Thomas Pynchon Wiki - User contributions [en]

ATD 1-25

2006-12-27T17:21:31Z

Thecutiestpuppy: /* Page 9 */ spelling

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

'''cover text''' 
The shadow-text is in different fontfaces.

'''cover seal''' 
The seal appears to be written in Tibetan language, according to somebody who posts regularly to Pynchon-l under the name "Ya Sam", who reports:

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

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

Read their response below:

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

:Best wishes,

:Sandy Belth 
:Tibetan Cultural Center

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:

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

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

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

'''"It's always night, or we wouldn't need light."''' 
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 "God"; 2) the character McClintick Sphere in ''V''. takes Monk's middle name, Sphere; and 3) "It's always night, or we wouldn't need light" was apparently something Monk was given to saying, rather than something he once said. For more on McClintick Sphere and Monk, see Charles Hollander's [http://www.howardm.net/tsmonk/pynchon.php essay].

==Page 1==

'''The Light Over the Ranges''' 
The singular 'range' seems called for-- so why plural here?
:Range is defined in the Oxford American Dictionary as "a line or series of mountains or hills : the coastal ranges of the northwest," so perhaps "range" or "ranges" can be used to denote a number of mountains.

:It seems likely that 'ranges' refers to farms, homesteads and ranches in 1893 America. America was predominantly that in 1893. Cf. "Home, home on the range".

==Page 3==

'''"Now single up all lines!"''' 
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 "single up all lines" 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 "single up all lines" is to remove the redundant second lines in preparation to make way.

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

:"Single up all lines" is used in its normal nautical context in ''V.'', 11; ''COL49'', 31; ''Gravity's Rainbow'', 489; and ''Mason & Dixon'', 258, 260. Perhaps we can understand this "line" as a text-string linking Pynchon's novels together (all but ''Vineland''?)--in preparation for a voyage to . . . .?

:Note that the first word in ATD is "now," the last word in ''Gravity's Rainbow''.

'''"Cheerly now...handsomely...very well!!"''' 
Cheerly means cheerily. Just as 'single up all lines' is used in nautical context in ''V.'', so 'cheerly' appears on page 54 of ''Mason & Dixon'' ("Cheerly. Cheerly, then, Lads..."). 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 & Dixon'' as "the finest yarn-spinner in all the Fleets," may also be an inspiration for the nautical language here.

'''"Windy City, here we come!"''' 
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 " White City"...and full of "wonders"--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.

'''''Inconvenience''''' 
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.
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).

Also, recall Fender-Belly Bodine, in [http://masondixon.pynchonwiki.com/wiki/index.php?title=I#inconvenience ''Mason & Dixon'']:

:"Back on old H.M.S. ''Inconvenience'', we wasted many a Day and Night watching that fancy Counter get smaller by the minute..." (p.28)

'''patriotic bunting''' 
AtD has many echoes of Doctorow's "Ragtime": Doctorow fictionalises the same era, including anarchists, bombings, and early Hollywood.
The Chums are dressed in red-and-white striped blazer and sky blue trousers. Hello Columbus, America, everything suggests and says.

'''aeronautics''' 
Pynchon leaned on the Britannica 11th as a major reference. It's online and linkable: [http://www.1911encyclopedia.org/Aeronautics EB11-aeronautics]
:I know this may not be the best locale to sxplain why, for spoiler related issues, but what evidence do we have that Pynchon leaned heavily on the Britannica 11th?

'''five-lad crew''' 
Randolph St. Cosmo (ship commander), Lindsay Noseworth (master-at-arms), Miles Blundell (handyman apprentice), Darby Suckling (factotum and mascot), and Chick Counterfly. 'Lad' suggests all are under 18 years old.
: "Lad" 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.
The commander's name evokes Randolph St., a main thoroughfare in the city they are bound for.
The commander's name also invokes Saint(liness)? And Cosmo = cosmos?

'''The Chums of Chance''' 
To be chummy with chance might mean lucky, fond of gambling, fond of chaos, irrational, or anarchist. Or maybe they became chums by accident.
A philosopher Pynchon seems to be familiar with, America's greatest, Charles Sanders Peirce, 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. Peirce's notion can still refute all determinisms, many think.

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

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].

'''Chicago''' 
Pynchon leaned on the Britannica 11th as a major reference. It's online and linkable: [http://www.1911encyclopedia.org/Chicago EB11-Chicago]

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

'''mascotte''' 
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]]

==Page 4==

Randolph St. Cosmo is called Professor. Professor of flight as some early aeronauts were called?

==Page 5==

'''"all tableware with Chums of Chance Insignia is Organizational property"''' 
What Organization are they part of?
:I believe the organization in question is the Chums of Chance themselves, here considered as an institution rather than as a collection of individuals.

'''Pugnax''' 
The name meaning, in Latin, "likes to fight." Pugnax's fantastic intelligence recalls another intelligent dog, the Learned English Dog in ''Mason & Dixon''. His manner of speech is also reminiscent of the mystery-solving cartoon dog Scooby-Doo, and [http://waste.org/mail/?list=pynchon-l&month=0612&msg=112507&sort=date members of PYNCHON-L] have speculated that his eyebrows and reading habits allude to Gromit, from the [http://www.wallaceandgromit.com/ Wallace and Gromit] claymation films.

'''"...during a confidential assignment in Our Nation's Capitol (see ''The Chums of Chance and the Evil Halfwit'')..."''' 
This could be seen as a criticism of American Presidents present or past, or perhaps the Vietnam War, which Pynchon himself opposed. The Chums "rescued Pugnax, then but a pup"--an innocent, a child creature--"from a furious encounter..between rival packs of the city's wild dogs".
The wild dogs equal both political parties?

Pugnax and the crew pee over the gondola. These "lavatorial assaults" from the sky,which no one can "begin to try to record, much less coordinate reports of" seem to be an allusion to the V-2 rockets which
are linked to Slothrop's erections in Gravity's Rainbow. That is, pee from the sky is "folklore, superstition, or perhaps...the religious" in ATD compared to rockets screaming across the sky and the destruction in GR.

May also refer to President Bush, considering the Pynchon-authored [[Against the Day description|Amazon.com book description]] which included "With a worldwide disaster looming just a few years ahead, it is a time of unrestrained corporate greed, false religiosity, moronic fecklessness, and evil intent in high places. No reference to the present day is intended or should be inferred."

==Page 6==

'''''Princess Casamassima''''' 
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
late 20th Century. It is also 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. Pugnax prefers in his reading "sentimental tales about his own species [rather] than those exhibiting extremes of human behavior, which he appeared to find a bit lurid." As many who have had dogs know, often when raised from puppyhood
with loving owners, they 'think they are human'. Pugnax learns where to pee off the gondola - a pretty natural function for a dog - "like the rest of the crew".

Pynchon may be commenting here that Henry James did not 'get' terrorism despite his genius. That even Princess Casamassima is a "sentimental tale".

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, "who placed upon the word 'book' . . . contempt" did, however, know the subject matter of 'Princess Casamassima.' He, Noseworth, hopes they will "suffer no occasion for exposure more immediate than that to be experienced, as with Pugnax at this moment, safely within the leaves of some book." It matters that the Chums ARE also characters in books of their adventures.

The Chums have 'orders' to proceed to Chicago. From whom?

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

'''Heino Vanderjuice of New Haven''' 
Scientist who designed the ''Inconvenience's'' hydrogen engine. "Vanderjuice" suggests both "wonder juice" and "wander juice," 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]. "Heino," we can only hope, is an allusion to [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Second_law_of_thermodynamics the German pop star of the same name].

'''". . . anemometer of the Robinson's type"''' 
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.

==Page 7==

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

'''"beside a black-water river of the Deep South". 
Blackwater River is in lower central Florida, pretty deep south.

'''"the Rebellion of thirty years previous"''' 
The Civil War was not called such during the time it was occurring; the South called it "the war between the states" to emphasize both their right to secede from the union and that this was a war between sovereign states; the North called it "the Rebellion of 1861" or, after termination of hostilities, "the Rebellion of 1861-1865," appellations that did not recognize the South's right to secede.

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

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

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

==Page 8==

'''"which directs us never to interfere with legal customs of any locality down at which we may happen to have touched"''' 
Like the [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Prime_directive Prime Directive] in [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Star_trek ''Star Trek''].

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

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

==Page 9==

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

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

North is not a positive place in Pynchon's world. It is associated with anti-life---coldness as here---compared to the South, a place of light and warmth, such as the tropics. See GR.

But to go far enough north means heading south again, observes Chick Counterfly--is this one meaning of his name? Then one would be "approaching the surface of another planet, maybe?" asks Chick.

"Not exactly" [answers Randolph] "No. Another 'surface', but an earthly one"
"You'll see. In time, of course". Time is earthly?

