age of 20 and died there at the age of 39. He was widely regarded as one of the most famous and influential composers for the piano. From 1837-47 he had a 10-year stormy relationship with the French writer George Sand. His E-minor Nocturne is a 4-minute long Romantic style piano solo composed in 1827. (A ''nocturne'' is usually a musical composition that is inspired by, or evocative of, the night [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nocturne Nocturne].)<br /> <br /> '''owl-light'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> ???glimmering or imperfect light or twilight hours.<br /> <br /> ''''plasmic hysteresis''''&lt;br&gt;<br /> <br /> A coined term, apparently similar in meaning to Miles’ phrase “failure of physical translation.” Plasma would take an older meaning of “form” or “shape.&quot; Hysteresis, according to Webster's, refers to “a retardation in effect when the forces on an object are changed.” Hysteresis is used to describe magnetic phenomenon as well as plastic or elastic materials, that involve changes to a rest state that last beyond the forces that cause them. Examples include recordings on magnetic tape or a thumbprint slowly disappearing from putty. In the context of this passage, plasmic hysteresis appears to describe the lingering visage of someone who is no longer present – a hysteresis of form only and thus a failed physical translation. See [http://www.etymonline.com/index.php?search=plasma&amp;searchmode=none etymology of plasma] and this nifty explanation of [http://www.lassp.cornell.edu/sethna/hysteresis/WhatIsHysteresis.html hysteresis]. <br /> <br /> Hysteresis has also been used to refer to “loops” in time, certainly apropos in this case. I stumbled across an excellent example in a 1980 episode of Dr. Who, in which the eponymous Dr. is trapped in “chronic hysteresis,” an endless loop or return to a previous <br /> point in time – very similar to the situation of Ryder Thorn. [http://www.drwhoguide.com/who_5q.htm Check it out for yourself!] <br /> <br /> <br /> ==Annotation Index==<br /> {{ATD PbP}}</div>

MKOHUT https://against-the-day.pynchonwiki.com/wiki/index.php?title=ATD_525-556&diff=14092 2007-10-17T18:20:08Z

<p>MKOHUT: /* Page 548 */</p> <hr /> <div>:'''&lt;big&gt;Please keep these annotations SPOILER-FREE by not revealing information from later pages in the novel.&lt;/big&gt;'''&lt;p&gt;&lt;br&gt;<br /> <br /> ==Page 525==<br /> <br /> '''Ostend'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Cf [[ATD_489-524#Page 521|page 521:Ostend]], a seaport in northwest Belgium. Among English-speaking tourists, Ostend (or Ostende) is best known as a ferry port. Ships have shuttled between Dover and Ostend for more than 150 years, and today's high-speed catamarans move hundreds of passengers and vehicles between these two ports in just two hours. But this thousand-year-old city is a popular beach resort with Belgians, who flock to Ostend for sun, surfing, sailing and the ''Kursaal'' (Casino). The fishing harbor and old town draw many visitors. Ostend is the only Belgian coastal resort that is as lively in the summer as in the winter. For more and pictures [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ostend Ostend].<br /> <br /> '''Fishermen's Quai'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Fishermen's Quay, also called De Trap. The shrimp boats come home here from the sea in the morning. Along the quay many stands sell lots of seafoods.<br /> <br /> '''Boulevard van Isenghem'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> A major thoroughfare in Ostend, locally called ''Van Iseghemlaan'', extending diagonally from seafront southwest through the city.<br /> <br /> '''street-plausible'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Presentable.<br /> <br /> '''Quai de l'empereur'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Since Ostende is in the Flemish part of Belgium this should be the Keizerskaai, a street along the old part of the harbour, 1919 renamed Vindictivelaan.<br /> <br /> '''estaminet'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> According to the OED - A café in which smoking is allowed. Now, any small establishment selling alcoholic liquor. <br /> <br /> '''twelve-centime'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> one centime is the French eqivalent of one cent. A twelve-centime beer would cost 12/100 of a franc.<br /> <br /> '''Quaternions'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Cf [[ATD_119-148#Page 130|page 130:Quaternions]]. Quaternions are a non-communtative extension of compelx numbers (Hamilton, 1843).&lt;br&gt;<br /> <br /> Analogy with the complex numbers (Cf [[ATD_119-148#Page 132|page 132:complex number]]) being represented as a sum of real and imaginary parts, a + b''i'', where ''i''² = −1, a quaternion is defined as a combination a + b''i'' + c''j'' + d''k'', where ''i''² = ''j''² = ''k''² = ''i j k'' = −1, and a, b, c, d are ''four'' explicit real numbers. The non-commutative property refers to ''i j = −j i = k; j k = −k j = i; k i = −i k = j''. (i.e. ''i j ≠ j i; j k ≠ k j; k i ≠ i k''; etc.) The using of ''i, j, k'', the imaginary numbers (Cf [[ATD_119-148#Page 133|page 133:imaginary number]]), led to the phrases of &quot;the ''ijk'' lot&quot; of page 533 and &quot;creature of ''i-j-k''&quot; of page 534.<br /> <br /> '''Kellner'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> German: waiter, barman. Use of the German word would be insulting to the Belgian barman.<br /> <br /> '''''demi'''''&lt;br&gt;<br /> A half-pint glass (25 centilitres, actually).<br /> <br /> '''Lambic'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Pron. ''lahm-BEEK.'' Unique Belgian beer style, sour and often thin in body.<br /> <br /> '''skimmer'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Straw hat (&quot;Panama&quot;).<br /> <br /> ==Page 526==<br /> <br /> '''biquaternion'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Or &quot;octonion,&quot; an innovation of English mathematician W.K. Clifford, [[ATD_243-272#Page_249|referred to on p. 249.]]<br /> <br /> '''Barry Nebulay'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Pun on a term from heraldry, ''barry nebuly.'' Barry (rhymes with &quot;starry,&quot; not &quot;carry&quot;) refers to a shield divided into an even number of parts by horizontal lines. Nebuly signals that the lines are deformed into stylized &quot;cloud&quot; shapes. [http://www.rarebooks.nd.edu/digital/heraldry/partitions.html Here you can see an example.] If a ''British'' author had a character with a heraldic name, it would suggest a pseudonym.<br /> <br /> '''University of Dublin'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> The Alma Mater of Hamilton, the father of Quaternion. He studied, graduated and taught at Trinity College, the University of Dublin, Ireland's oldest university.<br /> <br /> If University College, Dublin, then Joyce had graduated in 1902.&lt;br&gt;<br /> <br /> '''Quaternioneers'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Quaternion believers.<br /> <br /> '''Gibbsian Vectors'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Vector Analysis (or Vector Calculus) developed by Willard Gibbs (Cf [[ATD_26-56#Page 29|page 29:Professor Gibbs]]) in 1881 and 1884. It is a branch of calculus that deals with vectors and process involving vectors. It is much more easily applied to phsics and other applied sciences than Hamilton's Quaternions (Cf [[ATD_525-556#Page 525|page 525:Quaternions]]).&lt;br&gt;<br /> A vector is defined by not only a magnitude but also a direction, such as a velocity vector, ''v'' is defined by ''v'' = a''i'' + b''j'' + c''k'',<br /> where a, b, and c are the magnitudes of the velocity components in directions of ''i, j'' and ''k'' which are unit vectors, (not imaginary numbers as in Quaternion), with magnitude of 1. In three dimensional cases and ''xyz'' coordinate system is used then ''i, j, k'' are related to ''x, y, z'' directions (&quot;''xyz'' people&quot; of page 533); but they, in general, may be used irrespective of the notation of the coordinates.<br /> Mathematical operations (addition, subtraction, multiplication), differentiation (''curl'' — Cf [[ATD_318-335#Page 326|page 326:Curl]] and p. 536, ''Laplacian'' — Cf [[ATD_318-335#Page 326|page 326:Laplacian]] and p. 536, etc) and integration can be applied to vectors. It is interesting to know that one of the two multiplication operations is called cross product; for unit vectors (''i, j, k'') perpendicular to each other, then, ''i × i = j × j = k × k = 0'', ''i × j = k'', ''j × i = -k'', etc. ([http://web.mit.edu/wwmath/vectorc/summary.html Vector Calculus]).&lt;br&gt;<br /> A simple vector anyalysis example here: if ''k'', the unit vector, stands for the direction upward and g is the gravitational acceleration, then the acceleration vector, ''a'', for a projectile, is defined for downward action, (the ''i'' and ''j'' directions have zero components):&lt;br&gt;<br /> :''a'' = -g ''k''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Integrating ''a'' would give the velocity vector, ''v''&lt;br&gt;<br /> :''v'' = -g t ''k''&lt;br&gt;<br /> for zero initial velocity case, and t standing for time.&lt;br&gt;<br /> And integrating ''v'' would yield the position vector, ''h'', for the projectile&lt;br&gt;<br /> :''h'' = -½ g t² ''k''&lt;br&gt;<br /> toward the sea level.<br /> <br /> '''Quaternionists'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Quaternion believers, same as Quaternioneers.<br /> <br /> '''Tasmania'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Tasmania is an island of the southern coast of Australia. Known for its relative isolation, it was a prison for English convicts in the 1800s<br /> <br /> '''Having been inseparable from the rise of the electromagnetic'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> In his 1865 work ''The Dynamical Theory of the Electromagnetic Field'', James Clerk Maxwell unified electricity and magnetism. He put forth twenty equations, with twenty unknowns, in vector form (though different in notation and form than the equations that now bear his name) that completely described all known electromagnetic phenomena. In his 1873 treatise on the subject, he expressed the equations in the mathematics of quaternions. It appears that the quaternion form of the equations remained popular even though, at the behest of his publisher, Maxwell reverted to the 1865 form in the second edition (1881)--though they remain scattered throughout. In 1892 Oliver Heaviside (On the Forces, Stresses, and Fluxes of Energy in the Electromagnetic Field. ''Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society of London.'' A, Vol. 183. pp423-480), while spewing scientific vitriol at the Quaternionists, reformulated Maxwell's original 1865 equations (Heaviside chose to remove the vector potential and scalar fields from the equations; the inclusion of these terms had served as Maxwell's justification for the use of quaternions), and provided the notation still in use today. See this [http://www.zpenergy.com/modules.php?name=Downloads&amp;d_op=getit&amp;lid=60 PDF] for the evolution of Maxwell's equations.<br /> <br /> '''Hamiltonian devotees'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> The Quaternion faction, after William Hamilton, who devised the scheme.<br /> <br /> '''Grand Hôtel de la Nouvelle Digue'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> There is a Hotel Digue in the Seychelles; this is a New Hotel Digue by Pynchon? <br /> <br /> Grand Hotel of New Dyke, may be a made up hotel name.<br /> <br /> '''anterooms of death'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> This metaphor is sometimes applied to concentration camps. Here the lyric &quot;feel like I'm fixin' to die&quot; seems more apposite.<br /> <br /> '''Belgian Art Nouveau'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Art Nouveau, 1890(or 80) to 1914, explores a new style in the visual arts and architecture that developed in Europe and North America at the end of the 19th century. At its height (~1907), Art Nouveau was a concerted attempt to create an international style based on decoration. It was developed by a brilliant and energetic generation of artists and desisgners, who sought to fashion an art form appropriate to the post-Industrial Revolution modern age.&lt;br&gt;<br /> Brussels was one of the Art Nouveau centers and represented different style from the others. The jewelers there, accepted as artists rahter than craftsmen, (together with those in Paris) defined Art Nouveau in jewelery and achieved the most renown. ([http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Art_Nouveau Art Nouveau]).<br /> <br /> ==Page 527==<br /> <br /> '''dossing'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> British slang for &quot;sleeping&quot;, &quot;staying overnight&quot;<br /> <br /> '''Russian nihilists'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> :The following four are local, Belgian, not Russian, nihilists !<br /> <br /> '''Eugénie'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Female. Possibly named for Empress Eugénie (1826-1920), consort of French Emperor Napoleon III. Ultimately for St. Eugenia, 3rd-century Roman martyr whose feast is celebrated on December 25.<br /> <br /> '''Fatou'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Female. A pseudonym? In view of the date of the action, certainly not named after [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fatou the mathematician Fatou] (1878-1929).<br /> <br /> '''Denis'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Male. Named for St. Denis or Dionysius, patron saint of Paris and of France, 3rd-century bishop of Paris, martyr, beheaded on the hill now called Montmartre. &quot;Montjoie St. Denis!&quot; was a warcry used by French troops in the Middle Ages. His intercession is effective against demonic possession and headache.<br /> <br /> '''Policarpe'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Male. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Polycarp Saint Polycarp] was a Christian bishop of Smyrna (now İzmir in Turkey) in the second century. He was stabbed and died a martyr after an attempt to burn him at the stake failed. His intercession is sought against earache and dysentery.<br /> <br /> '''Young Congo'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Probably in reference to the [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Young_Turks Young Turks], a Turkish revolutionary movement<br /> <br /> '''Garde Civique'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> A part of the Belgian army. According to the [http://www.1911encyclopedia.org/Belgium 1911 Britannica], &quot;the mass of the garde civique does not pretend to possess military value. It is a defence against sedition and socialism.&quot;<br /> <br /> '''French Second Bureau boys'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Deuxieme Bureau; French Intelligence.<br /> <br /> '''''phalange'''''&lt;br&gt;<br /> French: phalanx. A military (here mock-military) group ready for combat. &lt;br&gt;<br /> <br /> It also conjures up memories of the early 19th century utopian socialist <br /> Charles Fourier, who theorized that people should live communally in &quot;phalanxes&quot; of a specific number based upon their &quot;passions.&quot; His solid ideas included equality of the sexes, but he also taught wacky things such as the moon being made of lemonade. Of particular relevance is his rejection of industrial civilization. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Utopian_socialism]<br /> <br /> '''&quot;...until something had happened, something too terrible to remember...&quot;'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Again this theme of an unknowable past transgression, here invoked almost as if the unknown signifies the other 'lateral' (a word which has cropped up at least a dozen times already) 'vector'.<br /> <br /> '''the Digue'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> French for &quot;dyke&quot;<br /> <br /> '''Congo... Belgians'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> The Belgian colonisation of the Congo was, as Conrad's ''Heart of Darkness'' makes clear, notable for its greed and brutality.<br /> <br /> '''Leopold, King of the Belgians'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> 1835-1909, reigned 1865-1909. A man of almost Nixonian fiendishness. In the Congo he acted as sole proprietor and absolute ruler. The positive outcomes of his exploitation include ''Heart of Darkness'' and the phrase &quot;crime against humanity.&quot;<br /> <br /> '''co-conscious'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> mental processes outside the main stream of consciousness but sometimes available to it — from Merriam-Webster's Medical Dictionary.<br /> <br /> '''Force Publique'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Belgian armed forces operating in the Belgian Congo ([http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Force_Publique Wikipedia]). &quot;King Leopold's private army&quot; may be a more accurate description.<br /> <br /> '''rubber worker'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> See above: One of the early missions of the FP was to increase rubber export quotas through forced labor and related atrocities.<br /> <br /> ==Page 528==<br /> <br /> '''''khâgne'''''&lt;br&gt;<br /> an informal term used by French students for Classes Préparatoires Littéraires, the two-year cycle of classes taken after the Baccalaureat (taken at age 17-18), to prepare for the entrance examination to the Ecole Normale Supeieure. ([http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kh%C3%A2gne khâgne]).<br /> <br /> '''Reclus'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> J. J. Élisée Reclus (1830-1905), French geographer but mainly educated in Germany. Several times he was forced to leave France because of his political views; he traveled widely in Europe, the British Isles, the United States, and South America and for many years lived in Switzerland. He was professor of comparative geography at the University of Brussels from 1895 to 1905. He had quite an extensive connection with various socialist and anarchist circles (met Bakunin while in Florence).Once he was imprisoned in Versailles in 1871 for his part in the ''Paris Commune''. In 1882 he initiated the ''Anti-marriage movement'' while in Geneva. [[http://academic.reed.edu/formosa/texts/reclusbio.html Reclus]).<br /> <br /> '''Stirnerite'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Follower of Max Stirner, 19th century German philosopher and author of ''The Ego and Its Own,'' a work influential in anarchist thought. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Max_Stirner Wikipedia entry].<br /> <br /> ''Max Stirner'''s (1806-56) attacks on systematic philosophy, his denial of absulutes, and his rejection of abstract concepts of any kind often places him among the first philosophical nihilists. For Stirner, achieving individual freedom is the only law; and the state, which necvessarily imperils freedom, must be destroyed. Even beyond the oppression of the state, though, are the constraints imposed by others because their very existence is an obstable compromising individual freedom. Thus Stirner argues that existence is an endless &quot;war of each against all&quot; (1845). (taken from the paragraph about Max Stirner in [http://www.iep.utm.edu/n/nihilism.htm#H1 Nihilism])&lt;br&gt;<br /> Sourcing here? Much complexity in properly understanding Stirner, who has some Pynchon-like qualities, to say the least. From the Stanford Dictionary of Philosophy&lt;br&gt;<br /> His major work:<br /> The Ego and Its Own<br /> Much of Stirner's prose—which is crowded with aphorisms, italicisation, and hyperbole—appears calculated to disconcert. Most striking, perhaps, is the use of word play. Rather than reach a conclusion through the conventional use of argument, Stirner often approaches a claim that he wishes to endorse by exploiting words with related etymologies or formal similarities. For example, he associates words for property (such as ‘Eigentum’) with words connoting distinctive individual characteristics (such as ‘Eigenheit’) in order to promote the claim that property is expressive of selfhood. (Stirner's account of egoistic property—see below—gives this apparently orthodox Hegelian claim a distinctive twist.)<br /> <br /> This rejection of conventional forms of intellectual discussion is linked to Stirner's substantive views about language and rationality. His unusual style reflects a conviction that both language and rationality are human products which have come to constrain and oppress their creators. Stirner maintains that accepted meanings and traditional standards of argumentation are underpinned by a conception of truth as a privileged realm beyond individual control. As a result, individuals who accept this conception are abandoning a potential area of creative self-expression in favour of adopting a subordinate role as servants of truth. In stark contrast, Stirner insists that the only legitimate restriction on the form of our language, or on the structure of our arguments, is that they should serve our individual ends. It is the frequent failure of ordinary meanings and standard forms of argument to satisfy his interpretation of this criterion which underpins Stirner's remorselessly idiosyncratic style.<br /> <br /> The Ego and Its Own has an intelligible, but scarcely transparent, structure. It is organised around a tripartite account of human experience, initially introduced in a description of the stages of an individual life. The first stage in this developmental narrative is the realistic one of childhood, in which children are constrained by material and natural forces such as their parents. Liberation from these external constraints is achieved with what Stirner calls the self-discovery of mind, as children find the means to outwit those forces in their own determination and cunning. The idealistic stage of youth, however, contains new internal sources of constraint, as individuals once more become enslaved, this time to the spiritual forces of conscience and reason. Only with the adulthood of egoism do individuals escape both material (external) and spiritual (internal) constraints, learning to value their personal satisfaction above all other considerations.<br /> <br /> Stirner portrays this dialectic of individual growth as an analogue of historical development, and it is a tripartite account of the latter which structures the remainder of the book. Human history is reduced to successive epochs of realism (the ancient, or pre-Christian, world), idealism (the modern, or Christian, world), and egoism (the future world). <br /> <br /> What about these &quot;successive epochs&quot; in understanding ATD?<br /> <br /> Stirner's major work, The Ego and Its Own has been reissued in English a number of times in Pynchon's lifetime,from the 60s on. (Not that TRP could not have read it in German!)<br /> <br /> '''''Anarcho-individualiste'''''&lt;br&gt;<br /> i.e. he has doctrinal differernces with Stirnerism, strictly speaking; see P. 324, and &quot;Eigenheit&quot;.<br /> <br /> '''Leopold'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> See p. 527.<br /> <br /> '''going down lately'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Being assassinated.<br /> <br /> '''Sipido'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Jean-Baptiste Sipido (1884-1959), a Belgian socialist. Accusing the Prince of Wales of causing thousands of inocents were killed in the Boer War in South Africa, on April 5, 1900, Sipido leaped onto the foot board of the royal compartment right before the train left the North Railway Station (Gare du Nord), Brussel, and fired two (or one? as reported in ''The Manchester Guardian'', or four? as stated in the text here) shots through the window but missed everyone inside. He was arrested, tried and acquitted. The leader of the House of Commons called the acquittal a &quot;grave and most unfortunate miscarriage of justice.&quot; ([http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jean-Baptiste_Sipido Sipido]).<br /> <br /> '''Prince... of Wales'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> (Maud Gonne's husband claimed to have been involved in another such plot.)<br /> <br /> '''Hippodrome'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Hippodrome Wellington, a horse racing track in Ostend built in 1883. The facility hosts both harness and flat racing events. ([http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hippodrome_Wellington Hippodrome]).<br /> <br /> '''Royal Bathing Hut... twenty francs'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> A bathing machine ([http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bathing_machine bathing machine])? The King of Belgium certainly would not want to be seen in a swimsuit on a public beach... It seems unlikely, though, that such a royal bathing machine would be for hire.<br /> <br /> '''twenty francs'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> ???<br /> <br /> ==Page 529==<br /> <br /> '''picric family'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> The explosive picric acid (2,4,6-trinitrophenol) and its derivatives. For picric acid, Brugère's powder and Designolle's powder, [http://encyclopedia.jrank.org/PER_PIG/PICRIC_ACID_or_TRINITROPHENOL_C.html see this Britannica article.]<br /> <br /> '''Brugère's powder'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> See &quot;picric family&quot; above.<br /> <br /> '''Designolle's'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> See &quot;picric family&quot; above.<br /> <br /> '''Monsieur Santos-Dumont'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Alberto Santos-Dumont (1873-1932), a pioneer of aviation from Brasil. Check out [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alberto_Santos-Dumont Wikipedia] to get a look at the way he was wearing his &quot;trademark Panama hat&quot;. <br /> <br /> '''Green Hour''' and '''''l'heure vertigineuse'''''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Absinthe-drinking time. The liqueur is green. In French, ''l'heure verte,'' so ''vertigineuse'' (vertiginous, causing dizziness) is a pun on the word for &quot;green.&quot;<br /> <br /> '''Rocco and Pino'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Rabid Quaternionists and sudden friends of Kit Traverse.<br /> :No, they were not mathematicians at all, let alone Quaternionists, but two &quot;Italian naval renegades&quot; !!<br /> ::&quot;Rocco and Pino&quot; are, in temperament, something like the &quot;Mason and Dixon&quot; of manned-torpedoes... cf. the &quot;torpedo&quot; (i.e., &quot;Electrick-Eel&quot;) of ''Mason &amp; Dixon''.<br /> <br /> '''Whitehead works in Fiume'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Anticipating GR's V2 works.<br /> <br /> ''Robert Whitehead'' (1823-1905), an English engineer. He developed the first self-propelled torpedo in 1866. He attended Manchester's Mechanics Institute, worked in a shipyard in Toulon (1844), France, and as a consultant engineer in Milan (1847), Italy. Later he moved to Trieste and in 1856 became a manager of a company called ''Founderia Mettali'' (later, ''Stabilimento Tecnico di Fiume'') in Fiume producing ship steam boilers and engines which were the most advanced of that era. He also developed the first self-propelled torpedo which was very popular. Whitehead's torpedo was propelled by a compressed air engine, carried 18lbs dynamites and a self-regulating device which kept the torpedo cruising at a constant preset depth. [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Robert_Whitehead Whitehead]].<br /> <br /> ''Fiume'' is now Rijeka, Croatia. Trieste is on the northwestern edge of the Istra Peninsula, Rijeka is east of it. [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rijeka Fiume]].<br /> <br /> Interesting sidebar: Whitehead's fortune from Fiume and the torpedo went solely to his granddaughter Agatha Whitehead, who married Baron von Trapp. The Von Trapp money came from Robert Whitehead, and most of the von Trapp singers were his great-grandchildren.<br /> <br /> '''''Alberta'''''&lt;br&gt;<br /> The [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Royal_yacht Wikipedia] entry on royal yachts goes back to the 17th century but doesn't include ''Alberta.'' The craft does get a mention in [http://www.bouncing-balls.com/timeline/people/nr_leopoldmorel.htm this page on Leopold and the Congo.]<br /> <br /> '''Siluro Dirigibile a Lenta Corsa'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> or S.L.C. &quot;slow course torpedo&quot;, &quot;slow-running torpedo&quot;. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Manned_torpedo Wikipedia] Italy‘s Navy was among the first to experiment with manned torpedos. Though according to [http://web.ukonline.co.uk/chalcraft/sm/chariots.html this site] this did not happen until 1935, Italian frogmen as early as October 31, 1918 made it into the harbour of Pula with the help of a modified german torpedo and sank the former Austrian but by then since a few hours Croatian/Slovenian/Bosnian battleship SMS ''Viribus Unitis''. [http://www.geocities.com/tegetthoff66/viribus.html website]<br /> <br /> The Wikipedia entry linked above doesn't contain the Italian word ''dirigibile'' (steerable), which sets up the torpedo as a counterpart of the dirigible ''Inconvenience.''<br /> <br /> :I suspect there's a connection between the torpedo and &quot;Not the usual lateener, in fact appearing to have neither sails, masts, nor oars&quot; in Miles' reversed vision, [[ATD_243-272#Page_250|page 250.]] Needs work, though.<br /> <br /> ==Page 530==<br /> <br /> '''exfiltrate'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Make a surreptitious escape (as &quot;infiltrate&quot; means to make a surreptitious entrance).<br /> <br /> '''''Macchè'''''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Italian: certainly not, not a chance. And in Pynchon's Italian is used as an all-purpose exclamation.<br /> <br /> '''''Ehi, stu gazz', categoria'''''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Stu gazz' is a dialect representation of ''sto cazzo'', literally meaning ''this dick here''. Normally you could translate the sense of the sentence as: ''yeah, why not, a fucking category! ''. -- blicero2 - 2007.02.22<br /> <br /> '''''mezzogiornismo'''''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Denigrating the Italian South. Mezzogiorno means ''midday'' in Italian but refers generally to Southern Italy.<br /> <br /> ==Page 531==<br /> <br /> '''Bruges'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> An exceptionally beautiful Belgian town of canals which is thus one of several towns known as the 'Venice of the north'. In the 14th cettury Burges already became an international finanacial and trading center, but<br /> started to decline in the 15th century. In the 20th century, however, the city was discovered by the international tourism and the medieval heritage turned out to be a new source of wealth. A new harbor of Zeebrugge, 10 miles outside of Bruges at the North Sea coast, brought new developments and new industries to the region. For the city and its history see ([http://www.trabel.com/brugge.htm Bruges]).<br /> <br /> '''Raoul's Atelier de la Vitesse'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> French: Ralph's Speed Shop.<br /> <br /> '''Ghent'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Belgian city, less than 30 miles southeast of Bruges, on the rail line about halfway between Ostend and Brussels. It is the fourth largest city of Belgium. It is bigger than Bruges but not as famous as a tourist attraction. But the city is a showcase of medieval Flemish wealth and commercial success. See ([http://www.trabel.com/gent.htm Ghent]).<br /> <br /> '''Daimler six-cylinder'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> ???<br /> <br /> '''a hundred horsepower'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> ???<br /> <br /> '''''guaglion'''''&lt;br&gt;<br /> italian (dialectal) = boy, young person<br /> <br /> '''Umeki Tsurigane'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Umeki is typically made with some combination of the various kanji for &quot;plum&quot; (ume) and &quot;tree&quot; (ki), though one has the ki being the character for &quot;ghost/devil&quot; and one obscure reading that's entirely redundant, where ume is &quot;plant&quot; (usually read ue). There is one where ume is the kanji for &quot;buried or embedded&quot;. Tsurigane, means a &quot;temple bell&quot;, which can stand alone or be followed by the grass kanji to mean &quot;bellflower&quot; (lots of botanical stuff happening here, if that means anything; hardly the only example in ''AtD''). Given the search for Shambhala going on, &quot;Buried Temple Bell&quot; seems a likely translation, at least at this point; the botanical meanings could perhaps emerge later.<br /> <br /> Or, another terrible name-pun? &quot;You make [m]e sore again.&quot; See another on P. [[ATD_748-767#Page_757| 757]]<br /> <br /> '''Professor Knott'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Cargill Knott (1856-1922), professor of physics; seismologist. See his biography [http://www.penicuikcdt.org.uk/Cargill_Knott.html here].<br /> <br /> ==Page 532==<br /> <br /> '''Kimura'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Cf [[ATD_26-56#Page 29|page 29:Kimura]] and [[ATD_318-335#Page 318|page 318:Shunkichi Kimura]].<br /> <br /> '''drover's sombrero'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Cowboy hat.<br /> <br /> '''furoshiki'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Japanese all-purpose cloth. Can be worn, used as wrapping, or used as a bag.<br /> <br /> '''taupe'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> A brownish gray.<br /> <br /> '''boilermakers and their helpers'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> [[ATD_358-373#Page_360|See annotation to p. 360.]]<br /> <br /> '''Anharmonic Pencil'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> ''Pencil'' is a term commonly used in Synthetic Geometry. Straight lines incident with a plane - coplanar lines - and passing through a common point are said to be concurrent lines and the set of all such concurrent coplanar lines is called the ''pencil''. (Cf [[ATD_429-459#Page 456|page 456:Pencil]]). For a figure and a not quite precise definition see [http://mathworld.wolfram.com/Pencil.html pencil]. If a, b, c and d, are four distinct coplanar lines and their double ratio λ = (abcd) = -1, then a, b, c, d are called a harmonic quadruple of lines; they are said to constitute a ''harmonic pencil''. A ''pencil'' which is not harmonic then is known as ''anharmonic pencil''. See Pencil (lines 8-9), Double Ratio λ (lines 32-35) and Harmonic Pencil (line 39) of [http://ca.geocities.com/ingsaler6/mathworld.html Mathworld].<br /> <br /> '''''Comptes rendus'''''&lt;br&gt;<br /> ''Comptes rendus des séances hebdomadaires,'' Proceedings of the weekly sessions (of the Academy of Sciences), published from 1835, later (ca. 1935) retitled ''Comptes rendus de l'Académie des sciences,'' Proceedings of the Academy of Sciences. (Notice that the academy didn't see the need to specify &quot;French.&quot; Take that, Royal Society of London!) For about a century, one of two journals so universally circulated and recognized that bibliographies nearly always cited them in nickname form: ''C.R.'' The other was ''Ber.,'' short for ''Berichte der Deutschen Chemischen Gesellschaft,'' Reports of the German Chemical Society (from 1868).<br /> <br /> '''De Forest'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Cf [[ATD_26-56#Page 29|page 29:De Forest]].<br /> <br /> '''Gibbs'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Cf [[ATD_26-56#Page 29|page 29:Professor Gibbs]].<br /> <br /> '''Maxwell Equations'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Cf [[ATD_57-80#Page 58|page 58:Maxwell Field Equations]].<br /> <br /> ==Page 533==<br /> <br /> '''aniline teal'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> The wallpaper dye; aniline dyes were the first synthetic dyes, discovered by [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/William_Perkin William Perkin] in 1858. Their intense and fade-resistant colors were very fashionable at the end of the nineteenth century. The dyes are also significant in ''GR'' as the products of I.G. Farben.<br /> <br /> '''Heavisiders'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Oliver Heaviside (May 18, 1850 – February 3, 1925) was a self-taught English electrical engineer, mathematician and physicist who adapted complex numbers to the study of electrical circuits, developed techniques for applying Laplace transforms to the solution of differential equations, reformulated Maxwell's field equations in terms of electric and magnetic forces and energy flux, and independently co-formulated vector analysis. Although at odds with the scientific establishment for most of his life, Heaviside changed the face of mathematics and science for years to come.[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Heaviside].<br /> <br /> '''Grassmanniacs'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Nineteenth century German mathematician and linguist, essentially the inventor/discoverer of vector space. Grassmann showed that once geometry is put into the algebraic form he advocated, then the number three has no privileged role as the number of spatial dimensions; the number of possible dimensions is in fact unbounded.[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hermann_Grassmann].<br /> <br /> '''in the mood for a clambake'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Anachronistic Broadway show tune? If so, the clambake in ''Carousel'' turns into a brawl; the assmebled factions of mathematicians could be in the mood for either a party or a brawl, apparently. <br /> <br /> '''Monopole de la Maison'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Monopole of the House, a fanciful name of a fanciful drink.&lt;br&gt;<br /> There is, since 1898, a well known restaurant called ''Monopole Lunch &amp; Sea Grill'' in Plattsburgh of upper New York state. ([http://www.monopole.org Monopole Restaurant]).&lt;br&gt;<br /> Most probably, it's the Magnetic monopole being referred here. In physics, a monopole is a magnet with a net magnetic charge, i.e. there is only one pole instead of two (so no net magnetic charge) as usual. ([http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Magnetic_monopole Monopole]). It's existence had been theoretically predicted by various particle theories (superstring theory, etc) but never been proved experimentally. Proving the existence of a monopole would certainly earn a Nobel Prize.<br /> <br /> '''Idiom Neutral'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> An invented language, like Esperanto. Idiom Neutral dictionaries first appeared in 1902. It looks like a simplified Latinate language and it grew out of Volapuk, another &quot;auxiliary language.&quot; It was abandoned by the ''Akademi Internasional de Lingu Universal'' in 1908.<br /> <br /> For a list of all the invented languages that linguists are keeping track of, including Klingon, try [http://linguistlist.org/forms/langs/GetListOfConstructedLgs.html Eastern Michigan's Linguist List]. And don't forget to click on the link to &quot;Browse sites devoted to constructed languages.&quot;<br /> <br /> '''phatic'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Basically, small talk or chatter. Words used to convey fellow-feeling rather than to impart information.<br /> <br /> '''''Kampf ums Dasein'''''&lt;br&gt;<br /> German: struggle for existence.<br /> <br /> '''Q-brother'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Fellow Quaternioneer or Fellow Quaternionist.<br /> <br /> '''We are the Jews of mathematics, wandering out here in our diaspora--some destined for the past, others the future, even a few able to set out at unknown angles from the simple line of Time, upon journeys that no one can predict''' &lt;br&gt;<br /> In keeping with the analogy of Judaism, those &quot;few&quot; people within the Quaternionists &quot;able to set out at unknown angles&quot; are most likely being compared to Kabbalists who claim to partake in a mystic &quot;journey to the Throne of God through the mythological realm of the seven heavens&quot; (Armstrong, A History of God--p. 247). Throne Mysticism in Kabbalah is explored extensively in Gravity's Rainbow.<br /> <br /> Perhaps this is obvious to some, but these &quot;Jews of Mathematics&quot; worship the Hamiltonian Tetractys [http://www.math.ucr.edu/home/baez/dublin/]; those other Jews worshipped the Tetragrammatron. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tetragrammaton] The proliferation of 4s continues.<br /> <br /> ==Page 534==<br /> <br /> '''Poiret gown'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> A gown designed by Paul Poiret (1879-1944), a French fashion designer based in Paris. &quot;In the annals of fashion history, Paul Poiret is best remembered for freeing women from corsets and further liberating them through pantaloons . . . it was Poiret's remarkable innovations in the cut and construction of cloting . . . Working with fabric directly onto the body, Poiret helped to pioneer a radical approach to dressmakeing that relied more on the skills of drapery than on those of tailoring.&quot; (from [http://www.metmuseum.org/special/se_event.asp?OccurrenceId={0DC3D00F-4611-4F91-8DC2-CC3C1A5C48D5} MetMuseum], <br /> New York Metropolitan Museum's Special Exhibitions, ''Poiret: King of Fashion'', May 9, 2007 to August 5, 2007). For a picture of Poiret gown see [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Image:Poiretgown.jpg Poiret Gown]. ''The New York Times'' reported on February 1, 2007 that A Poiret Gown Brings $5,500 at [http://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html?res=9B07EFDA1538F93AA15756C0A967948260 Christie's Auction] - the gown was made in 1913 when Poiret was at the height of his career. For his bio see [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Paul_Poiret Poiret].<br /> <br /> '''''green and long'''''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Pickle, or... what?<br /> : A green and long ''gherkin'' (a small, immature fruit of a variety of cucumber used in pickling).<br /> <br /> ==Page 535==<br /> <br /> '''no-name wine'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> 1970s idiom for common European practice?<br /> <br /> '''set theory'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Set theory deals with the properties of well-defined collections, or ''sets'', of entities - the ''elements'' or ''members'' of the set - conceived as a whole. The elements may be of a mathematical nature or non-mathematical. The set theory grew out of the German mathematician Georg Cantor's (1845-1918) study of infinite sets of real numbers. <br /> <br /> The ''language of sets'' has become an important tool for all branches of mathematics, but is of very little relevance to the practice of mathematics in everyday life. As a source of metaphors, however, it's been quite productive; &quot;subset,&quot; &quot;superset,&quot; &quot;universe,&quot; &quot;intersection&quot; and &quot;Venn diagram&quot; have found varying degrees of acceptance. Recasting Aristotle's syllogisms in set-theoretic language also makes them easier for many people to understand.<br /> <br /> '''Hamilton . . . early genius'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Hamilton, according to ''Chambers Biographical Dictionary'', &quot;at fifteen knew thirteen languages, had read Newton's ''Principia'', and commenced original investigations&quot;. At twenty-two, &quot;while still an undergraduate, he was appointed professor of Astronomy at Dublin and Irish Astronomer-Royal&quot;; at thirty &quot;he was knighted&quot;.<br /> <br /> '''Hamilton . . . in the grip of a first love'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> ???&lt;br&gt;<br /> Pynchon probably didn't mean Quaternion was Hamilton's first love, but its effect on him was similar to that of a first love. In 1843 at the age of 38 Hamilton invented the Quaternion, the first non-communtative algebra to be studied. He felt this would revolutionise mathematical physics, and he spent the rest of his life working on it. In 1853 he published a large volume, ''Lectures on Quaternions'', on his grand invention. The last seven years of his life, Hamilton was writing an 800-page book ''Elements of Quaternions'' modeling on Euclid's ''Elements''. The last chapter of the book was completed by his son after his death.<br /> <br /> '''the Walt Whitman of English physics'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Whitman pops up again, last seen on [[ATD_489-524#Page_491|page 491]].<br /> <br /> ==Page 536==<br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> '''Oscar Wilde'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Note that Wilde's Dorian Gray also undergoes a kind of bilocation.<br /> <br /> '''Kursaal'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Spa. Casino ?<br /> <br /> '''vectors'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> For serious minds see Cf [[ATD_525-556#Page 526|page 526:Gibbsian Vectors]], but let's follow Pynchon's lighter mood, here is a non-mathematical definition by Kamen (1995):<br /> :''Many things have more than direction;''<br /> :''The magnitude is also a question.''<br /> :''With acceleration or force,''<br /> :''And many more things, of course,''<br /> :''It's vectors that make the connection.''<br /> <br /> '''Curls'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Cf [[ATD_318-335#Page 326|page 326:Curl]]: curl is a vector operator that shows a vector field's rate of rotation.<br /> <br /> '''Laplacians'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Pierre-Simon, Marquis de Laplace (March 23, 1749 – March 5, 1827); French mathematician and astronomer who summarized and extended the work of his predecessors in his five volume Mécanique Céleste (Celestial Mechanics) (1799-1825), translating the geometrical study of mechanics used by Isaac Newton to one based on calculus, known as physical mechanics.<br /> <br /> He is also the discoverer of Laplace's equation. Although the Laplace transform is named in honor of Laplace, who used the transform in his work on probability theory, the transform was discovered originally by Leonhard Euler. The Laplace transform appears in all branches of mathematical physics — a field he took a leading role in forming. The Laplacian differential operator, much relied-upon in applied mathematics, is likewise named after him. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Laplace].<br /> <br /> :Cf [[ATD_318-335#Page 326|page 326:Laplacian]]: Laplacian is a differential operator named after Laplace. The text here was talking about mathematical operations and operators — rates of change, rotations, partial differentials, Curls, ''Laplacians'', . . .<br /> <br /> '''scream'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Scream motif.<br /> <br /> '''beginning to appal'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> By 1905 there had been years of outrage at conditions in the Belgian Congo, King Leopold's private fief. Conrad's ''Heart of Darkness'' had been published as a serial in Blackwood's Magazine in 1899 and as a book in 1902. There were missionaries' accounts of the brutality, and newspaper reports. Leopold and his apologists published rebuttals. The Norton Critical Edition of ''Heart of Darkness'' contains an extensive collection of both.<br /> <br /> '''baize'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Baize is a coarse woolen felt.<br /> <br /> ==Page 537==<br /> <br /> '''broken symmetries'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Broken_symmetry Broken symmetry] is a concept used widely in mathematics and physics. For a simplest explanation (good enough for the text here), this term means that an object breaks either rotational symmetry or translational sysmetry - when one can only rotate an object in certain angles or when one is able to tell if the object has been shifted sideways. For a little bit more detailed explanation see [http://www.lassp.cornell.edu/sethna/OrderParameters/BrokenSymmetry.html Identify the Broken Symmetry]; or even more [http://scienceweek.com/2005/sw050708-6.htm On Broken Symmetry].<br /> <br /> '''''sphinxe Khnopffienne'''''&lt;br&gt;<br /> refers to the Belgian symbolist painter Fernand Khnopff (1858-1921), famous for his painting &quot;The Caress&quot;, in which a female sphinx erotically lures a young man. The painting can be seen in the [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fernand_Khnopff wikipedia entry]<br /> <br /> '''Pléiade Lafrisée'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> in French, &quot;friser&quot; means to curl or twist. &quot;La frisée&quot; could mean &quot;curled,&quot; by extension &quot;twisted.&quot; The Pleiades is a cluster of hundreds of stars, though only a few are visible, sometimes referred to as The Seven Sisters. If Pleiades are Sisters, Pléiade is ''one'' Sister, so her name means Twisted Sister!<br /> <br /> '''''Conseilleuse'''''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Female consultant?<br /> <br /> ==Page 538==<br /> <br /> '''retroversion matrix'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> ???<br /> <br /> '''''Ma foi'''''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Literally &quot;My faith&quot;, i.e. &quot;By my faith!&quot;, a mild exclamation of incredulity.<br /> <br /> '''ten thousand francs'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> <br /> Based on currency conversions relative to gold, this is equivalent to<br /> about $30,000 US today.<br /> <br /> '''piker'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Someone cheap or cautious, possibly named after people from PIke County, Missouri, who came to California in the 1800s, looking for work. They were poor, hence cheap.<br /> <br /> '''what is a Quaternino?'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Cf [[ATD_525-556#Page 525|page 525:Quaternions]] for a mathematical definition. From ''The Random House Dictionary of the English Languages'', The Unabridged Edition (1966): Quaternion is &quot;a quantity or operator expressed as the sum of a real number and three complex numbers, equivalent to the ''quotient of two vectors''. The field of quaternions is not commutative under multiplication.&quot;.<br /> <br /> '''Bertie ('Mad Dog') Russell'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> 'Mad Dog' seems to be used with heavy irony here. Bertrand Russell was known most for his rationalism, so to speak, his work in modern logic. <br /> He did little in his public roles (at this time in AtD) that would have <br /> him referred to as &quot;crazy', as we say, beyond the social norm, &quot;mad&quot;. <br /> It might be argued that his use of 'logic' against philosophers such as Hegel and McTaggart within ''Against the Day'' showed up their 'madness'.<br /> (Many did think McTaggart was a bit...different...for seriously not believing in Time.) McTaggart broke with Russell after an early influential friendship---Russell was the younger man and the influenced one. He said he was an Hegelian because of McTaggart--Russell wrote in his<br /> Autobiography that McTaggart said he no longer wanted to meet/talk with him bcause he could no longer stand Russell's opinions.<br /> <br /> [http://nobelprize.org/nobel_prizes/literature/laureates/1950/russell-bio.html Bertrand Russell] (1872-1970) was a British mathematician, philosopher, logician and social critic. Best known for his work in mathermatical logic and analytic philosophy. In late spring of 1901 he discovered the so-called [http://plato.stanford.edu/entries/russell-paradox/ Russell Paradox], &quot;the most famous of the logical or set-theoretical paradoxes. The paradox arises within naive set theory by considering the set of all sets that are not members of themselves. Such a set appears to be a member of itself if and only if it is not a member of itself, hence the paradox.&quot; (On-line Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy). He won the 1950 Nobel Prize in Literature in &quot;recognition of his varied and significant writings in which he champions humanitarian ideals and freedom of thought&quot;.<br /> <br /> '''Barry Nebulay'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> nebulae: formed from the diffusion of gas in galaxies or as exploded stars (or the last ember-like stage of a star)&lt;br&gt; <br /> Most nebulae can be described as diffuse nebulae, which means that they are extended and contain no well-defined boundaries.[1] In visible light these nebulae may be divided into emission nebulae and reflection nebulae, a categorization that depends on how the light we see is created.<br /> <br /> '''Hegel... puns'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Probably refers to the fact that quite a lot of Hegel's philosophy deals with the is-ness of the world as we know and experience it.<br /> <br /> On page 787 of Bertrand Russell's ''History of Western Philosophy'' is a summary, perhaps, of this remark about Hegel's puns: &quot;as a result of analysis of the concept &quot;existence&quot;, modern logic has proved this [Cartesianism, refuted by Kant, reinstated by Hegel] argument invalid.....&quot;<br /> <br /> We know from other places that TRP himself seems to 'not like' Cartesianism. See 'cartesian' citations within this wiki.<br /> <br /> ==Page 539==<br /> <br /> '''a vector quotient'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> The result of one vector divided by another. According to the English dictionary definition of previous page this is just a Quaternion.<br /> <br /> '''unit vector'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Unit vector is a vector with magnitude of one. The unit vectors in 3-dimensional space, ''i, j, k'', associated with ''x, y, z'' directions are used in defining a general 3D vector (Cf [[ATD_525-556#Page 526|page 526:Gibbsian Vectors]]).<br /> <br /> '''''square root of minus one'''''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Imaginary number (Cf [[ATD_119-148#Page 132|page 133:Imaginary Number]]). The imaginary numbers ''i, j, k'' are used in defining a Quaternion (Cf [[ATD_525-556#Page 525|page 525:Quaternions]]).<br /> <br /> ''''Triangle Asana''''&lt;br&gt;<br /> A basic yoga pose. <br /> <br /> [http://yoga.org.nz/postures/yoga_positions_images_page.htm Here are images of several basic poses.]<br /> <br /> ''''Dr Rao abruptly vanished''''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Might be a reference to [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Martin_Gardner Martin Gardner]'s<br /> [http://www.amazon.com/No-Sided-Professor-Fantasy-Mystery-Philosophy/dp/0879753900 &quot;No-Sided Professor&quot;]<br /> <br /> ''''Quadrantal Versor Asana''''&lt;br&gt;<br /> A triangle pose taken that extra dimension.<br /> <br /> '''''&quot;Uwe moer!&quot;'''''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Looks a lot like the Dutch &quot;Uw moeder!&quot; - a cry of astonishment (&quot;Your mother!&quot;), the equivalent to the black English &quot;yo mama&quot;.<br /> <br /> '''noncommutative'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> A term typical to mathematics. A commutative equation is one that can operate in exact reverse and still yield the same results. 'Noncommutative' then suggests unidirectionality. The ability to go from point A to point B, but not from B to A.<br /> <br /> '''reticule'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> A woman's drawstring handbag; usually made of net or beading or brocade; also: A system of lines forming a pattern of squares at the focal plane of a telescope, used in micrometers.<br /> [http://www.astunit.com/tutorials/glossary.htm] <br /> :Isn't that sort of a red herring? &quot;[P]roducing from her reticule a . . . watch&quot; doesn't really allow of that second meaning. &lt;br&gt;<br /> :It could be a pun, since a reticule/ handbag always shows its pattern of lines, and a watch (timepiece) is drawn from it. Remember that, e.g. railroad lines of tracks, are a sign of industrialism encroaching on the natural and the spiritual.<br /> <br /> '''Vacheron &amp; Constantin watch'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Made by a Swiss company founded in 1755. From 1819 to 1970 the name was as in the text, then the &amp; dropped out. See the [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vacheron_Constantin Wikipedia entry.]<br /> <br /> '''hunting-case'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> For a pocket watch, a case with a hinged metal cover. More often called &quot;hunter case&quot; (and such a watch a &quot;hunter&quot;).<br /> <br /> ==Page 540==<br /> <br /> '''&quot;haar rekening, ja?&quot;'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> The bill, yes? (Dutch)?<br /> <br /> ''Her'' bill, yes? I.e., give the check to the lady.<br /> <br /> Given the presence of Chris 'Kit' Traverse here, this very much suggests a reference to Christopher 'Kit' Marlowe, Elizabethan poet, playwright and contemporary of Shakespeare. Marlowe was stabbed to death in 1593, in murky circumstances, ostensibly over a bill or 'reckoning', though he was widely believed to have been involved in some form of espionage.<br /> <br /> Strictly speaking &quot;haar rekening&quot; means that the lady pays for herself only. If Root wanted to make sure that Pléiade pays for the whole company he would have to say &quot;de hele rekening voor de dame&quot;. <br /> <br /> '''Piet Woevre'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> The Woëvre is a natural region of Lorraine in north-east France. It forms part of Lorraine plateau and lies largely in the department of Meuse. During World War I, there was much fighting there due to vast mineral resources that had been discovered in the Briey basin or Eastern Woevre at the end of the 19th century. &quot;Piet&quot; is Dutch for &quot;rock&quot; or &quot;stone&quot; and is a fairly common Dutch name, the English equivalent being Peter.<br /> <br /> If the surname is pronounced as in Dutch, Woevre is another Pynchon villain with a &quot;V&quot;-name (Vond, Weissman, Vibe). <br /> <br /> '''Force Publique'''&lt;br /&gt;<br /> The Force Publique (FP) was the official armed force for what is now the Democratic Republic of the Congo from 1885, (when the territory was known as the Congo Free State), through the period of direct Belgian rule (1908-60), until the beginning of the Second Republic in 1965. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Force_Publique Wikipedia entry]<br /> <br /> '''made him reach'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Possible allusion to a famous line, &quot;When I hear the word culture I reach for my gun.&quot; From Hanns Johst's biographical play ''Schlageter''. The original line is slightly different: &quot;Wenn ich Kultur höre ... entsichere ich meinen Browning,&quot; &quot;Whenever I hear of culture... I release the safety-catch of my Browning!&quot; (Act 1, Scene 1). It is spoken by another character in conversation with the young Schlageter. In the scene Schlageter and his wartime comrade Friedrich Thiemann are studying for a college examination, but then start disputing whether it's worthwhile doing so when the nation is not free. <br /> <br /> The line is often misattributed to better-known Nazis and others [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hanns_Johst].<br /> <br /> *In Jean-Luc Godard's 1963 film [http://www.chicagoreader.com/movies/archives/0997/09057.html ''Le Mépris'' (''Contempt'')], Jack Palance's character &quot;Jeremy Prokosch,&quot; an American movie-producer, intones to Fritz Lang: &quot;Whenever I hear the word culture, I reach for my checkbook.&quot;<br /> <br /> '''not unambiguous'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Ie, ambiguous.<br /> <br /> '''''rastaquoueres'''''&lt;br&gt;<br /> 8???<br /> <br /> '''de Decker'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> In Dutch/Flemish, the name means &quot;roofer.&quot; (''De'' in these names almost never means &quot;of, from&quot; as in French; it's nearly always the definite article.)<br /> <br /> ==Page 541==<br /> <br /> '''''bobbejaan'''''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Afrikaans: baboon. (Afrikaans is the language spoken by descendants of Dutch colonists in present-day South Africa. Some items identified as Dutch or Flemish in this wiki may really be Afrikaans.)<br /> <br /> The South African song &quot;Bobbejaan klim die berg&quot; (&quot;Bobbejaan climbed the hill&quot;) is the source of the stage name of Belgium's most famous country and western musician, Bobbejaan Schoepen (b. 1925). In 1943 he was suppressed by the Nazis after performing a South African song, &quot;Mamma, 'k wil 'n man hê&quot; (&quot;Mama, I want a man&quot;), which contains the line &quot;No, Mama, I don't want a German, because I don't like pork.&quot; He founded the Bobbejaanland theme park in Belgium, where he still lives.<br /> <br /> '''MKIV/ODC... Mark Four'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> This would be the Mark IV Ohmic Drift Compensator ([[ATD 557-587#Page 565|Page 565]]), a key component of the Q-weapon, which &quot;regulates how much light is allowed to enter the silvering of the mirror! Special kind of refraction! Calibrated against imaginary index! Dangerous! Of the essence!'&quot;<br /> <br /> '''not part of your remit'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Not included in your job description, instructions, authorization. &quot;Remit&quot; (noun) is usually a British usage.<br /> <br /> '''''gatkruiper'''''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Dutch/Flemish: brownnose, ass-kisser.<br /> <br /> '''one on her wrist'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> All the bruises reflect some refinement or artistry except this one, which may have been inflicted crudely.<br /> <br /> '''over the day'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Title motif?<br /> <br /> ==Page 542==<br /> <br /> '''trans-horizontic'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> ???<br /> Across the horizon -- &quot; a screaming comes across the sky&quot;<br /> <br /> '''Edmund Whittaker'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Edmund Whittaker (1873-1956), an English mathematician. He is best known for his work in numerical analysis. And he contributed widely to applied mathematics, mathematical physics and the theory of special functions. He also worked on celestial mechanics and the history of applied mathermatics and physics. ([http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/E._T._Whittaker Whittaker]).<br /> <br /> The Sir Edmund Whittaker Memorial Prize is awarded every four years by the Edinburgh Mathematical Society to an outstanding young mathematician having a specified connection with Scotland [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sir_Edmund_Whittaker_Memorial_Prize]. <br /> <br /> '''louche'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> The cloudy effect caused by the addition of water to absinthe. Dictionary definition: &quot;of questionable taste or morality; decadent.&quot;<br /> <br /> '''cheval-glass'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Standing mirror in a freestanding vertical frame.<br /> <br /> '''as if someone'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Sound-cancelling vs opacity-cancelling?<br /> <br /> ==Page 543==<br /> <br /> '''wraith of Pleiade Lafrisee'''<br /> <br /> Pleiade manifests one of her not-visible stars. Perhaps this sister has somehow twisted herself on an imaginary axis ala Dr. V. Ganesh Rao.<br /> <br /> '''monitory'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Warning, giving advice, by extension ominous or menacing.<br /> <br /> '''Against....the day....'''<br /> Note: this phrase happens at the exact halfway point of the novel: p.542.3<br /> <br /> '''He Who Must Come'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> The evil-doer who must come might be Adolf Hitler. It would make sense. The implication being that Europe is precipitating into a no-return situation. Capitalism cannot but end in WW2.&lt;br&gt;<br /> Ah, a lot more and less than capitalism going on here, especially if anyone specific like Hitler is meant. <br /> :When French writers use this phrase (''celui qui doit venir'') they '''do''' mean the Messiah . . . although a few devout quibblers point out that the Messiah has already come. It's rather tiresome Googling the phrase; the first 83 hits definitely refer to Christ and most of them quote the first verses of Matthew 11. But there's also a Camus reference (in English, I think) down at No. 90, if anyone has a JSTOR account:<br /> :links.jstor.org/sici?sici=0361-1299(1985)39%3A4%3C251%3ACFS%22M%3E2.0.CO%3B2-X <br /> <br /> Recalls Yeats' 'The Second Coming' once again: &quot;And what rough beast, its hour come round at last, Slouches towards Bethlehem to be born?&quot; [http://chumpsofchoice.blogspot.com/2007/05/casino-royale-in-flanders-field.html#c3637134446204467798 ]<br /> <br /> '''General Boulanger'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/General_Boulanger Georges Boulanger], French military man, and War Minister in the late 19th century. He was one of those men &quot;on a white horse&quot; that some conservatives looked to, as he urged an attack on Germany and the end of the French Republic with a return to monarchy. He was also notorious for his harsh reprisals against workers' demonstrations. &quot;'Boulangisme'&quot; threatened a coup in 1889, but the general's procrastination brought the crisis to an end.<br /> <br /> '''what death and what transfiguration'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Allusion to Richard Strauss' tone poem &quot;Death and Transfiguration&quot; (''Tod und Verklärung''), premiered in 1890.<br /> <br /> '''''&quot;Zeker&quot;'''''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Dutch: certainly.<br /> <br /> '''''dead cert'''''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Dead certainty, sure thing.<br /> <br /> '''Von Schlieffen'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Alfred von Schlieffen was the author of a German war plan to win a two-front war against both France and Russia by quickly defeating France before Russian troops could be mobilized. The [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Schlieffen_Plan Schlieffen Plan] included an attack on France through Belgium, disregarding its neutrality.<br /> <br /> '''Wilhelm has offered Leopold part of France, the ancient Duchy of Burgundy'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> [http://www.crwflags.com/fotw/flags/fr-bg.html History of the duchy.] [http://www.freiburg-madison.de/freiburg_history/1386-1517_The%20Early%20Habsburgs.htm Map,] with portrait of Duke Charles the Rash.<br /> <br /> '''lowlands'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Title of Pynchon's first published story. Here, ass?<br /> <br /> ==Page 544==<br /> <br /> '''Place d'Armes'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Main square of Ostend; literally &quot;drill field&quot;.<br /> <br /> '''peau de soie'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> &quot;Skin of silk&quot; A heavy, smooth satin with very fine ribbing; somewhat dull in sheen compared with traditional silk finishes.<br /> <br /> '''Krafft-Ebing'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Richard Freiherr von Krafft-Ebing, Austro-German psychiatrist and author of ''Psychopathia Sexualis'' (1886), a pioneering study of deviant sexual behavior and fetishism. Coined both ''sadism'' and ''masochism'' as terms for these respective behaviors. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Richard_Freiherr_von_Krafft-Ebing Wikipedia entry].<br /> <br /> '''toque'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Toque here refers to a lady's hat, originally of fur but here in velvet, which is rather like a flattened chef's hat in shape.<br /> <br /> Proust: in ''À l'ombre des jeunes filles en fleurs'' the narrator first sees Albertine wearing a toque. There seem to be quite a few Proust themes and references running throughout the novel. Indeed '''Pliade''' is the French publisher of Proust's works. <br /> <br /> '''guipure'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Lace trim.<br /> <br /> '''midinette'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> A shopgirl or dressmakers apprentice. A milliner.<br /> <br /> '''Lambic'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> A distinctive Belgian style of beer. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lambic Wikipedia]<br /> <br /> '''sous'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> <br /> Coins. Originally Roman gold coins, latterly any kind of coin.<br /> <br /> Specifically small change. She is affecting modesty by claiming that a hat like hers can be had for pennies in any unpretentious shop. In France &quot;sou is used as slang for money, as in ''sans le sou''. 'I'm broke', 'without money'. It is also a slang term for the Canadian cent (standard French, cent).&quot; ([http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sou Wikipedia])<br /> <br /> '''mayonnaise'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Brautigan's &quot;Trout Fishing in America&quot; famously ends with the word mayonnaise. [http://books.google.com/books?vid=ISBN0395500761&amp;id=rbEjDovfyNMC&amp;pg=RA2-PA111&amp;lpg=RA2-PA111&amp;ots=ELKl5b_6Tx&amp;dq=mayonnaise+trout.fishing&amp;num=100&amp;sig=BiyXRqJXRGrMWbrBNgn8de2kpCo#PRA2-PA112,M1 GoogleBooks]<br /> <br /> '''ovoöleaginous'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Another Pynchonic word combination, here denoting the two main ingredients of mayonnaise: 1) eggs, and 2) oil. It's not &quot;fecoventilatory collision&quot; as seen in &quot;Vineland,&quot; but it's nice.<br /> <br /> '''Grenache'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Grape commonly used in Rhone Valley wines e.g. Chateauneuf du Pape.<br /> <br /> '''Chantilly'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> <br /> Region north of Paris.<br /> <br /> Here the reference is to crème chantilly otherwise known as whipped cream. Chantilly mayonnaise is made by incorporating the beaten egg whites for extra lightness.<br /> <br /> '''attainder'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Legislative act declaring that a person is guilty of a crime and setting punishment without the benefit of a formal trial. The Constitution forbids the federal government (Article I, Section 9, clause 3) and the state governments (Article I, Section 10, clause 1) from passing bills of attainder.<br /> [www.historycentral.com/Civics/B.html] <br /> <br /> ''''''Aux armes, citoyens''''''&lt;br&gt;<br /> ''To arms, citizens'', from the French national anthem, ''La Marseillaise'' (1792). Kit confused La Mayonnaise with La Marseillaise.&lt;br&gt;<br /> Not &quot;Le Marseillaise,&quot; you nitwit!<br /> <br /> '''Louis XV'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> King of France 1715-1774 [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Louis_XV]. <br /> <br /> '''Cléo de Mérode'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Glamorous French ballerina (1875-1966), later Follies Bergere dancer and famous beauty. Her reputed intimacy with King Leopold was only a rumor [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cleo_de_Merode]. The character Madame Leonora Armfeldt in Stephen Sondheim's ''A Little Night Music'' has some features in common with her.<br /> <br /> '''Marquise de Pompadour'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Mistress of Louis XV,once friend of Voltaire and a power behind official scenes.[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Madame_de_Pompadour].<br /> <br /> ==Page 545==<br /> <br /> '''duc de Richelieu'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Duc de Richelieu (1696-1788), marshal of France, was a grandnephew of Cardinal Richelieu, and born in Paris. Apart from his reputation as a man of exceptionally loose morals, he attained, in spite of a defective education, distinction as a diplomatist and general. ([http://www.1911encyclopedia.org/Louis_Francois_Armand_du_Plessis,_duc_de_Richelieu duc de Richelieu] and cf [[ATD_489-524#Page 490|page 490:duc de Richelieu]])<br /> <br /> '''dubious 'victory' in 1756'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> As part of the Seven Years' War (1756-1763), duc de Richelieu (1696-1788), a Marshal of France, won a victory in the Battle of Minorca (May 20, 1756) over John Byng (1704-1757), a British Admiral. In spring of 1756 John Byng was sent with a small and undermanned fleet to relieve the British ''Port Mahon'' on the Mediterranean island of Minorca. During the battle ensued, several British ships were badly damaged by the French squadron while others, including Byng's flagship, were still out of effective firing range. Instead of engaging the enemy directly, Byng decided to keep the formation, allowing the French fleet to get away undamaged. ([http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_Minorca Battle of Minorca]).<br /> <br /> '''the ill-fated Admiral Byng'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> John Byng, convicted by court-martial of failure &quot;to do his utmost&quot; in the battle, shot in 1757. Remembered because of (1) his being the last officer of flag rank to be put to death for conduct in battle and (2) Voltaire's gag in ''Candide:'' &quot;In this country it is good to kill an admiral from time to time in order to encourage the others.&quot;<br /> <br /> '''cantharides'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> &quot;Spanish fly,&quot; contact irritant sometimes ill-advisedly used as aphrodisiac.<br /> <br /> '''Sadean'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Pertaining to the Marquis de Sade. The acts the chef performs on the egg and oil have the same names as acts of Sadean sex. <br /> <br /> '''''n'est-ce pas?'''''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Right? (Isn't that so?)<br /> <br /> '''vetiver'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> A grass (Vetiveria zizanioides) of tropical India, cultivated for its aromatic roots that yield an oil used in perfumery.<br /> [www.answers.com/topic/vetiver]. So, a perfume with, llterallly, roots in India.<br /> <br /> Vetiver makes frequent appearances throughout ''À la recherche du temps perdu.''<br /> <br /> '''pip'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> A beaut; in current parlance, a hottie.<br /> <br /> '''Q.P. system'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Quaternion Probability, page 536.<br /> <br /> '''Usine Régionale'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> French: as translated in the text.<br /> <br /> ==Page 546==<br /> <br /> '''disjunctive effects of thunderstorms'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Folk wisdom says a thunderstorm will cause mayonnaise to separate (oil from yolks).<br /> <br /> '''cottonseed oil'''<br /> <br /> Mayonnaisse like Smegmo and Crisco is a hydrogenated fat; cottonseed oil is a common factor to all three. Indeed, the name Crisco derives from the intial sounds of &quot;'''crys'''tallized '''c'''ottonseed '''o'''il&quot;. Note in the next few pages a mention of Candlebrow -- underscoring a tie-in between Mayonnaisse and Smegmo. <br /> <br /> It may be of interest to note that hydrogenation may have a symbolic use for Pynchon. The process entails bubbling hydrogen through oil in the presence of a metal catalyst such as nickel, platinum, aluminum at 248 to 410 degrees. Remnants of these metals stay in the finished product, and when consumed can lead to an increase in heavy metals in the human body.<br /> <br /> Eating hydrogenated oils is like eating plastic. The body does not recognize that these molecules have been mutated and tries to use them as essential fatty acids. But they cannot perform the same function, and as a result hydrogenated oils can cause short circuits in the electrical flow that controls the heartbeat, nerve functions, cell division and mental balance. They also create free radicals (anarchists!) that are linked to cancers. Free radicals plus metal remnants are a major contributor to cancer, heart disease, immune system dysfunction, osteoporosis, depression, chronic fatigue, Alzheimers, and neurological diseases. It is estimated that over 200 million people have died prematurely because of the hydrogenated oils found in our diets. [http://www.drz.org/asp/newsletter/default.asp?xt2id=23] Not to mention innocent bystanders killed by mentally imbalanced people whose imbalance may stem from the ingestion of hydrogenated oils -- there may be some underlying reality to the &quot;Twinkie defense.&quot;<br /> <br /> '''lounge suit'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> A lounge suit is another name for business suit consisting of a matching jacket and trousers or skirt.<br /> <br /> '''congress shoes'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> ankle high shoes with elastic gussets in the sides (wordweb online)<br /> <br /> '''invisible hand'''<br /> <br /> Suggestive of Adam Smith's metaphor for market forces in economics.<br /> <br /> '''dripping-heads'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mayonnaise To make mayonnaise,] beat together egg yolks, salt, mustard and vinegar, then drip in oil while beating to form the emulsion. If you scale the process up for industrial production, you will automate the introduction of the oil, using nozzles that release it a drop at a time—but in a large vat you can have many such nozzles.<br /> <br /> '''''cuves d'agitation'''''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Vat or tank in which the mayonnaise is agitated or beaten.<br /> <br /> '''Clinique d'Urgence pour Sauvetage des Sauces'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> French: Emergency Clinic for Salvage of Sauces.<br /> <br /> ==Page 547==<br /> <br /> '''' ...engulfed in thick, slick, sour-smelling mayonnaise. ''''<br /> The whole Kit's experience in the mayonnaise factory is very much reminiscent to [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Roald_Dahl Roald Dahl]'s [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Charlie_and_the_Chocolate_Factory Charlie and the Chocolate Factory].<br /> <br /> '''''Cazzo, cretino'''''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Literally, &quot;Dick, cretin.&quot; ''Cazzo'' is a common Italian interjectionary obscenity, especially in the south. &quot;Cazzo, cretino,&quot; is akin to someone saying, &quot;Well shit, dummy,&quot; or &quot;F-ing moron!&quot;<br /> <br /> '''''È il cowboy!'''''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Italian: It's the cowboy!<br /> <br /> '''''vero?'''''&lt;br&gt;<br /> true? real?<br /> <br /> '''''Le bambole anarchiste, porca miseria'''''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Italian: Anarchist babes, oh boy.<br /> <br /> '''Oudenberg'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> A southeast suburb of Ostende.<br /> <br /> '''Quai de l'Entrepôt'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Warehouse Quay<br /> <br /> '''''ragazzi'''''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Italian: boys, guys.<br /> <br /> ==Page 548==<br /> <br /> '''General Boulanger'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Georges_Boulanger General Boulanger]. That he was 'reactionary' and that the C of C bureaucracy had a 'defiant residue' of Boulangism, continues the characterization of the organization for which the Chums 'work'.<br /> <br /> '''''timbres fictifs'''''&lt;br&gt;<br /> French: fictive postage stamps. Cf &quot;Lot 49&quot;.&lt;br&gt;<br /> Yes, stamps mean something in Pynchon's works; here, it seems important that these stamps are characterized as frauds.<br /> <br /> '''&quot;IIIb&quot;'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> As explained in the text.&lt;br&gt;<br /> &quot;Section IIIB (Intelligence) of the German High Command. after WWI, was funded by Alfred Hugenberg (financial backer of Nazi party)&quot; <br /> <br /> '''Germany might stand a better chance...'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> That is, if the French were to push into Alsace (per Boulanger) as the Germans executed the Schlieffen Plan [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Schlieffen_plan] for the encirclement of Paris, it would put the French at an even greater disadvantage...as actually happened in 1914. Had the Belgians and British not delayed the Germans in Flanders, and had the French railroads not performed speedily to bring the French troops back to the Marne, World War I could have had a very different outcome...an alternate history. <br /> <br /> '''revanchist'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Policies based on revenge, or a person following such policies. In General Boulanger's case, revenge against Germany for the Franco-Prussian War (that is, retaking Alsace, lost in 1871).<br /> <br /> '''the somewhat discomposed General'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Having died in 1891, the General by the time of the action is certainly somewhat '''de'''composed; brief biographies do not suggest he was ''non compos mentis,'' that is, mentally discomposed.<br /> <br /> ==Page 549==<br /> <br /> '''cackled Darby'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> (When did he lose his innocence?)<br /> <br /> '''a modification of any salsician metaphor toward the diminutive'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Salsician: pertaining to sausage. Lindsay says Suckling's penis is better compared to a wiener than a knockwurst.<br /> <br /> '''&quot;Why you little–and I do mean 'little'–&quot;'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Another Simpsons reference? <br /> <br /> '''dunes between Nieuport and Dunkirk'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Nieuport is a Belgian seaport about 10 miles southwest of Ostend. Dunkirk is a French port (less than 10 miles inside the French border) about 20 miles southwest of Nieuport. The latter was a site of one of the bloodest battle in World War I. The general area between Niewport and Dunkirk was the well traversed battle fields of two world wars. (Dunkirk was (in)famous for the British Army's escape from the Nazi German's assault in World War II.)<br /> <br /> '''power-receivers'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Not information, energy.<br /> <br /> ==Page 550==<br /> <br /> '''Lot's wife''' &lt;br&gt;<br /> Angels of God led Lot and his family out of Sodom as it was being destroyed and told them not to look back at the mayhem. Lot's wife, Edith, imprudently looked back and was transfigured into a pillar of salt.<br /> <br /> '''Italian grotto'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> an imitating recess or structure made to resemble a natural Italian grotto.<br /> <br /> '''a highly developed taste, moreover, for human blood'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Since Pugnax developed this taste in the Carpathians, home of Castle Dracula, this seems a clear reference to Bram Stoker's novel. <br /> <br /> '''Carpathians'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Major mountain range running northwest-southeast through Poland, Slovakia, western Ukraine and Romania.<br /> <br /> '''Uhlans'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Uhlan regiments belonged to the light cavalry. They wore splendid uniforms (model for some U.S. marching band uniforms). [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Uhlan Wikipedia article.]<br /> <br /> '''Temesvár'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Now Timişoara, extreme western Romania.<br /> <br /> ==Page 551==<br /> <br /> '''...separated by only a slice of Time...'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Miles is beginning to experience Time almost as a spatial dimension, his personal vector as traversing (!) 4-dimensional space, or perhaps multidimensional space, the mathematics for which is being debated in Ostend.<br /> <br /> '''securing the mess decks'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> The Chums follow U.S. Navy idiom in orders (frequently prefixed with &quot;Now&quot;) and shipboard activities (&quot;secure&quot; meaning &quot;whatever you did before, undo it now,&quot; in this case put away the dishes and fold up the tables).<br /> <br /> '''Ryder Thorn'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Tolkienesque name? Or perhaps it's a nod to the Ryder-Waite Tarot deck and to Kevin Thorn (Kevin Matthew Fertig, 1977-), the American professional wrestler better known by his ring name Kevin Thorn who is currently signed to World Wrestling Entertainment wrestling on its ECW brand. He has appeared in vigniettes with Ariel (Shelly Martinez, 1980-), the tarot card reader, who spits blood at the camera while she &quot;predicted the future of ECW.&quot; Yup, a stretch...<br /> <br /> *The name also evokes the Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse.<br /> <br /> '''He was at Candlebrow.'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Presumably a 'trespasser.'<br /> <br /> '''the four-note chord in the context of timelessness'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> A melody is formed by notes following one another in time; a chord on the ukulele violates that practice by having all the notes sound at once. A really clever little passage.<br /> Note: Jazz musicians describe musical improvisations as horizontal (with the melody) or vertical (with the chord)<br /> <br /> ==Page 552==<br /> <br /> '''knuckle-duster'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Brass knuckles.<br /> <br /> '''Diksmuide'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> 20 kilometers south of Ostend (about halfway to Ypres).<br /> <br /> ==Page 553==<br /> <br /> '''The terrain was flat...lowlands'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Not, this time, a reference to Pynchon's ''Lowlands'', but to the two-dimensionality of Flanders, as in Edwin A. Abbott's ''Flatland'' [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Flatland]; most humans, like the inhabitants of Flanders and Abbott's Flatlanders, experience life in two dimensions. <br /> <br /> '''Somewhere up in the sky was Miles' home...'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Whereas Miles and the Chums of Chance, in contrast, live in three dimensions. The mathematicians gathered in Ostend are trying to calculate how to experience and use vectors to live in four dimensions; in a way, to experience Time as a kind of spatial dimension. Miles, on P. 551, is demonstrating the beginnings of an intuitive discovery of how to experience Time as an almost spatial dimension. Which would be a sort of &quot;time travel&quot;, or at least an expanded view of life and history.<br /> <br /> '''retted'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> soaked in water or exposed to moisture (as flax or hemp) to facilitate the removal of the fiber from the woody tissue by partial rotting.<br /> <br /> ==Page 554==<br /> <br /> '''Ypres and Menin'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Municipalities in West Flanders that were sites of some of the bloodiest battles of WWI. At the beginning of the war, the British and Belgian stand helped save Paris from encirclement by the Germans, and saved the Channel ports, but as Thorn points out, the area became the western anchor of the Western Front trench system. The several Battles of Ypres saw the first uses of poison gas (Mustard Gas, dichlorodiethylsulfide, was first called Yperite), the use of enormous mines, and the legendary mud of Passchendaele [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Passchendaele]. <br /> <br /> '''Ten years from now'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> (1914?) through 1918? and beyond?. Another paramorphic mirror--what do we now face. Whatever it is, it is nuclear.<br /> <br /> '''Bosch'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Hieronymous Bosch (1450-1516), Dutch painter of nightmares. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hieronymus_Bosch Wikipedia entry].<br /> <br /> '''Brueghel'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Pieter Brueghel the Elder(1525-1569), Flemish painter.[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pieter_Brueghel_the_Elder Wikipedia entry].<br /> <br /> '''League'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> League of Nations? The League of Nations was formed after WWI to prevent future wars. Didn't succeed.<br /> <br /> No. In this case a historical unit of length, approximately three miles - &quot;league on league&quot; = tremendous masses<br /> <br /> '''where the needles went and which way to rotate them'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> I.e., how to push Thorn's buttons; the image is from acupuncture.<br /> <br /> ==Page 555==<br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> '''simpletons at the fair'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Making Pynchon's metaphor explicit.<br /> <br /> '''Chopin E-minor Nocturne'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Frédéric Chopin (1810-49), a Polish pianist and composer ([http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fr%C3%A9d%C3%A9ric_Chopin Chopin]). He was born in Warsaw, Poland to a Polish morther and a French father. He went to Paris at the age of 20 and died there at the age of 39. He was widely regarded as one of the most famous and influential composers for the piano. From 1837-47 he had a 10-year stormy relationship with the French writer George Sand. His E-minor Nocturne is a 4-minute long Romantic style piano solo composed in 1827. (A ''nocturne'' is usually a musical composition that is inspired by, or evocative of, the night [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nocturne Nocturne].)<br /> <br /> '''owl-light'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> ???glimmering or imperfect light or twilight hours.<br /> <br /> ''''plasmic hysteresis''''&lt;br&gt;<br /> <br /> A coined term, apparently similar in meaning to Miles’ phrase “failure of physical translation.” Plasma would take an older meaning of “form” or “shape.&quot; Hysteresis, according to Webster's, refers to “a retardation in effect when the forces on an object are changed.” Hysteresis is used to describe magnetic phenomenon as well as plastic or elastic materials, that involve changes to a rest state that last beyond the forces that cause them. Examples include recordings on magnetic tape or a thumbprint slowly disappearing from putty. In the context of this passage, plasmic hysteresis appears to describe the lingering visage of someone who is no longer present – a hysteresis of form only and thus a failed physical translation. See [http://www.etymonline.com/index.php?search=plasma&amp;searchmode=none etymology of plasma] and this nifty explanation of [http://www.lassp.cornell.edu/sethna/hysteresis/WhatIsHysteresis.html hysteresis]. <br /> <br /> Hysteresis has also been used to refer to “loops” in time, certainly apropos in this case. I stumbled across an excellent example in a 1980 episode of Dr. Who, in which the eponymous Dr. is trapped in “chronic hysteresis,” an endless loop or return to a previous <br /> point in time – very similar to the situation of Ryder Thorn. [http://www.drwhoguide.com/who_5q.htm Check it out for yourself!] <br /> <br /> <br /> ==Annotation Index==<br /> {{ATD PbP}}</div>

