Thomas Pynchon Wiki - User contributions [en]

ATD 525-556

2007-01-14T00:12:10Z

Morganovitch: /* Page 536 */

:'''<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''' 
???

'''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''''' 
???

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

'''skimmer''' 
???

==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''' 
???

'''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."

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

'''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''''' 
???

'''Leopold''' 
???

'''going down lately''' 
???

'''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''''' 
Nooniness? From Italian ''mezzogiorno'': noon.

==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''' 
???

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

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

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

'''Umeki Tsurigane''' 
???

'''Professor Knott''' 
???

==Page 532==

'''drover's sombrero''' 
???

'''furoshiki''' 
???

'''taupe''' 
???

'''boilermakers and their helpers''' 
???

'''''Comptes rendus''''' 
???

==Page 533==

'''aniline teal''' 
???

'''Heavisiders''' 
???

'''Grassmanniacs''' 
???

'''in the mood for a clambake''' 
Anachronistic Broadway show tune?

'''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==

'''Kursaal''' 
???

'''Curls''' 
???

'''Laplacians''' 
???

'''scream''' 
Scream motif.

'''beginning to appal''' 
???

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

==Page 537==

'''broken symmetries''' 
???

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

'''Pléiade Lafrisée''' 
???

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

==Page 538==

'''retroversion matrix''' 
???

'''''Ma foi''''' 
???

'''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''' 
???

'''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 'recokning', though he was widely believed to have been involved in some form of espionage.

'''Piet Woevre''' 
Pete Weaver?

'''made him reach''' 
(Cf Ezra Pound?)

'''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''' 
???

'''foaming louche''' 
???

'''cheval-glass''' 
???

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

==Page 543==

'''monitory''' 
???

'''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 Russina 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''' 
???

'''peau de soie''' 
???

'''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''' 
???

'''Cléo de Mérode''' 
???

'''marquise 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''' 
???

'''pip''' 
???

'''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

'''revanchist''' 
Policies based on revenge, or a person following such policies. In General Boulanger's case, revenge against Germany for the Franco-Prussian War.

'''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==

'''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.''' 
(Was he?)

'''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==

'''retted''' 
???

==Page 554==

'''Ypres and Menin''' 
Municipalities in West Flanders that were sites of some of the bloodiest battles of WWI.

'''Ten years from now''' 
(1914?)

'''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?

'''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}}

ATD 397-428

2007-01-06T08:22:06Z

Morganovitch: /* Page 416 */

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

==Page 397==

'''syntonic wireless''' 
???

'''street-Arab''' 
???

'''Columbian ''Half-Dollar''''' 
???

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

==Page 398==

'''nuncio''' 
Casulaly, a messengfer; more fomally, a permanent official Papal representative at a foreign court.

'''Evening Quarters''' 
???

'''H.G. Wells''' 
Herbert George Wells (1866-1946), one of the 19th Century science fiction writers whom Pynchon is both emulating and parodying in ''ATD''. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/H.G._Wells Wikipedia entry].

'''jeu d'esprit''' 
French: play of wit. "H. G. Wells speculative jeu d'esprit" refers specifically to his work The Time Machine.

'''on the subject''' 
On the subject of time machines.

'''National Imprest''' 
???

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

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

'''turned out''' 
(When? Before or after first visit?)

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

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

==Page 399==

'''indigo... yellow''' 
Clashing-colors motif.

'''dicer''' 
???

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

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

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

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

'''houris''' 
According to the ''OED'', a "nymph of the Muslim Paradise. Hence applied allusively to a voluptuously beautiful woman." According to the American Heritage Dictionary, "houris" is the plural of 'houri', as defined above.

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

==Page 400==

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

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

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

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

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

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

''''ying'''' 
"Yen"?

==Page 401==

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

'''Gophiz... Hudson Dustuhs''' 
Gophers, Hudson Dusters.

'''bushwahs''' 
Bourgeois.

'''slickin up''' 
Gentrification.

'''Mr. Mawgin''' 
J. Pierpont Morgan.

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

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

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

'''seeming to date from some ancient catastrophe, far older than the city.''' 
When, what is that catastrophe in ATD, pages 149-170?

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

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

==Page 402==

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

'''Dr. Zoot''' 
homage to Zoot Sims, jazzman? 
Most often combined with Suit, as in
Zoot suit - Wikipedia. Often zoot suiters wear a felt hat with a long feather (called a tapa or ... By their dress, Zoot suiters expressed defiance, at a time when fabric was ...
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zoot_suit
There is a contemporary "zootsuit" radio station devoted to old radio shows. Historically, much later than the period of ATD here, there were riots in Los
Angeles called the Zoot Suit riots.