'''"Another 'surface'"''' 
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.

==Page 10==

'''like the dark conjugate of some daylit fiction they had flown here . . . to help promote'''. 
The World's Columbian Exposition is a "daylit fiction"?
The 400th birthday celebration of America is a "daylit fiction"? The White City is such?

'''Cartesian grid''' From Rene Descartes,17th century philosopher and mathematician; see Wikpedia entry, whose most famous argument, "I think therefore I am" 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.

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.

'''that unshaped freedom being rationalized into movement only in straight lines''' 
Rationalization is a key sociological concept[from online Dictionary of Social Science]:RATIONALIZATION
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.

Very Pynchonian. "Single up all lines!"

'''"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."''' 
From innocent bovines to ...the world? "Single up all lines"....

==Page 11==

'''plummet''' 
Bad physics here—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.
: Not necessarily-- ship's hydrogen producing apparatus would kick in and and slow and eventually stop their descent.

==Page 12==

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

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

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

==Page 13==

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

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

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

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

'''"...quite as if were some giant eyeball, perhaps that of Society itself, ever scrutinizing from above, in a spirit of constructive censure."''' 
This is strikingly reminiscent of [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Odilon_Redon Odilon Redon's] 1882 Lithograph ''L'Oeil, comme un ballon bizarre se dirige vers l'infini (The Eye Like a Strange Balloon Mounts Toward Infinity).'' [http://www.moma.org/collection/browse_results.php?criteria=O%3ADE%3AI%3A2&page_number=4&template_id=1&sort_order=1 At MoMa's Online Collection]
Notice that society = censure, if constructive. Gamboling nude on a summer day was OK until the ''Inconvenience'', as eyeball, appeared.

==Page 14==

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

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

==Page 15==

'''ukulelist''' 
Ukuleles also appear in ''Gravity's Rainbow'' and ''Vineland''. According to Jules Siegel's article, "Who is Thomas Pynchon, and why did he take off with my wife?", Pynchon himself played the ukulele in college.

'''Beaufort Scale''' 
Developed 1805.

==Page 17==

'''"as if it were something the stripling had only read about, in some boys' book of adventures...as if that page of their chronicles lay turned and done"''' 
The narrator makes us aware that Darby's adventures are as if/will be written down...the 'reality' of almost killing all of them is now just words on a page...as is this book, ATD?...Again a Pynchonian theme: no book is the reality.

'''"and the order 'About-face' had been uttered by some potent though invisible Commandant of Earthly Days, toward whom Darby, in amiable obedience, had turned again."''' 
Is this just a metaphor from the narrator to describe what it is like for Darby, or is it also self-referential to
all the adventures of the Chums?. Another Q: Is the Commandant of Earthly Days the invisible presence from whom the chums get their orders? Cf. earthly surface, p.9

'''cubeb''' 
The name for the berry and for the oil obtained from the unripe berry of the East Indian climbing shrub ''P. cubeba''. The dried fruits are sometimes used as a condiment or are ground and smoked in cigarette form as 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.

'''"...goldurn Keeley Cure"''' 
A treatment for alcohol, nicotine and narcotic addiction involving injections of "bichloride" or "double chloride" of gold, and also known as the "gold cure". Named for Dr. Leslie E. Keeley, who opened the first of many Keeley Institutes in 1879.

==Page 18==

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

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

'''A.C.''' 
Athletic Club.

'''("Penny") Black''' 
The Penny Black was the world's first official adhesive postage stamp, issued by the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland in 1840. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Penny_Black [Wikipedia]]

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

'''Egypt''' 
Little Egypt is the southern area of the state of Illinois in the United States of America. The region is and was sometimes called simply "Egypt," especially in the 19th century. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Little_Egypt_(region) [Wikipedia]]

==Page 22==

'''Isandhlwana''' 
Isandlwana is an isolated hill in the KwaZulu-Natal province of South Africa. On January 22, 1879, it was the site of the Battle of Isandlwana, where over 20,000 Zulu warriors defeated a contingent of British soldiers in the first engagement of the Anglo-Zulu War. Almost the entire column of about 1,200 British soldiers was killed, [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Isandhlwana [Wikipedia]]

==Page 23==

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

==Page 24==

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

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

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

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

==Page 25==

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

'''duck soup''' 
Meaning "an easy task," but also the name of a Marx Bros. movie. Perhaps relevant, given the cameo by Groucho promised on the book sleeve.

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

ATD 588-614

2006-12-27T01:42:09Z

Thecutiestpuppy: /* Page 593 */ kronecker and ancient number theory

==Page 588==

'''tannery''' 
???

'''Gauss's brain''' 
???

'''impervious to the wind''' 
(Attribute of tanned leather?)

'''''"Heiliger Bimbam!"''''' 
???

'''rim''' 
Kit pretends to think he's referring to monocle as 'chichi' (stylish).

==Page 589==

'''''Noli me tangere''''' 
???

'''''Hausknochen''''' 
???

==Page 590==

'''Hadamard... Poussin... Prime Number Theorem''' 
???

'''patent ''Kühlbox''''' 
???

'''beleaguered subset''' 
???

==Page 591==

'''prats''' 
???

'''''Die Nullstellen der [zeta]-Funktion''''' 
???

'''"Richard Harding Davis"''' 
???

'''seldom, if ever''' 
Cf p559 re Umeki!?

'''tetralatry''' 
???

'''C. Howard Hinton''' 
???

'''Johann K.F. Zöllner''' 
???

'''vogue... 'vague'''' 
???

==Page 592==

'''upside-down triangles''' 
Also Pléiade p538.

'''metallic banging''' 
Oddly echoes Finnegans Wake.

''''metric interval'''' 
???

'''Prinzenstrasse and Weenderstrasse''' 
???

==Page 593==

'''twenty marks''' 
???

'''''der Pistolenheld''''' 
???

'''''das Nichtharmonischestrahlenbündel''''' 
???

'''Latin... Euler''' 
???

'''''Mathematical Theory of the Top''''' 
???

'''Leopold Kronecker''' and '''Cantor''' 
The "monumental quarrel between Kronecker and Cantor" is also referred to as a "religious war," appropriately enough. It's based in a disagreement over the legitimacy of numbers. Kronecker held that "'the positive integers were created by God, and all else is the work of man.'" This is contradicted by "'Cantor with his ''Kontinuum'', professing an equally strong belief in just those regions, infinitely divisible, which lie ''between'' the whole numbers so demanding of all Kronecker's devotion.'"

The disagreement between the two mathematicians is reminiscent of (or does it anticipate?) the rift between Pointsman and Mexico in ''Gravity's Rainbow''. Kronecker's integers "created by God" have become a Pavlovian digital binary for Pointsman, but the two oppositions track faithfully right down to the italicized "between."

"The young statistician [Mexico] is devoted to number and to method, not table-rapping or wishful thinking. But in the domain of zero to one, not-something to something, Pointsman can only possess the zero and the one. He cannot, like Mexico, survive anyplace in between. Like his master I. P. Pavlov before him, he imagines the cortex of the brain as a mosaic of tiny on/off elements.... But to Mexico belongs the domain ''between'' zero and one." [Page 55]

It should be noted, however, that the continuous number line was a modern innovation. In Greek number theory, a number is a collection of indivisible units. Irrationals, such as the square root of 2 are not numbers but "magnitudes." One is not even a number for it is not a number of units. There are no negative numbers as well. (see Klein's Greek Mathematical Thought and the Origin of Algebra.) So Kronecker's position may be less of a crazy innovation as much as a maintenance of ancient theory.

'''''Kontinuum''''' 
???

==Page 599==

'''''Nervenklinik''''' 
???

'''boundless epsilonic world''' 
???

'''Der Finsterzwerg''' 
???

'''chloral hydrate''' 
???

'''''Kneipe''''' 
???

'''Gauss passing to Weber a remark''' 
???

'''Weierstrass functions''' 
???

==Page 595==

'''That winter, in St. Petersburg''' 
22 Jan 1905 [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Russian_Revolution_of_1905 Wikipedia]

'''Japanese won''' 
05 September 1905. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Russo-Japanese_War Wikipedia]

'''Muslim rebellion''' 
???

'''the year that followed''' 
???

'''Peter and Paul Fortress''' 
???

'''kazatsky''' 
???

'''Waziristan''' 
???

==Page 596==

'''as-ever transcendentally interesting hair''' 
???

''''gen'''' 
???

'''Afghani dirhan''' 
???

'''Ghaznivid Empire''' 
???

'''coffee scion''' 
Coffee motif.

'''Günther von Quassel''' 
???

'''less than universally respected Ludwig Boltzmann''' 
???

==Page 597==

'''Gymnasium child''' 
???