MKOHUT https://against-the-day.pynchonwiki.com/wiki/index.php?title=ATD_525-556&diff=14091 2007-10-17T18:18:03Z

<p>MKOHUT: /* Page 548 */</p> <hr /> <div>:'''&lt;big&gt;Please keep these annotations SPOILER-FREE by not revealing information from later pages in the novel.&lt;/big&gt;'''&lt;p&gt;&lt;br&gt;<br /> <br /> ==Page 525==<br /> <br /> '''Ostend'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Cf [[ATD_489-524#Page 521|page 521:Ostend]], a seaport in northwest Belgium. Among English-speaking tourists, Ostend (or Ostende) is best known as a ferry port. Ships have shuttled between Dover and Ostend for more than 150 years, and today's high-speed catamarans move hundreds of passengers and vehicles between these two ports in just two hours. But this thousand-year-old city is a popular beach resort with Belgians, who flock to Ostend for sun, surfing, sailing and the ''Kursaal'' (Casino). The fishing harbor and old town draw many visitors. Ostend is the only Belgian coastal resort that is as lively in the summer as in the winter. For more and pictures [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ostend Ostend].<br /> <br /> '''Fishermen's Quai'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Fishermen's Quay, also called De Trap. The shrimp boats come home here from the sea in the morning. Along the quay many stands sell lots of seafoods.<br /> <br /> '''Boulevard van Isenghem'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> A major thoroughfare in Ostend, locally called ''Van Iseghemlaan'', extending diagonally from seafront southwest through the city.<br /> <br /> '''street-plausible'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Presentable.<br /> <br /> '''Quai de l'empereur'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Since Ostende is in the Flemish part of Belgium this should be the Keizerskaai, a street along the old part of the harbour, 1919 renamed Vindictivelaan.<br /> <br /> '''estaminet'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> According to the OED - A café in which smoking is allowed. Now, any small establishment selling alcoholic liquor. <br /> <br /> '''twelve-centime'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> one centime is the French eqivalent of one cent. A twelve-centime beer would cost 12/100 of a franc.<br /> <br /> '''Quaternions'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Cf [[ATD_119-148#Page 130|page 130:Quaternions]]. Quaternions are a non-communtative extension of compelx numbers (Hamilton, 1843).&lt;br&gt;<br /> <br /> Analogy with the complex numbers (Cf [[ATD_119-148#Page 132|page 132:complex number]]) being represented as a sum of real and imaginary parts, a + b''i'', where ''i''² = −1, a quaternion is defined as a combination a + b''i'' + c''j'' + d''k'', where ''i''² = ''j''² = ''k''² = ''i j k'' = −1, and a, b, c, d are ''four'' explicit real numbers. The non-commutative property refers to ''i j = −j i = k; j k = −k j = i; k i = −i k = j''. (i.e. ''i j ≠ j i; j k ≠ k j; k i ≠ i k''; etc.) The using of ''i, j, k'', the imaginary numbers (Cf [[ATD_119-148#Page 133|page 133:imaginary number]]), led to the phrases of &quot;the ''ijk'' lot&quot; of page 533 and &quot;creature of ''i-j-k''&quot; of page 534.<br /> <br /> '''Kellner'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> German: waiter, barman. Use of the German word would be insulting to the Belgian barman.<br /> <br /> '''''demi'''''&lt;br&gt;<br /> A half-pint glass (25 centilitres, actually).<br /> <br /> '''Lambic'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Pron. ''lahm-BEEK.'' Unique Belgian beer style, sour and often thin in body.<br /> <br /> '''skimmer'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Straw hat (&quot;Panama&quot;).<br /> <br /> ==Page 526==<br /> <br /> '''biquaternion'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Or &quot;octonion,&quot; an innovation of English mathematician W.K. Clifford, [[ATD_243-272#Page_249|referred to on p. 249.]]<br /> <br /> '''Barry Nebulay'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Pun on a term from heraldry, ''barry nebuly.'' Barry (rhymes with &quot;starry,&quot; not &quot;carry&quot;) refers to a shield divided into an even number of parts by horizontal lines. Nebuly signals that the lines are deformed into stylized &quot;cloud&quot; shapes. [http://www.rarebooks.nd.edu/digital/heraldry/partitions.html Here you can see an example.] If a ''British'' author had a character with a heraldic name, it would suggest a pseudonym.<br /> <br /> '''University of Dublin'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> The Alma Mater of Hamilton, the father of Quaternion. He studied, graduated and taught at Trinity College, the University of Dublin, Ireland's oldest university.<br /> <br /> If University College, Dublin, then Joyce had graduated in 1902.&lt;br&gt;<br /> <br /> '''Quaternioneers'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Quaternion believers.<br /> <br /> '''Gibbsian Vectors'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Vector Analysis (or Vector Calculus) developed by Willard Gibbs (Cf [[ATD_26-56#Page 29|page 29:Professor Gibbs]]) in 1881 and 1884. It is a branch of calculus that deals with vectors and process involving vectors. It is much more easily applied to phsics and other applied sciences than Hamilton's Quaternions (Cf [[ATD_525-556#Page 525|page 525:Quaternions]]).&lt;br&gt;<br /> A vector is defined by not only a magnitude but also a direction, such as a velocity vector, ''v'' is defined by ''v'' = a''i'' + b''j'' + c''k'',<br /> where a, b, and c are the magnitudes of the velocity components in directions of ''i, j'' and ''k'' which are unit vectors, (not imaginary numbers as in Quaternion), with magnitude of 1. In three dimensional cases and ''xyz'' coordinate system is used then ''i, j, k'' are related to ''x, y, z'' directions (&quot;''xyz'' people&quot; of page 533); but they, in general, may be used irrespective of the notation of the coordinates.<br /> Mathematical operations (addition, subtraction, multiplication), differentiation (''curl'' — Cf [[ATD_318-335#Page 326|page 326:Curl]] and p. 536, ''Laplacian'' — Cf [[ATD_318-335#Page 326|page 326:Laplacian]] and p. 536, etc) and integration can be applied to vectors. It is interesting to know that one of the two multiplication operations is called cross product; for unit vectors (''i, j, k'') perpendicular to each other, then, ''i × i = j × j = k × k = 0'', ''i × j = k'', ''j × i = -k'', etc. ([http://web.mit.edu/wwmath/vectorc/summary.html Vector Calculus]).&lt;br&gt;<br /> A simple vector anyalysis example here: if ''k'', the unit vector, stands for the direction upward and g is the gravitational acceleration, then the acceleration vector, ''a'', for a projectile, is defined for downward action, (the ''i'' and ''j'' directions have zero components):&lt;br&gt;<br /> :''a'' = -g ''k''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Integrating ''a'' would give the velocity vector, ''v''&lt;br&gt;<br /> :''v'' = -g t ''k''&lt;br&gt;<br /> for zero initial velocity case, and t standing for time.&lt;br&gt;<br /> And integrating ''v'' would yield the position vector, ''h'', for the projectile&lt;br&gt;<br /> :''h'' = -½ g t² ''k''&lt;br&gt;<br /> toward the sea level.<br /> <br /> '''Quaternionists'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Quaternion believers, same as Quaternioneers.<br /> <br /> '''Tasmania'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Tasmania is an island of the southern coast of Australia. Known for its relative isolation, it was a prison for English convicts in the 1800s<br /> <br /> '''Having been inseparable from the rise of the electromagnetic'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> In his 1865 work ''The Dynamical Theory of the Electromagnetic Field'', James Clerk Maxwell unified electricity and magnetism. He put forth twenty equations, with twenty unknowns, in vector form (though different in notation and form than the equations that now bear his name) that completely described all known electromagnetic phenomena. In his 1873 treatise on the subject, he expressed the equations in the mathematics of quaternions. It appears that the quaternion form of the equations remained popular even though, at the behest of his publisher, Maxwell reverted to the 1865 form in the second edition (1881)--though they remain scattered throughout. In 1892 Oliver Heaviside (On the Forces, Stresses, and Fluxes of Energy in the Electromagnetic Field. ''Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society of London.'' A, Vol. 183. pp423-480), while spewing scientific vitriol at the Quaternionists, reformulated Maxwell's original 1865 equations (Heaviside chose to remove the vector potential and scalar fields from the equations; the inclusion of these terms had served as Maxwell's justification for the use of quaternions), and provided the notation still in use today. See this [http://www.zpenergy.com/modules.php?name=Downloads&amp;d_op=getit&amp;lid=60 PDF] for the evolution of Maxwell's equations.<br /> <br /> '''Hamiltonian devotees'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> The Quaternion faction, after William Hamilton, who devised the scheme.<br /> <br /> '''Grand Hôtel de la Nouvelle Digue'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> There is a Hotel Digue in the Seychelles; this is a New Hotel Digue by Pynchon? <br /> <br /> Grand Hotel of New Dyke, may be a made up hotel name.<br /> <br /> '''anterooms of death'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> This metaphor is sometimes applied to concentration camps. Here the lyric &quot;feel like I'm fixin' to die&quot; seems more apposite.<br /> <br /> '''Belgian Art Nouveau'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Art Nouveau, 1890(or 80) to 1914, explores a new style in the visual arts and architecture that developed in Europe and North America at the end of the 19th century. At its height (~1907), Art Nouveau was a concerted attempt to create an international style based on decoration. It was developed by a brilliant and energetic generation of artists and desisgners, who sought to fashion an art form appropriate to the post-Industrial Revolution modern age.&lt;br&gt;<br /> Brussels was one of the Art Nouveau centers and represented different style from the others. The jewelers there, accepted as artists rahter than craftsmen, (together with those in Paris) defined Art Nouveau in jewelery and achieved the most renown. ([http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Art_Nouveau Art Nouveau]).<br /> <br /> ==Page 527==<br /> <br /> '''dossing'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> British slang for &quot;sleeping&quot;, &quot;staying overnight&quot;<br /> <br /> '''Russian nihilists'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> :The following four are local, Belgian, not Russian, nihilists !<br /> <br /> '''Eugénie'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Female. Possibly named for Empress Eugénie (1826-1920), consort of French Emperor Napoleon III. Ultimately for St. Eugenia, 3rd-century Roman martyr whose feast is celebrated on December 25.<br /> <br /> '''Fatou'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Female. A pseudonym? In view of the date of the action, certainly not named after [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fatou the mathematician Fatou] (1878-1929).<br /> <br /> '''Denis'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Male. Named for St. Denis or Dionysius, patron saint of Paris and of France, 3rd-century bishop of Paris, martyr, beheaded on the hill now called Montmartre. &quot;Montjoie St. Denis!&quot; was a warcry used by French troops in the Middle Ages. His intercession is effective against demonic possession and headache.<br /> <br /> '''Policarpe'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Male. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Polycarp Saint Polycarp] was a Christian bishop of Smyrna (now İzmir in Turkey) in the second century. He was stabbed and died a martyr after an attempt to burn him at the stake failed. His intercession is sought against earache and dysentery.<br /> <br /> '''Young Congo'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Probably in reference to the [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Young_Turks Young Turks], a Turkish revolutionary movement<br /> <br /> '''Garde Civique'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> A part of the Belgian army. According to the [http://www.1911encyclopedia.org/Belgium 1911 Britannica], &quot;the mass of the garde civique does not pretend to possess military value. It is a defence against sedition and socialism.&quot;<br /> <br /> '''French Second Bureau boys'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Deuxieme Bureau; French Intelligence.<br /> <br /> '''''phalange'''''&lt;br&gt;<br /> French: phalanx. A military (here mock-military) group ready for combat. &lt;br&gt;<br /> <br /> It also conjures up memories of the early 19th century utopian socialist <br /> Charles Fourier, who theorized that people should live communally in &quot;phalanxes&quot; of a specific number based upon their &quot;passions.&quot; His solid ideas included equality of the sexes, but he also taught wacky things such as the moon being made of lemonade. Of particular relevance is his rejection of industrial civilization. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Utopian_socialism]<br /> <br /> '''&quot;...until something had happened, something too terrible to remember...&quot;'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Again this theme of an unknowable past transgression, here invoked almost as if the unknown signifies the other 'lateral' (a word which has cropped up at least a dozen times already) 'vector'.<br /> <br /> '''the Digue'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> French for &quot;dyke&quot;<br /> <br /> '''Congo... Belgians'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> The Belgian colonisation of the Congo was, as Conrad's ''Heart of Darkness'' makes clear, notable for its greed and brutality.<br /> <br /> '''Leopold, King of the Belgians'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> 1835-1909, reigned 1865-1909. A man of almost Nixonian fiendishness. In the Congo he acted as sole proprietor and absolute ruler. The positive outcomes of his exploitation include ''Heart of Darkness'' and the phrase &quot;crime against humanity.&quot;<br /> <br /> '''co-conscious'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> mental processes outside the main stream of consciousness but sometimes available to it — from Merriam-Webster's Medical Dictionary.<br /> <br /> '''Force Publique'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Belgian armed forces operating in the Belgian Congo ([http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Force_Publique Wikipedia]). &quot;King Leopold's private army&quot; may be a more accurate description.<br /> <br /> '''rubber worker'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> See above: One of the early missions of the FP was to increase rubber export quotas through forced labor and related atrocities.<br /> <br /> ==Page 528==<br /> <br /> '''''khâgne'''''&lt;br&gt;<br /> an informal term used by French students for Classes Préparatoires Littéraires, the two-year cycle of classes taken after the Baccalaureat (taken at age 17-18), to prepare for the entrance examination to the Ecole Normale Supeieure. ([http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kh%C3%A2gne khâgne]).<br /> <br /> '''Reclus'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> J. J. Élisée Reclus (1830-1905), French geographer but mainly educated in Germany. Several times he was forced to leave France because of his political views; he traveled widely in Europe, the British Isles, the United States, and South America and for many years lived in Switzerland. He was professor of comparative geography at the University of Brussels from 1895 to 1905. He had quite an extensive connection with various socialist and anarchist circles (met Bakunin while in Florence).Once he was imprisoned in Versailles in 1871 for his part in the ''Paris Commune''. In 1882 he initiated the ''Anti-marriage movement'' while in Geneva. [[http://academic.reed.edu/formosa/texts/reclusbio.html Reclus]).<br /> <br /> '''Stirnerite'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Follower of Max Stirner, 19th century German philosopher and author of ''The Ego and Its Own,'' a work influential in anarchist thought. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Max_Stirner Wikipedia entry].<br /> <br /> ''Max Stirner'''s (1806-56) attacks on systematic philosophy, his denial of absulutes, and his rejection of abstract concepts of any kind often places him among the first philosophical nihilists. For Stirner, achieving individual freedom is the only law; and the state, which necvessarily imperils freedom, must be destroyed. Even beyond the oppression of the state, though, are the constraints imposed by others because their very existence is an obstable compromising individual freedom. Thus Stirner argues that existence is an endless &quot;war of each against all&quot; (1845). (taken from the paragraph about Max Stirner in [http://www.iep.utm.edu/n/nihilism.htm#H1 Nihilism])&lt;br&gt;<br /> Sourcing here? Much complexity in properly understanding Stirner, who has some Pynchon-like qualities, to say the least. From the Stanford Dictionary of Philosophy&lt;br&gt;<br /> His major work:<br /> The Ego and Its Own<br /> Much of Stirner's prose—which is crowded with aphorisms, italicisation, and hyperbole—appears calculated to disconcert. Most striking, perhaps, is the use of word play. Rather than reach a conclusion through the conventional use of argument, Stirner often approaches a claim that he wishes to endorse by exploiting words with related etymologies or formal similarities. For example, he associates words for property (such as ‘Eigentum’) with words connoting distinctive individual characteristics (such as ‘Eigenheit’) in order to promote the claim that property is expressive of selfhood. (Stirner's account of egoistic property—see below—gives this apparently orthodox Hegelian claim a distinctive twist.)<br /> <br /> This rejection of conventional forms of intellectual discussion is linked to Stirner's substantive views about language and rationality. His unusual style reflects a conviction that both language and rationality are human products which have come to constrain and oppress their creators. Stirner maintains that accepted meanings and traditional standards of argumentation are underpinned by a conception of truth as a privileged realm beyond individual control. As a result, individuals who accept this conception are abandoning a potential area of creative self-expression in favour of adopting a subordinate role as servants of truth. In stark contrast, Stirner insists that the only legitimate restriction on the form of our language, or on the structure of our arguments, is that they should serve our individual ends. It is the frequent failure of ordinary meanings and standard forms of argument to satisfy his interpretation of this criterion which underpins Stirner's remorselessly idiosyncratic style.<br /> <br /> The Ego and Its Own has an intelligible, but scarcely transparent, structure. It is organised around a tripartite account of human experience, initially introduced in a description of the stages of an individual life. The first stage in this developmental narrative is the realistic one of childhood, in which children are constrained by material and natural forces such as their parents. Liberation from these external constraints is achieved with what Stirner calls the self-discovery of mind, as children find the means to outwit those forces in their own determination and cunning. The idealistic stage of youth, however, contains new internal sources of constraint, as individuals once more become enslaved, this time to the spiritual forces of conscience and reason. Only with the adulthood of egoism do individuals escape both material (external) and spiritual (internal) constraints, learning to value their personal satisfaction above all other considerations.<br /> <br /> Stirner portrays this dialectic of individual growth as an analogue of historical development, and it is a tripartite account of the latter which structures the remainder of the book. Human history is reduced to successive epochs of realism (the ancient, or pre-Christian, world), idealism (the modern, or Christian, world), and egoism (the future world). <br /> <br /> What about these &quot;successive epochs&quot; in understanding ATD?<br /> <br /> Stirner's major work, The Ego and Its Own has been reissued in English a number of times in Pynchon's lifetime,from the 60s on. (Not that TRP could not have read it in German!)<br /> <br /> '''''Anarcho-individualiste'''''&lt;br&gt;<br /> i.e. he has doctrinal differernces with Stirnerism, strictly speaking; see P. 324, and &quot;Eigenheit&quot;.<br /> <br /> '''Leopold'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> See p. 527.<br /> <br /> '''going down lately'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Being assassinated.<br /> <br /> '''Sipido'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Jean-Baptiste Sipido (1884-1959), a Belgian socialist. Accusing the Prince of Wales of causing thousands of inocents were killed in the Boer War in South Africa, on April 5, 1900, Sipido leaped onto the foot board of the royal compartment right before the train left the North Railway Station (Gare du Nord), Brussel, and fired two (or one? as reported in ''The Manchester Guardian'', or four? as stated in the text here) shots through the window but missed everyone inside. He was arrested, tried and acquitted. The leader of the House of Commons called the acquittal a &quot;grave and most unfortunate miscarriage of justice.&quot; ([http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jean-Baptiste_Sipido Sipido]).<br /> <br /> '''Prince... of Wales'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> (Maud Gonne's husband claimed to have been involved in another such plot.)<br /> <br /> '''Hippodrome'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Hippodrome Wellington, a horse racing track in Ostend built in 1883. The facility hosts both harness and flat racing events. ([http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hippodrome_Wellington Hippodrome]).<br /> <br /> '''Royal Bathing Hut... twenty francs'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> A bathing machine ([http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bathing_machine bathing machine])? The King of Belgium certainly would not want to be seen in a swimsuit on a public beach... It seems unlikely, though, that such a royal bathing machine would be for hire.<br /> <br /> '''twenty francs'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> ???<br /> <br /> ==Page 529==<br /> <br /> '''picric family'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> The explosive picric acid (2,4,6-trinitrophenol) and its derivatives. For picric acid, Brugère's powder and Designolle's powder, [http://encyclopedia.jrank.org/PER_PIG/PICRIC_ACID_or_TRINITROPHENOL_C.html see this Britannica article.]<br /> <br /> '''Brugère's powder'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> See &quot;picric family&quot; above.<br /> <br /> '''Designolle's'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> See &quot;picric family&quot; above.<br /> <br /> '''Monsieur Santos-Dumont'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Alberto Santos-Dumont (1873-1932), a pioneer of aviation from Brasil. Check out [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alberto_Santos-Dumont Wikipedia] to get a look at the way he was wearing his &quot;trademark Panama hat&quot;. <br /> <br /> '''Green Hour''' and '''''l'heure vertigineuse'''''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Absinthe-drinking time. The liqueur is green. In French, ''l'heure verte,'' so ''vertigineuse'' (vertiginous, causing dizziness) is a pun on the word for &quot;green.&quot;<br /> <br /> '''Rocco and Pino'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Rabid Quaternionists and sudden friends of Kit Traverse.<br /> :No, they were not mathematicians at all, let alone Quaternionists, but two &quot;Italian naval renegades&quot; !!<br /> ::&quot;Rocco and Pino&quot; are, in temperament, something like the &quot;Mason and Dixon&quot; of manned-torpedoes... cf. the &quot;torpedo&quot; (i.e., &quot;Electrick-Eel&quot;) of ''Mason &amp; Dixon''.<br /> <br /> '''Whitehead works in Fiume'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Anticipating GR's V2 works.<br /> <br /> ''Robert Whitehead'' (1823-1905), an English engineer. He developed the first self-propelled torpedo in 1866. He attended Manchester's Mechanics Institute, worked in a shipyard in Toulon (1844), France, and as a consultant engineer in Milan (1847), Italy. Later he moved to Trieste and in 1856 became a manager of a company called ''Founderia Mettali'' (later, ''Stabilimento Tecnico di Fiume'') in Fiume producing ship steam boilers and engines which were the most advanced of that era. He also developed the first self-propelled torpedo which was very popular. Whitehead's torpedo was propelled by a compressed air engine, carried 18lbs dynamites and a self-regulating device which kept the torpedo cruising at a constant preset depth. [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Robert_Whitehead Whitehead]].<br /> <br /> ''Fiume'' is now Rijeka, Croatia. Trieste is on the northwestern edge of the Istra Peninsula, Rijeka is east of it. [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rijeka Fiume]].<br /> <br /> Interesting sidebar: Whitehead's fortune from Fiume and the torpedo went solely to his granddaughter Agatha Whitehead, who married Baron von Trapp. The Von Trapp money came from Robert Whitehead, and most of the von Trapp singers were his great-grandchildren.<br /> <br /> '''''Alberta'''''&lt;br&gt;<br /> The [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Royal_yacht Wikipedia] entry on royal yachts goes back to the 17th century but doesn't include ''Alberta.'' The craft does get a mention in [http://www.bouncing-balls.com/timeline/people/nr_leopoldmorel.htm this page on Leopold and the Congo.]<br /> <br /> '''Siluro Dirigibile a Lenta Corsa'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> or S.L.C. &quot;slow course torpedo&quot;, &quot;slow-running torpedo&quot;. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Manned_torpedo Wikipedia] Italy‘s Navy was among the first to experiment with manned torpedos. Though according to [http://web.ukonline.co.uk/chalcraft/sm/chariots.html this site] this did not happen until 1935, Italian frogmen as early as October 31, 1918 made it into the harbour of Pula with the help of a modified german torpedo and sank the former Austrian but by then since a few hours Croatian/Slovenian/Bosnian battleship SMS ''Viribus Unitis''. [http://www.geocities.com/tegetthoff66/viribus.html website]<br /> <br /> The Wikipedia entry linked above doesn't contain the Italian word ''dirigibile'' (steerable), which sets up the torpedo as a counterpart of the dirigible ''Inconvenience.''<br /> <br /> :I suspect there's a connection between the torpedo and &quot;Not the usual lateener, in fact appearing to have neither sails, masts, nor oars&quot; in Miles' reversed vision, [[ATD_243-272#Page_250|page 250.]] Needs work, though.<br /> <br /> ==Page 530==<br /> <br /> '''exfiltrate'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Make a surreptitious escape (as &quot;infiltrate&quot; means to make a surreptitious entrance).<br /> <br /> '''''Macchè'''''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Italian: certainly not, not a chance. And in Pynchon's Italian is used as an all-purpose exclamation.<br /> <br /> '''''Ehi, stu gazz', categoria'''''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Stu gazz' is a dialect representation of ''sto cazzo'', literally meaning ''this dick here''. Normally you could translate the sense of the sentence as: ''yeah, why not, a fucking category! ''. -- blicero2 - 2007.02.22<br /> <br /> '''''mezzogiornismo'''''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Denigrating the Italian South. Mezzogiorno means ''midday'' in Italian but refers generally to Southern Italy.<br /> <br /> ==Page 531==<br /> <br /> '''Bruges'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> An exceptionally beautiful Belgian town of canals which is thus one of several towns known as the 'Venice of the north'. In the 14th cettury Burges already became an international finanacial and trading center, but<br /> started to decline in the 15th century. In the 20th century, however, the city was discovered by the international tourism and the medieval heritage turned out to be a new source of wealth. A new harbor of Zeebrugge, 10 miles outside of Bruges at the North Sea coast, brought new developments and new industries to the region. For the city and its history see ([http://www.trabel.com/brugge.htm Bruges]).<br /> <br /> '''Raoul's Atelier de la Vitesse'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> French: Ralph's Speed Shop.<br /> <br /> '''Ghent'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Belgian city, less than 30 miles southeast of Bruges, on the rail line about halfway between Ostend and Brussels. It is the fourth largest city of Belgium. It is bigger than Bruges but not as famous as a tourist attraction. But the city is a showcase of medieval Flemish wealth and commercial success. See ([http://www.trabel.com/gent.htm Ghent]).<br /> <br /> '''Daimler six-cylinder'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> ???<br /> <br /> '''a hundred horsepower'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> ???<br /> <br /> '''''guaglion'''''&lt;br&gt;<br /> italian (dialectal) = boy, young person<br /> <br /> '''Umeki Tsurigane'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Umeki is typically made with some combination of the various kanji for &quot;plum&quot; (ume) and &quot;tree&quot; (ki), though one has the ki being the character for &quot;ghost/devil&quot; and one obscure reading that's entirely redundant, where ume is &quot;plant&quot; (usually read ue). There is one where ume is the kanji for &quot;buried or embedded&quot;. Tsurigane, means a &quot;temple bell&quot;, which can stand alone or be followed by the grass kanji to mean &quot;bellflower&quot; (lots of botanical stuff happening here, if that means anything; hardly the only example in ''AtD''). Given the search for Shambhala going on, &quot;Buried Temple Bell&quot; seems a likely translation, at least at this point; the botanical meanings could perhaps emerge later.<br /> <br /> Or, another terrible name-pun? &quot;You make [m]e sore again.&quot; See another on P. [[ATD_748-767#Page_757| 757]]<br /> <br /> '''Professor Knott'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Cargill Knott (1856-1922), professor of physics; seismologist. See his biography [http://www.penicuikcdt.org.uk/Cargill_Knott.html here].<br /> <br /> ==Page 532==<br /> <br /> '''Kimura'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Cf [[ATD_26-56#Page 29|page 29:Kimura]] and [[ATD_318-335#Page 318|page 318:Shunkichi Kimura]].<br /> <br /> '''drover's sombrero'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Cowboy hat.<br /> <br /> '''furoshiki'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Japanese all-purpose cloth. Can be worn, used as wrapping, or used as a bag.<br /> <br /> '''taupe'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> A brownish gray.<br /> <br /> '''boilermakers and their helpers'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> [[ATD_358-373#Page_360|See annotation to p. 360.]]<br /> <br /> '''Anharmonic Pencil'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> ''Pencil'' is a term commonly used in Synthetic Geometry. Straight lines incident with a plane - coplanar lines - and passing through a common point are said to be concurrent lines and the set of all such concurrent coplanar lines is called the ''pencil''. (Cf [[ATD_429-459#Page 456|page 456:Pencil]]). For a figure and a not quite precise definition see [http://mathworld.wolfram.com/Pencil.html pencil]. If a, b, c and d, are four distinct coplanar lines and their double ratio λ = (abcd) = -1, then a, b, c, d are called a harmonic quadruple of lines; they are said to constitute a ''harmonic pencil''. A ''pencil'' which is not harmonic then is known as ''anharmonic pencil''. See Pencil (lines 8-9), Double Ratio λ (lines 32-35) and Harmonic Pencil (line 39) of [http://ca.geocities.com/ingsaler6/mathworld.html Mathworld].<br /> <br /> '''''Comptes rendus'''''&lt;br&gt;<br /> ''Comptes rendus des séances hebdomadaires,'' Proceedings of the weekly sessions (of the Academy of Sciences), published from 1835, later (ca. 1935) retitled ''Comptes rendus de l'Académie des sciences,'' Proceedings of the Academy of Sciences. (Notice that the academy didn't see the need to specify &quot;French.&quot; Take that, Royal Society of London!) For about a century, one of two journals so universally circulated and recognized that bibliographies nearly always cited them in nickname form: ''C.R.'' The other was ''Ber.,'' short for ''Berichte der Deutschen Chemischen Gesellschaft,'' Reports of the German Chemical Society (from 1868).<br /> <br /> '''De Forest'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Cf [[ATD_26-56#Page 29|page 29:De Forest]].<br /> <br /> '''Gibbs'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Cf [[ATD_26-56#Page 29|page 29:Professor Gibbs]].<br /> <br /> '''Maxwell Equations'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Cf [[ATD_57-80#Page 58|page 58:Maxwell Field Equations]].<br /> <br /> ==Page 533==<br /> <br /> '''aniline teal'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> The wallpaper dye; aniline dyes were the first synthetic dyes, discovered by [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/William_Perkin William Perkin] in 1858. Their intense and fade-resistant colors were very fashionable at the end of the nineteenth century. The dyes are also significant in ''GR'' as the products of I.G. Farben.<br /> <br /> '''Heavisiders'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Oliver Heaviside (May 18, 1850 – February 3, 1925) was a self-taught English electrical engineer, mathematician and physicist who adapted complex numbers to the study of electrical circuits, developed techniques for applying Laplace transforms to the solution of differential equations, reformulated Maxwell's field equations in terms of electric and magnetic forces and energy flux, and independently co-formulated vector analysis. Although at odds with the scientific establishment for most of his life, Heaviside changed the face of mathematics and science for years to come.[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Heaviside].<br /> <br /> '''Grassmanniacs'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Nineteenth century German mathematician and linguist, essentially the inventor/discoverer of vector space. Grassmann showed that once geometry is put into the algebraic form he advocated, then the number three has no privileged role as the number of spatial dimensions; the number of possible dimensions is in fact unbounded.[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hermann_Grassmann].<br /> <br /> '''in the mood for a clambake'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Anachronistic Broadway show tune? If so, the clambake in ''Carousel'' turns into a brawl; the assmebled factions of mathematicians could be in the mood for either a party or a brawl, apparently. <br /> <br /> '''Monopole de la Maison'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Monopole of the House, a fanciful name of a fanciful drink.&lt;br&gt;<br /> There is, since 1898, a well known restaurant called ''Monopole Lunch &amp; Sea Grill'' in Plattsburgh of upper New York state. ([http://www.monopole.org Monopole Restaurant]).&lt;br&gt;<br /> Most probably, it's the Magnetic monopole being referred here. In physics, a monopole is a magnet with a net magnetic charge, i.e. there is only one pole instead of two (so no net magnetic charge) as usual. ([http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Magnetic_monopole Monopole]). It's existence had been theoretically predicted by various particle theories (superstring theory, etc) but never been proved experimentally. Proving the existence of a monopole would certainly earn a Nobel Prize.<br /> <br /> '''Idiom Neutral'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> An invented language, like Esperanto. Idiom Neutral dictionaries first appeared in 1902. It looks like a simplified Latinate language and it grew out of Volapuk, another &quot;auxiliary language.&quot; It was abandoned by the ''Akademi Internasional de Lingu Universal'' in 1908.<br /> <br /> For a list of all the invented languages that linguists are keeping track of, including Klingon, try [http://linguistlist.org/forms/langs/GetListOfConstructedLgs.html Eastern Michigan's Linguist List]. And don't forget to click on the link to &quot;Browse sites devoted to constructed languages.&quot;<br /> <br /> '''phatic'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Basically, small talk or chatter. Words used to convey fellow-feeling rather than to impart information.<br /> <br /> '''''Kampf ums Dasein'''''&lt;br&gt;<br /> German: struggle for existence.<br /> <br /> '''Q-brother'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Fellow Quaternioneer or Fellow Quaternionist.<br /> <br /> '''We are the Jews of mathematics, wandering out here in our diaspora--some destined for the past, others the future, even a few able to set out at unknown angles from the simple line of Time, upon journeys that no one can predict''' &lt;br&gt;<br /> In keeping with the analogy of Judaism, those &quot;few&quot; people within the Quaternionists &quot;able to set out at unknown angles&quot; are most likely being compared to Kabbalists who claim to partake in a mystic &quot;journey to the Throne of God through the mythological realm of the seven heavens&quot; (Armstrong, A History of God--p. 247). Throne Mysticism in Kabbalah is explored extensively in Gravity's Rainbow.<br /> <br /> Perhaps this is obvious to some, but these &quot;Jews of Mathematics&quot; worship the Hamiltonian Tetractys [http://www.math.ucr.edu/home/baez/dublin/]; those other Jews worshipped the Tetragrammatron. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tetragrammaton] The proliferation of 4s continues.<br /> <br /> ==Page 534==<br /> <br /> '''Poiret gown'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> A gown designed by Paul Poiret (1879-1944), a French fashion designer based in Paris. &quot;In the annals of fashion history, Paul Poiret is best remembered for freeing women from corsets and further liberating them through pantaloons . . . it was Poiret's remarkable innovations in the cut and construction of cloting . . . Working with fabric directly onto the body, Poiret helped to pioneer a radical approach to dressmakeing that relied more on the skills of drapery than on those of tailoring.&quot; (from [http://www.metmuseum.org/special/se_event.asp?OccurrenceId={0DC3D00F-4611-4F91-8DC2-CC3C1A5C48D5} MetMuseum], <br /> New York Metropolitan Museum's Special Exhibitions, ''Poiret: King of Fashion'', May 9, 2007 to August 5, 2007). For a picture of Poiret gown see [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Image:Poiretgown.jpg Poiret Gown]. ''The New York Times'' reported on February 1, 2007 that A Poiret Gown Brings $5,500 at [http://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html?res=9B07EFDA1538F93AA15756C0A967948260 Christie's Auction] - the gown was made in 1913 when Poiret was at the height of his career. For his bio see [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Paul_Poiret Poiret].<br /> <br /> '''''green and long'''''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Pickle, or... what?<br /> : A green and long ''gherkin'' (a small, immature fruit of a variety of cucumber used in pickling).<br /> <br /> ==Page 535==<br /> <br /> '''no-name wine'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> 1970s idiom for common European practice?<br /> <br /> '''set theory'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Set theory deals with the properties of well-defined collections, or ''sets'', of entities - the ''elements'' or ''members'' of the set - conceived as a whole. The elements may be of a mathematical nature or non-mathematical. The set theory grew out of the German mathematician Georg Cantor's (1845-1918) study of infinite sets of real numbers. <br /> <br /> The ''language of sets'' has become an important tool for all branches of mathematics, but is of very little relevance to the practice of mathematics in everyday life. As a source of metaphors, however, it's been quite productive; &quot;subset,&quot; &quot;superset,&quot; &quot;universe,&quot; &quot;intersection&quot; and &quot;Venn diagram&quot; have found varying degrees of acceptance. Recasting Aristotle's syllogisms in set-theoretic language also makes them easier for many people to understand.<br /> <br /> '''Hamilton . . . early genius'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Hamilton, according to ''Chambers Biographical Dictionary'', &quot;at fifteen knew thirteen languages, had read Newton's ''Principia'', and commenced original investigations&quot;. At twenty-two, &quot;while still an undergraduate, he was appointed professor of Astronomy at Dublin and Irish Astronomer-Royal&quot;; at thirty &quot;he was knighted&quot;.<br /> <br /> '''Hamilton . . . in the grip of a first love'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> ???&lt;br&gt;<br /> Pynchon probably didn't mean Quaternion was Hamilton's first love, but its effect on him was similar to that of a first love. In 1843 at the age of 38 Hamilton invented the Quaternion, the first non-communtative algebra to be studied. He felt this would revolutionise mathematical physics, and he spent the rest of his life working on it. In 1853 he published a large volume, ''Lectures on Quaternions'', on his grand invention. The last seven years of his life, Hamilton was writing an 800-page book ''Elements of Quaternions'' modeling on Euclid's ''Elements''. The last chapter of the book was completed by his son after his death.<br /> <br /> '''the Walt Whitman of English physics'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Whitman pops up again, last seen on [[ATD_489-524#Page_491|page 491]].<br /> <br /> ==Page 536==<br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> '''Oscar Wilde'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Note that Wilde's Dorian Gray also undergoes a kind of bilocation.<br /> <br /> '''Kursaal'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Spa. Casino ?<br /> <br /> '''vectors'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> For serious minds see Cf [[ATD_525-556#Page 526|page 526:Gibbsian Vectors]], but let's follow Pynchon's lighter mood, here is a non-mathematical definition by Kamen (1995):<br /> :''Many things have more than direction;''<br /> :''The magnitude is also a question.''<br /> :''With acceleration or force,''<br /> :''And many more things, of course,''<br /> :''It's vectors that make the connection.''<br /> <br /> '''Curls'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Cf [[ATD_318-335#Page 326|page 326:Curl]]: curl is a vector operator that shows a vector field's rate of rotation.<br /> <br /> '''Laplacians'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Pierre-Simon, Marquis de Laplace (March 23, 1749 – March 5, 1827); French mathematician and astronomer who summarized and extended the work of his predecessors in his five volume Mécanique Céleste (Celestial Mechanics) (1799-1825), translating the geometrical study of mechanics used by Isaac Newton to one based on calculus, known as physical mechanics.<br /> <br /> He is also the discoverer of Laplace's equation. Although the Laplace transform is named in honor of Laplace, who used the transform in his work on probability theory, the transform was discovered originally by Leonhard Euler. The Laplace transform appears in all branches of mathematical physics — a field he took a leading role in forming. The Laplacian differential operator, much relied-upon in applied mathematics, is likewise named after him. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Laplace].<br /> <br /> :Cf [[ATD_318-335#Page 326|page 326:Laplacian]]: Laplacian is a differential operator named after Laplace. The text here was talking about mathematical operations and operators — rates of change, rotations, partial differentials, Curls, ''Laplacians'', . . .<br /> <br /> '''scream'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Scream motif.<br /> <br /> '''beginning to appal'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> By 1905 there had been years of outrage at conditions in the Belgian Congo, King Leopold's private fief. Conrad's ''Heart of Darkness'' had been published as a serial in Blackwood's Magazine in 1899 and as a book in 1902. There were missionaries' accounts of the brutality, and newspaper reports. Leopold and his apologists published rebuttals. The Norton Critical Edition of ''Heart of Darkness'' contains an extensive collection of both.<br /> <br /> '''baize'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Baize is a coarse woolen felt.<br /> <br /> ==Page 537==<br /> <br /> '''broken symmetries'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Broken_symmetry Broken symmetry] is a concept used widely in mathematics and physics. For a simplest explanation (good enough for the text here), this term means that an object breaks either rotational symmetry or translational sysmetry - when one can only rotate an object in certain angles or when one is able to tell if the object has been shifted sideways. For a little bit more detailed explanation see [http://www.lassp.cornell.edu/sethna/OrderParameters/BrokenSymmetry.html Identify the Broken Symmetry]; or even more [http://scienceweek.com/2005/sw050708-6.htm On Broken Symmetry].<br /> <br /> '''''sphinxe Khnopffienne'''''&lt;br&gt;<br /> refers to the Belgian symbolist painter Fernand Khnopff (1858-1921), famous for his painting &quot;The Caress&quot;, in which a female sphinx erotically lures a young man. The painting can be seen in the [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fernand_Khnopff wikipedia entry]<br /> <br /> '''Pléiade Lafrisée'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> in French, &quot;friser&quot; means to curl or twist. &quot;La frisée&quot; could mean &quot;curled,&quot; by extension &quot;twisted.&quot; The Pleiades is a cluster of hundreds of stars, though only a few are visible, sometimes referred to as The Seven Sisters. If Pleiades are Sisters, Pléiade is ''one'' Sister, so her name means Twisted Sister!<br /> <br /> '''''Conseilleuse'''''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Female consultant?<br /> <br /> ==Page 538==<br /> <br /> '''retroversion matrix'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> ???<br /> <br /> '''''Ma foi'''''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Literally &quot;My faith&quot;, i.e. &quot;By my faith!&quot;, a mild exclamation of incredulity.<br /> <br /> '''ten thousand francs'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> <br /> Based on currency conversions relative to gold, this is equivalent to<br /> about $30,000 US today.<br /> <br /> '''piker'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Someone cheap or cautious, possibly named after people from PIke County, Missouri, who came to California in the 1800s, looking for work. They were poor, hence cheap.<br /> <br /> '''what is a Quaternino?'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Cf [[ATD_525-556#Page 525|page 525:Quaternions]] for a mathematical definition. From ''The Random House Dictionary of the English Languages'', The Unabridged Edition (1966): Quaternion is &quot;a quantity or operator expressed as the sum of a real number and three complex numbers, equivalent to the ''quotient of two vectors''. The field of quaternions is not commutative under multiplication.&quot;.<br /> <br /> '''Bertie ('Mad Dog') Russell'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> 'Mad Dog' seems to be used with heavy irony here. Bertrand Russell was known most for his rationalism, so to speak, his work in modern logic. <br /> He did little in his public roles (at this time in AtD) that would have <br /> him referred to as &quot;crazy', as we say, beyond the social norm, &quot;mad&quot;. <br /> It might be argued that his use of 'logic' against philosophers such as Hegel and McTaggart within ''Against the Day'' showed up their 'madness'.<br /> (Many did think McTaggart was a bit...different...for seriously not believing in Time.) McTaggart broke with Russell after an early influential friendship---Russell was the younger man and the influenced one. He said he was an Hegelian because of McTaggart--Russell wrote in his<br /> Autobiography that McTaggart said he no longer wanted to meet/talk with him bcause he could no longer stand Russell's opinions.<br /> <br /> [http://nobelprize.org/nobel_prizes/literature/laureates/1950/russell-bio.html Bertrand Russell] (1872-1970) was a British mathematician, philosopher, logician and social critic. Best known for his work in mathermatical logic and analytic philosophy. In late spring of 1901 he discovered the so-called [http://plato.stanford.edu/entries/russell-paradox/ Russell Paradox], &quot;the most famous of the logical or set-theoretical paradoxes. The paradox arises within naive set theory by considering the set of all sets that are not members of themselves. Such a set appears to be a member of itself if and only if it is not a member of itself, hence the paradox.&quot; (On-line Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy). He won the 1950 Nobel Prize in Literature in &quot;recognition of his varied and significant writings in which he champions humanitarian ideals and freedom of thought&quot;.<br /> <br /> '''Barry Nebulay'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> nebulae: formed from the diffusion of gas in galaxies or as exploded stars (or the last ember-like stage of a star)&lt;br&gt; <br /> Most nebulae can be described as diffuse nebulae, which means that they are extended and contain no well-defined boundaries.[1] In visible light these nebulae may be divided into emission nebulae and reflection nebulae, a categorization that depends on how the light we see is created.<br /> <br /> '''Hegel... puns'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Probably refers to the fact that quite a lot of Hegel's philosophy deals with the is-ness of the world as we know and experience it.<br /> <br /> On page 787 of Bertrand Russell's ''History of Western Philosophy'' is a summary, perhaps, of this remark about Hegel's puns: &quot;as a result of analysis of the concept &quot;existence&quot;, modern logic has proved this [Cartesianism, refuted by Kant, reinstated by Hegel] argument invalid.....&quot;<br /> <br /> We know from other places that TRP himself seems to 'not like' Cartesianism. See 'cartesian' citations within this wiki.<br /> <br /> ==Page 539==<br /> <br /> '''a vector quotient'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> The result of one vector divided by another. According to the English dictionary definition of previous page this is just a Quaternion.<br /> <br /> '''unit vector'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Unit vector is a vector with magnitude of one. The unit vectors in 3-dimensional space, ''i, j, k'', associated with ''x, y, z'' directions are used in defining a general 3D vector (Cf [[ATD_525-556#Page 526|page 526:Gibbsian Vectors]]).<br /> <br /> '''''square root of minus one'''''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Imaginary number (Cf [[ATD_119-148#Page 132|page 133:Imaginary Number]]). The imaginary numbers ''i, j, k'' are used in defining a Quaternion (Cf [[ATD_525-556#Page 525|page 525:Quaternions]]).<br /> <br /> ''''Triangle Asana''''&lt;br&gt;<br /> A basic yoga pose. <br /> <br /> [http://yoga.org.nz/postures/yoga_positions_images_page.htm Here are images of several basic poses.]<br /> <br /> ''''Dr Rao abruptly vanished''''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Might be a reference to [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Martin_Gardner Martin Gardner]'s<br /> [http://www.amazon.com/No-Sided-Professor-Fantasy-Mystery-Philosophy/dp/0879753900 &quot;No-Sided Professor&quot;]<br /> <br /> ''''Quadrantal Versor Asana''''&lt;br&gt;<br /> A triangle pose taken that extra dimension.<br /> <br /> '''''&quot;Uwe moer!&quot;'''''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Looks a lot like the Dutch &quot;Uw moeder!&quot; - a cry of astonishment (&quot;Your mother!&quot;), the equivalent to the black English &quot;yo mama&quot;.<br /> <br /> '''noncommutative'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> A term typical to mathematics. A commutative equation is one that can operate in exact reverse and still yield the same results. 'Noncommutative' then suggests unidirectionality. The ability to go from point A to point B, but not from B to A.<br /> <br /> '''reticule'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> A woman's drawstring handbag; usually made of net or beading or brocade; also: A system of lines forming a pattern of squares at the focal plane of a telescope, used in micrometers.<br /> [http://www.astunit.com/tutorials/glossary.htm] <br /> :Isn't that sort of a red herring? &quot;[P]roducing from her reticule a . . . watch&quot; doesn't really allow of that second meaning. &lt;br&gt;<br /> :It could be a pun, since a reticule/ handbag always shows its pattern of lines, and a watch (timepiece) is drawn from it. Remember that, e.g. railroad lines of tracks, are a sign of industrialism encroaching on the natural and the spiritual.<br /> <br /> '''Vacheron &amp; Constantin watch'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Made by a Swiss company founded in 1755. From 1819 to 1970 the name was as in the text, then the &amp; dropped out. See the [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vacheron_Constantin Wikipedia entry.]<br /> <br /> '''hunting-case'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> For a pocket watch, a case with a hinged metal cover. More often called &quot;hunter case&quot; (and such a watch a &quot;hunter&quot;).<br /> <br /> ==Page 540==<br /> <br /> '''&quot;haar rekening, ja?&quot;'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> The bill, yes? (Dutch)?<br /> <br /> ''Her'' bill, yes? I.e., give the check to the lady.<br /> <br /> Given the presence of Chris 'Kit' Traverse here, this very much suggests a reference to Christopher 'Kit' Marlowe, Elizabethan poet, playwright and contemporary of Shakespeare. Marlowe was stabbed to death in 1593, in murky circumstances, ostensibly over a bill or 'reckoning', though he was widely believed to have been involved in some form of espionage.<br /> <br /> Strictly speaking &quot;haar rekening&quot; means that the lady pays for herself only. If Root wanted to make sure that Pléiade pays for the whole company he would have to say &quot;de hele rekening voor de dame&quot;. <br /> <br /> '''Piet Woevre'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> The Woëvre is a natural region of Lorraine in north-east France. It forms part of Lorraine plateau and lies largely in the department of Meuse. During World War I, there was much fighting there due to vast mineral resources that had been discovered in the Briey basin or Eastern Woevre at the end of the 19th century. &quot;Piet&quot; is Dutch for &quot;rock&quot; or &quot;stone&quot; and is a fairly common Dutch name, the English equivalent being Peter.<br /> <br /> If the surname is pronounced as in Dutch, Woevre is another Pynchon villain with a &quot;V&quot;-name (Vond, Weissman, Vibe). <br /> <br /> '''Force Publique'''&lt;br /&gt;<br /> The Force Publique (FP) was the official armed force for what is now the Democratic Republic of the Congo from 1885, (when the territory was known as the Congo Free State), through the period of direct Belgian rule (1908-60), until the beginning of the Second Republic in 1965. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Force_Publique Wikipedia entry]<br /> <br /> '''made him reach'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Possible allusion to a famous line, &quot;When I hear the word culture I reach for my gun.&quot; From Hanns Johst's biographical play ''Schlageter''. The original line is slightly different: &quot;Wenn ich Kultur höre ... entsichere ich meinen Browning,&quot; &quot;Whenever I hear of culture... I release the safety-catch of my Browning!&quot; (Act 1, Scene 1). It is spoken by another character in conversation with the young Schlageter. In the scene Schlageter and his wartime comrade Friedrich Thiemann are studying for a college examination, but then start disputing whether it's worthwhile doing so when the nation is not free. <br /> <br /> The line is often misattributed to better-known Nazis and others [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hanns_Johst].<br /> <br /> *In Jean-Luc Godard's 1963 film [http://www.chicagoreader.com/movies/archives/0997/09057.html ''Le Mépris'' (''Contempt'')], Jack Palance's character &quot;Jeremy Prokosch,&quot; an American movie-producer, intones to Fritz Lang: &quot;Whenever I hear the word culture, I reach for my checkbook.&quot;<br /> <br /> '''not unambiguous'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Ie, ambiguous.<br /> <br /> '''''rastaquoueres'''''&lt;br&gt;<br /> 8???<br /> <br /> '''de Decker'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> In Dutch/Flemish, the name means &quot;roofer.&quot; (''De'' in these names almost never means &quot;of, from&quot; as in French; it's nearly always the definite article.)<br /> <br /> ==Page 541==<br /> <br /> '''''bobbejaan'''''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Afrikaans: baboon. (Afrikaans is the language spoken by descendants of Dutch colonists in present-day South Africa. Some items identified as Dutch or Flemish in this wiki may really be Afrikaans.)<br /> <br /> The South African song &quot;Bobbejaan klim die berg&quot; (&quot;Bobbejaan climbed the hill&quot;) is the source of the stage name of Belgium's most famous country and western musician, Bobbejaan Schoepen (b. 1925). In 1943 he was suppressed by the Nazis after performing a South African song, &quot;Mamma, 'k wil 'n man hê&quot; (&quot;Mama, I want a man&quot;), which contains the line &quot;No, Mama, I don't want a German, because I don't like pork.&quot; He founded the Bobbejaanland theme park in Belgium, where he still lives.<br /> <br /> '''MKIV/ODC... Mark Four'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> This would be the Mark IV Ohmic Drift Compensator ([[ATD 557-587#Page 565|Page 565]]), a key component of the Q-weapon, which &quot;regulates how much light is allowed to enter the silvering of the mirror! Special kind of refraction! Calibrated against imaginary index! Dangerous! Of the essence!'&quot;<br /> <br /> '''not part of your remit'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Not included in your job description, instructions, authorization. &quot;Remit&quot; (noun) is usually a British usage.<br /> <br /> '''''gatkruiper'''''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Dutch/Flemish: brownnose, ass-kisser.<br /> <br /> '''one on her wrist'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> All the bruises reflect some refinement or artistry except this one, which may have been inflicted crudely.<br /> <br /> '''over the day'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Title motif?<br /> <br /> ==Page 542==<br /> <br /> '''trans-horizontic'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> ???<br /> Across the horizon -- &quot; a screaming comes across the sky&quot;<br /> <br /> '''Edmund Whittaker'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Edmund Whittaker (1873-1956), an English mathematician. He is best known for his work in numerical analysis. And he contributed widely to applied mathematics, mathematical physics and the theory of special functions. He also worked on celestial mechanics and the history of applied mathermatics and physics. ([http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/E._T._Whittaker Whittaker]).<br /> <br /> The Sir Edmund Whittaker Memorial Prize is awarded every four years by the Edinburgh Mathematical Society to an outstanding young mathematician having a specified connection with Scotland [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sir_Edmund_Whittaker_Memorial_Prize]. <br /> <br /> '''louche'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> The cloudy effect caused by the addition of water to absinthe. Dictionary definition: &quot;of questionable taste or morality; decadent.&quot;<br /> <br /> '''cheval-glass'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Standing mirror in a freestanding vertical frame.<br /> <br /> '''as if someone'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Sound-cancelling vs opacity-cancelling?<br /> <br /> ==Page 543==<br /> <br /> '''wraith of Pleiade Lafrisee'''<br /> <br /> Pleiade manifests one of her not-visible stars. Perhaps this sister has somehow twisted herself on an imaginary axis ala Dr. V. Ganesh Rao.<br /> <br /> '''monitory'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Warning, giving advice, by extension ominous or menacing.<br /> <br /> '''Against....the day....'''<br /> Note: this phrase happens at the exact halfway point of the novel: p.542.3<br /> <br /> '''He Who Must Come'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> The evil-doer who must come might be Adolf Hitler. It would make sense. The implication being that Europe is precipitating into a no-return situation. Capitalism cannot but end in WW2.&lt;br&gt;<br /> Ah, a lot more and less than capitalism going on here, especially if anyone specific like Hitler is meant. <br /> :When French writers use this phrase (''celui qui doit venir'') they '''do''' mean the Messiah . . . although a few devout quibblers point out that the Messiah has already come. It's rather tiresome Googling the phrase; the first 83 hits definitely refer to Christ and most of them quote the first verses of Matthew 11. But there's also a Camus reference (in English, I think) down at No. 90, if anyone has a JSTOR account:<br /> :links.jstor.org/sici?sici=0361-1299(1985)39%3A4%3C251%3ACFS%22M%3E2.0.CO%3B2-X <br /> <br /> Recalls Yeats' 'The Second Coming' once again: &quot;And what rough beast, its hour come round at last, Slouches towards Bethlehem to be born?&quot; [http://chumpsofchoice.blogspot.com/2007/05/casino-royale-in-flanders-field.html#c3637134446204467798 ]<br /> <br /> '''General Boulanger'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/General_Boulanger Georges Boulanger], French military man, and War Minister in the late 19th century. He was one of those men &quot;on a white horse&quot; that some conservatives looked to, as he urged an attack on Germany and the end of the French Republic with a return to monarchy. He was also notorious for his harsh reprisals against workers' demonstrations. &quot;'Boulangisme'&quot; threatened a coup in 1889, but the general's procrastination brought the crisis to an end.<br /> <br /> '''what death and what transfiguration'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Allusion to Richard Strauss' tone poem &quot;Death and Transfiguration&quot; (''Tod und Verklärung''), premiered in 1890.<br /> <br /> '''''&quot;Zeker&quot;'''''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Dutch: certainly.<br /> <br /> '''''dead cert'''''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Dead certainty, sure thing.<br /> <br /> '''Von Schlieffen'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Alfred von Schlieffen was the author of a German war plan to win a two-front war against both France and Russia by quickly defeating France before Russian troops could be mobilized. The [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Schlieffen_Plan Schlieffen Plan] included an attack on France through Belgium, disregarding its neutrality.<br /> <br /> '''Wilhelm has offered Leopold part of France, the ancient Duchy of Burgundy'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> [http://www.crwflags.com/fotw/flags/fr-bg.html History of the duchy.] [http://www.freiburg-madison.de/freiburg_history/1386-1517_The%20Early%20Habsburgs.htm Map,] with portrait of Duke Charles the Rash.<br /> <br /> '''lowlands'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Title of Pynchon's first published story. Here, ass?<br /> <br /> ==Page 544==<br /> <br /> '''Place d'Armes'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Main square of Ostend; literally &quot;drill field&quot;.<br /> <br /> '''peau de soie'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> &quot;Skin of silk&quot; A heavy, smooth satin with very fine ribbing; somewhat dull in sheen compared with traditional silk finishes.<br /> <br /> '''Krafft-Ebing'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Richard Freiherr von Krafft-Ebing, Austro-German psychiatrist and author of ''Psychopathia Sexualis'' (1886), a pioneering study of deviant sexual behavior and fetishism. Coined both ''sadism'' and ''masochism'' as terms for these respective behaviors. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Richard_Freiherr_von_Krafft-Ebing Wikipedia entry].<br /> <br /> '''toque'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Toque here refers to a lady's hat, originally of fur but here in velvet, which is rather like a flattened chef's hat in shape.<br /> <br /> Proust: in ''À l'ombre des jeunes filles en fleurs'' the narrator first sees Albertine wearing a toque. There seem to be quite a few Proust themes and references running throughout the novel. Indeed '''Pliade''' is the French publisher of Proust's works. <br /> <br /> '''guipure'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Lace trim.<br /> <br /> '''midinette'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> A shopgirl or dressmakers apprentice. A milliner.<br /> <br /> '''Lambic'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> A distinctive Belgian style of beer. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lambic Wikipedia]<br /> <br /> '''sous'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> <br /> Coins. Originally Roman gold coins, latterly any kind of coin.<br /> <br /> Specifically small change. She is affecting modesty by claiming that a hat like hers can be had for pennies in any unpretentious shop. In France &quot;sou is used as slang for money, as in ''sans le sou''. 'I'm broke', 'without money'. It is also a slang term for the Canadian cent (standard French, cent).&quot; ([http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sou Wikipedia])<br /> <br /> '''mayonnaise'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Brautigan's &quot;Trout Fishing in America&quot; famously ends with the word mayonnaise. [http://books.google.com/books?vid=ISBN0395500761&amp;id=rbEjDovfyNMC&amp;pg=RA2-PA111&amp;lpg=RA2-PA111&amp;ots=ELKl5b_6Tx&amp;dq=mayonnaise+trout.fishing&amp;num=100&amp;sig=BiyXRqJXRGrMWbrBNgn8de2kpCo#PRA2-PA112,M1 GoogleBooks]<br /> <br /> '''ovoöleaginous'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Another Pynchonic word combination, here denoting the two main ingredients of mayonnaise: 1) eggs, and 2) oil. It's not &quot;fecoventilatory collision&quot; as seen in &quot;Vineland,&quot; but it's nice.<br /> <br /> '''Grenache'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Grape commonly used in Rhone Valley wines e.g. Chateauneuf du Pape.<br /> <br /> '''Chantilly'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> <br /> Region north of Paris.<br /> <br /> Here the reference is to crème chantilly otherwise known as whipped cream. Chantilly mayonnaise is made by incorporating the beaten egg whites for extra lightness.<br /> <br /> '''attainder'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Legislative act declaring that a person is guilty of a crime and setting punishment without the benefit of a formal trial. The Constitution forbids the federal government (Article I, Section 9, clause 3) and the state governments (Article I, Section 10, clause 1) from passing bills of attainder.<br /> [www.historycentral.com/Civics/B.html] <br /> <br /> ''''''Aux armes, citoyens''''''&lt;br&gt;<br /> ''To arms, citizens'', from the French national anthem, ''La Marseillaise'' (1792). Kit confused La Mayonnaise with La Marseillaise.&lt;br&gt;<br /> Not &quot;Le Marseillaise,&quot; you nitwit!<br /> <br /> '''Louis XV'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> King of France 1715-1774 [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Louis_XV]. <br /> <br /> '''Cléo de Mérode'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Glamorous French ballerina (1875-1966), later Follies Bergere dancer and famous beauty. Her reputed intimacy with King Leopold was only a rumor [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cleo_de_Merode]. The character Madame Leonora Armfeldt in Stephen Sondheim's ''A Little Night Music'' has some features in common with her.<br /> <br /> '''Marquise de Pompadour'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Mistress of Louis XV,once friend of Voltaire and a power behind official scenes.[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Madame_de_Pompadour].<br /> <br /> ==Page 545==<br /> <br /> '''duc de Richelieu'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Duc de Richelieu (1696-1788), marshal of France, was a grandnephew of Cardinal Richelieu, and born in Paris. Apart from his reputation as a man of exceptionally loose morals, he attained, in spite of a defective education, distinction as a diplomatist and general. ([http://www.1911encyclopedia.org/Louis_Francois_Armand_du_Plessis,_duc_de_Richelieu duc de Richelieu] and cf [[ATD_489-524#Page 490|page 490:duc de Richelieu]])<br /> <br /> '''dubious 'victory' in 1756'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> As part of the Seven Years' War (1756-1763), duc de Richelieu (1696-1788), a Marshal of France, won a victory in the Battle of Minorca (May 20, 1756) over John Byng (1704-1757), a British Admiral. In spring of 1756 John Byng was sent with a small and undermanned fleet to relieve the British ''Port Mahon'' on the Mediterranean island of Minorca. During the battle ensued, several British ships were badly damaged by the French squadron while others, including Byng's flagship, were still out of effective firing range. Instead of engaging the enemy directly, Byng decided to keep the formation, allowing the French fleet to get away undamaged. ([http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_Minorca Battle of Minorca]).<br /> <br /> '''the ill-fated Admiral Byng'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> John Byng, convicted by court-martial of failure &quot;to do his utmost&quot; in the battle, shot in 1757. Remembered because of (1) his being the last officer of flag rank to be put to death for conduct in battle and (2) Voltaire's gag in ''Candide:'' &quot;In this country it is good to kill an admiral from time to time in order to encourage the others.&quot;<br /> <br /> '''cantharides'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> &quot;Spanish fly,&quot; contact irritant sometimes ill-advisedly used as aphrodisiac.<br /> <br /> '''Sadean'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Pertaining to the Marquis de Sade. The acts the chef performs on the egg and oil have the same names as acts of Sadean sex. <br /> <br /> '''''n'est-ce pas?'''''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Right? (Isn't that so?)<br /> <br /> '''vetiver'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> A grass (Vetiveria zizanioides) of tropical India, cultivated for its aromatic roots that yield an oil used in perfumery.<br /> [www.answers.com/topic/vetiver]. So, a perfume with, llterallly, roots in India.<br /> <br /> Vetiver makes frequent appearances throughout ''À la recherche du temps perdu.''<br /> <br /> '''pip'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> A beaut; in current parlance, a hottie.<br /> <br /> '''Q.P. system'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Quaternion Probability, page 536.<br /> <br /> '''Usine Régionale'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> French: as translated in the text.<br /> <br /> ==Page 546==<br /> <br /> '''disjunctive effects of thunderstorms'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Folk wisdom says a thunderstorm will cause mayonnaise to separate (oil from yolks).<br /> <br /> '''cottonseed oil'''<br /> <br /> Mayonnaisse like Smegmo and Crisco is a hydrogenated fat; cottonseed oil is a common factor to all three. Indeed, the name Crisco derives from the intial sounds of &quot;'''crys'''tallized '''c'''ottonseed '''o'''il&quot;. Note in the next few pages a mention of Candlebrow -- underscoring a tie-in between Mayonnaisse and Smegmo. <br /> <br /> It may be of interest to note that hydrogenation may have a symbolic use for Pynchon. The process entails bubbling hydrogen through oil in the presence of a metal catalyst such as nickel, platinum, aluminum at 248 to 410 degrees. Remnants of these metals stay in the finished product, and when consumed can lead to an increase in heavy metals in the human body.<br /> <br /> Eating hydrogenated oils is like eating plastic. The body does not recognize that these molecules have been mutated and tries to use them as essential fatty acids. But they cannot perform the same function, and as a result hydrogenated oils can cause short circuits in the electrical flow that controls the heartbeat, nerve functions, cell division and mental balance. They also create free radicals (anarchists!) that are linked to cancers. Free radicals plus metal remnants are a major contributor to cancer, heart disease, immune system dysfunction, osteoporosis, depression, chronic fatigue, Alzheimers, and neurological diseases. It is estimated that over 200 million people have died prematurely because of the hydrogenated oils found in our diets. [http://www.drz.org/asp/newsletter/default.asp?xt2id=23] Not to mention innocent bystanders killed by mentally imbalanced people whose imbalance may stem from the ingestion of hydrogenated oils -- there may be some underlying reality to the &quot;Twinkie defense.&quot;<br /> <br /> '''lounge suit'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> A lounge suit is another name for business suit consisting of a matching jacket and trousers or skirt.<br /> <br /> '''congress shoes'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> ankle high shoes with elastic gussets in the sides (wordweb online)<br /> <br /> '''invisible hand'''<br /> <br /> Suggestive of Adam Smith's metaphor for market forces in economics.<br /> <br /> '''dripping-heads'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mayonnaise To make mayonnaise,] beat together egg yolks, salt, mustard and vinegar, then drip in oil while beating to form the emulsion. If you scale the process up for industrial production, you will automate the introduction of the oil, using nozzles that release it a drop at a time—but in a large vat you can have many such nozzles.<br /> <br /> '''''cuves d'agitation'''''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Vat or tank in which the mayonnaise is agitated or beaten.<br /> <br /> '''Clinique d'Urgence pour Sauvetage des Sauces'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> French: Emergency Clinic for Salvage of Sauces.<br /> <br /> ==Page 547==<br /> <br /> '''' ...engulfed in thick, slick, sour-smelling mayonnaise. ''''<br /> The whole Kit's experience in the mayonnaise factory is very much reminiscent to [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Roald_Dahl Roald Dahl]'s [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Charlie_and_the_Chocolate_Factory Charlie and the Chocolate Factory].<br /> <br /> '''''Cazzo, cretino'''''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Literally, &quot;Dick, cretin.&quot; ''Cazzo'' is a common Italian interjectionary obscenity, especially in the south. &quot;Cazzo, cretino,&quot; is akin to someone saying, &quot;Well shit, dummy,&quot; or &quot;F-ing moron!&quot;<br /> <br /> '''''È il cowboy!'''''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Italian: It's the cowboy!<br /> <br /> '''''vero?'''''&lt;br&gt;<br /> true? real?<br /> <br /> '''''Le bambole anarchiste, porca miseria'''''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Italian: Anarchist babes, oh boy.<br /> <br /> '''Oudenberg'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> A southeast suburb of Ostende.<br /> <br /> '''Quai de l'Entrepôt'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Warehouse Quay<br /> <br /> '''''ragazzi'''''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Italian: boys, guys.<br /> <br /> ==Page 548==<br /> <br /> '''General Boulanger'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Georges_Boulanger General Boulanger]. That he was 'reactionary' and that the C of C bureaucracy had a 'defiant residue' of Boulangism, continues the characterization of the organization for which the Chums 'work'.<br /> <br /> '''''timbres fictifs'''''&lt;br&gt;<br /> French: fictive postage stamps. Cf &quot;Lot 49&quot;.&lt;br&gt;<br /> Yes, stamps mean something in Pynchon's works; here, it seems important that these stamps are characterized as frauds.<br /> <br /> '''&quot;IIIb&quot;'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> As explained in the text.&lt;br&gt;<br /> <br /> '''Germany might stand a better chance...'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> That is, if the French were to push into Alsace (per Boulanger) as the Germans executed the Schlieffen Plan [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Schlieffen_plan] for the encirclement of Paris, it would put the French at an even greater disadvantage...as actually happened in 1914. Had the Belgians and British not delayed the Germans in Flanders, and had the French railroads not performed speedily to bring the French troops back to the Marne, World War I could have had a very different outcome...an alternate history. <br /> <br /> '''revanchist'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Policies based on revenge, or a person following such policies. In General Boulanger's case, revenge against Germany for the Franco-Prussian War (that is, retaking Alsace, lost in 1871).<br /> <br /> '''the somewhat discomposed General'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Having died in 1891, the General by the time of the action is certainly somewhat '''de'''composed; brief biographies do not suggest he was ''non compos mentis,'' that is, mentally discomposed.<br /> <br /> ==Page 549==<br /> <br /> '''cackled Darby'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> (When did he lose his innocence?)<br /> <br /> '''a modification of any salsician metaphor toward the diminutive'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Salsician: pertaining to sausage. Lindsay says Suckling's penis is better compared to a wiener than a knockwurst.<br /> <br /> '''&quot;Why you little–and I do mean 'little'–&quot;'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Another Simpsons reference? <br /> <br /> '''dunes between Nieuport and Dunkirk'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Nieuport is a Belgian seaport about 10 miles southwest of Ostend. Dunkirk is a French port (less than 10 miles inside the French border) about 20 miles southwest of Nieuport. The latter was a site of one of the bloodest battle in World War I. The general area between Niewport and Dunkirk was the well traversed battle fields of two world wars. (Dunkirk was (in)famous for the British Army's escape from the Nazi German's assault in World War II.)<br /> <br /> '''power-receivers'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Not information, energy.<br /> <br /> ==Page 550==<br /> <br /> '''Lot's wife''' &lt;br&gt;<br /> Angels of God led Lot and his family out of Sodom as it was being destroyed and told them not to look back at the mayhem. Lot's wife, Edith, imprudently looked back and was transfigured into a pillar of salt.<br /> <br /> '''Italian grotto'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> an imitating recess or structure made to resemble a natural Italian grotto.<br /> <br /> '''a highly developed taste, moreover, for human blood'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Since Pugnax developed this taste in the Carpathians, home of Castle Dracula, this seems a clear reference to Bram Stoker's novel. <br /> <br /> '''Carpathians'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Major mountain range running northwest-southeast through Poland, Slovakia, western Ukraine and Romania.<br /> <br /> '''Uhlans'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Uhlan regiments belonged to the light cavalry. They wore splendid uniforms (model for some U.S. marching band uniforms). [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Uhlan Wikipedia article.]<br /> <br /> '''Temesvár'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Now Timişoara, extreme western Romania.<br /> <br /> ==Page 551==<br /> <br /> '''...separated by only a slice of Time...'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Miles is beginning to experience Time almost as a spatial dimension, his personal vector as traversing (!) 4-dimensional space, or perhaps multidimensional space, the mathematics for which is being debated in Ostend.<br /> <br /> '''securing the mess decks'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> The Chums follow U.S. Navy idiom in orders (frequently prefixed with &quot;Now&quot;) and shipboard activities (&quot;secure&quot; meaning &quot;whatever you did before, undo it now,&quot; in this case put away the dishes and fold up the tables).<br /> <br /> '''Ryder Thorn'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Tolkienesque name? Or perhaps it's a nod to the Ryder-Waite Tarot deck and to Kevin Thorn (Kevin Matthew Fertig, 1977-), the American professional wrestler better known by his ring name Kevin Thorn who is currently signed to World Wrestling Entertainment wrestling on its ECW brand. He has appeared in vigniettes with Ariel (Shelly Martinez, 1980-), the tarot card reader, who spits blood at the camera while she &quot;predicted the future of ECW.&quot; Yup, a stretch...<br /> <br /> *The name also evokes the Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse.<br /> <br /> '''He was at Candlebrow.'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Presumably a 'trespasser.'<br /> <br /> '''the four-note chord in the context of timelessness'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> A melody is formed by notes following one another in time; a chord on the ukulele violates that practice by having all the notes sound at once. A really clever little passage.<br /> Note: Jazz musicians describe musical improvisations as horizontal (with the melody) or vertical (with the chord)<br /> <br /> ==Page 552==<br /> <br /> '''knuckle-duster'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Brass knuckles.<br /> <br /> '''Diksmuide'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> 20 kilometers south of Ostend (about halfway to Ypres).<br /> <br /> ==Page 553==<br /> <br /> '''The terrain was flat...lowlands'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Not, this time, a reference to Pynchon's ''Lowlands'', but to the two-dimensionality of Flanders, as in Edwin A. Abbott's ''Flatland'' [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Flatland]; most humans, like the inhabitants of Flanders and Abbott's Flatlanders, experience life in two dimensions. <br /> <br /> '''Somewhere up in the sky was Miles' home...'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Whereas Miles and the Chums of Chance, in contrast, live in three dimensions. The mathematicians gathered in Ostend are trying to calculate how to experience and use vectors to live in four dimensions; in a way, to experience Time as a kind of spatial dimension. Miles, on P. 551, is demonstrating the beginnings of an intuitive discovery of how to experience Time as an almost spatial dimension. Which would be a sort of &quot;time travel&quot;, or at least an expanded view of life and history.<br /> <br /> '''retted'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> soaked in water or exposed to moisture (as flax or hemp) to facilitate the removal of the fiber from the woody tissue by partial rotting.<br /> <br /> ==Page 554==<br /> <br /> '''Ypres and Menin'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Municipalities in West Flanders that were sites of some of the bloodiest battles of WWI. At the beginning of the war, the British and Belgian stand helped save Paris from encirclement by the Germans, and saved the Channel ports, but as Thorn points out, the area became the western anchor of the Western Front trench system. The several Battles of Ypres saw the first uses of poison gas (Mustard Gas, dichlorodiethylsulfide, was first called Yperite), the use of enormous mines, and the legendary mud of Passchendaele [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Passchendaele]. <br /> <br /> '''Ten years from now'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> (1914?) through 1918? and beyond?. Another paramorphic mirror--what do we now face. Whatever it is, it is nuclear.<br /> <br /> '''Bosch'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Hieronymous Bosch (1450-1516), Dutch painter of nightmares. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hieronymus_Bosch Wikipedia entry].<br /> <br /> '''Brueghel'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Pieter Brueghel the Elder(1525-1569), Flemish painter.[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pieter_Brueghel_the_Elder Wikipedia entry].<br /> <br /> '''League'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> League of Nations? The League of Nations was formed after WWI to prevent future wars. Didn't succeed.<br /> <br /> No. In this case a historical unit of length, approximately three miles - &quot;league on league&quot; = tremendous masses<br /> <br /> '''where the needles went and which way to rotate them'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> I.e., how to push Thorn's buttons; the image is from acupuncture.<br /> <br /> ==Page 555==<br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> '''simpletons at the fair'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Making Pynchon's metaphor explicit.<br /> <br /> '''Chopin E-minor Nocturne'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Frédéric Chopin (1810-49), a Polish pianist and composer ([http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fr%C3%A9d%C3%A9ric_Chopin Chopin]). He was born in Warsaw, Poland to a Polish morther and a French father. He went to Paris at the age of 20 and died there at the age of 39. He was widely regarded as one of the most famous and influential composers for the piano. From 1837-47 he had a 10-year stormy relationship with the French writer George Sand. His E-minor Nocturne is a 4-minute long Romantic style piano solo composed in 1827. (A ''nocturne'' is usually a musical composition that is inspired by, or evocative of, the night [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nocturne Nocturne].)<br /> <br /> '''owl-light'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> ???glimmering or imperfect light or twilight hours.<br /> <br /> ''''plasmic hysteresis''''&lt;br&gt;<br /> <br /> A coined term, apparently similar in meaning to Miles’ phrase “failure of physical translation.” Plasma would take an older meaning of “form” or “shape.&quot; Hysteresis, according to Webster's, refers to “a retardation in effect when the forces on an object are changed.” Hysteresis is used to describe magnetic phenomenon as well as plastic or elastic materials, that involve changes to a rest state that last beyond the forces that cause them. Examples include recordings on magnetic tape or a thumbprint slowly disappearing from putty. In the context of this passage, plasmic hysteresis appears to describe the lingering visage of someone who is no longer present – a hysteresis of form only and thus a failed physical translation. See [http://www.etymonline.com/index.php?search=plasma&amp;searchmode=none etymology of plasma] and this nifty explanation of [http://www.lassp.cornell.edu/sethna/hysteresis/WhatIsHysteresis.html hysteresis]. <br /> <br /> Hysteresis has also been used to refer to “loops” in time, certainly apropos in this case. I stumbled across an excellent example in a 1980 episode of Dr. Who, in which the eponymous Dr. is trapped in “chronic hysteresis,” an endless loop or return to a previous <br /> point in time – very similar to the situation of Ryder Thorn. [http://www.drwhoguide.com/who_5q.htm Check it out for yourself!] <br /> <br /> <br /> ==Annotation Index==<br /> {{ATD PbP}}</div>