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

'''dynamo''' 
Early electrical generator with permanent magnet instead of stator winding.

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

'''Breguet''' 
(Date?)

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

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

==Page 403==

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

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

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

'''nervous organizations''' 
Cf drugs.

'''pillioned''' 
Riding two to a horse.

'''horses''' 
???

'''arrays of metallic points''' 
???

==Page 404==

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

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

'''not beasts''' 
Airplanes?

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

==Page 405==

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

'''Candlebrow U.''' 
Candle = 2)Abbr. c)Pysics a)an obsolete unit of luminous intensity,originally defined in terms of a wax candle,From American Heritage Dictionary. Brow = 3)The
projecting upper edge of a steep place, as 'the brow of a hill'. Also, of course, the eyebrow, the forehead. Same source.

Probably too tenuous to lead anywhere: Asa ''Candler's'' family became implausibly rich through ownership of Coca-Cola stock; Candlers and their Woodruff connections gave implausible sums to Emory University in Atlanta. See Candlebrow and Smegmo entries on the next couple of pages.

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

'''drumming''' 
Traveling salesmanship.

'''river called the Ball in Hand''' 
Another cricket allusion? Dried river beds are often used as a playground for
cricket, says wikipedia, where this also comes: When a batsman attempts a dangerous run, he could be run out by any of the fielders who just need to hold the ball in hand [cannot underline or embolden] and land their feet on the stone at the bowlers end (hence run out by 'conduction', as opposed to hitting the stumps at the bowlers end).

'''The Ball In Hand'''see page 409, where it seems to be Alonzo's local tavern.

'''Alonzo Meatman''' 
???

==Page 406==

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

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

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

'''Grossdale''' 
a gross dale?

==Page 407==

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

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

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

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

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

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

'''First International Conference on Time-Travel''' 
MIT students held a [http://web.mit.edu/adorai/timetraveler/ Time Traveler Convention] on May 7, 2005. The organizers did only modest publicity, claiming that the event would be reported and people in the future would read about it and decide to attend. ("Technically, you would only need one time traveler convention," one said.) Vanderjuice's reasoning is almost a mirror image of that.

'''this year''' 
???

'''flammivomous''' 
Invented word? "Vomiting flame." Not invented: Flammivomous. (definition) by Webster 1913 (print), Tue Dec 21 1999 at 23:41:04. Flam*miv"o*mous (?), a. [L. flammivomus; flamma flame + vomere to vomit.] ...

'''1925 or thereabouts''' 
Lindsay's unfamiliarity with the term "nooky," here used to refer to attractive women and not to a sex act, its most common present day usage, will likely continue until it becomes an accepted part of the English language, which occurred, according to the ''OED'', with its first substantiative written usage in 1928. The ''OED'', by the way, prefers the spelling ''nookie''.

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

==Page 408==

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

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

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

'''Finney Hall''' 
Probably a Hall in Candlebrow U. named after American author Jack Finney, who wrote a famous time travel novel, Time & Again. See wikipedia for dates.

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

==Page 409==

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

'''"Why you insufferable little --"''' 
This line, paired with St. Cosmo's observation at the end of the following paragraph: "And might I add, Mr. Noseworth, that these constant attempts to strangle Suckling do our public image little good," seem a fairly direct reference to a well-worn trope from the ''Simpsons'', in which the splenetic Homer, as played here by Noseworth, expresses his no-longer-controllable frustration with Bart, here the increasingly smartalecky Suckling. Pynchon, as has been widely reported, has appeared on ''The Simpsons'' a couple times.

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

'''Wellesianism''' 
Typo, unless he means Orson.

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

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

'''Q-98s''' 
FM station?

'''vulcanite''' 
Star Trek allusion?

'''Heusler's alloy''' 
???

'''bonzoline''' 
???

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

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

'''platinoid''' 
???

'''magnalium''' 
???

'''packfong silver''' 
???

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

'''automorphic''' 
auto = Self,same. Morph = to change

==Page 410==

'''revenance''' 
???

'''Symmes Street''' 
???

'''gaslit''' 
Lightfuel motif.

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

'''fantan''' 
???

'''"preserver"''' 
Gun?

'''magenta-and-green''' 
Clashing-colors motif.

==Page 411==

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

'''Hawaiian''' 
???

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

'''''Caged Women of Yokohama''''' 
???