'''one measure of the chaos''' 
Cf GR on entropy?

'''Göttingen tradition''' 
???

'''statue''' 
???

'''Rathaus square''' 
???

==Page 598==

'''Axioms of Zermelo''' 
???

'''Poincaré''' 
???

'''Cauchy''' 
???

'''Whittaker and Watson''' 
???

'''two point one''' 
(Cf Sondheim lyric.)

==Page 599==

'''dueling-society cap''' 
???

'''''Liebchen''''' 
???

'''''Egal was, meine Schatze''''' 
???

'''''Schläger''''' 
???

'''Krummsäbel''' 
???

'''Korbrapier''' 
???

'''épée''' 
???

==Page 600==

'''Colt six-shooters''' 
I guess Kit's luggage beat him to Gottingen.

'''''Verbindung''''' 
???

'''restoring moment, elastic constants''' 
???

'''Geheimrat Hilbert''' 
???

==Page 601==

'''''Ehrenkodex''''' 
???

'''Tyrolean hats''' 
???

'''''Schnurrbartbinde''''' 
???

'''Zeiss "Palmos Panoram"''' 
???

'''''"Auf die Mensur!"''''' 
???

'''Andaman Islands''' 
???

'''Stephanie du Motel... group-theory godfather Evariste Galois''' 
???

==Page 602==

'''young Ouspensky''' 
???

'''Chong''' 
???

'''"The what?"''' 
(Precipitous drop in authorial expectations?)

'''Sidney... Kensington Sid''' 
???

'''transtriadic''' 
???

==Page 603==

'''"Spiritual... At Göttingen?"''' 
???

'''Applied Mechanics Institute''' 
???

'''Prandtl's recent discovery of the boundary layer''' 
???

'''brambled guttie''' 
???

'''Bürgerstrasse''' 
???

'''Brauweg''' 
???

'''Zhukovsky's Transformation''' 
???

'''glass of tea''' 
(Why not 'cup'?)

'''''"...according to Spiral Theory, up to infinity." "And beyond, " added Gunther, nodding earnestly.''''' 
Reference to Buzz Lightyear's stock character phrase in 1995's TOY STORY (Pixar/Disney):
"To Infinity... and Beyond!"
--[[User:Btchakir|Btchakir]] 07:43, 19 December 2006 (PST)

==Page 604==

'''nontrivial zeroes''' 
???

'''much-noted talk''' 
???

'''eigenvalues''' 
???

'''Hermitian operator''' 
???

'''spine of reality... ''"Rückgrat von Wirklichkeit"''''' 
???

'''Hilbert-Polya Conjecture''' 
???

==Page 605==

'''Vance Aychrome''' 
???

'''Full English Breakfast''' 
???

'''Pythagorean dietary''' 
(Possible missing word?)

'''kippers and bloaters''' 
???

'''baps''' 
???

'''Spong machine''' 
???

'''thinned''' 
From full 78. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tarot Wikipedia]

'''vegetarian haggis''' 
It exists: [http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&q=%22vegetarian+haggis Google search]

==Page 606==

'''Lamont replevin''' 
???

'''Elflock Villa''' 
???

'''Stuffed Edge, Herts''' 
???

'''kedgeree''' 
???

'''Cesare Lombroso''' 
???

'''Trans-Oxanian''' 
???

'''Graeco-Buddhist''' 
???

'''bad hats''' 
???

==Page 607==

'''Gas Office''' 
???

'''communication by means of coal-gas''' 
Cf Nabokov's "Ada". Also inverse of Tesla's energy-transmitter.

'''bombs... Suffragettes''' 
(Did they bomb post offices?!?)

'''Pashto''' 
???

'''Tadjik''' 
???

'''Seven Dials''' 
???

==Page 608==

'''"Avoid beans"''' 
???

'''spotted dick''' 
???

'''Yarmouth bloater''' 
???

''''shape'''' 
???

'''blue lamps''' 
???

'''lamé surfaces''' 
???

'''yarmulke... high crown... dented Trilby style''' 
???

==Page 609==

'''''Kelly's Suburban Dictionary''''' 
???

'''wenlets''' 
???

==Page 610==

'''daylight oil''' 
???

'''refused to dim''' 
(Nicely vivid.)

'''Vontz's Universal Pick''' 
???

'''alchemized coke''' 
???

'''Lincrusta-Walton''' 
???

'''hipshot''' 
???

'''scalene polygons''' 
???

'''jet''' 
???

'''Apotheosis Sparkless Torch''' 
???

==Page 611==

'''magnalium''' 
???

'''''The Slow and the Stupefied''''' 
Daytime soap 'The Young and the Restless'.

'''gas-head''' 
Cf pothead, acidhead, etc.

'''Pike's Peak''' 
Lew's old stompinground.

'''Gus Swallowfield''' 
???

'''most theft policies''' 
(Fact?)

'''pantechnicon''' 
???

'''legitimate bill of sale''' 
???

==Page 612==

'''''Pavonazzetto''''' 
???

'''Phrygian marble''' 
???

'''Atys... Agdistis''' 
???

'''''The Mutilation of Atys''''' 
No images: [http://images.google.com/images?hl=en&lr=&q=%22Mutilation%20of%20Atys&btnG=Search&ie=UTF-8&oe=UTF-8&sa=N&tab=wi Google image search]

'''Arturo Naunt''' 
???

'''shocking the bourgeoisie''' 
???

'''koumiss vessel''' 
???

'''wrathful deities from Tantric Buddhism''' 
???

==Page 613==

'''tiny German hand camera''' 
???

'''raw light''' 
???

'''Gasophilia''' 
???

'''Schwärmer''' 
???

'''Chidambaram''' 
???

'''''Akaša''''' 
???

'''Atman''' 
???

''''''Chaos'''''' 
???

'''van Helmont''' 
???

'''stridently unpopulated''' 
Cf p610.

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

ATD 429-459

2006-12-27T01:17:04Z

Thecutiestpuppy: /* Page 432 */

==Page 431==

'''"Turkish Corner"''' 
???

'''Bactrian''' 
???

'''Cameling''' 
???

==Page 432==

'''fatal word''' 
"Wife".

'''Gamomania''' 
"Gamos" is greek for "marriage," and mania means "mania" or "madness."

'''H.M.S.F.''' 
His Majesty's Subdesertine Frigate (p425).

'''Balaam's ass''' 
refers to Num. 22:21-34 - Balaam rides out with the princes of Moab, but the Lord sends an angel to prevent him. Balaam does not see the angel but his ass does and will not go further. Balaam smites the ass three times, to no avail, until "the Lord opened the mouth of the ass, and she said to Balaam: What have I done unto thee, that thou hast smitten me these three times?" Balaam's ass and the serpent (in the Garden of Eden) are the only speaking animals in the bible.

'''reported... Polo''' 
???

==Page 433==

'''pan-spectral fields''' 
???

'''"Euphrates" poplars''' 
???

'''aryq''' 
???

'''B.I.N.''' 
Biometric Institute of Neuropathy (p432).

'''seventeen-syllable''' 
Haiku - japanese poems consisting of 17 syllables, classically arranged in three lines of 5 - 7 - 5 syllables each

==Page 434==

'''Eta/Nu Transformators''' 
???

'''pari passu''' 
???

==Page 435==

'''Gurkhas''' 
???

'''General Forrest''' 
???

'''archiepiscopal''' 
???

'''Faberge''' 
Russian jewelers. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/House_of_Faberg%C3%A9 Wikipedia entry].

'''subarenaceous''' 
???

==Page 436==

'''limen''' 
???

'''transmundane''' 
???

'''lamaseries''' 
???

'''Torriform''' 
???

'''Urban terrain''' 
(But only cities unwisely built on sand.)

'''Stilton Gaspereaux''' 
???

'''Sven Hedin''' 
???

'''Aurel Stein''' 
?? R.L. Stein is a teen horror-pulp novelist and television writer, author of the Fear Street, Goosebumps, and Nightmare Room series. ??

'''first known maps''' 
???

==Page 437==

'''Nernst lamps''' 
???

'''level of encryption''' 
(Cf Heisenberg?)

'''Mount Kailash''' 
???

'''polarize... in time''' 
???

'''Manichaeans''' 
???

==Page 438==

'''expanded sense... Maxwell... Hertz''' 
???

''''Perfects'''' 
???

'''Graeco-Buddhist''' 
???

'''Italo-Islamic''' 
???

==Page 439==

'''Nuovo Rialto''' 
???

'''no earlier than''' 
(Where'd they go?)

'''Passing of the Remarks''' 
???

'''Steeplechase Park''' 
???

==Page 440==

'''screaming''' 
Screaming motif.

'''''chong pir''''' 
???

'''Uyghur''' 
???