MKOHUT https://against-the-day.pynchonwiki.com/wiki/index.php?title=ATD_525-556&diff=14090 2007-10-17T18:11:13Z

<p>MKOHUT: /* Page 548 */</p> <hr /> <div>:'''&lt;big&gt;Please keep these annotations SPOILER-FREE by not revealing information from later pages in the novel.&lt;/big&gt;'''&lt;p&gt;&lt;br&gt;<br /> <br /> ==Page 525==<br /> <br /> '''Ostend'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Cf [[ATD_489-524#Page 521|page 521:Ostend]], a seaport in northwest Belgium. Among English-speaking tourists, Ostend (or Ostende) is best known as a ferry port. Ships have shuttled between Dover and Ostend for more than 150 years, and today's high-speed catamarans move hundreds of passengers and vehicles between these two ports in just two hours. But this thousand-year-old city is a popular beach resort with Belgians, who flock to Ostend for sun, surfing, sailing and the ''Kursaal'' (Casino). The fishing harbor and old town draw many visitors. Ostend is the only Belgian coastal resort that is as lively in the summer as in the winter. For more and pictures [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ostend Ostend].<br /> <br /> '''Fishermen's Quai'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Fishermen's Quay, also called De Trap. The shrimp boats come home here from the sea in the morning. Along the quay many stands sell lots of seafoods.<br /> <br /> '''Boulevard van Isenghem'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> A major thoroughfare in Ostend, locally called ''Van Iseghemlaan'', extending diagonally from seafront southwest through the city.<br /> <br /> '''street-plausible'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Presentable.<br /> <br /> '''Quai de l'empereur'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Since Ostende is in the Flemish part of Belgium this should be the Keizerskaai, a street along the old part of the harbour, 1919 renamed Vindictivelaan.<br /> <br /> '''estaminet'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> According to the OED - A café in which smoking is allowed. Now, any small establishment selling alcoholic liquor. <br /> <br /> '''twelve-centime'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> one centime is the French eqivalent of one cent. A twelve-centime beer would cost 12/100 of a franc.<br /> <br /> '''Quaternions'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Cf [[ATD_119-148#Page 130|page 130:Quaternions]]. Quaternions are a non-communtative extension of compelx numbers (Hamilton, 1843).&lt;br&gt;<br /> <br /> Analogy with the complex numbers (Cf [[ATD_119-148#Page 132|page 132:complex number]]) being represented as a sum of real and imaginary parts, a + b''i'', where ''i''² = −1, a quaternion is defined as a combination a + b''i'' + c''j'' + d''k'', where ''i''² = ''j''² = ''k''² = ''i j k'' = −1, and a, b, c, d are ''four'' explicit real numbers. The non-commutative property refers to ''i j = −j i = k; j k = −k j = i; k i = −i k = j''. (i.e. ''i j ≠ j i; j k ≠ k j; k i ≠ i k''; etc.) The using of ''i, j, k'', the imaginary numbers (Cf [[ATD_119-148#Page 133|page 133:imaginary number]]), led to the phrases of &quot;the ''ijk'' lot&quot; of page 533 and &quot;creature of ''i-j-k''&quot; of page 534.<br /> <br /> '''Kellner'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> German: waiter, barman. Use of the German word would be insulting to the Belgian barman.<br /> <br /> '''''demi'''''&lt;br&gt;<br /> A half-pint glass (25 centilitres, actually).<br /> <br /> '''Lambic'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Pron. ''lahm-BEEK.'' Unique Belgian beer style, sour and often thin in body.<br /> <br /> '''skimmer'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Straw hat (&quot;Panama&quot;).<br /> <br /> ==Page 526==<br /> <br /> '''biquaternion'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Or &quot;octonion,&quot; an innovation of English mathematician W.K. Clifford, [[ATD_243-272#Page_249|referred to on p. 249.]]<br /> <br /> '''Barry Nebulay'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Pun on a term from heraldry, ''barry nebuly.'' Barry (rhymes with &quot;starry,&quot; not &quot;carry&quot;) refers to a shield divided into an even number of parts by horizontal lines. Nebuly signals that the lines are deformed into stylized &quot;cloud&quot; shapes. [http://www.rarebooks.nd.edu/digital/heraldry/partitions.html Here you can see an example.] If a ''British'' author had a character with a heraldic name, it would suggest a pseudonym.<br /> <br /> '''University of Dublin'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> The Alma Mater of Hamilton, the father of Quaternion. He studied, graduated and taught at Trinity College, the University of Dublin, Ireland's oldest university.<br /> <br /> If University College, Dublin, then Joyce had graduated in 1902.&lt;br&gt;<br /> <br /> '''Quaternioneers'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Quaternion believers.<br /> <br /> '''Gibbsian Vectors'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Vector Analysis (or Vector Calculus) developed by Willard Gibbs (Cf [[ATD_26-56#Page 29|page 29:Professor Gibbs]]) in 1881 and 1884. It is a branch of calculus that deals with vectors and process involving vectors. It is much more easily applied to phsics and other applied sciences than Hamilton's Quaternions (Cf [[ATD_525-556#Page 525|page 525:Quaternions]]).&lt;br&gt;<br /> A vector is defined by not only a magnitude but also a direction, such as a velocity vector, ''v'' is defined by ''v'' = a''i'' + b''j'' + c''k'',<br /> where a, b, and c are the magnitudes of the velocity components in directions of ''i, j'' and ''k'' which are unit vectors, (not imaginary numbers as in Quaternion), with magnitude of 1. In three dimensional cases and ''xyz'' coordinate system is used then ''i, j, k'' are related to ''x, y, z'' directions (&quot;''xyz'' people&quot; of page 533); but they, in general, may be used irrespective of the notation of the coordinates.<br /> Mathematical operations (addition, subtraction, multiplication), differentiation (''curl'' — Cf [[ATD_318-335#Page 326|page 326:Curl]] and p. 536, ''Laplacian'' — Cf [[ATD_318-335#Page 326|page 326:Laplacian]] and p. 536, etc) and integration can be applied to vectors. It is interesting to know that one of the two multiplication operations is called cross product; for unit vectors (''i, j, k'') perpendicular to each other, then, ''i × i = j × j = k × k = 0'', ''i × j = k'', ''j × i = -k'', etc. ([http://web.mit.edu/wwmath/vectorc/summary.html Vector Calculus]).&lt;br&gt;<br /> A simple vector anyalysis example here: if ''k'', the unit vector, stands for the direction upward and g is the gravitational acceleration, then the acceleration vector, ''a'', for a projectile, is defined for downward action, (the ''i'' and ''j'' directions have zero components):&lt;br&gt;<br /> :''a'' = -g ''k''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Integrating ''a'' would give the velocity vector, ''v''&lt;br&gt;<br /> :''v'' = -g t ''k''&lt;br&gt;<br /> for zero initial velocity case, and t standing for time.&lt;br&gt;<br /> And integrating ''v'' would yield the position vector, ''h'', for the projectile&lt;br&gt;<br /> :''h'' = -½ g t² ''k''&lt;br&gt;<br /> toward the sea level.<br /> <br /> '''Quaternionists'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Quaternion believers, same as Quaternioneers.<br /> <br /> '''Tasmania'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Tasmania is an island of the southern coast of Australia. Known for its relative isolation, it was a prison for English convicts in the 1800s<br /> <br /> '''Having been inseparable from the rise of the electromagnetic'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> In his 1865 work ''The Dynamical Theory of the Electromagnetic Field'', James Clerk Maxwell unified electricity and magnetism. He put forth twenty equations, with twenty unknowns, in vector form (though different in notation and form than the equations that now bear his name) that completely described all known electromagnetic phenomena. In his 1873 treatise on the subject, he expressed the equations in the mathematics of quaternions. It appears that the quaternion form of the equations remained popular even though, at the behest of his publisher, Maxwell reverted to the 1865 form in the second edition (1881)--though they remain scattered throughout. In 1892 Oliver Heaviside (On the Forces, Stresses, and Fluxes of Energy in the Electromagnetic Field. ''Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society of London.'' A, Vol. 183. pp423-480), while spewing scientific vitriol at the Quaternionists, reformulated Maxwell's original 1865 equations (Heaviside chose to remove the vector potential and scalar fields from the equations; the inclusion of these terms had served as Maxwell's justification for the use of quaternions), and provided the notation still in use today. See this [http://www.zpenergy.com/modules.php?name=Downloads&amp;d_op=getit&amp;lid=60 PDF] for the evolution of Maxwell's equations.<br /> <br /> '''Hamiltonian devotees'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> The Quaternion faction, after William Hamilton, who devised the scheme.<br /> <br /> '''Grand Hôtel de la Nouvelle Digue'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> There is a Hotel Digue in the Seychelles; this is a New Hotel Digue by Pynchon? <br /> <br /> Grand Hotel of New Dyke, may be a made up hotel name.<br /> <br /> '''anterooms of death'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> This metaphor is sometimes applied to concentration camps. Here the lyric &quot;feel like I'm fixin' to die&quot; seems more apposite.<br /> <br /> '''Belgian Art Nouveau'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Art Nouveau, 1890(or 80) to 1914, explores a new style in the visual arts and architecture that developed in Europe and North America at the end of the 19th century. At its height (~1907), Art Nouveau was a concerted attempt to create an international style based on decoration. It was developed by a brilliant and energetic generation of artists and desisgners, who sought to fashion an art form appropriate to the post-Industrial Revolution modern age.&lt;br&gt;<br /> Brussels was one of the Art Nouveau centers and represented different style from the others. The jewelers there, accepted as artists rahter than craftsmen, (together with those in Paris) defined Art Nouveau in jewelery and achieved the most renown. ([http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Art_Nouveau Art Nouveau]).<br /> <br /> ==Page 527==<br /> <br /> '''dossing'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> British slang for &quot;sleeping&quot;, &quot;staying overnight&quot;<br /> <br /> '''Russian nihilists'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> :The following four are local, Belgian, not Russian, nihilists !<br /> <br /> '''Eugénie'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Female. Possibly named for Empress Eugénie (1826-1920), consort of French Emperor Napoleon III. Ultimately for St. Eugenia, 3rd-century Roman martyr whose feast is celebrated on December 25.<br /> <br /> '''Fatou'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Female. A pseudonym? In view of the date of the action, certainly not named after [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fatou the mathematician Fatou] (1878-1929).<br /> <br /> '''Denis'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Male. Named for St. Denis or Dionysius, patron saint of Paris and of France, 3rd-century bishop of Paris, martyr, beheaded on the hill now called Montmartre. &quot;Montjoie St. Denis!&quot; was a warcry used by French troops in the Middle Ages. His intercession is effective against demonic possession and headache.<br /> <br /> '''Policarpe'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Male. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Polycarp Saint Polycarp] was a Christian bishop of Smyrna (now İzmir in Turkey) in the second century. He was stabbed and died a martyr after an attempt to burn him at the stake failed. His intercession is sought against earache and dysentery.<br /> <br /> '''Young Congo'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Probably in reference to the [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Young_Turks Young Turks], a Turkish revolutionary movement<br /> <br /> '''Garde Civique'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> A part of the Belgian army. According to the [http://www.1911encyclopedia.org/Belgium 1911 Britannica], &quot;the mass of the garde civique does not pretend to possess military value. It is a defence against sedition and socialism.&quot;<br /> <br /> '''French Second Bureau boys'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Deuxieme Bureau; French Intelligence.<br /> <br /> '''''phalange'''''&lt;br&gt;<br /> French: phalanx. A military (here mock-military) group ready for combat. &lt;br&gt;<br /> <br /> It also conjures up memories of the early 19th century utopian socialist <br /> Charles Fourier, who theorized that people should live communally in &quot;phalanxes&quot; of a specific number based upon their &quot;passions.&quot; His solid ideas included equality of the sexes, but he also taught wacky things such as the moon being made of lemonade. Of particular relevance is his rejection of industrial civilization. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Utopian_socialism]<br /> <br /> '''&quot;...until something had happened, something too terrible to remember...&quot;'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Again this theme of an unknowable past transgression, here invoked almost as if the unknown signifies the other 'lateral' (a word which has cropped up at least a dozen times already) 'vector'.<br /> <br /> '''the Digue'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> French for &quot;dyke&quot;<br /> <br /> '''Congo... Belgians'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> The Belgian colonisation of the Congo was, as Conrad's ''Heart of Darkness'' makes clear, notable for its greed and brutality.<br /> <br /> '''Leopold, King of the Belgians'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> 1835-1909, reigned 1865-1909. A man of almost Nixonian fiendishness. In the Congo he acted as sole proprietor and absolute ruler. The positive outcomes of his exploitation include ''Heart of Darkness'' and the phrase &quot;crime against humanity.&quot;<br /> <br /> '''co-conscious'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> mental processes outside the main stream of consciousness but sometimes available to it — from Merriam-Webster's Medical Dictionary.<br /> <br /> '''Force Publique'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Belgian armed forces operating in the Belgian Congo ([http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Force_Publique Wikipedia]). &quot;King Leopold's private army&quot; may be a more accurate description.<br /> <br /> '''rubber worker'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> See above: One of the early missions of the FP was to increase rubber export quotas through forced labor and related atrocities.<br /> <br /> ==Page 528==<br /> <br /> '''''khâgne'''''&lt;br&gt;<br /> an informal term used by French students for Classes Préparatoires Littéraires, the two-year cycle of classes taken after the Baccalaureat (taken at age 17-18), to prepare for the entrance examination to the Ecole Normale Supeieure. ([http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kh%C3%A2gne khâgne]).<br /> <br /> '''Reclus'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> J. J. Élisée Reclus (1830-1905), French geographer but mainly educated in Germany. Several times he was forced to leave France because of his political views; he traveled widely in Europe, the British Isles, the United States, and South America and for many years lived in Switzerland. He was professor of comparative geography at the University of Brussels from 1895 to 1905. He had quite an extensive connection with various socialist and anarchist circles (met Bakunin while in Florence).Once he was imprisoned in Versailles in 1871 for his part in the ''Paris Commune''. In 1882 he initiated the ''Anti-marriage movement'' while in Geneva. [[http://academic.reed.edu/formosa/texts/reclusbio.html Reclus]).<br /> <br /> '''Stirnerite'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Follower of Max Stirner, 19th century German philosopher and author of ''The Ego and Its Own,'' a work influential in anarchist thought. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Max_Stirner Wikipedia entry].<br /> <br /> ''Max Stirner'''s (1806-56) attacks on systematic philosophy, his denial of absulutes, and his rejection of abstract concepts of any kind often places him among the first philosophical nihilists. For Stirner, achieving individual freedom is the only law; and the state, which necvessarily imperils freedom, must be destroyed. Even beyond the oppression of the state, though, are the constraints imposed by others because their very existence is an obstable compromising individual freedom. Thus Stirner argues that existence is an endless &quot;war of each against all&quot; (1845). (taken from the paragraph about Max Stirner in [http://www.iep.utm.edu/n/nihilism.htm#H1 Nihilism])&lt;br&gt;<br /> Sourcing here? Much complexity in properly understanding Stirner, who has some Pynchon-like qualities, to say the least. From the Stanford Dictionary of Philosophy&lt;br&gt;<br /> His major work:<br /> The Ego and Its Own<br /> Much of Stirner's prose—which is crowded with aphorisms, italicisation, and hyperbole—appears calculated to disconcert. Most striking, perhaps, is the use of word play. Rather than reach a conclusion through the conventional use of argument, Stirner often approaches a claim that he wishes to endorse by exploiting words with related etymologies or formal similarities. For example, he associates words for property (such as ‘Eigentum’) with words connoting distinctive individual characteristics (such as ‘Eigenheit’) in order to promote the claim that property is expressive of selfhood. (Stirner's account of egoistic property—see below—gives this apparently orthodox Hegelian claim a distinctive twist.)<br /> <br /> This rejection of conventional forms of intellectual discussion is linked to Stirner's substantive views about language and rationality. His unusual style reflects a conviction that both language and rationality are human products which have come to constrain and oppress their creators. Stirner maintains that accepted meanings and traditional standards of argumentation are underpinned by a conception of truth as a privileged realm beyond individual control. As a result, individuals who accept this conception are abandoning a potential area of creative self-expression in favour of adopting a subordinate role as servants of truth. In stark contrast, Stirner insists that the only legitimate restriction on the form of our language, or on the structure of our arguments, is that they should serve our individual ends. It is the frequent failure of ordinary meanings and standard forms of argument to satisfy his interpretation of this criterion which underpins Stirner's remorselessly idiosyncratic style.<br /> <br /> The Ego and Its Own has an intelligible, but scarcely transparent, structure. It is organised around a tripartite account of human experience, initially introduced in a description of the stages of an individual life. The first stage in this developmental narrative is the realistic one of childhood, in which children are constrained by material and natural forces such as their parents. Liberation from these external constraints is achieved with what Stirner calls the self-discovery of mind, as children find the means to outwit those forces in their own determination and cunning. The idealistic stage of youth, however, contains new internal sources of constraint, as individuals once more become enslaved, this time to the spiritual forces of conscience and reason. Only with the adulthood of egoism do individuals escape both material (external) and spiritual (internal) constraints, learning to value their personal satisfaction above all other considerations.<br /> <br /> Stirner portrays this dialectic of individual growth as an analogue of historical development, and it is a tripartite account of the latter which structures the remainder of the book. Human history is reduced to successive epochs of realism (the ancient, or pre-Christian, world), idealism (the modern, or Christian, world), and egoism (the future world). <br /> <br /> What about these &quot;successive epochs&quot; in understanding ATD?<br /> <br /> Stirner's major work, The Ego and Its Own has been reissued in English a number of times in Pynchon's lifetime,from the 60s on. (Not that TRP could not have read it in German!)<br /> <br /> '''''Anarcho-individualiste'''''&lt;br&gt;<br /> i.e. he has doctrinal differernces with Stirnerism, strictly speaking; see P. 324, and &quot;Eigenheit&quot;.<br /> <br /> '''Leopold'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> See p. 527.<br /> <br /> '''going down lately'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Being assassinated.<br /> <br /> '''Sipido'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Jean-Baptiste Sipido (1884-1959), a Belgian socialist. Accusing the Prince of Wales of causing thousands of inocents were killed in the Boer War in South Africa, on April 5, 1900, Sipido leaped onto the foot board of the royal compartment right before the train left the North Railway Station (Gare du Nord), Brussel, and fired two (or one? as reported in ''The Manchester Guardian'', or four? as stated in the text here) shots through the window but missed everyone inside. He was arrested, tried and acquitted. The leader of the House of Commons called the acquittal a &quot;grave and most unfortunate miscarriage of justice.&quot; ([http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jean-Baptiste_Sipido Sipido]).<br /> <br /> '''Prince... of Wales'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> (Maud Gonne's husband claimed to have been involved in another such plot.)<br /> <br /> '''Hippodrome'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Hippodrome Wellington, a horse racing track in Ostend built in 1883. The facility hosts both harness and flat racing events. ([http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hippodrome_Wellington Hippodrome]).<br /> <br /> '''Royal Bathing Hut... twenty francs'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> A bathing machine ([http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bathing_machine bathing machine])? The King of Belgium certainly would not want to be seen in a swimsuit on a public beach... It seems unlikely, though, that such a royal bathing machine would be for hire.<br /> <br /> '''twenty francs'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> ???<br /> <br /> ==Page 529==<br /> <br /> '''picric family'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> The explosive picric acid (2,4,6-trinitrophenol) and its derivatives. For picric acid, Brugère's powder and Designolle's powder, [http://encyclopedia.jrank.org/PER_PIG/PICRIC_ACID_or_TRINITROPHENOL_C.html see this Britannica article.]<br /> <br /> '''Brugère's powder'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> See &quot;picric family&quot; above.<br /> <br /> '''Designolle's'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> See &quot;picric family&quot; above.<br /> <br /> '''Monsieur Santos-Dumont'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Alberto Santos-Dumont (1873-1932), a pioneer of aviation from Brasil. Check out [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alberto_Santos-Dumont Wikipedia] to get a look at the way he was wearing his &quot;trademark Panama hat&quot;. <br /> <br /> '''Green Hour''' and '''''l'heure vertigineuse'''''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Absinthe-drinking time. The liqueur is green. In French, ''l'heure verte,'' so ''vertigineuse'' (vertiginous, causing dizziness) is a pun on the word for &quot;green.&quot;<br /> <br /> '''Rocco and Pino'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Rabid Quaternionists and sudden friends of Kit Traverse.<br /> :No, they were not mathematicians at all, let alone Quaternionists, but two &quot;Italian naval renegades&quot; !!<br /> ::&quot;Rocco and Pino&quot; are, in temperament, something like the &quot;Mason and Dixon&quot; of manned-torpedoes... cf. the &quot;torpedo&quot; (i.e., &quot;Electrick-Eel&quot;) of ''Mason &amp; Dixon''.<br /> <br /> '''Whitehead works in Fiume'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Anticipating GR's V2 works.<br /> <br /> ''Robert Whitehead'' (1823-1905), an English engineer. He developed the first self-propelled torpedo in 1866. He attended Manchester's Mechanics Institute, worked in a shipyard in Toulon (1844), France, and as a consultant engineer in Milan (1847), Italy. Later he moved to Trieste and in 1856 became a manager of a company called ''Founderia Mettali'' (later, ''Stabilimento Tecnico di Fiume'') in Fiume producing ship steam boilers and engines which were the most advanced of that era. He also developed the first self-propelled torpedo which was very popular. Whitehead's torpedo was propelled by a compressed air engine, carried 18lbs dynamites and a self-regulating device which kept the torpedo cruising at a constant preset depth. [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Robert_Whitehead Whitehead]].<br /> <br /> ''Fiume'' is now Rijeka, Croatia. Trieste is on the northwestern edge of the Istra Peninsula, Rijeka is east of it. [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rijeka Fiume]].<br /> <br /> Interesting sidebar: Whitehead's fortune from Fiume and the torpedo went solely to his granddaughter Agatha Whitehead, who married Baron von Trapp. The Von Trapp money came from Robert Whitehead, and most of the von Trapp singers were his great-grandchildren.<br /> <br /> '''''Alberta'''''&lt;br&gt;<br /> The [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Royal_yacht Wikipedia] entry on royal yachts goes back to the 17th century but doesn't include ''Alberta.'' The craft does get a mention in [http://www.bouncing-balls.com/timeline/people/nr_leopoldmorel.htm this page on Leopold and the Congo.]<br /> <br /> '''Siluro Dirigibile a Lenta Corsa'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> or S.L.C. &quot;slow course torpedo&quot;, &quot;slow-running torpedo&quot;. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Manned_torpedo Wikipedia] Italy‘s Navy was among the first to experiment with manned torpedos. Though according to [http://web.ukonline.co.uk/chalcraft/sm/chariots.html this site] this did not happen until 1935, Italian frogmen as early as October 31, 1918 made it into the harbour of Pula with the help of a modified german torpedo and sank the former Austrian but by then since a few hours Croatian/Slovenian/Bosnian battleship SMS ''Viribus Unitis''. [http://www.geocities.com/tegetthoff66/viribus.html website]<br /> <br /> The Wikipedia entry linked above doesn't contain the Italian word ''dirigibile'' (steerable), which sets up the torpedo as a counterpart of the dirigible ''Inconvenience.''<br /> <br /> :I suspect there's a connection between the torpedo and &quot;Not the usual lateener, in fact appearing to have neither sails, masts, nor oars&quot; in Miles' reversed vision, [[ATD_243-272#Page_250|page 250.]] Needs work, though.<br /> <br /> ==Page 530==<br /> <br /> '''exfiltrate'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Make a surreptitious escape (as &quot;infiltrate&quot; means to make a surreptitious entrance).<br /> <br /> '''''Macchè'''''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Italian: certainly not, not a chance. And in Pynchon's Italian is used as an all-purpose exclamation.<br /> <br /> '''''Ehi, stu gazz', categoria'''''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Stu gazz' is a dialect representation of ''sto cazzo'', literally meaning ''this dick here''. Normally you could translate the sense of the sentence as: ''yeah, why not, a fucking category! ''. -- blicero2 - 2007.02.22<br /> <br /> '''''mezzogiornismo'''''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Denigrating the Italian South. Mezzogiorno means ''midday'' in Italian but refers generally to Southern Italy.<br /> <br /> ==Page 531==<br /> <br /> '''Bruges'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> An exceptionally beautiful Belgian town of canals which is thus one of several towns known as the 'Venice of the north'. In the 14th cettury Burges already became an international finanacial and trading center, but<br /> started to decline in the 15th century. In the 20th century, however, the city was discovered by the international tourism and the medieval heritage turned out to be a new source of wealth. A new harbor of Zeebrugge, 10 miles outside of Bruges at the North Sea coast, brought new developments and new industries to the region. For the city and its history see ([http://www.trabel.com/brugge.htm Bruges]).<br /> <br /> '''Raoul's Atelier de la Vitesse'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> French: Ralph's Speed Shop.<br /> <br /> '''Ghent'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Belgian city, less than 30 miles southeast of Bruges, on the rail line about halfway between Ostend and Brussels. It is the fourth largest city of Belgium. It is bigger than Bruges but not as famous as a tourist attraction. But the city is a showcase of medieval Flemish wealth and commercial success. See ([http://www.trabel.com/gent.htm Ghent]).<br /> <br /> '''Daimler six-cylinder'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> ???<br /> <br /> '''a hundred horsepower'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> ???<br /> <br /> '''''guaglion'''''&lt;br&gt;<br /> italian (dialectal) = boy, young person<br /> <br /> '''Umeki Tsurigane'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Umeki is typically made with some combination of the various kanji for &quot;plum&quot; (ume) and &quot;tree&quot; (ki), though one has the ki being the character for &quot;ghost/devil&quot; and one obscure reading that's entirely redundant, where ume is &quot;plant&quot; (usually read ue). There is one where ume is the kanji for &quot;buried or embedded&quot;. Tsurigane, means a &quot;temple bell&quot;, which can stand alone or be followed by the grass kanji to mean &quot;bellflower&quot; (lots of botanical stuff happening here, if that means anything; hardly the only example in ''AtD''). Given the search for Shambhala going on, &quot;Buried Temple Bell&quot; seems a likely translation, at least at this point; the botanical meanings could perhaps emerge later.<br /> <br /> Or, another terrible name-pun? &quot;You make [m]e sore again.&quot; See another on P. [[ATD_748-767#Page_757| 757]]<br /> <br /> '''Professor Knott'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Cargill Knott (1856-1922), professor of physics; seismologist. See his biography [http://www.penicuikcdt.org.uk/Cargill_Knott.html here].<br /> <br /> ==Page 532==<br /> <br /> '''Kimura'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Cf [[ATD_26-56#Page 29|page 29:Kimura]] and [[ATD_318-335#Page 318|page 318:Shunkichi Kimura]].<br /> <br /> '''drover's sombrero'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Cowboy hat.<br /> <br /> '''furoshiki'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Japanese all-purpose cloth. Can be worn, used as wrapping, or used as a bag.<br /> <br /> '''taupe'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> A brownish gray.<br /> <br /> '''boilermakers and their helpers'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> [[ATD_358-373#Page_360|See annotation to p. 360.]]<br /> <br /> '''Anharmonic Pencil'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> ''Pencil'' is a term commonly used in Synthetic Geometry. Straight lines incident with a plane - coplanar lines - and passing through a common point are said to be concurrent lines and the set of all such concurrent coplanar lines is called the ''pencil''. (Cf [[ATD_429-459#Page 456|page 456:Pencil]]). For a figure and a not quite precise definition see [http://mathworld.wolfram.com/Pencil.html pencil]. If a, b, c and d, are four distinct coplanar lines and their double ratio λ = (abcd) = -1, then a, b, c, d are called a harmonic quadruple of lines; they are said to constitute a ''harmonic pencil''. A ''pencil'' which is not harmonic then is known as ''anharmonic pencil''. See Pencil (lines 8-9), Double Ratio λ (lines 32-35) and Harmonic Pencil (line 39) of [http://ca.geocities.com/ingsaler6/mathworld.html Mathworld].<br /> <br /> '''''Comptes rendus'''''&lt;br&gt;<br /> ''Comptes rendus des séances hebdomadaires,'' Proceedings of the weekly sessions (of the Academy of Sciences), published from 1835, later (ca. 1935) retitled ''Comptes rendus de l'Académie des sciences,'' Proceedings of the Academy of Sciences. (Notice that the academy didn't see the need to specify &quot;French.&quot; Take that, Royal Society of London!) For about a century, one of two journals so universally circulated and recognized that bibliographies nearly always cited them in nickname form: ''C.R.'' The other was ''Ber.,'' short for ''Berichte der Deutschen Chemischen Gesellschaft,'' Reports of the German Chemical Society (from 1868).<br /> <br /> '''De Forest'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Cf [[ATD_26-56#Page 29|page 29:De Forest]].<br /> <br /> '''Gibbs'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Cf [[ATD_26-56#Page 29|page 29:Professor Gibbs]].<br /> <br /> '''Maxwell Equations'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Cf [[ATD_57-80#Page 58|page 58:Maxwell Field Equations]].<br /> <br /> ==Page 533==<br /> <br /> '''aniline teal'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> The wallpaper dye; aniline dyes were the first synthetic dyes, discovered by [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/William_Perkin William Perkin] in 1858. Their intense and fade-resistant colors were very fashionable at the end of the nineteenth century. The dyes are also significant in ''GR'' as the products of I.G. Farben.<br /> <br /> '''Heavisiders'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Oliver Heaviside (May 18, 1850 – February 3, 1925) was a self-taught English electrical engineer, mathematician and physicist who adapted complex numbers to the study of electrical circuits, developed techniques for applying Laplace transforms to the solution of differential equations, reformulated Maxwell's field equations in terms of electric and magnetic forces and energy flux, and independently co-formulated vector analysis. Although at odds with the scientific establishment for most of his life, Heaviside changed the face of mathematics and science for years to come.[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Heaviside].<br /> <br /> '''Grassmanniacs'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Nineteenth century German mathematician and linguist, essentially the inventor/discoverer of vector space. Grassmann showed that once geometry is put into the algebraic form he advocated, then the number three has no privileged role as the number of spatial dimensions; the number of possible dimensions is in fact unbounded.[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hermann_Grassmann].<br /> <br /> '''in the mood for a clambake'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Anachronistic Broadway show tune? If so, the clambake in ''Carousel'' turns into a brawl; the assmebled factions of mathematicians could be in the mood for either a party or a brawl, apparently. <br /> <br /> '''Monopole de la Maison'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Monopole of the House, a fanciful name of a fanciful drink.&lt;br&gt;<br /> There is, since 1898, a well known restaurant called ''Monopole Lunch &amp; Sea Grill'' in Plattsburgh of upper New York state. ([http://www.monopole.org Monopole Restaurant]).&lt;br&gt;<br /> Most probably, it's the Magnetic monopole being referred here. In physics, a monopole is a magnet with a net magnetic charge, i.e. there is only one pole instead of two (so no net magnetic charge) as usual. ([http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Magnetic_monopole Monopole]). It's existence had been theoretically predicted by various particle theories (superstring theory, etc) but never been proved experimentally. Proving the existence of a monopole would certainly earn a Nobel Prize.<br /> <br /> '''Idiom Neutral'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> An invented language, like Esperanto. Idiom Neutral dictionaries first appeared in 1902. It looks like a simplified Latinate language and it grew out of Volapuk, another &quot;auxiliary language.&quot; It was abandoned by the ''Akademi Internasional de Lingu Universal'' in 1908.<br /> <br /> For a list of all the invented languages that linguists are keeping track of, including Klingon, try [http://linguistlist.org/forms/langs/GetListOfConstructedLgs.html Eastern Michigan's Linguist List]. And don't forget to click on the link to &quot;Browse sites devoted to constructed languages.&quot;<br /> <br /> '''phatic'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Basically, small talk or chatter. Words used to convey fellow-feeling rather than to impart information.<br /> <br /> '''''Kampf ums Dasein'''''&lt;br&gt;<br /> German: struggle for existence.<br /> <br /> '''Q-brother'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Fellow Quaternioneer or Fellow Quaternionist.<br /> <br /> '''We are the Jews of mathematics, wandering out here in our diaspora--some destined for the past, others the future, even a few able to set out at unknown angles from the simple line of Time, upon journeys that no one can predict''' &lt;br&gt;<br /> In keeping with the analogy of Judaism, those &quot;few&quot; people within the Quaternionists &quot;able to set out at unknown angles&quot; are most likely being compared to Kabbalists who claim to partake in a mystic &quot;journey to the Throne of God through the mythological realm of the seven heavens&quot; (Armstrong, A History of God--p. 247). Throne Mysticism in Kabbalah is explored extensively in Gravity's Rainbow.<br /> <br /> Perhaps this is obvious to some, but these &quot;Jews of Mathematics&quot; worship the Hamiltonian Tetractys [http://www.math.ucr.edu/home/baez/dublin/]; those other Jews worshipped the Tetragrammatron. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tetragrammaton] The proliferation of 4s continues.<br /> <br /> ==Page 534==<br /> <br /> '''Poiret gown'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> A gown designed by Paul Poiret (1879-1944), a French fashion designer based in Paris. &quot;In the annals of fashion history, Paul Poiret is best remembered for freeing women from corsets and further liberating them through pantaloons . . . it was Poiret's remarkable innovations in the cut and construction of cloting . . . Working with fabric directly onto the body, Poiret helped to pioneer a radical approach to dressmakeing that relied more on the skills of drapery than on those of tailoring.&quot; (from [http://www.metmuseum.org/special/se_event.asp?OccurrenceId={0DC3D00F-4611-4F91-8DC2-CC3C1A5C48D5} MetMuseum], <br /> New York Metropolitan Museum's Special Exhibitions, ''Poiret: King of Fashion'', May 9, 2007 to August 5, 2007). For a picture of Poiret gown see [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Image:Poiretgown.jpg Poiret Gown]. ''The New York Times'' reported on February 1, 2007 that A Poiret Gown Brings $5,500 at [http://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html?res=9B07EFDA1538F93AA15756C0A967948260 Christie's Auction] - the gown was made in 1913 when Poiret was at the height of his career. For his bio see [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Paul_Poiret Poiret].<br /> <br /> '''''green and long'''''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Pickle, or... what?<br /> : A green and long ''gherkin'' (a small, immature fruit of a variety of cucumber used in pickling).<br /> <br /> ==Page 535==<br /> <br /> '''no-name wine'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> 1970s idiom for common European practice?<br /> <br /> '''set theory'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Set theory deals with the properties of well-defined collections, or ''sets'', of entities - the ''elements'' or ''members'' of the set - conceived as a whole. The elements may be of a mathematical nature or non-mathematical. The set theory grew out of the German mathematician Georg Cantor's (1845-1918) study of infinite sets of real numbers. <br /> <br /> The ''language of sets'' has become an important tool for all branches of mathematics, but is of very little relevance to the practice of mathematics in everyday life. As a source of metaphors, however, it's been quite productive; &quot;subset,&quot; &quot;superset,&quot; &quot;universe,&quot; &quot;intersection&quot; and &quot;Venn diagram&quot; have found varying degrees of acceptance. Recasting Aristotle's syllogisms in set-theoretic language also makes them easier for many people to understand.<br /> <br /> '''Hamilton . . . early genius'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Hamilton, according to ''Chambers Biographical Dictionary'', &quot;at fifteen knew thirteen languages, had read Newton's ''Principia'', and commenced original investigations&quot;. At twenty-two, &quot;while still an undergraduate, he was appointed professor of Astronomy at Dublin and Irish Astronomer-Royal&quot;; at thirty &quot;he was knighted&quot;.<br /> <br /> '''Hamilton . . . in the grip of a first love'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> ???&lt;br&gt;<br /> Pynchon probably didn't mean Quaternion was Hamilton's first love, but its effect on him was similar to that of a first love. In 1843 at the age of 38 Hamilton invented the Quaternion, the first non-communtative algebra to be studied. He felt this would revolutionise mathematical physics, and he spent the rest of his life working on it. In 1853 he published a large volume, ''Lectures on Quaternions'', on his grand invention. The last seven years of his life, Hamilton was writing an 800-page book ''Elements of Quaternions'' modeling on Euclid's ''Elements''. The last chapter of the book was completed by his son after his death.<br /> <br /> '''the Walt Whitman of English physics'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Whitman pops up again, last seen on [[ATD_489-524#Page_491|page 491]].<br /> <br /> ==Page 536==<br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> '''Oscar Wilde'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Note that Wilde's Dorian Gray also undergoes a kind of bilocation.<br /> <br /> '''Kursaal'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Spa. Casino ?<br /> <br /> '''vectors'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> For serious minds see Cf [[ATD_525-556#Page 526|page 526:Gibbsian Vectors]], but let's follow Pynchon's lighter mood, here is a non-mathematical definition by Kamen (1995):<br /> :''Many things have more than direction;''<br /> :''The magnitude is also a question.''<br /> :''With acceleration or force,''<br /> :''And many more things, of course,''<br /> :''It's vectors that make the connection.''<br /> <br /> '''Curls'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Cf [[ATD_318-335#Page 326|page 326:Curl]]: curl is a vector operator that shows a vector field's rate of rotation.<br /> <br /> '''Laplacians'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Pierre-Simon, Marquis de Laplace (March 23, 1749 – March 5, 1827); French mathematician and astronomer who summarized and extended the work of his predecessors in his five volume Mécanique Céleste (Celestial Mechanics) (1799-1825), translating the geometrical study of mechanics used by Isaac Newton to one based on calculus, known as physical mechanics.<br /> <br /> He is also the discoverer of Laplace's equation. Although the Laplace transform is named in honor of Laplace, who used the transform in his work on probability theory, the transform was discovered originally by Leonhard Euler. The Laplace transform appears in all branches of mathematical physics — a field he took a leading role in forming. The Laplacian differential operator, much relied-upon in applied mathematics, is likewise named after him. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Laplace].<br /> <br /> :Cf [[ATD_318-335#Page 326|page 326:Laplacian]]: Laplacian is a differential operator named after Laplace. The text here was talking about mathematical operations and operators — rates of change, rotations, partial differentials, Curls, ''Laplacians'', . . .<br /> <br /> '''scream'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Scream motif.<br /> <br /> '''beginning to appal'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> By 1905 there had been years of outrage at conditions in the Belgian Congo, King Leopold's private fief. Conrad's ''Heart of Darkness'' had been published as a serial in Blackwood's Magazine in 1899 and as a book in 1902. There were missionaries' accounts of the brutality, and newspaper reports. Leopold and his apologists published rebuttals. The Norton Critical Edition of ''Heart of Darkness'' contains an extensive collection of both.<br /> <br /> '''baize'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Baize is a coarse woolen felt.<br /> <br /> ==Page 537==<br /> <br /> '''broken symmetries'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Broken_symmetry Broken symmetry] is a concept used widely in mathematics and physics. For a simplest explanation (good enough for the text here), this term means that an object breaks either rotational symmetry or translational sysmetry - when one can only rotate an object in certain angles or when one is able to tell if the object has been shifted sideways. For a little bit more detailed explanation see [http://www.lassp.cornell.edu/sethna/OrderParameters/BrokenSymmetry.html Identify the Broken Symmetry]; or even more [http://scienceweek.com/2005/sw050708-6.htm On Broken Symmetry].<br /> <br /> '''''sphinxe Khnopffienne'''''&lt;br&gt;<br /> refers to the Belgian symbolist painter Fernand Khnopff (1858-1921), famous for his painting &quot;The Caress&quot;, in which a female sphinx erotically lures a young man. The painting can be seen in the [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fernand_Khnopff wikipedia entry]<br /> <br /> '''Pléiade Lafrisée'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> in French, &quot;friser&quot; means to curl or twist. &quot;La frisée&quot; could mean &quot;curled,&quot; by extension &quot;twisted.&quot; The Pleiades is a cluster of hundreds of stars, though only a few are visible, sometimes referred to as The Seven Sisters. If Pleiades are Sisters, Pléiade is ''one'' Sister, so her name means Twisted Sister!<br /> <br /> '''''Conseilleuse'''''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Female consultant?<br /> <br /> ==Page 538==<br /> <br /> '''retroversion matrix'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> ???<br /> <br /> '''''Ma foi'''''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Literally &quot;My faith&quot;, i.e. &quot;By my faith!&quot;, a mild exclamation of incredulity.<br /> <br /> '''ten thousand francs'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> <br /> Based on currency conversions relative to gold, this is equivalent to<br /> about $30,000 US today.<br /> <br /> '''piker'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Someone cheap or cautious, possibly named after people from PIke County, Missouri, who came to California in the 1800s, looking for work. They were poor, hence cheap.<br /> <br /> '''what is a Quaternino?'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Cf [[ATD_525-556#Page 525|page 525:Quaternions]] for a mathematical definition. From ''The Random House Dictionary of the English Languages'', The Unabridged Edition (1966): Quaternion is &quot;a quantity or operator expressed as the sum of a real number and three complex numbers, equivalent to the ''quotient of two vectors''. The field of quaternions is not commutative under multiplication.&quot;.<br /> <br /> '''Bertie ('Mad Dog') Russell'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> 'Mad Dog' seems to be used with heavy irony here. Bertrand Russell was known most for his rationalism, so to speak, his work in modern logic. <br /> He did little in his public roles (at this time in AtD) that would have <br /> him referred to as &quot;crazy', as we say, beyond the social norm, &quot;mad&quot;. <br /> It might be argued that his use of 'logic' against philosophers such as Hegel and McTaggart within ''Against the Day'' showed up their 'madness'.<br /> (Many did think McTaggart was a bit...different...for seriously not believing in Time.) McTaggart broke with Russell after an early influential friendship---Russell was the younger man and the influenced one. He said he was an Hegelian because of McTaggart--Russell wrote in his<br /> Autobiography that McTaggart said he no longer wanted to meet/talk with him bcause he could no longer stand Russell's opinions.<br /> <br /> [http://nobelprize.org/nobel_prizes/literature/laureates/1950/russell-bio.html Bertrand Russell] (1872-1970) was a British mathematician, philosopher, logician and social critic. Best known for his work in mathermatical logic and analytic philosophy. In late spring of 1901 he discovered the so-called [http://plato.stanford.edu/entries/russell-paradox/ Russell Paradox], &quot;the most famous of the logical or set-theoretical paradoxes. The paradox arises within naive set theory by considering the set of all sets that are not members of themselves. Such a set appears to be a member of itself if and only if it is not a member of itself, hence the paradox.&quot; (On-line Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy). He won the 1950 Nobel Prize in Literature in &quot;recognition of his varied and significant writings in which he champions humanitarian ideals and freedom of thought&quot;.<br /> <br /> '''Barry Nebulay'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> nebulae: formed from the diffusion of gas in galaxies or as exploded stars (or the last ember-like stage of a star)&lt;br&gt; <br /> Most nebulae can be described as diffuse nebulae, which means that they are extended and contain no well-defined boundaries.[1] In visible light these nebulae may be divided into emission nebulae and reflection nebulae, a categorization that depends on how the light we see is created.<br /> <br /> '''Hegel... puns'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Probably refers to the fact that quite a lot of Hegel's philosophy deals with the is-ness of the world as we know and experience it.<br /> <br /> On page 787 of Bertrand Russell's ''History of Western Philosophy'' is a summary, perhaps, of this remark about Hegel's puns: &quot;as a result of analysis of the concept &quot;existence&quot;, modern logic has proved this [Cartesianism, refuted by Kant, reinstated by Hegel] argument invalid.....&quot;<br /> <br /> We know from other places that TRP himself seems to 'not like' Cartesianism. See 'cartesian' citations within this wiki.<br /> <br /> ==Page 539==<br /> <br /> '''a vector quotient'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> The result of one vector divided by another. According to the English dictionary definition of previous page this is just a Quaternion.<br /> <br /> '''unit vector'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Unit vector is a vector with magnitude of one. The unit vectors in 3-dimensional space, ''i, j, k'', associated with ''x, y, z'' directions are used in defining a general 3D vector (Cf [[ATD_525-556#Page 526|page 526:Gibbsian Vectors]]).<br /> <br /> '''''square root of minus one'''''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Imaginary number (Cf [[ATD_119-148#Page 132|page 133:Imaginary Number]]). The imaginary numbers ''i, j, k'' are used in defining a Quaternion (Cf [[ATD_525-556#Page 525|page 525:Quaternions]]).<br /> <br /> ''''Triangle Asana''''&lt;br&gt;<br /> A basic yoga pose. <br /> <br /> [http://yoga.org.nz/postures/yoga_positions_images_page.htm Here are images of several basic poses.]<br /> <br /> ''''Dr Rao abruptly vanished''''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Might be a reference to [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Martin_Gardner Martin Gardner]'s<br /> [http://www.amazon.com/No-Sided-Professor-Fantasy-Mystery-Philosophy/dp/0879753900 &quot;No-Sided Professor&quot;]<br /> <br /> ''''Quadrantal Versor Asana''''&lt;br&gt;<br /> A triangle pose taken that extra dimension.<br /> <br /> '''''&quot;Uwe moer!&quot;'''''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Looks a lot like the Dutch &quot;Uw moeder!&quot; - a cry of astonishment (&quot;Your mother!&quot;), the equivalent to the black English &quot;yo mama&quot;.<br /> <br /> '''noncommutative'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> A term typical to mathematics. A commutative equation is one that can operate in exact reverse and still yield the same results. 'Noncommutative' then suggests unidirectionality. The ability to go from point A to point B, but not from B to A.<br /> <br /> '''reticule'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> A woman's drawstring handbag; usually made of net or beading or brocade; also: A system of lines forming a pattern of squares at the focal plane of a telescope, used in micrometers.<br /> [http://www.astunit.com/tutorials/glossary.htm] <br /> :Isn't that sort of a red herring? &quot;[P]roducing from her reticule a . . . watch&quot; doesn't really allow of that second meaning. &lt;br&gt;<br /> :It could be a pun, since a reticule/ handbag always shows its pattern of lines, and a watch (timepiece) is drawn from it. Remember that, e.g. railroad lines of tracks, are a sign of industrialism encroaching on the natural and the spiritual.<br /> <br /> '''Vacheron &amp; Constantin watch'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Made by a Swiss company founded in 1755. From 1819 to 1970 the name was as in the text, then the &amp; dropped out. See the [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vacheron_Constantin Wikipedia entry.]<br /> <br /> '''hunting-case'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> For a pocket watch, a case with a hinged metal cover. More often called &quot;hunter case&quot; (and such a watch a &quot;hunter&quot;).<br /> <br /> ==Page 540==<br /> <br /> '''&quot;haar rekening, ja?&quot;'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> The bill, yes? (Dutch)?<br /> <br /> ''Her'' bill, yes? I.e., give the check to the lady.<br /> <br /> Given the presence of Chris 'Kit' Traverse here, this very much suggests a reference to Christopher 'Kit' Marlowe, Elizabethan poet, playwright and contemporary of Shakespeare. Marlowe was stabbed to death in 1593, in murky circumstances, ostensibly over a bill or 'reckoning', though he was widely believed to have been involved in some form of espionage.<br /> <br /> Strictly speaking &quot;haar rekening&quot; means that the lady pays for herself only. If Root wanted to make sure that Pléiade pays for the whole company he would have to say &quot;de hele rekening voor de dame&quot;. <br /> <br /> '''Piet Woevre'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> The Woëvre is a natural region of Lorraine in north-east France. It forms part of Lorraine plateau and lies largely in the department of Meuse. During World War I, there was much fighting there due to vast mineral resources that had been discovered in the Briey basin or Eastern Woevre at the end of the 19th century. &quot;Piet&quot; is Dutch for &quot;rock&quot; or &quot;stone&quot; and is a fairly common Dutch name, the English equivalent being Peter.<br /> <br /> If the surname is pronounced as in Dutch, Woevre is another Pynchon villain with a &quot;V&quot;-name (Vond, Weissman, Vibe). <br /> <br /> '''Force Publique'''&lt;br /&gt;<br /> The Force Publique (FP) was the official armed force for what is now the Democratic Republic of the Congo from 1885, (when the territory was known as the Congo Free State), through the period of direct Belgian rule (1908-60), until the beginning of the Second Republic in 1965. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Force_Publique Wikipedia entry]<br /> <br /> '''made him reach'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Possible allusion to a famous line, &quot;When I hear the word culture I reach for my gun.&quot; From Hanns Johst's biographical play ''Schlageter''. The original line is slightly different: &quot;Wenn ich Kultur höre ... entsichere ich meinen Browning,&quot; &quot;Whenever I hear of culture... I release the safety-catch of my Browning!&quot; (Act 1, Scene 1). It is spoken by another character in conversation with the young Schlageter. In the scene Schlageter and his wartime comrade Friedrich Thiemann are studying for a college examination, but then start disputing whether it's worthwhile doing so when the nation is not free. <br /> <br /> The line is often misattributed to better-known Nazis and others [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hanns_Johst].<br /> <br /> *In Jean-Luc Godard's 1963 film [http://www.chicagoreader.com/movies/archives/0997/09057.html ''Le Mépris'' (''Contempt'')], Jack Palance's character &quot;Jeremy Prokosch,&quot; an American movie-producer, intones to Fritz Lang: &quot;Whenever I hear the word culture, I reach for my checkbook.&quot;<br /> <br /> '''not unambiguous'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Ie, ambiguous.<br /> <br /> '''''rastaquoueres'''''&lt;br&gt;<br /> 8???<br /> <br /> '''de Decker'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> In Dutch/Flemish, the name means &quot;roofer.&quot; (''De'' in these names almost never means &quot;of, from&quot; as in French; it's nearly always the definite article.)<br /> <br /> ==Page 541==<br /> <br /> '''''bobbejaan'''''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Afrikaans: baboon. (Afrikaans is the language spoken by descendants of Dutch colonists in present-day South Africa. Some items identified as Dutch or Flemish in this wiki may really be Afrikaans.)<br /> <br /> The South African song &quot;Bobbejaan klim die berg&quot; (&quot;Bobbejaan climbed the hill&quot;) is the source of the stage name of Belgium's most famous country and western musician, Bobbejaan Schoepen (b. 1925). In 1943 he was suppressed by the Nazis after performing a South African song, &quot;Mamma, 'k wil 'n man hê&quot; (&quot;Mama, I want a man&quot;), which contains the line &quot;No, Mama, I don't want a German, because I don't like pork.&quot; He founded the Bobbejaanland theme park in Belgium, where he still lives.<br /> <br /> '''MKIV/ODC... Mark Four'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> This would be the Mark IV Ohmic Drift Compensator ([[ATD 557-587#Page 565|Page 565]]), a key component of the Q-weapon, which &quot;regulates how much light is allowed to enter the silvering of the mirror! Special kind of refraction! Calibrated against imaginary index! Dangerous! Of the essence!'&quot;<br /> <br /> '''not part of your remit'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Not included in your job description, instructions, authorization. &quot;Remit&quot; (noun) is usually a British usage.<br /> <br /> '''''gatkruiper'''''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Dutch/Flemish: brownnose, ass-kisser.<br /> <br /> '''one on her wrist'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> All the bruises reflect some refinement or artistry except this one, which may have been inflicted crudely.<br /> <br /> '''over the day'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Title motif?<br /> <br /> ==Page 542==<br /> <br /> '''trans-horizontic'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> ???<br /> Across the horizon -- &quot; a screaming comes across the sky&quot;<br /> <br /> '''Edmund Whittaker'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Edmund Whittaker (1873-1956), an English mathematician. He is best known for his work in numerical analysis. And he contributed widely to applied mathematics, mathematical physics and the theory of special functions. He also worked on celestial mechanics and the history of applied mathermatics and physics. ([http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/E._T._Whittaker Whittaker]).<br /> <br /> The Sir Edmund Whittaker Memorial Prize is awarded every four years by the Edinburgh Mathematical Society to an outstanding young mathematician having a specified connection with Scotland [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sir_Edmund_Whittaker_Memorial_Prize]. <br /> <br /> '''louche'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> The cloudy effect caused by the addition of water to absinthe. Dictionary definition: &quot;of questionable taste or morality; decadent.&quot;<br /> <br /> '''cheval-glass'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Standing mirror in a freestanding vertical frame.<br /> <br /> '''as if someone'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Sound-cancelling vs opacity-cancelling?<br /> <br /> ==Page 543==<br /> <br /> '''wraith of Pleiade Lafrisee'''<br /> <br /> Pleiade manifests one of her not-visible stars. Perhaps this sister has somehow twisted herself on an imaginary axis ala Dr. V. Ganesh Rao.<br /> <br /> '''monitory'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Warning, giving advice, by extension ominous or menacing.<br /> <br /> '''Against....the day....'''<br /> Note: this phrase happens at the exact halfway point of the novel: p.542.3<br /> <br /> '''He Who Must Come'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> The evil-doer who must come might be Adolf Hitler. It would make sense. The implication being that Europe is precipitating into a no-return situation. Capitalism cannot but end in WW2.&lt;br&gt;<br /> Ah, a lot more and less than capitalism going on here, especially if anyone specific like Hitler is meant. <br /> :When French writers use this phrase (''celui qui doit venir'') they '''do''' mean the Messiah . . . although a few devout quibblers point out that the Messiah has already come. It's rather tiresome Googling the phrase; the first 83 hits definitely refer to Christ and most of them quote the first verses of Matthew 11. But there's also a Camus reference (in English, I think) down at No. 90, if anyone has a JSTOR account:<br /> :links.jstor.org/sici?sici=0361-1299(1985)39%3A4%3C251%3ACFS%22M%3E2.0.CO%3B2-X <br /> <br /> Recalls Yeats' 'The Second Coming' once again: &quot;And what rough beast, its hour come round at last, Slouches towards Bethlehem to be born?&quot; [http://chumpsofchoice.blogspot.com/2007/05/casino-royale-in-flanders-field.html#c3637134446204467798 ]<br /> <br /> '''General Boulanger'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/General_Boulanger Georges Boulanger], French military man, and War Minister in the late 19th century. He was one of those men &quot;on a white horse&quot; that some conservatives looked to, as he urged an attack on Germany and the end of the French Republic with a return to monarchy. He was also notorious for his harsh reprisals against workers' demonstrations. &quot;'Boulangisme'&quot; threatened a coup in 1889, but the general's procrastination brought the crisis to an end.<br /> <br /> '''what death and what transfiguration'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Allusion to Richard Strauss' tone poem &quot;Death and Transfiguration&quot; (''Tod und Verklärung''), premiered in 1890.<br /> <br /> '''''&quot;Zeker&quot;'''''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Dutch: certainly.<br /> <br /> '''''dead cert'''''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Dead certainty, sure thing.<br /> <br /> '''Von Schlieffen'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Alfred von Schlieffen was the author of a German war plan to win a two-front war against both France and Russia by quickly defeating France before Russian troops could be mobilized. The [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Schlieffen_Plan Schlieffen Plan] included an attack on France through Belgium, disregarding its neutrality.<br /> <br /> '''Wilhelm has offered Leopold part of France, the ancient Duchy of Burgundy'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> [http://www.crwflags.com/fotw/flags/fr-bg.html History of the duchy.] [http://www.freiburg-madison.de/freiburg_history/1386-1517_The%20Early%20Habsburgs.htm Map,] with portrait of Duke Charles the Rash.<br /> <br /> '''lowlands'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Title of Pynchon's first published story. Here, ass?<br /> <br /> ==Page 544==<br /> <br /> '''Place d'Armes'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Main square of Ostend; literally &quot;drill field&quot;.<br /> <br /> '''peau de soie'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> &quot;Skin of silk&quot; A heavy, smooth satin with very fine ribbing; somewhat dull in sheen compared with traditional silk finishes.<br /> <br /> '''Krafft-Ebing'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Richard Freiherr von Krafft-Ebing, Austro-German psychiatrist and author of ''Psychopathia Sexualis'' (1886), a pioneering study of deviant sexual behavior and fetishism. Coined both ''sadism'' and ''masochism'' as terms for these respective behaviors. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Richard_Freiherr_von_Krafft-Ebing Wikipedia entry].<br /> <br /> '''toque'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Toque here refers to a lady's hat, originally of fur but here in velvet, which is rather like a flattened chef's hat in shape.<br /> <br /> Proust: in ''À l'ombre des jeunes filles en fleurs'' the narrator first sees Albertine wearing a toque. There seem to be quite a few Proust themes and references running throughout the novel. Indeed '''Pliade''' is the French publisher of Proust's works. <br /> <br /> '''guipure'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Lace trim.<br /> <br /> '''midinette'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> A shopgirl or dressmakers apprentice. A milliner.<br /> <br /> '''Lambic'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> A distinctive Belgian style of beer. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lambic Wikipedia]<br /> <br /> '''sous'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> <br /> Coins. Originally Roman gold coins, latterly any kind of coin.<br /> <br /> Specifically small change. She is affecting modesty by claiming that a hat like hers can be had for pennies in any unpretentious shop. In France &quot;sou is used as slang for money, as in ''sans le sou''. 'I'm broke', 'without money'. It is also a slang term for the Canadian cent (standard French, cent).&quot; ([http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sou Wikipedia])<br /> <br /> '''mayonnaise'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Brautigan's &quot;Trout Fishing in America&quot; famously ends with the word mayonnaise. [http://books.google.com/books?vid=ISBN0395500761&amp;id=rbEjDovfyNMC&amp;pg=RA2-PA111&amp;lpg=RA2-PA111&amp;ots=ELKl5b_6Tx&amp;dq=mayonnaise+trout.fishing&amp;num=100&amp;sig=BiyXRqJXRGrMWbrBNgn8de2kpCo#PRA2-PA112,M1 GoogleBooks]<br /> <br /> '''ovoöleaginous'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Another Pynchonic word combination, here denoting the two main ingredients of mayonnaise: 1) eggs, and 2) oil. It's not &quot;fecoventilatory collision&quot; as seen in &quot;Vineland,&quot; but it's nice.<br /> <br /> '''Grenache'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Grape commonly used in Rhone Valley wines e.g. Chateauneuf du Pape.<br /> <br /> '''Chantilly'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> <br /> Region north of Paris.<br /> <br /> Here the reference is to crème chantilly otherwise known as whipped cream. Chantilly mayonnaise is made by incorporating the beaten egg whites for extra lightness.<br /> <br /> '''attainder'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Legislative act declaring that a person is guilty of a crime and setting punishment without the benefit of a formal trial. The Constitution forbids the federal government (Article I, Section 9, clause 3) and the state governments (Article I, Section 10, clause 1) from passing bills of attainder.<br /> [www.historycentral.com/Civics/B.html] <br /> <br /> ''''''Aux armes, citoyens''''''&lt;br&gt;<br /> ''To arms, citizens'', from the French national anthem, ''La Marseillaise'' (1792). Kit confused La Mayonnaise with La Marseillaise.&lt;br&gt;<br /> Not &quot;Le Marseillaise,&quot; you nitwit!<br /> <br /> '''Louis XV'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> King of France 1715-1774 [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Louis_XV]. <br /> <br /> '''Cléo de Mérode'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Glamorous French ballerina (1875-1966), later Follies Bergere dancer and famous beauty. Her reputed intimacy with King Leopold was only a rumor [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cleo_de_Merode]. The character Madame Leonora Armfeldt in Stephen Sondheim's ''A Little Night Music'' has some features in common with her.<br /> <br /> '''Marquise de Pompadour'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Mistress of Louis XV,once friend of Voltaire and a power behind official scenes.[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Madame_de_Pompadour].<br /> <br /> ==Page 545==<br /> <br /> '''duc de Richelieu'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Duc de Richelieu (1696-1788), marshal of France, was a grandnephew of Cardinal Richelieu, and born in Paris. Apart from his reputation as a man of exceptionally loose morals, he attained, in spite of a defective education, distinction as a diplomatist and general. ([http://www.1911encyclopedia.org/Louis_Francois_Armand_du_Plessis,_duc_de_Richelieu duc de Richelieu] and cf [[ATD_489-524#Page 490|page 490:duc de Richelieu]])<br /> <br /> '''dubious 'victory' in 1756'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> As part of the Seven Years' War (1756-1763), duc de Richelieu (1696-1788), a Marshal of France, won a victory in the Battle of Minorca (May 20, 1756) over John Byng (1704-1757), a British Admiral. In spring of 1756 John Byng was sent with a small and undermanned fleet to relieve the British ''Port Mahon'' on the Mediterranean island of Minorca. During the battle ensued, several British ships were badly damaged by the French squadron while others, including Byng's flagship, were still out of effective firing range. Instead of engaging the enemy directly, Byng decided to keep the formation, allowing the French fleet to get away undamaged. ([http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_Minorca Battle of Minorca]).<br /> <br /> '''the ill-fated Admiral Byng'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> John Byng, convicted by court-martial of failure &quot;to do his utmost&quot; in the battle, shot in 1757. Remembered because of (1) his being the last officer of flag rank to be put to death for conduct in battle and (2) Voltaire's gag in ''Candide:'' &quot;In this country it is good to kill an admiral from time to time in order to encourage the others.&quot;<br /> <br /> '''cantharides'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> &quot;Spanish fly,&quot; contact irritant sometimes ill-advisedly used as aphrodisiac.<br /> <br /> '''Sadean'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Pertaining to the Marquis de Sade. The acts the chef performs on the egg and oil have the same names as acts of Sadean sex. <br /> <br /> '''''n'est-ce pas?'''''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Right? (Isn't that so?)<br /> <br /> '''vetiver'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> A grass (Vetiveria zizanioides) of tropical India, cultivated for its aromatic roots that yield an oil used in perfumery.<br /> [www.answers.com/topic/vetiver]. So, a perfume with, llterallly, roots in India.<br /> <br /> Vetiver makes frequent appearances throughout ''À la recherche du temps perdu.''<br /> <br /> '''pip'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> A beaut; in current parlance, a hottie.<br /> <br /> '''Q.P. system'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Quaternion Probability, page 536.<br /> <br /> '''Usine Régionale'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> French: as translated in the text.<br /> <br /> ==Page 546==<br /> <br /> '''disjunctive effects of thunderstorms'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Folk wisdom says a thunderstorm will cause mayonnaise to separate (oil from yolks).<br /> <br /> '''cottonseed oil'''<br /> <br /> Mayonnaisse like Smegmo and Crisco is a hydrogenated fat; cottonseed oil is a common factor to all three. Indeed, the name Crisco derives from the intial sounds of &quot;'''crys'''tallized '''c'''ottonseed '''o'''il&quot;. Note in the next few pages a mention of Candlebrow -- underscoring a tie-in between Mayonnaisse and Smegmo. <br /> <br /> It may be of interest to note that hydrogenation may have a symbolic use for Pynchon. The process entails bubbling hydrogen through oil in the presence of a metal catalyst such as nickel, platinum, aluminum at 248 to 410 degrees. Remnants of these metals stay in the finished product, and when consumed can lead to an increase in heavy metals in the human body.<br /> <br /> Eating hydrogenated oils is like eating plastic. The body does not recognize that these molecules have been mutated and tries to use them as essential fatty acids. But they cannot perform the same function, and as a result hydrogenated oils can cause short circuits in the electrical flow that controls the heartbeat, nerve functions, cell division and mental balance. They also create free radicals (anarchists!) that are linked to cancers. Free radicals plus metal remnants are a major contributor to cancer, heart disease, immune system dysfunction, osteoporosis, depression, chronic fatigue, Alzheimers, and neurological diseases. It is estimated that over 200 million people have died prematurely because of the hydrogenated oils found in our diets. [http://www.drz.org/asp/newsletter/default.asp?xt2id=23] Not to mention innocent bystanders killed by mentally imbalanced people whose imbalance may stem from the ingestion of hydrogenated oils -- there may be some underlying reality to the &quot;Twinkie defense.&quot;<br /> <br /> '''lounge suit'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> A lounge suit is another name for business suit consisting of a matching jacket and trousers or skirt.<br /> <br /> '''congress shoes'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> ankle high shoes with elastic gussets in the sides (wordweb online)<br /> <br /> '''invisible hand'''<br /> <br /> Suggestive of Adam Smith's metaphor for market forces in economics.<br /> <br /> '''dripping-heads'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mayonnaise To make mayonnaise,] beat together egg yolks, salt, mustard and vinegar, then drip in oil while beating to form the emulsion. If you scale the process up for industrial production, you will automate the introduction of the oil, using nozzles that release it a drop at a time—but in a large vat you can have many such nozzles.<br /> <br /> '''''cuves d'agitation'''''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Vat or tank in which the mayonnaise is agitated or beaten.<br /> <br /> '''Clinique d'Urgence pour Sauvetage des Sauces'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> French: Emergency Clinic for Salvage of Sauces.<br /> <br /> ==Page 547==<br /> <br /> '''' ...engulfed in thick, slick, sour-smelling mayonnaise. ''''<br /> The whole Kit's experience in the mayonnaise factory is very much reminiscent to [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Roald_Dahl Roald Dahl]'s [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Charlie_and_the_Chocolate_Factory Charlie and the Chocolate Factory].<br /> <br /> '''''Cazzo, cretino'''''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Literally, &quot;Dick, cretin.&quot; ''Cazzo'' is a common Italian interjectionary obscenity, especially in the south. &quot;Cazzo, cretino,&quot; is akin to someone saying, &quot;Well shit, dummy,&quot; or &quot;F-ing moron!&quot;<br /> <br /> '''''È il cowboy!'''''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Italian: It's the cowboy!<br /> <br /> '''''vero?'''''&lt;br&gt;<br /> true? real?<br /> <br /> '''''Le bambole anarchiste, porca miseria'''''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Italian: Anarchist babes, oh boy.<br /> <br /> '''Oudenberg'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> A southeast suburb of Ostende.<br /> <br /> '''Quai de l'Entrepôt'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Warehouse Quay<br /> <br /> '''''ragazzi'''''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Italian: boys, guys.<br /> <br /> ==Page 548==<br /> <br /> '''General Boulanger'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Georges_Boulanger General Boulanger]. That he was 'reactionary' and that the C of C bureaucracy had a 'defiant residue' of Boulangism, continues the characterization of the organization for which the Chums 'work'.<br /> <br /> '''''timbres fictifs'''''&lt;br&gt;<br /> French: fictive postage stamps. Cf &quot;Lot 49&quot;.&lt;br&gt;<br /> Yes, stamps mean something in Pynchon's works; here, it seems important that these stamps are characterized as frauds.<br /> <br /> '''&quot;IIIb&quot;'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> As explained in the text<br /> <br /> '''Germany might stand a better chance...'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> That is, if the French were to push into Alsace (per Boulanger) as the Germans executed the Schlieffen Plan [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Schlieffen_plan] for the encirclement of Paris, it would put the French at an even greater disadvantage...as actually happened in 1914. Had the Belgians and British not delayed the Germans in Flanders, and had the French railroads not performed speedily to bring the French troops back to the Marne, World War I could have had a very different outcome...an alternate history. <br /> <br /> '''revanchist'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Policies based on revenge, or a person following such policies. In General Boulanger's case, revenge against Germany for the Franco-Prussian War (that is, retaking Alsace, lost in 1871).<br /> <br /> '''the somewhat discomposed General'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Having died in 1891, the General by the time of the action is certainly somewhat '''de'''composed; brief biographies do not suggest he was ''non compos mentis,'' that is, mentally discomposed.<br /> <br /> ==Page 549==<br /> <br /> '''cackled Darby'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> (When did he lose his innocence?)<br /> <br /> '''a modification of any salsician metaphor toward the diminutive'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Salsician: pertaining to sausage. Lindsay says Suckling's penis is better compared to a wiener than a knockwurst.<br /> <br /> '''&quot;Why you little–and I do mean 'little'–&quot;'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Another Simpsons reference? <br /> <br /> '''dunes between Nieuport and Dunkirk'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Nieuport is a Belgian seaport about 10 miles southwest of Ostend. Dunkirk is a French port (less than 10 miles inside the French border) about 20 miles southwest of Nieuport. The latter was a site of one of the bloodest battle in World War I. The general area between Niewport and Dunkirk was the well traversed battle fields of two world wars. (Dunkirk was (in)famous for the British Army's escape from the Nazi German's assault in World War II.)<br /> <br /> '''power-receivers'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Not information, energy.<br /> <br /> ==Page 550==<br /> <br /> '''Lot's wife''' &lt;br&gt;<br /> Angels of God led Lot and his family out of Sodom as it was being destroyed and told them not to look back at the mayhem. Lot's wife, Edith, imprudently looked back and was transfigured into a pillar of salt.<br /> <br /> '''Italian grotto'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> an imitating recess or structure made to resemble a natural Italian grotto.<br /> <br /> '''a highly developed taste, moreover, for human blood'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Since Pugnax developed this taste in the Carpathians, home of Castle Dracula, this seems a clear reference to Bram Stoker's novel. <br /> <br /> '''Carpathians'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Major mountain range running northwest-southeast through Poland, Slovakia, western Ukraine and Romania.<br /> <br /> '''Uhlans'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Uhlan regiments belonged to the light cavalry. They wore splendid uniforms (model for some U.S. marching band uniforms). [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Uhlan Wikipedia article.]<br /> <br /> '''Temesvár'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Now Timişoara, extreme western Romania.<br /> <br /> ==Page 551==<br /> <br /> '''...separated by only a slice of Time...'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Miles is beginning to experience Time almost as a spatial dimension, his personal vector as traversing (!) 4-dimensional space, or perhaps multidimensional space, the mathematics for which is being debated in Ostend.<br /> <br /> '''securing the mess decks'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> The Chums follow U.S. Navy idiom in orders (frequently prefixed with &quot;Now&quot;) and shipboard activities (&quot;secure&quot; meaning &quot;whatever you did before, undo it now,&quot; in this case put away the dishes and fold up the tables).<br /> <br /> '''Ryder Thorn'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Tolkienesque name? Or perhaps it's a nod to the Ryder-Waite Tarot deck and to Kevin Thorn (Kevin Matthew Fertig, 1977-), the American professional wrestler better known by his ring name Kevin Thorn who is currently signed to World Wrestling Entertainment wrestling on its ECW brand. He has appeared in vigniettes with Ariel (Shelly Martinez, 1980-), the tarot card reader, who spits blood at the camera while she &quot;predicted the future of ECW.&quot; Yup, a stretch...<br /> <br /> *The name also evokes the Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse.<br /> <br /> '''He was at Candlebrow.'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Presumably a 'trespasser.'<br /> <br /> '''the four-note chord in the context of timelessness'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> A melody is formed by notes following one another in time; a chord on the ukulele violates that practice by having all the notes sound at once. A really clever little passage.<br /> Note: Jazz musicians describe musical improvisations as horizontal (with the melody) or vertical (with the chord)<br /> <br /> ==Page 552==<br /> <br /> '''knuckle-duster'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Brass knuckles.<br /> <br /> '''Diksmuide'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> 20 kilometers south of Ostend (about halfway to Ypres).<br /> <br /> ==Page 553==<br /> <br /> '''The terrain was flat...lowlands'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Not, this time, a reference to Pynchon's ''Lowlands'', but to the two-dimensionality of Flanders, as in Edwin A. Abbott's ''Flatland'' [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Flatland]; most humans, like the inhabitants of Flanders and Abbott's Flatlanders, experience life in two dimensions. <br /> <br /> '''Somewhere up in the sky was Miles' home...'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Whereas Miles and the Chums of Chance, in contrast, live in three dimensions. The mathematicians gathered in Ostend are trying to calculate how to experience and use vectors to live in four dimensions; in a way, to experience Time as a kind of spatial dimension. Miles, on P. 551, is demonstrating the beginnings of an intuitive discovery of how to experience Time as an almost spatial dimension. Which would be a sort of &quot;time travel&quot;, or at least an expanded view of life and history.<br /> <br /> '''retted'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> soaked in water or exposed to moisture (as flax or hemp) to facilitate the removal of the fiber from the woody tissue by partial rotting.<br /> <br /> ==Page 554==<br /> <br /> '''Ypres and Menin'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Municipalities in West Flanders that were sites of some of the bloodiest battles of WWI. At the beginning of the war, the British and Belgian stand helped save Paris from encirclement by the Germans, and saved the Channel ports, but as Thorn points out, the area became the western anchor of the Western Front trench system. The several Battles of Ypres saw the first uses of poison gas (Mustard Gas, dichlorodiethylsulfide, was first called Yperite), the use of enormous mines, and the legendary mud of Passchendaele [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Passchendaele]. <br /> <br /> '''Ten years from now'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> (1914?) through 1918? and beyond?. Another paramorphic mirror--what do we now face. Whatever it is, it is nuclear.<br /> <br /> '''Bosch'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Hieronymous Bosch (1450-1516), Dutch painter of nightmares. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hieronymus_Bosch Wikipedia entry].<br /> <br /> '''Brueghel'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Pieter Brueghel the Elder(1525-1569), Flemish painter.[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pieter_Brueghel_the_Elder Wikipedia entry].<br /> <br /> '''League'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> League of Nations? The League of Nations was formed after WWI to prevent future wars. Didn't succeed.<br /> <br /> No. In this case a historical unit of length, approximately three miles - &quot;league on league&quot; = tremendous masses<br /> <br /> '''where the needles went and which way to rotate them'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> I.e., how to push Thorn's buttons; the image is from acupuncture.<br /> <br /> ==Page 555==<br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> '''simpletons at the fair'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Making Pynchon's metaphor explicit.<br /> <br /> '''Chopin E-minor Nocturne'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Frédéric Chopin (1810-49), a Polish pianist and composer ([http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fr%C3%A9d%C3%A9ric_Chopin Chopin]). He was born in Warsaw, Poland to a Polish morther and a French father. He went to Paris at the age of 20 and died there at the age of 39. He was widely regarded as one of the most famous and influential composers for the piano. From 1837-47 he had a 10-year stormy relationship with the French writer George Sand. His E-minor Nocturne is a 4-minute long Romantic style piano solo composed in 1827. (A ''nocturne'' is usually a musical composition that is inspired by, or evocative of, the night [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nocturne Nocturne].)<br /> <br /> '''owl-light'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> ???glimmering or imperfect light or twilight hours.<br /> <br /> ''''plasmic hysteresis''''&lt;br&gt;<br /> <br /> A coined term, apparently similar in meaning to Miles’ phrase “failure of physical translation.” Plasma would take an older meaning of “form” or “shape.&quot; Hysteresis, according to Webster's, refers to “a retardation in effect when the forces on an object are changed.” Hysteresis is used to describe magnetic phenomenon as well as plastic or elastic materials, that involve changes to a rest state that last beyond the forces that cause them. Examples include recordings on magnetic tape or a thumbprint slowly disappearing from putty. In the context of this passage, plasmic hysteresis appears to describe the lingering visage of someone who is no longer present – a hysteresis of form only and thus a failed physical translation. See [http://www.etymonline.com/index.php?search=plasma&amp;searchmode=none etymology of plasma] and this nifty explanation of [http://www.lassp.cornell.edu/sethna/hysteresis/WhatIsHysteresis.html hysteresis]. <br /> <br /> Hysteresis has also been used to refer to “loops” in time, certainly apropos in this case. I stumbled across an excellent example in a 1980 episode of Dr. Who, in which the eponymous Dr. is trapped in “chronic hysteresis,” an endless loop or return to a previous <br /> point in time – very similar to the situation of Ryder Thorn. [http://www.drwhoguide.com/who_5q.htm Check it out for yourself!] <br /> <br /> <br /> ==Annotation Index==<br /> {{ATD PbP}}</div>

