Thomas Pynchon Wiki - User contributions [en]

ATD 724-747

2007-02-27T04:53:44Z

Mikeh: /* Page 729 */

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

==Page XX==

'''Sample entry''' 
Please format like this.

==Page 724==

'''Dolomites''' 
Mountains, a sub-chain of the Alps, northeast Italy. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dolomites Dolomites].

==Page 725==

'''Squarcione''' 
[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Squarcione Francesco Squarcione] (c.1397-1468) was a Padovan artist. His pupils included Andrea Mantegna (with whom he had many legal battles), Cosimo Tura and Crivelli. There are only two works signed by him: the Madonna with Child (imaged here, Berlin) and an altarpiece (Padua).

'''Mantegna''' 
[http://www.wga.hu/bio/m/mantegna/biograph.html Andrea Mantegna] (1431-1505) was an Italian Renaissance artist. He was one of the foremost north Italian painters of the 15th century. A master of perspective and foreshortening, Mantegna made important contributions to the compositional technigues of Renaissance painting.

'''the famed Paduan collector and impresario''' 
ie. Mantegna. Mentegna studied and worked between 1441-1459 at Padua, a city of northeast Italy west of Venice. At that time in Padua there was much interest in collecting and studying Roman antiquities. Padua was an important cultural center during the Middle Ages and was known for its artistic and architectural works by Giotto, Mantegna and Donatello. Galileo taught at its university from 1592 to 1610.

'''On the Banks of the Wabash, Far Away''' 
Indiana's state song; [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/On_the_Banks_of_the_Wabash,_Far_Away lyrics.]

==Page 726==

'''Lost Lands''' 
a fictitious place in the Lagoon?

'''''The Sack of Rome''''' 
a fictitious mural artwork?

'''''caorlina''''' 
???

'''Marco Zoppo''' 
[http://www.nga.gov/cgi-bin/pbio?34000 Marco Zoppo] (1433-1478), another Paduan painter. An innovator with a very personal style with rich artistic inventiveness. His reputation as an artist diminished gradually in the past, but his contributions to Venetian painting and book illumination have now been recognized.

'''Haruspices''' 
Roman religious functionaries who looked for clues to the future in the entrails of sacrificed animals.

'''strung by one foot upside down''' 
The Hanged Man again.

'''Cassily Adam rendition''' 
It's Adams. Titled [http://www.ed-resources.net/guide/exhibit/2.39.htm "Custer's Last Fight,"] the picture was acquired by Anheuser-Busch, reproduced and placed in thousands of taverns. The company later gave the work to the 7th Cavalry Regiment.

==Page 727==

'''Cannareggio''' 
Cf [[ATD_557-587#Page_573|page 573: Cannareggio]].

'''''lucciole''''' 
Italian: "prostitutes"

'''''squadri''''' 
Italian: "teams", "gangs"

'''''soldi''''' 
Italian: "money"

'''''forcheta''''' 
??? (on page 582, there is one ''foschetta'')

'''Hottentot''' 
Part of a series of zany distortions. French ''attentat'' = coup, assassination.

'''Antietam''' 
It refers to the Battle of Antietam in the American Civil War. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_Antietam The Battle of Antietam] was the first major battle in the War and fought on September 17, 1862 near Antietam Creek in Maryland. It was the bloodiest single-day battle in American history with almost 23,000 casualties.

==Page 728==

'''San Polo''' 
Cf [[ATD_557-587#Page_573|page 573: San Polo]].

'''Rialto bridge''' 
Cf [[ATD_429-459#Page_439|page 439: Nuovo Rialto]].

'''''bisi''''' 
Italian: peas.

'''''campo''''' 
a large square.

'''Ca' Spongiatosta''' 
Casa Spongiatosta: House of Princess Spongiatosta. (see page 582).

'''Topinambur''' 
''Helianthus tuberosus'': Jerusalem Artichoke, or sunchoke. It is a variety of sunflower; tuberous root was used as a potato substitute in WWII [http://www.flickr.com/photos/nfoto/94369056/]. The name "topinambur" is used in Europe.

'''Friuli''' 
[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Friuli Friuli] is a region in northeast Italy next to Slovenia and Austria.

'''Treviso''' 
[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Treviso Treviso] is a town in the Veneto region of Italy.

'''radicchio''' 
a chicory of a red variety with variegated leaves.