'''skeleton rig''' 
Concealed weapon?

'''andante''' 
???

'''Sandman Saloon''' 
???

==Page 441==

'''Leonard and Lyle''' 
???

'''''teke''''' 
???

'''Spindletop''' 
???

'''Groznyi''' 
???

'''calyx bits''' 
???

'''adults''' 
Chums not adults, then?

'''''assalamu alaykum''''' 
???

'''anticline''' 
???

==Page 442==

'''''equine altitude''''' 
High horse.

'''Veneto-Uyghur''' 
???

'''2 percent... most of them''' 
Implies at least 150 in crew.

'''Marco Querini''' 
???

'''Terrenascondite''' 
???

'''Pozzo San Vito''' 
???

==Page 443==

'''peterman option''' 
???

'''Consomme Imperial''' 
???

'''Timbales de Supremes de Volailles''' 
???

'''Gigot Grille a la Sauce Piquante''' 
???

'''aubergines a la Sauce Mousseline''' 
???

'''Pouilly-Fuisse''' 
???

'''Graves''' 
???

==Page 444==

'''Oasi''' 
Plural of "oasis."

'''cataplexy''' 
Sudden loss of muscle power following a strong emotional stimulus.

'''Nobel brothers''' 
Robert and Ludvig Nobel, brothers of Alfred Nobel of dynamite and prize fame, co-founders of Branobel, an important early oil company that controlled a large amount of Russian output. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Branobel Wikipedia entry].

'''shaft-alley''' 
???

'''the balloon is up''' 
A phrase also used in ''V.''

'''F.O.''' 
???

'''''Daily Mail''''' 
London tabloid, staunch early supporters of Alolf HItler. Today specialises in stirring up hatred of immigrants and other minorities.

'''"Sands of Inner Asia"''' 
???

'''Taklamakan''' 
???

==Page 445==

'''Kashgar to Urumchi''' 
???

'''fell into the hand of''' 
Cf modern Taliban, etc.

'''World-Island''' 
???

'''discreet summons''' 
Eg "paging Dr Blue".

'''far wicket''' 
???

'''wog''' 
''Chiefly British.'' An ethnic slur used for any dark-skinned peoples. Alleged to stand for "Western Oriental Gentleman", but mainly applied to Indians, Pakistanis, Arabs, and other brown-skinned Asians.

'''Vic removal''' 
???

'''eating an explosive''' 
Cf Lew's Cyclomite.

==Page 446==

'''St Martin le Grand''' 
???

'''Angel Street''' 
???

'''G.P.O. West''' 
???

'''pneumatic dispatches''' 
An extensive 'pneumatic dispatch' system existed on London during the Victorian era, started in 1851 and carrying on at least into the 1930's. By 1886 London had 94 telegram tubes totaling 34 1/2 miles and around 4.5 million telegraph messages were carried in cylinders at around 20mph. At its height the network extended some 57 miles connecting 67 branch offices via a central sorting office. See [http://www.capsu.org/history/telegram_conveyors.html] and
[http://www.dself.dsl.pipex.com/MUSEUM/COMMS/pneumess/pneumess.htm] (with illustrations).

'''drill suits''' 
???

'''chars''' 
???

'''clicks and rests''' 
???

'''Northern Temple of Connexion''' 
???

'''marblework''' 
???

'''Bloggins''' 
???

'''allegro vivatchy''' 
???

==Page 447==

'''grease-paint''' 
Wog-colored.

'''cylinder of gutta-percha''' 
Pneumatic dispatches were carried in cylinders of [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gutta-percha Gutta-Percha] -- an inelastic latex made from the sap of the Gutta-Percha tree -- covered in felt. See [http://www.capsu.org/history/telegram_conveyors.html]. Gutta-percha crops up a number of times in ATD, possibly enough to suggest some sort of motif or connection?

'''its "D" box''' 
The receiving mechanism on the end of pneumatic dispatch pipe.

"The somewhat complicated pattern of double sluice valve originally used at the central stations has been superseded by a simpler form, known as the D box, so named Despatching from the shape of its cross section. This box is of and cast iron, and is provided with a close-fitting, Receiving brass-framed, sliding lid with a glass panel. This Apparatus, lid fits air-tight, and closes the box after a carrier has been inserted into the mouth of the tube; the latter enters at one end of the box and is there bell-mouthed. A supply pipe, to which is connected a 3-way cock, is joined on to the box and allows communication at will with either the pressure or vacuum mains, so that the apparatus becomes available for either sending (by pressure) or receiving (by vacuum) a carrier. Automatic working, by which the air supply is automatically turned on on the introduction of the carrier into a tube and on closing of the D box, and is cut off when the carrier arrives, was introduced in 1909." From the 1911 Encyclopedia Brittanica entry on Pneumatic Dispatch, cited at [http://www.dself.dsl.pipex.com/MUSEUM/COMMS/pneumess/pneumess.htm]

'''Holborn''' 
???

'''Saffron Hill''' 
???

'''''tantum dic verbo'' isn't it''' 
???

'''''intact''''' 
(Did I miss this?)

==Page 448==

'''because I'm mad''' 
???

'''half-sovereign case''' 
???

'''Mr. Campbell-Bannerman''' 
???

==Page 449==

'''Clarabella''' 
???

'''Audacity, Iowa''' 
???

==Page 450==

'''DREAMTIME MOVY''' 
Misspelling is dreamlike?

'''log... waterfall''' 
Cf DW Griffith?

'''lens-brother''' 
(Like masonic sign?)

'''Powers movement''' 
???

'''Geneva''' 
???

'''Wilt Flambo''' 
Flambeau = torch (French).

'''acetylene''' 
???

==Page 451==

'''nitro in the film''' 
???

'''the tip''' 
???

'''strange relation''' 
Cf GR on calculus.

'''dark perplexity''' 
Cf Gen X?

'''dilapidated''' 
Why?

'''queen-of-the-prairie''' 
???

==Page 452==

'''Sempitern''' 
???

'''siegecraft of Time''' 
Cf Paris Commune siege, above.

'''between Cleveland and Denver''' 
Merle's idiosyncratic choice of endpoints?

'''automorphic functions''' 
???

==Page 453==

'''Lobatchevskian''' 
???

'''Automorphic Dispensation''' 
???

'''distressing regularity''' 
Explains dilapidation?

'''Thorvald''' 
???

'''''thresher dinners''''' 
???

==Page 454==

'''"gaff"''' 
???

'''Giant Airships of 1896 and '7''' 
[http://against-the-day.pynchonwiki.com/wiki/index.php?title=Image:Mysterious-airship.jpg Photo and info here]

'''Chick''' 
First Chum to appear in non-Chums chapter?

'''Cleveland... trial''' 
See p67

'''Somble, Strool, and Fleshway''' 
???

''''paranoia querulans'... P.Q.''' 
???

'''blasting agent''' 
???

'''detonans''' 
???

==Page 456==

'''aigrette''' 
???

'''Pencil''' 
???

'''equivalent of a shrug''' 
Nice anthropomorphism.

'''lost mines''' 
(Factual?)

==Page 457==

'''tourbillon''' 
???

'''patent pencils''' 
???

'''zephyr gingham''' 
???

'''lawn''' 
???

'''pongee''' 
???

==Page 458==

'''professors... engineers''' 
Theory vs practice.

'''Latinate token of prestige''' 
PhD, summa cum laude, etc.

'''current... purity''' 
Free of noise?

'''Minkowski''' 
???

'''Three times ten... minus one seconds''' 
???

'''other expression''' 
???

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

ATD 429-459

2006-12-27T01:11:20Z

Thecutiestpuppy: /* Page 432 */ gamomania correction

==Page 431==

'''"Turkish Corner"''' 
???

'''Bactrian''' 
???

'''Cameling''' 
???

==Page 432==

'''fatal word''' 
"Wife".

'''Gamomania''' 
"Gamo" is greek for "marriage," and mania means "mania" or "madness."

'''H.M.S.F.''' 
His Majesty's Subdesertine Frigate (p425).

'''Balaam's ass''' 
refers to Num. 22:21-34 - Balaam rides out with the princes of Moab, but the Lord sends an angel to prevent him. Balaam does not see the angel but his ass does and will not go further. Balaam smites the ass three times, to no avail, until "the Lord opened the mouth of the ass, and she said to Balaam: What have I done unto thee, that thou hast smitten me these three times?" Balaam's ass and the serpent (in the Garden of Eden) are the only speaking animals in the bible.

'''reported... Polo''' 
???

==Page 433==

'''pan-spectral fields''' 
???

'''"Euphrates" poplars''' 
???

'''aryq''' 
???

'''B.I.N.''' 
Biometric Institute of Neuropathy (p432).