MKOHUT https://against-the-day.pynchonwiki.com/wiki/index.php?title=ATD_525-556&diff=14089 2007-10-17T18:05:17Z

<p>MKOHUT: /* Page 548 */</p> <hr /> <div>:'''&lt;big&gt;Please keep these annotations SPOILER-FREE by not revealing information from later pages in the novel.&lt;/big&gt;'''&lt;p&gt;&lt;br&gt;<br /> <br /> ==Page 525==<br /> <br /> '''Ostend'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Cf [[ATD_489-524#Page 521|page 521:Ostend]], a seaport in northwest Belgium. Among English-speaking tourists, Ostend (or Ostende) is best known as a ferry port. Ships have shuttled between Dover and Ostend for more than 150 years, and today's high-speed catamarans move hundreds of passengers and vehicles between these two ports in just two hours. But this thousand-year-old city is a popular beach resort with Belgians, who flock to Ostend for sun, surfing, sailing and the ''Kursaal'' (Casino). The fishing harbor and old town draw many visitors. Ostend is the only Belgian coastal resort that is as lively in the summer as in the winter. For more and pictures [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ostend Ostend].<br /> <br /> '''Fishermen's Quai'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Fishermen's Quay, also called De Trap. The shrimp boats come home here from the sea in the morning. Along the quay many stands sell lots of seafoods.<br /> <br /> '''Boulevard van Isenghem'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> A major thoroughfare in Ostend, locally called ''Van Iseghemlaan'', extending diagonally from seafront southwest through the city.<br /> <br /> '''street-plausible'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Presentable.<br /> <br /> '''Quai de l'empereur'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Since Ostende is in the Flemish part of Belgium this should be the Keizerskaai, a street along the old part of the harbour, 1919 renamed Vindictivelaan.<br /> <br /> '''estaminet'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> According to the OED - A café in which smoking is allowed. Now, any small establishment selling alcoholic liquor. <br /> <br /> '''twelve-centime'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> one centime is the French eqivalent of one cent. A twelve-centime beer would cost 12/100 of a franc.<br /> <br /> '''Quaternions'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Cf [[ATD_119-148#Page 130|page 130:Quaternions]]. Quaternions are a non-communtative extension of compelx numbers (Hamilton, 1843).&lt;br&gt;<br /> <br /> Analogy with the complex numbers (Cf [[ATD_119-148#Page 132|page 132:complex number]]) being represented as a sum of real and imaginary parts, a + b''i'', where ''i''² = −1, a quaternion is defined as a combination a + b''i'' + c''j'' + d''k'', where ''i''² = ''j''² = ''k''² = ''i j k'' = −1, and a, b, c, d are ''four'' explicit real numbers. The non-commutative property refers to ''i j = −j i = k; j k = −k j = i; k i = −i k = j''. (i.e. ''i j ≠ j i; j k ≠ k j; k i ≠ i k''; etc.) The using of ''i, j, k'', the imaginary numbers (Cf [[ATD_119-148#Page 133|page 133:imaginary number]]), led to the phrases of &quot;the ''ijk'' lot&quot; of page 533 and &quot;creature of ''i-j-k''&quot; of page 534.<br /> <br /> '''Kellner'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> German: waiter, barman. Use of the German word would be insulting to the Belgian barman.<br /> <br /> '''''demi'''''&lt;br&gt;<br /> A half-pint glass (25 centilitres, actually).<br /> <br /> '''Lambic'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Pron. ''lahm-BEEK.'' Unique Belgian beer style, sour and often thin in body.<br /> <br /> '''skimmer'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Straw hat (&quot;Panama&quot;).<br /> <br /> ==Page 526==<br /> <br /> '''biquaternion'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Or &quot;octonion,&quot; an innovation of English mathematician W.K. Clifford, [[ATD_243-272#Page_249|referred to on p. 249.]]<br /> <br /> '''Barry Nebulay'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Pun on a term from heraldry, ''barry nebuly.'' Barry (rhymes with &quot;starry,&quot; not &quot;carry&quot;) refers to a shield divided into an even number of parts by horizontal lines. Nebuly signals that the lines are deformed into stylized &quot;cloud&quot; shapes. [http://www.rarebooks.nd.edu/digital/heraldry/partitions.html Here you can see an example.] If a ''British'' author had a character with a heraldic name, it would suggest a pseudonym.<br /> <br /> '''University of Dublin'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> The Alma Mater of Hamilton, the father of Quaternion. He studied, graduated and taught at Trinity College, the University of Dublin, Ireland's oldest university.<br /> <br /> If University College, Dublin, then Joyce had graduated in 1902.&lt;br&gt;<br /> <br /> '''Quaternioneers'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Quaternion believers.<br /> <br /> '''Gibbsian Vectors'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Vector Analysis (or Vector Calculus) developed by Willard Gibbs (Cf [[ATD_26-56#Page 29|page 29:Professor Gibbs]]) in 1881 and 1884. It is a branch of calculus that deals with vectors and process involving vectors. It is much more easily applied to phsics and other applied sciences than Hamilton's Quaternions (Cf [[ATD_525-556#Page 525|page 525:Quaternions]]).&lt;br&gt;<br /> A vector is defined by not only a magnitude but also a direction, such as a velocity vector, ''v'' is defined by ''v'' = a''i'' + b''j'' + c''k'',<br /> where a, b, and c are the magnitudes of the velocity components in directions of ''i, j'' and ''k'' which are unit vectors, (not imaginary numbers as in Quaternion), with magnitude of 1. In three dimensional cases and ''xyz'' coordinate system is used then ''i, j, k'' are related to ''x, y, z'' directions (&quot;''xyz'' people&quot; of page 533); but they, in general, may be used irrespective of the notation of the coordinates.<br /> Mathematical operations (addition, subtraction, multiplication), differentiation (''curl'' — Cf [[ATD_318-335#Page 326|page 326:Curl]] and p. 536, ''Laplacian'' — Cf [[ATD_318-335#Page 326|page 326:Laplacian]] and p. 536, etc) and integration can be applied to vectors. It is interesting to know that one of the two multiplication operations is called cross product; for unit vectors (''i, j, k'') perpendicular to each other, then, ''i × i = j × j = k × k = 0'', ''i × j = k'', ''j × i = -k'', etc. ([http://web.mit.edu/wwmath/vectorc/summary.html Vector Calculus]).&lt;br&gt;<br /> A simple vector anyalysis example here: if ''k'', the unit vector, stands for the direction upward and g is the gravitational acceleration, then the acceleration vector, ''a'', for a projectile, is defined for downward action, (the ''i'' and ''j'' directions have zero components):&lt;br&gt;<br /> :''a'' = -g ''k''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Integrating ''a'' would give the velocity vector, ''v''&lt;br&gt;<br /> :''v'' = -g t ''k''&lt;br&gt;<br /> for zero initial velocity case, and t standing for time.&lt;br&gt;<br /> And integrating ''v'' would yield the position vector, ''h'', for the projectile&lt;br&gt;<br /> :''h'' = -½ g t² ''k''&lt;br&gt;<br /> toward the sea level.<br /> <br /> '''Quaternionists'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Quaternion believers, same as Quaternioneers.<br /> <br /> '''Tasmania'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Tasmania is an island of the southern coast of Australia. Known for its relative isolation, it was a prison for English convicts in the 1800s<br /> <br /> '''Having been inseparable from the rise of the electromagnetic'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> In his 1865 work ''The Dynamical Theory of the Electromagnetic Field'', James Clerk Maxwell unified electricity and magnetism. He put forth twenty equations, with twenty unknowns, in vector form (though different in notation and form than the equations that now bear his name) that completely described all known electromagnetic phenomena. In his 1873 treatise on the subject, he expressed the equations in the mathematics of quaternions. It appears that the quaternion form of the equations remained popular even though, at the behest of his publisher, Maxwell reverted to the 1865 form in the second edition (1881)--though they remain scattered throughout. In 1892 Oliver Heaviside (On the Forces, Stresses, and Fluxes of Energy in the Electromagnetic Field. ''Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society of London.'' A, Vol. 183. pp423-480), while spewing scientific vitriol at the Quaternionists, reformulated Maxwell's original 1865 equations (Heaviside chose to remove the vector potential and scalar fields from the equations; the inclusion of these terms had served as Maxwell's justification for the use of quaternions), and provided the notation still in use today. See this [http://www.zpenergy.com/modules.php?name=Downloads&amp;d_op=getit&amp;lid=60 PDF] for the evolution of Maxwell's equations.<br /> <br /> '''Hamiltonian devotees'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> The Quaternion faction, after William Hamilton, who devised the scheme.<br /> <br /> '''Grand Hôtel de la Nouvelle Digue'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> There is a Hotel Digue in the Seychelles; this is a New Hotel Digue by Pynchon? <br /> <br /> Grand Hotel of New Dyke, may be a made up hotel name.<br /> <br /> '''anterooms of death'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> This metaphor is sometimes applied to concentration camps. Here the lyric &quot;feel like I'm fixin' to die&quot; seems more apposite.<br /> <br /> '''Belgian Art Nouveau'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Art Nouveau, 1890(or 80) to 1914, explores a new style in the visual arts and architecture that developed in Europe and North America at the end of the 19th century. At its height (~1907), Art Nouveau was a concerted attempt to create an international style based on decoration. It was developed by a brilliant and energetic generation of artists and desisgners, who sought to fashion an art form appropriate to the post-Industrial Revolution modern age.&lt;br&gt;<br /> Brussels was one of the Art Nouveau centers and represented different style from the others. The jewelers there, accepted as artists rahter than craftsmen, (together with those in Paris) defined Art Nouveau in jewelery and achieved the most renown. ([http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Art_Nouveau Art Nouveau]).<br /> <br /> ==Page 527==<br /> <br /> '''dossing'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> British slang for &quot;sleeping&quot;, &quot;staying overnight&quot;<br /> <br /> '''Russian nihilists'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> :The following four are local, Belgian, not Russian, nihilists !<br /> <br /> '''Eugénie'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Female. Possibly named for Empress Eugénie (1826-1920), consort of French Emperor Napoleon III. Ultimately for St. Eugenia, 3rd-century Roman martyr whose feast is celebrated on December 25.<br /> <br /> '''Fatou'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Female. A pseudonym? In view of the date of the action, certainly not named after [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fatou the mathematician Fatou] (1878-1929).<br /> <br /> '''Denis'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Male. Named for St. Denis or Dionysius, patron saint of Paris and of France, 3rd-century bishop of Paris, martyr, beheaded on the hill now called Montmartre. &quot;Montjoie St. Denis!&quot; was a warcry used by French troops in the Middle Ages. His intercession is effective against demonic possession and headache.<br /> <br /> '''Policarpe'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Male. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Polycarp Saint Polycarp] was a Christian bishop of Smyrna (now İzmir in Turkey) in the second century. He was stabbed and died a martyr after an attempt to burn him at the stake failed. His intercession is sought against earache and dysentery.<br /> <br /> '''Young Congo'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Probably in reference to the [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Young_Turks Young Turks], a Turkish revolutionary movement<br /> <br /> '''Garde Civique'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> A part of the Belgian army. According to the [http://www.1911encyclopedia.org/Belgium 1911 Britannica], &quot;the mass of the garde civique does not pretend to possess military value. It is a defence against sedition and socialism.&quot;<br /> <br /> '''French Second Bureau boys'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Deuxieme Bureau; French Intelligence.<br /> <br /> '''''phalange'''''&lt;br&gt;<br /> French: phalanx. A military (here mock-military) group ready for combat. &lt;br&gt;<br /> <br /> It also conjures up memories of the early 19th century utopian socialist <br /> Charles Fourier, who theorized that people should live communally in &quot;phalanxes&quot; of a specific number based upon their &quot;passions.&quot; His solid ideas included equality of the sexes, but he also taught wacky things such as the moon being made of lemonade. Of particular relevance is his rejection of industrial civilization. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Utopian_socialism]<br /> <br /> '''&quot;...until something had happened, something too terrible to remember...&quot;'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Again this theme of an unknowable past transgression, here invoked almost as if the unknown signifies the other 'lateral' (a word which has cropped up at least a dozen times already) 'vector'.<br /> <br /> '''the Digue'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> French for &quot;dyke&quot;<br /> <br /> '''Congo... Belgians'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> The Belgian colonisation of the Congo was, as Conrad's ''Heart of Darkness'' makes clear, notable for its greed and brutality.<br /> <br /> '''Leopold, King of the Belgians'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> 1835-1909, reigned 1865-1909. A man of almost Nixonian fiendishness. In the Congo he acted as sole proprietor and absolute ruler. The positive outcomes of his exploitation include ''Heart of Darkness'' and the phrase &quot;crime against humanity.&quot;<br /> <br /> '''co-conscious'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> mental processes outside the main stream of consciousness but sometimes available to it — from Merriam-Webster's Medical Dictionary.<br /> <br /> '''Force Publique'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Belgian armed forces operating in the Belgian Congo ([http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Force_Publique Wikipedia]). &quot;King Leopold's private army&quot; may be a more accurate description.<br /> <br /> '''rubber worker'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> See above: One of the early missions of the FP was to increase rubber export quotas through forced labor and related atrocities.<br /> <br /> ==Page 528==<br /> <br /> '''''khâgne'''''&lt;br&gt;<br /> an informal term used by French students for Classes Préparatoires Littéraires, the two-year cycle of classes taken after the Baccalaureat (taken at age 17-18), to prepare for the entrance examination to the Ecole Normale Supeieure. ([http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kh%C3%A2gne khâgne]).<br /> <br /> '''Reclus'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> J. J. Élisée Reclus (1830-1905), French geographer but mainly educated in Germany. Several times he was forced to leave France because of his political views; he traveled widely in Europe, the British Isles, the United States, and South America and for many years lived in Switzerland. He was professor of comparative geography at the University of Brussels from 1895 to 1905. He had quite an extensive connection with various socialist and anarchist circles (met Bakunin while in Florence).Once he was imprisoned in Versailles in 1871 for his part in the ''Paris Commune''. In 1882 he initiated the ''Anti-marriage movement'' while in Geneva. [[http://academic.reed.edu/formosa/texts/reclusbio.html Reclus]).<br /> <br /> '''Stirnerite'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Follower of Max Stirner, 19th century German philosopher and author of ''The Ego and Its Own,'' a work influential in anarchist thought. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Max_Stirner Wikipedia entry].<br /> <br /> ''Max Stirner'''s (1806-56) attacks on systematic philosophy, his denial of absulutes, and his rejection of abstract concepts of any kind often places him among the first philosophical nihilists. For Stirner, achieving individual freedom is the only law; and the state, which necvessarily imperils freedom, must be destroyed. Even beyond the oppression of the state, though, are the constraints imposed by others because their very existence is an obstable compromising individual freedom. Thus Stirner argues that existence is an endless &quot;war of each against all&quot; (1845). (taken from the paragraph about Max Stirner in [http://www.iep.utm.edu/n/nihilism.htm#H1 Nihilism])&lt;br&gt;<br /> Sourcing here? Much complexity in properly understanding Stirner, who has some Pynchon-like qualities, to say the least. From the Stanford Dictionary of Philosophy&lt;br&gt;<br /> His major work:<br /> The Ego and Its Own<br /> Much of Stirner's prose—which is crowded with aphorisms, italicisation, and hyperbole—appears calculated to disconcert. Most striking, perhaps, is the use of word play. Rather than reach a conclusion through the conventional use of argument, Stirner often approaches a claim that he wishes to endorse by exploiting words with related etymologies or formal similarities. For example, he associates words for property (such as ‘Eigentum’) with words connoting distinctive individual characteristics (such as ‘Eigenheit’) in order to promote the claim that property is expressive of selfhood. (Stirner's account of egoistic property—see below—gives this apparently orthodox Hegelian claim a distinctive twist.)<br /> <br /> This rejection of conventional forms of intellectual discussion is linked to Stirner's substantive views about language and rationality. His unusual style reflects a conviction that both language and rationality are human products which have come to constrain and oppress their creators. Stirner maintains that accepted meanings and traditional standards of argumentation are underpinned by a conception of truth as a privileged realm beyond individual control. As a result, individuals who accept this conception are abandoning a potential area of creative self-expression in favour of adopting a subordinate role as servants of truth. In stark contrast, Stirner insists that the only legitimate restriction on the form of our language, or on the structure of our arguments, is that they should serve our individual ends. It is the frequent failure of ordinary meanings and standard forms of argument to satisfy his interpretation of this criterion which underpins Stirner's remorselessly idiosyncratic style.<br /> <br /> The Ego and Its Own has an intelligible, but scarcely transparent, structure. It is organised around a tripartite account of human experience, initially introduced in a description of the stages of an individual life. The first stage in this developmental narrative is the realistic one of childhood, in which children are constrained by material and natural forces such as their parents. Liberation from these external constraints is achieved with what Stirner calls the self-discovery of mind, as children find the means to outwit those forces in their own determination and cunning. The idealistic stage of youth, however, contains new internal sources of constraint, as individuals once more become enslaved, this time to the spiritual forces of conscience and reason. Only with the adulthood of egoism do individuals escape both material (external) and spiritual (internal) constraints, learning to value their personal satisfaction above all other considerations.<br /> <br /> Stirner portrays this dialectic of individual growth as an analogue of historical development, and it is a tripartite account of the latter which structures the remainder of the book. Human history is reduced to successive epochs of realism (the ancient, or pre-Christian, world), idealism (the modern, or Christian, world), and egoism (the future world). <br /> <br /> What about these &quot;successive epochs&quot; in understanding ATD?<br /> <br /> Stirner's major work, The Ego and Its Own has been reissued in English a number of times in Pynchon's lifetime,from the 60s on. (Not that TRP could not have read it in German!)<br /> <br /> '''''Anarcho-individualiste'''''&lt;br&gt;<br /> i.e. he has doctrinal differernces with Stirnerism, strictly speaking; see P. 324, and &quot;Eigenheit&quot;.<br /> <br /> '''Leopold'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> See p. 527.<br /> <br /> '''going down lately'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Being assassinated.<br /> <br /> '''Sipido'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Jean-Baptiste Sipido (1884-1959), a Belgian socialist. Accusing the Prince of Wales of causing thousands of inocents were killed in the Boer War in South Africa, on April 5, 1900, Sipido leaped onto the foot board of the royal compartment right before the train left the North Railway Station (Gare du Nord), Brussel, and fired two (or one? as reported in ''The Manchester Guardian'', or four? as stated in the text here) shots through the window but missed everyone inside. He was arrested, tried and acquitted. The leader of the House of Commons called the acquittal a &quot;grave and most unfortunate miscarriage of justice.&quot; ([http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jean-Baptiste_Sipido Sipido]).<br /> <br /> '''Prince... of Wales'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> (Maud Gonne's husband claimed to have been involved in another such plot.)<br /> <br /> '''Hippodrome'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Hippodrome Wellington, a horse racing track in Ostend built in 1883. The facility hosts both harness and flat racing events. ([http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hippodrome_Wellington Hippodrome]).<br /> <br /> '''Royal Bathing Hut... twenty francs'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> A bathing machine ([http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bathing_machine bathing machine])? The King of Belgium certainly would not want to be seen in a swimsuit on a public beach... It seems unlikely, though, that such a royal bathing machine would be for hire.<br /> <br /> '''twenty francs'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> ???<br /> <br /> ==Page 529==<br /> <br /> '''picric family'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> The explosive picric acid (2,4,6-trinitrophenol) and its derivatives. For picric acid, Brugère's powder and Designolle's powder, [http://encyclopedia.jrank.org/PER_PIG/PICRIC_ACID_or_TRINITROPHENOL_C.html see this Britannica article.]<br /> <br /> '''Brugère's powder'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> See &quot;picric family&quot; above.<br /> <br /> '''Designolle's'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> See &quot;picric family&quot; above.<br /> <br /> '''Monsieur Santos-Dumont'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Alberto Santos-Dumont (1873-1932), a pioneer of aviation from Brasil. Check out [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alberto_Santos-Dumont Wikipedia] to get a look at the way he was wearing his &quot;trademark Panama hat&quot;. <br /> <br /> '''Green Hour''' and '''''l'heure vertigineuse'''''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Absinthe-drinking time. The liqueur is green. In French, ''l'heure verte,'' so ''vertigineuse'' (vertiginous, causing dizziness) is a pun on the word for &quot;green.&quot;<br /> <br /> '''Rocco and Pino'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Rabid Quaternionists and sudden friends of Kit Traverse.<br /> :No, they were not mathematicians at all, let alone Quaternionists, but two &quot;Italian naval renegades&quot; !!<br /> ::&quot;Rocco and Pino&quot; are, in temperament, something like the &quot;Mason and Dixon&quot; of manned-torpedoes... cf. the &quot;torpedo&quot; (i.e., &quot;Electrick-Eel&quot;) of ''Mason &amp; Dixon''.<br /> <br /> '''Whitehead works in Fiume'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Anticipating GR's V2 works.<br /> <br /> ''Robert Whitehead'' (1823-1905), an English engineer. He developed the first self-propelled torpedo in 1866. He attended Manchester's Mechanics Institute, worked in a shipyard in Toulon (1844), France, and as a consultant engineer in Milan (1847), Italy. Later he moved to Trieste and in 1856 became a manager of a company called ''Founderia Mettali'' (later, ''Stabilimento Tecnico di Fiume'') in Fiume producing ship steam boilers and engines which were the most advanced of that era. He also developed the first self-propelled torpedo which was very popular. Whitehead's torpedo was propelled by a compressed air engine, carried 18lbs dynamites and a self-regulating device which kept the torpedo cruising at a constant preset depth. [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Robert_Whitehead Whitehead]].<br /> <br /> ''Fiume'' is now Rijeka, Croatia. Trieste is on the northwestern edge of the Istra Peninsula, Rijeka is east of it. [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rijeka Fiume]].<br /> <br /> Interesting sidebar: Whitehead's fortune from Fiume and the torpedo went solely to his granddaughter Agatha Whitehead, who married Baron von Trapp. The Von Trapp money came from Robert Whitehead, and most of the von Trapp singers were his great-grandchildren.<br /> <br /> '''''Alberta'''''&lt;br&gt;<br /> The [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Royal_yacht Wikipedia] entry on royal yachts goes back to the 17th century but doesn't include ''Alberta.'' The craft does get a mention in [http://www.bouncing-balls.com/timeline/people/nr_leopoldmorel.htm this page on Leopold and the Congo.]<br /> <br /> '''Siluro Dirigibile a Lenta Corsa'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> or S.L.C. &quot;slow course torpedo&quot;, &quot;slow-running torpedo&quot;. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Manned_torpedo Wikipedia] Italy‘s Navy was among the first to experiment with manned torpedos. Though according to [http://web.ukonline.co.uk/chalcraft/sm/chariots.html this site] this did not happen until 1935, Italian frogmen as early as October 31, 1918 made it into the harbour of Pula with the help of a modified german torpedo and sank the former Austrian but by then since a few hours Croatian/Slovenian/Bosnian battleship SMS ''Viribus Unitis''. [http://www.geocities.com/tegetthoff66/viribus.html website]<br /> <br /> The Wikipedia entry linked above doesn't contain the Italian word ''dirigibile'' (steerable), which sets up the torpedo as a counterpart of the dirigible ''Inconvenience.''<br /> <br /> :I suspect there's a connection between the torpedo and &quot;Not the usual lateener, in fact appearing to have neither sails, masts, nor oars&quot; in Miles' reversed vision, [[ATD_243-272#Page_250|page 250.]] Needs work, though.<br /> <br /> ==Page 530==<br /> <br /> '''exfiltrate'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Make a surreptitious escape (as &quot;infiltrate&quot; means to make a surreptitious entrance).<br /> <br /> '''''Macchè'''''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Italian: certainly not, not a chance. And in Pynchon's Italian is used as an all-purpose exclamation.<br /> <br /> '''''Ehi, stu gazz', categoria'''''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Stu gazz' is a dialect representation of ''sto cazzo'', literally meaning ''this dick here''. Normally you could translate the sense of the sentence as: ''yeah, why not, a fucking category! ''. -- blicero2 - 2007.02.22<br /> <br /> '''''mezzogiornismo'''''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Denigrating the Italian South. Mezzogiorno means ''midday'' in Italian but refers generally to Southern Italy.<br /> <br /> ==Page 531==<br /> <br /> '''Bruges'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> An exceptionally beautiful Belgian town of canals which is thus one of several towns known as the 'Venice of the north'. In the 14th cettury Burges already became an international finanacial and trading center, but<br /> started to decline in the 15th century. In the 20th century, however, the city was discovered by the international tourism and the medieval heritage turned out to be a new source of wealth. A new harbor of Zeebrugge, 10 miles outside of Bruges at the North Sea coast, brought new developments and new industries to the region. For the city and its history see ([http://www.trabel.com/brugge.htm Bruges]).<br /> <br /> '''Raoul's Atelier de la Vitesse'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> French: Ralph's Speed Shop.<br /> <br /> '''Ghent'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Belgian city, less than 30 miles southeast of Bruges, on the rail line about halfway between Ostend and Brussels. It is the fourth largest city of Belgium. It is bigger than Bruges but not as famous as a tourist attraction. But the city is a showcase of medieval Flemish wealth and commercial success. See ([http://www.trabel.com/gent.htm Ghent]).<br /> <br /> '''Daimler six-cylinder'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> ???<br /> <br /> '''a hundred horsepower'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> ???<br /> <br /> '''''guaglion'''''&lt;br&gt;<br /> italian (dialectal) = boy, young person<br /> <br /> '''Umeki Tsurigane'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Umeki is typically made with some combination of the various kanji for &quot;plum&quot; (ume) and &quot;tree&quot; (ki), though one has the ki being the character for &quot;ghost/devil&quot; and one obscure reading that's entirely redundant, where ume is &quot;plant&quot; (usually read ue). There is one where ume is the kanji for &quot;buried or embedded&quot;. Tsurigane, means a &quot;temple bell&quot;, which can stand alone or be followed by the grass kanji to mean &quot;bellflower&quot; (lots of botanical stuff happening here, if that means anything; hardly the only example in ''AtD''). Given the search for Shambhala going on, &quot;Buried Temple Bell&quot; seems a likely translation, at least at this point; the botanical meanings could perhaps emerge later.<br /> <br /> Or, another terrible name-pun? &quot;You make [m]e sore again.&quot; See another on P. [[ATD_748-767#Page_757| 757]]<br /> <br /> '''Professor Knott'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Cargill Knott (1856-1922), professor of physics; seismologist. See his biography [http://www.penicuikcdt.org.uk/Cargill_Knott.html here].<br /> <br /> ==Page 532==<br /> <br /> '''Kimura'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Cf [[ATD_26-56#Page 29|page 29:Kimura]] and [[ATD_318-335#Page 318|page 318:Shunkichi Kimura]].<br /> <br /> '''drover's sombrero'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Cowboy hat.<br /> <br /> '''furoshiki'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Japanese all-purpose cloth. Can be worn, used as wrapping, or used as a bag.<br /> <br /> '''taupe'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> A brownish gray.<br /> <br /> '''boilermakers and their helpers'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> [[ATD_358-373#Page_360|See annotation to p. 360.]]<br /> <br /> '''Anharmonic Pencil'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> ''Pencil'' is a term commonly used in Synthetic Geometry. Straight lines incident with a plane - coplanar lines - and passing through a common point are said to be concurrent lines and the set of all such concurrent coplanar lines is called the ''pencil''. (Cf [[ATD_429-459#Page 456|page 456:Pencil]]). For a figure and a not quite precise definition see [http://mathworld.wolfram.com/Pencil.html pencil]. If a, b, c and d, are four distinct coplanar lines and their double ratio λ = (abcd) = -1, then a, b, c, d are called a harmonic quadruple of lines; they are said to constitute a ''harmonic pencil''. A ''pencil'' which is not harmonic then is known as ''anharmonic pencil''. See Pencil (lines 8-9), Double Ratio λ (lines 32-35) and Harmonic Pencil (line 39) of [http://ca.geocities.com/ingsaler6/mathworld.html Mathworld].<br /> <br /> '''''Comptes rendus'''''&lt;br&gt;<br /> ''Comptes rendus des séances hebdomadaires,'' Proceedings of the weekly sessions (of the Academy of Sciences), published from 1835, later (ca. 1935) retitled ''Comptes rendus de l'Académie des sciences,'' Proceedings of the Academy of Sciences. (Notice that the academy didn't see the need to specify &quot;French.&quot; Take that, Royal Society of London!) For about a century, one of two journals so universally circulated and recognized that bibliographies nearly always cited them in nickname form: ''C.R.'' The other was ''Ber.,'' short for ''Berichte der Deutschen Chemischen Gesellschaft,'' Reports of the German Chemical Society (from 1868).<br /> <br /> '''De Forest'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Cf [[ATD_26-56#Page 29|page 29:De Forest]].<br /> <br /> '''Gibbs'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Cf [[ATD_26-56#Page 29|page 29:Professor Gibbs]].<br /> <br /> '''Maxwell Equations'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Cf [[ATD_57-80#Page 58|page 58:Maxwell Field Equations]].<br /> <br /> ==Page 533==<br /> <br /> '''aniline teal'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> The wallpaper dye; aniline dyes were the first synthetic dyes, discovered by [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/William_Perkin William Perkin] in 1858. Their intense and fade-resistant colors were very fashionable at the end of the nineteenth century. The dyes are also significant in ''GR'' as the products of I.G. Farben.<br /> <br /> '''Heavisiders'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Oliver Heaviside (May 18, 1850 – February 3, 1925) was a self-taught English electrical engineer, mathematician and physicist who adapted complex numbers to the study of electrical circuits, developed techniques for applying Laplace transforms to the solution of differential equations, reformulated Maxwell's field equations in terms of electric and magnetic forces and energy flux, and independently co-formulated vector analysis. Although at odds with the scientific establishment for most of his life, Heaviside changed the face of mathematics and science for years to come.[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Heaviside].<br /> <br /> '''Grassmanniacs'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Nineteenth century German mathematician and linguist, essentially the inventor/discoverer of vector space. Grassmann showed that once geometry is put into the algebraic form he advocated, then the number three has no privileged role as the number of spatial dimensions; the number of possible dimensions is in fact unbounded.[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hermann_Grassmann].<br /> <br /> '''in the mood for a clambake'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Anachronistic Broadway show tune? If so, the clambake in ''Carousel'' turns into a brawl; the assmebled factions of mathematicians could be in the mood for either a party or a brawl, apparently. <br /> <br /> '''Monopole de la Maison'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Monopole of the House, a fanciful name of a fanciful drink.&lt;br&gt;<br /> There is, since 1898, a well known restaurant called ''Monopole Lunch &amp; Sea Grill'' in Plattsburgh of upper New York state. ([http://www.monopole.org Monopole Restaurant]).&lt;br&gt;<br /> Most probably, it's the Magnetic monopole being referred here. In physics, a monopole is a magnet with a net magnetic charge, i.e. there is only one pole instead of two (so no net magnetic charge) as usual. ([http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Magnetic_monopole Monopole]). It's existence had been theoretically predicted by various particle theories (superstring theory, etc) but never been proved experimentally. Proving the existence of a monopole would certainly earn a Nobel Prize.<br /> <br /> '''Idiom Neutral'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> An invented language, like Esperanto. Idiom Neutral dictionaries first appeared in 1902. It looks like a simplified Latinate language and it grew out of Volapuk, another &quot;auxiliary language.&quot; It was abandoned by the ''Akademi Internasional de Lingu Universal'' in 1908.<br /> <br /> For a list of all the invented languages that linguists are keeping track of, including Klingon, try [http://linguistlist.org/forms/langs/GetListOfConstructedLgs.html Eastern Michigan's Linguist List]. And don't forget to click on the link to &quot;Browse sites devoted to constructed languages.&quot;<br /> <br /> '''phatic'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Basically, small talk or chatter. Words used to convey fellow-feeling rather than to impart information.<br /> <br /> '''''Kampf ums Dasein'''''&lt;br&gt;<br /> German: struggle for existence.<br /> <br /> '''Q-brother'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Fellow Quaternioneer or Fellow Quaternionist.<br /> <br /> '''We are the Jews of mathematics, wandering out here in our diaspora--some destined for the past, others the future, even a few able to set out at unknown angles from the simple line of Time, upon journeys that no one can predict''' &lt;br&gt;<br /> In keeping with the analogy of Judaism, those &quot;few&quot; people within the Quaternionists &quot;able to set out at unknown angles&quot; are most likely being compared to Kabbalists who claim to partake in a mystic &quot;journey to the Throne of God through the mythological realm of the seven heavens&quot; (Armstrong, A History of God--p. 247). Throne Mysticism in Kabbalah is explored extensively in Gravity's Rainbow.<br /> <br /> Perhaps this is obvious to some, but these &quot;Jews of Mathematics&quot; worship the Hamiltonian Tetractys [http://www.math.ucr.edu/home/baez/dublin/]; those other Jews worshipped the Tetragrammatron. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tetragrammaton] The proliferation of 4s continues.<br /> <br /> ==Page 534==<br /> <br /> '''Poiret gown'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> A gown designed by Paul Poiret (1879-1944), a French fashion designer based in Paris. &quot;In the annals of fashion history, Paul Poiret is best remembered for freeing women from corsets and further liberating them through pantaloons . . . it was Poiret's remarkable innovations in the cut and construction of cloting . . . Working with fabric directly onto the body, Poiret helped to pioneer a radical approach to dressmakeing that relied more on the skills of drapery than on those of tailoring.&quot; (from [http://www.metmuseum.org/special/se_event.asp?OccurrenceId={0DC3D00F-4611-4F91-8DC2-CC3C1A5C48D5} MetMuseum], <br /> New York Metropolitan Museum's Special Exhibitions, ''Poiret: King of Fashion'', May 9, 2007 to August 5, 2007). For a picture of Poiret gown see [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Image:Poiretgown.jpg Poiret Gown]. ''The New York Times'' reported on February 1, 2007 that A Poiret Gown Brings $5,500 at [http://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html?res=9B07EFDA1538F93AA15756C0A967948260 Christie's Auction] - the gown was made in 1913 when Poiret was at the height of his career. For his bio see [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Paul_Poiret Poiret].<br /> <br /> '''''green and long'''''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Pickle, or... what?<br /> : A green and long ''gherkin'' (a small, immature fruit of a variety of cucumber used in pickling).<br /> <br /> ==Page 535==<br /> <br /> '''no-name wine'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> 1970s idiom for common European practice?<br /> <br /> '''set theory'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Set theory deals with the properties of well-defined collections, or ''sets'', of entities - the ''elements'' or ''members'' of the set - conceived as a whole. The elements may be of a mathematical nature or non-mathematical. The set theory grew out of the German mathematician Georg Cantor's (1845-1918) study of infinite sets of real numbers. <br /> <br /> The ''language of sets'' has become an important tool for all branches of mathematics, but is of very little relevance to the practice of mathematics in everyday life. As a source of metaphors, however, it's been quite productive; &quot;subset,&quot; &quot;superset,&quot; &quot;universe,&quot; &quot;intersection&quot; and &quot;Venn diagram&quot; have found varying degrees of acceptance. Recasting Aristotle's syllogisms in set-theoretic language also makes them easier for many people to understand.<br /> <br /> '''Hamilton . . . early genius'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Hamilton, according to ''Chambers Biographical Dictionary'', &quot;at fifteen knew thirteen languages, had read Newton's ''Principia'', and commenced original investigations&quot;. At twenty-two, &quot;while still an undergraduate, he was appointed professor of Astronomy at Dublin and Irish Astronomer-Royal&quot;; at thirty &quot;he was knighted&quot;.<br /> <br /> '''Hamilton . . . in the grip of a first love'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> ???&lt;br&gt;<br /> Pynchon probably didn't mean Quaternion was Hamilton's first love, but its effect on him was similar to that of a first love. In 1843 at the age of 38 Hamilton invented the Quaternion, the first non-communtative algebra to be studied. He felt this would revolutionise mathematical physics, and he spent the rest of his life working on it. In 1853 he published a large volume, ''Lectures on Quaternions'', on his grand invention. The last seven years of his life, Hamilton was writing an 800-page book ''Elements of Quaternions'' modeling on Euclid's ''Elements''. The last chapter of the book was completed by his son after his death.<br /> <br /> '''the Walt Whitman of English physics'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Whitman pops up again, last seen on [[ATD_489-524#Page_491|page 491]].<br /> <br /> ==Page 536==<br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> '''Oscar Wilde'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Note that Wilde's Dorian Gray also undergoes a kind of bilocation.<br /> <br /> '''Kursaal'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Spa. Casino ?<br /> <br /> '''vectors'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> For serious minds see Cf [[ATD_525-556#Page 526|page 526:Gibbsian Vectors]], but let's follow Pynchon's lighter mood, here is a non-mathematical definition by Kamen (1995):<br /> :''Many things have more than direction;''<br /> :''The magnitude is also a question.''<br /> :''With acceleration or force,''<br /> :''And many more things, of course,''<br /> :''It's vectors that make the connection.''<br /> <br /> '''Curls'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Cf [[ATD_318-335#Page 326|page 326:Curl]]: curl is a vector operator that shows a vector field's rate of rotation.<br /> <br /> '''Laplacians'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Pierre-Simon, Marquis de Laplace (March 23, 1749 – March 5, 1827); French mathematician and astronomer who summarized and extended the work of his predecessors in his five volume Mécanique Céleste (Celestial Mechanics) (1799-1825), translating the geometrical study of mechanics used by Isaac Newton to one based on calculus, known as physical mechanics.<br /> <br /> He is also the discoverer of Laplace's equation. Although the Laplace transform is named in honor of Laplace, who used the transform in his work on probability theory, the transform was discovered originally by Leonhard Euler. The Laplace transform appears in all branches of mathematical physics — a field he took a leading role in forming. The Laplacian differential operator, much relied-upon in applied mathematics, is likewise named after him. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Laplace].<br /> <br /> :Cf [[ATD_318-335#Page 326|page 326:Laplacian]]: Laplacian is a differential operator named after Laplace. The text here was talking about mathematical operations and operators — rates of change, rotations, partial differentials, Curls, ''Laplacians'', . . .<br /> <br /> '''scream'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Scream motif.<br /> <br /> '''beginning to appal'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> By 1905 there had been years of outrage at conditions in the Belgian Congo, King Leopold's private fief. Conrad's ''Heart of Darkness'' had been published as a serial in Blackwood's Magazine in 1899 and as a book in 1902. There were missionaries' accounts of the brutality, and newspaper reports. Leopold and his apologists published rebuttals. The Norton Critical Edition of ''Heart of Darkness'' contains an extensive collection of both.<br /> <br /> '''baize'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Baize is a coarse woolen felt.<br /> <br /> ==Page 537==<br /> <br /> '''broken symmetries'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Broken_symmetry Broken symmetry] is a concept used widely in mathematics and physics. For a simplest explanation (good enough for the text here), this term means that an object breaks either rotational symmetry or translational sysmetry - when one can only rotate an object in certain angles or when one is able to tell if the object has been shifted sideways. For a little bit more detailed explanation see [http://www.lassp.cornell.edu/sethna/OrderParameters/BrokenSymmetry.html Identify the Broken Symmetry]; or even more [http://scienceweek.com/2005/sw050708-6.htm On Broken Symmetry].<br /> <br /> '''''sphinxe Khnopffienne'''''&lt;br&gt;<br /> refers to the Belgian symbolist painter Fernand Khnopff (1858-1921), famous for his painting &quot;The Caress&quot;, in which a female sphinx erotically lures a young man. The painting can be seen in the [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fernand_Khnopff wikipedia entry]<br /> <br /> '''Pléiade Lafrisée'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> in French, &quot;friser&quot; means to curl or twist. &quot;La frisée&quot; could mean &quot;curled,&quot; by extension &quot;twisted.&quot; The Pleiades is a cluster of hundreds of stars, though only a few are visible, sometimes referred to as The Seven Sisters. If Pleiades are Sisters, Pléiade is ''one'' Sister, so her name means Twisted Sister!<br /> <br /> '''''Conseilleuse'''''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Female consultant?<br /> <br /> ==Page 538==<br /> <br /> '''retroversion matrix'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> ???<br /> <br /> '''''Ma foi'''''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Literally &quot;My faith&quot;, i.e. &quot;By my faith!&quot;, a mild exclamation of incredulity.<br /> <br /> '''ten thousand francs'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> <br /> Based on currency conversions relative to gold, this is equivalent to<br /> about $30,000 US today.<br /> <br /> '''piker'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Someone cheap or cautious, possibly named after people from PIke County, Missouri, who came to California in the 1800s, looking for work. They were poor, hence cheap.<br /> <br /> '''what is a Quaternino?'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Cf [[ATD_525-556#Page 525|page 525:Quaternions]] for a mathematical definition. From ''The Random House Dictionary of the English Languages'', The Unabridged Edition (1966): Quaternion is &quot;a quantity or operator expressed as the sum of a real number and three complex numbers, equivalent to the ''quotient of two vectors''. The field of quaternions is not commutative under multiplication.&quot;.<br /> <br /> '''Bertie ('Mad Dog') Russell'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> 'Mad Dog' seems to be used with heavy irony here. Bertrand Russell was known most for his rationalism, so to speak, his work in modern logic. <br /> He did little in his public roles (at this time in AtD) that would have <br /> him referred to as &quot;crazy', as we say, beyond the social norm, &quot;mad&quot;. <br /> It might be argued that his use of 'logic' against philosophers such as Hegel and McTaggart within ''Against the Day'' showed up their 'madness'.<br /> (Many did think McTaggart was a bit...different...for seriously not believing in Time.) McTaggart broke with Russell after an early influential friendship---Russell was the younger man and the influenced one. He said he was an Hegelian because of McTaggart--Russell wrote in his<br /> Autobiography that McTaggart said he no longer wanted to meet/talk with him bcause he could no longer stand Russell's opinions.<br /> <br /> [http://nobelprize.org/nobel_prizes/literature/laureates/1950/russell-bio.html Bertrand Russell] (1872-1970) was a British mathematician, philosopher, logician and social critic. Best known for his work in mathermatical logic and analytic philosophy. In late spring of 1901 he discovered the so-called [http://plato.stanford.edu/entries/russell-paradox/ Russell Paradox], &quot;the most famous of the logical or set-theoretical paradoxes. The paradox arises within naive set theory by considering the set of all sets that are not members of themselves. Such a set appears to be a member of itself if and only if it is not a member of itself, hence the paradox.&quot; (On-line Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy). He won the 1950 Nobel Prize in Literature in &quot;recognition of his varied and significant writings in which he champions humanitarian ideals and freedom of thought&quot;.<br /> <br /> '''Barry Nebulay'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> nebulae: formed from the diffusion of gas in galaxies or as exploded stars (or the last ember-like stage of a star)&lt;br&gt; <br /> Most nebulae can be described as diffuse nebulae, which means that they are extended and contain no well-defined boundaries.[1] In visible light these nebulae may be divided into emission nebulae and reflection nebulae, a categorization that depends on how the light we see is created.<br /> <br /> '''Hegel... puns'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Probably refers to the fact that quite a lot of Hegel's philosophy deals with the is-ness of the world as we know and experience it.<br /> <br /> On page 787 of Bertrand Russell's ''History of Western Philosophy'' is a summary, perhaps, of this remark about Hegel's puns: &quot;as a result of analysis of the concept &quot;existence&quot;, modern logic has proved this [Cartesianism, refuted by Kant, reinstated by Hegel] argument invalid.....&quot;<br /> <br /> We know from other places that TRP himself seems to 'not like' Cartesianism. See 'cartesian' citations within this wiki.<br /> <br /> ==Page 539==<br /> <br /> '''a vector quotient'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> The result of one vector divided by another. According to the English dictionary definition of previous page this is just a Quaternion.<br /> <br /> '''unit vector'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Unit vector is a vector with magnitude of one. The unit vectors in 3-dimensional space, ''i, j, k'', associated with ''x, y, z'' directions are used in defining a general 3D vector (Cf [[ATD_525-556#Page 526|page 526:Gibbsian Vectors]]).<br /> <br /> '''''square root of minus one'''''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Imaginary number (Cf [[ATD_119-148#Page 132|page 133:Imaginary Number]]). The imaginary numbers ''i, j, k'' are used in defining a Quaternion (Cf [[ATD_525-556#Page 525|page 525:Quaternions]]).<br /> <br /> ''''Triangle Asana''''&lt;br&gt;<br /> A basic yoga pose. <br /> <br /> [http://yoga.org.nz/postures/yoga_positions_images_page.htm Here are images of several basic poses.]<br /> <br /> ''''Dr Rao abruptly vanished''''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Might be a reference to [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Martin_Gardner Martin Gardner]'s<br /> [http://www.amazon.com/No-Sided-Professor-Fantasy-Mystery-Philosophy/dp/0879753900 &quot;No-Sided Professor&quot;]<br /> <br /> ''''Quadrantal Versor Asana''''&lt;br&gt;<br /> A triangle pose taken that extra dimension.<br /> <br /> '''''&quot;Uwe moer!&quot;'''''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Looks a lot like the Dutch &quot;Uw moeder!&quot; - a cry of astonishment (&quot;Your mother!&quot;), the equivalent to the black English &quot;yo mama&quot;.<br /> <br /> '''noncommutative'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> A term typical to mathematics. A commutative equation is one that can operate in exact reverse and still yield the same results. 'Noncommutative' then suggests unidirectionality. The ability to go from point A to point B, but not from B to A.<br /> <br /> '''reticule'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> A woman's drawstring handbag; usually made of net or beading or brocade; also: A system of lines forming a pattern of squares at the focal plane of a telescope, used in micrometers.<br /> [http://www.astunit.com/tutorials/glossary.htm] <br /> :Isn't that sort of a red herring? &quot;[P]roducing from her reticule a . . . watch&quot; doesn't really allow of that second meaning. &lt;br&gt;<br /> :It could be a pun, since a reticule/ handbag always shows its pattern of lines, and a watch (timepiece) is drawn from it. Remember that, e.g. railroad lines of tracks, are a sign of industrialism encroaching on the natural and the spiritual.<br /> <br /> '''Vacheron &amp; Constantin watch'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Made by a Swiss company founded in 1755. From 1819 to 1970 the name was as in the text, then the &amp; dropped out. See the [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vacheron_Constantin Wikipedia entry.]<br /> <br /> '''hunting-case'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> For a pocket watch, a case with a hinged metal cover. More often called &quot;hunter case&quot; (and such a watch a &quot;hunter&quot;).<br /> <br /> ==Page 540==<br /> <br /> '''&quot;haar rekening, ja?&quot;'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> The bill, yes? (Dutch)?<br /> <br /> ''Her'' bill, yes? I.e., give the check to the lady.<br /> <br /> Given the presence of Chris 'Kit' Traverse here, this very much suggests a reference to Christopher 'Kit' Marlowe, Elizabethan poet, playwright and contemporary of Shakespeare. Marlowe was stabbed to death in 1593, in murky circumstances, ostensibly over a bill or 'reckoning', though he was widely believed to have been involved in some form of espionage.<br /> <br /> Strictly speaking &quot;haar rekening&quot; means that the lady pays for herself only. If Root wanted to make sure that Pléiade pays for the whole company he would have to say &quot;de hele rekening voor de dame&quot;. <br /> <br /> '''Piet Woevre'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> The Woëvre is a natural region of Lorraine in north-east France. It forms part of Lorraine plateau and lies largely in the department of Meuse. During World War I, there was much fighting there due to vast mineral resources that had been discovered in the Briey basin or Eastern Woevre at the end of the 19th century. &quot;Piet&quot; is Dutch for &quot;rock&quot; or &quot;stone&quot; and is a fairly common Dutch name, the English equivalent being Peter.<br /> <br /> If the surname is pronounced as in Dutch, Woevre is another Pynchon villain with a &quot;V&quot;-name (Vond, Weissman, Vibe). <br /> <br /> '''Force Publique'''&lt;br /&gt;<br /> The Force Publique (FP) was the official armed force for what is now the Democratic Republic of the Congo from 1885, (when the territory was known as the Congo Free State), through the period of direct Belgian rule (1908-60), until the beginning of the Second Republic in 1965. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Force_Publique Wikipedia entry]<br /> <br /> '''made him reach'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Possible allusion to a famous line, &quot;When I hear the word culture I reach for my gun.&quot; From Hanns Johst's biographical play ''Schlageter''. The original line is slightly different: &quot;Wenn ich Kultur höre ... entsichere ich meinen Browning,&quot; &quot;Whenever I hear of culture... I release the safety-catch of my Browning!&quot; (Act 1, Scene 1). It is spoken by another character in conversation with the young Schlageter. In the scene Schlageter and his wartime comrade Friedrich Thiemann are studying for a college examination, but then start disputing whether it's worthwhile doing so when the nation is not free. <br /> <br /> The line is often misattributed to better-known Nazis and others [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hanns_Johst].<br /> <br /> *In Jean-Luc Godard's 1963 film [http://www.chicagoreader.com/movies/archives/0997/09057.html ''Le Mépris'' (''Contempt'')], Jack Palance's character &quot;Jeremy Prokosch,&quot; an American movie-producer, intones to Fritz Lang: &quot;Whenever I hear the word culture, I reach for my checkbook.&quot;<br /> <br /> '''not unambiguous'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Ie, ambiguous.<br /> <br /> '''''rastaquoueres'''''&lt;br&gt;<br /> 8???<br /> <br /> '''de Decker'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> In Dutch/Flemish, the name means &quot;roofer.&quot; (''De'' in these names almost never means &quot;of, from&quot; as in French; it's nearly always the definite article.)<br /> <br /> ==Page 541==<br /> <br /> '''''bobbejaan'''''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Afrikaans: baboon. (Afrikaans is the language spoken by descendants of Dutch colonists in present-day South Africa. Some items identified as Dutch or Flemish in this wiki may really be Afrikaans.)<br /> <br /> The South African song &quot;Bobbejaan klim die berg&quot; (&quot;Bobbejaan climbed the hill&quot;) is the source of the stage name of Belgium's most famous country and western musician, Bobbejaan Schoepen (b. 1925). In 1943 he was suppressed by the Nazis after performing a South African song, &quot;Mamma, 'k wil 'n man hê&quot; (&quot;Mama, I want a man&quot;), which contains the line &quot;No, Mama, I don't want a German, because I don't like pork.&quot; He founded the Bobbejaanland theme park in Belgium, where he still lives.<br /> <br /> '''MKIV/ODC... Mark Four'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> This would be the Mark IV Ohmic Drift Compensator ([[ATD 557-587#Page 565|Page 565]]), a key component of the Q-weapon, which &quot;regulates how much light is allowed to enter the silvering of the mirror! Special kind of refraction! Calibrated against imaginary index! Dangerous! Of the essence!'&quot;<br /> <br /> '''not part of your remit'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Not included in your job description, instructions, authorization. &quot;Remit&quot; (noun) is usually a British usage.<br /> <br /> '''''gatkruiper'''''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Dutch/Flemish: brownnose, ass-kisser.<br /> <br /> '''one on her wrist'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> All the bruises reflect some refinement or artistry except this one, which may have been inflicted crudely.<br /> <br /> '''over the day'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Title motif?<br /> <br /> ==Page 542==<br /> <br /> '''trans-horizontic'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> ???<br /> Across the horizon -- &quot; a screaming comes across the sky&quot;<br /> <br /> '''Edmund Whittaker'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Edmund Whittaker (1873-1956), an English mathematician. He is best known for his work in numerical analysis. And he contributed widely to applied mathematics, mathematical physics and the theory of special functions. He also worked on celestial mechanics and the history of applied mathermatics and physics. ([http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/E._T._Whittaker Whittaker]).<br /> <br /> The Sir Edmund Whittaker Memorial Prize is awarded every four years by the Edinburgh Mathematical Society to an outstanding young mathematician having a specified connection with Scotland [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sir_Edmund_Whittaker_Memorial_Prize]. <br /> <br /> '''louche'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> The cloudy effect caused by the addition of water to absinthe. Dictionary definition: &quot;of questionable taste or morality; decadent.&quot;<br /> <br /> '''cheval-glass'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Standing mirror in a freestanding vertical frame.<br /> <br /> '''as if someone'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Sound-cancelling vs opacity-cancelling?<br /> <br /> ==Page 543==<br /> <br /> '''wraith of Pleiade Lafrisee'''<br /> <br /> Pleiade manifests one of her not-visible stars. Perhaps this sister has somehow twisted herself on an imaginary axis ala Dr. V. Ganesh Rao.<br /> <br /> '''monitory'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Warning, giving advice, by extension ominous or menacing.<br /> <br /> '''Against....the day....'''<br /> Note: this phrase happens at the exact halfway point of the novel: p.542.3<br /> <br /> '''He Who Must Come'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> The evil-doer who must come might be Adolf Hitler. It would make sense. The implication being that Europe is precipitating into a no-return situation. Capitalism cannot but end in WW2.&lt;br&gt;<br /> Ah, a lot more and less than capitalism going on here, especially if anyone specific like Hitler is meant. <br /> :When French writers use this phrase (''celui qui doit venir'') they '''do''' mean the Messiah . . . although a few devout quibblers point out that the Messiah has already come. It's rather tiresome Googling the phrase; the first 83 hits definitely refer to Christ and most of them quote the first verses of Matthew 11. But there's also a Camus reference (in English, I think) down at No. 90, if anyone has a JSTOR account:<br /> :links.jstor.org/sici?sici=0361-1299(1985)39%3A4%3C251%3ACFS%22M%3E2.0.CO%3B2-X <br /> <br /> Recalls Yeats' 'The Second Coming' once again: &quot;And what rough beast, its hour come round at last, Slouches towards Bethlehem to be born?&quot; [http://chumpsofchoice.blogspot.com/2007/05/casino-royale-in-flanders-field.html#c3637134446204467798 ]<br /> <br /> '''General Boulanger'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/General_Boulanger Georges Boulanger], French military man, and War Minister in the late 19th century. He was one of those men &quot;on a white horse&quot; that some conservatives looked to, as he urged an attack on Germany and the end of the French Republic with a return to monarchy. He was also notorious for his harsh reprisals against workers' demonstrations. &quot;'Boulangisme'&quot; threatened a coup in 1889, but the general's procrastination brought the crisis to an end.<br /> <br /> '''what death and what transfiguration'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Allusion to Richard Strauss' tone poem &quot;Death and Transfiguration&quot; (''Tod und Verklärung''), premiered in 1890.<br /> <br /> '''''&quot;Zeker&quot;'''''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Dutch: certainly.<br /> <br /> '''''dead cert'''''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Dead certainty, sure thing.<br /> <br /> '''Von Schlieffen'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Alfred von Schlieffen was the author of a German war plan to win a two-front war against both France and Russia by quickly defeating France before Russian troops could be mobilized. The [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Schlieffen_Plan Schlieffen Plan] included an attack on France through Belgium, disregarding its neutrality.<br /> <br /> '''Wilhelm has offered Leopold part of France, the ancient Duchy of Burgundy'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> [http://www.crwflags.com/fotw/flags/fr-bg.html History of the duchy.] [http://www.freiburg-madison.de/freiburg_history/1386-1517_The%20Early%20Habsburgs.htm Map,] with portrait of Duke Charles the Rash.<br /> <br /> '''lowlands'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Title of Pynchon's first published story. Here, ass?<br /> <br /> ==Page 544==<br /> <br /> '''Place d'Armes'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Main square of Ostend; literally &quot;drill field&quot;.<br /> <br /> '''peau de soie'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> &quot;Skin of silk&quot; A heavy, smooth satin with very fine ribbing; somewhat dull in sheen compared with traditional silk finishes.<br /> <br /> '''Krafft-Ebing'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Richard Freiherr von Krafft-Ebing, Austro-German psychiatrist and author of ''Psychopathia Sexualis'' (1886), a pioneering study of deviant sexual behavior and fetishism. Coined both ''sadism'' and ''masochism'' as terms for these respective behaviors. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Richard_Freiherr_von_Krafft-Ebing Wikipedia entry].<br /> <br /> '''toque'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Toque here refers to a lady's hat, originally of fur but here in velvet, which is rather like a flattened chef's hat in shape.<br /> <br /> Proust: in ''À l'ombre des jeunes filles en fleurs'' the narrator first sees Albertine wearing a toque. There seem to be quite a few Proust themes and references running throughout the novel. Indeed '''Pliade''' is the French publisher of Proust's works. <br /> <br /> '''guipure'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Lace trim.<br /> <br /> '''midinette'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> A shopgirl or dressmakers apprentice. A milliner.<br /> <br /> '''Lambic'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> A distinctive Belgian style of beer. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lambic Wikipedia]<br /> <br /> '''sous'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> <br /> Coins. Originally Roman gold coins, latterly any kind of coin.<br /> <br /> Specifically small change. She is affecting modesty by claiming that a hat like hers can be had for pennies in any unpretentious shop. In France &quot;sou is used as slang for money, as in ''sans le sou''. 'I'm broke', 'without money'. It is also a slang term for the Canadian cent (standard French, cent).&quot; ([http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sou Wikipedia])<br /> <br /> '''mayonnaise'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Brautigan's &quot;Trout Fishing in America&quot; famously ends with the word mayonnaise. [http://books.google.com/books?vid=ISBN0395500761&amp;id=rbEjDovfyNMC&amp;pg=RA2-PA111&amp;lpg=RA2-PA111&amp;ots=ELKl5b_6Tx&amp;dq=mayonnaise+trout.fishing&amp;num=100&amp;sig=BiyXRqJXRGrMWbrBNgn8de2kpCo#PRA2-PA112,M1 GoogleBooks]<br /> <br /> '''ovoöleaginous'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Another Pynchonic word combination, here denoting the two main ingredients of mayonnaise: 1) eggs, and 2) oil. It's not &quot;fecoventilatory collision&quot; as seen in &quot;Vineland,&quot; but it's nice.<br /> <br /> '''Grenache'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Grape commonly used in Rhone Valley wines e.g. Chateauneuf du Pape.<br /> <br /> '''Chantilly'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> <br /> Region north of Paris.<br /> <br /> Here the reference is to crème chantilly otherwise known as whipped cream. Chantilly mayonnaise is made by incorporating the beaten egg whites for extra lightness.<br /> <br /> '''attainder'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Legislative act declaring that a person is guilty of a crime and setting punishment without the benefit of a formal trial. The Constitution forbids the federal government (Article I, Section 9, clause 3) and the state governments (Article I, Section 10, clause 1) from passing bills of attainder.<br /> [www.historycentral.com/Civics/B.html] <br /> <br /> ''''''Aux armes, citoyens''''''&lt;br&gt;<br /> ''To arms, citizens'', from the French national anthem, ''La Marseillaise'' (1792). Kit confused La Mayonnaise with La Marseillaise.&lt;br&gt;<br /> Not &quot;Le Marseillaise,&quot; you nitwit!<br /> <br /> '''Louis XV'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> King of France 1715-1774 [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Louis_XV]. <br /> <br /> '''Cléo de Mérode'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Glamorous French ballerina (1875-1966), later Follies Bergere dancer and famous beauty. Her reputed intimacy with King Leopold was only a rumor [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cleo_de_Merode]. The character Madame Leonora Armfeldt in Stephen Sondheim's ''A Little Night Music'' has some features in common with her.<br /> <br /> '''Marquise de Pompadour'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Mistress of Louis XV,once friend of Voltaire and a power behind official scenes.[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Madame_de_Pompadour].<br /> <br /> ==Page 545==<br /> <br /> '''duc de Richelieu'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Duc de Richelieu (1696-1788), marshal of France, was a grandnephew of Cardinal Richelieu, and born in Paris. Apart from his reputation as a man of exceptionally loose morals, he attained, in spite of a defective education, distinction as a diplomatist and general. ([http://www.1911encyclopedia.org/Louis_Francois_Armand_du_Plessis,_duc_de_Richelieu duc de Richelieu] and cf [[ATD_489-524#Page 490|page 490:duc de Richelieu]])<br /> <br /> '''dubious 'victory' in 1756'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> As part of the Seven Years' War (1756-1763), duc de Richelieu (1696-1788), a Marshal of France, won a victory in the Battle of Minorca (May 20, 1756) over John Byng (1704-1757), a British Admiral. In spring of 1756 John Byng was sent with a small and undermanned fleet to relieve the British ''Port Mahon'' on the Mediterranean island of Minorca. During the battle ensued, several British ships were badly damaged by the French squadron while others, including Byng's flagship, were still out of effective firing range. Instead of engaging the enemy directly, Byng decided to keep the formation, allowing the French fleet to get away undamaged. ([http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_Minorca Battle of Minorca]).<br /> <br /> '''the ill-fated Admiral Byng'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> John Byng, convicted by court-martial of failure &quot;to do his utmost&quot; in the battle, shot in 1757. Remembered because of (1) his being the last officer of flag rank to be put to death for conduct in battle and (2) Voltaire's gag in ''Candide:'' &quot;In this country it is good to kill an admiral from time to time in order to encourage the others.&quot;<br /> <br /> '''cantharides'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> &quot;Spanish fly,&quot; contact irritant sometimes ill-advisedly used as aphrodisiac.<br /> <br /> '''Sadean'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Pertaining to the Marquis de Sade. The acts the chef performs on the egg and oil have the same names as acts of Sadean sex. <br /> <br /> '''''n'est-ce pas?'''''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Right? (Isn't that so?)<br /> <br /> '''vetiver'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> A grass (Vetiveria zizanioides) of tropical India, cultivated for its aromatic roots that yield an oil used in perfumery.<br /> [www.answers.com/topic/vetiver]. So, a perfume with, llterallly, roots in India.<br /> <br /> Vetiver makes frequent appearances throughout ''À la recherche du temps perdu.''<br /> <br /> '''pip'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> A beaut; in current parlance, a hottie.<br /> <br /> '''Q.P. system'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Quaternion Probability, page 536.<br /> <br /> '''Usine Régionale'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> French: as translated in the text.<br /> <br /> ==Page 546==<br /> <br /> '''disjunctive effects of thunderstorms'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Folk wisdom says a thunderstorm will cause mayonnaise to separate (oil from yolks).<br /> <br /> '''cottonseed oil'''<br /> <br /> Mayonnaisse like Smegmo and Crisco is a hydrogenated fat; cottonseed oil is a common factor to all three. Indeed, the name Crisco derives from the intial sounds of &quot;'''crys'''tallized '''c'''ottonseed '''o'''il&quot;. Note in the next few pages a mention of Candlebrow -- underscoring a tie-in between Mayonnaisse and Smegmo. <br /> <br /> It may be of interest to note that hydrogenation may have a symbolic use for Pynchon. The process entails bubbling hydrogen through oil in the presence of a metal catalyst such as nickel, platinum, aluminum at 248 to 410 degrees. Remnants of these metals stay in the finished product, and when consumed can lead to an increase in heavy metals in the human body.<br /> <br /> Eating hydrogenated oils is like eating plastic. The body does not recognize that these molecules have been mutated and tries to use them as essential fatty acids. But they cannot perform the same function, and as a result hydrogenated oils can cause short circuits in the electrical flow that controls the heartbeat, nerve functions, cell division and mental balance. They also create free radicals (anarchists!) that are linked to cancers. Free radicals plus metal remnants are a major contributor to cancer, heart disease, immune system dysfunction, osteoporosis, depression, chronic fatigue, Alzheimers, and neurological diseases. It is estimated that over 200 million people have died prematurely because of the hydrogenated oils found in our diets. [http://www.drz.org/asp/newsletter/default.asp?xt2id=23] Not to mention innocent bystanders killed by mentally imbalanced people whose imbalance may stem from the ingestion of hydrogenated oils -- there may be some underlying reality to the &quot;Twinkie defense.&quot;<br /> <br /> '''lounge suit'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> A lounge suit is another name for business suit consisting of a matching jacket and trousers or skirt.<br /> <br /> '''congress shoes'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> ankle high shoes with elastic gussets in the sides (wordweb online)<br /> <br /> '''invisible hand'''<br /> <br /> Suggestive of Adam Smith's metaphor for market forces in economics.<br /> <br /> '''dripping-heads'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mayonnaise To make mayonnaise,] beat together egg yolks, salt, mustard and vinegar, then drip in oil while beating to form the emulsion. If you scale the process up for industrial production, you will automate the introduction of the oil, using nozzles that release it a drop at a time—but in a large vat you can have many such nozzles.<br /> <br /> '''''cuves d'agitation'''''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Vat or tank in which the mayonnaise is agitated or beaten.<br /> <br /> '''Clinique d'Urgence pour Sauvetage des Sauces'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> French: Emergency Clinic for Salvage of Sauces.<br /> <br /> ==Page 547==<br /> <br /> '''' ...engulfed in thick, slick, sour-smelling mayonnaise. ''''<br /> The whole Kit's experience in the mayonnaise factory is very much reminiscent to [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Roald_Dahl Roald Dahl]'s [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Charlie_and_the_Chocolate_Factory Charlie and the Chocolate Factory].<br /> <br /> '''''Cazzo, cretino'''''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Literally, &quot;Dick, cretin.&quot; ''Cazzo'' is a common Italian interjectionary obscenity, especially in the south. &quot;Cazzo, cretino,&quot; is akin to someone saying, &quot;Well shit, dummy,&quot; or &quot;F-ing moron!&quot;<br /> <br /> '''''È il cowboy!'''''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Italian: It's the cowboy!<br /> <br /> '''''vero?'''''&lt;br&gt;<br /> true? real?<br /> <br /> '''''Le bambole anarchiste, porca miseria'''''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Italian: Anarchist babes, oh boy.<br /> <br /> '''Oudenberg'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> A southeast suburb of Ostende.<br /> <br /> '''Quai de l'Entrepôt'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Warehouse Quay<br /> <br /> '''''ragazzi'''''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Italian: boys, guys.<br /> <br /> ==Page 548==<br /> <br /> '''General Boulanger'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Georges_Boulanger General Boulanger]. That he was 'reactionary' and that the C of C bureaucracy had a 'defiant residue' of Boulangism, continues the characterization of the organization for which the Chums 'work'.<br /> <br /> '''''timbres fictifs'''''&lt;br&gt;<br /> French: fictive postage stamps. Cf &quot;Lot 49&quot;.<br /> <br /> '''&quot;IIIb&quot;'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> As explained in the text<br /> <br /> '''Germany might stand a better chance...'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> That is, if the French were to push into Alsace (per Boulanger) as the Germans executed the Schlieffen Plan [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Schlieffen_plan] for the encirclement of Paris, it would put the French at an even greater disadvantage...as actually happened in 1914. Had the Belgians and British not delayed the Germans in Flanders, and had the French railroads not performed speedily to bring the French troops back to the Marne, World War I could have had a very different outcome...an alternate history. <br /> <br /> '''revanchist'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Policies based on revenge, or a person following such policies. In General Boulanger's case, revenge against Germany for the Franco-Prussian War (that is, retaking Alsace, lost in 1871).<br /> <br /> '''the somewhat discomposed General'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Having died in 1891, the General by the time of the action is certainly somewhat '''de'''composed; brief biographies do not suggest he was ''non compos mentis,'' that is, mentally discomposed.<br /> <br /> ==Page 549==<br /> <br /> '''cackled Darby'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> (When did he lose his innocence?)<br /> <br /> '''a modification of any salsician metaphor toward the diminutive'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Salsician: pertaining to sausage. Lindsay says Suckling's penis is better compared to a wiener than a knockwurst.<br /> <br /> '''&quot;Why you little–and I do mean 'little'–&quot;'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Another Simpsons reference? <br /> <br /> '''dunes between Nieuport and Dunkirk'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Nieuport is a Belgian seaport about 10 miles southwest of Ostend. Dunkirk is a French port (less than 10 miles inside the French border) about 20 miles southwest of Nieuport. The latter was a site of one of the bloodest battle in World War I. The general area between Niewport and Dunkirk was the well traversed battle fields of two world wars. (Dunkirk was (in)famous for the British Army's escape from the Nazi German's assault in World War II.)<br /> <br /> '''power-receivers'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Not information, energy.<br /> <br /> ==Page 550==<br /> <br /> '''Lot's wife''' &lt;br&gt;<br /> Angels of God led Lot and his family out of Sodom as it was being destroyed and told them not to look back at the mayhem. Lot's wife, Edith, imprudently looked back and was transfigured into a pillar of salt.<br /> <br /> '''Italian grotto'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> an imitating recess or structure made to resemble a natural Italian grotto.<br /> <br /> '''a highly developed taste, moreover, for human blood'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Since Pugnax developed this taste in the Carpathians, home of Castle Dracula, this seems a clear reference to Bram Stoker's novel. <br /> <br /> '''Carpathians'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Major mountain range running northwest-southeast through Poland, Slovakia, western Ukraine and Romania.<br /> <br /> '''Uhlans'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Uhlan regiments belonged to the light cavalry. They wore splendid uniforms (model for some U.S. marching band uniforms). [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Uhlan Wikipedia article.]<br /> <br /> '''Temesvár'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Now Timişoara, extreme western Romania.<br /> <br /> ==Page 551==<br /> <br /> '''...separated by only a slice of Time...'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Miles is beginning to experience Time almost as a spatial dimension, his personal vector as traversing (!) 4-dimensional space, or perhaps multidimensional space, the mathematics for which is being debated in Ostend.<br /> <br /> '''securing the mess decks'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> The Chums follow U.S. Navy idiom in orders (frequently prefixed with &quot;Now&quot;) and shipboard activities (&quot;secure&quot; meaning &quot;whatever you did before, undo it now,&quot; in this case put away the dishes and fold up the tables).<br /> <br /> '''Ryder Thorn'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Tolkienesque name? Or perhaps it's a nod to the Ryder-Waite Tarot deck and to Kevin Thorn (Kevin Matthew Fertig, 1977-), the American professional wrestler better known by his ring name Kevin Thorn who is currently signed to World Wrestling Entertainment wrestling on its ECW brand. He has appeared in vigniettes with Ariel (Shelly Martinez, 1980-), the tarot card reader, who spits blood at the camera while she &quot;predicted the future of ECW.&quot; Yup, a stretch...<br /> <br /> *The name also evokes the Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse.<br /> <br /> '''He was at Candlebrow.'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Presumably a 'trespasser.'<br /> <br /> '''the four-note chord in the context of timelessness'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> A melody is formed by notes following one another in time; a chord on the ukulele violates that practice by having all the notes sound at once. A really clever little passage.<br /> Note: Jazz musicians describe musical improvisations as horizontal (with the melody) or vertical (with the chord)<br /> <br /> ==Page 552==<br /> <br /> '''knuckle-duster'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Brass knuckles.<br /> <br /> '''Diksmuide'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> 20 kilometers south of Ostend (about halfway to Ypres).<br /> <br /> ==Page 553==<br /> <br /> '''The terrain was flat...lowlands'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Not, this time, a reference to Pynchon's ''Lowlands'', but to the two-dimensionality of Flanders, as in Edwin A. Abbott's ''Flatland'' [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Flatland]; most humans, like the inhabitants of Flanders and Abbott's Flatlanders, experience life in two dimensions. <br /> <br /> '''Somewhere up in the sky was Miles' home...'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Whereas Miles and the Chums of Chance, in contrast, live in three dimensions. The mathematicians gathered in Ostend are trying to calculate how to experience and use vectors to live in four dimensions; in a way, to experience Time as a kind of spatial dimension. Miles, on P. 551, is demonstrating the beginnings of an intuitive discovery of how to experience Time as an almost spatial dimension. Which would be a sort of &quot;time travel&quot;, or at least an expanded view of life and history.<br /> <br /> '''retted'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> soaked in water or exposed to moisture (as flax or hemp) to facilitate the removal of the fiber from the woody tissue by partial rotting.<br /> <br /> ==Page 554==<br /> <br /> '''Ypres and Menin'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Municipalities in West Flanders that were sites of some of the bloodiest battles of WWI. At the beginning of the war, the British and Belgian stand helped save Paris from encirclement by the Germans, and saved the Channel ports, but as Thorn points out, the area became the western anchor of the Western Front trench system. The several Battles of Ypres saw the first uses of poison gas (Mustard Gas, dichlorodiethylsulfide, was first called Yperite), the use of enormous mines, and the legendary mud of Passchendaele [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Passchendaele]. <br /> <br /> '''Ten years from now'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> (1914?) through 1918? and beyond?. Another paramorphic mirror--what do we now face. Whatever it is, it is nuclear.<br /> <br /> '''Bosch'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Hieronymous Bosch (1450-1516), Dutch painter of nightmares. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hieronymus_Bosch Wikipedia entry].<br /> <br /> '''Brueghel'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Pieter Brueghel the Elder(1525-1569), Flemish painter.[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pieter_Brueghel_the_Elder Wikipedia entry].<br /> <br /> '''League'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> League of Nations? The League of Nations was formed after WWI to prevent future wars. Didn't succeed.<br /> <br /> No. In this case a historical unit of length, approximately three miles - &quot;league on league&quot; = tremendous masses<br /> <br /> '''where the needles went and which way to rotate them'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> I.e., how to push Thorn's buttons; the image is from acupuncture.<br /> <br /> ==Page 555==<br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> '''simpletons at the fair'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Making Pynchon's metaphor explicit.<br /> <br /> '''Chopin E-minor Nocturne'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Frédéric Chopin (1810-49), a Polish pianist and composer ([http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fr%C3%A9d%C3%A9ric_Chopin Chopin]). He was born in Warsaw, Poland to a Polish morther and a French father. He went to Paris at the age of 20 and died there at the age of 39. He was widely regarded as one of the most famous and influential composers for the piano. From 1837-47 he had a 10-year stormy relationship with the French writer George Sand. His E-minor Nocturne is a 4-minute long Romantic style piano solo composed in 1827. (A ''nocturne'' is usually a musical composition that is inspired by, or evocative of, the night [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nocturne Nocturne].)<br /> <br /> '''owl-light'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> ???glimmering or imperfect light or twilight hours.<br /> <br /> ''''plasmic hysteresis''''&lt;br&gt;<br /> <br /> A coined term, apparently similar in meaning to Miles’ phrase “failure of physical translation.” Plasma would take an older meaning of “form” or “shape.&quot; Hysteresis, according to Webster's, refers to “a retardation in effect when the forces on an object are changed.” Hysteresis is used to describe magnetic phenomenon as well as plastic or elastic materials, that involve changes to a rest state that last beyond the forces that cause them. Examples include recordings on magnetic tape or a thumbprint slowly disappearing from putty. In the context of this passage, plasmic hysteresis appears to describe the lingering visage of someone who is no longer present – a hysteresis of form only and thus a failed physical translation. See [http://www.etymonline.com/index.php?search=plasma&amp;searchmode=none etymology of plasma] and this nifty explanation of [http://www.lassp.cornell.edu/sethna/hysteresis/WhatIsHysteresis.html hysteresis]. <br /> <br /> Hysteresis has also been used to refer to “loops” in time, certainly apropos in this case. I stumbled across an excellent example in a 1980 episode of Dr. Who, in which the eponymous Dr. is trapped in “chronic hysteresis,” an endless loop or return to a previous <br /> point in time – very similar to the situation of Ryder Thorn. [http://www.drwhoguide.com/who_5q.htm Check it out for yourself!] <br /> <br /> <br /> ==Annotation Index==<br /> {{ATD PbP}}</div>