'''verza''' 
Italian: cabbage.

'''''auguri, ragazzi''''' 
Italian: "all the best, folks" "good luck, boys"

==Page 729==

'''no . . . apiarian byproduct of hers''' 
I.e., none of her beeswax (American slang for "business").

'''pennsilvoney''' 
More foreign-language comedy. Italian ''pensione'' = pension (lodging with board included).

'''the Britannia, once known as the Palazzo Zucchelli''' 
???

'''old Barkie''' 
???

'''eighty-seven not out''' 
Cricket metaphor: having a banner day and not close to the end of it. It is also known as an unlucky number, thirteen away from century (100 runs), in which many batsmen get out.

'''Eleanora Duse''' 
Consensus spelling is ''Ele'''o'''nora.'' 1859-1924, Italian actress, pioneer of realism on the stage.

==Page 730==

'''Damned cowboy''' 
Same expletive used on page 623 (annotations).

'''Florian's''' 
A café in San Marco Sqaure.

'''''qualsiasi''''' 
Italian: "whatever"

==Page 731==

'''''camerieri''''' 
Italian: "chambermaids"

'''''levante''''' 
Italian: "east wind"

'''the ancient family arms''' 
"[A] sponge couchant on a field chequy with flames at the foot." Pynchonian mock-heraldry. ''Couchant'' refers to an animal lying down with its erect head to the viewer's left. Well, at least sponges do belong to the animal kingdom. ''Chequy'' (one correct spelling) identifies the field or background of the shield as being divided into squares like a checkerboard. ''At the foot'' is a heraldic solecism; ''in base'' is preferable.

Taking two colors at random, say ''gules'' (red) and ''argent'' (silver or white), we could blazon the arms as "Chequy argent and gules, a sponge proper couchant above flames of fire of the third in base." Of course when the arms are carved in stone you can't see the colors. ''Proper'' means "in the color of the natural object," so . . . sponge-colored for the sponge, red and yellow for the flames.

Heraldists refer to "canting arms" when the charges on the shield pun on the bearer's name, as in this case: The flames are toasting the sponge.

==Page 732==

'''Pearl Street''' 
The location of the headquarters of Vibe Corp, (pp. 333-334 of AtD).

'''daylit America . . . its steadfast denial of night''' 
Cf. The novel's epigraph, Thelonious Monk's "It's always night, or we wouldn't need light."

'''outnumbered . . . overwhelmingly''' 
One of Cantor's results. If aleph0 represents the "cardinality" of the rationals (a measure for infinite sets that corresponds to the number of elements for finite ones) and ''C'' represents the cardinality of the real numbers, then ''C'' + aleph0 = ''C.'' In words, the reals don't even notice if you take away the rationals, leaving just the irrational numbers. Pretty overwhelming.

'''Quadri's''' 
''Gran Caffè Ristorante'' in Venice. [http://www.venetia.it/quadri/index.htm Quadri] has been considered a symbol of gastronomic excellence directly overlooking St. Mark's Square.

'''Lavena''' 
[http://www.venetia.it/lavena/index.htm ''Caffè Lavena''] at Piazza St. Marco, Venice.

'''the D.and D.''' 
???

'''a Cavour''' 
???

==Page 733==

'''areeferdirtcheap''' 
Reef getting his Italian wrong again: ''arrivederci,'' goodbye.

==Page 734==
'''''osteria''''' 
Italian: "bar"

==Page 735==

'''''Cazzo''''' 
Italian: "shit"

==Page 736==

'''''vero''''' 
Italian: "true"

'''''appunto''''' 
Italian: "exactly"

'''''straccio''''' 
Italian: "rag"

'''Marienbad''' 
German for [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mari%C3%A1nsk%C3%A9_L%C3%A1zn%C4%9B Mariánské Lézně], a spa town in the Carlsbad Region of the Czech Republic. The town's Golden Era was in the second half of the 19th century, when many celebrities and top European rulers came to enjoy the curative carbon dioxide springs.

'''Salzburg''' 
[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Salzburg Salzburg], the birthplace of Mozart, is the fourth-largest city in Austria. It is located in the western Austria at the border with Germany. Its "Old Town", a UNESCO World Heritge Site, is well-known for its baroque architecture. The 1965 movie ''The Sound of Music'' drew ambivalent reactions from the citizens of Salzburg: the film is too tacky for their taste but it is also Salzburg's fattest cash cow.