'''seventeen-syllable''' 
Haiku - japanese poems consisting of 17 syllables, classically arranged in three lines of 5 - 7 - 5 syllables each

==Page 434==

'''Eta/Nu Transformators''' 
???

'''pari passu''' 
???

==Page 435==

'''Gurkhas''' 
???

'''General Forrest''' 
???

'''archiepiscopal''' 
???

'''Faberge''' 
Russian jewelers. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/House_of_Faberg%C3%A9 Wikipedia entry].

'''subarenaceous''' 
???

==Page 436==

'''limen''' 
???

'''transmundane''' 
???

'''lamaseries''' 
???

'''Torriform''' 
???

'''Urban terrain''' 
(But only cities unwisely built on sand.)

'''Stilton Gaspereaux''' 
???

'''Sven Hedin''' 
???

'''Aurel Stein''' 
?? R.L. Stein is a teen horror-pulp novelist and television writer, author of the Fear Street, Goosebumps, and Nightmare Room series. ??

'''first known maps''' 
???

==Page 437==

'''Nernst lamps''' 
???

'''level of encryption''' 
(Cf Heisenberg?)

'''Mount Kailash''' 
???

'''polarize... in time''' 
???

'''Manichaeans''' 
???

==Page 438==

'''expanded sense... Maxwell... Hertz''' 
???

''''Perfects'''' 
???

'''Graeco-Buddhist''' 
???

'''Italo-Islamic''' 
???

==Page 439==

'''Nuovo Rialto''' 
???

'''no earlier than''' 
(Where'd they go?)

'''Passing of the Remarks''' 
???

'''Steeplechase Park''' 
???

==Page 440==

'''screaming''' 
Screaming motif.

'''''chong pir''''' 
???

'''Uyghur''' 
???

'''skeleton rig''' 
Concealed weapon?

'''andante''' 
???

'''Sandman Saloon''' 
???

==Page 441==

'''Leonard and Lyle''' 
???

'''''teke''''' 
???

'''Spindletop''' 
???

'''Groznyi''' 
???

'''calyx bits''' 
???

'''adults''' 
Chums not adults, then?

'''''assalamu alaykum''''' 
???

'''anticline''' 
???

==Page 442==

'''''equine altitude''''' 
High horse.

'''Veneto-Uyghur''' 
???

'''2 percent... most of them''' 
Implies at least 150 in crew.

'''Marco Querini''' 
???

'''Terrenascondite''' 
???

'''Pozzo San Vito''' 
???

==Page 443==

'''peterman option''' 
???

'''Consomme Imperial''' 
???

'''Timbales de Supremes de Volailles''' 
???

'''Gigot Grille a la Sauce Piquante''' 
???

'''aubergines a la Sauce Mousseline''' 
???

'''Pouilly-Fuisse''' 
???

'''Graves''' 
???

==Page 444==

'''Oasi''' 
Plural of "oasis."

'''cataplexy''' 
Sudden loss of muscle power following a strong emotional stimulus.

'''Nobel brothers''' 
Robert and Ludvig Nobel, brothers of Alfred Nobel of dynamite and prize fame, co-founders of Branobel, an important early oil company that controlled a large amount of Russian output. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Branobel Wikipedia entry].

'''shaft-alley''' 
???

'''the balloon is up''' 
A phrase also used in ''V.''

'''F.O.''' 
???

'''''Daily Mail''''' 
London tabloid, staunch early supporters of Alolf HItler. Today specialises in stirring up hatred of immigrants and other minorities.

'''"Sands of Inner Asia"''' 
???

'''Taklamakan''' 
???

==Page 445==

'''Kashgar to Urumchi''' 
???

'''fell into the hand of''' 
Cf modern Taliban, etc.

'''World-Island''' 
???

'''discreet summons''' 
Eg "paging Dr Blue".

'''far wicket''' 
???

'''wog''' 
''Chiefly British.'' An ethnic slur used for any dark-skinned peoples. Alleged to stand for "Western Oriental Gentleman", but mainly applied to Indians, Pakistanis, Arabs, and other brown-skinned Asians.

'''Vic removal''' 
???

'''eating an explosive''' 
Cf Lew's Cyclomite.

==Page 446==

'''St Martin le Grand''' 
???

'''Angel Street''' 
???

'''G.P.O. West''' 
???

'''pneumatic dispatches''' 
An extensive 'pneumatic dispatch' system existed on London during the Victorian era, started in 1851 and carrying on at least into the 1930's. By 1886 London had 94 telegram tubes totaling 34 1/2 miles and around 4.5 million telegraph messages were carried in cylinders at around 20mph. At its height the network extended some 57 miles connecting 67 branch offices via a central sorting office. See [http://www.capsu.org/history/telegram_conveyors.html] and
[http://www.dself.dsl.pipex.com/MUSEUM/COMMS/pneumess/pneumess.htm] (with illustrations).

'''drill suits''' 
???

'''chars''' 
???

'''clicks and rests''' 
???

'''Northern Temple of Connexion''' 
???

'''marblework''' 
???

'''Bloggins''' 
???

'''allegro vivatchy''' 
???

==Page 447==

'''grease-paint''' 
Wog-colored.

'''cylinder of gutta-percha''' 
Pneumatic dispatches were carried in cylinders of [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gutta-percha Gutta-Percha] -- an inelastic latex made from the sap of the Gutta-Percha tree -- covered in felt. See [http://www.capsu.org/history/telegram_conveyors.html]. Gutta-percha crops up a number of times in ATD, possibly enough to suggest some sort of motif or connection?

'''its "D" box''' 
The receiving mechanism on the end of pneumatic dispatch pipe.

"The somewhat complicated pattern of double sluice valve originally used at the central stations has been superseded by a simpler form, known as the D box, so named Despatching from the shape of its cross section. This box is of and cast iron, and is provided with a close-fitting, Receiving brass-framed, sliding lid with a glass panel. This Apparatus, lid fits air-tight, and closes the box after a carrier has been inserted into the mouth of the tube; the latter enters at one end of the box and is there bell-mouthed. A supply pipe, to which is connected a 3-way cock, is joined on to the box and allows communication at will with either the pressure or vacuum mains, so that the apparatus becomes available for either sending (by pressure) or receiving (by vacuum) a carrier. Automatic working, by which the air supply is automatically turned on on the introduction of the carrier into a tube and on closing of the D box, and is cut off when the carrier arrives, was introduced in 1909." From the 1911 Encyclopedia Brittanica entry on Pneumatic Dispatch, cited at [http://www.dself.dsl.pipex.com/MUSEUM/COMMS/pneumess/pneumess.htm]

'''Holborn''' 
???

'''Saffron Hill''' 
???

'''''tantum dic verbo'' isn't it''' 
???

'''''intact''''' 
(Did I miss this?)

==Page 448==

'''because I'm mad''' 
???

'''half-sovereign case''' 
???

'''Mr. Campbell-Bannerman''' 
???

==Page 449==

'''Clarabella''' 
???

'''Audacity, Iowa''' 
???

==Page 450==

'''DREAMTIME MOVY''' 
Misspelling is dreamlike?

'''log... waterfall''' 
Cf DW Griffith?

'''lens-brother''' 
(Like masonic sign?)

'''Powers movement''' 
???

'''Geneva''' 
???

'''Wilt Flambo''' 
Flambeau = torch (French).

'''acetylene''' 
???

==Page 451==

'''nitro in the film''' 
???

'''the tip''' 
???

'''strange relation''' 
Cf GR on calculus.

'''dark perplexity''' 
Cf Gen X?

'''dilapidated''' 
Why?

'''queen-of-the-prairie''' 
???

==Page 452==

'''Sempitern''' 
???

'''siegecraft of Time''' 
Cf Paris Commune siege, above.

'''between Cleveland and Denver''' 
Merle's idiosyncratic choice of endpoints?

'''automorphic functions''' 
???

==Page 453==

'''Lobatchevskian''' 
???

'''Automorphic Dispensation''' 
???

'''distressing regularity''' 
Explains dilapidation?

'''Thorvald''' 
???

'''''thresher dinners''''' 
???

==Page 454==

'''"gaff"''' 
???

'''Giant Airships of 1896 and '7''' 
[http://against-the-day.pynchonwiki.com/wiki/index.php?title=Image:Mysterious-airship.jpg Photo and info here]

'''Chick''' 
First Chum to appear in non-Chums chapter?

'''Cleveland... trial''' 
See p67

'''Somble, Strool, and Fleshway''' 
???

''''paranoia querulans'... P.Q.''' 
???

'''blasting agent''' 
???

'''detonans''' 
???

==Page 456==

'''aigrette''' 
???

'''Pencil''' 
???

'''equivalent of a shrug''' 
Nice anthropomorphism.

'''lost mines''' 
(Factual?)