MKOHUT https://against-the-day.pynchonwiki.com/wiki/index.php?title=ATD_557-587&diff=14088 2007-10-17T12:55:46Z

<p>MKOHUT: /* Page 557 */</p> <hr /> <div>:'''&lt;big&gt;Please keep these annotations SPOILER-FREE by not revealing information from later pages in the novel.&lt;/big&gt;'''&lt;p&gt;&lt;br&gt;<br /> <br /> ==Page 557==<br /> <br /> '''Viktor Mulciber'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Well, no benign associations with &quot;Mulciber&quot;! Mulciber is an alternative name of the Roman god Vulcan, the god of fire and volcanoes, and the manufacturer of art, arms, iron, and armor for gods and heroes. Mulciber is also the name of a character in John Milton's ''Paradise Lost'', the architect of the demon city of Pandemonium. When Pynchon was alluded to on The John Larroquette Show [80s or 90s], the book he was said to be working on was called ''Pandemonium of the Sun''.&lt;br&gt;<br /> In the Harry Potter books, Mulciber is a Death Eater, a minor Dark Wizard.<br /> <br /> '''bespoke'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> made to order, hence hand-made and expensive. Somewhere in the novel is a reference to 1 Savile Row, the address of Gieves and Hawkes, a very traditional English tailor.<br /> <br /> '''Basil Zaharoff'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Sir Basil Zaharoff, originally Zacharias Basileios, (1849, Muğla, Turkey - 1936, Monte Carlo, Monaco) was a Greek arms trader and financier, the director and chairman of the Vickers munitions firm during World War I [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zaharoff_Basil]. He also turns up as an international arms dealer in Reilly, Ace of Spies.<br /> <br /> In addition to the arms-dealing and being semi-fictionalized, Zaharoff is also notable for bribing the Japanese Admiral, helping to incorporate the company that eventually became British Petroleum, and through his association with Louis II of Monaco, the purchase of the Société des Bains de Mer, which ran the famous Monte Carlo casino.<br /> <br /> '''trains of history... run'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Karl Marx, in ''Das Kapital'', referred to wars as the &quot;express trains of history&quot; because they can spark societal or national crises, marking a historical turning point, and they can release economic, social, and moral forces of unforeseen power and dimensions, making any return to the status quo impossible.<br /> Also notice TRP's steady referencing of 'railroads' in a negative way. <br /> <br /> '''Q-weapon'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Possible allusion to Professor Kokintz's &quot;Q-bomb&quot; in ''The Mouse That Roared'' (1959) or to James Bond's master armorer Q. It could also be an allusion to the character &quot;Q&quot; in Star Trek where the name &quot;Q&quot; is also shared by other members of the Q Continuum. Q is a mischievous omnipotent being who has taken an interest in humans. He also has a flair for the dramatic, with a mercurial personality that switches between a joking, camp style and a more ominous and even dangerous manner. While he is boastful, condescending and threatening, he arguably has humanity's best interests at heart. In the episode &quot;The Q and the Gray&quot; (''Star Trek: Voyager'' - 3rd season), Q weapons are provided to the crew of the Voyager to free Q and Janeway, who have been captured by rebels. [http://www.answers.com/topic/the-q-and-the-grey Synopsis]; [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Q_(Star_Trek) Wikipedia]. Looney Tunes character Marvin the Martian possesses an earth-destroying weapon known as the Illudium Q-36 Explosive Space Modulator.<br /> <br /> In this context, the Q stands for &quot;Quaternion.&quot; See under Q in the alphabetical index.<br /> <br /> '''Balkan ''komitadji'''''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Originally, members of the rebel gangs (&quot;committees&quot;), controlled from Sofia, who made forays into Macedonia, the chief object of Bulgarian expansionism before WWI. The word was also commonly used for Serbian irregular fighters.<br /> <br /> :See this slightly different [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Komitadji Komitadji].<br /> <br /> '''waybill'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Ancestor of what Fedex and UPS call &quot;shipping document&quot;; it identifies the article shipped and contains necessary addresses and instructions.<br /> <br /> '''metamorphosed into an American Negro'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Cf honorary Negro (Frank above).<br /> <br /> '''Nipponese'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Japanese<br /> <br /> '''peach'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Plum, actually.<br /> <br /> '''Hertzian'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Electromagnetic waves, first demonstrated by [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Heinrich_Rudolf_Hertz Heinrich Hertz] (Cf [[ATD_318-335#Page 318|page 318:Hertz]]).<br /> <br /> '''they cannot strictly . . . longitudinal as well as transverse'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Hertz's theory and Maxwell's equations describe ''transverse'' waves in which the electric and magnetic fields are perpendicular to the direction of travel; no longitudinal waves--with vibrations parallel to the direction of travel--are permitted. In air, sound waves are longitudinal; what's suggested here is a new wave that does not fit the Hertz-Maxwell paradigm.<br /> <br /> ==Page 558==<br /> <br /> '''scalar part'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Quaternion equivalent of the real part.&lt;br&gt;<br /> A scalar quantity in geometry has magnitude but not direction. The length of a line segment is a scalar.&lt;br&gt;<br /> Time is a scalar term. <br /> <br /> '''baritone in a barbershop quartet'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> [http://www.barbershop.org/web/groups/public/documents/pages/pub_id_000827.hcsp Quote]:Technically speaking, barbershop harmony is a style of unaccompanied singing with three voices harmonizing to the melody. The lead usually sings the melody, with the tenor harmonizing above the lead. The bass sings the lowest harmonizing notes and the baritone provides in-between notes, either above or below the lead to make chords (specifically, dominant-type or &quot;barbershop&quot; sevenths) that give barbershop its distinctive, &quot;full&quot; sound.<br /> <br /> '''viola in a string quartet'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Two violins, a viola, and a violoncello make up a string quartet. The viola is between the others in pitch and is generally considered to have been given the least interesting parts in Classical and Romantic music for string quartet.<br /> <br /> '''Further Term'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> The three parts of a quaternion that are multiples of '''i''', '''j''' and '''k''' (Cf [[ATD_525-556#Page 525|page 525: Quaternions]].)<br /> <br /> '''the fulfiller of the Trinity'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> the name of the first atom bomb detonated at Los Alamos. Alluded to earlier as the &quot;Anti-Stone&quot; (Webb and Merle, p.78). The origin of the name Trinity for this event is uncertain. It is commonly thought that Robert Oppenheimer provided the name, which would seem logical, but even this is not definitely known. A leading theory is that Oppenheimer did select it, and that he did so with reference to the divine Hindu trinity of Brahma (the Creator), Vishnu (the Preserver), and Shiva (the Destroyer). Oppenheimer had an avid interest in Sanskrit literature (which he had taught himself to read), and following the Trinity test is reported to have recited a passage from the Bhagavad-Gita that is quoted earlier in this wiki.&lt;br&gt;<br /> <br /> The usage of the Tibetan Mount Kailash, the holy dwelling place of Shiva, God of destruction and regeneration, on p. 437 seems to support this.<br /> <br /> Also, a religious allusion to the three-person Godhead in Christian theology. &lt;br&gt;<br /> Also, third ATD meaning!, a college in Dublin mentioned on page 560.<br /> <br /> Also,&quot;the Destroyer, the fulfiller of the trinity&quot; recalls the Destroyer on page 154, the meteorite, and thus relates ''that'' passage to the Anti-Stone.<br /> <br /> Also, in Jungian Psychology the 'fulfiller' of the trinity, making it a complete four-aspect entity, is the 'shadow', or traditionally, the devil (the force always excluded and seen as bad in Christian theology). Cf. C. G. Jung, &quot;Versuch einer psychologischen Deutung des Trinitätsdogmas&quot;, Gesammelte Werke 11, especially p.179-94. Interestingly, Jung uses the term 'quaternarisch' for this. More Q-talk, then.<br /> <br /> '''the pulselessness of salvation'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> salvation lies outside of time?<br /> <br /> '''A weapon based on Time'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Time is why there is entropy, that key Pynchonian term. Pynchon has created a brilliant metaphor that uses the concept uniquely. The Q-weapon, at the heart of which lies &quot;a crystal about the size of a human eyeball&quot; is based on Time. What becomes of the Q-weapon after Umeki (possibly) gives it to Halfcourt in Constantinople? ([[ATD_1018-1039#Page 1036|See page 1036...]])<br /> <br /> '''&quot;...you could become the most feared person in history.&quot; ... &quot;I'd rather be loved,&quot; said Root.'''&lt;br &gt;<br /> Echoes Machiavelli's famous aphorism, &quot;It is much safer to be feared than loved.&quot;<br /> <br /> '''laterite'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> A mineral structure formed by erosion, see [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Laterite Wikipedia]. Laterite is typically rich in metal oxides and poor in organic matter.<br /> <br /> '''Ostend'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Cf [[ATD_525-556#Page 525|page 525:Ostend]]. Ostend (Dutch: Oostende, French &amp; German: Ostende) is a Belgian municipality located in the Flemish province of West Flanders. It comprises the villages of Mariakerke, Stene and Zandvoorde, and the city of Ostend proper – the largest at the Belgian coast. Wikipedia.<br /> <br /> '''Inner Boulevards'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> streets in Brussels.&quot;In spite of the competition of the Central or Inner Boulevards, the Montagne de la Cour still remains the principal street for shopping in Brussels.&quot; &quot;Brussels&quot;, Antiques Digest, 1904.<br /> <br /> '''Gare du Midi'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> The largest railway station in Brussels and a haunt of prostitutes.<br /> <br /> &lt;div id=&quot;gevaert&quot;&gt;&lt;/div&gt;'''Edouard Gevaert'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> It seems this gentleman is fictional. although there are some interesting, but tenuous, connections. Agfa-Gevaert is the current owner of the [[W#wardenclyffe|Wardenclyffe Tower]] facility which housed the Tesla Tower. [http://www.maerlant.be/photherel/student/nvgevaert.htm Lieven Gevaert] (1868-1935) was a Belgian industrialist who founded Gevaert &amp; Co. which produced photographic paper, in 1894. The company specialized in &quot;daylight&quot; paper, which relies on the event of exposure of the positive image through daylight, as opposed to development paper which is based on a process of special manipulation with chemicals. (Are photographs &quot;stolen goods&quot;? &quot;Unworldy go-betweens&quot;? Is the Q-Weapon a ... camera? No. It unlocks Time, animating the photograph - [[ATD_1018-1039#Page 1036|See page 1036]]) Agfa (Actien-Gesellschaft für Anilin-Fabrikation) was founded in 1864 as a manufacturer of dies and stains. In World War II, it became part of IG Farben (prominent in [http://gravitys-rainbow.pynchonwiki.com/wiki/index.php?title=IG_Farben_References ''Gravity's Rainbow'']. The Allies broke up IG Farben after the war and Agfa emerged as an individual company. And, well, there ''was'' a Dutch arms dealer named Edouard de Beaumont (1841-1895) who has a rifle named after him. Yes, a stretch... Upon further reflection, I believe &quot;Edouard&quot; may refer to [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Muybridge Eadweard Muybridge] (Edouard was a variant spelling he earlier used) and his photographic experiments with ''freezing'' motion/Time.<br /> <br /> ==Page 559==<br /> <br /> '''Krupp field-piece'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> The Krupps are an ancient German family, famous for making weapons. A field-piece is a light-cannon.<br /> <br /> '''vaguely glandular'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Describes Belgium, it seems.<br /> <br /> '''''ostinato'''''&lt;br&gt;<br /> A continually repeated musical phrase or rhythm.<br /> <br /> '''poleaxed'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Stunned, brought to a mental standstill. (A poleaxe was used in slaughterhouses.)<br /> <br /> '''lost to silence'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> (Not silent, or very?)Very<br /> <br /> ==Page 560==<br /> <br /> '''Wellington Hippodrome'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> A race track in Ostend. (Cf [[ATD_525-556#Page 528|page 528:Hippodrome]].)<br /> <br /> '''Estacade'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> ???<br /> :A dike of piles in the sea, a river, etc., to check the approach of an enemy. [http://www.thefreedictionary.com/Estacade]<br /> <br /> '''''mousmée... mouchard'''''&lt;br&gt;<br /> French: a young Japanese woman; a police spy.<br /> :When Henry James revised ''The Princess Casamassima'' for the 1909 New York edition, the phrase &quot;middle-class spy&quot; in the 1886 text became ''mouchard''. Source: note by Patricia Crick in Penguin Classics edition.<br /> <br /> '''always lead an irregular life'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Cf GR.<br /> <br /> '''Maria Bayley Hamilton'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> ???<br /> Hamilton's wife !!!<br /> <br /> '''council meeting'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> ???<br /> <br /> ==Page 561==<br /> <br /> '''Brougham Bridge'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> It was on this site that the [[H#hamilton|mathematician William Rowan Hamilton]], in a flash of genius, came upon the formula for Quaternions and scratched it into the stone of the bridge.<br /> <br /> About the bridge, the carving, photos of them, a couple of mathematicians' impression of the bridge, etc, see [http://math.ucr.edu/home/baez/octonions/node24.html Brougham Bridge].<br /> <br /> '''on the stone'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> The bridge is evidently a stone bridge. Stone, a natural thing, is a good for Pynchon. Hamilton's action is metaphorically a deeply religious moment. &quot;Pentecostal&quot; wherein the Quaternions 'descend' to earth [in the thoughts of men].<br /> <br /> '''''i² = j² = k² = ijk = –1'''''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Cf [[ATD_525-556#Page 525|page 525:Quaternion]].<br /> <br /> '''Pentecostal'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Pentecost (&lt; Greek πεντηκοστή [ἡμέρα], pentekostē [hēmera], &quot;the fiftieth day&quot;) is the fiftieth day after Easter Sunday, which corresponds to the tenth day after Ascension Thursday. It is a feast in the Christian liturgical calendar — symbolically related to the Jewish festival of Shavuot — that commemorates the descent of the Holy Spirit upon the Apostles and the followers of Jesus on that day, as described in the Book of Acts, Chapter 2. Pentecost is also called &quot;Whitsunday&quot; (deriving from &quot;Wit Sunday&quot;) in UK and other English-speaking areas.<br /> <br /> Almost needless to say, the Pentecostal revelation is what is supposed to happen at the end of &quot;Lot 49&quot;.<br /> <br /> '''official Mischief Opportunity'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> like 'shore leave', it seems. To leave the rules of the Organization and create mischief.<br /> <br /> '''absinthe spoons'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> absinthe spoons have slits whereon are placed sugar cubes through which one pours the absinthe<br /> <br /> '''cravats'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> A cravat is the neckband forerunner of the modern, tailored necktie. From the end of the 16th century, the term &quot;band&quot; applied to any long-strip neckcloth that was not a &quot;ruff&quot;; the ruff—a starched, pleated white linen strip—started its fashion career earlier in the 16th century as neckcloth that could be changed-a-fresh to keep the neck of a doublet from becoming too-soiled or as a bib or a napkin. A &quot;band&quot; could indicate a plain, attached shirt collar or a detachable &quot;falling band&quot; that draped over the doublet collar.&lt;br&gt;<br /> Necktie fashions have changed over time. The modern cravat originated in the 1630s when Western Europeans saw Croats wearing extravagant neck scarves; the French word ''cravate'' means &quot;Croatian cavalryman.&quot;<br /> <br /> '''&quot;four-door farce&quot;'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> (See eg Bogdanovich's &quot;What's Up, Doc?&quot;)<br /> This is also a pun on the name of Georges Feydeau, French writer of farces who was writing when Pynchon's novel is set. One of the recurring physical jokes involves sets with many doors and people coming in and out, just missing each other....<br /> <br /> The ranking of farces by door number is mostly jocular. Neil Simon's ''Rumors'' is a fine example of a seven-door farce.<br /> <br /> ==Page 562==<br /> <br /> '''Minque'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> the fish auction house.<br /> <br /> '''Bruges'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> A city about 18 miles east of Ostende, Cf [[ATD_525-556#Page 531|page 531:Bruges]].<br /> <br /> '''Ghent'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> A city about 40 miles southeast by east from Ostend, Cf [[ATD_525-556#Page 531|page 531:Ghent]].<br /> <br /> '''carillons . . . carillonneur'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> The [http://www.gcna.org/crlnexp.html carillon] was popular in Belgium before it caught on in most other places. It comprises a set of bells, matched in character, forming a scale (a couple of chromatic octaves or even more), with the beaters or clappers mechanically linked to a keyboard. A later development replaced muscle power with electromechanical linkages. In a still later &quot;advance,&quot; the carillon was automated with music-box-like control. The American practice of playing recorded bells through loudspeakers is a shamefully cheap way to imitate carillon music.&lt;br&gt;<br /> The carillonneur is the master at the keyboard.&lt;br&gt;<br /> English-style bell ringing is a totally different pursuit, using (often imperfectly) tuned bells actuated in nonmelodic sequences. The bells, not the clappers, are swung with ropes. The effect of an eight-bell &quot;peal&quot; and a team of ringers with plenty of time on their hands—as heard by this American contributor in Bristol one spring Sunday—is perfectly charming.&lt;br&gt;<br /> By the way: The word &quot;carillon&quot; is derived from the Latin &quot;quaternio&quot; (= consisting of four elements)...<br /> <br /> '''Hanseatic'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> The Hansa or Hanseatic League (definitely a creation of &quot;the Christian North,&quot; next paragraph) was a great mercantile system that held itself above national rule.<br /> <br /> '''burghers'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> middle-class married men<br /> <br /> '''silted up'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> backed up, underwater, with mud; i.e. neglected, because replaced by railroads. -As it silted up &quot;back in the 1400s&quot; we can safely exclude the influence of railroads.<br /> <br /> '''Damme and Sluis'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Port cities near Bruges, heavily dependent on them from the 14th Century.&lt;br&gt;<br /> See [http://www.damme-online.com/gb/communities/damme.htm Damme] and [http://www.damme-online.com/gb/arounddamme/sluis.htm Sluis]. For an overview map, showing cannals, roads etc, of the general area around Bruges-Damme-Sluis see [http://www.damme-online.com/gb/maps/generaloverview.htm Bruges-Damme-Sluis]<br /> <br /> ==Page 563==<br /> <br /> '''trusted his intuitiveness'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Woevre is a natural killer.<br /> <br /> '''''&quot;Jou moerskont!&quot;''... Afrikaans'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Possibly &quot;you horse's ass&quot;? --More likely something like &quot;mother's cunt&quot;.<br /> <br /> ==Page 564==<br /> <br /> '''voices of everyone he had ever put to death had been ... scored for some immense choir'''&lt;br /&gt;<br /> A possible reference to ''Star Wars'': Obi-wan experiences the obliteration of an entire planet as &quot;a great disturbance in the Force, as if millions of voices suddenly cried out in terror and were suddenly silenced.&quot; [http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0076759/quotes]<br /> <br /> Also another potentially time-less event, all of Woevre's murders collapsed into a single moment.<br /> <br /> The &quot;choir&quot; image occurs several times in ''AtD.'' [[ATD_1-25#Page_19|One example.]]<br /> <br /> '''&quot;I cannot bear it ... this terrible light...&quot;'''&lt;br /&gt;<br /> Shades of the Kirghiz Light in [http://gravitys-rainbow.pynchonwiki.com/wiki/index.php?title=The_Kirghiz_Light ''Gravity's Rainbow'']<br /> <br /> '''''Voetsak'''''&lt;br /&gt;<br /> Afrikaans (maybe Dutch too): Go away! Also spelled ''voertsek'' or ''voetsek.''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Borrowed in English with the spelling ''footsack.'' The Urban Dictionary, which often excites skepticism, has [http://www.urbandictionary.com/define.php?term=footsack a useful entry] with a marginally plausible etymology. In [http://www.worldwideschool.org/library/books/lit/drama/Finished/chap5.html ''Finished'' (1916),] novelist H. Rider Haggard glossed it this way: &quot;Among Europeans he rejoiced in the name of Footsack, a Boer Dutch term which is generally addressed to troublesome dogs and means 'Get out.'&quot; And in a defective 1943 book for young readers, ''Great Caesar's Ghost'' (by Manning Coles, creator of gentleman op Tommy Hambledon), an English merchant seaman says, &quot;Get out, 'op it, vamoose, footsack, imshi, or I'll—&quot; [http://www.absp.org.uk/words/interjections.html ''Imshi''] is British service slang for &quot;go.&quot;<br /> <br /> '''starers'''&lt;br /&gt;<br /> Those who stared at Kit earlier.<br /> <br /> '''dramatic performance'''&lt;br /&gt;<br /> referring to 'No'?<br /> <br /> '''tobacco-stricken'''&lt;br /&gt;<br /> A smoker's deep or gritty voice.<br /> <br /> '''half-silvering'''&lt;br /&gt;<br /> A design for an optical [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Beam_splitter beam splitter] that causes half of the incident light to be transmitted and the other half to be reflected.<br /> <br /> '''the fatal number four&amp;#8212;to a Japanese mind'''&lt;br /&gt;<br /> Japanese character for number &quot;four&quot; has the same pronunciation as that of character &quot;death&quot;.&lt;br /&gt;<br /> Cf [[ATD_243-272#Page 258|page 258:Japanese character for &quot;four&quot;]].<br /> <br /> '''four cusps... index-surface'''&lt;br /&gt;<br /> ???<br /> <br /> '''co-conscious'''&lt;br /&gt;<br /> Cf [[ATD_525-556#Page 527|page 527:co-conscious]]. Repeat here: &quot;mental processes outside the main stream of consciousness but sometimes available to it - from Merriam-Webster's Medical Dictionary.&quot;<br /> <br /> Third use, I think. Who/what is co-conscious here? (First time, page 478; then page 527.)<br /> <br /> Could it be the dimly perceived consciousness of one's double in the adjacent, alternate world? Or one's consciousness of that world?<br /> <br /> ==Page 565==<br /> <br /> '''true icosahedron'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Probably an regular icosahedron, where the sides are formed by 20 equilateral triangles. For a picture see [http://mathworld.wolfram.com/Icosahedron.html Icosahedron].<br /> <br /> '''12+8... pyrites'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Pyrite crystals form a structure that can be decomposed into unit cells that contain (part of) 12 sulphur atoms and 8 iron atoms.<br /> <br /> '''Riemann sphere'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Riemann_sphere Wikipedia]<br /> <br /> '''Felix Klein'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> German mathematician ([http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Felix_Klein Wikipedia])<br /> <br /> '''ebonite'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> An early plastic([http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ebonite Wikipedia])<br /> <br /> '''Ohmic Drift Compensator'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> ohm = the practical meter-kilogram-second unit of electric resistance equal to the resistance of a circuit in which a potential difference of one volt produces a current of one ampere; The Ohmic Drift Compensator &amp;#151; a key component of the Q-weapon &amp;#151; &quot;regulates how much light is allowed to enter the silvering of the mirror! Special kind of refraction! Calibrated against imaginary index! Dangerous! Of the essence!'&quot; See also [[ATD 525-556#Page 541|Page 541]]. <br /> <br /> '''speed of the earth . . . kinetic energy'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Einstein in 1905 showed most of this argument to be nonsense, but if Lorentz's paper is still recent (next entry) the shift in thinking may not have happened yet.&lt;br&gt;<br /> :Since the earth's mean orbital speed ( ~ 30 km/s) is rather small in comparison with the speed of light ( ~ 300,000 km/s), no relativistic correction is needed in calculating earth's orbital kinetic energy. And in a reference frame anchored on the Sun, the earth's kinetic eneregy, ''E = ½ m v²'', where ''m'' is the earth mass and ''v'' it's orbital speed, still holds. Einstein showed only that it is no longer true against the nonexistent stationary ''æther''. Of course, it is irrelevant to an earthbound weapon tried to make use of this energy against a person who is standing on the earth.<br /> <br /> '''Recently Lorentz's paper'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Lorentz's 1904 &quot;Electromagnetic phenomena in a system moving with any velocity less than that of light&quot; ([http://www.soso.ch/wissen/hist/SRT/L-1904.pdf PDF])<br /> <br /> '''Lorentz . . . Fitzgerald . . . along the axis of motion'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> It was the phenomenon of the Lorentz-Fitzgerald contraction, together with the abolition of the æther by Michelson and Morley, that led Einstein to his theory of special relativity.<br /> :Michelson and Morley did NOT abolish the æther. Their experiement (1887), attempting to detect the light speed change due to the effect of the æther wind, was a total failure, and they could not explain the negative result.<br /> ::OK, would you accept &quot;the abolition of the æther hypothesis in consequence of Michelson and Morley's work&quot;? In fact, that negative result—replicated many times since—did render the notion of the luminiferous æther untenable, as the next two paragraphs make clear.<br /> :The Lorentz-Fitzgerald contraction hypothesis was proposed to explain the &quot;null&quot; result of the Michelson-Morley experiment but still keeping the æther. (see paragraph 8 of Lorentz's 1904 paper above). Lorentz considered the contraction was not physically real but a device to explain the Michelson-Morley experiment. ([http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lorentz_Fitzgerald_contraction_hypothesis Lorentz_Fitzgerald Contraction]).<br /> <br /> :Einstein (1905) derived the Lorentz contraction directly, without assuming the existence of the æther, from the ''Principle of Relativity'' (ie different observers moving at a constant speed with respect to each other find the laws of physics to be identical and find the speed of light to be the same), and proved that Lorentz-Fitzgerald contraction hypothesis had been &quot;ad-hoc&quot;. And Einstein explain the failure of Michelson-Morley experiment by abolishing the æther !<br /> <br /> '''Lord Rayleigh'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> British physicist ([http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lord_Rayleigh Wikipedia])<br /> <br /> ==Page 566==<br /> <br /> '''In a dream...'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> <br /> This passage, describing Kit's dream of Umeki and the message it conveys, pulls together many of the main themes of ''Against the Day'', tying things together in a way that Pynchon seldom does, almost as if he's providing a rather large piece of the puzzle to help the reader understand the novel:<br /> <br /> :&quot;Deep among the equations describing the behavor of light, field equations, Vector and Quaternion equations, lies a set of directions, an intinerary, a map to a hidden space. Double refraction appears again and again as a key element, permitting a view into a Creation set just to the side of this one, so close as to overlap, where the membrane between the worlds, in many places, has become too frail, too permeable, for safety.... Within the mirror, with the scalar term, within the daylit and obvious and taken-for-granted has always lain, as if in wait, the dark intinerary, the corrupted pilgrim's guide, the nameless Station before the first, in the lightless uncreated, where salvation does not yet exist.&quot;<br /> <br /> This is rather a good description of ''AtD'' itself. It is a (inevitably) &quot;corrupted pilgrim's guide&quot;, but is the guide corrupted, or the pilgrim?<br /> <br /> '''analogies'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> (Pynchonian heuristics.)<br /> <br /> '''the corrupted pilgrim's guide, the nameless Station before the first'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Cf. p. 436 '''holy pilgrimages. One defines a destination, proceeds through a series of stations...<br /> <br /> <br /> '''lightless uncreated'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> (Gnostic heresy?)<br /> <br /> '''...within the daylit and obvious and taken-for-granted has always lain, as if in wait, the dark itinerary, the corrupted pilgrim's guide, the names Station before the first, in the lightless uncreated, where salvation does not yet exist.'''&lt;br /&gt;<br /> Compare with &quot;daylit America . . . its steadfast denial of night&quot; ([[ATD_724-747#Page 732|page 732]]), ''AtD'' epigraph, Thelonious Monk's &quot;It's always night, or we wouldn't need light.&quot; '''and''' &quot;the boys expressed wonder at how much more infected with light the night-time terrains passing below them had become [...] they felt themselves in uneasy witness to some final conquest, a triumph over night whose motive none could quite grasp&quot; ([[ATD 1018-1039#Page 1032|p. 1032]]); <br /> <br /> '''stuffed sinus'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> sinus/nasal congestion. It is like looking out onto a new world when one's sinus finally clears after days of congestion.<br /> <br /> '''''Konichiwa'''''&lt;br&gt;<br /> ''sic'' for &quot;Konnichiwa / Kon nichi wa&quot; -- Japanese greeting.<br /> <br /> ==Page 567==<br /> <br /> '''new Puccini opera'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Obviously, [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Madame_Butterfly Madame Butterfly]<br /> <br /> '''[Americans] can't ever die of shame'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> shameless, unlike the Japanese<br /> <br /> '''Kimura-san'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Kimura ( &quot;tree village&quot;) is the 18th most common Japanese surname.<br /> -san is used as a courtesy title in Japanese-speaking areas as a suffix to the given name, surname, or title of the person being addressed, regardless of age or gender: Yamamoto san; sensei-san.&lt;br&gt;<br /> Chimera-san?<br /> <br /> '''Borel-Clerc... &quot;La Matchiche&quot;'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Popular vaudeville song from 1903. &quot;La Matchiche&quot; is French for the Brazilian dance Maxixe.<br /> <br /> '''western anchor'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> What about France, Spain, Portugal? Belgium is a port country with a highly developed transportation system into all of these countries. .....it was the first country to industrialize in Europe....Wikipedia. <br /> <br /> In addition, Ostend is the westernmost port. It remains today a major Continental ferry terminus for North Sea crossings, including the fastest surface route, the hydrofoil.<br /> <br /> '''the Orient Express'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> The first [http://mikes.railhistory.railfan.net/r045.html Orient Express] (1883-1914), connecting the English Channel with the Black Sea, is one of the most famous trains in Europe. It ran from Calais and Paris to Bucharest (Romania), passing through Strasbourg (France), Munich (Germany), Vienna (Austria), Bratislava (Czechoslovakia), Budapest (Hungary). From Bucharest it went through Bulgaria and then, by ferry, to Istanbul of Turkey. The original Orient Express was operated by Compaignie Internationale des Wagons-Lits. Ever since the original Orient Express started operation, the name has become synonymous with luxury travel. After World I there were various railway routes had the name of Orient Express. The current one is from Paris to Vienna, to be discontinue on June 9, 2007.<br /> <br /> '''the Trans-Siberian'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> The [http://www.transsib.ru/Eng/history-phases.htm Trans-Siberian] is a railway route connecting Moscow (Europe) to Vladivostok (Far East Asia). Taking a journey by the Trans-Siberian Railway has long been considered an experience with mythological proportions. It is the longest continuous rail line on earth - about 6,000 miles over one third of the globe. In 1891, Czar Alexander III drew up planes for the Trans-Siberian and initiated its construction, and a more or less continuous route was completed in 1905. It took many more years to make the route smoothly operative.<br /> <br /> '''the Berlin-to-Baghdad'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> The [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Baghdad_Railway Berlin-Baghdad (also Basra) Railway] was the route of German's expansion from Europe to the Persian Gulf, from which trade goods and supplies could be directly exchanged with the farthest of the German colonies and the world. It could also supply German industry directly with oil. Its conception (1888) and completion a couple of years later engendered great opposition from Russia, France and England as part of the &quot;Great Game&quot;.<br /> <br /> '''World-Island'''&lt;br /&gt;<br /> [[ATD 429-459#Page_433|See annotation at page 433]]<br /> <br /> '''Compaignie Internationale des Wagons-Lits'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> &quot;International Sleeping-Car Company&quot;, [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Carlson_Wagonlit Wikipedia]<br /> <br /> '''two hundred francs'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> &quot;None of that, Hakkabut. Hold your tongue.&quot; And, turning to Rosette, the captain said, &quot;If, sir, I understand right, you require some silver five-franc pieces for your operation?&quot;<br /> &quot;Forty,&quot; said Rosette, surlily.<br /> &quot;Two hundred francs!&quot; whined Hakkabut.-- On a Comet, Jules Verne<br /> <br /> '''theory of sets'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Set theory is the mathematical theory of sets, which represent collections of abstract objects. It encompasses the everyday notions, introduced in primary school, of collections of objects, and the elements of, and membership in, such collections. In most modern mathematical formalisms, set theory provides the language in which mathematical objects are described. It is (along with logic and the predicate calculus) one of the axiomatic foundations for mathematics, allowing mathematical objects to be constructed formally from the undefined terms of &quot;set&quot; and &quot;set membership&quot;. It is in its own right a branch of mathematics and an active field of mathematical research. Wikipedia&lt;br&gt;<br /> :The members of a set can be, say, [Mike, Mary, Jack, Richard, Ron, Umeki, . . . . . .], the employees of a company, or the passengers of the train leaving the station; they need NOT be abstract. Cf [[ATD_525-556#Page 535|page 525:set theory]].<br /> <br /> '''Bruges Canal'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Belgium: Bruges canal. For a picture of the canal see [http://cruises.about.com/library/pictures/baltic/blbruges19.htm Bruges Canal].<br /> <br /> ==Page 568==<br /> <br /> '''vaporetto'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> A Venetian water-bus.<br /> <br /> '''Grand Canal'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> The main canal that runs through the heart of Venice and down past San Marco, the city's main square.<br /> <br /> '''San Marco end'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> See above. This is where Florian's (appears in the novel) is situated.<br /> <br /> '''Piazzetta'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> ??? A small piazza. The large square in front of St Mark's is the Piazza San Marco. The smaller side square running beside the Palazzo Ducale down to the canal is the Piazzetta San Marco.<br /> <br /> '''San Giorgio Maggiore'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> A rather over-ornate church on the Grand Canal opposite San Marco.<br /> <br /> '''spreading... cloak'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Cliche/allusion?<br /> <br /> '''live here forever'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Pynchon special-pleading that Dally isn't just another tourist.<br /> Or is this just a typical reaction of the tourist? And a Pynchonesque longing for home?<br /> <br /> '''Teatro Verdi in Trieste'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> A 1200+ seat theatre built in late-eighteenth century in Trieste for classical music, opera and ballet ([http://selectitaly.com/events.php?product_id=27&amp;city_id=122 Teatro Verdi]). With its stately columns, elaborate adornments and lush elegance it is rather an unlikely venue for magic show. Another unlikely venue for magic show is Teatro Malibran in Venice (next page).<br /> <br /> ==Page 569==<br /> <br /> '''Malibran... Polo's house'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> The Teatro Malibran, built at the site of Marco Polo's house, which was destroyed in 1596.<br /> :It is still there ! Cf [[ATD_336-357#Page 355|page 355:Teatro Malibran]] and the external link (for photos, etc) listed there.<br /> <br /> '''&quot;pincette&quot; pass'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Probably from the [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pincer_movement pincer movement] of military strategy.<br /> :Professor Hoffman's ''Modern Magic'' (1876) describes three &quot;passes with coins,&quot; La Pincette, Le Tourniquet and La Coulée. Amazon has the book for sale if anyone wants to look up the details.<br /> <br /> '''profondes'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> &quot;Large pockets in tail coats which can be used for vanishes or productions&quot;, [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_conjuring_terms Wikipedia]<br /> <br /> '''Vincenzo Miserere'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> ??? Misero means poor, pitiful, miserable, etc. Psalm 51 (sometimes numbered as 50) is known as the Miserere because it begins (in Latin) Miserere mei Deus (Have mercy on me, God).<br /> <br /> '''train to Trieste'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> ???Venice and Trieste are on the opposite sides (about 70 miles apart) of the same gulf : Gulf of Venice. Taking a train from Venice to Trieste would mean taking a route several times lengthier than a ferry.<br /> <br /> '''Svegli'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> The fictional professor's name comes from the Italian ''sveglio'' for &quot;clever, dextrous, skillful.&quot;<br /> <br /> '''shark leather'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Different from sharkskin?<br /> <br /> '''''Specchiere'''''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Mirror-maker<br /> <br /> '''glassmakers on Murano'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Murano Wikipedia]<br /> <br /> '''today'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> When is that?<br /> <br /> '''''guaglion'''''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Naples dialect: ''guaglione'' is boy. (It first appeared on page 531).<br /> <br /> ==Page 570==<br /> <br /> '''another one of his stories'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> (Jackson Pynchon should highlight all the AtD passages that originated as bedtime stories.)<br /> <br /> '''TERAPIA'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Italian, &quot;therapy&quot;<br /> <br /> '''San Servolo'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> An island in the Venetian archipelago, [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/San_Servolo Wikipedia], [http://maps.google.com/maps?f=q&amp;hl=en&amp;q=45.418654+N,+12.35698+E&amp;ie=UTF8&amp;z=17&amp;ll=45.418651,12.35698&amp;spn=0.006891,0.010793&amp;t=k&amp;om=1&amp;iwloc=addr Google Maps]<br /> <br /> '''Palazzo Ducale'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> The Ducal Palace in Venice, residence of the Doge. It's by San Marco.<br /> <br /> '''''manicomio'''''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Italian, &quot;madhouse&quot;<br /> <br /> '''''paramorfico'''''&lt;br&gt;<br /> paramorphic - see the entry for [[P|Paramorphoscope]]<br /> <br /> '''uterine vellum'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vellum Vellum] produced from the skin of an unborn calf<br /> <br /> '''pitch, rouge'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Products used in the grinding of lenses and mirrors.<br /> <br /> ==Page 571==<br /> <br /> '''La Doppiatrice'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Italian: the Doubler. <br /> <br /> Perhaps an analogue of the diffraction grating that splits the electron into two &quot;alternate&quot; electrons in Schrodinger's thought experiment on quantum effects, source here of a sort of human quantum splitting, an alternate universe creator. <br /> <br /> '''Ettore Sananzolo'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> ???<br /> <br /> '''Maskelyne cabinet'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> After Neville Maskelyne, from ''Mason and Dixon.'' Maskelyne was sent at the same time as M and D to record the Transit of Venus on St. Helena. He became Astronomer Royal while they were in America.<br /> <br /> While Maskelyne is indeed a real person, the name is very suggestive of mescaline. The two do not seem to be &quot;related.&quot;<br /> <br /> More likely a descendant, [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Nevil_Maskelyne John Nevil Maskelyne.] --[[User:Jeffersonista|Jordan]] 13:46, 25 January 2007 (PST)<br /> <br /> ==Page 572==<br /> <br /> '''smoke back into a cigar'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Time's arrow/ entropy motif.<br /> <br /> '''hard-as-a-rock black cigar'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> The quality of a cigar is usually higher with dark, more tightly-wrapped tobacco. Vincenzo has a fine one, it seems. <br /> <br /> '''thumping'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> sound/feeling of a water-bus?<br /> <br /> '''''salso'''''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Longest river in Sicily.Its small deltaic system there is dominated by marine processes rather than fluvial ones. It is a seasonal torrent, with brief but violent floods during the winter rains (from November to February), Is this what riding the salso in and back out again means? Riding the floods from the winter rains?<br /> <br /> Hardly. 'Salso' (ital.) means 'salty', so this is probably a poetical word for 'the sea'.<br /> <br /> '''''sandoli'''''&lt;br&gt;<br /> ??? The sandolo is a type of boat used in Venice, similar to a gondola but (I believe) larger.<br /> <br /> '''trains pulling in'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Famous early film.<br /> <br /> ==Page 573==<br /> <br /> '''San Polo'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> It is one of the six districts (sestieri) of Venice. (The other five are: Cannaregio, Dorsoduro, Santa Croce, San Marco, and Castello.) It (with Santa Croce and Dorsoduro) is located at the south side of the Grand Canal just across the Rialto bridge from San Marco. The San Polo district is the second most important area of Venice in terms of historical immportance and attractions for the tourists. It is the home to the Rialto market, the old artisan quarters of Venice, and the stunning Frari church.<br /> <br /> '''Cannareggio'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> It is commonly spelled Cannaregio. It is located north of the Grand Canal, and is one of the few parts of the city where Venetians still live in great numbers. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cannaregio Canaregio].<br /> <br /> ==Page 574==<br /> <br /> '''thirty years older'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> About 65yo?<br /> <br /> '''that day'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> In NYC when Dally showed up.<br /> <br /> '''when she was born'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Cf Pretenders/Chryssie Hynde.<br /> <br /> '''Stronzo'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Italian curse word, roughly &quot;asshole&quot;<br /> <br /> '''''In bocc' al lupo!'''''&lt;br&gt;<br /> From the Roman dialect, in which the Italians – including Rocco and Pino – seem to speak. Meaning, literally, &quot;In the <br /> mouth of the wolf,&quot; and idiomatically, &quot;Good luck.&quot; <br /> <br /> Specifically, as supported by the show business context, the good-luck wish among actors: &quot;Break a leg!&quot;<br /> <br /> '''''campielli'''''&lt;br&gt;<br /> ??? Small squares. A campo is literally a field and by extension a large square in a town. A campiello is a small square. I believe Venice has only one Piazza (San Marco) and the other squares are campi and campielli.<br /> <br /> '''impersonation of itself'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> echoes &quot;the mountains had become geometrical impersonations of themselves&quot;, p. 394<br /> <br /> ==Page 575==<br /> <br /> '''Riva'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> ??? Probably Riva del Vin by the Grand Canal; a great tourist attraction from where one can view the historical Rialto Bridge. (The word ''riva'' itself means ''river bank''). [http://arglist.com/cgi-bin/image?gallery=venice&amp;name=20050525-025 Riva del Vin] and[http://www.altravistavenezia.it/_VirtualTours/VA/Rialto_Riva_del_Vin/rialto_riva_del_vin.html Rialto-Riva del Vin]<br /> <br /> '''middy blouses'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> In the style of a midshipman's blouse (shirt).<br /> <br /> '''not yet been rebuilt'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Remember p256.<br /> <br /> '''''lucciole'''''&lt;br&gt;<br /> prostitutes<br /> <br /> '''''fondamenta'''''&lt;br&gt;<br /> A waterside street in Venice<br /> <br /> '''''ombreta'''''&lt;br&gt;<br /> ??? A local wine produced in the hills north of Venice.&lt;br /&gt;<br /> Well, actually ''ombreta de vin'' means &quot;a glass of wine&quot; in Venetian dialect.<br /> <br /> '''light's good here'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Old joke about drunk looking for car keys under streetlight though he dropped them somewhere else.<br /> <br /> '''inside that labyrinth . . . microcosm of all Venice'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> A hologram has this property, that a little chip broken off it contains the entire image. This is, however, a specific reference to Fractal &amp;#151; non-Euclidian &amp;#151; Geometry ... self-similarity over scale. A fractal is an object or quantity that displays self-similarity, in a somewhat technical sense, on all scales. The object need not exhibit exactly the same structure at all scales, but the same &quot;type&quot; of structures must appear on all scales. A plot of the quantity on a log-log graph versus scale then gives a straight line, whose slope is said to be the fractal dimension. The prototypical example for a fractal is the length of a coastline measured with different length rulers. The shorter the ruler, the longer the length measured, a paradox known as the coastline paradox, mentioned by Pynchon on [[ATD_821-848#Page_821|page 821: coastline approaching infinite length]].<br /> :Good argument for the fractal reference, better than the original one for the hologram metaphor. Hunter is not making smaller and smaller paintings (&quot;chips&quot;) but rather exploiting an observation about scale.<br /> <br /> ==Page 576==<br /> <br /> '''''rio'''''&lt;br&gt;<br /> narrow waterway in Venice (Cf [[ATD_243-272#Page 245|page 245:''rio'']].)<br /> <br /> '''twelve soldi'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> ??? A soldo is a small coin.<br /> <br /> '''franc... ten francs'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> ???<br /> <br /> '''Santos-Dumont style'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Cf [[ATD_525-556#Page 529|page 529:Monsieur Santos-Dumont]]<br /> <br /> '''Canaletto'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Real name: [http://www.wga.hu/bio/c/canalett/biograph.html Zuane Antonio Canal] (1697-1768), a well-known scenery painter at the time. He went to England in 1746 and returned to Venice in 1755.&lt;br&gt;<br /> Venetian landscape painter, 1697-1768, famous for his paintings of Venice ([http://www.artericerca.com/ven_set/Canaletto/canaletto.htm Italian website]).<br /> <br /> As described, Penhallow's pictures are reminiscent, in spirit and in some ways content, of John Singer Sargent's Venetian paintings. Sargent also later painted one of the most haunting images of World War I, [http://jssgallery.org/Paintings/Gassed/Gassed.htm &quot;Gassed&quot;], showing a column of men blinded by mustard gas feeling their way to an aid station.<br /> <br /> '''Beppo'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Allusion to Byron's poem &quot;Beppo - A Venetian Story&quot;. Beppo is a husband who's been away for many years and then, returning, reclaims his wife from another man.<br /> <br /> Beppo = Mouse, diminutive of Giuseppi. There is also Beppo Levi (born on May 14, 1875 in Turin, Italy, died on August 28, 1961 in Rosario, Argentina) Italian mathematician, director of the Mathematics Institute of the National University of the Littoral from 1939 to 1961. His work included the mathematics of alternative spaces[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Beppo_Levi].<br /> <br /> '''pitch'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> From Merriam-Webster Dictionary: ''chiefly British: an outdoor site (as for camping or doing business).<br /> <br /> '''Bauer-Grünwald'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> An expensive hotel near San Marco in Venice.<br /> <br /> '''demobilized from a war that nobody knew about . . . seeking refuge from time'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Hunter Penhallow, one of the Trespassers?<br /> <br /> ==Page 577==<br /> <br /> '''a time-traveler from the future'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Hunter Penhallow IS a Trespasser.<br /> <br /> ''''Safe''''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Recent art-movie title? I think safe here means safe without allusion.<br /> <br /> '''neutral hour?'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Is any moment in Time apolitical?<br /> <br /> '''Castello'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Castello is the largest of the six sestieri of Venice. The district grew up from the thirteenth century around a naval dockyard on what was originally the Isole Gemini.<br /> <br /> Not sure on the derivation of Isole Gemini; but Gemini, like Pisces (cf. Fomalhaut, the brightest star in the Pisces constellation) and Sagittarius, are the dual signs of western astrology in keeping with &quot;bi-locations,&quot; Deuce Kindred, Renfrew/Werfner, mirrors, etc. <br /> <br /> Jyotisha (Indian astrology) includes Virgo as a dual sign or dvisvabha rashis -- thus forming a Quaternity (4 signs or rashis)of Duality. It's interesting that Pynchon does not say Gemini and Pisces directly, but alludes to them behind Castello and Fomalhaut. Be on the lookout for twins, fish, virgins and centaurs!<br /> <br /> '''Evening Gun'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> &quot;At reveille the morning gun goes off; and at retreat, the evening&quot;. From <br /> a history description. Here is a site with picture.http://www.ziplink.net/~edkreutz/1f.html<br /> <br /> '''Dr. Grace'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Renowned, full-bearded 19th-century English cricket player.<br /> <br /> '''Charing Cross'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Charing Cross Railway Station, London. The original station was opened on 11 January 1864 by the South East Railway. Now, over 37 million people pass through Charing Cross every year. Situated on the forecourt of the stations is the Eleanor Cross, from which point road distances from London are measured. For more see [http://www.networkrail.co.uk/aspx/795.aspx#history Charing Cross].<br /> <br /> ==Page 578==<br /> <br /> '''Dorsoduro'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> An area of Venice. The Dorsoduro district is a relatively central area of the city, located on the opposie side of the Grand Canal from the San Marco district. But, at the smae time it offers the visitor a chance to explore a delightful part of the city free from the crowds of San Marco.<br /> The Accademia Gallery, Peggy Gugggenheim Museum, and the Santa della Maria Salute Church (one of the most famous landmarks of Venice) are all located here. [http://www.tours-italy.com/venice/guide_dorsoduro.htm Dorsoduro].<br /> <br /> '''''pensione'''''&lt;br&gt;<br /> A cheap Italian hotel, like a bed and breakfast.<br /> <br /> '''La Calcina'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> A historical hotel. La Calcina means ''The Lime House'', because the hotel was built on a 17th-century lime production site. It is located on the Zattere promenade, at the foot of the Calcina Bridge. Various Bohemian artists frequented the Café of the hotel, and John Ruskin indeed stayed at the hotel from February 13 to May 23, 1877. For the historical background of the hotel see [http://www.lacalcina.com/HTML/en/calcina_storia_en.html La Calcina].<br /> <br /> '''eminent ghosts, Turner and Whistler, Ruskin, Browning....'''<br /> <br /> Evokes Lytton Strachey's ''Eminent Victorians'' and this Quaternity of artists were eminent indeed (though not the subject of Strachey's book). All had a conection to Venice, and the note on Ruskin at the La Calcina above could be true of the other three as well. <br /> <br /> Robert Browning became a ghost in Venice in 1887. Of particular historic significance, Browning was the first person to ever have his voice heard after his death. Thomas Edison recorded Browning reading his poem &quot;How They Brought Good News from Ghent to Aix&quot; including the poet's apologies for forgetting the words. The recording was first played in Venice in 1890.<br /> <br /> '''''&quot;traces of conciousness&quot;. Psychical Research beginning to open these matters..streaming by'''''&lt;br&gt;<br /> <br /> Possible allusion to Joyce's &quot;stream of conciousness&quot;. Ulysses is also set in 1904, the year Joyce met his wife. <br /> <br /> But that is not the stream of consciousness refered to here, and it is the wrong &quot;James.&quot; William James actually coined the term &quot;stream of consciousness.&quot; Joyce was not the first to use it as a literary technique either -- he just perfected it in a way not seen before -- except perhaps in Proust.<br /> <br /> Considering the context in AtD concerns ghosts and the very next sentence begins with a mention of Psychical Research, &quot;traces of consciousness&quot; is not so much stream of consciousness as a trailing vapor or whisp of consciousness that streams by as a &quot;kind of ghost.&quot; Think in terms of thought transference, ESP, mediums, hypnosis, hallucinations, ghosts. More than a few characters in this novel are involved in these things.<br /> <br /> In order to study these phenomena, three dons of Trinity College, Cambridge founded The Society for Psychical Research in 1882. William James helped to found the American branch and was president of the group for a while. <br /> <br /> There are recurring parallels in AtD to a famous James quote from ''Varieties of Religious Experience'': <br /> <br /> Our normal waking consciousness . . . is but one special type of consciousness, whilst all about it, parted from it by the flimsiest of screens, there lie potential forms of consciousness entirely different. We may go through life without suspecting their existence; but apply the requisite stimulus and at a touch they are all there in all their completeness . . . No account of the universe in its totality can be final which leaves these other forms of consciousness quite disregarded. <br /> <br /> <br /> '''Zattere'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> An area of wide waterfront pavements in Venice.<br /> <br /> '''''...in hotels, the way your dreams are often, alarmingly, not your own?'''''&lt;br&gt;<br /> One more possible allusion to Proust, including also the following paragraph. At the beginning of the ''Recherche'', the main character, Marcel, spends a sleepless night in a hotel room, surrounded by memories he can't make sense of. <br /> <br /> In ''Lot 49'' Oedipa Maas considers all the dreams and memories stored in the mattresses of transients' hotels, and of the information destroyed when they burned.<br /> <br /> '''''cimici'''''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Latin: bedbug.<br /> <br /> '''to pick up traces of the dreams of whoever slept there just before them'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Cf. the Tom Waits song &quot;9th &amp; Hennepin&quot;: &quot;And all the rooms they smell like diesel / And you take on the dreams of the ones who have slept there&quot;. [http://www.tomwaitslibrary.com/lyrics/raindogs/9thandhennepin.html Lyrics]<br /> <br /> '''bora'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> a regional wind, blowing each winter.<br /> <br /> ==Page 579==<br /> <br /> '''vino forte'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> strong wine.<br /> <br /> '''Brindisi, Squinzano, . . . Brletta'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> They are the cities in Puglia (Apula) region of southeast Italy, ie. at the &quot;heel of the Italian Boot&quot;.<br /> <br /> '''Tintoretto's ''Abduction . . .'''''&lt;br&gt;<br /> See [http://www.egypttoday.com/article.aspx?ArticleID=3374 here]<br /> <br /> Tintoretto (1518-94), Venetian painter. Originally named Jacopo Robusti, because of his father's profession of ''tintore'' (dye) he was nicknamed as [http://www.wga.hu/bio/t/tintoret/biograph.html Tintoretto]. The most successful painter of Venetian school in the generation after Titian. His drawings, unlike Michelangelo's detailed life studies, are brilliant, rapid notations, bristling with energy, and his color is more somber and mystical than Titian's. For a better, can be enlarged, view of his [http://www.wga.hu/index1.html ''Abduction of the Body of St. Mark (1562-66)''].<br /> <br /> '''Accademia'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> The major art-gallery in Dorsoduro, Venice<br /> <br /> '''Titian'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> 16th century Venetian painter.&lt;br&gt;<br /> Vecellio Tiziano (1490-1576), better known as Titian, the greatest painter of the Venetain School and the leading light of the Italian Renaissance. Titian was recognized as a towering genius in his own time and his reputation as one of the giants of art has never been seriously questioned. He was supreme in every branch of painting and his achievements were so varied — ranging &quot;from the joyous evocation of pagan antiquity . . . to the depths of tragedy in his late religious paintings&quot; — that he has been an inspiration to artists of very different character. In many subjects, above all in portraiture, he set patterns that were followed by generations of artists. For more and Titian's paintings [http://www.wga.hu/bio/t/tiziano/biograph.html Titian].<br /> <br /> '''Infancy Gospel of Thomas'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> One of the apocryphal scriptures. The Infancy Gospel of Thomas relates the miraculous deeds of Jesus before he turned twelve. [http://www.earlychristianwritings.com/infancythomas.html 1] [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gospel_of_Thomas Wikipedia on the Gospel of Thomas]<br /> <br /> →Actually, The Infancy Gospel of Thomas is not the same as the Gospel of Thomas. The former is a brief summary of Jesus' misadventures as a child (as AtD notes, Jesus really is described as a hell-raiser and although at one point he brings a child named Zenon back from death, the Infancy Gospel mostly just makes a shallow exhibition of Jesus' miraculous powers). The latter is a Gnostic text and a &quot;collection of sayings, prophecies, proverbs, and parables of Jesus&quot; (Willis Barnstone, &quot;The Other Bible&quot; p. 299).<br /> <br /> Also, I read through the whole Infancy Gospel of Thomas and could not find the particular parable that Pynchon describes. However, Pynchon's parable is in keeping with the style of this Gospel. Jesus gets in trouble--making adults irate--and then sets everything straight. This particular parable also does not appear in The Infancy Gospel of James, The Infacy Gospel of Pseudo-Matthew, or The Arabic Infancy Gospel.<br /> <br /> The reference to this Gospel is a double+ play on the twins/double/mirror motif. First, as can be seen in this posting, there is confusion between the Gospel of Thomas and the Infancy Gospel of Thomas. The two gospels appear to be the same, but they are different. Second, the name ''Thomas'' means ''twin''. Also(+), Thomas is the doubting Thomas.<br /> To doubt is to be &quot;of two minds.&quot; The historic and theological significance of Thomas is loaded with themes relevant to this novel.<br /> <br /> ==Page 580==<br /> <br /> '''Pentecost story in Acts'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Pentecost is a Christian holiday commemorating the descent of the Holy Spirit on Jesus' followers and the beginning of the Christian church. Pentecost is celebrated by many (but not all) Christians on the Sunday 50 days after Easter. It often falls in early June. [[Acts II|Read the Biblical passages in Acts II...]]<br /> <br /> '''Galilean dialect'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Of Aramaic.<br /> <br /> '''Yes, well, it's redemption, isn't it, you expect chaos, you get order instead'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> In the Infancy Gospel of Thomas and the Pentecost, first Jesus, then the Holy Ghost, act as Maxwell's Demon [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Maxwell%27s_Demon]. In the Infancy Gospel story, Jesus sorts the randomly mixed dye molecules so that each garment comes out one color; in the Pentecost story the Holy Ghost causes a single language, just random noise to all but Galileans, to be heard as the many different languages of the listeners. Taking the two stories together, thermodynamic entropy is reversed, but the entropy of information is increased. This is the crux of ''Lot 49''; here it is another &quot;secular miracle&quot;; order emerges from chaos. The mathemateicians, artists and similar seekers may bring forth a similar miracle, the ability to experience other dimensions, to understand the universe (See Kit's dream, P.566).<br /> <br /> '''''rii'''''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Plural of ''rio''.<br /> <br /> ==Page 581==<br /> <br /> '''''sotopòrteghi'''''&lt;br&gt;<br /> An open doorway for public access. (Cf [[ATD_243-272#Page 246|page 246:sotopòrteghi]].)<br /> <br /> '''Bodeo 10.4 mm'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> A mass-produced Italian-made service revolver, initially made around 1889. Demand for them as guns was low, causing thousands of the weapons to be converted to table lamps. An interesting Pynchonian connection between light, manufacture, weapons, and war.<br /> <br /> ==Page 582==<br /> <br /> '''''foschetta'''''&lt;br&gt;<br /> ''Foschia'' in Italian means &quot;fog&quot;. ''Foschetta'' is a term for &quot;light fog&quot;.<br /> <br /> '''''masègni'''''&lt;br&gt;<br /> ???<br /> :blocks of Euganean trachyte used for paving, often marked off by bands of Istrian stone<br /> <br /> '''''patrone'''''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Probably meaning ''padrone'', &quot;master&quot;. -- blicero2<br /> :or female saint? not referring to Tonio but just as an expression.<br /> <br /> '''wine trains up from Puglia'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> ???Puglia region is in southeast of Italy (at the &quot;heel of the Italian Boot&quot;). From page 578-579: &quot;In September, when the vino forte arrived from Brindis, Squinzano, and Barletta . . .&quot; These three cities are in Puglia. Cf [[ATD_557-587#Page 579|page 579:vino forte]] and [[ATD_557-587#Page 579|page 579:Brindisi, Squinzano, . . . Barletta]].<br /> <br /> '''Winter'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> 1904-1905?<br /> <br /> '''''osterie'''''&lt;br&gt;<br /> tavern?<br /> <br /> '''Principessa Spongiatosta'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Is Pugnax's book from p6 at all relevant here?<br /> :Yes! [[Princess_Casamassima,_The|''The Princess Casamassima'']] has several resonances with ''AtD.''<br /> <br /> '''Ca''''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Abbreviated form of &quot;Casa,&quot; Italian for &quot;house.&quot;<br /> <br /> Which appears to be multidimensional, or at any rate non-Euclidean, reminiscent of Zombini's cabinet.<br /> <br /> '''Roman Composite order'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> A classical order (style of building design) dating from late Roman times, formed by superimposing Ionic volute (volute = a spiral scroll ornament) on a Corinthian capital (capital = the head or crowning feature of a column). ([http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Composite_order Composite order]).<br /> <br /> '''japonica'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Japanese honeysuckle.<br /> <br /> ==Page 583==<br /> <br /> '''Iron Bridge'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> The Ponte dell’Accademia - connecting the Venetian quarters (sestieri) San Marco and Dorsoduro - was constructed during the Austrian occupation in 1854. This steel construction got replaced ca. 1933 by a wooden bridge (which was replaced by yet another wooden bridge in 1985) [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ponte_dell'Accademia Wikipedia]<br /> <br /> '''Le Havre'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> French port city on the Atlantic (English Channel).<br /> <br /> '''''ma via'''''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Meaning &quot;come on!&quot;, in Italian. -- blicero2<br /> <br /> '''third eyes touching'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> The third eye, as existing on some reptiles is a dorsal organ that is receptive to light, otherwise known as the ''pineal eye''. Since the two half-sisters are obviously not reptiles, this reference might allude to the figurative third eye, or the eye of the mind, heart or soul. When the two touch foreheads, they are able to peer into each other consciences, by way of these third eyes. [http://www.thefreedictionary.com/third+eye /Dictionary Entry]<br /> <br /> ==Page 584==<br /> <br /> '''&quot;Swiss insurance salesman. Wolf. No, Putzi.&quot;'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Bria's had so many beaux she gets them confused? One was a wolf; the other a putz?<br /> :''Wolf'' is an uncommon given name but also a diminutive of Wolfgang. ''Putzi'' does not come from a given name; it's like &quot;sweetiepie,&quot; a nickname for a cute boy.<br /> <br /> '''''topo'''''&lt;br&gt;<br /> A topo is a guide for a crag or climbing area.<br /> <br /> '''Dogana'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Custom House, built on a wedge of land called ''Punta della Dogana'' (Custom Point). This wedge of land is at the entrance of the Grand Canal, as described in the text: &quot;where the Grand Canal and the Lagoon meet&quot;. The original 14th-century customs tower was replaced by a colonnaded building named the ''Dogana de Mare'' (Sea Customs Post). See picture [http://uk.encarta.msn.com/media_1041505867_761562189_-1_1/Punta_della_Dogana_Venice.html Punta della Dogana]<br /> <br /> '''Andrea Tancredi'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> An artist and acquaintence made by Hunter Penhallow in Venice. His name is likely derived from the Gioacchino Rossini opera ''Tancredi'' or the Voltaire play by the same name. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tancredi Wikipedia Entry]&lt;br /&gt;<br /> Tancredi, restored, is a tragedy. the soldier Tancredi and his family have been stripped of their estates and inheritances, and he himself has been banished since his youth. Two more noble families — headed by Argirio and Orbazzano — have been warring for years. Wikipedia.<br /> Tancredi presides in exile...he is mortally wounded at the end after learning the person he thought betrayed the heroine did not. <br /> <br /> :Actually, per [[T#tancredi|my entry in the Alpha index]], more likely the name connects with Tancredi, the time-traveling character in ''City of Death'', a four-part serial in the British science fiction television series ''Dr. Who'' which involves time travel and bilocation. Tancredi is the sole survivor of the Jagaroth race, an evil people who destroyed themselves in a war some 400 million years ago. Tancredi explains that a few escaped in a dilapidated spacecraft and found Earth in a primeval, lifeless stage of its development. The ship disintegrated upon takeoff and [[Scaroth]] tells of how he was fractured in time, splinters of his being were scattered across time and space, all identical, none complete. Whereas, in ''City of Death'', Tancredi, one of the Scaroff &quot;splinters&quot; living in Renaissance Italy, is plotting to create multiple Mona Lisa's for fraudulent purposes, ''Against the Day'''s Tancredi is fighting art fraud. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/City_of_Death Read the synopsis of ''City of Death'']; The name &quot;Andrea&quot; ''could'' be a reference to the protagonist Andrea Marsh, a time-traveler in the 1889 novel, ''Timeless Love'' by Judy Hinson ([[Timeless Love|synopsis]]).<br /> <br /> '''Seurat and Signac'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> George Seurat (1859-1891) and Paul Signac (1863-1935), French painters who developed pointillism. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pointillism Wikipedia entry].<br /> <br /> '''Divisionism'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Term invented by Paul Signac to describe the Neo-Impressionist separation of colour into dots or patches applied directly to the canvas. From Grove Dictionary of Art. <br /> <br /> <br /> '''Marinetti'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> The Italian poet Filippo Tommaso Marinetti was the first among [the Futurists] to produce a manifesto of their artistic philosophy in his Manifesto of Futurism (1909)(see below).<br /> <br /> '''&quot;Futurists&quot;'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Practitioners or followers of Futurism, an early 20th century art movement that is considered the genesis of Cubism, Dada and Art Deco. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Futurism_%28art%29 Wikipedia entry].Marinetti summed up the major principles of the Futurists, including a passionate loathing of ideas from the past, especially political and artistic traditions. He and others also espoused a love of speed, technology and violence. The car, the plane, the industrial town were all legendary for the Futurists, because they represented the technological triumph of man over nature.<br /> <br /> <br /> '''brutalism'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> See above and The Futurists were often condemned as fascistic in their manifestos and outlook. <br /> <br /> '''Torcello'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> A lonely Venetian island: very peaceful and beautiful with a church and little else.<br /> <br /> '''primitivo'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> A kind of red wine (same as the original Zinfandel, actually).<br /> <br /> ==Page 585==<br /> <br /> '''green-and-lavender'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Another clashing color scheme.<br /> <br /> '''sirocco'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> A hot dust-laden wind from the Libyan deserts that blows on the northern Mediterranean coast chiefly in Italy, Malta, and Sicily. &lt;br&gt;<br /> The correct spelling in Italian is ''Scirocco''. <br /> <br /> '''San Michele'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> San Michele, nicknamed The Island of the Dead, is the cemetery island of Venice. It is associated with the sestiere of Cannaregio from which it lies a short distance north east. <br /> Walls of San Michele.Along with neighbouring San Cristoforo della Pace, the island was a popular place for local travellers and fishermen to land. Mauro Codussi's Chiesa di San Michele in Isola of 1469, the first Renaissance church in Venice, and a monastery lie on the island.<br /> <br /> <br /> '''futuristic vehicle'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> See p. 155 [[ATD_149-170#Pages_154-155|and annotations.]] Of course, the machine-inspired Futurists would remind Hunter of this vehicle that 'had borne him to safety'!<br /> <br /> Why? Hunter isn't the Futurist here and doesn't seem to share the same naive faith in Progress that Tancredi does.--[[User:Pomopaulrevere|Pomopaulrevere]]<br /> <br /> '''''Preliminary Studies...'''''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Artists often do 'preliminary studies'..'infernal machine' comes out of Futurism's ideas.<br /> <br /> ==Page 586==<br /> <br /> '''Always with us.'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Gospel of Matthew. &quot;The poor you will always have with you&quot;. Here reference is to born-again Christers.<br /> <br /> '''''vero?'''''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Literally meaning ''true'' in Italian, here it is used as you would use: &quot;Are you talking of an infernal machine, ''aren't you'' ?&quot;<br /> <br /> '''We desire transformation'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Aligns the explosion-loving Tancredi with the Rilke-quoting Blicero from Gravity's Rainbow. '&quot;Want the Change,&quot; Rilke said, &quot;O be inspired by the Flame!&quot;' (GR p.97)<br /> <br /> It also might be helpful to recall that Shiva, who has been referred to implicitly numerous times already in ATD, is the transformative/destructive deity of the Hindi Trimurti.<br /> <br /> This section also sets up Tancredi as an opposite of Hunter, who on p.577 wants to find a &quot;neutral hour&quot;, that &quot;goes neither forwards or back&quot;, and on the same page &quot;felt no desire to join in, quite the opposite.&quot; Hunter himself is much like Katje from GR. Page 97 again: &quot;But not Katje: No mothlike plunge. He must conclude that secretly she fears the change...&quot;<br /> <br /> '''orpiment yellow'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> A yellow color pigment ([http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Orpiment Wikipedia])<br /> <br /> '''Nürnberg violet'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> An artificial color pigment discovered in 1868 in the city of Nuremberg<br /> <br /> ==Page 587==<br /> <br /> '''&quot;The energies of motion, the grammatical tyrannies of becoming, in divisionismo we discover how to break them apart into their component frequencies . . . we define a smallest element, a dot of color which becomes the basic unit of reality . . . .'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> This seems to describe both the kind of painting done by Tancredi and atomic research. Breaking material into its atomic unit, the basic unit of reality, is literally part of the &quot;energies of motion.&quot;<br /> This also describes how a television set works. The screen is composed of millions of tiny dots that, taken together, create moving pictures. <br /> <br /> <br /> '''Brownian movement'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Also called Brownian motion. It is the irregular motion of small particles suspended in a liquid or a gas, caused by the bombardment of the particles by molecules of the medium<br /> first divscovered by botanist Robert Brown (1773-1858) in 1827. Einstein in one of his four ''Annus Mirabilis Papers'' of 1905 explained the random motion using molecular kinetic theory of heat. Cf [[ATD_397-428#Page 412|page 412:young Einstein]].<br /> <br /> '''I really love the old dump'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> For the same reason Dally does: Venice has what Pynchon called (in ''V.'') &quot;Temporal Bandwidth&quot;: a life in a depth of time, a simultaneous humane immersion in past, present and future. The canals of industrialized Belgium are silted up, the connections to its Hanse past lost, paved and tracked over. This has not, and cannot, happen to Venice; even a Futurist painter cannot carry out the appaling modernization he describes. Venice is a place to hide from the future; indeed, in terms of physical destruction, the world wars barely touched La Serenisima.<br /> <br /> '''''nebbia, nebbietta, foschia, caligo, sfumato'''''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Varieties of fog.<br /> <br /> '''speed of sound'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Air temperature is more important that density.<br /> <br /> '''''La Velocità del Suono'''''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Italian, &quot;speed of sound&quot;<br /> <br /> ==Annotation Index==<br /> {{ATD PbP}}</div>

MKOHUT https://against-the-day.pynchonwiki.com/wiki/index.php?title=ATD_525-556&diff=14087 2007-10-17T12:51:22Z