'''forty mule''' 
A Reefian parting shot: French ''faute de mieux,'' meaning "for lack of anything better."

'''hangers''' 
A kind of pocketbook or purse that hung from a wrist (not in the OED, however).

==Page 737==

'''Rigby Nitro Express''' 
Some kind of bullet?

'''Henry Clay Frick''' 
[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Henry_Clay_Frick Henry Clay Frick] (1849-1919) was an American industrialist and art patron. In 1881, he and Andrew Carnegie formed a partnership between H.C. Frick & Co and Carnegie Steel Co. with Frick in charge of the Steel Company's operations. The 1892 [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Homestead_Steel_Strike Homestead Steel Strike] was mishandled by Frick, and he soon became a target of radical anarchists and others.

'''Brother Berkmann''' 
[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alexander_Berkman Alexander Berkmann] (1870-1936), also spelled Berkman, Anarchist and lover of Emma Goldman, with whom he plotted his unsuccessful 1892 attempt to assassinate Henry Clay Frick after the bitter Homestead Steel Strike. Dally dates this to "fifteen years ago", making it 1907 in book time.

'''drygulchin'd''' 
Cf [[ATD_615-643#Page_643|page 643: drygulched]].

==Page 738==

'''the San Marcuola stop''' 
[http://arglist.com/cgi-bin/image?gallery=venice&name=20050525-027 Photo of the Canal Grande at San Marcuola vaporetto stop].

'''Laguna Morte''' 
Dead Lagoon.

'''''macche''''' 
Italian: "no way"

==Page 739==

'''''La macchina infernale''''' 
"Infernal machine"; a (particularly 19th century) term for explosive devices used for terrorist attacks. The most famous example is "La conspiration de la machine infernale", or "Plot of the Rue Saint-Nicaise", an assassination plot against Napoleon that failed in 1800
([http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Plot_of_the_Rue_Saint-Nicaise wikipedia]).
Earlier in the book, we have encountered Tancredi working on "Preliminary Studies" toward such a machine (see page 585f.)

'''Bresci''' 
[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gaetano_Bresci Gaetano Bresci] (1869-1901), an Italian-American anarchist who assassinated Italian King Umberto I on July 29, 1900. He died in prison.

'''Luccheni''' 
[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Luigi_Lucheni Luigi Lucheni] (1873-1910), an Italian anarchist who stabbed, with a frayed file, to death the Austrian Empress Elizabeth in Geneva, Switzerland, on Septem 10, 1898. He late died in prison.

'''bad news rolling up the rails''' 
cf p. 41: "Most people have a wheel riding on a wire, or some rails in the street [...], to keep them moving in the direction of their destiny". Inevitability?

==Page 740==

'''Torino''' 
[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Turin Torino], ''Turin'', is a major industrial city as well as a business and cultural center in northern Italy. It is the home of the headquarters of Fiat and host of the 2006 Winter Olympics. It was the first capital of Italy.

'''Lampo, Gaulois''' 
A very small firearm. Some great photos and a description (in French). [http://site.voila.fr/collectionarme/gaulois.htm Gaulois].

'''Riva''' 
Cf [[ATD_557-587#Page_575|page 575: Riva]].

==Page 741==

'''the Procuratie''' 
[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Procuratie_Nuove The Procuraties] are three connected buildings on St Mark's Square in Venice. They are historic buildings over arcades and also connected to St Mark's Clocktower.

'''''imprimatura''''' 
The first layer of paint applied to a canvas, a base color that helps establish and control tone in the painting.

'''susurrance''' 
murmur ?

'''Strauss Jr.''' 
[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Johann_Strauss_II Johann Strauss Jr.] (1825-1899) was an Austrian composer known especially for his waltzes, such as ''On the Beautiful Blue Danube, Tales from the Vienna Woods'' and ''Emperor Waltz''.

'''Luigi Denza''' 
Cf [[ATD_336-357#Page_353|page 353: Luigi Denza]].

'''Ermanno Wolf-Ferrari''' 
[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ermanno_Wolf-Ferrari Ermanno Wolf-Ferrari] (1876-1948) was an Italian composer, best known for his comic operas.

==Page 742==

'''paletot''' 
an overcoat.