==Page 457==

'''tourbillon''' 
???

'''patent pencils''' 
???

'''zephyr gingham''' 
???

'''lawn''' 
???

'''pongee''' 
???

==Page 458==

'''professors... engineers''' 
Theory vs practice.

'''Latinate token of prestige''' 
PhD, summa cum laude, etc.

'''current... purity''' 
Free of noise?

'''Minkowski''' 
???

'''Three times ten... minus one seconds''' 
???

'''other expression''' 
???

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

ATD 489-524

2006-12-27T01:07:19Z

Thecutiestpuppy: /* Page 522 */

==Page 489==

'''desolate sighs''' 
(They're not gay?)

'''Apostlet''' 
???

'''Cyprian Latewood''' 
???

'''Eastern wog''' 
Cf p222.

'''The German Sea''' 
???

'''sub-Clerkenwell''' 
???

'''annoyance''' 
(Why?)

==Page 490==

'''gyps''' 
???

'''Byron's Pool''' 
???

'''"Div!"''' 
???

'''"Whizzo!"''' 
???

'''''"That'' is that of which ''I'' speak!"''' 
???

'''Cloisters Court''' 
???

'''King's''' 
???

'''Queen Anne's Gate''' 
???

'''Newnham''' 
???

'''Wrangleresses''' 
???

'''Phillippa Fawcett''' 
???

'''Grace Chisolm and Will Young''' 
???

'''nautch-girl''' 
???

'''socio-acrobatic aggrandizement''' 
???

'''''opium beer''''' 
???

'''duc de Richelieu''' 
???

==Page 491==

'''the City''' 
???

'''can't ''ever'' tell''' 
Dog-eat-dog capitalism?

'''Reginald "Ratty" McHugh''' 
???

'''one more flag''' 
IE, his father's wallpaper brand.

'''Balkan Sobranies''' 
???

'''lilies-and-lassitude humor of the '90s''' 
Cult of Oscar Wilde?

'''table d'hôte''' 
???

'''Very well, I contradict myself.''' 
???

==Page 492==

'''divine... prosaic''' 
(Walt was of course prosaic himself before he became divine.)

'''xanthrocroid''' 
???

'''Capsheaf''' 
Is this a third speaker, or another name for Ratty?

'''viva''' 
???

'''Crayke''' 
???

'''''D'accord''''' 
???

'''reputation for viciousness''' 
???

'''croft''' 
???

'''Mavis Grind''' 
???

'''orthopædic journals''' 
???

'''Dymphna''' 
???

'''decks full of hearts''' 
(52 or 13 per deck?)

==Page 493==

'''Thucydides... remind me''' 
Thucydides' book is an account of the Peloponnesian war, organized in a rather difficult method in which all the actions of one season are described before proceeding to the next. Here are some erotic possibilities in it, however: 
-Pericles, in his famous funeral oration, says the citizen ought to have an eros for the city. 
-At one point some Athenians are lured out of a garrison by way of a gymnastic (that is male, nude) demonstration. 
-On the eve of the fateful Sicilian expedition, all the oversized phalloi of the hermes are mysteriously knocked off. One of the generals on the expedition, Alcibiades, is accused of the offense and is eventually called called back. In Plato's Symposium Alcibiades drunkenly crashes the party and confesses that Socrates has consistently spurned his sexual advances.

'''McHugh''' 
Talking to self?

'''alfresceehwh''' 
???

'''Lorelei, Noellyn, and Faun''' 
???

'''High Albedo''' 
???

'''white veils''' 
???

'''Pinky''' 
Nicknames opposite of truth?

''''''sans merci'''''' 
???

==Page 494==

'''wrong altar''' 
???

'''gnomic tenses''' 
???

'''circs''' 
???

''''If she's not content with a vegetable love'''' 
???

'''Rugby blue''' 
???

'''Mâconnais''' 
???

'''George Grossmith...and that jolly Weedon''' 

George and Weedon Grossmith, authors of the sublime, hillarious 'Diary of a Nobody', which gave the world the adjective 'pooterish'. Undoubtedly an influence on Pynchon's depictions of the 'oh dear' side of Englishness. Pooter is a 'nobody' who decides to publish his diaries, even though he is of no interest and nothing of any note occurs. A prototypical blogger, some might suggest. Originally published in Punch magazine (I think), set in late 19th Century. Don't know if the Grossmiths went to Cambridge, will check....

[plenty of info here: http://ehlt.flinders.edu.au/english/DON/Diary_Home.htm]

==Page 495==

'''Junior or Senior?''' 
???

'''cp. Wilhelm II file''' 
???

'''"Map of the World"''' 
???

'''Newmarket''' 
???

'''Morse and Vassilev''' 
???

'''East Rumelian''' 
???

'''''zadruga''''' 
???

'''''tchifliks''''' 
???

'''''gradinarski druzhini''''' 
???

'''gossamer''' 
Pynchon draws him as 'wet' as possible?

==Page 496==

'''sod... pouffe''' 
???

'''failed canards''' 
???

'''Lent... Easter... Long Vacation''' 
???

'''Colonial Office''' 
???

'''Okhrana''' 
???

'''Ballhausplatz''' 
???

'''Wilhelmstrasse''' 
???

'''G.F.B. Riemann''' 
???

'''Zeta function... conjecture''' 
???

''''joint'''' 
???

'''Bob's your uncle''' 
???

'''Limehouse''' 
???

==Page 497==

'''excess''' 
(So not wholly gossamer?)

'''Coronation Red''' 
???

'''Ranji and C.B. Fry''' 
???

'''Australian season''' 
???

'''New Court''' 
???

'''Tavernier-Gravet slide rules''' 
???

'''High Church''' 
???

'''Mags and Nuncs and Matins''' 
???

'''not Zion''' 
???

'''Compline hour''' 
???

'''Te Deum''' 
???

'''Khaki Election''' 
???

'''Filtham''' 
???

==Page 498==

'''chromaticism... Richard Strauss''' 
???

'''Staindrop''' 
???

'''"Filtham's Tedium"''' 
(Talk about overlabored puns...)

'''dress regulations''' 
???

'''Gauss''' 
???

'''Ramanujan''' 
???

'''display of hurt feelings''' 
Cf p30.

==Page 499==

'''light up''' 
Dark world vs spark of value.

'''[zeta]-function''' 
???

'''Hilbert thinks of nothing else''' 
???

'''desire... of rather a specialized sort''' 
???

'''Great Eastern''' 
???

==Page 500==

'''Weierstrass and Sofia Kovalevskaia''' 
???

'''sounds like maths''' 
???

'''folio''' 
???

'''four-color chromolithograph''' 
???

'''Snazzbury''' 
???

'''Silent Frock''' 
Cf noise-canceling headphones.

'''toilette''' 
???

==Page 501==

'''green, white, and mauve stripes''' 
???

'''black crepon''' 
???

'''Italian-cloth''' 
???

==Page 502==

'''modern lettering''' 
???

'''L'ARIMEAUX ET QUEURLIS''' 
???

'''twilling''' 
???

==Page 502==

'''Earl's Court Wheel''' 
???

'''whelks''' 
???

'''Chinese Turkestan railway shares''' 
???

'''jellied eel''' 
???

'''West Ham, the Park, Upton Lane, lads all in claret and blue''' 
The "lads in claret and blue" are kicking a football around, as they are players of current Premiership side West Ham United. Found in 1895, the "Hammers" are playing their home games at Boleyn Ground aka "Upton Park". Yep, soccer.

'''lupine liminality''' 
???

'''hydrangeas''' 
???

'''Hardy, whimsical''' 
???

==Page 504==

'''Harwich... German Sea''' 
???

'''Hook of Holland''' 
???

'''madhouse at Osnabrück''' 
???

==Page 505==

'''plug hats''' 
???

'''Cobh''' 
???

==Page 506==

'''Euclid''' 
???

'''elms in Cleveland''' 
(Before Dutch elm disease?)

'''went on for years''' 
???

'''Shorty''' 
???

==Page 507==

'''how little I cared''' 
(Blaming Krakatoa???)

'''palm upward''' 
???

'''Prospect Avenue''' 
???

'''leaf-spring suspension''' 
???

'''overrun''' 
???

'''Flats''' 
???

==Page 508==

'''Cuyahoga''' 
???

'''your exact face''' 
(How common?)

==Page 509==

'''descending minor triad''' 
???

'''Svengali''' 
???

'''tea roses''' 
???

'''cosmos''' 
???

==Page 510==

'''first momentous glance''' 
Page 349 only?

'''Elis''' 
???

==Page 511==

'''preferring''' 
Cf Rose in "Titanic".

'''Root Tubsmith''' 
???

'''Fuchs, Schwarz... Frobenius''' 
???