<p>MKOHUT: /* Page 528 */</p> <hr /> <div>:'''&lt;big&gt;Please keep these annotations SPOILER-FREE by not revealing information from later pages in the novel.&lt;/big&gt;'''&lt;p&gt;&lt;br&gt;<br /> <br /> ==Page 525==<br /> <br /> '''Ostend'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Cf [[ATD_489-524#Page 521|page 521:Ostend]], a seaport in northwest Belgium. Among English-speaking tourists, Ostend (or Ostende) is best known as a ferry port. Ships have shuttled between Dover and Ostend for more than 150 years, and today's high-speed catamarans move hundreds of passengers and vehicles between these two ports in just two hours. But this thousand-year-old city is a popular beach resort with Belgians, who flock to Ostend for sun, surfing, sailing and the ''Kursaal'' (Casino). The fishing harbor and old town draw many visitors. Ostend is the only Belgian coastal resort that is as lively in the summer as in the winter. For more and pictures [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ostend Ostend].<br /> <br /> '''Fishermen's Quai'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Fishermen's Quay, also called De Trap. The shrimp boats come home here from the sea in the morning. Along the quay many stands sell lots of seafoods.<br /> <br /> '''Boulevard van Isenghem'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> A major thoroughfare in Ostend, locally called ''Van Iseghemlaan'', extending diagonally from seafront southwest through the city.<br /> <br /> '''street-plausible'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Presentable.<br /> <br /> '''Quai de l'empereur'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Since Ostende is in the Flemish part of Belgium this should be the Keizerskaai, a street along the old part of the harbour, 1919 renamed Vindictivelaan.<br /> <br /> '''estaminet'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> According to the OED - A café in which smoking is allowed. Now, any small establishment selling alcoholic liquor. <br /> <br /> '''twelve-centime'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> one centime is the French eqivalent of one cent. A twelve-centime beer would cost 12/100 of a franc.<br /> <br /> '''Quaternions'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Cf [[ATD_119-148#Page 130|page 130:Quaternions]]. Quaternions are a non-communtative extension of compelx numbers (Hamilton, 1843).&lt;br&gt;<br /> <br /> Analogy with the complex numbers (Cf [[ATD_119-148#Page 132|page 132:complex number]]) being represented as a sum of real and imaginary parts, a + b''i'', where ''i''² = −1, a quaternion is defined as a combination a + b''i'' + c''j'' + d''k'', where ''i''² = ''j''² = ''k''² = ''i j k'' = −1, and a, b, c, d are ''four'' explicit real numbers. The non-commutative property refers to ''i j = −j i = k; j k = −k j = i; k i = −i k = j''. (i.e. ''i j ≠ j i; j k ≠ k j; k i ≠ i k''; etc.) The using of ''i, j, k'', the imaginary numbers (Cf [[ATD_119-148#Page 133|page 133:imaginary number]]), led to the phrases of &quot;the ''ijk'' lot&quot; of page 533 and &quot;creature of ''i-j-k''&quot; of page 534.<br /> <br /> '''Kellner'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> German: waiter, barman. Use of the German word would be insulting to the Belgian barman.<br /> <br /> '''''demi'''''&lt;br&gt;<br /> A half-pint glass (25 centilitres, actually).<br /> <br /> '''Lambic'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Pron. ''lahm-BEEK.'' Unique Belgian beer style, sour and often thin in body.<br /> <br /> '''skimmer'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Straw hat (&quot;Panama&quot;).<br /> <br /> ==Page 526==<br /> <br /> '''biquaternion'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Or &quot;octonion,&quot; an innovation of English mathematician W.K. Clifford, [[ATD_243-272#Page_249|referred to on p. 249.]]<br /> <br /> '''Barry Nebulay'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Pun on a term from heraldry, ''barry nebuly.'' Barry (rhymes with &quot;starry,&quot; not &quot;carry&quot;) refers to a shield divided into an even number of parts by horizontal lines. Nebuly signals that the lines are deformed into stylized &quot;cloud&quot; shapes. [http://www.rarebooks.nd.edu/digital/heraldry/partitions.html Here you can see an example.] If a ''British'' author had a character with a heraldic name, it would suggest a pseudonym.<br /> <br /> '''University of Dublin'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> The Alma Mater of Hamilton, the father of Quaternion. He studied, graduated and taught at Trinity College, the University of Dublin, Ireland's oldest university.<br /> <br /> If University College, Dublin, then Joyce had graduated in 1902.&lt;br&gt;<br /> <br /> '''Quaternioneers'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Quaternion believers.<br /> <br /> '''Gibbsian Vectors'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Vector Analysis (or Vector Calculus) developed by Willard Gibbs (Cf [[ATD_26-56#Page 29|page 29:Professor Gibbs]]) in 1881 and 1884. It is a branch of calculus that deals with vectors and process involving vectors. It is much more easily applied to phsics and other applied sciences than Hamilton's Quaternions (Cf [[ATD_525-556#Page 525|page 525:Quaternions]]).&lt;br&gt;<br /> A vector is defined by not only a magnitude but also a direction, such as a velocity vector, ''v'' is defined by ''v'' = a''i'' + b''j'' + c''k'',<br /> where a, b, and c are the magnitudes of the velocity components in directions of ''i, j'' and ''k'' which are unit vectors, (not imaginary numbers as in Quaternion), with magnitude of 1. In three dimensional cases and ''xyz'' coordinate system is used then ''i, j, k'' are related to ''x, y, z'' directions (&quot;''xyz'' people&quot; of page 533); but they, in general, may be used irrespective of the notation of the coordinates.<br /> Mathematical operations (addition, subtraction, multiplication), differentiation (''curl'' — Cf [[ATD_318-335#Page 326|page 326:Curl]] and p. 536, ''Laplacian'' — Cf [[ATD_318-335#Page 326|page 326:Laplacian]] and p. 536, etc) and integration can be applied to vectors. It is interesting to know that one of the two multiplication operations is called cross product; for unit vectors (''i, j, k'') perpendicular to each other, then, ''i × i = j × j = k × k = 0'', ''i × j = k'', ''j × i = -k'', etc. ([http://web.mit.edu/wwmath/vectorc/summary.html Vector Calculus]).&lt;br&gt;<br /> A simple vector anyalysis example here: if ''k'', the unit vector, stands for the direction upward and g is the gravitational acceleration, then the acceleration vector, ''a'', for a projectile, is defined for downward action, (the ''i'' and ''j'' directions have zero components):&lt;br&gt;<br /> :''a'' = -g ''k''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Integrating ''a'' would give the velocity vector, ''v''&lt;br&gt;<br /> :''v'' = -g t ''k''&lt;br&gt;<br /> for zero initial velocity case, and t standing for time.&lt;br&gt;<br /> And integrating ''v'' would yield the position vector, ''h'', for the projectile&lt;br&gt;<br /> :''h'' = -½ g t² ''k''&lt;br&gt;<br /> toward the sea level.<br /> <br /> '''Quaternionists'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Quaternion believers, same as Quaternioneers.<br /> <br /> '''Tasmania'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Tasmania is an island of the southern coast of Australia. Known for its relative isolation, it was a prison for English convicts in the 1800s<br /> <br /> '''Having been inseparable from the rise of the electromagnetic'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> In his 1865 work ''The Dynamical Theory of the Electromagnetic Field'', James Clerk Maxwell unified electricity and magnetism. He put forth twenty equations, with twenty unknowns, in vector form (though different in notation and form than the equations that now bear his name) that completely described all known electromagnetic phenomena. In his 1873 treatise on the subject, he expressed the equations in the mathematics of quaternions. It appears that the quaternion form of the equations remained popular even though, at the behest of his publisher, Maxwell reverted to the 1865 form in the second edition (1881)--though they remain scattered throughout. In 1892 Oliver Heaviside (On the Forces, Stresses, and Fluxes of Energy in the Electromagnetic Field. ''Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society of London.'' A, Vol. 183. pp423-480), while spewing scientific vitriol at the Quaternionists, reformulated Maxwell's original 1865 equations (Heaviside chose to remove the vector potential and scalar fields from the equations; the inclusion of these terms had served as Maxwell's justification for the use of quaternions), and provided the notation still in use today. See this [http://www.zpenergy.com/modules.php?name=Downloads&amp;d_op=getit&amp;lid=60 PDF] for the evolution of Maxwell's equations.<br /> <br /> '''Hamiltonian devotees'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> The Quaternion faction, after William Hamilton, who devised the scheme.<br /> <br /> '''Grand Hôtel de la Nouvelle Digue'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> There is a Hotel Digue in the Seychelles; this is a New Hotel Digue by Pynchon? <br /> <br /> Grand Hotel of New Dyke, may be a made up hotel name.<br /> <br /> '''anterooms of death'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> This metaphor is sometimes applied to concentration camps. Here the lyric &quot;feel like I'm fixin' to die&quot; seems more apposite.<br /> <br /> '''Belgian Art Nouveau'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Art Nouveau, 1890(or 80) to 1914, explores a new style in the visual arts and architecture that developed in Europe and North America at the end of the 19th century. At its height (~1907), Art Nouveau was a concerted attempt to create an international style based on decoration. It was developed by a brilliant and energetic generation of artists and desisgners, who sought to fashion an art form appropriate to the post-Industrial Revolution modern age.&lt;br&gt;<br /> Brussels was one of the Art Nouveau centers and represented different style from the others. The jewelers there, accepted as artists rahter than craftsmen, (together with those in Paris) defined Art Nouveau in jewelery and achieved the most renown. ([http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Art_Nouveau Art Nouveau]).<br /> <br /> ==Page 527==<br /> <br /> '''dossing'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> British slang for &quot;sleeping&quot;, &quot;staying overnight&quot;<br /> <br /> '''Russian nihilists'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> :The following four are local, Belgian, not Russian, nihilists !<br /> <br /> '''Eugénie'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Female. Possibly named for Empress Eugénie (1826-1920), consort of French Emperor Napoleon III. Ultimately for St. Eugenia, 3rd-century Roman martyr whose feast is celebrated on December 25.<br /> <br /> '''Fatou'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Female. A pseudonym? In view of the date of the action, certainly not named after [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fatou the mathematician Fatou] (1878-1929).<br /> <br /> '''Denis'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Male. Named for St. Denis or Dionysius, patron saint of Paris and of France, 3rd-century bishop of Paris, martyr, beheaded on the hill now called Montmartre. &quot;Montjoie St. Denis!&quot; was a warcry used by French troops in the Middle Ages. His intercession is effective against demonic possession and headache.<br /> <br /> '''Policarpe'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Male. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Polycarp Saint Polycarp] was a Christian bishop of Smyrna (now İzmir in Turkey) in the second century. He was stabbed and died a martyr after an attempt to burn him at the stake failed. His intercession is sought against earache and dysentery.<br /> <br /> '''Young Congo'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Probably in reference to the [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Young_Turks Young Turks], a Turkish revolutionary movement<br /> <br /> '''Garde Civique'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> A part of the Belgian army. According to the [http://www.1911encyclopedia.org/Belgium 1911 Britannica], &quot;the mass of the garde civique does not pretend to possess military value. It is a defence against sedition and socialism.&quot;<br /> <br /> '''French Second Bureau boys'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Deuxieme Bureau; French Intelligence.<br /> <br /> '''''phalange'''''&lt;br&gt;<br /> French: phalanx. A military (here mock-military) group ready for combat. &lt;br&gt;<br /> <br /> It also conjures up memories of the early 19th century utopian socialist <br /> Charles Fourier, who theorized that people should live communally in &quot;phalanxes&quot; of a specific number based upon their &quot;passions.&quot; His solid ideas included equality of the sexes, but he also taught wacky things such as the moon being made of lemonade. Of particular relevance is his rejection of industrial civilization. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Utopian_socialism]<br /> <br /> '''&quot;...until something had happened, something too terrible to remember...&quot;'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Again this theme of an unknowable past transgression, here invoked almost as if the unknown signifies the other 'lateral' (a word which has cropped up at least a dozen times already) 'vector'.<br /> <br /> '''the Digue'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> French for &quot;dyke&quot;<br /> <br /> '''Congo... Belgians'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> The Belgian colonisation of the Congo was, as Conrad's ''Heart of Darkness'' makes clear, notable for its greed and brutality.<br /> <br /> '''Leopold, King of the Belgians'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> 1835-1909, reigned 1865-1909. A man of almost Nixonian fiendishness. In the Congo he acted as sole proprietor and absolute ruler. The positive outcomes of his exploitation include ''Heart of Darkness'' and the phrase &quot;crime against humanity.&quot;<br /> <br /> '''co-conscious'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> mental processes outside the main stream of consciousness but sometimes available to it — from Merriam-Webster's Medical Dictionary.<br /> <br /> '''Force Publique'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Belgian armed forces operating in the Belgian Congo ([http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Force_Publique Wikipedia]). &quot;King Leopold's private army&quot; may be a more accurate description.<br /> <br /> '''rubber worker'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> See above: One of the early missions of the FP was to increase rubber export quotas through forced labor and related atrocities.<br /> <br /> ==Page 528==<br /> <br /> '''''khâgne'''''&lt;br&gt;<br /> an informal term used by French students for Classes Préparatoires Littéraires, the two-year cycle of classes taken after the Baccalaureat (taken at age 17-18), to prepare for the entrance examination to the Ecole Normale Supeieure. ([http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kh%C3%A2gne khâgne]).<br /> <br /> '''Reclus'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> J. J. Élisée Reclus (1830-1905), French geographer but mainly educated in Germany. Several times he was forced to leave France because of his political views; he traveled widely in Europe, the British Isles, the United States, and South America and for many years lived in Switzerland. He was professor of comparative geography at the University of Brussels from 1895 to 1905. He had quite an extensive connection with various socialist and anarchist circles (met Bakunin while in Florence).Once he was imprisoned in Versailles in 1871 for his part in the ''Paris Commune''. In 1882 he initiated the ''Anti-marriage movement'' while in Geneva. [[http://academic.reed.edu/formosa/texts/reclusbio.html Reclus]).<br /> <br /> '''Stirnerite'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Follower of Max Stirner, 19th century German philosopher and author of ''The Ego and Its Own,'' a work influential in anarchist thought. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Max_Stirner Wikipedia entry].<br /> <br /> ''Max Stirner'''s (1806-56) attacks on systematic philosophy, his denial of absulutes, and his rejection of abstract concepts of any kind often places him among the first philosophical nihilists. For Stirner, achieving individual freedom is the only law; and the state, which necvessarily imperils freedom, must be destroyed. Even beyond the oppression of the state, though, are the constraints imposed by others because their very existence is an obstable compromising individual freedom. Thus Stirner argues that existence is an endless &quot;war of each against all&quot; (1845). (taken from the paragraph about Max Stirner in [http://www.iep.utm.edu/n/nihilism.htm#H1 Nihilism])&lt;br&gt;<br /> Sourcing here? Much complexity in properly understanding Stirner, who has some Pynchon-like qualities, to say the least. From the Stanford Dictionary of Philosophy&lt;br&gt;<br /> His major work:<br /> The Ego and Its Own<br /> Much of Stirner's prose—which is crowded with aphorisms, italicisation, and hyperbole—appears calculated to disconcert. Most striking, perhaps, is the use of word play. Rather than reach a conclusion through the conventional use of argument, Stirner often approaches a claim that he wishes to endorse by exploiting words with related etymologies or formal similarities. For example, he associates words for property (such as ‘Eigentum’) with words connoting distinctive individual characteristics (such as ‘Eigenheit’) in order to promote the claim that property is expressive of selfhood. (Stirner's account of egoistic property—see below—gives this apparently orthodox Hegelian claim a distinctive twist.)<br /> <br /> This rejection of conventional forms of intellectual discussion is linked to Stirner's substantive views about language and rationality. His unusual style reflects a conviction that both language and rationality are human products which have come to constrain and oppress their creators. Stirner maintains that accepted meanings and traditional standards of argumentation are underpinned by a conception of truth as a privileged realm beyond individual control. As a result, individuals who accept this conception are abandoning a potential area of creative self-expression in favour of adopting a subordinate role as servants of truth. In stark contrast, Stirner insists that the only legitimate restriction on the form of our language, or on the structure of our arguments, is that they should serve our individual ends. It is the frequent failure of ordinary meanings and standard forms of argument to satisfy his interpretation of this criterion which underpins Stirner's remorselessly idiosyncratic style.<br /> <br /> The Ego and Its Own has an intelligible, but scarcely transparent, structure. It is organised around a tripartite account of human experience, initially introduced in a description of the stages of an individual life. The first stage in this developmental narrative is the realistic one of childhood, in which children are constrained by material and natural forces such as their parents. Liberation from these external constraints is achieved with what Stirner calls the self-discovery of mind, as children find the means to outwit those forces in their own determination and cunning. The idealistic stage of youth, however, contains new internal sources of constraint, as individuals once more become enslaved, this time to the spiritual forces of conscience and reason. Only with the adulthood of egoism do individuals escape both material (external) and spiritual (internal) constraints, learning to value their personal satisfaction above all other considerations.<br /> <br /> Stirner portrays this dialectic of individual growth as an analogue of historical development, and it is a tripartite account of the latter which structures the remainder of the book. Human history is reduced to successive epochs of realism (the ancient, or pre-Christian, world), idealism (the modern, or Christian, world), and egoism (the future world). <br /> <br /> What about these &quot;successive epochs&quot; in understanding ATD?<br /> <br /> Stirner's major work, The Ego and Its Own has been reissued in English a number of times in Pynchon's lifetime,from the 60s on. (Not that TRP could not have read it in German!)<br /> <br /> '''''Anarcho-individualiste'''''&lt;br&gt;<br /> i.e. he has doctrinal differernces with Stirnerism, strictly speaking; see P. 324, and &quot;Eigenheit&quot;.<br /> <br /> '''Leopold'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> See p. 527.<br /> <br /> '''going down lately'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Being assassinated.<br /> <br /> '''Sipido'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Jean-Baptiste Sipido (1884-1959), a Belgian socialist. Accusing the Prince of Wales of causing thousands of inocents were killed in the Boer War in South Africa, on April 5, 1900, Sipido leaped onto the foot board of the royal compartment right before the train left the North Railway Station (Gare du Nord), Brussel, and fired two (or one? as reported in ''The Manchester Guardian'', or four? as stated in the text here) shots through the window but missed everyone inside. He was arrested, tried and acquitted. The leader of the House of Commons called the acquittal a &quot;grave and most unfortunate miscarriage of justice.&quot; ([http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jean-Baptiste_Sipido Sipido]).<br /> <br /> '''Prince... of Wales'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> (Maud Gonne's husband claimed to have been involved in another such plot.)<br /> <br /> '''Hippodrome'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Hippodrome Wellington, a horse racing track in Ostend built in 1883. The facility hosts both harness and flat racing events. ([http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hippodrome_Wellington Hippodrome]).<br /> <br /> '''Royal Bathing Hut... twenty francs'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> A bathing machine ([http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bathing_machine bathing machine])? The King of Belgium certainly would not want to be seen in a swimsuit on a public beach... It seems unlikely, though, that such a royal bathing machine would be for hire.<br /> <br /> '''twenty francs'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> ???<br /> <br /> ==Page 529==<br /> <br /> '''picric family'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> The explosive picric acid (2,4,6-trinitrophenol) and its derivatives. For picric acid, Brugère's powder and Designolle's powder, [http://encyclopedia.jrank.org/PER_PIG/PICRIC_ACID_or_TRINITROPHENOL_C.html see this Britannica article.]<br /> <br /> '''Brugère's powder'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> See &quot;picric family&quot; above.<br /> <br /> '''Designolle's'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> See &quot;picric family&quot; above.<br /> <br /> '''Monsieur Santos-Dumont'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Alberto Santos-Dumont (1873-1932), a pioneer of aviation from Brasil. Check out [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alberto_Santos-Dumont Wikipedia] to get a look at the way he was wearing his &quot;trademark Panama hat&quot;. <br /> <br /> '''Green Hour''' and '''''l'heure vertigineuse'''''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Absinthe-drinking time. The liqueur is green. In French, ''l'heure verte,'' so ''vertigineuse'' (vertiginous, causing dizziness) is a pun on the word for &quot;green.&quot;<br /> <br /> '''Rocco and Pino'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Rabid Quaternionists and sudden friends of Kit Traverse.<br /> :No, they were not mathematicians at all, let alone Quaternionists, but two &quot;Italian naval renegades&quot; !!<br /> ::&quot;Rocco and Pino&quot; are, in temperament, something like the &quot;Mason and Dixon&quot; of manned-torpedoes... cf. the &quot;torpedo&quot; (i.e., &quot;Electrick-Eel&quot;) of ''Mason &amp; Dixon''.<br /> <br /> '''Whitehead works in Fiume'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Anticipating GR's V2 works.<br /> <br /> ''Robert Whitehead'' (1823-1905), an English engineer. He developed the first self-propelled torpedo in 1866. He attended Manchester's Mechanics Institute, worked in a shipyard in Toulon (1844), France, and as a consultant engineer in Milan (1847), Italy. Later he moved to Trieste and in 1856 became a manager of a company called ''Founderia Mettali'' (later, ''Stabilimento Tecnico di Fiume'') in Fiume producing ship steam boilers and engines which were the most advanced of that era. He also developed the first self-propelled torpedo which was very popular. Whitehead's torpedo was propelled by a compressed air engine, carried 18lbs dynamites and a self-regulating device which kept the torpedo cruising at a constant preset depth. [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Robert_Whitehead Whitehead]].<br /> <br /> ''Fiume'' is now Rijeka, Croatia. Trieste is on the northwestern edge of the Istra Peninsula, Rijeka is east of it. [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rijeka Fiume]].<br /> <br /> Interesting sidebar: Whitehead's fortune from Fiume and the torpedo went solely to his granddaughter Agatha Whitehead, who married Baron von Trapp. The Von Trapp money came from Robert Whitehead, and most of the von Trapp singers were his great-grandchildren.<br /> <br /> '''''Alberta'''''&lt;br&gt;<br /> The [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Royal_yacht Wikipedia] entry on royal yachts goes back to the 17th century but doesn't include ''Alberta.'' The craft does get a mention in [http://www.bouncing-balls.com/timeline/people/nr_leopoldmorel.htm this page on Leopold and the Congo.]<br /> <br /> '''Siluro Dirigibile a Lenta Corsa'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> or S.L.C. &quot;slow course torpedo&quot;, &quot;slow-running torpedo&quot;. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Manned_torpedo Wikipedia] Italy‘s Navy was among the first to experiment with manned torpedos. Though according to [http://web.ukonline.co.uk/chalcraft/sm/chariots.html this site] this did not happen until 1935, Italian frogmen as early as October 31, 1918 made it into the harbour of Pula with the help of a modified german torpedo and sank the former Austrian but by then since a few hours Croatian/Slovenian/Bosnian battleship SMS ''Viribus Unitis''. [http://www.geocities.com/tegetthoff66/viribus.html website]<br /> <br /> The Wikipedia entry linked above doesn't contain the Italian word ''dirigibile'' (steerable), which sets up the torpedo as a counterpart of the dirigible ''Inconvenience.''<br /> <br /> :I suspect there's a connection between the torpedo and &quot;Not the usual lateener, in fact appearing to have neither sails, masts, nor oars&quot; in Miles' reversed vision, [[ATD_243-272#Page_250|page 250.]] Needs work, though.<br /> <br /> ==Page 530==<br /> <br /> '''exfiltrate'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Make a surreptitious escape (as &quot;infiltrate&quot; means to make a surreptitious entrance).<br /> <br /> '''''Macchè'''''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Italian: certainly not, not a chance. And in Pynchon's Italian is used as an all-purpose exclamation.<br /> <br /> '''''Ehi, stu gazz', categoria'''''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Stu gazz' is a dialect representation of ''sto cazzo'', literally meaning ''this dick here''. Normally you could translate the sense of the sentence as: ''yeah, why not, a fucking category! ''. -- blicero2 - 2007.02.22<br /> <br /> '''''mezzogiornismo'''''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Denigrating the Italian South. Mezzogiorno means ''midday'' in Italian but refers generally to Southern Italy.<br /> <br /> ==Page 531==<br /> <br /> '''Bruges'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> An exceptionally beautiful Belgian town of canals which is thus one of several towns known as the 'Venice of the north'. In the 14th cettury Burges already became an international finanacial and trading center, but<br /> started to decline in the 15th century. In the 20th century, however, the city was discovered by the international tourism and the medieval heritage turned out to be a new source of wealth. A new harbor of Zeebrugge, 10 miles outside of Bruges at the North Sea coast, brought new developments and new industries to the region. For the city and its history see ([http://www.trabel.com/brugge.htm Bruges]).<br /> <br /> '''Raoul's Atelier de la Vitesse'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> French: Ralph's Speed Shop.<br /> <br /> '''Ghent'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Belgian city, less than 30 miles southeast of Bruges, on the rail line about halfway between Ostend and Brussels. It is the fourth largest city of Belgium. It is bigger than Bruges but not as famous as a tourist attraction. But the city is a showcase of medieval Flemish wealth and commercial success. See ([http://www.trabel.com/gent.htm Ghent]).<br /> <br /> '''Daimler six-cylinder'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> ???<br /> <br /> '''a hundred horsepower'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> ???<br /> <br /> '''''guaglion'''''&lt;br&gt;<br /> italian (dialectal) = boy, young person<br /> <br /> '''Umeki Tsurigane'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Umeki is typically made with some combination of the various kanji for &quot;plum&quot; (ume) and &quot;tree&quot; (ki), though one has the ki being the character for &quot;ghost/devil&quot; and one obscure reading that's entirely redundant, where ume is &quot;plant&quot; (usually read ue). There is one where ume is the kanji for &quot;buried or embedded&quot;. Tsurigane, means a &quot;temple bell&quot;, which can stand alone or be followed by the grass kanji to mean &quot;bellflower&quot; (lots of botanical stuff happening here, if that means anything; hardly the only example in ''AtD''). Given the search for Shambhala going on, &quot;Buried Temple Bell&quot; seems a likely translation, at least at this point; the botanical meanings could perhaps emerge later.<br /> <br /> Or, another terrible name-pun? &quot;You make [m]e sore again.&quot; See another on P. [[ATD_748-767#Page_757| 757]]<br /> <br /> '''Professor Knott'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Cargill Knott (1856-1922), professor of physics; seismologist. See his biography [http://www.penicuikcdt.org.uk/Cargill_Knott.html here].<br /> <br /> ==Page 532==<br /> <br /> '''Kimura'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Cf [[ATD_26-56#Page 29|page 29:Kimura]] and [[ATD_318-335#Page 318|page 318:Shunkichi Kimura]].<br /> <br /> '''drover's sombrero'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Cowboy hat.<br /> <br /> '''furoshiki'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Japanese all-purpose cloth. Can be worn, used as wrapping, or used as a bag.<br /> <br /> '''taupe'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> A brownish gray.<br /> <br /> '''boilermakers and their helpers'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> [[ATD_358-373#Page_360|See annotation to p. 360.]]<br /> <br /> '''Anharmonic Pencil'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> ''Pencil'' is a term commonly used in Synthetic Geometry. Straight lines incident with a plane - coplanar lines - and passing through a common point are said to be concurrent lines and the set of all such concurrent coplanar lines is called the ''pencil''. (Cf [[ATD_429-459#Page 456|page 456:Pencil]]). For a figure and a not quite precise definition see [http://mathworld.wolfram.com/Pencil.html pencil]. If a, b, c and d, are four distinct coplanar lines and their double ratio λ = (abcd) = -1, then a, b, c, d are called a harmonic quadruple of lines; they are said to constitute a ''harmonic pencil''. A ''pencil'' which is not harmonic then is known as ''anharmonic pencil''. See Pencil (lines 8-9), Double Ratio λ (lines 32-35) and Harmonic Pencil (line 39) of [http://ca.geocities.com/ingsaler6/mathworld.html Mathworld].<br /> <br /> '''''Comptes rendus'''''&lt;br&gt;<br /> ''Comptes rendus des séances hebdomadaires,'' Proceedings of the weekly sessions (of the Academy of Sciences), published from 1835, later (ca. 1935) retitled ''Comptes rendus de l'Académie des sciences,'' Proceedings of the Academy of Sciences. (Notice that the academy didn't see the need to specify &quot;French.&quot; Take that, Royal Society of London!) For about a century, one of two journals so universally circulated and recognized that bibliographies nearly always cited them in nickname form: ''C.R.'' The other was ''Ber.,'' short for ''Berichte der Deutschen Chemischen Gesellschaft,'' Reports of the German Chemical Society (from 1868).<br /> <br /> '''De Forest'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Cf [[ATD_26-56#Page 29|page 29:De Forest]].<br /> <br /> '''Gibbs'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Cf [[ATD_26-56#Page 29|page 29:Professor Gibbs]].<br /> <br /> '''Maxwell Equations'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Cf [[ATD_57-80#Page 58|page 58:Maxwell Field Equations]].<br /> <br /> ==Page 533==<br /> <br /> '''aniline teal'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> The wallpaper dye; aniline dyes were the first synthetic dyes, discovered by [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/William_Perkin William Perkin] in 1858. Their intense and fade-resistant colors were very fashionable at the end of the nineteenth century. The dyes are also significant in ''GR'' as the products of I.G. Farben.<br /> <br /> '''Heavisiders'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Oliver Heaviside (May 18, 1850 – February 3, 1925) was a self-taught English electrical engineer, mathematician and physicist who adapted complex numbers to the study of electrical circuits, developed techniques for applying Laplace transforms to the solution of differential equations, reformulated Maxwell's field equations in terms of electric and magnetic forces and energy flux, and independently co-formulated vector analysis. Although at odds with the scientific establishment for most of his life, Heaviside changed the face of mathematics and science for years to come.[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Heaviside].<br /> <br /> '''Grassmanniacs'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Nineteenth century German mathematician and linguist, essentially the inventor/discoverer of vector space. Grassmann showed that once geometry is put into the algebraic form he advocated, then the number three has no privileged role as the number of spatial dimensions; the number of possible dimensions is in fact unbounded.[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hermann_Grassmann].<br /> <br /> '''in the mood for a clambake'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Anachronistic Broadway show tune? If so, the clambake in ''Carousel'' turns into a brawl; the assmebled factions of mathematicians could be in the mood for either a party or a brawl, apparently. <br /> <br /> '''Monopole de la Maison'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Monopole of the House, a fanciful name of a fanciful drink.&lt;br&gt;<br /> There is, since 1898, a well known restaurant called ''Monopole Lunch &amp; Sea Grill'' in Plattsburgh of upper New York state. ([http://www.monopole.org Monopole Restaurant]).&lt;br&gt;<br /> Most probably, it's the Magnetic monopole being referred here. In physics, a monopole is a magnet with a net magnetic charge, i.e. there is only one pole instead of two (so no net magnetic charge) as usual. ([http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Magnetic_monopole Monopole]). It's existence had been theoretically predicted by various particle theories (superstring theory, etc) but never been proved experimentally. Proving the existence of a monopole would certainly earn a Nobel Prize.<br /> <br /> '''Idiom Neutral'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> An invented language, like Esperanto. Idiom Neutral dictionaries first appeared in 1902. It looks like a simplified Latinate language and it grew out of Volapuk, another &quot;auxiliary language.&quot; It was abandoned by the ''Akademi Internasional de Lingu Universal'' in 1908.<br /> <br /> For a list of all the invented languages that linguists are keeping track of, including Klingon, try [http://linguistlist.org/forms/langs/GetListOfConstructedLgs.html Eastern Michigan's Linguist List]. And don't forget to click on the link to &quot;Browse sites devoted to constructed languages.&quot;<br /> <br /> '''phatic'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Basically, small talk or chatter. Words used to convey fellow-feeling rather than to impart information.<br /> <br /> '''''Kampf ums Dasein'''''&lt;br&gt;<br /> German: struggle for existence.<br /> <br /> '''Q-brother'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Fellow Quaternioneer or Fellow Quaternionist.<br /> <br /> '''We are the Jews of mathematics, wandering out here in our diaspora--some destined for the past, others the future, even a few able to set out at unknown angles from the simple line of Time, upon journeys that no one can predict''' &lt;br&gt;<br /> In keeping with the analogy of Judaism, those &quot;few&quot; people within the Quaternionists &quot;able to set out at unknown angles&quot; are most likely being compared to Kabbalists who claim to partake in a mystic &quot;journey to the Throne of God through the mythological realm of the seven heavens&quot; (Armstrong, A History of God--p. 247). Throne Mysticism in Kabbalah is explored extensively in Gravity's Rainbow.<br /> <br /> Perhaps this is obvious to some, but these &quot;Jews of Mathematics&quot; worship the Hamiltonian Tetractys [http://www.math.ucr.edu/home/baez/dublin/]; those other Jews worshipped the Tetragrammatron. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tetragrammaton] The proliferation of 4s continues.<br /> <br /> ==Page 534==<br /> <br /> '''Poiret gown'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> A gown designed by Paul Poiret (1879-1944), a French fashion designer based in Paris. &quot;In the annals of fashion history, Paul Poiret is best remembered for freeing women from corsets and further liberating them through pantaloons . . . it was Poiret's remarkable innovations in the cut and construction of cloting . . . Working with fabric directly onto the body, Poiret helped to pioneer a radical approach to dressmakeing that relied more on the skills of drapery than on those of tailoring.&quot; (from [http://www.metmuseum.org/special/se_event.asp?OccurrenceId={0DC3D00F-4611-4F91-8DC2-CC3C1A5C48D5} MetMuseum], <br /> New York Metropolitan Museum's Special Exhibitions, ''Poiret: King of Fashion'', May 9, 2007 to August 5, 2007). For a picture of Poiret gown see [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Image:Poiretgown.jpg Poiret Gown]. ''The New York Times'' reported on February 1, 2007 that A Poiret Gown Brings $5,500 at [http://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html?res=9B07EFDA1538F93AA15756C0A967948260 Christie's Auction] - the gown was made in 1913 when Poiret was at the height of his career. For his bio see [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Paul_Poiret Poiret].<br /> <br /> '''''green and long'''''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Pickle, or... what?<br /> : A green and long ''gherkin'' (a small, immature fruit of a variety of cucumber used in pickling).<br /> <br /> ==Page 535==<br /> <br /> '''no-name wine'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> 1970s idiom for common European practice?<br /> <br /> '''set theory'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Set theory deals with the properties of well-defined collections, or ''sets'', of entities - the ''elements'' or ''members'' of the set - conceived as a whole. The elements may be of a mathematical nature or non-mathematical. The set theory grew out of the German mathematician Georg Cantor's (1845-1918) study of infinite sets of real numbers. <br /> <br /> The ''language of sets'' has become an important tool for all branches of mathematics, but is of very little relevance to the practice of mathematics in everyday life. As a source of metaphors, however, it's been quite productive; &quot;subset,&quot; &quot;superset,&quot; &quot;universe,&quot; &quot;intersection&quot; and &quot;Venn diagram&quot; have found varying degrees of acceptance. Recasting Aristotle's syllogisms in set-theoretic language also makes them easier for many people to understand.<br /> <br /> '''Hamilton . . . early genius'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Hamilton, according to ''Chambers Biographical Dictionary'', &quot;at fifteen knew thirteen languages, had read Newton's ''Principia'', and commenced original investigations&quot;. At twenty-two, &quot;while still an undergraduate, he was appointed professor of Astronomy at Dublin and Irish Astronomer-Royal&quot;; at thirty &quot;he was knighted&quot;.<br /> <br /> '''Hamilton . . . in the grip of a first love'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> ???&lt;br&gt;<br /> Pynchon probably didn't mean Quaternion was Hamilton's first love, but its effect on him was similar to that of a first love. In 1843 at the age of 38 Hamilton invented the Quaternion, the first non-communtative algebra to be studied. He felt this would revolutionise mathematical physics, and he spent the rest of his life working on it. In 1853 he published a large volume, ''Lectures on Quaternions'', on his grand invention. The last seven years of his life, Hamilton was writing an 800-page book ''Elements of Quaternions'' modeling on Euclid's ''Elements''. The last chapter of the book was completed by his son after his death.<br /> <br /> '''the Walt Whitman of English physics'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Whitman pops up again, last seen on [[ATD_489-524#Page_491|page 491]].<br /> <br /> ==Page 536==<br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> '''Oscar Wilde'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Note that Wilde's Dorian Gray also undergoes a kind of bilocation.<br /> <br /> '''Kursaal'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Spa. Casino ?<br /> <br /> '''vectors'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> For serious minds see Cf [[ATD_525-556#Page 526|page 526:Gibbsian Vectors]], but let's follow Pynchon's lighter mood, here is a non-mathematical definition by Kamen (1995):<br /> :''Many things have more than direction;''<br /> :''The magnitude is also a question.''<br /> :''With acceleration or force,''<br /> :''And many more things, of course,''<br /> :''It's vectors that make the connection.''<br /> <br /> '''Curls'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Cf [[ATD_318-335#Page 326|page 326:Curl]]: curl is a vector operator that shows a vector field's rate of rotation.<br /> <br /> '''Laplacians'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Pierre-Simon, Marquis de Laplace (March 23, 1749 – March 5, 1827); French mathematician and astronomer who summarized and extended the work of his predecessors in his five volume Mécanique Céleste (Celestial Mechanics) (1799-1825), translating the geometrical study of mechanics used by Isaac Newton to one based on calculus, known as physical mechanics.<br /> <br /> He is also the discoverer of Laplace's equation. Although the Laplace transform is named in honor of Laplace, who used the transform in his work on probability theory, the transform was discovered originally by Leonhard Euler. The Laplace transform appears in all branches of mathematical physics — a field he took a leading role in forming. The Laplacian differential operator, much relied-upon in applied mathematics, is likewise named after him. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Laplace].<br /> <br /> :Cf [[ATD_318-335#Page 326|page 326:Laplacian]]: Laplacian is a differential operator named after Laplace. The text here was talking about mathematical operations and operators — rates of change, rotations, partial differentials, Curls, ''Laplacians'', . . .<br /> <br /> '''scream'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Scream motif.<br /> <br /> '''beginning to appal'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> By 1905 there had been years of outrage at conditions in the Belgian Congo, King Leopold's private fief. Conrad's ''Heart of Darkness'' had been published as a serial in Blackwood's Magazine in 1899 and as a book in 1902. There were missionaries' accounts of the brutality, and newspaper reports. Leopold and his apologists published rebuttals. The Norton Critical Edition of ''Heart of Darkness'' contains an extensive collection of both.<br /> <br /> '''baize'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Baize is a coarse woolen felt.<br /> <br /> ==Page 537==<br /> <br /> '''broken symmetries'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Broken_symmetry Broken symmetry] is a concept used widely in mathematics and physics. For a simplest explanation (good enough for the text here), this term means that an object breaks either rotational symmetry or translational sysmetry - when one can only rotate an object in certain angles or when one is able to tell if the object has been shifted sideways. For a little bit more detailed explanation see [http://www.lassp.cornell.edu/sethna/OrderParameters/BrokenSymmetry.html Identify the Broken Symmetry]; or even more [http://scienceweek.com/2005/sw050708-6.htm On Broken Symmetry].<br /> <br /> '''''sphinxe Khnopffienne'''''&lt;br&gt;<br /> refers to the Belgian symbolist painter Fernand Khnopff (1858-1921), famous for his painting &quot;The Caress&quot;, in which a female sphinx erotically lures a young man. The painting can be seen in the [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fernand_Khnopff wikipedia entry]<br /> <br /> '''Pléiade Lafrisée'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> in French, &quot;friser&quot; means to curl or twist. &quot;La frisée&quot; could mean &quot;curled,&quot; by extension &quot;twisted.&quot; The Pleiades is a cluster of hundreds of stars, though only a few are visible, sometimes referred to as The Seven Sisters. If Pleiades are Sisters, Pléiade is ''one'' Sister, so her name means Twisted Sister!<br /> <br /> '''''Conseilleuse'''''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Female consultant?<br /> <br /> ==Page 538==<br /> <br /> '''retroversion matrix'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> ???<br /> <br /> '''''Ma foi'''''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Literally &quot;My faith&quot;, i.e. &quot;By my faith!&quot;, a mild exclamation of incredulity.<br /> <br /> '''ten thousand francs'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> <br /> Based on currency conversions relative to gold, this is equivalent to<br /> about $30,000 US today.<br /> <br /> '''piker'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Someone cheap or cautious, possibly named after people from PIke County, Missouri, who came to California in the 1800s, looking for work. They were poor, hence cheap.<br /> <br /> '''what is a Quaternino?'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Cf [[ATD_525-556#Page 525|page 525:Quaternions]] for a mathematical definition. From ''The Random House Dictionary of the English Languages'', The Unabridged Edition (1966): Quaternion is &quot;a quantity or operator expressed as the sum of a real number and three complex numbers, equivalent to the ''quotient of two vectors''. The field of quaternions is not commutative under multiplication.&quot;.<br /> <br /> '''Bertie ('Mad Dog') Russell'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> 'Mad Dog' seems to be used with heavy irony here. Bertrand Russell was known most for his rationalism, so to speak, his work in modern logic. <br /> He did little in his public roles (at this time in AtD) that would have <br /> him referred to as &quot;crazy', as we say, beyond the social norm, &quot;mad&quot;. <br /> It might be argued that his use of 'logic' against philosophers such as Hegel and McTaggart within ''Against the Day'' showed up their 'madness'.<br /> (Many did think McTaggart was a bit...different...for seriously not believing in Time.) McTaggart broke with Russell after an early influential friendship---Russell was the younger man and the influenced one. He said he was an Hegelian because of McTaggart--Russell wrote in his<br /> Autobiography that McTaggart said he no longer wanted to meet/talk with him bcause he could no longer stand Russell's opinions.<br /> <br /> [http://nobelprize.org/nobel_prizes/literature/laureates/1950/russell-bio.html Bertrand Russell] (1872-1970) was a British mathematician, philosopher, logician and social critic. Best known for his work in mathermatical logic and analytic philosophy. In late spring of 1901 he discovered the so-called [http://plato.stanford.edu/entries/russell-paradox/ Russell Paradox], &quot;the most famous of the logical or set-theoretical paradoxes. The paradox arises within naive set theory by considering the set of all sets that are not members of themselves. Such a set appears to be a member of itself if and only if it is not a member of itself, hence the paradox.&quot; (On-line Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy). He won the 1950 Nobel Prize in Literature in &quot;recognition of his varied and significant writings in which he champions humanitarian ideals and freedom of thought&quot;.<br /> <br /> '''Barry Nebulay'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> nebulae: formed from the diffusion of gas in galaxies or as exploded stars (or the last ember-like stage of a star)&lt;br&gt; <br /> Most nebulae can be described as diffuse nebulae, which means that they are extended and contain no well-defined boundaries.[1] In visible light these nebulae may be divided into emission nebulae and reflection nebulae, a categorization that depends on how the light we see is created.<br /> <br /> '''Hegel... puns'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Probably refers to the fact that quite a lot of Hegel's philosophy deals with the is-ness of the world as we know and experience it.<br /> <br /> On page 787 of Bertrand Russell's ''History of Western Philosophy'' is a summary, perhaps, of this remark about Hegel's puns: &quot;as a result of analysis of the concept &quot;existence&quot;, modern logic has proved this [Cartesianism, refuted by Kant, reinstated by Hegel] argument invalid.....&quot;<br /> <br /> We know from other places that TRP himself seems to 'not like' Cartesianism. See 'cartesian' citations within this wiki.<br /> <br /> ==Page 539==<br /> <br /> '''a vector quotient'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> The result of one vector divided by another. According to the English dictionary definition of previous page this is just a Quaternion.<br /> <br /> '''unit vector'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Unit vector is a vector with magnitude of one. The unit vectors in 3-dimensional space, ''i, j, k'', associated with ''x, y, z'' directions are used in defining a general 3D vector (Cf [[ATD_525-556#Page 526|page 526:Gibbsian Vectors]]).<br /> <br /> '''''square root of minus one'''''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Imaginary number (Cf [[ATD_119-148#Page 132|page 133:Imaginary Number]]). The imaginary numbers ''i, j, k'' are used in defining a Quaternion (Cf [[ATD_525-556#Page 525|page 525:Quaternions]]).<br /> <br /> ''''Triangle Asana''''&lt;br&gt;<br /> A basic yoga pose. <br /> <br /> [http://yoga.org.nz/postures/yoga_positions_images_page.htm Here are images of several basic poses.]<br /> <br /> ''''Dr Rao abruptly vanished''''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Might be a reference to [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Martin_Gardner Martin Gardner]'s<br /> [http://www.amazon.com/No-Sided-Professor-Fantasy-Mystery-Philosophy/dp/0879753900 &quot;No-Sided Professor&quot;]<br /> <br /> ''''Quadrantal Versor Asana''''&lt;br&gt;<br /> A triangle pose taken that extra dimension.<br /> <br /> '''''&quot;Uwe moer!&quot;'''''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Looks a lot like the Dutch &quot;Uw moeder!&quot; - a cry of astonishment (&quot;Your mother!&quot;), the equivalent to the black English &quot;yo mama&quot;.<br /> <br /> '''noncommutative'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> A term typical to mathematics. A commutative equation is one that can operate in exact reverse and still yield the same results. 'Noncommutative' then suggests unidirectionality. The ability to go from point A to point B, but not from B to A.<br /> <br /> '''reticule'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> A woman's drawstring handbag; usually made of net or beading or brocade; also: A system of lines forming a pattern of squares at the focal plane of a telescope, used in micrometers.<br /> [http://www.astunit.com/tutorials/glossary.htm] <br /> :Isn't that sort of a red herring? &quot;[P]roducing from her reticule a . . . watch&quot; doesn't really allow of that second meaning. &lt;br&gt;<br /> :It could be a pun, since a reticule/ handbag always shows its pattern of lines, and a watch (timepiece) is drawn from it. Remember that, e.g. railroad lines of tracks, are a sign of industrialism encroaching on the natural and the spiritual.<br /> <br /> '''Vacheron &amp; Constantin watch'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Made by a Swiss company founded in 1755. From 1819 to 1970 the name was as in the text, then the &amp; dropped out. See the [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vacheron_Constantin Wikipedia entry.]<br /> <br /> '''hunting-case'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> For a pocket watch, a case with a hinged metal cover. More often called &quot;hunter case&quot; (and such a watch a &quot;hunter&quot;).<br /> <br /> ==Page 540==<br /> <br /> '''&quot;haar rekening, ja?&quot;'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> The bill, yes? (Dutch)?<br /> <br /> ''Her'' bill, yes? I.e., give the check to the lady.<br /> <br /> Given the presence of Chris 'Kit' Traverse here, this very much suggests a reference to Christopher 'Kit' Marlowe, Elizabethan poet, playwright and contemporary of Shakespeare. Marlowe was stabbed to death in 1593, in murky circumstances, ostensibly over a bill or 'reckoning', though he was widely believed to have been involved in some form of espionage.<br /> <br /> Strictly speaking &quot;haar rekening&quot; means that the lady pays for herself only. If Root wanted to make sure that Pléiade pays for the whole company he would have to say &quot;de hele rekening voor de dame&quot;. <br /> <br /> '''Piet Woevre'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> The Woëvre is a natural region of Lorraine in north-east France. It forms part of Lorraine plateau and lies largely in the department of Meuse. During World War I, there was much fighting there due to vast mineral resources that had been discovered in the Briey basin or Eastern Woevre at the end of the 19th century. &quot;Piet&quot; is Dutch for &quot;rock&quot; or &quot;stone&quot; and is a fairly common Dutch name, the English equivalent being Peter.<br /> <br /> If the surname is pronounced as in Dutch, Woevre is another Pynchon villain with a &quot;V&quot;-name (Vond, Weissman, Vibe). <br /> <br /> '''Force Publique'''&lt;br /&gt;<br /> The Force Publique (FP) was the official armed force for what is now the Democratic Republic of the Congo from 1885, (when the territory was known as the Congo Free State), through the period of direct Belgian rule (1908-60), until the beginning of the Second Republic in 1965. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Force_Publique Wikipedia entry]<br /> <br /> '''made him reach'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Possible allusion to a famous line, &quot;When I hear the word culture I reach for my gun.&quot; From Hanns Johst's biographical play ''Schlageter''. The original line is slightly different: &quot;Wenn ich Kultur höre ... entsichere ich meinen Browning,&quot; &quot;Whenever I hear of culture... I release the safety-catch of my Browning!&quot; (Act 1, Scene 1). It is spoken by another character in conversation with the young Schlageter. In the scene Schlageter and his wartime comrade Friedrich Thiemann are studying for a college examination, but then start disputing whether it's worthwhile doing so when the nation is not free. <br /> <br /> The line is often misattributed to better-known Nazis and others [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hanns_Johst].<br /> <br /> *In Jean-Luc Godard's 1963 film [http://www.chicagoreader.com/movies/archives/0997/09057.html ''Le Mépris'' (''Contempt'')], Jack Palance's character &quot;Jeremy Prokosch,&quot; an American movie-producer, intones to Fritz Lang: &quot;Whenever I hear the word culture, I reach for my checkbook.&quot;<br /> <br /> '''not unambiguous'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Ie, ambiguous.<br /> <br /> '''''rastaquoueres'''''&lt;br&gt;<br /> 8???<br /> <br /> '''de Decker'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> In Dutch/Flemish, the name means &quot;roofer.&quot; (''De'' in these names almost never means &quot;of, from&quot; as in French; it's nearly always the definite article.)<br /> <br /> ==Page 541==<br /> <br /> '''''bobbejaan'''''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Afrikaans: baboon. (Afrikaans is the language spoken by descendants of Dutch colonists in present-day South Africa. Some items identified as Dutch or Flemish in this wiki may really be Afrikaans.)<br /> <br /> The South African song &quot;Bobbejaan klim die berg&quot; (&quot;Bobbejaan climbed the hill&quot;) is the source of the stage name of Belgium's most famous country and western musician, Bobbejaan Schoepen (b. 1925). In 1943 he was suppressed by the Nazis after performing a South African song, &quot;Mamma, 'k wil 'n man hê&quot; (&quot;Mama, I want a man&quot;), which contains the line &quot;No, Mama, I don't want a German, because I don't like pork.&quot; He founded the Bobbejaanland theme park in Belgium, where he still lives.<br /> <br /> '''MKIV/ODC... Mark Four'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> This would be the Mark IV Ohmic Drift Compensator ([[ATD 557-587#Page 565|Page 565]]), a key component of the Q-weapon, which &quot;regulates how much light is allowed to enter the silvering of the mirror! Special kind of refraction! Calibrated against imaginary index! Dangerous! Of the essence!'&quot;<br /> <br /> '''not part of your remit'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Not included in your job description, instructions, authorization. &quot;Remit&quot; (noun) is usually a British usage.<br /> <br /> '''''gatkruiper'''''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Dutch/Flemish: brownnose, ass-kisser.<br /> <br /> '''one on her wrist'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> All the bruises reflect some refinement or artistry except this one, which may have been inflicted crudely.<br /> <br /> '''over the day'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Title motif?<br /> <br /> ==Page 542==<br /> <br /> '''trans-horizontic'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> ???<br /> Across the horizon -- &quot; a screaming comes across the sky&quot;<br /> <br /> '''Edmund Whittaker'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Edmund Whittaker (1873-1956), an English mathematician. He is best known for his work in numerical analysis. And he contributed widely to applied mathematics, mathematical physics and the theory of special functions. He also worked on celestial mechanics and the history of applied mathermatics and physics. ([http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/E._T._Whittaker Whittaker]).<br /> <br /> The Sir Edmund Whittaker Memorial Prize is awarded every four years by the Edinburgh Mathematical Society to an outstanding young mathematician having a specified connection with Scotland [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sir_Edmund_Whittaker_Memorial_Prize]. <br /> <br /> '''louche'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> The cloudy effect caused by the addition of water to absinthe. Dictionary definition: &quot;of questionable taste or morality; decadent.&quot;<br /> <br /> '''cheval-glass'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Standing mirror in a freestanding vertical frame.<br /> <br /> '''as if someone'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Sound-cancelling vs opacity-cancelling?<br /> <br /> ==Page 543==<br /> <br /> '''wraith of Pleiade Lafrisee'''<br /> <br /> Pleiade manifests one of her not-visible stars. Perhaps this sister has somehow twisted herself on an imaginary axis ala Dr. V. Ganesh Rao.<br /> <br /> '''monitory'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Warning, giving advice, by extension ominous or menacing.<br /> <br /> '''Against....the day....'''<br /> Note: this phrase happens at the exact halfway point of the novel: p.542.3<br /> <br /> '''He Who Must Come'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> The evil-doer who must come might be Adolf Hitler. It would make sense. The implication being that Europe is precipitating into a no-return situation. Capitalism cannot but end in WW2.&lt;br&gt;<br /> Ah, a lot more and less than capitalism going on here, especially if anyone specific like Hitler is meant. <br /> :When French writers use this phrase (''celui qui doit venir'') they '''do''' mean the Messiah . . . although a few devout quibblers point out that the Messiah has already come. It's rather tiresome Googling the phrase; the first 83 hits definitely refer to Christ and most of them quote the first verses of Matthew 11. But there's also a Camus reference (in English, I think) down at No. 90, if anyone has a JSTOR account:<br /> :links.jstor.org/sici?sici=0361-1299(1985)39%3A4%3C251%3ACFS%22M%3E2.0.CO%3B2-X <br /> <br /> Recalls Yeats' 'The Second Coming' once again: &quot;And what rough beast, its hour come round at last, Slouches towards Bethlehem to be born?&quot; [http://chumpsofchoice.blogspot.com/2007/05/casino-royale-in-flanders-field.html#c3637134446204467798 ]<br /> <br /> '''General Boulanger'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/General_Boulanger Georges Boulanger], French military man, and War Minister in the late 19th century. He was one of those men &quot;on a white horse&quot; that some conservatives looked to, as he urged an attack on Germany and the end of the French Republic with a return to monarchy. He was also notorious for his harsh reprisals against workers' demonstrations. &quot;'Boulangisme'&quot; threatened a coup in 1889, but the general's procrastination brought the crisis to an end.<br /> <br /> '''what death and what transfiguration'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Allusion to Richard Strauss' tone poem &quot;Death and Transfiguration&quot; (''Tod und Verklärung''), premiered in 1890.<br /> <br /> '''''&quot;Zeker&quot;'''''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Dutch: certainly.<br /> <br /> '''''dead cert'''''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Dead certainty, sure thing.<br /> <br /> '''Von Schlieffen'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Alfred von Schlieffen was the author of a German war plan to win a two-front war against both France and Russia by quickly defeating France before Russian troops could be mobilized. The [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Schlieffen_Plan Schlieffen Plan] included an attack on France through Belgium, disregarding its neutrality.<br /> <br /> '''Wilhelm has offered Leopold part of France, the ancient Duchy of Burgundy'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> [http://www.crwflags.com/fotw/flags/fr-bg.html History of the duchy.] [http://www.freiburg-madison.de/freiburg_history/1386-1517_The%20Early%20Habsburgs.htm Map,] with portrait of Duke Charles the Rash.<br /> <br /> '''lowlands'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Title of Pynchon's first published story. Here, ass?<br /> <br /> ==Page 544==<br /> <br /> '''Place d'Armes'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Main square of Ostend; literally &quot;drill field&quot;.<br /> <br /> '''peau de soie'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> &quot;Skin of silk&quot; A heavy, smooth satin with very fine ribbing; somewhat dull in sheen compared with traditional silk finishes.<br /> <br /> '''Krafft-Ebing'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Richard Freiherr von Krafft-Ebing, Austro-German psychiatrist and author of ''Psychopathia Sexualis'' (1886), a pioneering study of deviant sexual behavior and fetishism. Coined both ''sadism'' and ''masochism'' as terms for these respective behaviors. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Richard_Freiherr_von_Krafft-Ebing Wikipedia entry].<br /> <br /> '''toque'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Toque here refers to a lady's hat, originally of fur but here in velvet, which is rather like a flattened chef's hat in shape.<br /> <br /> Proust: in ''À l'ombre des jeunes filles en fleurs'' the narrator first sees Albertine wearing a toque. There seem to be quite a few Proust themes and references running throughout the novel. Indeed '''Pliade''' is the French publisher of Proust's works. <br /> <br /> '''guipure'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Lace trim.<br /> <br /> '''midinette'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> A shopgirl or dressmakers apprentice. A milliner.<br /> <br /> '''Lambic'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> A distinctive Belgian style of beer. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lambic Wikipedia]<br /> <br /> '''sous'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> <br /> Coins. Originally Roman gold coins, latterly any kind of coin.<br /> <br /> Specifically small change. She is affecting modesty by claiming that a hat like hers can be had for pennies in any unpretentious shop. In France &quot;sou is used as slang for money, as in ''sans le sou''. 'I'm broke', 'without money'. It is also a slang term for the Canadian cent (standard French, cent).&quot; ([http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sou Wikipedia])<br /> <br /> '''mayonnaise'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Brautigan's &quot;Trout Fishing in America&quot; famously ends with the word mayonnaise. [http://books.google.com/books?vid=ISBN0395500761&amp;id=rbEjDovfyNMC&amp;pg=RA2-PA111&amp;lpg=RA2-PA111&amp;ots=ELKl5b_6Tx&amp;dq=mayonnaise+trout.fishing&amp;num=100&amp;sig=BiyXRqJXRGrMWbrBNgn8de2kpCo#PRA2-PA112,M1 GoogleBooks]<br /> <br /> '''ovoöleaginous'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Another Pynchonic word combination, here denoting the two main ingredients of mayonnaise: 1) eggs, and 2) oil. It's not &quot;fecoventilatory collision&quot; as seen in &quot;Vineland,&quot; but it's nice.<br /> <br /> '''Grenache'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Grape commonly used in Rhone Valley wines e.g. Chateauneuf du Pape.<br /> <br /> '''Chantilly'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> <br /> Region north of Paris.<br /> <br /> Here the reference is to crème chantilly otherwise known as whipped cream. Chantilly mayonnaise is made by incorporating the beaten egg whites for extra lightness.<br /> <br /> '''attainder'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Legislative act declaring that a person is guilty of a crime and setting punishment without the benefit of a formal trial. The Constitution forbids the federal government (Article I, Section 9, clause 3) and the state governments (Article I, Section 10, clause 1) from passing bills of attainder.<br /> [www.historycentral.com/Civics/B.html] <br /> <br /> ''''''Aux armes, citoyens''''''&lt;br&gt;<br /> ''To arms, citizens'', from the French national anthem, ''La Marseillaise'' (1792). Kit confused La Mayonnaise with La Marseillaise.&lt;br&gt;<br /> Not &quot;Le Marseillaise,&quot; you nitwit!<br /> <br /> '''Louis XV'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> King of France 1715-1774 [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Louis_XV]. <br /> <br /> '''Cléo de Mérode'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Glamorous French ballerina (1875-1966), later Follies Bergere dancer and famous beauty. Her reputed intimacy with King Leopold was only a rumor [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cleo_de_Merode]. The character Madame Leonora Armfeldt in Stephen Sondheim's ''A Little Night Music'' has some features in common with her.<br /> <br /> '''Marquise de Pompadour'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Mistress of Louis XV,once friend of Voltaire and a power behind official scenes.[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Madame_de_Pompadour].<br /> <br /> ==Page 545==<br /> <br /> '''duc de Richelieu'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Duc de Richelieu (1696-1788), marshal of France, was a grandnephew of Cardinal Richelieu, and born in Paris. Apart from his reputation as a man of exceptionally loose morals, he attained, in spite of a defective education, distinction as a diplomatist and general. ([http://www.1911encyclopedia.org/Louis_Francois_Armand_du_Plessis,_duc_de_Richelieu duc de Richelieu] and cf [[ATD_489-524#Page 490|page 490:duc de Richelieu]])<br /> <br /> '''dubious 'victory' in 1756'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> As part of the Seven Years' War (1756-1763), duc de Richelieu (1696-1788), a Marshal of France, won a victory in the Battle of Minorca (May 20, 1756) over John Byng (1704-1757), a British Admiral. In spring of 1756 John Byng was sent with a small and undermanned fleet to relieve the British ''Port Mahon'' on the Mediterranean island of Minorca. During the battle ensued, several British ships were badly damaged by the French squadron while others, including Byng's flagship, were still out of effective firing range. Instead of engaging the enemy directly, Byng decided to keep the formation, allowing the French fleet to get away undamaged. ([http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_Minorca Battle of Minorca]).<br /> <br /> '''the ill-fated Admiral Byng'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> John Byng, convicted by court-martial of failure &quot;to do his utmost&quot; in the battle, shot in 1757. Remembered because of (1) his being the last officer of flag rank to be put to death for conduct in battle and (2) Voltaire's gag in ''Candide:'' &quot;In this country it is good to kill an admiral from time to time in order to encourage the others.&quot;<br /> <br /> '''cantharides'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> &quot;Spanish fly,&quot; contact irritant sometimes ill-advisedly used as aphrodisiac.<br /> <br /> '''Sadean'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Pertaining to the Marquis de Sade. The acts the chef performs on the egg and oil have the same names as acts of Sadean sex. <br /> <br /> '''''n'est-ce pas?'''''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Right? (Isn't that so?)<br /> <br /> '''vetiver'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> A grass (Vetiveria zizanioides) of tropical India, cultivated for its aromatic roots that yield an oil used in perfumery.<br /> [www.answers.com/topic/vetiver]. So, a perfume with, llterallly, roots in India.<br /> <br /> Vetiver makes frequent appearances throughout ''À la recherche du temps perdu.''<br /> <br /> '''pip'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> A beaut; in current parlance, a hottie.<br /> <br /> '''Q.P. system'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Quaternion Probability, page 536.<br /> <br /> '''Usine Régionale'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> French: as translated in the text.<br /> <br /> ==Page 546==<br /> <br /> '''disjunctive effects of thunderstorms'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Folk wisdom says a thunderstorm will cause mayonnaise to separate (oil from yolks).<br /> <br /> '''cottonseed oil'''<br /> <br /> Mayonnaisse like Smegmo and Crisco is a hydrogenated fat; cottonseed oil is a common factor to all three. Indeed, the name Crisco derives from the intial sounds of &quot;'''crys'''tallized '''c'''ottonseed '''o'''il&quot;. Note in the next few pages a mention of Candlebrow -- underscoring a tie-in between Mayonnaisse and Smegmo. <br /> <br /> It may be of interest to note that hydrogenation may have a symbolic use for Pynchon. The process entails bubbling hydrogen through oil in the presence of a metal catalyst such as nickel, platinum, aluminum at 248 to 410 degrees. Remnants of these metals stay in the finished product, and when consumed can lead to an increase in heavy metals in the human body.<br /> <br /> Eating hydrogenated oils is like eating plastic. The body does not recognize that these molecules have been mutated and tries to use them as essential fatty acids. But they cannot perform the same function, and as a result hydrogenated oils can cause short circuits in the electrical flow that controls the heartbeat, nerve functions, cell division and mental balance. They also create free radicals (anarchists!) that are linked to cancers. Free radicals plus metal remnants are a major contributor to cancer, heart disease, immune system dysfunction, osteoporosis, depression, chronic fatigue, Alzheimers, and neurological diseases. It is estimated that over 200 million people have died prematurely because of the hydrogenated oils found in our diets. [http://www.drz.org/asp/newsletter/default.asp?xt2id=23] Not to mention innocent bystanders killed by mentally imbalanced people whose imbalance may stem from the ingestion of hydrogenated oils -- there may be some underlying reality to the &quot;Twinkie defense.&quot;<br /> <br /> '''lounge suit'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> A lounge suit is another name for business suit consisting of a matching jacket and trousers or skirt.<br /> <br /> '''congress shoes'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> ankle high shoes with elastic gussets in the sides (wordweb online)<br /> <br /> '''invisible hand'''<br /> <br /> Suggestive of Adam Smith's metaphor for market forces in economics.<br /> <br /> '''dripping-heads'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mayonnaise To make mayonnaise,] beat together egg yolks, salt, mustard and vinegar, then drip in oil while beating to form the emulsion. If you scale the process up for industrial production, you will automate the introduction of the oil, using nozzles that release it a drop at a time—but in a large vat you can have many such nozzles.<br /> <br /> '''''cuves d'agitation'''''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Vat or tank in which the mayonnaise is agitated or beaten.<br /> <br /> '''Clinique d'Urgence pour Sauvetage des Sauces'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> French: Emergency Clinic for Salvage of Sauces.<br /> <br /> ==Page 547==<br /> <br /> '''' ...engulfed in thick, slick, sour-smelling mayonnaise. ''''<br /> The whole Kit's experience in the mayonnaise factory is very much reminiscent to [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Roald_Dahl Roald Dahl]'s [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Charlie_and_the_Chocolate_Factory Charlie and the Chocolate Factory].<br /> <br /> '''''Cazzo, cretino'''''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Literally, &quot;Dick, cretin.&quot; ''Cazzo'' is a common Italian interjectionary obscenity, especially in the south. &quot;Cazzo, cretino,&quot; is akin to someone saying, &quot;Well shit, dummy,&quot; or &quot;F-ing moron!&quot;<br /> <br /> '''''È il cowboy!'''''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Italian: It's the cowboy!<br /> <br /> '''''vero?'''''&lt;br&gt;<br /> true? real?<br /> <br /> '''''Le bambole anarchiste, porca miseria'''''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Italian: Anarchist babes, oh boy.<br /> <br /> '''Oudenberg'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> A southeast suburb of Ostende.<br /> <br /> '''Quai de l'Entrepôt'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Warehouse Quay<br /> <br /> '''''ragazzi'''''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Italian: boys, guys.<br /> <br /> ==Page 548==<br /> <br /> '''''timbres fictifs'''''&lt;br&gt;<br /> French: fictive postage stamps. Cf &quot;Lot 49&quot;.<br /> <br /> '''&quot;IIIb&quot;'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> As explained in the text<br /> <br /> '''Germany might stand a better chance...'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> That is, if the French were to push into Alsace (per Boulanger) as the Germans executed the Schlieffen Plan [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Schlieffen_plan] for the encirclement of Paris, it would put the French at an even greater disadvantage...as actually happened in 1914. Had the Belgians and British not delayed the Germans in Flanders, and had the French railroads not performed speedily to bring the French troops back to the Marne, World War I could have had a very different outcome...an alternate history. <br /> <br /> '''revanchist'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Policies based on revenge, or a person following such policies. In General Boulanger's case, revenge against Germany for the Franco-Prussian War (that is, retaking Alsace, lost in 1871).<br /> <br /> '''the somewhat discomposed General'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Having died in 1891, the General by the time of the action is certainly somewhat '''de'''composed; brief biographies do not suggest he was ''non compos mentis,'' that is, mentally discomposed.<br /> <br /> ==Page 549==<br /> <br /> '''cackled Darby'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> (When did he lose his innocence?)<br /> <br /> '''a modification of any salsician metaphor toward the diminutive'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Salsician: pertaining to sausage. Lindsay says Suckling's penis is better compared to a wiener than a knockwurst.<br /> <br /> '''&quot;Why you little–and I do mean 'little'–&quot;'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Another Simpsons reference? <br /> <br /> '''dunes between Nieuport and Dunkirk'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Nieuport is a Belgian seaport about 10 miles southwest of Ostend. Dunkirk is a French port (less than 10 miles inside the French border) about 20 miles southwest of Nieuport. The latter was a site of one of the bloodest battle in World War I. The general area between Niewport and Dunkirk was the well traversed battle fields of two world wars. (Dunkirk was (in)famous for the British Army's escape from the Nazi German's assault in World War II.)<br /> <br /> '''power-receivers'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Not information, energy.<br /> <br /> ==Page 550==<br /> <br /> '''Lot's wife''' &lt;br&gt;<br /> Angels of God led Lot and his family out of Sodom as it was being destroyed and told them not to look back at the mayhem. Lot's wife, Edith, imprudently looked back and was transfigured into a pillar of salt.<br /> <br /> '''Italian grotto'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> an imitating recess or structure made to resemble a natural Italian grotto.<br /> <br /> '''a highly developed taste, moreover, for human blood'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Since Pugnax developed this taste in the Carpathians, home of Castle Dracula, this seems a clear reference to Bram Stoker's novel. <br /> <br /> '''Carpathians'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Major mountain range running northwest-southeast through Poland, Slovakia, western Ukraine and Romania.<br /> <br /> '''Uhlans'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Uhlan regiments belonged to the light cavalry. They wore splendid uniforms (model for some U.S. marching band uniforms). [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Uhlan Wikipedia article.]<br /> <br /> '''Temesvár'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Now Timişoara, extreme western Romania.<br /> <br /> ==Page 551==<br /> <br /> '''...separated by only a slice of Time...'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Miles is beginning to experience Time almost as a spatial dimension, his personal vector as traversing (!) 4-dimensional space, or perhaps multidimensional space, the mathematics for which is being debated in Ostend.<br /> <br /> '''securing the mess decks'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> The Chums follow U.S. Navy idiom in orders (frequently prefixed with &quot;Now&quot;) and shipboard activities (&quot;secure&quot; meaning &quot;whatever you did before, undo it now,&quot; in this case put away the dishes and fold up the tables).<br /> <br /> '''Ryder Thorn'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Tolkienesque name? Or perhaps it's a nod to the Ryder-Waite Tarot deck and to Kevin Thorn (Kevin Matthew Fertig, 1977-), the American professional wrestler better known by his ring name Kevin Thorn who is currently signed to World Wrestling Entertainment wrestling on its ECW brand. He has appeared in vigniettes with Ariel (Shelly Martinez, 1980-), the tarot card reader, who spits blood at the camera while she &quot;predicted the future of ECW.&quot; Yup, a stretch...<br /> <br /> *The name also evokes the Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse.<br /> <br /> '''He was at Candlebrow.'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Presumably a 'trespasser.'<br /> <br /> '''the four-note chord in the context of timelessness'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> A melody is formed by notes following one another in time; a chord on the ukulele violates that practice by having all the notes sound at once. A really clever little passage.<br /> Note: Jazz musicians describe musical improvisations as horizontal (with the melody) or vertical (with the chord)<br /> <br /> ==Page 552==<br /> <br /> '''knuckle-duster'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Brass knuckles.<br /> <br /> '''Diksmuide'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> 20 kilometers south of Ostend (about halfway to Ypres).<br /> <br /> ==Page 553==<br /> <br /> '''The terrain was flat...lowlands'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Not, this time, a reference to Pynchon's ''Lowlands'', but to the two-dimensionality of Flanders, as in Edwin A. Abbott's ''Flatland'' [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Flatland]; most humans, like the inhabitants of Flanders and Abbott's Flatlanders, experience life in two dimensions. <br /> <br /> '''Somewhere up in the sky was Miles' home...'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Whereas Miles and the Chums of Chance, in contrast, live in three dimensions. The mathematicians gathered in Ostend are trying to calculate how to experience and use vectors to live in four dimensions; in a way, to experience Time as a kind of spatial dimension. Miles, on P. 551, is demonstrating the beginnings of an intuitive discovery of how to experience Time as an almost spatial dimension. Which would be a sort of &quot;time travel&quot;, or at least an expanded view of life and history.<br /> <br /> '''retted'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> soaked in water or exposed to moisture (as flax or hemp) to facilitate the removal of the fiber from the woody tissue by partial rotting.<br /> <br /> ==Page 554==<br /> <br /> '''Ypres and Menin'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Municipalities in West Flanders that were sites of some of the bloodiest battles of WWI. At the beginning of the war, the British and Belgian stand helped save Paris from encirclement by the Germans, and saved the Channel ports, but as Thorn points out, the area became the western anchor of the Western Front trench system. The several Battles of Ypres saw the first uses of poison gas (Mustard Gas, dichlorodiethylsulfide, was first called Yperite), the use of enormous mines, and the legendary mud of Passchendaele [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Passchendaele]. <br /> <br /> '''Ten years from now'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> (1914?) through 1918? and beyond?. Another paramorphic mirror--what do we now face. Whatever it is, it is nuclear.<br /> <br /> '''Bosch'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Hieronymous Bosch (1450-1516), Dutch painter of nightmares. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hieronymus_Bosch Wikipedia entry].<br /> <br /> '''Brueghel'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Pieter Brueghel the Elder(1525-1569), Flemish painter.[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pieter_Brueghel_the_Elder Wikipedia entry].<br /> <br /> '''League'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> League of Nations? The League of Nations was formed after WWI to prevent future wars. Didn't succeed.<br /> <br /> No. In this case a historical unit of length, approximately three miles - &quot;league on league&quot; = tremendous masses<br /> <br /> '''where the needles went and which way to rotate them'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> I.e., how to push Thorn's buttons; the image is from acupuncture.<br /> <br /> ==Page 555==<br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> '''simpletons at the fair'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Making Pynchon's metaphor explicit.<br /> <br /> '''Chopin E-minor Nocturne'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Frédéric Chopin (1810-49), a Polish pianist and composer ([http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fr%C3%A9d%C3%A9ric_Chopin Chopin]). He was born in Warsaw, Poland to a Polish morther and a French father. He went to Paris at the age of 20 and died there at the age of 39. He was widely regarded as one of the most famous and influential composers for the piano. From 1837-47 he had a 10-year stormy relationship with the French writer George Sand. His E-minor Nocturne is a 4-minute long Romantic style piano solo composed in 1827. (A ''nocturne'' is usually a musical composition that is inspired by, or evocative of, the night [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nocturne Nocturne].)<br /> <br /> '''owl-light'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> ???glimmering or imperfect light or twilight hours.<br /> <br /> ''''plasmic hysteresis''''&lt;br&gt;<br /> <br /> A coined term, apparently similar in meaning to Miles’ phrase “failure of physical translation.” Plasma would take an older meaning of “form” or “shape.&quot; Hysteresis, according to Webster's, refers to “a retardation in effect when the forces on an object are changed.” Hysteresis is used to describe magnetic phenomenon as well as plastic or elastic materials, that involve changes to a rest state that last beyond the forces that cause them. Examples include recordings on magnetic tape or a thumbprint slowly disappearing from putty. In the context of this passage, plasmic hysteresis appears to describe the lingering visage of someone who is no longer present – a hysteresis of form only and thus a failed physical translation. See [http://www.etymonline.com/index.php?search=plasma&amp;searchmode=none etymology of plasma] and this nifty explanation of [http://www.lassp.cornell.edu/sethna/hysteresis/WhatIsHysteresis.html hysteresis]. <br /> <br /> Hysteresis has also been used to refer to “loops” in time, certainly apropos in this case. I stumbled across an excellent example in a 1980 episode of Dr. Who, in which the eponymous Dr. is trapped in “chronic hysteresis,” an endless loop or return to a previous <br /> point in time – very similar to the situation of Ryder Thorn. [http://www.drwhoguide.com/who_5q.htm Check it out for yourself!] <br /> <br /> <br /> ==Annotation Index==<br /> {{ATD PbP}}</div>

MKOHUT https://against-the-day.pynchonwiki.com/wiki/index.php?title=ATD_525-556&diff=14086 2007-10-17T12:48:58Z