'''''piano nobile''''' 
In a large house, the level holding formal spaces, usually the first or second floor above ground level.

'''''teppisti''''' 
thugs.

'''his terrible intention''' 
moral judgment of the attempted assassin.

'''''Via, via!''''' 
Come on, come on!

'''like the glowing coal in the Buddhist parable''' 
???

'''Glisentis''' 
A pistol manufactured by Glisentis Company of Italy

==Page 743==

'''''assassini''''' 
hitmen; murderers

'''''Batti! batti la faccia''''' 
Beat! beat the face.

'''Vibe "takes on mass" (!) 
: his gravity increases! Cf. GR, of course.

'''rectified''' 
Main Entry: rec·ti·fi
Inflected Form(s): -fied; -fy·ing
Etymology: Middle English rectifien, from Anglo-French rectifier, from Medieval Latin rectificare, from Latin rectus right -- more at RIGHT
1 : to set right : REMEDY
2 : to purify (as alcohol) especially by repeated or fractional distillation
3 : to correct by removing errors : ADJUST <rectify the calendar>
4 : to make (an alternating current) unidirectional
synonym see CORRECT
- rec·ti·fi·ca·tion /"rek-t&-f&-'kA-sh&n/ noun--Amer Heritage Dictionary

Here: self-justification into "iron impregnability". Pynchon does not use iron positively in ATD.

'''''foschia''''' 
Italian: "haze"

'''Empress Elisabeth''' 
Austrian Empress Elizabeth was stabbed to death by Luigi Lucheni on September 10, 1898. Cf page 739.

'''King Umberto''' 
Italian King Umberto was shot on July 29, 1900 by Gaetano Bresci. Cf page 739.

==Page 744==

'''the Bauer-Grünwald''' 
The Bauer-Grünwald Hotel in Venice. It is a five-star luxurious hotel located a few minutes walk from San Marco Square. Cf page 136 & page 576.

'''Pommery''' 
A high-class French champagne. [http://www.thewinedoctor.com/champagne/pommery.shtml Pommery].

==Page 745==

'''Somebody shopped him''' 
Betrayed him (in exchange for something). Shop= to trade 1) in buying and selling for profit. 2) To make an exchange of one thing for another. American Heritage.

'''''stranniki''''' 
Cf [[ATD_644-677#Page_663|page 663: ''stranniki'']]

==Page 746==

'''the Ponte degli Scalzi''' 
[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ponte_degli_Scalzi The Ponte degli Scalzi] is one of the only three bridges in Venice to span the Grand Canal. It connects the districts of Santa Croce and Cannaregio. The Italian words mean ''Bridge of the Barefoot''.

'''Giudecca''' 
[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Giudecca Giudecca] is an island in the Venetian Lagoon lying immediately south of the central islands, from which is is separated by the Giudecca Canal.

'''''Stromboli''''' 
An Italian warship. It was an Etna Class Protected Cruiser, launched on February 4, 1886 and sold for disposal on March 10, 1907. See [http://www.battleships-cruisers.co.uk/italian_cruisers.htm Italian Cruisers].

'''''traghetti''''' 
ferries.

'''the Zattere''' 
Cf [[ATD_557-587#Page_578|page 578: Zattere]]. The Zattere, a long ''riva'' (river bank) extending from the basin of San Marco to San Basilio, has a panoramic view of the island of San Giorgio and the whole of the Giudecca island with Palladio's churches.

==Page 747==

'''melancholy of departure''' 
Allusion to: [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/De_Chirico Giorgio de Chirico's] painting: [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gare_Montparnasse_%28The_Melancholy_of_Departure%29 ''Gare Montparnasse (The Melancholy of Departure)''], dated to 1913 or early 1914; the title was reused in works with the same theme of 1914, 1915 and 1916. The paintings reproduce the sadness of separations by depiciting haunting, empty railway stations, pictorially or in abstract [http://images.google.com/images?hl=en&q=Melancholy+of+Departure&btnG=Search+Images].

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

ATD 525-556

2007-01-20T04:02:28Z

Mikeh: /* Page 526 */

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

==Page 525==

'''Boulevard van Isenghem''' 
???

'''street-plausible''' 
Presentable.

'''Quai de l'empereur''' 
???

'''estaminet''' 
According to the OED - A café in which smoking is allowed. Now, any small establishment selling alcoholic liquor.

'''twelve-centime''' 
???