==Page 412==

'''"Does a dog possess the Buddha-nature?" [...] "Yes, obviously"''' 
According to the Zen parable the answer to the question is "Mu", which is both "No" and the sound of a dog's bark, thus neither simply yes nor no. See the explanantion given by the Learned English Dog in Mason & Dixon (Ch. 3, p. 22).

'''apricot and aquamarine''' 
Clashing-colors motif.

'''Bohr... Mach... Einstein... Spengler... Wells... McTaggart''' 
All of these people did work involving either speculation about time (Wells) or other subjects that reached their highest expression in Einstein's Theory of Relativity, which had implications regarding the nature of time and spacetime [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Theory_of_relativity Wikipedia]. Pynchon refers to the fact that this work was underway and 'in the air' at the time of the novel.

'''young Einstein''' 
Perhaps a reference to the 1988 [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Young_Einstein movie] of the same name. At the time of the F.I.C.O.T.T. (1895 at the earliest), Einstein would have already published "[http://www.worldscibooks.com/phy_etextbook/4454/4454_chap1.pdf The Investigation of the State of Aether in Magnetic Fields]." Ironically, Einstein's special theory of relativity would later essentially invalidate theories of luminiferous aether.

'''neo-Augustinian''' 
[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Augustine_of_Hippo St. Augustine of Hippo] (354-430), in his autobiographical [http://www.ccel.org/ccel/augustine/confessions/confessions.html ''Confessions''], is credited with reconceptualizing the notion of time in Christian terms. Throyle, on [[ATD 119-148#Page 143|p.143]], summarizes what he terms "Christian time," as a "linear way of regarding time, a simple straight line from past, through present, into the future." See also [[ATD E|'''Eschatology''']].

'''fatal steamed pudding''' 
Presumably the subject of the "Christmas-pudding controversy" mentioned on p. 406. In the context of Prof. Taggart's disbelief in time and the Augustinian's presumed belief that time moves inevitably toward Christ's return, a Christmas pudding (which, one should mention, is prepared with suet or similar animal fat, though presumably Smegmo can be substituted) is a symbol, insofar as it invokes the birth of Christ, of a pivotal moment in the proper sequence of Augustinian time. The pudding, which context here suggests the neo-Augustinian dropped on the McTaggartite, at once symbolizes the Fall of Man, as well as the McTaggartite's inevitable descent into Hell. The whole arrangement is problematized, however, by the comments of the County Coroner, who describes the outcome of the event dependent on "wagering," chance being irreconcilable with Augustinian time.

'''vertical distance''' 
Of pudding-drop?

'''Old Stearinery Bell Tower''' 
???

==Page 413==

'''322 feet''' 
???

'''disordered''' 
Eg clocktower assassins?

'''homeopathist''' 
???

'''"the ''lycopodium'' type"... Fear''' 
???

'''sky-brother''' 
???

'''other Promise... resurrected... two millennia''' 
???

==Page 414==

'''purlieus''' 
???

'''millwork''' 
???

'''penumbrae''' 
(Is the ligatured-ae appropriate here?)

'''interfered with''' 
Sexually molested.

'''vacant''' 
(So signs of occupancy are faked?)

'''dust''' 
(Clear sign of vacancy.)

'''systematically deluded''' 
Cf Descartes.

'''quiescence''' 
(Meatman is cyborg?)

==Page 415==

'''"Mr. Ace"''' 
Master race; ace of spades; Mr Earl?

'''phatic''' 
Relating to speech that serves to establish social relationships rather than to inform.

'''denounced''' 
(Capitalism has failed but failure still can't be mentioned.)

'''certain of your great dynamos''' 
???

'''Fraternity of the Venturesome''' 
Mistranslated 'Chums of Chance'.

'''''nzzt''''' 
Electrical short?

'''mission assignments''' 
Pynchon seems to explain Chums backstory.

==Page 416==

'''Squanto and the Pilgrims''' 
???

Ironic (although Chick means it sincerley) since in this case the Chums of C are "Squanto" and their strange interlocutors from another dimension are the pilgrims. Chick innocently suggests that the strangers from the future just want help ( as , like the pilgrims, they have just arrived and are low on supplies, so to speak). It is implied that just as the Indian's helping the pilgrims was re-payed with disease, genocide and war, the payback the Chums reap for helping these visitors from another dimension may not be what they expect.

==Page 417==

'''"we're totally--"''' 
...fucked.

'''"He is not what he says he is."''' 
Pynchon denies Chums backstory/explanation.

'''trespassers''' 
Presumably individuals in the company of Mr. Ace and Alonzo Meatman, whose intentions toward the Chums of Chance are apparently sinister and for their own benefit. They appear to travel back through the stream of time without any kind of permission to execute their plans, thus making them trespassers (or parasites).