<p>MKOHUT: /* Page 525 */</p> <hr /> <div>:'''&lt;big&gt;Please keep these annotations SPOILER-FREE by not revealing information from later pages in the novel.&lt;/big&gt;'''&lt;p&gt;&lt;br&gt;<br /> <br /> ==Page 525==<br /> <br /> '''Ostend'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Cf [[ATD_489-524#Page 521|page 521:Ostend]], a seaport in northwest Belgium. Among English-speaking tourists, Ostend (or Ostende) is best known as a ferry port. Ships have shuttled between Dover and Ostend for more than 150 years, and today's high-speed catamarans move hundreds of passengers and vehicles between these two ports in just two hours. But this thousand-year-old city is a popular beach resort with Belgians, who flock to Ostend for sun, surfing, sailing and the ''Kursaal'' (Casino). The fishing harbor and old town draw many visitors. Ostend is the only Belgian coastal resort that is as lively in the summer as in the winter. For more and pictures [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ostend Ostend].<br /> <br /> '''Fishermen's Quai'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Fishermen's Quay, also called De Trap. The shrimp boats come home here from the sea in the morning. Along the quay many stands sell lots of seafoods.<br /> <br /> '''Boulevard van Isenghem'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> A major thoroughfare in Ostend, locally called ''Van Iseghemlaan'', extending diagonally from seafront southwest through the city.<br /> <br /> '''street-plausible'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Presentable.<br /> <br /> '''Quai de l'empereur'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Since Ostende is in the Flemish part of Belgium this should be the Keizerskaai, a street along the old part of the harbour, 1919 renamed Vindictivelaan.<br /> <br /> '''estaminet'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> According to the OED - A café in which smoking is allowed. Now, any small establishment selling alcoholic liquor. <br /> <br /> '''twelve-centime'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> one centime is the French eqivalent of one cent. A twelve-centime beer would cost 12/100 of a franc.<br /> <br /> '''Quaternions'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Cf [[ATD_119-148#Page 130|page 130:Quaternions]]. Quaternions are a non-communtative extension of compelx numbers (Hamilton, 1843).&lt;br&gt;<br /> <br /> Analogy with the complex numbers (Cf [[ATD_119-148#Page 132|page 132:complex number]]) being represented as a sum of real and imaginary parts, a + b''i'', where ''i''² = −1, a quaternion is defined as a combination a + b''i'' + c''j'' + d''k'', where ''i''² = ''j''² = ''k''² = ''i j k'' = −1, and a, b, c, d are ''four'' explicit real numbers. The non-commutative property refers to ''i j = −j i = k; j k = −k j = i; k i = −i k = j''. (i.e. ''i j ≠ j i; j k ≠ k j; k i ≠ i k''; etc.) The using of ''i, j, k'', the imaginary numbers (Cf [[ATD_119-148#Page 133|page 133:imaginary number]]), led to the phrases of &quot;the ''ijk'' lot&quot; of page 533 and &quot;creature of ''i-j-k''&quot; of page 534.<br /> <br /> '''Kellner'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> German: waiter, barman. Use of the German word would be insulting to the Belgian barman.<br /> <br /> '''''demi'''''&lt;br&gt;<br /> A half-pint glass (25 centilitres, actually).<br /> <br /> '''Lambic'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Pron. ''lahm-BEEK.'' Unique Belgian beer style, sour and often thin in body.<br /> <br /> '''skimmer'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Straw hat (&quot;Panama&quot;).<br /> <br /> ==Page 526==<br /> <br /> '''biquaternion'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Or &quot;octonion,&quot; an innovation of English mathematician W.K. Clifford, [[ATD_243-272#Page_249|referred to on p. 249.]]<br /> <br /> '''Barry Nebulay'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Pun on a term from heraldry, ''barry nebuly.'' Barry (rhymes with &quot;starry,&quot; not &quot;carry&quot;) refers to a shield divided into an even number of parts by horizontal lines. Nebuly signals that the lines are deformed into stylized &quot;cloud&quot; shapes. [http://www.rarebooks.nd.edu/digital/heraldry/partitions.html Here you can see an example.] If a ''British'' author had a character with a heraldic name, it would suggest a pseudonym.<br /> <br /> '''University of Dublin'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> The Alma Mater of Hamilton, the father of Quaternion. He studied, graduated and taught at Trinity College, the University of Dublin, Ireland's oldest university.<br /> <br /> If University College, Dublin, then Joyce had graduated in 1902.&lt;br&gt;<br /> <br /> '''Quaternioneers'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Quaternion believers.<br /> <br /> '''Gibbsian Vectors'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Vector Analysis (or Vector Calculus) developed by Willard Gibbs (Cf [[ATD_26-56#Page 29|page 29:Professor Gibbs]]) in 1881 and 1884. It is a branch of calculus that deals with vectors and process involving vectors. It is much more easily applied to phsics and other applied sciences than Hamilton's Quaternions (Cf [[ATD_525-556#Page 525|page 525:Quaternions]]).&lt;br&gt;<br /> A vector is defined by not only a magnitude but also a direction, such as a velocity vector, ''v'' is defined by ''v'' = a''i'' + b''j'' + c''k'',<br /> where a, b, and c are the magnitudes of the velocity components in directions of ''i, j'' and ''k'' which are unit vectors, (not imaginary numbers as in Quaternion), with magnitude of 1. In three dimensional cases and ''xyz'' coordinate system is used then ''i, j, k'' are related to ''x, y, z'' directions (&quot;''xyz'' people&quot; of page 533); but they, in general, may be used irrespective of the notation of the coordinates.<br /> Mathematical operations (addition, subtraction, multiplication), differentiation (''curl'' — Cf [[ATD_318-335#Page 326|page 326:Curl]] and p. 536, ''Laplacian'' — Cf [[ATD_318-335#Page 326|page 326:Laplacian]] and p. 536, etc) and integration can be applied to vectors. It is interesting to know that one of the two multiplication operations is called cross product; for unit vectors (''i, j, k'') perpendicular to each other, then, ''i × i = j × j = k × k = 0'', ''i × j = k'', ''j × i = -k'', etc. ([http://web.mit.edu/wwmath/vectorc/summary.html Vector Calculus]).&lt;br&gt;<br /> A simple vector anyalysis example here: if ''k'', the unit vector, stands for the direction upward and g is the gravitational acceleration, then the acceleration vector, ''a'', for a projectile, is defined for downward action, (the ''i'' and ''j'' directions have zero components):&lt;br&gt;<br /> :''a'' = -g ''k''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Integrating ''a'' would give the velocity vector, ''v''&lt;br&gt;<br /> :''v'' = -g t ''k''&lt;br&gt;<br /> for zero initial velocity case, and t standing for time.&lt;br&gt;<br /> And integrating ''v'' would yield the position vector, ''h'', for the projectile&lt;br&gt;<br /> :''h'' = -½ g t² ''k''&lt;br&gt;<br /> toward the sea level.<br /> <br /> '''Quaternionists'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Quaternion believers, same as Quaternioneers.<br /> <br /> '''Tasmania'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Tasmania is an island of the southern coast of Australia. Known for its relative isolation, it was a prison for English convicts in the 1800s<br /> <br /> '''Having been inseparable from the rise of the electromagnetic'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> In his 1865 work ''The Dynamical Theory of the Electromagnetic Field'', James Clerk Maxwell unified electricity and magnetism. He put forth twenty equations, with twenty unknowns, in vector form (though different in notation and form than the equations that now bear his name) that completely described all known electromagnetic phenomena. In his 1873 treatise on the subject, he expressed the equations in the mathematics of quaternions. It appears that the quaternion form of the equations remained popular even though, at the behest of his publisher, Maxwell reverted to the 1865 form in the second edition (1881)--though they remain scattered throughout. In 1892 Oliver Heaviside (On the Forces, Stresses, and Fluxes of Energy in the Electromagnetic Field. ''Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society of London.'' A, Vol. 183. pp423-480), while spewing scientific vitriol at the Quaternionists, reformulated Maxwell's original 1865 equations (Heaviside chose to remove the vector potential and scalar fields from the equations; the inclusion of these terms had served as Maxwell's justification for the use of quaternions), and provided the notation still in use today. See this [http://www.zpenergy.com/modules.php?name=Downloads&amp;d_op=getit&amp;lid=60 PDF] for the evolution of Maxwell's equations.<br /> <br /> '''Hamiltonian devotees'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> The Quaternion faction, after William Hamilton, who devised the scheme.<br /> <br /> '''Grand Hôtel de la Nouvelle Digue'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> There is a Hotel Digue in the Seychelles; this is a New Hotel Digue by Pynchon? <br /> <br /> Grand Hotel of New Dyke, may be a made up hotel name.<br /> <br /> '''anterooms of death'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> This metaphor is sometimes applied to concentration camps. Here the lyric &quot;feel like I'm fixin' to die&quot; seems more apposite.<br /> <br /> '''Belgian Art Nouveau'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Art Nouveau, 1890(or 80) to 1914, explores a new style in the visual arts and architecture that developed in Europe and North America at the end of the 19th century. At its height (~1907), Art Nouveau was a concerted attempt to create an international style based on decoration. It was developed by a brilliant and energetic generation of artists and desisgners, who sought to fashion an art form appropriate to the post-Industrial Revolution modern age.&lt;br&gt;<br /> Brussels was one of the Art Nouveau centers and represented different style from the others. The jewelers there, accepted as artists rahter than craftsmen, (together with those in Paris) defined Art Nouveau in jewelery and achieved the most renown. ([http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Art_Nouveau Art Nouveau]).<br /> <br /> ==Page 527==<br /> <br /> '''dossing'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> British slang for &quot;sleeping&quot;, &quot;staying overnight&quot;<br /> <br /> '''Russian nihilists'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> :The following four are local, Belgian, not Russian, nihilists !<br /> <br /> '''Eugénie'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Female. Possibly named for Empress Eugénie (1826-1920), consort of French Emperor Napoleon III. Ultimately for St. Eugenia, 3rd-century Roman martyr whose feast is celebrated on December 25.<br /> <br /> '''Fatou'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Female. A pseudonym? In view of the date of the action, certainly not named after [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fatou the mathematician Fatou] (1878-1929).<br /> <br /> '''Denis'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Male. Named for St. Denis or Dionysius, patron saint of Paris and of France, 3rd-century bishop of Paris, martyr, beheaded on the hill now called Montmartre. &quot;Montjoie St. Denis!&quot; was a warcry used by French troops in the Middle Ages. His intercession is effective against demonic possession and headache.<br /> <br /> '''Policarpe'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Male. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Polycarp Saint Polycarp] was a Christian bishop of Smyrna (now İzmir in Turkey) in the second century. He was stabbed and died a martyr after an attempt to burn him at the stake failed. His intercession is sought against earache and dysentery.<br /> <br /> '''Young Congo'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Probably in reference to the [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Young_Turks Young Turks], a Turkish revolutionary movement<br /> <br /> '''Garde Civique'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> A part of the Belgian army. According to the [http://www.1911encyclopedia.org/Belgium 1911 Britannica], &quot;the mass of the garde civique does not pretend to possess military value. It is a defence against sedition and socialism.&quot;<br /> <br /> '''French Second Bureau boys'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Deuxieme Bureau; French Intelligence.<br /> <br /> '''''phalange'''''&lt;br&gt;<br /> French: phalanx. A military (here mock-military) group ready for combat. &lt;br&gt;<br /> <br /> It also conjures up memories of the early 19th century utopian socialist <br /> Charles Fourier, who theorized that people should live communally in &quot;phalanxes&quot; of a specific number based upon their &quot;passions.&quot; His solid ideas included equality of the sexes, but he also taught wacky things such as the moon being made of lemonade. Of particular relevance is his rejection of industrial civilization. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Utopian_socialism]<br /> <br /> '''&quot;...until something had happened, something too terrible to remember...&quot;'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Again this theme of an unknowable past transgression, here invoked almost as if the unknown signifies the other 'lateral' (a word which has cropped up at least a dozen times already) 'vector'.<br /> <br /> '''the Digue'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> French for &quot;dyke&quot;<br /> <br /> '''Congo... Belgians'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> The Belgian colonisation of the Congo was, as Conrad's ''Heart of Darkness'' makes clear, notable for its greed and brutality.<br /> <br /> '''Leopold, King of the Belgians'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> 1835-1909, reigned 1865-1909. A man of almost Nixonian fiendishness. In the Congo he acted as sole proprietor and absolute ruler. The positive outcomes of his exploitation include ''Heart of Darkness'' and the phrase &quot;crime against humanity.&quot;<br /> <br /> '''co-conscious'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> mental processes outside the main stream of consciousness but sometimes available to it — from Merriam-Webster's Medical Dictionary.<br /> <br /> '''Force Publique'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Belgian armed forces operating in the Belgian Congo ([http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Force_Publique Wikipedia]). &quot;King Leopold's private army&quot; may be a more accurate description.<br /> <br /> '''rubber worker'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> See above: One of the early missions of the FP was to increase rubber export quotas through forced labor and related atrocities.<br /> <br /> ==Page 528==<br /> <br /> '''''khâgne'''''&lt;br&gt;<br /> an informal term used by French students for Classes Préparatoires Littéraires, the two-year cycle of classes taken after the Baccalaureat (taken at age 17-18), to prepare for the entrance examination to the Ecole Normale Supeieure. ([http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kh%C3%A2gne khâgne]).<br /> <br /> '''Reclus'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> J. J. Élisée Reclus (1830-1905), French geographer but mainly educated in Germany. Several times he was forced to leave France because of his political views; he traveled widely in Europe, the British Isles, the United States, and South America and for many years lived in Switzerland. He was professor of comparative geography at the University of Brussels from 1895 to 1905. He had quite an extensive connection with various socialist and anarchist circles (met Bakunin while in Florence).Once he was imprisoned in Versailles in 1871 for his part in the ''Paris Commune''. In 1882 he initiated the ''Anti-marriage movement'' while in Geneva. [[http://academic.reed.edu/formosa/texts/reclusbio.html Reclus]).<br /> <br /> '''Stirnerite'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Follower of Max Stirner, 19th century German philosopher and author of ''The Ego and Its Own,'' a work influential in anarchist thought. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Max_Stirner Wikipedia entry].<br /> <br /> ''Max Stirner'''s (1806-56) attacks on systematic philosophy, his denial of absulutes, and his rejection of abstract concepts of any kind often places him among the first philosophical nihilists. For Stirner, achieving individual freedom is the only law; and the state, which necvessarily imperils freedom, must be destroyed. Even beyond the oppression of the state, though, are the constraints imposed by others because their very existence is an obstable compromising individual freedom. Thus Stirner argues that existence is an endless &quot;war of each against all&quot; (1845). (taken from the paragraph about Max Stirner in [http://www.iep.utm.edu/n/nihilism.htm#H1 Nihilism])&lt;br&gt;<br /> Sourcing here? Much complexity in properly understanding Stirner, who has some Pynchon-like qualities, to say the least. From the Stanford Dictionary of Philosophy&lt;br&gt;<br /> His major work:<br /> The Ego and Its Own<br /> Much of Stirner's prose—which is crowded with aphorisms, italicisation, and hyperbole—appears calculated to disconcert. Most striking, perhaps, is the use of word play. Rather than reach a conclusion through the conventional use of argument, Stirner often approaches a claim that he wishes to endorse by exploiting words with related etymologies or formal similarities. For example, he associates words for property (such as ‘Eigentum’) with words connoting distinctive individual characteristics (such as ‘Eigenheit’) in order to promote the claim that property is expressive of selfhood. (Stirner's account of egoistic property—see below—gives this apparently orthodox Hegelian claim a distinctive twist.)<br /> <br /> This rejection of conventional forms of intellectual discussion is linked to Stirner's substantive views about language and rationality. His unusual style reflects a conviction that both language and rationality are human products which have come to constrain and oppress their creators. Stirner maintains that accepted meanings and traditional standards of argumentation are underpinned by a conception of truth as a privileged realm beyond individual control. As a result, individuals who accept this conception are abandoning a potential area of creative self-expression in favour of adopting a subordinate role as servants of truth. In stark contrast, Stirner insists that the only legitimate restriction on the form of our language, or on the structure of our arguments, is that they should serve our individual ends. It is the frequent failure of ordinary meanings and standard forms of argument to satisfy his interpretation of this criterion which underpins Stirner's remorselessly idiosyncratic style.<br /> <br /> The Ego and Its Own has an intelligible, but scarcely transparent, structure. It is organised around a tripartite account of human experience, initially introduced in a description of the stages of an individual life. The first stage in this developmental narrative is the realistic one of childhood, in which children are constrained by material and natural forces such as their parents. Liberation from these external constraints is achieved with what Stirner calls the self-discovery of mind, as children find the means to outwit those forces in their own determination and cunning. The idealistic stage of youth, however, contains new internal sources of constraint, as individuals once more become enslaved, this time to the spiritual forces of conscience and reason. Only with the adulthood of egoism do individuals escape both material (external) and spiritual (internal) constraints, learning to value their personal satisfaction above all other considerations.<br /> <br /> Stirner portrays this dialectic of individual growth as an analogue of historical development, and it is a tripartite account of the latter which structures the remainder of the book. Human history is reduced to successive epochs of realism (the ancient, or pre-Christian, world), idealism (the modern, or Christian, world), and egoism (the future world). <br /> <br /> What about these &quot;successive epochs&quot; in understanding ATD?<br /> <br /> Stirner's major work, The Ego and Its Own has been reissued in English a number of times in Pynchon's lifetime,from the 60s on. (Not that TRP could not have read it in German!)<br /> <br /> '''''Anarcho-individualiste'''''&lt;br&gt;<br /> i.e. he has doctrinal differernces with Stirnerism, strictly speaking; see P. 324, and &quot;Eigenheit&quot;.<br /> <br /> '''Leopold'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> See p. 527.<br /> <br /> '''going down lately'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Being assassinated.<br /> <br /> '''Sipido'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Jean-Baptiste Sipido (1884-1959), a Belgian socialist. Accusing the Prince of Wales of causing thousands of inocents were killed in the Boer War in South Africa, on April 5, 1900, Sipido leaped onto the foot board of the royal compartment right before the train left the North Railway Station (Gare du Nord), Brussel, and fired two (or one? as reported in ''The Manchester Guardian'', or four? as stated in the text here) shots through the window but missed everyone inside. He was arrested, tried and acquitted. The leader of the House of Commons called the acquittal a &quot;grave and most unfortunate miscarriage of justice.&quot; ([http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jean-Baptiste_Sipido Sipido]).<br /> <br /> '''Prince... of Wales'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> (Maud Gonne's husband claimed to have been involved in another such plot.)<br /> <br /> '''Hippodrome'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Hippodrome Wellington, a horse racing track in Ostend built in 1883. The facility hosts both harness and flat racing events. ([http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hippodrome_Wellington Hippodrome]).<br /> <br /> '''Royal Bathing Hut... twenty francs'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> A bathing machine ([http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bathing_machine bathing machine])? The King of Belgium certainly would not want to be seen in a swimsuit on a public beach... It seems unlikely, though, that such a royal bathing machine would be for hire.<br /> <br /> '''twenty francs'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> ???<br /> <br /> ==Page 529==<br /> <br /> '''picric family'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> The explosive picric acid (2,4,6-trinitrophenol) and its derivatives. For picric acid, Brugère's powder and Designolle's powder, [http://encyclopedia.jrank.org/PER_PIG/PICRIC_ACID_or_TRINITROPHENOL_C.html see this Britannica article.]<br /> <br /> '''Brugère's powder'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> See &quot;picric family&quot; above.<br /> <br /> '''Designolle's'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> See &quot;picric family&quot; above.<br /> <br /> '''Monsieur Santos-Dumont'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Alberto Santos-Dumont (1873-1932), a pioneer of aviation from Brasil. Check out [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alberto_Santos-Dumont Wikipedia] to get a look at the way he was wearing his &quot;trademark Panama hat&quot;. <br /> <br /> '''Green Hour''' and '''''l'heure vertigineuse'''''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Absinthe-drinking time. The liqueur is green. In French, ''l'heure verte,'' so ''vertigineuse'' (vertiginous, causing dizziness) is a pun on the word for &quot;green.&quot;<br /> <br /> '''Rocco and Pino'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Rabid Quaternionists and sudden friends of Kit Traverse.<br /> :No, they were not mathematicians at all, let alone Quaternionists, but two &quot;Italian naval renegades&quot; !!<br /> ::&quot;Rocco and Pino&quot; are, in temperament, something like the &quot;Mason and Dixon&quot; of manned-torpedoes... cf. the &quot;torpedo&quot; (i.e., &quot;Electrick-Eel&quot;) of ''Mason &amp; Dixon''.<br /> <br /> '''Whitehead works in Fiume'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Anticipating GR's V2 works.<br /> <br /> ''Robert Whitehead'' (1823-1905), an English engineer. He developed the first self-propelled torpedo in 1866. He attended Manchester's Mechanics Institute, worked in a shipyard in Toulon (1844), France, and as a consultant engineer in Milan (1847), Italy. Later he moved to Trieste and in 1856 became a manager of a company called ''Founderia Mettali'' (later, ''Stabilimento Tecnico di Fiume'') in Fiume producing ship steam boilers and engines which were the most advanced of that era. He also developed the first self-propelled torpedo which was very popular. Whitehead's torpedo was propelled by a compressed air engine, carried 18lbs dynamites and a self-regulating device which kept the torpedo cruising at a constant preset depth. [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Robert_Whitehead Whitehead]].<br /> <br /> ''Fiume'' is now Rijeka, Croatia. Trieste is on the northwestern edge of the Istra Peninsula, Rijeka is east of it. [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rijeka Fiume]].<br /> <br /> Interesting sidebar: Whitehead's fortune from Fiume and the torpedo went solely to his granddaughter Agatha Whitehead, who married Baron von Trapp. The Von Trapp money came from Robert Whitehead, and most of the von Trapp singers were his great-grandchildren.<br /> <br /> '''''Alberta'''''&lt;br&gt;<br /> The [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Royal_yacht Wikipedia] entry on royal yachts goes back to the 17th century but doesn't include ''Alberta.'' The craft does get a mention in [http://www.bouncing-balls.com/timeline/people/nr_leopoldmorel.htm this page on Leopold and the Congo.]<br /> <br /> '''Siluro Dirigibile a Lenta Corsa'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> or S.L.C. &quot;slow course torpedo&quot;, &quot;slow-running torpedo&quot;. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Manned_torpedo Wikipedia] Italy‘s Navy was among the first to experiment with manned torpedos. Though according to [http://web.ukonline.co.uk/chalcraft/sm/chariots.html this site] this did not happen until 1935, Italian frogmen as early as October 31, 1918 made it into the harbour of Pula with the help of a modified german torpedo and sank the former Austrian but by then since a few hours Croatian/Slovenian/Bosnian battleship SMS ''Viribus Unitis''. [http://www.geocities.com/tegetthoff66/viribus.html website]<br /> <br /> The Wikipedia entry linked above doesn't contain the Italian word ''dirigibile'' (steerable), which sets up the torpedo as a counterpart of the dirigible ''Inconvenience.''<br /> <br /> :I suspect there's a connection between the torpedo and &quot;Not the usual lateener, in fact appearing to have neither sails, masts, nor oars&quot; in Miles' reversed vision, [[ATD_243-272#Page_250|page 250.]] Needs work, though.<br /> <br /> ==Page 530==<br /> <br /> '''exfiltrate'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Make a surreptitious escape (as &quot;infiltrate&quot; means to make a surreptitious entrance).<br /> <br /> '''''Macchè'''''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Italian: certainly not, not a chance. And in Pynchon's Italian is used as an all-purpose exclamation.<br /> <br /> '''''Ehi, stu gazz', categoria'''''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Stu gazz' is a dialect representation of ''sto cazzo'', literally meaning ''this dick here''. Normally you could translate the sense of the sentence as: ''yeah, why not, a fucking category! ''. -- blicero2 - 2007.02.22<br /> <br /> '''''mezzogiornismo'''''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Denigrating the Italian South. Mezzogiorno means ''midday'' in Italian but refers generally to Southern Italy.<br /> <br /> ==Page 531==<br /> <br /> '''Bruges'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> An exceptionally beautiful Belgian town of canals which is thus one of several towns known as the 'Venice of the north'. In the 14th cettury Burges already became an international finanacial and trading center, but<br /> started to decline in the 15th century. In the 20th century, however, the city was discovered by the international tourism and the medieval heritage turned out to be a new source of wealth. A new harbor of Zeebrugge, 10 miles outside of Bruges at the North Sea coast, brought new developments and new industries to the region. For the city and its history see ([http://www.trabel.com/brugge.htm Bruges]).<br /> <br /> '''Raoul's Atelier de la Vitesse'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> French: Ralph's Speed Shop.<br /> <br /> '''Ghent'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Belgian city, less than 30 miles southeast of Bruges, on the rail line about halfway between Ostend and Brussels. It is the fourth largest city of Belgium. It is bigger than Bruges but not as famous as a tourist attraction. But the city is a showcase of medieval Flemish wealth and commercial success. See ([http://www.trabel.com/gent.htm Ghent]).<br /> <br /> '''Daimler six-cylinder'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> ???<br /> <br /> '''a hundred horsepower'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> ???<br /> <br /> '''''guaglion'''''&lt;br&gt;<br /> italian (dialectal) = boy, young person<br /> <br /> '''Umeki Tsurigane'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Umeki is typically made with some combination of the various kanji for &quot;plum&quot; (ume) and &quot;tree&quot; (ki), though one has the ki being the character for &quot;ghost/devil&quot; and one obscure reading that's entirely redundant, where ume is &quot;plant&quot; (usually read ue). There is one where ume is the kanji for &quot;buried or embedded&quot;. Tsurigane, means a &quot;temple bell&quot;, which can stand alone or be followed by the grass kanji to mean &quot;bellflower&quot; (lots of botanical stuff happening here, if that means anything; hardly the only example in ''AtD''). Given the search for Shambhala going on, &quot;Buried Temple Bell&quot; seems a likely translation, at least at this point; the botanical meanings could perhaps emerge later.<br /> <br /> Or, another terrible name-pun? &quot;You make [m]e sore again.&quot; See another on P. [[ATD_748-767#Page_757| 757]]<br /> <br /> '''Professor Knott'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Cargill Knott (1856-1922), professor of physics; seismologist. See his biography [http://www.penicuikcdt.org.uk/Cargill_Knott.html here].<br /> <br /> ==Page 532==<br /> <br /> '''Kimura'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Cf [[ATD_26-56#Page 29|page 29:Kimura]] and [[ATD_318-335#Page 318|page 318:Shunkichi Kimura]].<br /> <br /> '''drover's sombrero'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Cowboy hat.<br /> <br /> '''furoshiki'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Japanese all-purpose cloth. Can be worn, used as wrapping, or used as a bag.<br /> <br /> '''taupe'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> A brownish gray.<br /> <br /> '''boilermakers and their helpers'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> [[ATD_358-373#Page_360|See annotation to p. 360.]]<br /> <br /> '''Anharmonic Pencil'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> ''Pencil'' is a term commonly used in Synthetic Geometry. Straight lines incident with a plane - coplanar lines - and passing through a common point are said to be concurrent lines and the set of all such concurrent coplanar lines is called the ''pencil''. (Cf [[ATD_429-459#Page 456|page 456:Pencil]]). For a figure and a not quite precise definition see [http://mathworld.wolfram.com/Pencil.html pencil]. If a, b, c and d, are four distinct coplanar lines and their double ratio λ = (abcd) = -1, then a, b, c, d are called a harmonic quadruple of lines; they are said to constitute a ''harmonic pencil''. A ''pencil'' which is not harmonic then is known as ''anharmonic pencil''. See Pencil (lines 8-9), Double Ratio λ (lines 32-35) and Harmonic Pencil (line 39) of [http://ca.geocities.com/ingsaler6/mathworld.html Mathworld].<br /> <br /> '''''Comptes rendus'''''&lt;br&gt;<br /> ''Comptes rendus des séances hebdomadaires,'' Proceedings of the weekly sessions (of the Academy of Sciences), published from 1835, later (ca. 1935) retitled ''Comptes rendus de l'Académie des sciences,'' Proceedings of the Academy of Sciences. (Notice that the academy didn't see the need to specify &quot;French.&quot; Take that, Royal Society of London!) For about a century, one of two journals so universally circulated and recognized that bibliographies nearly always cited them in nickname form: ''C.R.'' The other was ''Ber.,'' short for ''Berichte der Deutschen Chemischen Gesellschaft,'' Reports of the German Chemical Society (from 1868).<br /> <br /> '''De Forest'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Cf [[ATD_26-56#Page 29|page 29:De Forest]].<br /> <br /> '''Gibbs'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Cf [[ATD_26-56#Page 29|page 29:Professor Gibbs]].<br /> <br /> '''Maxwell Equations'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Cf [[ATD_57-80#Page 58|page 58:Maxwell Field Equations]].<br /> <br /> ==Page 533==<br /> <br /> '''aniline teal'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> The wallpaper dye; aniline dyes were the first synthetic dyes, discovered by [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/William_Perkin William Perkin] in 1858. Their intense and fade-resistant colors were very fashionable at the end of the nineteenth century. The dyes are also significant in ''GR'' as the products of I.G. Farben.<br /> <br /> '''Heavisiders'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Oliver Heaviside (May 18, 1850 – February 3, 1925) was a self-taught English electrical engineer, mathematician and physicist who adapted complex numbers to the study of electrical circuits, developed techniques for applying Laplace transforms to the solution of differential equations, reformulated Maxwell's field equations in terms of electric and magnetic forces and energy flux, and independently co-formulated vector analysis. Although at odds with the scientific establishment for most of his life, Heaviside changed the face of mathematics and science for years to come.[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Heaviside].<br /> <br /> '''Grassmanniacs'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Nineteenth century German mathematician and linguist, essentially the inventor/discoverer of vector space. Grassmann showed that once geometry is put into the algebraic form he advocated, then the number three has no privileged role as the number of spatial dimensions; the number of possible dimensions is in fact unbounded.[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hermann_Grassmann].<br /> <br /> '''in the mood for a clambake'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Anachronistic Broadway show tune? If so, the clambake in ''Carousel'' turns into a brawl; the assmebled factions of mathematicians could be in the mood for either a party or a brawl, apparently. <br /> <br /> '''Monopole de la Maison'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Monopole of the House, a fanciful name of a fanciful drink.&lt;br&gt;<br /> There is, since 1898, a well known restaurant called ''Monopole Lunch &amp; Sea Grill'' in Plattsburgh of upper New York state. ([http://www.monopole.org Monopole Restaurant]).&lt;br&gt;<br /> Most probably, it's the Magnetic monopole being referred here. In physics, a monopole is a magnet with a net magnetic charge, i.e. there is only one pole instead of two (so no net magnetic charge) as usual. ([http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Magnetic_monopole Monopole]). It's existence had been theoretically predicted by various particle theories (superstring theory, etc) but never been proved experimentally. Proving the existence of a monopole would certainly earn a Nobel Prize.<br /> <br /> '''Idiom Neutral'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> An invented language, like Esperanto. Idiom Neutral dictionaries first appeared in 1902. It looks like a simplified Latinate language and it grew out of Volapuk, another &quot;auxiliary language.&quot; It was abandoned by the ''Akademi Internasional de Lingu Universal'' in 1908.<br /> <br /> For a list of all the invented languages that linguists are keeping track of, including Klingon, try [http://linguistlist.org/forms/langs/GetListOfConstructedLgs.html Eastern Michigan's Linguist List]. And don't forget to click on the link to &quot;Browse sites devoted to constructed languages.&quot;<br /> <br /> '''phatic'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Basically, small talk or chatter. Words used to convey fellow-feeling rather than to impart information.<br /> <br /> '''''Kampf ums Dasein'''''&lt;br&gt;<br /> German: struggle for existence.<br /> <br /> '''Q-brother'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Fellow Quaternioneer or Fellow Quaternionist.<br /> <br /> '''We are the Jews of mathematics, wandering out here in our diaspora--some destined for the past, others the future, even a few able to set out at unknown angles from the simple line of Time, upon journeys that no one can predict''' &lt;br&gt;<br /> In keeping with the analogy of Judaism, those &quot;few&quot; people within the Quaternionists &quot;able to set out at unknown angles&quot; are most likely being compared to Kabbalists who claim to partake in a mystic &quot;journey to the Throne of God through the mythological realm of the seven heavens&quot; (Armstrong, A History of God--p. 247). Throne Mysticism in Kabbalah is explored extensively in Gravity's Rainbow.<br /> <br /> Perhaps this is obvious to some, but these &quot;Jews of Mathematics&quot; worship the Hamiltonian Tetractys [http://www.math.ucr.edu/home/baez/dublin/]; those other Jews worshipped the Tetragrammatron. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tetragrammaton] The proliferation of 4s continues.<br /> <br /> ==Page 534==<br /> <br /> '''Poiret gown'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> A gown designed by Paul Poiret (1879-1944), a French fashion designer based in Paris. &quot;In the annals of fashion history, Paul Poiret is best remembered for freeing women from corsets and further liberating them through pantaloons . . . it was Poiret's remarkable innovations in the cut and construction of cloting . . . Working with fabric directly onto the body, Poiret helped to pioneer a radical approach to dressmakeing that relied more on the skills of drapery than on those of tailoring.&quot; (from [http://www.metmuseum.org/special/se_event.asp?OccurrenceId={0DC3D00F-4611-4F91-8DC2-CC3C1A5C48D5} MetMuseum], <br /> New York Metropolitan Museum's Special Exhibitions, ''Poiret: King of Fashion'', May 9, 2007 to August 5, 2007). For a picture of Poiret gown see [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Image:Poiretgown.jpg Poiret Gown]. ''The New York Times'' reported on February 1, 2007 that A Poiret Gown Brings $5,500 at [http://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html?res=9B07EFDA1538F93AA15756C0A967948260 Christie's Auction] - the gown was made in 1913 when Poiret was at the height of his career. For his bio see [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Paul_Poiret Poiret].<br /> <br /> '''''green and long'''''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Pickle, or... what?<br /> : A green and long ''gherkin'' (a small, immature fruit of a variety of cucumber used in pickling).<br /> <br /> ==Page 535==<br /> <br /> '''no-name wine'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> 1970s idiom for common European practice?<br /> <br /> '''set theory'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Set theory deals with the properties of well-defined collections, or ''sets'', of entities - the ''elements'' or ''members'' of the set - conceived as a whole. The elements may be of a mathematical nature or non-mathematical. The set theory grew out of the German mathematician Georg Cantor's (1845-1918) study of infinite sets of real numbers. <br /> <br /> The ''language of sets'' has become an important tool for all branches of mathematics, but is of very little relevance to the practice of mathematics in everyday life. As a source of metaphors, however, it's been quite productive; &quot;subset,&quot; &quot;superset,&quot; &quot;universe,&quot; &quot;intersection&quot; and &quot;Venn diagram&quot; have found varying degrees of acceptance. Recasting Aristotle's syllogisms in set-theoretic language also makes them easier for many people to understand.<br /> <br /> '''Hamilton . . . early genius'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Hamilton, according to ''Chambers Biographical Dictionary'', &quot;at fifteen knew thirteen languages, had read Newton's ''Principia'', and commenced original investigations&quot;. At twenty-two, &quot;while still an undergraduate, he was appointed professor of Astronomy at Dublin and Irish Astronomer-Royal&quot;; at thirty &quot;he was knighted&quot;.<br /> <br /> '''Hamilton . . . in the grip of a first love'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> ???&lt;br&gt;<br /> Pynchon probably didn't mean Quaternion was Hamilton's first love, but its effect on him was similar to that of a first love. In 1843 at the age of 38 Hamilton invented the Quaternion, the first non-communtative algebra to be studied. He felt this would revolutionise mathematical physics, and he spent the rest of his life working on it. In 1853 he published a large volume, ''Lectures on Quaternions'', on his grand invention. The last seven years of his life, Hamilton was writing an 800-page book ''Elements of Quaternions'' modeling on Euclid's ''Elements''. The last chapter of the book was completed by his son after his death.<br /> <br /> '''the Walt Whitman of English physics'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Whitman pops up again, last seen on [[ATD_489-524#Page_491|page 491]].<br /> <br /> ==Page 536==<br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> '''Oscar Wilde'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Note that Wilde's Dorian Gray also undergoes a kind of bilocation.<br /> <br /> '''Kursaal'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Spa. Casino ?<br /> <br /> '''vectors'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> For serious minds see Cf [[ATD_525-556#Page 526|page 526:Gibbsian Vectors]], but let's follow Pynchon's lighter mood, here is a non-mathematical definition by Kamen (1995):<br /> :''Many things have more than direction;''<br /> :''The magnitude is also a question.''<br /> :''With acceleration or force,''<br /> :''And many more things, of course,''<br /> :''It's vectors that make the connection.''<br /> <br /> '''Curls'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Cf [[ATD_318-335#Page 326|page 326:Curl]]: curl is a vector operator that shows a vector field's rate of rotation.<br /> <br /> '''Laplacians'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Pierre-Simon, Marquis de Laplace (March 23, 1749 – March 5, 1827); French mathematician and astronomer who summarized and extended the work of his predecessors in his five volume Mécanique Céleste (Celestial Mechanics) (1799-1825), translating the geometrical study of mechanics used by Isaac Newton to one based on calculus, known as physical mechanics.<br /> <br /> He is also the discoverer of Laplace's equation. Although the Laplace transform is named in honor of Laplace, who used the transform in his work on probability theory, the transform was discovered originally by Leonhard Euler. The Laplace transform appears in all branches of mathematical physics — a field he took a leading role in forming. The Laplacian differential operator, much relied-upon in applied mathematics, is likewise named after him. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Laplace].<br /> <br /> :Cf [[ATD_318-335#Page 326|page 326:Laplacian]]: Laplacian is a differential operator named after Laplace. The text here was talking about mathematical operations and operators — rates of change, rotations, partial differentials, Curls, ''Laplacians'', . . .<br /> <br /> '''scream'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Scream motif.<br /> <br /> '''beginning to appal'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> By 1905 there had been years of outrage at conditions in the Belgian Congo, King Leopold's private fief. Conrad's ''Heart of Darkness'' had been published as a serial in Blackwood's Magazine in 1899 and as a book in 1902. There were missionaries' accounts of the brutality, and newspaper reports. Leopold and his apologists published rebuttals. The Norton Critical Edition of ''Heart of Darkness'' contains an extensive collection of both.<br /> <br /> '''baize'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Baize is a coarse woolen felt.<br /> <br /> ==Page 537==<br /> <br /> '''broken symmetries'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Broken_symmetry Broken symmetry] is a concept used widely in mathematics and physics. For a simplest explanation (good enough for the text here), this term means that an object breaks either rotational symmetry or translational sysmetry - when one can only rotate an object in certain angles or when one is able to tell if the object has been shifted sideways. For a little bit more detailed explanation see [http://www.lassp.cornell.edu/sethna/OrderParameters/BrokenSymmetry.html Identify the Broken Symmetry]; or even more [http://scienceweek.com/2005/sw050708-6.htm On Broken Symmetry].<br /> <br /> '''''sphinxe Khnopffienne'''''&lt;br&gt;<br /> refers to the Belgian symbolist painter Fernand Khnopff (1858-1921), famous for his painting &quot;The Caress&quot;, in which a female sphinx erotically lures a young man. The painting can be seen in the [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fernand_Khnopff wikipedia entry]<br /> <br /> '''Pléiade Lafrisée'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> in French, &quot;friser&quot; means to curl or twist. &quot;La frisée&quot; could mean &quot;curled,&quot; by extension &quot;twisted.&quot; The Pleiades is a cluster of hundreds of stars, though only a few are visible, sometimes referred to as The Seven Sisters. If Pleiades are Sisters, Pléiade is ''one'' Sister, so her name means Twisted Sister!<br /> <br /> '''''Conseilleuse'''''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Female consultant?<br /> <br /> ==Page 538==<br /> <br /> '''retroversion matrix'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> ???<br /> <br /> '''''Ma foi'''''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Literally &quot;My faith&quot;, i.e. &quot;By my faith!&quot;, a mild exclamation of incredulity.<br /> <br /> '''ten thousand francs'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> <br /> Based on currency conversions relative to gold, this is equivalent to<br /> about $30,000 US today.<br /> <br /> '''piker'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Someone cheap or cautious, possibly named after people from PIke County, Missouri, who came to California in the 1800s, looking for work. They were poor, hence cheap.<br /> <br /> '''what is a Quaternino?'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Cf [[ATD_525-556#Page 525|page 525:Quaternions]] for a mathematical definition. From ''The Random House Dictionary of the English Languages'', The Unabridged Edition (1966): Quaternion is &quot;a quantity or operator expressed as the sum of a real number and three complex numbers, equivalent to the ''quotient of two vectors''. The field of quaternions is not commutative under multiplication.&quot;.<br /> <br /> '''Bertie ('Mad Dog') Russell'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> 'Mad Dog' seems to be used with heavy irony here. Bertrand Russell was known most for his rationalism, so to speak, his work in modern logic. <br /> He did little in his public roles (at this time in AtD) that would have <br /> him referred to as &quot;crazy', as we say, beyond the social norm, &quot;mad&quot;. <br /> It might be argued that his use of 'logic' against philosophers such as Hegel and McTaggart within ''Against the Day'' showed up their 'madness'.<br /> (Many did think McTaggart was a bit...different...for seriously not believing in Time.) McTaggart broke with Russell after an early influential friendship---Russell was the younger man and the influenced one. He said he was an Hegelian because of McTaggart--Russell wrote in his<br /> Autobiography that McTaggart said he no longer wanted to meet/talk with him bcause he could no longer stand Russell's opinions.<br /> <br /> [http://nobelprize.org/nobel_prizes/literature/laureates/1950/russell-bio.html Bertrand Russell] (1872-1970) was a British mathematician, philosopher, logician and social critic. Best known for his work in mathermatical logic and analytic philosophy. In late spring of 1901 he discovered the so-called [http://plato.stanford.edu/entries/russell-paradox/ Russell Paradox], &quot;the most famous of the logical or set-theoretical paradoxes. The paradox arises within naive set theory by considering the set of all sets that are not members of themselves. Such a set appears to be a member of itself if and only if it is not a member of itself, hence the paradox.&quot; (On-line Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy). He won the 1950 Nobel Prize in Literature in &quot;recognition of his varied and significant writings in which he champions humanitarian ideals and freedom of thought&quot;.<br /> <br /> '''Barry Nebulay'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> nebulae: formed from the diffusion of gas in galaxies or as exploded stars (or the last ember-like stage of a star)&lt;br&gt; <br /> Most nebulae can be described as diffuse nebulae, which means that they are extended and contain no well-defined boundaries.[1] In visible light these nebulae may be divided into emission nebulae and reflection nebulae, a categorization that depends on how the light we see is created.<br /> <br /> '''Hegel... puns'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Probably refers to the fact that quite a lot of Hegel's philosophy deals with the is-ness of the world as we know and experience it.<br /> <br /> On page 787 of Bertrand Russell's ''History of Western Philosophy'' is a summary, perhaps, of this remark about Hegel's puns: &quot;as a result of analysis of the concept &quot;existence&quot;, modern logic has proved this [Cartesianism, refuted by Kant, reinstated by Hegel] argument invalid.....&quot;<br /> <br /> We know from other places that TRP himself seems to 'not like' Cartesianism. See 'cartesian' citations within this wiki.<br /> <br /> ==Page 539==<br /> <br /> '''a vector quotient'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> The result of one vector divided by another. According to the English dictionary definition of previous page this is just a Quaternion.<br /> <br /> '''unit vector'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Unit vector is a vector with magnitude of one. The unit vectors in 3-dimensional space, ''i, j, k'', associated with ''x, y, z'' directions are used in defining a general 3D vector (Cf [[ATD_525-556#Page 526|page 526:Gibbsian Vectors]]).<br /> <br /> '''''square root of minus one'''''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Imaginary number (Cf [[ATD_119-148#Page 132|page 133:Imaginary Number]]). The imaginary numbers ''i, j, k'' are used in defining a Quaternion (Cf [[ATD_525-556#Page 525|page 525:Quaternions]]).<br /> <br /> ''''Triangle Asana''''&lt;br&gt;<br /> A basic yoga pose. <br /> <br /> [http://yoga.org.nz/postures/yoga_positions_images_page.htm Here are images of several basic poses.]<br /> <br /> ''''Dr Rao abruptly vanished''''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Might be a reference to [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Martin_Gardner Martin Gardner]'s<br /> [http://www.amazon.com/No-Sided-Professor-Fantasy-Mystery-Philosophy/dp/0879753900 &quot;No-Sided Professor&quot;]<br /> <br /> ''''Quadrantal Versor Asana''''&lt;br&gt;<br /> A triangle pose taken that extra dimension.<br /> <br /> '''''&quot;Uwe moer!&quot;'''''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Looks a lot like the Dutch &quot;Uw moeder!&quot; - a cry of astonishment (&quot;Your mother!&quot;), the equivalent to the black English &quot;yo mama&quot;.<br /> <br /> '''noncommutative'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> A term typical to mathematics. A commutative equation is one that can operate in exact reverse and still yield the same results. 'Noncommutative' then suggests unidirectionality. The ability to go from point A to point B, but not from B to A.<br /> <br /> '''reticule'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> A woman's drawstring handbag; usually made of net or beading or brocade; also: A system of lines forming a pattern of squares at the focal plane of a telescope, used in micrometers.<br /> [http://www.astunit.com/tutorials/glossary.htm] <br /> :Isn't that sort of a red herring? &quot;[P]roducing from her reticule a . . . watch&quot; doesn't really allow of that second meaning. &lt;br&gt;<br /> :It could be a pun, since a reticule/ handbag always shows its pattern of lines, and a watch (timepiece) is drawn from it. Remember that, e.g. railroad lines of tracks, are a sign of industrialism encroaching on the natural and the spiritual.<br /> <br /> '''Vacheron &amp; Constantin watch'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Made by a Swiss company founded in 1755. From 1819 to 1970 the name was as in the text, then the &amp; dropped out. See the [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vacheron_Constantin Wikipedia entry.]<br /> <br /> '''hunting-case'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> For a pocket watch, a case with a hinged metal cover. More often called &quot;hunter case&quot; (and such a watch a &quot;hunter&quot;).<br /> <br /> ==Page 540==<br /> <br /> '''&quot;haar rekening, ja?&quot;'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> The bill, yes? (Dutch)?<br /> <br /> ''Her'' bill, yes? I.e., give the check to the lady.<br /> <br /> Given the presence of Chris 'Kit' Traverse here, this very much suggests a reference to Christopher 'Kit' Marlowe, Elizabethan poet, playwright and contemporary of Shakespeare. Marlowe was stabbed to death in 1593, in murky circumstances, ostensibly over a bill or 'reckoning', though he was widely believed to have been involved in some form of espionage.<br /> <br /> Strictly speaking &quot;haar rekening&quot; means that the lady pays for herself only. If Root wanted to make sure that Pléiade pays for the whole company he would have to say &quot;de hele rekening voor de dame&quot;. <br /> <br /> '''Piet Woevre'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> The Woëvre is a natural region of Lorraine in north-east France. It forms part of Lorraine plateau and lies largely in the department of Meuse. During World War I, there was much fighting there due to vast mineral resources that had been discovered in the Briey basin or Eastern Woevre at the end of the 19th century. &quot;Piet&quot; is Dutch for &quot;rock&quot; or &quot;stone&quot; and is a fairly common Dutch name, the English equivalent being Peter.<br /> <br /> If the surname is pronounced as in Dutch, Woevre is another Pynchon villain with a &quot;V&quot;-name (Vond, Weissman, Vibe). <br /> <br /> '''Force Publique'''&lt;br /&gt;<br /> The Force Publique (FP) was the official armed force for what is now the Democratic Republic of the Congo from 1885, (when the territory was known as the Congo Free State), through the period of direct Belgian rule (1908-60), until the beginning of the Second Republic in 1965. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Force_Publique Wikipedia entry]<br /> <br /> '''made him reach'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Possible allusion to a famous line, &quot;When I hear the word culture I reach for my gun.&quot; From Hanns Johst's biographical play ''Schlageter''. The original line is slightly different: &quot;Wenn ich Kultur höre ... entsichere ich meinen Browning,&quot; &quot;Whenever I hear of culture... I release the safety-catch of my Browning!&quot; (Act 1, Scene 1). It is spoken by another character in conversation with the young Schlageter. In the scene Schlageter and his wartime comrade Friedrich Thiemann are studying for a college examination, but then start disputing whether it's worthwhile doing so when the nation is not free. <br /> <br /> The line is often misattributed to better-known Nazis and others [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hanns_Johst].<br /> <br /> *In Jean-Luc Godard's 1963 film [http://www.chicagoreader.com/movies/archives/0997/09057.html ''Le Mépris'' (''Contempt'')], Jack Palance's character &quot;Jeremy Prokosch,&quot; an American movie-producer, intones to Fritz Lang: &quot;Whenever I hear the word culture, I reach for my checkbook.&quot;<br /> <br /> '''not unambiguous'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Ie, ambiguous.<br /> <br /> '''''rastaquoueres'''''&lt;br&gt;<br /> 8???<br /> <br /> '''de Decker'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> In Dutch/Flemish, the name means &quot;roofer.&quot; (''De'' in these names almost never means &quot;of, from&quot; as in French; it's nearly always the definite article.)<br /> <br /> ==Page 541==<br /> <br /> '''''bobbejaan'''''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Afrikaans: baboon. (Afrikaans is the language spoken by descendants of Dutch colonists in present-day South Africa. Some items identified as Dutch or Flemish in this wiki may really be Afrikaans.)<br /> <br /> The South African song &quot;Bobbejaan klim die berg&quot; (&quot;Bobbejaan climbed the hill&quot;) is the source of the stage name of Belgium's most famous country and western musician, Bobbejaan Schoepen (b. 1925). In 1943 he was suppressed by the Nazis after performing a South African song, &quot;Mamma, 'k wil 'n man hê&quot; (&quot;Mama, I want a man&quot;), which contains the line &quot;No, Mama, I don't want a German, because I don't like pork.&quot; He founded the Bobbejaanland theme park in Belgium, where he still lives.<br /> <br /> '''MKIV/ODC... Mark Four'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> This would be the Mark IV Ohmic Drift Compensator ([[ATD 557-587#Page 565|Page 565]]), a key component of the Q-weapon, which &quot;regulates how much light is allowed to enter the silvering of the mirror! Special kind of refraction! Calibrated against imaginary index! Dangerous! Of the essence!'&quot;<br /> <br /> '''not part of your remit'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Not included in your job description, instructions, authorization. &quot;Remit&quot; (noun) is usually a British usage.<br /> <br /> '''''gatkruiper'''''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Dutch/Flemish: brownnose, ass-kisser.<br /> <br /> '''one on her wrist'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> All the bruises reflect some refinement or artistry except this one, which may have been inflicted crudely.<br /> <br /> '''over the day'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Title motif?<br /> <br /> ==Page 542==<br /> <br /> '''trans-horizontic'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> ???<br /> Across the horizon -- &quot; a screaming comes across the sky&quot;<br /> <br /> '''Edmund Whittaker'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Edmund Whittaker (1873-1956), an English mathematician. He is best known for his work in numerical analysis. And he contributed widely to applied mathematics, mathematical physics and the theory of special functions. He also worked on celestial mechanics and the history of applied mathermatics and physics. ([http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/E._T._Whittaker Whittaker]).<br /> <br /> The Sir Edmund Whittaker Memorial Prize is awarded every four years by the Edinburgh Mathematical Society to an outstanding young mathematician having a specified connection with Scotland [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sir_Edmund_Whittaker_Memorial_Prize]. <br /> <br /> '''louche'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> The cloudy effect caused by the addition of water to absinthe. Dictionary definition: &quot;of questionable taste or morality; decadent.&quot;<br /> <br /> '''cheval-glass'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Standing mirror in a freestanding vertical frame.<br /> <br /> '''as if someone'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Sound-cancelling vs opacity-cancelling?<br /> <br /> ==Page 543==<br /> <br /> '''wraith of Pleiade Lafrisee'''<br /> <br /> Pleiade manifests one of her not-visible stars. Perhaps this sister has somehow twisted herself on an imaginary axis ala Dr. V. Ganesh Rao.<br /> <br /> '''monitory'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Warning, giving advice, by extension ominous or menacing.<br /> <br /> '''Against....the day....'''<br /> Note: this phrase happens at the exact halfway point of the novel: p.542.3<br /> <br /> '''He Who Must Come'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> The evil-doer who must come might be Adolf Hitler. It would make sense. The implication being that Europe is precipitating into a no-return situation. Capitalism cannot but end in WW2.&lt;br&gt;<br /> Ah, a lot more and less than capitalism going on here, especially if anyone specific like Hitler is meant. <br /> :When French writers use this phrase (''celui qui doit venir'') they '''do''' mean the Messiah . . . although a few devout quibblers point out that the Messiah has already come. It's rather tiresome Googling the phrase; the first 83 hits definitely refer to Christ and most of them quote the first verses of Matthew 11. But there's also a Camus reference (in English, I think) down at No. 90, if anyone has a JSTOR account:<br /> :links.jstor.org/sici?sici=0361-1299(1985)39%3A4%3C251%3ACFS%22M%3E2.0.CO%3B2-X <br /> <br /> Recalls Yeats' 'The Second Coming' once again: &quot;And what rough beast, its hour come round at last, Slouches towards Bethlehem to be born?&quot; [http://chumpsofchoice.blogspot.com/2007/05/casino-royale-in-flanders-field.html#c3637134446204467798 ]<br /> <br /> '''General Boulanger'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/General_Boulanger Georges Boulanger], French military man, and War Minister in the late 19th century. He was one of those men &quot;on a white horse&quot; that some conservatives looked to, as he urged an attack on Germany and the end of the French Republic with a return to monarchy. He was also notorious for his harsh reprisals against workers' demonstrations. &quot;'Boulangisme'&quot; threatened a coup in 1889, but the general's procrastination brought the crisis to an end.<br /> <br /> '''what death and what transfiguration'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Allusion to Richard Strauss' tone poem &quot;Death and Transfiguration&quot; (''Tod und Verklärung''), premiered in 1890.<br /> <br /> '''''&quot;Zeker&quot;'''''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Dutch: certainly.<br /> <br /> '''''dead cert'''''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Dead certainty, sure thing.<br /> <br /> '''Von Schlieffen'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Alfred von Schlieffen was the author of a German war plan to win a two-front war against both France and Russia by quickly defeating France before Russian troops could be mobilized. The [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Schlieffen_Plan Schlieffen Plan] included an attack on France through Belgium, disregarding its neutrality.<br /> <br /> '''Wilhelm has offered Leopold part of France, the ancient Duchy of Burgundy'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> [http://www.crwflags.com/fotw/flags/fr-bg.html History of the duchy.] [http://www.freiburg-madison.de/freiburg_history/1386-1517_The%20Early%20Habsburgs.htm Map,] with portrait of Duke Charles the Rash.<br /> <br /> '''lowlands'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Title of Pynchon's first published story. Here, ass?<br /> <br /> ==Page 544==<br /> <br /> '''Place d'Armes'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Main square of Ostend; literally &quot;drill field&quot;.<br /> <br /> '''peau de soie'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> &quot;Skin of silk&quot; A heavy, smooth satin with very fine ribbing; somewhat dull in sheen compared with traditional silk finishes.<br /> <br /> '''Krafft-Ebing'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Richard Freiherr von Krafft-Ebing, Austro-German psychiatrist and author of ''Psychopathia Sexualis'' (1886), a pioneering study of deviant sexual behavior and fetishism. Coined both ''sadism'' and ''masochism'' as terms for these respective behaviors. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Richard_Freiherr_von_Krafft-Ebing Wikipedia entry].<br /> <br /> '''toque'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Toque here refers to a lady's hat, originally of fur but here in velvet, which is rather like a flattened chef's hat in shape.<br /> <br /> Proust: in ''À l'ombre des jeunes filles en fleurs'' the narrator first sees Albertine wearing a toque. There seem to be quite a few Proust themes and references running throughout the novel. Indeed '''Pliade''' is the French publisher of Proust's works. <br /> <br /> '''guipure'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Lace trim.<br /> <br /> '''midinette'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> A shopgirl or dressmakers apprentice. A milliner.<br /> <br /> '''Lambic'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> A distinctive Belgian style of beer. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lambic Wikipedia]<br /> <br /> '''sous'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> <br /> Coins. Originally Roman gold coins, latterly any kind of coin.<br /> <br /> Specifically small change. She is affecting modesty by claiming that a hat like hers can be had for pennies in any unpretentious shop. In France &quot;sou is used as slang for money, as in ''sans le sou''. 'I'm broke', 'without money'. It is also a slang term for the Canadian cent (standard French, cent).&quot; ([http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sou Wikipedia])<br /> <br /> '''mayonnaise'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Brautigan's &quot;Trout Fishing in America&quot; famously ends with the word mayonnaise. [http://books.google.com/books?vid=ISBN0395500761&amp;id=rbEjDovfyNMC&amp;pg=RA2-PA111&amp;lpg=RA2-PA111&amp;ots=ELKl5b_6Tx&amp;dq=mayonnaise+trout.fishing&amp;num=100&amp;sig=BiyXRqJXRGrMWbrBNgn8de2kpCo#PRA2-PA112,M1 GoogleBooks]<br /> <br /> '''ovoöleaginous'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Another Pynchonic word combination, here denoting the two main ingredients of mayonnaise: 1) eggs, and 2) oil. It's not &quot;fecoventilatory collision&quot; as seen in &quot;Vineland,&quot; but it's nice.<br /> <br /> '''Grenache'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Grape commonly used in Rhone Valley wines e.g. Chateauneuf du Pape.<br /> <br /> '''Chantilly'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> <br /> Region north of Paris.<br /> <br /> Here the reference is to crème chantilly otherwise known as whipped cream. Chantilly mayonnaise is made by incorporating the beaten egg whites for extra lightness.<br /> <br /> '''attainder'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Legislative act declaring that a person is guilty of a crime and setting punishment without the benefit of a formal trial. The Constitution forbids the federal government (Article I, Section 9, clause 3) and the state governments (Article I, Section 10, clause 1) from passing bills of attainder.<br /> [www.historycentral.com/Civics/B.html] <br /> <br /> ''''''Aux armes, citoyens''''''&lt;br&gt;<br /> ''To arms, citizens'', from the French national anthem, ''La Marseillaise'' (1792). Kit confused La Mayonnaise with La Marseillaise.&lt;br&gt;<br /> Not &quot;Le Marseillaise,&quot; you nitwit!<br /> <br /> '''Louis XV'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> King of France 1715-1774 [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Louis_XV]. <br /> <br /> '''Cléo de Mérode'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Glamorous French ballerina (1875-1966), later Follies Bergere dancer and famous beauty. Her reputed intimacy with King Leopold was only a rumor [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cleo_de_Merode]. The character Madame Leonora Armfeldt in Stephen Sondheim's ''A Little Night Music'' has some features in common with her.<br /> <br /> '''Marquise de Pompadour'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Mistress of Louis XV,once friend of Voltaire and a power behind official scenes.[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Madame_de_Pompadour].<br /> <br /> ==Page 545==<br /> <br /> '''duc de Richelieu'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Duc de Richelieu (1696-1788), marshal of France, was a grandnephew of Cardinal Richelieu, and born in Paris. Apart from his reputation as a man of exceptionally loose morals, he attained, in spite of a defective education, distinction as a diplomatist and general. ([http://www.1911encyclopedia.org/Louis_Francois_Armand_du_Plessis,_duc_de_Richelieu duc de Richelieu] and cf [[ATD_489-524#Page 490|page 490:duc de Richelieu]])<br /> <br /> '''dubious 'victory' in 1756'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> As part of the Seven Years' War (1756-1763), duc de Richelieu (1696-1788), a Marshal of France, won a victory in the Battle of Minorca (May 20, 1756) over John Byng (1704-1757), a British Admiral. In spring of 1756 John Byng was sent with a small and undermanned fleet to relieve the British ''Port Mahon'' on the Mediterranean island of Minorca. During the battle ensued, several British ships were badly damaged by the French squadron while others, including Byng's flagship, were still out of effective firing range. Instead of engaging the enemy directly, Byng decided to keep the formation, allowing the French fleet to get away undamaged. ([http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_Minorca Battle of Minorca]).<br /> <br /> '''the ill-fated Admiral Byng'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> John Byng, convicted by court-martial of failure &quot;to do his utmost&quot; in the battle, shot in 1757. Remembered because of (1) his being the last officer of flag rank to be put to death for conduct in battle and (2) Voltaire's gag in ''Candide:'' &quot;In this country it is good to kill an admiral from time to time in order to encourage the others.&quot;<br /> <br /> '''cantharides'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> &quot;Spanish fly,&quot; contact irritant sometimes ill-advisedly used as aphrodisiac.<br /> <br /> '''Sadean'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Pertaining to the Marquis de Sade. The acts the chef performs on the egg and oil have the same names as acts of Sadean sex. <br /> <br /> '''''n'est-ce pas?'''''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Right? (Isn't that so?)<br /> <br /> '''vetiver'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> A grass (Vetiveria zizanioides) of tropical India, cultivated for its aromatic roots that yield an oil used in perfumery.<br /> [www.answers.com/topic/vetiver]. So, a perfume with, llterallly, roots in India.<br /> <br /> Vetiver makes frequent appearances throughout ''À la recherche du temps perdu.''<br /> <br /> '''pip'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> A beaut; in current parlance, a hottie.<br /> <br /> '''Q.P. system'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Quaternion Probability, page 536.<br /> <br /> '''Usine Régionale'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> French: as translated in the text.<br /> <br /> ==Page 546==<br /> <br /> '''disjunctive effects of thunderstorms'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Folk wisdom says a thunderstorm will cause mayonnaise to separate (oil from yolks).<br /> <br /> '''cottonseed oil'''<br /> <br /> Mayonnaisse like Smegmo and Crisco is a hydrogenated fat; cottonseed oil is a common factor to all three. Indeed, the name Crisco derives from the intial sounds of &quot;'''crys'''tallized '''c'''ottonseed '''o'''il&quot;. Note in the next few pages a mention of Candlebrow -- underscoring a tie-in between Mayonnaisse and Smegmo. <br /> <br /> It may be of interest to note that hydrogenation may have a symbolic use for Pynchon. The process entails bubbling hydrogen through oil in the presence of a metal catalyst such as nickel, platinum, aluminum at 248 to 410 degrees. Remnants of these metals stay in the finished product, and when consumed can lead to an increase in heavy metals in the human body.<br /> <br /> Eating hydrogenated oils is like eating plastic. The body does not recognize that these molecules have been mutated and tries to use them as essential fatty acids. But they cannot perform the same function, and as a result hydrogenated oils can cause short circuits in the electrical flow that controls the heartbeat, nerve functions, cell division and mental balance. They also create free radicals (anarchists!) that are linked to cancers. Free radicals plus metal remnants are a major contributor to cancer, heart disease, immune system dysfunction, osteoporosis, depression, chronic fatigue, Alzheimers, and neurological diseases. It is estimated that over 200 million people have died prematurely because of the hydrogenated oils found in our diets. [http://www.drz.org/asp/newsletter/default.asp?xt2id=23] Not to mention innocent bystanders killed by mentally imbalanced people whose imbalance may stem from the ingestion of hydrogenated oils -- there may be some underlying reality to the &quot;Twinkie defense.&quot;<br /> <br /> '''lounge suit'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> A lounge suit is another name for business suit consisting of a matching jacket and trousers or skirt.<br /> <br /> '''congress shoes'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> ankle high shoes with elastic gussets in the sides (wordweb online)<br /> <br /> '''invisible hand'''<br /> <br /> Suggestive of Adam Smith's metaphor for market forces in economics.<br /> <br /> '''dripping-heads'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mayonnaise To make mayonnaise,] beat together egg yolks, salt, mustard and vinegar, then drip in oil while beating to form the emulsion. If you scale the process up for industrial production, you will automate the introduction of the oil, using nozzles that release it a drop at a time—but in a large vat you can have many such nozzles.<br /> <br /> '''''cuves d'agitation'''''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Vat or tank in which the mayonnaise is agitated or beaten.<br /> <br /> '''Clinique d'Urgence pour Sauvetage des Sauces'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> French: Emergency Clinic for Salvage of Sauces.<br /> <br /> ==Page 547==<br /> <br /> '''' ...engulfed in thick, slick, sour-smelling mayonnaise. ''''<br /> The whole Kit's experience in the mayonnaise factory is very much reminiscent to [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Roald_Dahl Roald Dahl]'s [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Charlie_and_the_Chocolate_Factory Charlie and the Chocolate Factory].<br /> <br /> '''''Cazzo, cretino'''''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Literally, &quot;Dick, cretin.&quot; ''Cazzo'' is a common Italian interjectionary obscenity, especially in the south. &quot;Cazzo, cretino,&quot; is akin to someone saying, &quot;Well shit, dummy,&quot; or &quot;F-ing moron!&quot;<br /> <br /> '''''È il cowboy!'''''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Italian: It's the cowboy!<br /> <br /> '''''vero?'''''&lt;br&gt;<br /> true? real?<br /> <br /> '''''Le bambole anarchiste, porca miseria'''''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Italian: Anarchist babes, oh boy.<br /> <br /> '''Oudenberg'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> A southeast suburb of Ostende.<br /> <br /> '''Quai de l'Entrepôt'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Warehouse Quay<br /> <br /> '''''ragazzi'''''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Italian: boys, guys.<br /> <br /> ==Page 548==<br /> <br /> '''''timbres fictifs'''''&lt;br&gt;<br /> French: fictive postage stamps. Cf &quot;Lot 49&quot;.<br /> <br /> '''&quot;IIIb&quot;'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> As explained in the text<br /> <br /> '''Germany might stand a better chance...'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> That is, if the French were to push into Alsace (per Boulanger) as the Germans executed the Schlieffen Plan [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Schlieffen_plan] for the encirclement of Paris, it would put the French at an even greater disadvantage...as actually happened in 1914. Had the Belgians and British not delayed the Germans in Flanders, and had the French railroads not performed speedily to bring the French troops back to the Marne, World War I could have had a very different outcome...an alternate history. <br /> <br /> '''revanchist'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Policies based on revenge, or a person following such policies. In General Boulanger's case, revenge against Germany for the Franco-Prussian War (that is, retaking Alsace, lost in 1871).<br /> <br /> '''the somewhat discomposed General'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Having died in 1891, the General by the time of the action is certainly somewhat '''de'''composed; brief biographies do not suggest he was ''non compos mentis,'' that is, mentally discomposed.<br /> <br /> ==Page 549==<br /> <br /> '''cackled Darby'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> (When did he lose his innocence?)<br /> <br /> '''a modification of any salsician metaphor toward the diminutive'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Salsician: pertaining to sausage. Lindsay says Suckling's penis is better compared to a wiener than a knockwurst.<br /> <br /> '''&quot;Why you little–and I do mean 'little'–&quot;'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Another Simpsons reference? <br /> <br /> '''dunes between Nieuport and Dunkirk'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Nieuport is a Belgian seaport about 10 miles southwest of Ostend. Dunkirk is a French port (less than 10 miles inside the French border) about 20 miles southwest of Nieuport. The latter was a site of one of the bloodest battle in World War I. The general area between Niewport and Dunkirk was the well traversed battle fields of two world wars. (Dunkirk was (in)famous for the British Army's escape from the Nazi German's assault in World War II.)<br /> <br /> '''power-receivers'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Not information, energy.<br /> <br /> ==Page 550==<br /> <br /> '''Lot's wife''' &lt;br&gt;<br /> Angels of God led Lot and his family out of Sodom as it was being destroyed and told them not to look back at the mayhem. Lot's wife, Edith, imprudently looked back and was transfigured into a pillar of salt.<br /> <br /> '''Italian grotto'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> an imitating recess or structure made to resemble a natural Italian grotto.<br /> <br /> '''a highly developed taste, moreover, for human blood'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Since Pugnax developed this taste in the Carpathians, home of Castle Dracula, this seems a clear reference to Bram Stoker's novel. <br /> <br /> '''Carpathians'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Major mountain range running northwest-southeast through Poland, Slovakia, western Ukraine and Romania.<br /> <br /> '''Uhlans'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Uhlan regiments belonged to the light cavalry. They wore splendid uniforms (model for some U.S. marching band uniforms). [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Uhlan Wikipedia article.]<br /> <br /> '''Temesvár'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Now Timişoara, extreme western Romania.<br /> <br /> ==Page 551==<br /> <br /> '''...separated by only a slice of Time...'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Miles is beginning to experience Time almost as a spatial dimension, his personal vector as traversing (!) 4-dimensional space, or perhaps multidimensional space, the mathematics for which is being debated in Ostend.<br /> <br /> '''securing the mess decks'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> The Chums follow U.S. Navy idiom in orders (frequently prefixed with &quot;Now&quot;) and shipboard activities (&quot;secure&quot; meaning &quot;whatever you did before, undo it now,&quot; in this case put away the dishes and fold up the tables).<br /> <br /> '''Ryder Thorn'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Tolkienesque name? Or perhaps it's a nod to the Ryder-Waite Tarot deck and to Kevin Thorn (Kevin Matthew Fertig, 1977-), the American professional wrestler better known by his ring name Kevin Thorn who is currently signed to World Wrestling Entertainment wrestling on its ECW brand. He has appeared in vigniettes with Ariel (Shelly Martinez, 1980-), the tarot card reader, who spits blood at the camera while she &quot;predicted the future of ECW.&quot; Yup, a stretch...<br /> <br /> *The name also evokes the Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse.<br /> <br /> '''He was at Candlebrow.'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Presumably a 'trespasser.'<br /> <br /> '''the four-note chord in the context of timelessness'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> A melody is formed by notes following one another in time; a chord on the ukulele violates that practice by having all the notes sound at once. A really clever little passage.<br /> Note: Jazz musicians describe musical improvisations as horizontal (with the melody) or vertical (with the chord)<br /> <br /> ==Page 552==<br /> <br /> '''knuckle-duster'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Brass knuckles.<br /> <br /> '''Diksmuide'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> 20 kilometers south of Ostend (about halfway to Ypres).<br /> <br /> ==Page 553==<br /> <br /> '''The terrain was flat...lowlands'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Not, this time, a reference to Pynchon's ''Lowlands'', but to the two-dimensionality of Flanders, as in Edwin A. Abbott's ''Flatland'' [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Flatland]; most humans, like the inhabitants of Flanders and Abbott's Flatlanders, experience life in two dimensions. <br /> <br /> '''Somewhere up in the sky was Miles' home...'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Whereas Miles and the Chums of Chance, in contrast, live in three dimensions. The mathematicians gathered in Ostend are trying to calculate how to experience and use vectors to live in four dimensions; in a way, to experience Time as a kind of spatial dimension. Miles, on P. 551, is demonstrating the beginnings of an intuitive discovery of how to experience Time as an almost spatial dimension. Which would be a sort of &quot;time travel&quot;, or at least an expanded view of life and history.<br /> <br /> '''retted'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> soaked in water or exposed to moisture (as flax or hemp) to facilitate the removal of the fiber from the woody tissue by partial rotting.<br /> <br /> ==Page 554==<br /> <br /> '''Ypres and Menin'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Municipalities in West Flanders that were sites of some of the bloodiest battles of WWI. At the beginning of the war, the British and Belgian stand helped save Paris from encirclement by the Germans, and saved the Channel ports, but as Thorn points out, the area became the western anchor of the Western Front trench system. The several Battles of Ypres saw the first uses of poison gas (Mustard Gas, dichlorodiethylsulfide, was first called Yperite), the use of enormous mines, and the legendary mud of Passchendaele [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Passchendaele]. <br /> <br /> '''Ten years from now'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> (1914?) through 1918? and beyond?. Another paramorphic mirror--what do we now face. Whatever it is, it is nuclear.<br /> <br /> '''Bosch'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Hieronymous Bosch (1450-1516), Dutch painter of nightmares. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hieronymus_Bosch Wikipedia entry].<br /> <br /> '''Brueghel'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Pieter Brueghel the Elder(1525-1569), Flemish painter.[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pieter_Brueghel_the_Elder Wikipedia entry].<br /> <br /> '''League'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> League of Nations? The League of Nations was formed after WWI to prevent future wars. Didn't succeed.<br /> <br /> No. In this case a historical unit of length, approximately three miles - &quot;league on league&quot; = tremendous masses<br /> <br /> '''where the needles went and which way to rotate them'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> I.e., how to push Thorn's buttons; the image is from acupuncture.<br /> <br /> ==Page 555==<br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> '''simpletons at the fair'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Making Pynchon's metaphor explicit.<br /> <br /> '''Chopin E-minor Nocturne'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Frédéric Chopin (1810-49), a Polish pianist and composer ([http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fr%C3%A9d%C3%A9ric_Chopin Chopin]). He was born in Warsaw, Poland to a Polish morther and a French father. He went to Paris at the age of 20 and died there at the age of 39. He was widely regarded as one of the most famous and influential composers for the piano. From 1837-47 he had a 10-year stormy relationship with the French writer George Sand. His E-minor Nocturne is a 4-minute long Romantic style piano solo composed in 1827. (A ''nocturne'' is usually a musical composition that is inspired by, or evocative of, the night [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nocturne Nocturne].)<br /> <br /> '''owl-light'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> ???glimmering or imperfect light or twilight hours.<br /> <br /> ''''plasmic hysteresis''''&lt;br&gt;<br /> <br /> A coined term, apparently similar in meaning to Miles’ phrase “failure of physical translation.” Plasma would take an older meaning of “form” or “shape.&quot; Hysteresis, according to Webster's, refers to “a retardation in effect when the forces on an object are changed.” Hysteresis is used to describe magnetic phenomenon as well as plastic or elastic materials, that involve changes to a rest state that last beyond the forces that cause them. Examples include recordings on magnetic tape or a thumbprint slowly disappearing from putty. In the context of this passage, plasmic hysteresis appears to describe the lingering visage of someone who is no longer present – a hysteresis of form only and thus a failed physical translation. See [http://www.etymonline.com/index.php?search=plasma&amp;searchmode=none etymology of plasma] and this nifty explanation of [http://www.lassp.cornell.edu/sethna/hysteresis/WhatIsHysteresis.html hysteresis]. <br /> <br /> Hysteresis has also been used to refer to “loops” in time, certainly apropos in this case. I stumbled across an excellent example in a 1980 episode of Dr. Who, in which the eponymous Dr. is trapped in “chronic hysteresis,” an endless loop or return to a previous <br /> point in time – very similar to the situation of Ryder Thorn. [http://www.drwhoguide.com/who_5q.htm Check it out for yourself!] <br /> <br /> <br /> ==Annotation Index==<br /> {{ATD PbP}}</div>

MKOHUT https://against-the-day.pynchonwiki.com/wiki/index.php?title=ATD_525-556&diff=14080 2007-10-12T20:01:54Z