'''Professor Manning''' 
???

'''Marseilles''' 
???

'''species of tarantella''' 
???

'''dreamed it''' 
(Page?)

'''Cigar Deck''' 
???

==Page 512==

'''how to stop looking''' 
Cf p27.

'''fooling''' 
(They both miss it?)

'''lobelias''' 
???

'''Victor Herbert''' 
???

'''Wolf-Ferrari''' 
???

==Page 513==

'''1st Edition Typo''' 
"She smlld falsely"

==Page 515==

'''high-hatting''' 
???

'''twenty-knot''' 
???

'''uncreated''' 
Featureless?

'''after 1914''' 
Still 10 years away.

'''S.M.S. ''Emperor Maximilian''''' 
???

'''25,000-ton''' 
???

'''dreadnoughts''' 
???

'''Slavonian''' 
???

'''Schultz-Thorneycroft''' 
???

'''Parsons turbines''' 
???

'''British men-o'-war''' 
???

==Page 516==

'''shell-rooms-to-be''' 
???

'''twelve-inch barrels''' 
???

'''shelter deck''' 
???

'''casemates''' 
???

'''freeboard''' 
The amount of the ship above the water. You need a certain amount of freeboard to maintain balance, but battleships try to limit it as much as possible.

'''"Dazzle" camouflage''' 
???

'''dihedrals''' 
???

'''Fangsley''' 
???

'''horizontally disposed''' 
???

'''Lloyd Arsenale''' 
???

'''Stabilimento Tecnico''' 
???

==Page 517==

'''Promontorio''' 
???

'''O.I.C. Bodine''' 
Stands for...? [http://onelook.com/?w=o*+i*+c*&ls=a nope]

'''fermented potato mash''' 
Cf Veikko's vodka p82.

'''four shafts''' 
???

'''''Mauretania''''' 
???

'''''Zu befehl, Herr Hauptheitzer''''' 
???

'''Black Gang''' 
???

'''Oberhauptheitzer''' 
???

'''Mannlicher''' 
???

'''''"Dampf mehr!"''''' 
???

'''singlet''' 
???

==Page 518==

'''Marconi room''' 
???

'''design maximum of nine degrees''' 
???

'''nymphs''' 
???

'''''"Porca miseria"''''' 
???

==Page 519==

'''tight circle''' 
Military as inane as circus clowns.

'''deeper levels''' 
(Eg particle vs wave?)

'''Chinese''' 
???

'''''nicht wahr''''' 
???

'''Graz''' 
???

'''bilge-crab''' 
???

==Page 520==

'''Teutonic''' 
???

'''Mulai Ahmed er-Raisuli''' 
???

'''Agadir, Queen of the Iron Coast''' 
???

'''Sus... Susi''' 
???

'''Abdel Aziz''' 
???

'''Canaries''' 
???

'''Lübeck''' 
???

'''Berbers''' 
???

==Page 521==

'''tree-climbing goats''' 
???

'''argan trees''' 
???

'''Gnaoua''' 
???

'''''mlouk gnaoui''''' 
???

'''Seigneurs Noirs''' 
???

'''Habsburg navy''' 
???

'''Mogador road''' 
???

'''Tawil Balak''' 
???

'''Rahman''' 
???

'''''Formalhaut''''' 
???

'''Moïsés''' 
???

'''Jonah... Massa''' 
???

==Page 522==

'''kashbah''' 
???

'''Ighir Ufrani''' 
???

'''''alimzah''''' 
???

'''''tasargelt''''' 
???

'''scruff''' 
???

'''Staketsel''' 
???

'''lazarettes''' 
???

'''''mon chou''''' 
"My cabbage." A french term of affection.

==Page 523==

'''moon deck''' 
???

'''lower orlop''' 
???

'''lateen-riggers''' 
???

==Page 524==

'''Piazza Grande''' 
???

'''Denza''' 
???

'''Antonio Smareglia''' 
???

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

ATD 489-524

2006-12-27T01:05:55Z

Thecutiestpuppy: /* Page 516 */ freeboard

==Page 489==

'''desolate sighs''' 
(They're not gay?)

'''Apostlet''' 
???

'''Cyprian Latewood''' 
???

'''Eastern wog''' 
Cf p222.

'''The German Sea''' 
???

'''sub-Clerkenwell''' 
???

'''annoyance''' 
(Why?)

==Page 490==

'''gyps''' 
???

'''Byron's Pool''' 
???

'''"Div!"''' 
???

'''"Whizzo!"''' 
???

'''''"That'' is that of which ''I'' speak!"''' 
???

'''Cloisters Court''' 
???

'''King's''' 
???

'''Queen Anne's Gate''' 
???

'''Newnham''' 
???

'''Wrangleresses''' 
???

'''Phillippa Fawcett''' 
???

'''Grace Chisolm and Will Young''' 
???

'''nautch-girl''' 
???

'''socio-acrobatic aggrandizement''' 
???

'''''opium beer''''' 
???

'''duc de Richelieu''' 
???

==Page 491==

'''the City''' 
???

'''can't ''ever'' tell''' 
Dog-eat-dog capitalism?

'''Reginald "Ratty" McHugh''' 
???

'''one more flag''' 
IE, his father's wallpaper brand.

'''Balkan Sobranies''' 
???

'''lilies-and-lassitude humor of the '90s''' 
Cult of Oscar Wilde?

'''table d'hôte''' 
???

'''Very well, I contradict myself.''' 
???

==Page 492==

'''divine... prosaic''' 
(Walt was of course prosaic himself before he became divine.)

'''xanthrocroid''' 
???

'''Capsheaf''' 
Is this a third speaker, or another name for Ratty?

'''viva''' 
???

'''Crayke''' 
???

'''''D'accord''''' 
???

'''reputation for viciousness''' 
???

'''croft''' 
???

'''Mavis Grind''' 
???

'''orthopædic journals''' 
???

'''Dymphna''' 
???

'''decks full of hearts''' 
(52 or 13 per deck?)

==Page 493==

'''Thucydides... remind me''' 
Thucydides' book is an account of the Peloponnesian war, organized in a rather difficult method in which all the actions of one season are described before proceeding to the next. Here are some erotic possibilities in it, however: 
-Pericles, in his famous funeral oration, says the citizen ought to have an eros for the city. 
-At one point some Athenians are lured out of a garrison by way of a gymnastic (that is male, nude) demonstration. 
-On the eve of the fateful Sicilian expedition, all the oversized phalloi of the hermes are mysteriously knocked off. One of the generals on the expedition, Alcibiades, is accused of the offense and is eventually called called back. In Plato's Symposium Alcibiades drunkenly crashes the party and confesses that Socrates has consistently spurned his sexual advances.

'''McHugh''' 
Talking to self?

'''alfresceehwh''' 
???

'''Lorelei, Noellyn, and Faun''' 
???

'''High Albedo''' 
???

'''white veils''' 
???

'''Pinky''' 
Nicknames opposite of truth?

''''''sans merci'''''' 
???

==Page 494==

'''wrong altar''' 
???

'''gnomic tenses''' 
???

'''circs''' 
???

''''If she's not content with a vegetable love'''' 
???

'''Rugby blue''' 
???

'''Mâconnais''' 
???

'''George Grossmith...and that jolly Weedon''' 

George and Weedon Grossmith, authors of the sublime, hillarious 'Diary of a Nobody', which gave the world the adjective 'pooterish'. Undoubtedly an influence on Pynchon's depictions of the 'oh dear' side of Englishness. Pooter is a 'nobody' who decides to publish his diaries, even though he is of no interest and nothing of any note occurs. A prototypical blogger, some might suggest. Originally published in Punch magazine (I think), set in late 19th Century. Don't know if the Grossmiths went to Cambridge, will check....

[plenty of info here: http://ehlt.flinders.edu.au/english/DON/Diary_Home.htm]

==Page 495==

'''Junior or Senior?''' 
???

'''cp. Wilhelm II file''' 
???

'''"Map of the World"''' 
???

'''Newmarket''' 
???

'''Morse and Vassilev''' 
???

'''East Rumelian''' 
???

'''''zadruga''''' 
???

'''''tchifliks''''' 
???

'''''gradinarski druzhini''''' 
???

'''gossamer''' 
Pynchon draws him as 'wet' as possible?

==Page 496==

'''sod... pouffe''' 
???

'''failed canards''' 
???

'''Lent... Easter... Long Vacation''' 
???

'''Colonial Office''' 
???

'''Okhrana''' 
???

'''Ballhausplatz''' 
???

'''Wilhelmstrasse''' 
???

'''G.F.B. Riemann''' 
???

'''Zeta function... conjecture''' 
???

''''joint'''' 
???

'''Bob's your uncle''' 
???