'''enigmatic object''' 
Plotpoint?

==Page 418==

'''Trespass''' 
With a capital T.

'''evidence... everywhere''' 
Cf ''Crying of Lot 49''.

'''neuropathy''' 
An abnormal and usually degenerative state of the nervous system or nerves.

'''contracts''' 
With Devil.

'''Other Units''' 
(So our five gossiped to others?)

'''exhaustive''' 
Cf Trekkies.

'''came to recall''' 
Cf PK Dick.

'''red and indigo''' 
Clashing?

==Page 419==

'''"El Capitan"''' 
Sousa march.

'''"Whistling Rufus"''' 
???

'''consecrated''' 
???

'''Richardson Romanesque''' 
Style of American Romanesque architecture from 1880s-1890s, named after architect Henry Robson Richardson, notable for use of brown stone, rounded corners, arches and cylindrical turrets. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Richardson_Romanesque Wikipedia Entry].

'''modal theory''' 
???

'''chit''' 
???

'''Bing Spooninger''' 
Like "Bing" Crosby, a crooner.

'''rack''' 
???

==Page 420==

'''every note''' 
Om?

'''say "Wall"''' 
???

'''difficult vocal feat''' 
???

'''cakewalk''' 
An African-American entertainment having a cake as prize for the most accomplished steps and figures in walking; also, a stage dance developed from walking steps and figures typically involving a high prance with backward tilt. From this, slang for a one-sided contest or an easy task.

'''draw-note''' 
Note played on harmonica by "drawing" air through reed by sucking in rather than blowing out (insert crude sex joke here).

==Page 421==

'''popularity''' 
Masochistic love of oppressors.

'''''cover identity''''' 
Burden of resistance.

'''Lombardy poplars.''' 
A large deciduous tree, reaching 30-40 m tall. They resemble large shrubs, due to their tall, slender appearance. They grow tall very quickly and usually die within 15 years of first planting.

'''Chromatic Harp''' 
A harmonica that plays all notes in an octave rather than a scale in a certain key. [http://www.hohnerusa.com/hchromatic.htm Examples].

'''Pitch Integrity Guard''' 
???

'''harmonica-reed files''' 
???

==Page 422==

'''I.G. Mundharfwerke''' 
Interessen-Gemeinschaft Mundharfwerke (Harmonica-works Association of Common Interests). "Mundharf" is Swabian German for "Harmonica".

'''drifted''' 
Cf Slothrop's desk.

'''Offenbach''' 
Jacques Offenbach (1819-1880), French composer of operettas.[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jacques_Offenbach Wikipedia Entry].

'''into the Latrine''' 
Cf Slothrop's hallucination.

'''vapor bearing... minerals''' 
???

'''A.D.C.''' 
???

==Page 423==

'''None of them...''' 
Cf butterfly dreaming it's monk?

'''volunteer decoys''' 
Fan-meme.

'''"At a Georgia Camp Meeting"''' 
???

'''"deps"''' 
???

'''route out of the past''' 
The nostalgia trap.

==Page 424==

''''coon' material''' 
They enjoyed the jazzy parts of the routine.

'''isotropy''' 
???

'''presently''' 
[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Robert_Crumb R. Crumb] did a comic like this: [http://crumbproducts.com/prints_images/sha.gif pic]

'''opposition''' 
(Was unconscious, now conscious?)

'''dropped from altitudes''' 
(Cf pudding above)

==Page 425==

'''"After the Ball"''' 
???

'''Bukhara''' 
Either the [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Emirate_of_Bukhara Emirate of Bukhara], a former country in Central Asia or its [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bukhara capital]

'''T.D.Y.''' 
Abbrevation for Temporary Duty? [http://www.army.mil/usapa/epubs/pdf/r614_11.pdf weblink]

'''''Saksaul''''' 
A plant/tree native to the deserts of Central Asia, particularly the Gobi desert; it has a very hard wood and is covered with knobs [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Saxaul Wikipedia] [http://www.pbase.com/william_sokolenko/image/68724037 pic]

'''Q. Zane Toadflax''' 
(Sounds like Douglas Adams?). Toadflax is the name of an [http://www.nysaes.cornell.edu/ent/biocontrol/weedfeeders/toadflax.html invasive plant species]

'''Hypopsammotic... Hypops''' 
???

==Page 426==

'''beating their prices''' 
Contradicts p425 "no further expenditure".

==Page 427==

'''temporarily lapsing''' 
???

'''''pigs fly''''' 
Lindsay = pig.

'''legalistic''' 
???

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