'''Kellner''' 
German: waiter, barman. Use of the German word would be insulting to the Belgian barman.

'''''demi''''' 
Half glass.

'''Lambic''' 
Pron. ''lahm-BEEK.'' Unique Belgian beer style, sour and often thin in body.

'''skimmer''' 
Straw hat ("Panama").

==Page 526==

'''biquaternion''' 
Double quaternion.

'''Barry Nebulay''' 
Pun on a term from heraldry, ''barry nebuly.'' Barry (rhymes with "starry," not "carry") refers to a shield divided into an even number of parts by horizontal lines. Nebuly signals that the lines are deformed into stylized "cloud" 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.

'''University of Dublin''' 
If University College, Dublin, then Joyce had graduated in 1902.

'''Tasmania''' 
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

'''Hamiltonian devotees''' 
The Quaternion faction, after William Hamilton, who devised the scheme.

'''Grand Hôtel de la Nouvelle Digue''' 
There is a Hotel Digue in the Seychelles; this is a New Hotel Digue by Pynchon?

'''anterooms of death''' 
This metaphor is sometimes applied to concentration camps. Here the lyric "feel like I'm fixin' to die" seems more apposite.

'''Belgian Art Nouveau''' 
???

==Page 527==

'''dossing''' 
British slang for "sleeping", "staying overnight"

'''Russian nihilists''' 

'''Eugénie, Fatou''' 
Females.

'''Denis, and Policarpe''' 
Males.

'''Young Congo''' 
Probably in reference to the [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Young_Turks Young Turks], a Turkish revolutionary movement

'''Garde Civique''' 
A part of the Belgian army. According to the [http://www.1911encyclopedia.org/Belgium 1911 Britannica], "the mass of the garde civique does not pretend to possess military value. It is a defence against sedition and socialism."

'''French Second Bureau boys''' 
Deuxieme Bureau; French Intelligence.

'''''phalange''''' 
French: phalanx. A military (here mock-military) group ready for combat.

'''"...until something had happened, something too terrible to remember..."''' 
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'.

'''the Digue''' 
French for "dyke"

'''Congo... Belgians''' 
The Belgian colonisation of the Congo was, as Conrad's "Heart of Darkness" makes clear, notable for its greed and brutality.

'''Leopold, King of the Belgians''' 
1835-1909, reigned 1865-1909. In the Congo he acted as sole proprietor and absolute ruler.

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

'''Force Publique''' 
Belgian armed forces operating in the Belgian Congo ([http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Force_Publique Wikipedia])

'''rubber worker''' 
See above: One of the early missions of the FP was to increase rubber export quotas through forced labor and related atrocities.

==Page 528==

'''''khâgne''''' 
???

'''Reclus''' 
???

'''Stirnerite''' 
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].

'''''Anarcho-individualiste''''' 
i.e. he has doctrinal differernces with Stirnerism, strictly speaking; see P. 324, and "Eigenheit".

'''Leopold''' 
See p. 527.

'''going down lately''' 
Being assassaniated.

'''Sipido''' 
???

'''Prince... of Wales''' 
(Maud Gonne's husband claimed to have been involved in another such plot.)

'''Royal Bathing Hut... twenty francs''' 
???

'''twenty francs''' 
???

==Page 529==

'''picric family''' 
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.]

'''Brugère's powder''' 
See "picric family" above.

'''Designolle's''' 
See "picric family" above.

'''Monsieur Santos-Dumont''' 
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 "trademark Panama hat".

'''Green Hour''' and '''''l'heure vertigineuse''''' 
Absinthe-drinking time. The liqueur is green. In French, ''l'heure verte,'' so ''vertigineuse'' (vertiginous, causing dizziness) is a pun on the word for "green."

'''Rocco and Pino''' 
Rabid Quaternionists and sudden friends of Kit Traverse.

'''Whitehead works in Fiume''' 
Anticipating GR's V2 works.

Fiume is now Rijeka, Croatia. Trieste is on the northern shore of the Istra Peninsula, Rijeka on the southern shore.

'''''Alberta''''' 
???

'''Siluro Dirigible a Lenta Corsa''' 
or S.L.C. "slow course torpedo", "slow-running torpedo". [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]

Italian ''dirigibile'' means "steerable." The word suggests the torpedo is a counterpart of the dirigible ''Inconvenience.''