<p>MKOHUT: /* Page 550 */</p> <hr /> <div>:'''&lt;big&gt;Please keep these annotations SPOILER-FREE by not revealing information from later pages in the novel.&lt;/big&gt;'''&lt;p&gt;&lt;br&gt;<br /> <br /> ==Page 525==<br /> <br /> '''Ostend'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Cf [[ATD_489-524#Page 521|page 521:Ostend]], a seaport in northwest Belgium. Among English-speaking tourists, Ostend (or Ostende) is best known as a ferry port. Ships have shuttled between Dover and Ostend for more than 150 years, and today's high-speed catamarans move hundreds of passengers and vehicles between these two ports in just two hours. But this thousand-year-old city is a popular beach resort with Belgians, who flock to Ostend for sun, surfing, sailing and the ''Kursaal'' (Casino). The fishing hardbor and old town draw many visitors. Ostend is the only Belgian coastal resort that is as lively in the summer as in the winter. For more and pictures [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ostend Ostend].<br /> <br /> '''Fishermen's Quai'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Fishermen's Quay, also called De Trap. The shrimp boats come home here from the sea in the morning. Along the quay many stands sell lots of seafoods.<br /> <br /> '''Boulevard van Isenghem'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> A major thoroughfare in Ostend, locally called ''Van Iseghemlaan'', extending diagonally from seafront southwest through the city.<br /> <br /> '''street-plausible'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Presentable.<br /> <br /> '''Quai de l'empereur'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Since Ostende is in the Flemish part of Belgium this should be the Keizerskaai, a street along the old part of the harbour, 1919 renamed Vindictivelaan.<br /> <br /> '''estaminet'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> According to the OED - A café in which smoking is allowed. Now, any small establishment selling alcoholic liquor. <br /> <br /> '''twelve-centime'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> one centime is the French eqivalent of one cent. A twelve-centime beer would cost 12/100 of a franc.<br /> <br /> '''Quaternions'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Cf [[ATD_119-148#Page 130|page 130:Quaternions]]. Quaternions are a non-communtative extension of compelx numbers (Hamilton, 1843).&lt;br&gt;<br /> <br /> Analogy with the complex numbers (Cf [[ATD_119-148#Page 132|page 132:complex number]]) being represented as a sum of real and imaginary parts, a + b''i'', where ''i''² = −1, a quaternion is defined as a combination a + b''i'' + c''j'' + d''k'', where ''i''² = ''j''² = ''k''² = ''i j k'' = −1, and a, b, c, d are ''four'' explicit real numbers. The non-commutative property refers to ''i j = −j i = k; j k = −k j = i; k i = −i k = j''. (i.e. ''i j ≠ j i; j k ≠ k j; k i ≠ i k''; etc.) The using of ''i, j, k'', the imaginary numbers (Cf [[ATD_119-148#Page 133|page 133:imaginary number]]), led to the phrases of &quot;the ''ijk'' lot&quot; of page 533 and &quot;creature of ''i-j-k''&quot; of page 534.<br /> <br /> '''Kellner'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> German: waiter, barman. Use of the German word would be insulting to the Belgian barman.<br /> <br /> '''''demi'''''&lt;br&gt;<br /> A half-pint glass (25 centilitres, actually).<br /> <br /> '''Lambic'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Pron. ''lahm-BEEK.'' Unique Belgian beer style, sour and often thin in body.<br /> <br /> '''skimmer'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Straw hat (&quot;Panama&quot;).<br /> <br /> ==Page 526==<br /> <br /> '''biquaternion'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Or &quot;octonion,&quot; an innovation of English mathematician W.K. Clifford, [[ATD_243-272#Page_249|referred to on p. 249.]]<br /> <br /> '''Barry Nebulay'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Pun on a term from heraldry, ''barry nebuly.'' Barry (rhymes with &quot;starry,&quot; not &quot;carry&quot;) refers to a shield divided into an even number of parts by horizontal lines. Nebuly signals that the lines are deformed into stylized &quot;cloud&quot; shapes. [http://www.rarebooks.nd.edu/digital/heraldry/partitions.html Here you can see an example.] If a ''British'' author had a character with a heraldic name, it would suggest a pseudonym.<br /> <br /> '''University of Dublin'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> The Alma Mater of Hamilton, the father of Quaternion. He studied, graduated and taught at Trinity College, the University of Dublin, Ireland's oldest university.<br /> <br /> If University College, Dublin, then Joyce had graduated in 1902.&lt;br&gt;<br /> <br /> '''Quaternioneers'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Quaternion believers.<br /> <br /> '''Gibbsian Vectors'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Vector Analysis (or Vector Calculus) developed by Willard Gibbs (Cf [[ATD_26-56#Page 29|page 29:Professor Gibbs]]) in 1881 and 1884. It is a branch of calculus that deals with vectors and process involving vectors. It is much more easily applied to phsics and other applied sciences than Hamilton's Quaternions (Cf [[ATD_525-556#Page 525|page 525:Quaternions]]).&lt;br&gt;<br /> A vector is defined by not only a magnitude but also a direction, such as a velocity vector, ''v'' is defined by ''v'' = a''i'' + b''j'' + c''k'',<br /> where a, b, and c are the magnitudes of the velocity components in directions of ''i, j'' and ''k'' which are unit vectors, (not imaginary numbers as in Quaternion), with magnitude of 1. In three dimensional cases and ''xyz'' coordinate system is used then ''i, j, k'' are related to ''x, y, z'' directions (&quot;''xyz'' people&quot; of page 533); but they, in general, may be used irrespective of the notation of the coordinates.<br /> Mathematical operations (addition, subtraction, multiplication), differentiation (''curl'' — Cf [[ATD_318-335#Page 326|page 326:Curl]] and p. 536, ''Laplacian'' — Cf [[ATD_318-335#Page 326|page 326:Laplacian]] and p. 536, etc) and integration can be applied to vectors. It is interesting to know that one of the two multiplication operations is called cross product; for unit vectors (''i, j, k'') perpendicular to each other, then, ''i × i = j × j = k × k = 0'', ''i × j = k'', ''j × i = -k'', etc. ([http://web.mit.edu/wwmath/vectorc/summary.html Vector Calculus]).&lt;br&gt;<br /> A simple vector anyalysis example here: if ''k'', the unit vector, stands for the direction upward and g is the gravitational acceleration, then the acceleration vector, ''a'', for a projectile, is defined for downward action, (the ''i'' and ''j'' directions have zero components):&lt;br&gt;<br /> :''a'' = -g ''k''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Integrating ''a'' would give the velocity vector, ''v''&lt;br&gt;<br /> :''v'' = -g t ''k''&lt;br&gt;<br /> for zero initial velocity case, and t standing for time.&lt;br&gt;<br /> And integrating ''v'' would yield the position vector, ''h'', for the projectile&lt;br&gt;<br /> :''h'' = -½ g t² ''k''&lt;br&gt;<br /> toward the sea level.<br /> <br /> '''Quaternionists'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Quaternion believers, same as Quaternioneers.<br /> <br /> '''Tasmania'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Tasmania is an island of the southern coast of Australia. Known for its relative isolation, it was a prison for English convicts in the 1800s<br /> <br /> '''Having been inseparable from the rise of the electromagnetic'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> In his 1865 work ''The Dynamical Theory of the Electromagnetic Field'', James Clerk Maxwell unified electricity and magnetism. He put forth twenty equations, with twenty unknowns, in vector form (though different in notation and form than the equations that now bear his name) that completely described all known electromagnetic phenomena. In his 1873 treatise on the subject, he expressed the equations in the mathematics of quaternions. It appears that the quaternion form of the equations remained popular even though, at the behest of his publisher, Maxwell reverted to the 1865 form in the second edition (1881)--though they remain scattered throughout. In 1892 Oliver Heaviside (On the Forces, Stresses, and Fluxes of Energy in the Electromagnetic Field. ''Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society of London.'' A, Vol. 183. pp423-480), while spewing scientific vitriol at the Quaternionists, reformulated Maxwell's original 1865 equations (Heaviside chose to remove the vector potential and scalar fields from the equations; the inclusion of these terms had served as Maxwell's justification for the use of quaternions), and provided the notation still in use today. See this [http://www.zpenergy.com/modules.php?name=Downloads&amp;d_op=getit&amp;lid=60 PDF] for the evolution of Maxwell's equations.<br /> <br /> '''Hamiltonian devotees'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> The Quaternion faction, after William Hamilton, who devised the scheme.<br /> <br /> '''Grand Hôtel de la Nouvelle Digue'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> There is a Hotel Digue in the Seychelles; this is a New Hotel Digue by Pynchon? <br /> <br /> Grand Hotel of New Dyke, may be a made up hotel name.<br /> <br /> '''anterooms of death'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> This metaphor is sometimes applied to concentration camps. Here the lyric &quot;feel like I'm fixin' to die&quot; seems more apposite.<br /> <br /> '''Belgian Art Nouveau'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Art Nouveau, 1890(or 80) to 1914, explores a new style in the visual arts and architecture that developed in Europe and North America at the end of the 19th century. At its height (~1907), Art Nouveau was a concerted attempt to create an international style based on decoration. It was developed by a brilliant and energetic generation of artists and desisgners, who sought to fashion an art form appropriate to the post-Industrial Revolution modern age.&lt;br&gt;<br /> Brussels was one of the Art Nouveau centers and represented different style from the others. The jewelers there, accepted as artists rahter than craftsmen, (together with those in Paris) defined Art Nouveau in jewelery and achieved the most renown. ([http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Art_Nouveau Art Nouveau]).<br /> <br /> ==Page 527==<br /> <br /> '''dossing'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> British slang for &quot;sleeping&quot;, &quot;staying overnight&quot;<br /> <br /> '''Russian nihilists'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> :The following four are local, Belgian, not Russian, nihilists !<br /> <br /> '''Eugénie'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Female. Possibly named for Empress Eugénie (1826-1920), consort of French Emperor Napoleon III. Ultimately for St. Eugenia, 3rd-century Roman martyr whose feast is celebrated on December 25.<br /> <br /> '''Fatou'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Female. A pseudonym? In view of the date of the action, certainly not named after [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fatou the mathematician Fatou] (1878-1929).<br /> <br /> '''Denis'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Male. Named for St. Denis or Dionysius, patron saint of Paris and of France, 3rd-century bishop of Paris, martyr, beheaded on the hill now called Montmartre. &quot;Montjoie St. Denis!&quot; was a warcry used by French troops in the Middle Ages. His intercession is effective against demonic possession and headache.<br /> <br /> '''Policarpe'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Male. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Polycarp Saint Polycarp] was a Christian bishop of Smyrna (now İzmir in Turkey) in the second century. He was stabbed and died a martyr after an attempt to burn him at the stake failed. His intercession is sought against earache and dysentery.<br /> <br /> '''Young Congo'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Probably in reference to the [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Young_Turks Young Turks], a Turkish revolutionary movement<br /> <br /> '''Garde Civique'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> A part of the Belgian army. According to the [http://www.1911encyclopedia.org/Belgium 1911 Britannica], &quot;the mass of the garde civique does not pretend to possess military value. It is a defence against sedition and socialism.&quot;<br /> <br /> '''French Second Bureau boys'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Deuxieme Bureau; French Intelligence.<br /> <br /> '''''phalange'''''&lt;br&gt;<br /> French: phalanx. A military (here mock-military) group ready for combat. &lt;br&gt;<br /> <br /> It also conjures up memories of the early 19th century utopian socialist <br /> Charles Fourier, who theorized that people should live communally in &quot;phalanxes&quot; of a specific number based upon their &quot;passions.&quot; His solid ideas included equality of the sexes, but he also taught wacky things such as the moon being made of lemonade. Of particular relevance is his rejection of industrial civilization. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Utopian_socialism]<br /> <br /> '''&quot;...until something had happened, something too terrible to remember...&quot;'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Again this theme of an unknowable past transgression, here invoked almost as if the unknown signifies the other 'lateral' (a word which has cropped up at least a dozen times already) 'vector'.<br /> <br /> '''the Digue'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> French for &quot;dyke&quot;<br /> <br /> '''Congo... Belgians'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> The Belgian colonisation of the Congo was, as Conrad's ''Heart of Darkness'' makes clear, notable for its greed and brutality.<br /> <br /> '''Leopold, King of the Belgians'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> 1835-1909, reigned 1865-1909. A man of almost Nixonian fiendishness. In the Congo he acted as sole proprietor and absolute ruler. The positive outcomes of his exploitation include ''Heart of Darkness'' and the phrase &quot;crime against humanity.&quot;<br /> <br /> '''co-conscious'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> mental processes outside the main stream of consciousness but sometimes available to it — from Merriam-Webster's Medical Dictionary.<br /> <br /> '''Force Publique'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Belgian armed forces operating in the Belgian Congo ([http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Force_Publique Wikipedia]). &quot;King Leopold's private army&quot; may be a more accurate description.<br /> <br /> '''rubber worker'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> See above: One of the early missions of the FP was to increase rubber export quotas through forced labor and related atrocities.<br /> <br /> ==Page 528==<br /> <br /> '''''khâgne'''''&lt;br&gt;<br /> an informal term used by French students for Classes Préparatoires Littéraires, the two-year cycle of classes taken after the Baccalaureat (taken at age 17-18), to prepare for the entrance examination to the Ecole Normale Supeieure. ([http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kh%C3%A2gne khâgne]).<br /> <br /> '''Reclus'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> J. J. Élisée Reclus (1830-1905), French geographer but mainly educated in Germany. Several times he was forced to leave France because of his political views; he traveled widely in Europe, the British Isles, the United States, and South America and for many years lived in Switzerland. He was professor of comparative geography at the University of Brussels from 1895 to 1905. He had quite an extensive connection with various socialist and anarchist circles (met Bakunin while in Florence).Once he was imprisoned in Versailles in 1871 for his part in the ''Paris Commune''. In 1882 he initiated the ''Anti-marriage movement'' while in Geneva. [[http://academic.reed.edu/formosa/texts/reclusbio.html Reclus]).<br /> <br /> '''Stirnerite'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Follower of Max Stirner, 19th century German philosopher and author of ''The Ego and Its Own,'' a work influential in anarchist thought. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Max_Stirner Wikipedia entry].<br /> <br /> ''Max Stirner'''s (1806-56) attacks on systematic philosophy, his denial of absulutes, and his rejection of abstract concepts of any kind often places him among the first philosophical nihilists. For Stirner, achieving individual freedom is the only law; and the state, which necvessarily imperils freedom, must be destroyed. Even beyond the oppression of the state, though, are the constraints imposed by others because their very existence is an obstable compromising individual freedom. Thus Stirner argues that existence is an endless &quot;war of each against all&quot; (1845). (taken from the paragraph about Max Stirner in [http://www.iep.utm.edu/n/nihilism.htm#H1 Nihilism])&lt;br&gt;<br /> Sourcing here? Much complexity in properly understanding Stirner, who has some Pynchon-like qualities, to say the least. From the Stanford Dictionary of Philosophy&lt;br&gt;<br /> His major work:<br /> The Ego and Its Own<br /> Much of Stirner's prose—which is crowded with aphorisms, italicisation, and hyperbole—appears calculated to disconcert. Most striking, perhaps, is the use of word play. Rather than reach a conclusion through the conventional use of argument, Stirner often approaches a claim that he wishes to endorse by exploiting words with related etymologies or formal similarities. For example, he associates words for property (such as ‘Eigentum’) with words connoting distinctive individual characteristics (such as ‘Eigenheit’) in order to promote the claim that property is expressive of selfhood. (Stirner's account of egoistic property—see below—gives this apparently orthodox Hegelian claim a distinctive twist.)<br /> <br /> This rejection of conventional forms of intellectual discussion is linked to Stirner's substantive views about language and rationality. His unusual style reflects a conviction that both language and rationality are human products which have come to constrain and oppress their creators. Stirner maintains that accepted meanings and traditional standards of argumentation are underpinned by a conception of truth as a privileged realm beyond individual control. As a result, individuals who accept this conception are abandoning a potential area of creative self-expression in favour of adopting a subordinate role as servants of truth. In stark contrast, Stirner insists that the only legitimate restriction on the form of our language, or on the structure of our arguments, is that they should serve our individual ends. It is the frequent failure of ordinary meanings and standard forms of argument to satisfy his interpretation of this criterion which underpins Stirner's remorselessly idiosyncratic style.<br /> <br /> The Ego and Its Own has an intelligible, but scarcely transparent, structure. It is organised around a tripartite account of human experience, initially introduced in a description of the stages of an individual life. The first stage in this developmental narrative is the realistic one of childhood, in which children are constrained by material and natural forces such as their parents. Liberation from these external constraints is achieved with what Stirner calls the self-discovery of mind, as children find the means to outwit those forces in their own determination and cunning. The idealistic stage of youth, however, contains new internal sources of constraint, as individuals once more become enslaved, this time to the spiritual forces of conscience and reason. Only with the adulthood of egoism do individuals escape both material (external) and spiritual (internal) constraints, learning to value their personal satisfaction above all other considerations.<br /> <br /> Stirner portrays this dialectic of individual growth as an analogue of historical development, and it is a tripartite account of the latter which structures the remainder of the book. Human history is reduced to successive epochs of realism (the ancient, or pre-Christian, world), idealism (the modern, or Christian, world), and egoism (the future world). <br /> <br /> What about these &quot;successive epochs&quot; in understanding ATD?<br /> <br /> Stirner's major work, The Ego and Its Own has been reissued in English a number of times in Pynchon's lifetime,from the 60s on. (Not that TRP could not have read it in German!)<br /> <br /> '''''Anarcho-individualiste'''''&lt;br&gt;<br /> i.e. he has doctrinal differernces with Stirnerism, strictly speaking; see P. 324, and &quot;Eigenheit&quot;.<br /> <br /> '''Leopold'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> See p. 527.<br /> <br /> '''going down lately'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Being assassinated.<br /> <br /> '''Sipido'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Jean-Baptiste Sipido (1884-1959), a Belgian socialist. Accusing the Prince of Wales of causing thousands of inocents were killed in the Boer War in South Africa, on April 5, 1900, Sipido leaped onto the foot board of the royal compartment right before the train left the North Railway Station (Gare du Nord), Brussel, and fired two (or one? as reported in ''The Manchester Guardian'', or four? as stated in the text here) shots through the window but missed everyone inside. He was arrested, tried and acquitted. The leader of the House of Commons called the acquittal a &quot;grave and most unfortunate miscarriage of justice.&quot; ([http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jean-Baptiste_Sipido Sipido]).<br /> <br /> '''Prince... of Wales'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> (Maud Gonne's husband claimed to have been involved in another such plot.)<br /> <br /> '''Hippodrome'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Hippodrome Wellington, a horse racing track in Ostend built in 1883. The facility hosts both harness and flat racing events. ([http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hippodrome_Wellington Hippodrome]).<br /> <br /> '''Royal Bathing Hut... twenty francs'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> A bathing machine ([http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bathing_machine bathing machine])? The King of Belgium certainly would not want to be seen in a swimsuit on a public beach... It seems unlikely, though, that such a royal bathing machine would be for hire.<br /> <br /> '''twenty francs'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> ???<br /> <br /> ==Page 529==<br /> <br /> '''picric family'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> The explosive picric acid (2,4,6-trinitrophenol) and its derivatives. For picric acid, Brugère's powder and Designolle's powder, [http://encyclopedia.jrank.org/PER_PIG/PICRIC_ACID_or_TRINITROPHENOL_C.html see this Britannica article.]<br /> <br /> '''Brugère's powder'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> See &quot;picric family&quot; above.<br /> <br /> '''Designolle's'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> See &quot;picric family&quot; above.<br /> <br /> '''Monsieur Santos-Dumont'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Alberto Santos-Dumont (1873-1932), a pioneer of aviation from Brasil. Check out [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alberto_Santos-Dumont Wikipedia] to get a look at the way he was wearing his &quot;trademark Panama hat&quot;. <br /> <br /> '''Green Hour''' and '''''l'heure vertigineuse'''''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Absinthe-drinking time. The liqueur is green. In French, ''l'heure verte,'' so ''vertigineuse'' (vertiginous, causing dizziness) is a pun on the word for &quot;green.&quot;<br /> <br /> '''Rocco and Pino'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Rabid Quaternionists and sudden friends of Kit Traverse.<br /> :No, they were not mathematicians at all, let alone Quaternionists, but two &quot;Italian naval renegades&quot; !!<br /> ::&quot;Rocco and Pino&quot; are, in temperament, something like the &quot;Mason and Dixon&quot; of manned-torpedoes... cf. the &quot;torpedo&quot; (i.e., &quot;Electrick-Eel&quot;) of ''Mason &amp; Dixon''.<br /> <br /> '''Whitehead works in Fiume'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Anticipating GR's V2 works.<br /> <br /> ''Robert Whitehead'' (1823-1905), an English engineer. He developed the first self-propelled torpedo in 1866. He attended Manchester's Mechanics Institute, worked in a shipyard in Toulon (1844), France, and as a consultant engineer in Milan (1847), Italy. Later he moved to Trieste and in 1856 became a manager of a company called ''Founderia Mettali'' (later, ''Stabilimento Tecnico di Fiume'') in Fiume producing ship steam boilers and engines which were the most advanced of that era. He also developed the first self-propelled torpedo which was very popular. Whitehead's torpedo was propelled by a compressed air engine, carried 18lbs dynamites and a self-regulating device which kept the torpedo cruising at a constant preset depth. [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Robert_Whitehead Whitehead]].<br /> <br /> ''Fiume'' is now Rijeka, Croatia. Trieste is on the northwestern edge of the Istra Peninsula, Rijeka is east of it. [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rijeka Fiume]].<br /> <br /> Interesting sidebar: Whitehead's fortune from Fiume and the torpedo went solely to his granddaughter Agatha Whitehead, who married Baron von Trapp. The Von Trapp money came from Robert Whitehead, and most of the von Trapp singers were his great-grandchildren.<br /> <br /> '''''Alberta'''''&lt;br&gt;<br /> The [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Royal_yacht Wikipedia] entry on royal yachts goes back to the 17th century but doesn't include ''Alberta.'' The craft does get a mention in [http://www.bouncing-balls.com/timeline/people/nr_leopoldmorel.htm this page on Leopold and the Congo.]<br /> <br /> '''Siluro Dirigibile a Lenta Corsa'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> or S.L.C. &quot;slow course torpedo&quot;, &quot;slow-running torpedo&quot;. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Manned_torpedo Wikipedia] Italy‘s Navy was among the first to experiment with manned torpedos. Though according to [http://web.ukonline.co.uk/chalcraft/sm/chariots.html this site] this did not happen until 1935, Italian frogmen as early as October 31, 1918 made it into the harbour of Pula with the help of a modified german torpedo and sank the former Austrian but by then since a few hours Croatian/Slovenian/Bosnian battleship SMS ''Viribus Unitis''. [http://www.geocities.com/tegetthoff66/viribus.html website]<br /> <br /> The Wikipedia entry linked above doesn't contain the Italian word ''dirigibile'' (steerable), which sets up the torpedo as a counterpart of the dirigible ''Inconvenience.''<br /> <br /> :I suspect there's a connection between the torpedo and &quot;Not the usual lateener, in fact appearing to have neither sails, masts, nor oars&quot; in Miles' reversed vision, [[ATD_243-272#Page_250|page 250.]] Needs work, though.<br /> <br /> ==Page 530==<br /> <br /> '''exfiltrate'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Make a surreptitious escape (as &quot;infiltrate&quot; means to make a surreptitious entrance).<br /> <br /> '''''Macchè'''''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Italian: certainly not, not a chance. And in Pynchon's Italian is used as an all-purpose exclamation.<br /> <br /> '''''Ehi, stu gazz', categoria'''''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Stu gazz' is a dialect representation of ''sto cazzo'', literally meaning ''this dick here''. Normally you could translate the sense of the sentence as: ''yeah, why not, a fucking category! ''. -- blicero2 - 2007.02.22<br /> <br /> '''''mezzogiornismo'''''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Denigrating the Italian South. Mezzogiorno means ''midday'' in Italian but refers generally to Southern Italy.<br /> <br /> ==Page 531==<br /> <br /> '''Bruges'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> An exceptionally beautiful Belgian town of canals which is thus one of several towns known as the 'Venice of the north'. In the 14th cettury Burges already became an international finanacial and trading center, but<br /> started to decline in the 15th century. In the 20th century, however, the city was discovered by the international tourism and the medieval heritage turned out to be a new source of wealth. A new harbor of Zeebrugge, 10 miles outside of Bruges at the North Sea coast, brought new developments and new industries to the region. For the city and its history see ([http://www.trabel.com/brugge.htm Bruges]).<br /> <br /> '''Raoul's Atelier de la Vitesse'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> French: Ralph's Speed Shop.<br /> <br /> '''Ghent'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Belgian city, less than 30 miles southeast of Bruges, on the rail line about halfway between Ostend and Brussels. It is the fourth largest city of Belgium. It is bigger than Bruges but not as famous as a tourist attraction. But the city is a showcase of medieval Flemish wealth and commercial success. See ([http://www.trabel.com/gent.htm Ghent]).<br /> <br /> '''Daimler six-cylinder'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> ???<br /> <br /> '''a hundred horsepower'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> ???<br /> <br /> '''''guaglion'''''&lt;br&gt;<br /> italian (dialectal) = boy, young person<br /> <br /> '''Umeki Tsurigane'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Umeki is typically made with some combination of the various kanji for &quot;plum&quot; (ume) and &quot;tree&quot; (ki), though one has the ki being the character for &quot;ghost/devil&quot; and one obscure reading that's entirely redundant, where ume is &quot;plant&quot; (usually read ue). There is one where ume is the kanji for &quot;buried or embedded&quot;. Tsurigane, means a &quot;temple bell&quot;, which can stand alone or be followed by the grass kanji to mean &quot;bellflower&quot; (lots of botanical stuff happening here, if that means anything; hardly the only example in ''AtD''). Given the search for Shambhala going on, &quot;Buried Temple Bell&quot; seems a likely translation, at least at this point; the botanical meanings could perhaps emerge later.<br /> <br /> Or, another terrible name-pun? &quot;You make [m]e sore again.&quot; See another on P. [[ATD_748-767#Page_757| 757]]<br /> <br /> '''Professor Knott'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Cargill Knott (1856-1922), professor of physics; seismologist. See his biography [http://www.penicuikcdt.org.uk/Cargill_Knott.html here].<br /> <br /> ==Page 532==<br /> <br /> '''Kimura'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Cf [[ATD_26-56#Page 29|page 29:Kimura]] and [[ATD_318-335#Page 318|page 318:Shunkichi Kimura]].<br /> <br /> '''drover's sombrero'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Cowboy hat.<br /> <br /> '''furoshiki'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Japanese all-purpose cloth. Can be worn, used as wrapping, or used as a bag.<br /> <br /> '''taupe'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> A brownish gray.<br /> <br /> '''boilermakers and their helpers'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> [[ATD_358-373#Page_360|See annotation to p. 360.]]<br /> <br /> '''Anharmonic Pencil'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> ''Pencil'' is a term commonly used in Synthetic Geometry. Straight lines incident with a plane - coplanar lines - and passing through a common point are said to be concurrent lines and the set of all such concurrent coplanar lines is called the ''pencil''. (Cf [[ATD_429-459#Page 456|page 456:Pencil]]). For a figure and a not quite precise definition see [http://mathworld.wolfram.com/Pencil.html pencil]. If a, b, c and d, are four distinct coplanar lines and their double ratio λ = (abcd) = -1, then a, b, c, d are called a harmonic quadruple of lines; they are said to constitute a ''harmonic pencil''. A ''pencil'' which is not harmonic then is known as ''anharmonic pencil''. See Pencil (lines 8-9), Double Ratio λ (lines 32-35) and Harmonic Pencil (line 39) of [http://ca.geocities.com/ingsaler6/mathworld.html Mathworld].<br /> <br /> '''''Comptes rendus'''''&lt;br&gt;<br /> ''Comptes rendus des séances hebdomadaires,'' Proceedings of the weekly sessions (of the Academy of Sciences), published from 1835, later (ca. 1935) retitled ''Comptes rendus de l'Académie des sciences,'' Proceedings of the Academy of Sciences. (Notice that the academy didn't see the need to specify &quot;French.&quot; Take that, Royal Society of London!) For about a century, one of two journals so universally circulated and recognized that bibliographies nearly always cited them in nickname form: ''C.R.'' The other was ''Ber.,'' short for ''Berichte der Deutschen Chemischen Gesellschaft,'' Reports of the German Chemical Society (from 1868).<br /> <br /> '''De Forest'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Cf [[ATD_26-56#Page 29|page 29:De Forest]].<br /> <br /> '''Gibbs'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Cf [[ATD_26-56#Page 29|page 29:Professor Gibbs]].<br /> <br /> '''Maxwell Equations'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Cf [[ATD_57-80#Page 58|page 58:Maxwell Field Equations]].<br /> <br /> ==Page 533==<br /> <br /> '''aniline teal'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> The wallpaper dye; aniline dyes were the first synthetic dyes, discovered by [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/William_Perkin William Perkin] in 1858. Their intense and fade-resistant colors were very fashionable at the end of the nineteenth century. The dyes are also significant in ''GR'' as the products of I.G. Farben.<br /> <br /> '''Heavisiders'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Oliver Heaviside (May 18, 1850 – February 3, 1925) was a self-taught English electrical engineer, mathematician and physicist who adapted complex numbers to the study of electrical circuits, developed techniques for applying Laplace transforms to the solution of differential equations, reformulated Maxwell's field equations in terms of electric and magnetic forces and energy flux, and independently co-formulated vector analysis. Although at odds with the scientific establishment for most of his life, Heaviside changed the face of mathematics and science for years to come.[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Heaviside].<br /> <br /> '''Grassmanniacs'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Nineteenth century German mathematician and linguist, essentially the inventor/discoverer of vector space. Grassmann showed that once geometry is put into the algebraic form he advocated, then the number three has no privileged role as the number of spatial dimensions; the number of possible dimensions is in fact unbounded.[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hermann_Grassmann].<br /> <br /> '''in the mood for a clambake'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Anachronistic Broadway show tune? If so, the clambake in ''Carousel'' turns into a brawl; the assmebled factions of mathematicians could be in the mood for either a party or a brawl, apparently. <br /> <br /> '''Monopole de la Maison'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Monopole of the House, a fanciful name of a fanciful drink.&lt;br&gt;<br /> There is, since 1898, a well known restaurant called ''Monopole Lunch &amp; Sea Grill'' in Plattsburgh of upper New York state. ([http://www.monopole.org Monopole Restaurant]).&lt;br&gt;<br /> Most probably, it's the Magnetic monopole being referred here. In physics, a monopole is a magnet with a net magnetic charge, i.e. there is only one pole instead of two (so no net magnetic charge) as usual. ([http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Magnetic_monopole Monopole]). It's existence had been theoretically predicted by various particle theories (superstring theory, etc) but never been proved experimentally. Proving the existence of a monopole would certainly earn a Nobel Prize.<br /> <br /> '''Idiom Neutral'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> An invented language, like Esperanto. Idiom Neutral dictionaries first appeared in 1902. It looks like a simplified Latinate language and it grew out of Volapuk, another &quot;auxiliary language.&quot; It was abandoned by the ''Akademi Internasional de Lingu Universal'' in 1908.<br /> <br /> For a list of all the invented languages that linguists are keeping track of, including Klingon, try [http://linguistlist.org/forms/langs/GetListOfConstructedLgs.html Eastern Michigan's Linguist List]. And don't forget to click on the link to &quot;Browse sites devoted to constructed languages.&quot;<br /> <br /> '''phatic'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Basically, small talk or chatter. Words used to convey fellow-feeling rather than to impart information.<br /> <br /> '''''Kampf ums Dasein'''''&lt;br&gt;<br /> German: struggle for existence.<br /> <br /> '''Q-brother'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Fellow Quaternioneer or Fellow Quaternionist.<br /> <br /> '''We are the Jews of mathematics, wandering out here in our diaspora--some destined for the past, others the future, even a few able to set out at unknown angles from the simple line of Time, upon journeys that no one can predict''' &lt;br&gt;<br /> In keeping with the analogy of Judaism, those &quot;few&quot; people within the Quaternionists &quot;able to set out at unknown angles&quot; are most likely being compared to Kabbalists who claim to partake in a mystic &quot;journey to the Throne of God through the mythological realm of the seven heavens&quot; (Armstrong, A History of God--p. 247). Throne Mysticism in Kabbalah is explored extensively in Gravity's Rainbow.<br /> <br /> Perhaps this is obvious to some, but these &quot;Jews of Mathematics&quot; worship the Hamiltonian Tetractys [http://www.math.ucr.edu/home/baez/dublin/]; those other Jews worshipped the Tetragrammatron. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tetragrammaton] The proliferation of 4s continues.<br /> <br /> ==Page 534==<br /> <br /> '''Poiret gown'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> A gown designed by Paul Poiret (1879-1944), a French fashion designer based in Paris. &quot;In the annals of fashion history, Paul Poiret is best remembered for freeing women from corsets and further liberating them through pantaloons . . . it was Poiret's remarkable innovations in the cut and construction of cloting . . . Working with fabric directly onto the body, Poiret helped to pioneer a radical approach to dressmakeing that relied more on the skills of drapery than on those of tailoring.&quot; (from [http://www.metmuseum.org/special/se_event.asp?OccurrenceId={0DC3D00F-4611-4F91-8DC2-CC3C1A5C48D5} MetMuseum], <br /> New York Metropolitan Museum's Special Exhibitions, ''Poiret: King of Fashion'', May 9, 2007 to August 5, 2007). For a picture of Poiret gown see [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Image:Poiretgown.jpg Poiret Gown]. ''The New York Times'' reported on February 1, 2007 that A Poiret Gown Brings $5,500 at [http://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html?res=9B07EFDA1538F93AA15756C0A967948260 Christie's Auction] - the gown was made in 1913 when Poiret was at the height of his career. For his bio see [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Paul_Poiret Poiret].<br /> <br /> '''''green and long'''''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Pickle, or... what?<br /> : A green and long ''gherkin'' (a small, immature fruit of a variety of cucumber used in pickling).<br /> <br /> ==Page 535==<br /> <br /> '''no-name wine'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> 1970s idiom for common European practice?<br /> <br /> '''set theory'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Set theory deals with the properties of well-defined collections, or ''sets'', of entities - the ''elements'' or ''members'' of the set - conceived as a whole. The elements may be of a mathematical nature or non-mathematical. The set theory grew out of the German mathematician Georg Cantor's (1845-1918) study of infinite sets of real numbers. <br /> <br /> The ''language of sets'' has become an important tool for all branches of mathematics, but is of very little relevance to the practice of mathematics in everyday life. As a source of metaphors, however, it's been quite productive; &quot;subset,&quot; &quot;superset,&quot; &quot;universe,&quot; &quot;intersection&quot; and &quot;Venn diagram&quot; have found varying degrees of acceptance. Recasting Aristotle's syllogisms in set-theoretic language also makes them easier for many people to understand.<br /> <br /> '''Hamilton . . . early genius'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Hamilton, according to ''Chambers Biographical Dictionary'', &quot;at fifteen knew thirteen languages, had read Newton's ''Principia'', and commenced original investigations&quot;. At twenty-two, &quot;while still an undergraduate, he was appointed professor of Astronomy at Dublin and Irish Astronomer-Royal&quot;; at thirty &quot;he was knighted&quot;.<br /> <br /> '''Hamilton . . . in the grip of a first love'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> ???&lt;br&gt;<br /> Pynchon probably didn't mean Quaternion was Hamilton's first love, but its effect on him was similar to that of a first love. In 1843 at the age of 38 Hamilton invented the Quaternion, the first non-communtative algebra to be studied. He felt this would revolutionise mathematical physics, and he spent the rest of his life working on it. In 1853 he published a large volume, ''Lectures on Quaternions'', on his grand invention. The last seven years of his life, Hamilton was writing an 800-page book ''Elements of Quaternions'' modeling on Euclid's ''Elements''. The last chapter of the book was completed by his son after his death.<br /> <br /> '''the Walt Whitman of English physics'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Whitman pops up again, last seen on [[ATD_489-524#Page_491|page 491]].<br /> <br /> ==Page 536==<br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> '''Oscar Wilde'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Note that Wilde's Dorian Gray also undergoes a kind of bilocation.<br /> <br /> '''Kursaal'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Spa. Casino ?<br /> <br /> '''vectors'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> For serious minds see Cf [[ATD_525-556#Page 526|page 526:Gibbsian Vectors]], but let's follow Pynchon's lighter mood, here is a non-mathematical definition by Kamen (1995):<br /> :''Many things have more than direction;''<br /> :''The magnitude is also a question.''<br /> :''With acceleration or force,''<br /> :''And many more things, of course,''<br /> :''It's vectors that make the connection.''<br /> <br /> '''Curls'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Cf [[ATD_318-335#Page 326|page 326:Curl]]: curl is a vector operator that shows a vector field's rate of rotation.<br /> <br /> '''Laplacians'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Pierre-Simon, Marquis de Laplace (March 23, 1749 – March 5, 1827); French mathematician and astronomer who summarized and extended the work of his predecessors in his five volume Mécanique Céleste (Celestial Mechanics) (1799-1825), translating the geometrical study of mechanics used by Isaac Newton to one based on calculus, known as physical mechanics.<br /> <br /> He is also the discoverer of Laplace's equation. Although the Laplace transform is named in honor of Laplace, who used the transform in his work on probability theory, the transform was discovered originally by Leonhard Euler. The Laplace transform appears in all branches of mathematical physics — a field he took a leading role in forming. The Laplacian differential operator, much relied-upon in applied mathematics, is likewise named after him. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Laplace].<br /> <br /> :Cf [[ATD_318-335#Page 326|page 326:Laplacian]]: Laplacian is a differential operator named after Laplace. The text here was talking about mathematical operations and operators — rates of change, rotations, partial differentials, Curls, ''Laplacians'', . . .<br /> <br /> '''scream'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Scream motif.<br /> <br /> '''beginning to appal'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> By 1905 there had been years of outrage at conditions in the Belgian Congo, King Leopold's private fief. Conrad's ''Heart of Darkness'' had been published as a serial in Blackwood's Magazine in 1899 and as a book in 1902. There were missionaries' accounts of the brutality, and newspaper reports. Leopold and his apologists published rebuttals. The Norton Critical Edition of ''Heart of Darkness'' contains an extensive collection of both.<br /> <br /> '''baize'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Baize is a coarse woolen felt.<br /> <br /> ==Page 537==<br /> <br /> '''broken symmetries'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Broken_symmetry Broken symmetry] is a concept used widely in mathematics and physics. For a simplest explanation (good enough for the text here), this term means that an object breaks either rotational symmetry or translational sysmetry - when one can only rotate an object in certain angles or when one is able to tell if the object has been shifted sideways. For a little bit more detailed explanation see [http://www.lassp.cornell.edu/sethna/OrderParameters/BrokenSymmetry.html Identify the Broken Symmetry]; or even more [http://scienceweek.com/2005/sw050708-6.htm On Broken Symmetry].<br /> <br /> '''''sphinxe Khnopffienne'''''&lt;br&gt;<br /> refers to the Belgian symbolist painter Fernand Khnopff (1858-1921), famous for his painting &quot;The Caress&quot;, in which a female sphinx erotically lures a young man. The painting can be seen in the [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fernand_Khnopff wikipedia entry]<br /> <br /> '''Pléiade Lafrisée'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> in French, &quot;friser&quot; means to curl or twist. &quot;La frisée&quot; could mean &quot;curled,&quot; by extension &quot;twisted.&quot; The Pleiades is a cluster of hundreds of stars, though only a few are visible, sometimes referred to as The Seven Sisters. If Pleiades are Sisters, Pléiade is ''one'' Sister, so her name means Twisted Sister!<br /> <br /> '''''Conseilleuse'''''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Female consultant?<br /> <br /> ==Page 538==<br /> <br /> '''retroversion matrix'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> ???<br /> <br /> '''''Ma foi'''''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Literally &quot;My faith&quot;, i.e. &quot;By my faith!&quot;, a mild exclamation of incredulity.<br /> <br /> '''ten thousand francs'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> <br /> Based on currency conversions relative to gold, this is equivalent to<br /> about $30,000 US today.<br /> <br /> '''piker'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Someone cheap or cautious, possibly named after people from PIke County, Missouri, who came to California in the 1800s, looking for work. They were poor, hence cheap.<br /> <br /> '''what is a Quaternino?'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Cf [[ATD_525-556#Page 525|page 525:Quaternions]] for a mathematical definition. From ''The Random House Dictionary of the English Languages'', The Unabridged Edition (1966): Quaternion is &quot;a quantity or operator expressed as the sum of a real number and three complex numbers, equivalent to the ''quotient of two vectors''. The field of quaternions is not commutative under multiplication.&quot;.<br /> <br /> '''Bertie ('Mad Dog') Russell'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> 'Mad Dog' seems to be used with heavy irony here. Bertrand Russell was known most for his rationalism, so to speak, his work in modern logic. <br /> He did little in his public roles (at this time in AtD) that would have <br /> him referred to as &quot;crazy', as we say, beyond the social norm, &quot;mad&quot;. <br /> It might be argued that his use of 'logic' against philosophers such as Hegel and McTaggart within ''Against the Day'' showed up their 'madness'.<br /> (Many did think McTaggart was a bit...different...for seriously not believing in Time.) McTaggart broke with Russell after an early influential friendship---Russell was the younger man and the influenced one. He said he was an Hegelian because of McTaggart--Russell wrote in his<br /> Autobiography that McTaggart said he no longer wanted to meet/talk with him bcause he could no longer stand Russell's opinions.<br /> <br /> [http://nobelprize.org/nobel_prizes/literature/laureates/1950/russell-bio.html Bertrand Russell] (1872-1970) was a British mathematician, philosopher, logician and social critic. Best known for his work in mathermatical logic and analytic philosophy. In late spring of 1901 he discovered the so-called [http://plato.stanford.edu/entries/russell-paradox/ Russell Paradox], &quot;the most famous of the logical or set-theoretical paradoxes. The paradox arises within naive set theory by considering the set of all sets that are not members of themselves. Such a set appears to be a member of itself if and only if it is not a member of itself, hence the paradox.&quot; (On-line Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy). He won the 1950 Nobel Prize in Literature in &quot;recognition of his varied and significant writings in which he champions humanitarian ideals and freedom of thought&quot;.<br /> <br /> '''Barry Nebulay'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> nebulae: formed from the diffusion of gas in galaxies or as exploded stars (or the last ember-like stage of a star)&lt;br&gt; <br /> Most nebulae can be described as diffuse nebulae, which means that they are extended and contain no well-defined boundaries.[1] In visible light these nebulae may be divided into emission nebulae and reflection nebulae, a categorization that depends on how the light we see is created.<br /> <br /> '''Hegel... puns'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Probably refers to the fact that quite a lot of Hegel's philosophy deals with the is-ness of the world as we know and experience it.<br /> <br /> On page 787 of Bertrand Russell's ''History of Western Philosophy'' is a summary, perhaps, of this remark about Hegel's puns: &quot;as a result of analysis of the concept &quot;existence&quot;, modern logic has proved this [Cartesianism, refuted by Kant, reinstated by Hegel] argument invalid.....&quot;<br /> <br /> We know from other places that TRP himself seems to 'not like' Cartesianism. See 'cartesian' citations within this wiki.<br /> <br /> ==Page 539==<br /> <br /> '''a vector quotient'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> The result of one vector divided by another. According to the English dictionary definition of previous page this is just a Quaternion.<br /> <br /> '''unit vector'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Unit vector is a vector with magnitude of one. The unit vectors in 3-dimensional space, ''i, j, k'', associated with ''x, y, z'' directions are used in defining a general 3D vector (Cf [[ATD_525-556#Page 526|page 526:Gibbsian Vectors]]).<br /> <br /> '''''square root of minus one'''''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Imaginary number (Cf [[ATD_119-148#Page 132|page 133:Imaginary Number]]). The imaginary numbers ''i, j, k'' are used in defining a Quaternion (Cf [[ATD_525-556#Page 525|page 525:Quaternions]]).<br /> <br /> ''''Triangle Asana''''&lt;br&gt;<br /> A basic yoga pose. <br /> <br /> [http://yoga.org.nz/postures/yoga_positions_images_page.htm Here are images of several basic poses.]<br /> <br /> ''''Dr Rao abruptly vanished''''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Might be a reference to [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Martin_Gardner Martin Gardner]'s<br /> [http://www.amazon.com/No-Sided-Professor-Fantasy-Mystery-Philosophy/dp/0879753900 &quot;No-Sided Professor&quot;]<br /> <br /> ''''Quadrantal Versor Asana''''&lt;br&gt;<br /> A triangle pose taken that extra dimension.<br /> <br /> '''''&quot;Uwe moer!&quot;'''''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Looks a lot like the Dutch &quot;Uw moeder!&quot; - a cry of astonishment (&quot;Your mother!&quot;), the equivalent to the black English &quot;yo mama&quot;.<br /> <br /> '''noncommutative'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> A term typical to mathematics. A commutative equation is one that can operate in exact reverse and still yield the same results. 'Noncommutative' then suggests unidirectionality. The ability to go from point A to point B, but not from B to A.<br /> <br /> '''reticule'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> A woman's drawstring handbag; usually made of net or beading or brocade; also: A system of lines forming a pattern of squares at the focal plane of a telescope, used in micrometers.<br /> [http://www.astunit.com/tutorials/glossary.htm] <br /> :Isn't that sort of a red herring? &quot;[P]roducing from her reticule a . . . watch&quot; doesn't really allow of that second meaning. &lt;br&gt;<br /> :It could be a pun, since a reticule/ handbag always shows its pattern of lines, and a watch (timepiece) is drawn from it. Remember that, e.g. railroad lines of tracks, are a sign of industrialism encroaching on the natural and the spiritual.<br /> <br /> '''Vacheron &amp; Constantin watch'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Made by a Swiss company founded in 1755. From 1819 to 1970 the name was as in the text, then the &amp; dropped out. See the [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vacheron_Constantin Wikipedia entry.]<br /> <br /> '''hunting-case'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> For a pocket watch, a case with a hinged metal cover. More often called &quot;hunter case&quot; (and such a watch a &quot;hunter&quot;).<br /> <br /> ==Page 540==<br /> <br /> '''&quot;haar rekening, ja?&quot;'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> The bill, yes? (Dutch)?<br /> <br /> ''Her'' bill, yes? I.e., give the check to the lady.<br /> <br /> Given the presence of Chris 'Kit' Traverse here, this very much suggests a reference to Christopher 'Kit' Marlowe, Elizabethan poet, playwright and contemporary of Shakespeare. Marlowe was stabbed to death in 1593, in murky circumstances, ostensibly over a bill or 'reckoning', though he was widely believed to have been involved in some form of espionage.<br /> <br /> Strictly speaking &quot;haar rekening&quot; means that the lady pays for herself only. If Root wanted to make sure that Pléiade pays for the whole company he would have to say &quot;de hele rekening voor de dame&quot;. <br /> <br /> '''Piet Woevre'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> The Woëvre is a natural region of Lorraine in north-east France. It forms part of Lorraine plateau and lies largely in the department of Meuse. During World War I, there was much fighting there due to vast mineral resources that had been discovered in the Briey basin or Eastern Woevre at the end of the 19th century. &quot;Piet&quot; is Dutch for &quot;rock&quot; or &quot;stone&quot; and is a fairly common Dutch name, the English equivalent being Peter.<br /> <br /> If the surname is pronounced as in Dutch, Woevre is another Pynchon villain with a &quot;V&quot;-name (Vond, Weissman, Vibe). <br /> <br /> '''Force Publique'''&lt;br /&gt;<br /> The Force Publique (FP) was the official armed force for what is now the Democratic Republic of the Congo from 1885, (when the territory was known as the Congo Free State), through the period of direct Belgian rule (1908-60), until the beginning of the Second Republic in 1965. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Force_Publique Wikipedia entry]<br /> <br /> '''made him reach'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Possible allusion to a famous line, &quot;When I hear the word culture I reach for my gun.&quot; From Hanns Johst's biographical play ''Schlageter''. The original line is slightly different: &quot;Wenn ich Kultur höre ... entsichere ich meinen Browning,&quot; &quot;Whenever I hear of culture... I release the safety-catch of my Browning!&quot; (Act 1, Scene 1). It is spoken by another character in conversation with the young Schlageter. In the scene Schlageter and his wartime comrade Friedrich Thiemann are studying for a college examination, but then start disputing whether it's worthwhile doing so when the nation is not free. <br /> <br /> The line is often misattributed to better-known Nazis and others [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hanns_Johst].<br /> <br /> *In Jean-Luc Godard's 1963 film [http://www.chicagoreader.com/movies/archives/0997/09057.html ''Le Mépris'' (''Contempt'')], Jack Palance's character &quot;Jeremy Prokosch,&quot; an American movie-producer, intones to Fritz Lang: &quot;Whenever I hear the word culture, I reach for my checkbook.&quot;<br /> <br /> '''not unambiguous'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Ie, ambiguous.<br /> <br /> '''''rastaquoueres'''''&lt;br&gt;<br /> 8???<br /> <br /> '''de Decker'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> In Dutch/Flemish, the name means &quot;roofer.&quot; (''De'' in these names almost never means &quot;of, from&quot; as in French; it's nearly always the definite article.)<br /> <br /> ==Page 541==<br /> <br /> '''''bobbejaan'''''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Afrikaans: baboon. (Afrikaans is the language spoken by descendants of Dutch colonists in present-day South Africa. Some items identified as Dutch or Flemish in this wiki may really be Afrikaans.)<br /> <br /> The South African song &quot;Bobbejaan klim die berg&quot; (&quot;Bobbejaan climbed the hill&quot;) is the source of the stage name of Belgium's most famous country and western musician, Bobbejaan Schoepen (b. 1925). In 1943 he was suppressed by the Nazis after performing a South African song, &quot;Mamma, 'k wil 'n man hê&quot; (&quot;Mama, I want a man&quot;), which contains the line &quot;No, Mama, I don't want a German, because I don't like pork.&quot; He founded the Bobbejaanland theme park in Belgium, where he still lives.<br /> <br /> '''MKIV/ODC... Mark Four'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> This would be the Mark IV Ohmic Drift Compensator ([[ATD 557-587#Page 565|Page 565]]), a key component of the Q-weapon, which &quot;regulates how much light is allowed to enter the silvering of the mirror! Special kind of refraction! Calibrated against imaginary index! Dangerous! Of the essence!'&quot;<br /> <br /> '''not part of your remit'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Not included in your job description, instructions, authorization. &quot;Remit&quot; (noun) is usually a British usage.<br /> <br /> '''''gatkruiper'''''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Dutch/Flemish: brownnose, ass-kisser.<br /> <br /> '''one on her wrist'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> All the bruises reflect some refinement or artistry except this one, which may have been inflicted crudely.<br /> <br /> '''over the day'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Title motif?<br /> <br /> ==Page 542==<br /> <br /> '''trans-horizontic'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> ???<br /> Across the horizon -- &quot; a screaming comes across the sky&quot;<br /> <br /> '''Edmund Whittaker'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Edmund Whittaker (1873-1956), an English mathematician. He is best known for his work in numerical analysis. And he contributed widely to applied mathematics, mathematical physics and the theory of special functions. He also worked on celestial mechanics and the history of applied mathermatics and physics. ([http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/E._T._Whittaker Whittaker]).<br /> <br /> The Sir Edmund Whittaker Memorial Prize is awarded every four years by the Edinburgh Mathematical Society to an outstanding young mathematician having a specified connection with Scotland [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sir_Edmund_Whittaker_Memorial_Prize]. <br /> <br /> '''louche'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> The cloudy effect caused by the addition of water to absinthe. Dictionary definition: &quot;of questionable taste or morality; decadent.&quot;<br /> <br /> '''cheval-glass'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Standing mirror in a freestanding vertical frame.<br /> <br /> '''as if someone'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Sound-cancelling vs opacity-cancelling?<br /> <br /> ==Page 543==<br /> <br /> '''wraith of Pleiade Lafrisee'''<br /> <br /> Pleiade manifests one of her not-visible stars. Perhaps this sister has somehow twisted herself on an imaginary axis ala Dr. V. Ganesh Rao.<br /> <br /> '''monitory'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Warning, giving advice, by extension ominous or menacing.<br /> <br /> '''Against....the day....'''<br /> Note: this phrase happens at the exact halfway point of the novel: p.542.3<br /> <br /> '''He Who Must Come'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> The evil-doer who must come might be Adolf Hitler. It would make sense. The implication being that Europe is precipitating into a no-return situation. Capitalism cannot but end in WW2.&lt;br&gt;<br /> Ah, a lot more and less than capitalism going on here, especially if anyone specific like Hitler is meant. <br /> :When French writers use this phrase (''celui qui doit venir'') they '''do''' mean the Messiah . . . although a few devout quibblers point out that the Messiah has already come. It's rather tiresome Googling the phrase; the first 83 hits definitely refer to Christ and most of them quote the first verses of Matthew 11. But there's also a Camus reference (in English, I think) down at No. 90, if anyone has a JSTOR account:<br /> :links.jstor.org/sici?sici=0361-1299(1985)39%3A4%3C251%3ACFS%22M%3E2.0.CO%3B2-X <br /> <br /> Recalls Yeats' 'The Second Coming' once again: &quot;And what rough beast, its hour come round at last, Slouches towards Bethlehem to be born?&quot; [http://chumpsofchoice.blogspot.com/2007/05/casino-royale-in-flanders-field.html#c3637134446204467798 ]<br /> <br /> '''General Boulanger'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/General_Boulanger Georges Boulanger], French military man, and War Minister in the late 19th century. He was one of those men &quot;on a white horse&quot; that some conservatives looked to, as he urged an attack on Germany and the end of the French Republic with a return to monarchy. He was also notorious for his harsh reprisals against workers' demonstrations. &quot;'Boulangisme'&quot; threatened a coup in 1889, but the general's procrastination brought the crisis to an end.<br /> <br /> '''what death and what transfiguration'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Allusion to Richard Strauss' tone poem &quot;Death and Transfiguration&quot; (''Tod und Verklärung''), premiered in 1890.<br /> <br /> '''''&quot;Zeker&quot;'''''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Dutch: certainly.<br /> <br /> '''''dead cert'''''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Dead certainty, sure thing.<br /> <br /> '''Von Schlieffen'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Alfred von Schlieffen was the author of a German war plan to win a two-front war against both France and Russia by quickly defeating France before Russian troops could be mobilized. The [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Schlieffen_Plan Schlieffen Plan] included an attack on France through Belgium, disregarding its neutrality.<br /> <br /> '''Wilhelm has offered Leopold part of France, the ancient Duchy of Burgundy'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> [http://www.crwflags.com/fotw/flags/fr-bg.html History of the duchy.] [http://www.freiburg-madison.de/freiburg_history/1386-1517_The%20Early%20Habsburgs.htm Map,] with portrait of Duke Charles the Rash.<br /> <br /> '''lowlands'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Title of Pynchon's first published story. Here, ass?<br /> <br /> ==Page 544==<br /> <br /> '''Place d'Armes'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Main square of Ostend; literally &quot;drill field&quot;.<br /> <br /> '''peau de soie'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> &quot;Skin of silk&quot; A heavy, smooth satin with very fine ribbing; somewhat dull in sheen compared with traditional silk finishes.<br /> <br /> '''Krafft-Ebing'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Richard Freiherr von Krafft-Ebing, Austro-German psychiatrist and author of ''Psychopathia Sexualis'' (1886), a pioneering study of deviant sexual behavior and fetishism. Coined both ''sadism'' and ''masochism'' as terms for these respective behaviors. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Richard_Freiherr_von_Krafft-Ebing Wikipedia entry].<br /> <br /> '''toque'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Toque here refers to a lady's hat, originally of fur but here in velvet, which is rather like a flattened chef's hat in shape.<br /> <br /> Proust: in ''À l'ombre des jeunes filles en fleurs'' the narrator first sees Albertine wearing a toque. There seem to be quite a few Proust themes and references running throughout the novel. Indeed '''Pliade''' is the French publisher of Proust's works. <br /> <br /> '''guipure'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Lace trim.<br /> <br /> '''midinette'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> A shopgirl or dressmakers apprentice. A milliner.<br /> <br /> '''Lambic'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> A distinctive Belgian style of beer. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lambic Wikipedia]<br /> <br /> '''sous'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> <br /> Coins. Originally Roman gold coins, latterly any kind of coin.<br /> <br /> Specifically small change. She is affecting modesty by claiming that a hat like hers can be had for pennies in any unpretentious shop. In France &quot;sou is used as slang for money, as in ''sans le sou''. 'I'm broke', 'without money'. It is also a slang term for the Canadian cent (standard French, cent).&quot; ([http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sou Wikipedia])<br /> <br /> '''mayonnaise'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Brautigan's &quot;Trout Fishing in America&quot; famously ends with the word mayonnaise. [http://books.google.com/books?vid=ISBN0395500761&amp;id=rbEjDovfyNMC&amp;pg=RA2-PA111&amp;lpg=RA2-PA111&amp;ots=ELKl5b_6Tx&amp;dq=mayonnaise+trout.fishing&amp;num=100&amp;sig=BiyXRqJXRGrMWbrBNgn8de2kpCo#PRA2-PA112,M1 GoogleBooks]<br /> <br /> '''ovoöleaginous'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Another Pynchonic word combination, here denoting the two main ingredients of mayonnaise: 1) eggs, and 2) oil. It's not &quot;fecoventilatory collision&quot; as seen in &quot;Vineland,&quot; but it's nice.<br /> <br /> '''Grenache'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Grape commonly used in Rhone Valley wines e.g. Chateauneuf du Pape.<br /> <br /> '''Chantilly'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> <br /> Region north of Paris.<br /> <br /> Here the reference is to crème chantilly otherwise known as whipped cream. Chantilly mayonnaise is made by incorporating the beaten egg whites for extra lightness.<br /> <br /> '''attainder'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Legislative act declaring that a person is guilty of a crime and setting punishment without the benefit of a formal trial. The Constitution forbids the federal government (Article I, Section 9, clause 3) and the state governments (Article I, Section 10, clause 1) from passing bills of attainder.<br /> [www.historycentral.com/Civics/B.html] <br /> <br /> ''''''Aux armes, citoyens''''''&lt;br&gt;<br /> ''To arms, citizens'', from the French national anthem, ''La Marseillaise'' (1792). Kit confused La Mayonnaise with La Marseillaise.&lt;br&gt;<br /> Not &quot;Le Marseillaise,&quot; you nitwit!<br /> <br /> '''Louis XV'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> King of France 1715-1774 [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Louis_XV]. <br /> <br /> '''Cléo de Mérode'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Glamorous French ballerina (1875-1966), later Follies Bergere dancer and famous beauty. Her reputed intimacy with King Leopold was only a rumor [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cleo_de_Merode]. The character Madame Leonora Armfeldt in Stephen Sondheim's ''A Little Night Music'' has some features in common with her.<br /> <br /> '''Marquise de Pompadour'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Mistress of Louis XV,once friend of Voltaire and a power behind official scenes.[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Madame_de_Pompadour].<br /> <br /> ==Page 545==<br /> <br /> '''duc de Richelieu'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Duc de Richelieu (1696-1788), marshal of France, was a grandnephew of Cardinal Richelieu, and born in Paris. Apart from his reputation as a man of exceptionally loose morals, he attained, in spite of a defective education, distinction as a diplomatist and general. ([http://www.1911encyclopedia.org/Louis_Francois_Armand_du_Plessis,_duc_de_Richelieu duc de Richelieu] and cf [[ATD_489-524#Page 490|page 490:duc de Richelieu]])<br /> <br /> '''dubious 'victory' in 1756'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> As part of the Seven Years' War (1756-1763), duc de Richelieu (1696-1788), a Marshal of France, won a victory in the Battle of Minorca (May 20, 1756) over John Byng (1704-1757), a British Admiral. In spring of 1756 John Byng was sent with a small and undermanned fleet to relieve the British ''Port Mahon'' on the Mediterranean island of Minorca. During the battle ensued, several British ships were badly damaged by the French squadron while others, including Byng's flagship, were still out of effective firing range. Instead of engaging the enemy directly, Byng decided to keep the formation, allowing the French fleet to get away undamaged. ([http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_Minorca Battle of Minorca]).<br /> <br /> '''the ill-fated Admiral Byng'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> John Byng, convicted by court-martial of failure &quot;to do his utmost&quot; in the battle, shot in 1757. Remembered because of (1) his being the last officer of flag rank to be put to death for conduct in battle and (2) Voltaire's gag in ''Candide:'' &quot;In this country it is good to kill an admiral from time to time in order to encourage the others.&quot;<br /> <br /> '''cantharides'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> &quot;Spanish fly,&quot; contact irritant sometimes ill-advisedly used as aphrodisiac.<br /> <br /> '''Sadean'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Pertaining to the Marquis de Sade. The acts the chef performs on the egg and oil have the same names as acts of Sadean sex. <br /> <br /> '''''n'est-ce pas?'''''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Right? (Isn't that so?)<br /> <br /> '''vetiver'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> A grass (Vetiveria zizanioides) of tropical India, cultivated for its aromatic roots that yield an oil used in perfumery.<br /> [www.answers.com/topic/vetiver]. So, a perfume with, llterallly, roots in India.<br /> <br /> Vetiver makes frequent appearances throughout ''À la recherche du temps perdu.''<br /> <br /> '''pip'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> A beaut; in current parlance, a hottie.<br /> <br /> '''Q.P. system'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Quaternion Probability, page 536.<br /> <br /> '''Usine Régionale'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> French: as translated in the text.<br /> <br /> ==Page 546==<br /> <br /> '''disjunctive effects of thunderstorms'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Folk wisdom says a thunderstorm will cause mayonnaise to separate (oil from yolks).<br /> <br /> '''cottonseed oil'''<br /> <br /> Mayonnaisse like Smegmo and Crisco is a hydrogenated fat; cottonseed oil is a common factor to all three. Indeed, the name Crisco derives from the intial sounds of &quot;'''crys'''tallized '''c'''ottonseed '''o'''il&quot;. Note in the next few pages a mention of Candlebrow -- underscoring a tie-in between Mayonnaisse and Smegmo. <br /> <br /> It may be of interest to note that hydrogenation may have a symbolic use for Pynchon. The process entails bubbling hydrogen through oil in the presence of a metal catalyst such as nickel, platinum, aluminum at 248 to 410 degrees. Remnants of these metals stay in the finished product, and when consumed can lead to an increase in heavy metals in the human body.<br /> <br /> Eating hydrogenated oils is like eating plastic. The body does not recognize that these molecules have been mutated and tries to use them as essential fatty acids. But they cannot perform the same function, and as a result hydrogenated oils can cause short circuits in the electrical flow that controls the heartbeat, nerve functions, cell division and mental balance. They also create free radicals (anarchists!) that are linked to cancers. Free radicals plus metal remnants are a major contributor to cancer, heart disease, immune system dysfunction, osteoporosis, depression, chronic fatigue, Alzheimers, and neurological diseases. It is estimated that over 200 million people have died prematurely because of the hydrogenated oils found in our diets. [http://www.drz.org/asp/newsletter/default.asp?xt2id=23] Not to mention innocent bystanders killed by mentally imbalanced people whose imbalance may stem from the ingestion of hydrogenated oils -- there may be some underlying reality to the &quot;Twinkie defense.&quot;<br /> <br /> '''lounge suit'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> A lounge suit is another name for business suit consisting of a matching jacket and trousers or skirt.<br /> <br /> '''congress shoes'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> ankle high shoes with elastic gussets in the sides (wordweb online)<br /> <br /> '''invisible hand'''<br /> <br /> Suggestive of Adam Smith's metaphor for market forces in economics.<br /> <br /> '''dripping-heads'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mayonnaise To make mayonnaise,] beat together egg yolks, salt, mustard and vinegar, then drip in oil while beating to form the emulsion. If you scale the process up for industrial production, you will automate the introduction of the oil, using nozzles that release it a drop at a time—but in a large vat you can have many such nozzles.<br /> <br /> '''''cuves d'agitation'''''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Vat or tank in which the mayonnaise is agitated or beaten.<br /> <br /> '''Clinique d'Urgence pour Sauvetage des Sauces'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> French: Emergency Clinic for Salvage of Sauces.<br /> <br /> ==Page 547==<br /> <br /> '''' ...engulfed in thick, slick, sour-smelling mayonnaise. ''''<br /> The whole Kit's experience in the mayonnaise factory is very much reminiscent to [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Roald_Dahl Roald Dahl]'s [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Charlie_and_the_Chocolate_Factory Charlie and the Chocolate Factory].<br /> <br /> '''''Cazzo, cretino'''''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Literally, &quot;Dick, cretin.&quot; ''Cazzo'' is a common Italian interjectionary obscenity, especially in the south. &quot;Cazzo, cretino,&quot; is akin to someone saying, &quot;Well shit, dummy,&quot; or &quot;F-ing moron!&quot;<br /> <br /> '''''È il cowboy!'''''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Italian: It's the cowboy!<br /> <br /> '''''vero?'''''&lt;br&gt;<br /> true? real?<br /> <br /> '''''Le bambole anarchiste, porca miseria'''''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Italian: Anarchist babes, oh boy.<br /> <br /> '''Oudenberg'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> A southeast suburb of Ostende.<br /> <br /> '''Quai de l'Entrepôt'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Warehouse Quay<br /> <br /> '''''ragazzi'''''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Italian: boys, guys.<br /> <br /> ==Page 548==<br /> <br /> '''''timbres fictifs'''''&lt;br&gt;<br /> French: fictive postage stamps. Cf &quot;Lot 49&quot;.<br /> <br /> '''&quot;IIIb&quot;'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> As explained in the text<br /> <br /> '''Germany might stand a better chance...'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> That is, if the French were to push into Alsace (per Boulanger) as the Germans executed the Schlieffen Plan [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Schlieffen_plan] for the encirclement of Paris, it would put the French at an even greater disadvantage...as actually happened in 1914. Had the Belgians and British not delayed the Germans in Flanders, and had the French railroads not performed speedily to bring the French troops back to the Marne, World War I could have had a very different outcome...an alternate history. <br /> <br /> '''revanchist'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Policies based on revenge, or a person following such policies. In General Boulanger's case, revenge against Germany for the Franco-Prussian War (that is, retaking Alsace, lost in 1871).<br /> <br /> '''the somewhat discomposed General'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Having died in 1891, the General by the time of the action is certainly somewhat '''de'''composed; brief biographies do not suggest he was ''non compos mentis,'' that is, mentally discomposed.<br /> <br /> ==Page 549==<br /> <br /> '''cackled Darby'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> (When did he lose his innocence?)<br /> <br /> '''a modification of any salsician metaphor toward the diminutive'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Salsician: pertaining to sausage. Lindsay says Suckling's penis is better compared to a wiener than a knockwurst.<br /> <br /> '''&quot;Why you little–and I do mean 'little'–&quot;'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Another Simpsons reference? <br /> <br /> '''dunes between Nieuport and Dunkirk'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Nieuport is a Belgian seaport about 10 miles southwest of Ostend. Dunkirk is a French port (less than 10 miles inside the French border) about 20 miles southwest of Nieuport. The latter was a site of one of the bloodest battle in World War I. The general area between Niewport and Dunkirk was the well traversed battle fields of two world wars. (Dunkirk was (in)famous for the British Army's escape from the Nazi German's assault in World War II.)<br /> <br /> '''power-receivers'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Not information, energy.<br /> <br /> ==Page 550==<br /> <br /> '''Lot's wife''' &lt;br&gt;<br /> Angels of God led Lot and his family out of Sodom as it was being destroyed and told them not to look back at the mayhem. Lot's wife, Edith, imprudently looked back and was transfigured into a pillar of salt.<br /> <br /> '''Italian grotto'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> an imitating recess or structure made to resemble a natural Italian grotto.<br /> <br /> '''a highly developed taste, moreover, for human blood'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Since Pugnax developed this taste in the Carpathians, home of Castle Dracula, this seems a clear reference to Bram Stoker's novel. <br /> <br /> '''Carpathians'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Major mountain range running northwest-southeast through Poland, Slovakia, western Ukraine and Romania.<br /> <br /> '''Uhlans'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Uhlan regiments belonged to the light cavalry. They wore splendid uniforms (model for some U.S. marching band uniforms). [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Uhlan Wikipedia article.]<br /> <br /> '''Temesvár'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Now Timişoara, extreme western Romania.<br /> <br /> ==Page 551==<br /> <br /> '''...separated by only a slice of Time...'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Miles is beginning to experience Time almost as a spatial dimension, his personal vector as traversing (!) 4-dimensional space, or perhaps multidimensional space, the mathematics for which is being debated in Ostend.<br /> <br /> '''securing the mess decks'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> The Chums follow U.S. Navy idiom in orders (frequently prefixed with &quot;Now&quot;) and shipboard activities (&quot;secure&quot; meaning &quot;whatever you did before, undo it now,&quot; in this case put away the dishes and fold up the tables).<br /> <br /> '''Ryder Thorn'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Tolkienesque name? Or perhaps it's a nod to the Ryder-Waite Tarot deck and to Kevin Thorn (Kevin Matthew Fertig, 1977-), the American professional wrestler better known by his ring name Kevin Thorn who is currently signed to World Wrestling Entertainment wrestling on its ECW brand. He has appeared in vigniettes with Ariel (Shelly Martinez, 1980-), the tarot card reader, who spits blood at the camera while she &quot;predicted the future of ECW.&quot; Yup, a stretch...<br /> <br /> *The name also evokes the Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse.<br /> <br /> '''He was at Candlebrow.'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Presumably a 'trespasser.'<br /> <br /> '''the four-note chord in the context of timelessness'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> A melody is formed by notes following one another in time; a chord on the ukulele violates that practice by having all the notes sound at once. A really clever little passage.<br /> Note: Jazz musicians describe musical improvisations as horizontal (with the melody) or vertical (with the chord)<br /> <br /> ==Page 552==<br /> <br /> '''knuckle-duster'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Brass knuckles.<br /> <br /> '''Diksmuide'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> 20 kilometers south of Ostend (about halfway to Ypres).<br /> <br /> ==Page 553==<br /> <br /> '''The terrain was flat...lowlands'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Not, this time, a reference to Pynchon's ''Lowlands'', but to the two-dimensionality of Flanders, as in Edwin A. Abbott's ''Flatland'' [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Flatland]; most humans, like the inhabitants of Flanders and Abbott's Flatlanders, experience life in two dimensions. <br /> <br /> '''Somewhere up in the sky was Miles' home...'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Whereas Miles and the Chums of Chance, in contrast, live in three dimensions. The mathematicians gathered in Ostend are trying to calculate how to experience and use vectors to live in four dimensions; in a way, to experience Time as a kind of spatial dimension. Miles, on P. 551, is demonstrating the beginnings of an intuitive discovery of how to experience Time as an almost spatial dimension. Which would be a sort of &quot;time travel&quot;, or at least an expanded view of life and history.<br /> <br /> '''retted'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> soaked in water or exposed to moisture (as flax or hemp) to facilitate the removal of the fiber from the woody tissue by partial rotting.<br /> <br /> ==Page 554==<br /> <br /> '''Ypres and Menin'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Municipalities in West Flanders that were sites of some of the bloodiest battles of WWI. At the beginning of the war, the British and Belgian stand helped save Paris from encirclement by the Germans, and saved the Channel ports, but as Thorn points out, the area became the western anchor of the Western Front trench system. The several Battles of Ypres saw the first uses of poison gas (Mustard Gas, dichlorodiethylsulfide, was first called Yperite), the use of enormous mines, and the legendary mud of Passchendaele [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Passchendaele]. <br /> <br /> '''Ten years from now'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> (1914?) through 1918? and beyond?. Another paramorphic mirror--what do we now face. Whatever it is, it is nuclear.<br /> <br /> '''Bosch'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Hieronymous Bosch (1450-1516), Dutch painter of nightmares. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hieronymus_Bosch Wikipedia entry].<br /> <br /> '''Brueghel'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Pieter Brueghel the Elder(1525-1569), Flemish painter.[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pieter_Brueghel_the_Elder Wikipedia entry].<br /> <br /> '''League'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> League of Nations? The League of Nations was formed after WWI to prevent future wars. Didn't succeed.<br /> <br /> No. In this case a historical unit of length, approximately three miles - &quot;league on league&quot; = tremendous masses<br /> <br /> '''where the needles went and which way to rotate them'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> I.e., how to push Thorn's buttons; the image is from acupuncture.<br /> <br /> ==Page 555==<br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> '''simpletons at the fair'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Making Pynchon's metaphor explicit.<br /> <br /> '''Chopin E-minor Nocturne'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> Frédéric Chopin (1810-49), a Polish pianist and composer ([http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fr%C3%A9d%C3%A9ric_Chopin Chopin]). He was born in Warsaw, Poland to a Polish morther and a French father. He went to Paris at the age of 20 and died there at the age of 39. He was widely regarded as one of the most famous and influential composers for the piano. From 1837-47 he had a 10-year stormy relationship with the French writer George Sand. His E-minor Nocturne is a 4-minute long Romantic style piano solo composed in 1827. (A ''nocturne'' is usually a musical composition that is inspired by, or evocative of, the night [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nocturne Nocturne].)<br /> <br /> '''owl-light'''&lt;br&gt;<br /> ???glimmering or imperfect light or twilight hours.<br /> <br /> ''''plasmic hysteresis''''&lt;br&gt;<br /> <br /> A coined term, apparently similar in meaning to Miles’ phrase “failure of physical translation.” Plasma would take an older meaning of “form” or “shape.&quot; Hysteresis, according to Webster's, refers to “a retardation in effect when the forces on an object are changed.” Hysteresis is used to describe magnetic phenomenon as well as plastic or elastic materials, that involve changes to a rest state that last beyond the forces that cause them. Examples include recordings on magnetic tape or a thumbprint slowly disappearing from putty. In the context of this passage, plasmic hysteresis appears to describe the lingering visage of someone who is no longer present – a hysteresis of form only and thus a failed physical translation. See [http://www.etymonline.com/index.php?search=plasma&amp;searchmode=none etymology of plasma] and this nifty explanation of [http://www.lassp.cornell.edu/sethna/hysteresis/WhatIsHysteresis.html hysteresis]. <br /> <br /> Hysteresis has also been used to refer to “loops” in time, certainly apropos in this case. I stumbled across an excellent example in a 1980 episode of Dr. Who, in which the eponymous Dr. is trapped in “chronic hysteresis,” an endless loop or return to a previous <br /> point in time – very similar to the situation of Ryder Thorn. [http://www.drwhoguide.com/who_5q.htm Check it out for yourself!] <br /> <br /> <br /> ==Annotation Index==<br /> {{ATD PbP}}</div>

MKOHUT https://against-the-day.pynchonwiki.com/wiki/index.php?title=Pagination_Blues&diff=14078 2007-10-12T04:32:56Z

<p>MKOHUT: </p> <hr /> <div>[[image:atd_uk-paperback.jpg|caption|UK Paperback|thumb|175px]][[image:atd_usa-paperback.jpg|caption|USA Paperback|thumb|175px|right]]Apparently, the soon-to-be-published UK edition of ''Against the Day'' will be paginated very differently from the hardback edition. As for the USA/Penguin edition, I don't yet know the pagination status of that one, but I'm checking.<br /> <br /> I guess it should have been anticipated. Perhaps the UK publishers (Random House/Jonathan Cape) don't have a clue of the importance of the pagination of a gigantic Pynchon novel. Or Pynchon sees the obsessive analysis of his work as a Routinization of Charisma? Whatever the case, the pagination in the current ''AtD'' wiki is to have its soft-cover variants and we'll just have to deal.<br /> <br /> I just got the news this morning from Dr. Basileios Drolias, proprietor of the [http://againsttheday.wordpress.com ''Against the Day'' blog]. I haven't yet seen the paperback so don't know how different it is.<br /> <br /> I suppose worst-case scenario is that readers who want to take full advantage of this wiki will have to get themselves the original hardback (hmmm ... no, impossible! an economic reason to change the pagination?...) or one of the many contributors will devise a page-conversion equation.<br /> <br /> [[User:WikiAdmin|WikiAdmin]] 08:01, 7 October 2007 (PDT)<br /> <br /> Well, let's stop blaming Penguin before we actually have the paperback in our hands. Based on the evidence so far, I do belive that the US paperback will have the same pagination as the first edition: Amazon as well as Penguin's own website state that the paperback runs to 1104 pages. In all likelihood, this page count shouldn't be regarded as the number of numbered pages, but as the total number of pages in the book. Thus, many websites originally listed the page count of the first edition at 1104 pages, and if you include the unnumbered pages of the front and back matter of the first edition, it does in fact run to 1104 pages.<br /> <br /> This doesn't necessarily mean, of course, that the US paperback will end up with the stated number of pages. The stated page count of the first edition changed back and forth a number of times in the months leading up to publication, and the page count of the US paperback can still be changed. If it stays at 1104 pages, though, I think it likely that this translates into 1085 numbered pages.<br /> <br /> I've also got my hands on a copy of the UK paperback, and it is correct that this edition has a different page count. Amazon.co.uk lists the page count as 1234 pages, but the actual number of numbered pages is 1220 (again, note the difference between the total number of pages and the numbered pages). The good news is that most of the many typos from the first edition have been corrected in this edition. The bad news is that the print is vanishingly small - practically unreadble - and, of course, that the page count differs from the first edition.<br /> <br /> So let's hope that the page count of the US paperback remains at 1104/1085, and that the many errors have been corrected here as well. Then we would have a decent standard text from which to proceed.<br /> <br /> [[User:Torerye|Torerye]] 00:48, 9 October 2007 (PDT)<br /> <br /> ==The UK Paperback Pagination==<br /> <br /> Basileios Drolias has sent along the differences in pagination between the UK and USA hardback editions and the forthcoming UK paperback. The first entry is the hardback edition; the second is the UK paperback edition. He also includes a first pass estimated formula for converting page numbers:<br /> <br /> :Part 1 page 1 | page 1<br /> :Part 2 page 119 | page 133<br /> :Part 3 page 429 | page 483<br /> :Part 4 page 695 | page 781 <br /> :Part 5 page 1063 | page 1195<br /> :last page: page 1085 | page 1220<br /> <br /> :The best factor for translating from one page to the other seems to be close to 1.1237. Still not 100% accurate. <br /> <br /> [[User:WikiAdmin|WikiAdmin]] 07:11, 9 October 2007 (PDT)<br /> <br /> ==Random House UK Explains==<br /> <br /> I emailed Random House UK Marketing's Tom Avery, asking why they changed the pagination for the paperback edition. His reply:<br /> <br /> :I’m afraid the decision to alter the pagination was made from a practical perspective – as we are publishing in B format, retaining the same page size would render the text microscopic.<br /> <br /> FYI: &quot;Paperback (B format)&quot; means that the size of the book is 198mm x 129mm (7.8&quot; x 5&quot;). You may also see paperback editions of books advertised as &quot;A format.&quot; This means that the size of the book is 178mm x 110mm (7&quot; x 4.3&quot;).<br /> <br /> Interestingly, both the Penguin and Jonathan Cape (Random House UK) ARCs of ''Against the Day'' were printed in &quot;C format&quot; (235mm x 153mm / 9.25&quot; x 6&quot;).<br /> <br /> Hopefully, the USA edition will opt for a larger paperback format to avoid repagination!<br /> <br /> [http://www.wildandwoolley.com.au/self_publish/getting_started More on publishing formats...]<br /> <br /> [[User:WikiAdmin|WikiAdmin]] 08:18, 11 October 2007 (PDT)<br /> <br /> I wrote (most of) this on October 7, but posted it to a Talk: Pagination Blues page.I am posting it here now: &lt;br&gt;<br /> Although I have yet to see the American Penguin paperback of ''Against the Day''-- one is on the way to me--I have learned that it consists of 1104 pages, about 19 numbered pages more than the hardcover. First, depending on how the numbering is done--more non-AtD-text pages might have been counted--the actual difference between the two editions could be even less.[I think Toreye is correct and the text pages will number 1085, after non-text pages are eliminated]&lt;br&gt;<br /> Pagination is determined by type size, font and page set-up as well as the height and width size of the book. Given those choices, the pagination of the book becomes mathematical.&lt;br&gt;<br /> The paperback size of ''Against the Day'' SEEMS to be a very close match to the hardcover--9 x 6 vs 9.4 x 6.2--with the hanging hardcover trim removed. (Had ''Against the Day'' been smaller in height, this might not have been the case)&lt;br&gt;<br /> Anyway, the worst case for matching the Penguin paperback pagination with the hardcover seems to be around one extra page correlation needed around every 55. Therefore, around 2 per hundred pages.&lt;br&gt;<br /> A-And, so, so many pages have entries--do all of them?---that readers and posters using the Penguin paperback should be able to easily locate the page on which they want to post by a moment's check for other words and phrases already posted.&lt;br&gt;<br /> A-A-And, There are still a lot of Penguin hardcovers available and Penguin is offering them new at just $3.25 over the paperback price as I write. (And, although I do not believe in buying 'used' books for authors I would like to get whatever not-usually-enough royalties they deserve, there are many 'used' hardcover AtDs available very cheap.&lt;br&gt;<br /> [Buy new for Jackson is my motto] [[User:MKOHUT|MKOHUT]] 21:08, 11 October 2007 (PDT)<br /> <br /> Re: publishing formats:&lt;br&gt;<br /> Although I am not fully familiar with American book production lingo, in my time in publishing, I never heard paperback formats referred to as A-B-C, etc. A-and there seem to be more size possibilities in American houses, sizes referred to in inches, of course; most common sizes being 5.5 x 8.5 and 6 x 9.&lt;br&gt;<br /> The ARCs of ATD were surely done from the same digital file in a common size each agreed upon.[[User:MKOHUT|MKOHUT]] 21:21, 11 October 2007 (PDT)</div>

MKOHUT