==Page 530==

'''exfiltrate''' 
Make a surreptitious escape (as "infiltrate" means to make a surreptitious entrance).

'''''Macchè''''' 
???

'''''Ehi, stugazz', categoria''''' 
???

'''''mezzogiornismo''''' 
Denigrating the Italian South

==Page 531==

'''Bruges''' 
An exceptionally beautiful Belgian town of canals which is thus one of several towns known as the 'Venice of the north'.

'''Raoul's Atelier de la Vitesse''' 
French: Ralph's Speed Shop.

'''Ghent''' 
Belgian city on the rail line about halfway between Ostend and Brussels.

'''Daimler six-cylinder''' 
???

'''a hundred horsepower''' 
???

'''''guaglion''''' 
???

'''Umeki Tsurigane''' 
Umeki is typically made with some combination of the various kanji for "plum" (ume) and "tree" (ki), though one has the ki being the character for "ghost/devil" and one obscure reading that's entirely redundant, where ume is "plant" (usually read ue). There is one where ume is the kanji for "buried or embedded". Tsurigane, means a "temple bell", which can stand alone or be followed by the grass kanji to mean "bellflower" (lots of botanical stuff happening here, if that means anything; hardly the only example in ''AtD''). Given the search for Shambhala going on, "Buried Temple Bell" seems a likely translation, at least at this point; the botanical meanings could perhaps emerge later.

'''Professor Knott''' 
???

==Page 532==

'''drover's sombrero''' 
Cowboy hat.

'''furoshiki''' 
???

'''taupe''' 
A brownish gray.

'''boilermakers and their helpers''' 
A shot of straight scotch followed by a beer chaser, plus other drinks.

'''''Comptes rendus''''' 
Les Comptes rendus de l'Académie des sciences Francais.

==Page 533==

'''aniline teal''' 
The wallpaper dye; aniline dyes were the products of I.G. Farben, significant in ''GR''.

'''Heavisiders''' 
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].

'''Grassmanniacs''' 
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].

'''in the mood for a clambake''' 
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.

'''Monopole de la Maison''' 
???

'''Idiom Neutral''' 
An invented language, like Esperanto. Idiom Neutral dictionaries first appeard in 1902. It looks like a simplified Latinate language and it grew out of Volapuk, another "auxiliary language." It was abandoned by the ''Akademi Internasional de Lingu Universal'' in 1908.

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 "Browse sites devoted to constructed languages."

'''phatic''' 
Basically, small talk or chatter. Words used to convey fellow-feeling rather than to impart information.

'''''Kampf ums Dasein''''' 
German: struggle for existence.

'''Q-brother''' 
"My fellow Quaternion"?

==Page 534==

'''Poiret gown''' 
???

'''''green and long''''' 
Pickle, or... what?

==Page 535==

'''no-name wine''' 
1970s idiom for common European practice?

'''Hamilton... first love''' 
???

==Page 536==

'''Oscar Wilde''' 
Note that Wilde's Dorian Gray also undergoes a kind of bilocation.

'''Kursaal''' 
Spa.

'''Curls''' 
???

'''Laplacians''' 
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.

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].

'''scream''' 
Scream motif.

'''beginning to appal''' 
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 Backwood'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.

'''baize''' 
Baize is a course woolen felt.

==Page 537==

'''broken symmetries''' 
???

'''''sphinxe Khnopffienne''''' 
???

'''Pléiade Lafrisée''' 
???

'''''Conseilleuse''''' 
Female consultant?

==Page 538==

'''retroversion matrix''' 
???

'''''Ma foi''''' 
Literally "My faith", i.e. "By my faith!", a mild exclamation of incredulity.

'''ten thousand francs''' 
???

'''piker''' 
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.

''''Mad Dog'''' 
???

'''Hegel... puns''' 
???

==Page 539==

'''vector quotient''' 
???

''''Triangle Asana'''' 
A basic yoga pose.

[http://yoga.org.nz/postures/yoga_positions_images_page.htm Here are images of several basic poses.]

''''Quadrantal Versor Asana'''' 
A triangle pose taken that extra dimension.

'''''"Uwe moer!"''''' 
???

'''noncommutative''' 
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.

'''reticule''' 
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.
[www.astunit.com/tutorials/glossary.htm]

'''Vacheron & Constantin watch''' 
???

'''hunting-case''' 
???

==Page 540==

'''"haar rekening, ja?"''' 
The bill, yes? (Dutch)?

''Her'' bill, yes? I.e., give the check to the lady.

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.

'''Piet Woevre''' 
Pete Weaver?

'''made him reach''' 
Possible allusion to a famous line, "When I hear the word culture I reach for my gun." From Hanns Johst's biographical play ''Schlageter''. The original line is slightly different: "Wenn ich Kultur höre ... entsichere ich meinen Browning," "Whenever I hear of culture... I release the safety-catch of my Browning!" (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.

The line is often misattributed to better-known Nazis and others [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hanns_Johst].

'''not unambiguous''' 
Ie, ambiguous.

'''''rastaquoueres''''' 
8???

'''de Decker''' 
In Dutch/Flemish, the name means "roofer." (''De'' in these names almost never means "of, from" as in French; it's nearly always the definite article.)

==Page 541==

'''''bobbejaan''''' 
???

'''MKIV/ODC... Mark Four''' 
???

'''your remit''' 
???

'''''gatkruiper''''' 
Dutch/Flemish: brownnose, ass-kisser.

'''one on her wrist''' 
???

'''over the day''' 
Title motif?

==Page 542==

'''trans-horizontic''' 
???

'''Edmund Whittaker''' 
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].

'''foaming louche''' 
???

'''cheval-glass''' 
Standing mirror in a freestanding vertical frame.

'''as if someone''' 
Sound-cancelling vs opacity-cancelling?

==Page 543==

'''monitory''' 
Admonitory.

'''He Who Must Come''' 
???

'''General Boulanger''' 
[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/General_Boulanger Georges Boulanger], French War Minister urging an attack on Germany

'''what death and what transfiguration''' 
Allusion to Richard Strauss' tone poem "Death and Transfiguration" (''Tod und Verklärung''), premiered in 1890.

'''''"Zeker"''''' 
Dutch, "certainly"

'''''dead cert''''' 
Dead certainty, sure thing.

'''Von Schlieffen''' 
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.

'''Wilhelm has offered Leopold part of France, the ancient Duchy of Burgundy''' 
[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.

'''lowlands''' 
Title of Pynchon's first published story. Here, ass?

==Page 544==

'''Place d'Armes''' 
Main square of Ostend; literally "drill field".

'''peau de soie''' 
"Skin of silk" A heavy, smooth satin with very fine ribbing; somewhat dull in sheen compared with traditional silk finishes.

'''Krafft-Ebing''' 
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].

'''toque''' 
A chef's hat

'''guipure''' 
???

'''midinette''' 
???

'''sous''' 
???

'''mayonnaise''' 
Brautigan's "Trout Fishing in America" famously ends with the word mayonnaise. [http://books.google.com/books?vid=ISBN0395500761&id=rbEjDovfyNMC&pg=RA2-PA111&lpg=RA2-PA111&ots=ELKl5b_6Tx&dq=mayonnaise+trout.fishing&num=100&sig=BiyXRqJXRGrMWbrBNgn8de2kpCo#PRA2-PA112,M1 GoogleBooks]

'''ovoöleaginous''' 
Another Pynchonic word combination, here denoting the two main ingredients of mayonnaise: 1) eggs, and 2) oil. It's not "fecoventilatory collision" as seen in "Vineland," but it's nice.

'''Grenache''' 
???

'''Chantilly''' 
???

'''attainder''' 
???

''''''Aux armes, citoyens'''''' 
Not "Le Marseillaise," you nitwit!

'''Louis XV''' 
King of France 1715-1774 [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Louis_XV].

'''Cléo de Mérode''' 
Glamorous French ballerina, 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].

'''marquise de Pompadour''' 
Mistress of Louis XV,once friend of Voltaire and a power behind official scenes.[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Madame_de_Pompadour].

==Page 545==

'''dubious 'victory' in 1756''' 
???

'''the ill-fated Admiral Byng''' 
John Byng, convicted by court-martial of failure "to do his utmost" 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:'' "In this country it is good to kill an admiral from time to time in order to encourage the others."

'''cantharides''' 
"Spanish fly," contact irritant sometimes ill-advisedly used as aphrodisiac.

'''Sadean''' 
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.

'''vetiver''' 
A grass (Vetiveria zizanioides) of tropical India, cultivated for its aromatic roots that yield an oil used in perfumery.
[www.answers.com/topic/vetiver]. So, a perfume with, llterallly, roots in India.

'''pip''' 
A beaut; in current parlance, a hottie.

'''Q.P. system''' 
Quaternion Probability, p?.

'''Usine Régionale''' 
French: as translated in the text.

==Page 546==

'''disjunctive effects of thunderstorms''' 
Folk wisdom says a thunderstorm will cause mayonnaise to separate (oil from yolks).

'''lounge suit''' 
???

'''congress shoes''' 
???

'''dripping-heads''' 
???

'''''cuves d'agitation''''' 
???

'''Clinique d'Urgence pour Sauvetage des Sauces''' 
French: Emergency Clinic for Salvage of Sauces.

==Page 547==

'''''Cazzo, cretino''''' 
Literally, "Dick, cretin." ''Cazzo'' is a common Italian interjectionary obscenity, especially in the south. "Cazzo, cretino," is akin to someone saying, "Well shit, dummy," or "F-ing moron!"

'''''È il cowboy!''''' 
Italian: It's the cowboy!

'''''Le bambole anarchiste, porca miseria''''' 
Italian: Anarchist babes, oh boy.

'''Oudenberg''' 
???

'''Quai de l'Entrepôt''' 
???

'''''ragazzi''''' 
Italian: boys, guys.

==Page 548==

'''''timbres fictifs''''' 
French: fictive postage stamps. Cf "Lot 49".

'''"IIIb"''' 
As explained in the text

'''Germany might stand a better chance...''' 
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.

'''revanchist''' 
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).

'''the somewhat discomposed General''' 
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.

==Page 549==

'''cackled Darby''' 
(When did he lose his innocence?)

'''a modification of any salsician metaphor toward the diminutive''' 
Salsician: pertaining to sausage. Lindsay says Suckling's penis is better compared to a wiener than a knockwurst.

'''"Why you little–and I do mean 'little'–"''' 
Another Simpsons reference?

'''dunes between Nieuport and Dunkirk''' 
???

'''power-receivers''' 
Not information, energy.

==Page 550==

'''Italian grotto''' 
???

'''Carpathians''' 
Major mountain range running northwest-southeast through Poland, Slovakia, western Ukraine and Romania.

'''Uhlans''' 
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.]

'''Temesvár''' 
Now Timişoara, extreme western Romania.

==Page 551==

'''...separated by only a slice of Time...''' 
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.

'''securing the mess decks''' 
The Chums follow U.S. Navy idiom in orders (frequently prefixed with "Now") and shipboard activities ("secure" meaning "whatever you did before, undo it now," in this case put away the dishes and fold up the tables).

'''Ryder Thorn''' 
Tolkienesque name?

'''He was at Candlebrow.''' 
Presumably a 'trespasser.'

'''the four-note chord in the context of timelessness''' 
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.

==Page 552==

'''knuckle-duster''' 
Brass knuckles.

'''Diksmuide''' 
20 kilometers south of Ostend (about halfway to Ypres).

==Page 553==

'''The terrain was flat...lowlands''' 
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.

'''Somewhere up in the sky was Miles' home...''' 
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 "time travel", or at least an expanded view of life and history.

'''retted''' 
???

==Page 554==

'''Ypres and Menin''' 
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 use of poison gas, the use of enormous mines, and the legendary mud of Passchendaele [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Passchendaele].

'''Ten years from now''' 
(1914?) through 1918? and beyond?. Another paramorphic mirror--what do we now face. Whatever it is, it is nuclear.

'''Bosch''' 
Hieronymous Bosch (1450-1516), Dutch painter of nightmares. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hieronymus_Bosch Wikipedia entry].

'''Brueghel''' 
Pieter Brueghel the Elder(1525-1569), Flemish painter.[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pieter_Brueghel_the_Elder Wikipedia entry].

'''League''' 
League of Nations? The League of Nations was formed after WWI to prevent future wars. Didn't succeed.

'''where the needles went and which way to rotate them''' 
I.e., how to push Thorn's buttons; the image is from acupuncture.

==Page 555==

'''simpletons at the fair''' 
Making Pynchon's metaphor explicit.

'''Chopin E-minor Nocturne''' 
???

'''owl-light''' 
???

''''plasmic hysteresis'''' 
???

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