'''Limehouse''' 
???

==Page 497==

'''excess''' 
(So not wholly gossamer?)

'''Coronation Red''' 
???

'''Ranji and C.B. Fry''' 
???

'''Australian season''' 
???

'''New Court''' 
???

'''Tavernier-Gravet slide rules''' 
???

'''High Church''' 
???

'''Mags and Nuncs and Matins''' 
???

'''not Zion''' 
???

'''Compline hour''' 
???

'''Te Deum''' 
???

'''Khaki Election''' 
???

'''Filtham''' 
???

==Page 498==

'''chromaticism... Richard Strauss''' 
???

'''Staindrop''' 
???

'''"Filtham's Tedium"''' 
(Talk about overlabored puns...)

'''dress regulations''' 
???

'''Gauss''' 
???

'''Ramanujan''' 
???

'''display of hurt feelings''' 
Cf p30.

==Page 499==

'''light up''' 
Dark world vs spark of value.

'''[zeta]-function''' 
???

'''Hilbert thinks of nothing else''' 
???

'''desire... of rather a specialized sort''' 
???

'''Great Eastern''' 
???

==Page 500==

'''Weierstrass and Sofia Kovalevskaia''' 
???

'''sounds like maths''' 
???

'''folio''' 
???

'''four-color chromolithograph''' 
???

'''Snazzbury''' 
???

'''Silent Frock''' 
Cf noise-canceling headphones.

'''toilette''' 
???

==Page 501==

'''green, white, and mauve stripes''' 
???

'''black crepon''' 
???

'''Italian-cloth''' 
???

==Page 502==

'''modern lettering''' 
???

'''L'ARIMEAUX ET QUEURLIS''' 
???

'''twilling''' 
???

==Page 502==

'''Earl's Court Wheel''' 
???

'''whelks''' 
???

'''Chinese Turkestan railway shares''' 
???

'''jellied eel''' 
???

'''West Ham, the Park, Upton Lane, lads all in claret and blue''' 
The "lads in claret and blue" are kicking a football around, as they are players of current Premiership side West Ham United. Found in 1895, the "Hammers" are playing their home games at Boleyn Ground aka "Upton Park". Yep, soccer.

'''lupine liminality''' 
???

'''hydrangeas''' 
???

'''Hardy, whimsical''' 
???

==Page 504==

'''Harwich... German Sea''' 
???

'''Hook of Holland''' 
???

'''madhouse at Osnabrück''' 
???

==Page 505==

'''plug hats''' 
???

'''Cobh''' 
???

==Page 506==

'''Euclid''' 
???

'''elms in Cleveland''' 
(Before Dutch elm disease?)

'''went on for years''' 
???

'''Shorty''' 
???

==Page 507==

'''how little I cared''' 
(Blaming Krakatoa???)

'''palm upward''' 
???

'''Prospect Avenue''' 
???

'''leaf-spring suspension''' 
???

'''overrun''' 
???

'''Flats''' 
???

==Page 508==

'''Cuyahoga''' 
???

'''your exact face''' 
(How common?)

==Page 509==

'''descending minor triad''' 
???

'''Svengali''' 
???

'''tea roses''' 
???

'''cosmos''' 
???

==Page 510==

'''first momentous glance''' 
Page 349 only?

'''Elis''' 
???

==Page 511==

'''preferring''' 
Cf Rose in "Titanic".

'''Root Tubsmith''' 
???

'''Fuchs, Schwarz... Frobenius''' 
???

'''Professor Manning''' 
???

'''Marseilles''' 
???

'''species of tarantella''' 
???

'''dreamed it''' 
(Page?)

'''Cigar Deck''' 
???

==Page 512==

'''how to stop looking''' 
Cf p27.

'''fooling''' 
(They both miss it?)

'''lobelias''' 
???

'''Victor Herbert''' 
???

'''Wolf-Ferrari''' 
???

==Page 513==

'''1st Edition Typo''' 
"She smlld falsely"

==Page 515==

'''high-hatting''' 
???

'''twenty-knot''' 
???

'''uncreated''' 
Featureless?

'''after 1914''' 
Still 10 years away.

'''S.M.S. ''Emperor Maximilian''''' 
???

'''25,000-ton''' 
???

'''dreadnoughts''' 
???

'''Slavonian''' 
???

'''Schultz-Thorneycroft''' 
???

'''Parsons turbines''' 
???

'''British men-o'-war''' 
???

==Page 516==

'''shell-rooms-to-be''' 
???

'''twelve-inch barrels''' 
???

'''shelter deck''' 
???

'''casemates''' 
???

'''freeboard''' 
The amount of the ship above the water. You need a certain amount of freeboard to maintain balance, but battleships try to limit it as much as possible.

'''"Dazzle" camouflage''' 
???

'''dihedrals''' 
???

'''Fangsley''' 
???

'''horizontally disposed''' 
???

'''Lloyd Arsenale''' 
???

'''Stabilimento Tecnico''' 
???

==Page 517==

'''Promontorio''' 
???

'''O.I.C. Bodine''' 
Stands for...? [http://onelook.com/?w=o*+i*+c*&ls=a nope]

'''fermented potato mash''' 
Cf Veikko's vodka p82.

'''four shafts''' 
???

'''''Mauretania''''' 
???

'''''Zu befehl, Herr Hauptheitzer''''' 
???

'''Black Gang''' 
???

'''Oberhauptheitzer''' 
???

'''Mannlicher''' 
???

'''''"Dampf mehr!"''''' 
???

'''singlet''' 
???

==Page 518==

'''Marconi room''' 
???

'''design maximum of nine degrees''' 
???

'''nymphs''' 
???

'''''"Porca miseria"''''' 
???

==Page 519==

'''tight circle''' 
Military as inane as circus clowns.

'''deeper levels''' 
(Eg particle vs wave?)

'''Chinese''' 
???

'''''nicht wahr''''' 
???

'''Graz''' 
???

'''bilge-crab''' 
???

==Page 520==

'''Teutonic''' 
???

'''Mulai Ahmed er-Raisuli''' 
???

'''Agadir, Queen of the Iron Coast''' 
???

'''Sus... Susi''' 
???

'''Abdel Aziz''' 
???

'''Canaries''' 
???

'''Lübeck''' 
???

'''Berbers''' 
???

==Page 521==

'''tree-climbing goats''' 
???

'''argan trees''' 
???

'''Gnaoua''' 
???

'''''mlouk gnaoui''''' 
???

'''Seigneurs Noirs''' 
???

'''Habsburg navy''' 
???

'''Mogador road''' 
???

'''Tawil Balak''' 
???

'''Rahman''' 
???

'''''Formalhaut''''' 
???

'''Moïsés''' 
???

'''Jonah... Massa''' 
???

==Page 522==

'''kashbah''' 
???

'''Ighir Ufrani''' 
???

'''''alimzah''''' 
???

'''''tasargelt''''' 
???

'''scruff''' 
???

'''Staketsel''' 
???

'''lazarettes''' 
???

'''''mon chou''''' 
???

==Page 523==

'''moon deck''' 
???

'''lower orlop''' 
???

'''lateen-riggers''' 
???

==Page 524==

'''Piazza Grande''' 
???

'''Denza''' 
???

'''Antonio Smareglia''' 
???

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

ATD 489-524

2006-12-27T00:54:13Z

Thecutiestpuppy: /* Page 493 */ thucydides' eroticism

==Page 489==

'''desolate sighs''' 
(They're not gay?)

'''Apostlet''' 
???

'''Cyprian Latewood''' 
???

'''Eastern wog''' 
Cf p222.

'''The German Sea''' 
???

'''sub-Clerkenwell''' 
???

'''annoyance''' 
(Why?)

==Page 490==

'''gyps''' 
???

'''Byron's Pool''' 
???

'''"Div!"''' 
???

'''"Whizzo!"''' 
???

'''''"That'' is that of which ''I'' speak!"''' 
???

'''Cloisters Court''' 
???

'''King's''' 
???

'''Queen Anne's Gate''' 
???

'''Newnham''' 
???

'''Wrangleresses''' 
???

'''Phillippa Fawcett''' 
???

'''Grace Chisolm and Will Young''' 
???

'''nautch-girl''' 
???

'''socio-acrobatic aggrandizement''' 
???

'''''opium beer''''' 
???

'''duc de Richelieu''' 
???

==Page 491==

'''the City''' 
???

'''can't ''ever'' tell''' 
Dog-eat-dog capitalism?

'''Reginald "Ratty" McHugh''' 
???

'''one more flag''' 
IE, his father's wallpaper brand.

'''Balkan Sobranies''' 
???

'''lilies-and-lassitude humor of the '90s''' 
Cult of Oscar Wilde?

'''table d'hôte''' 
???

'''Very well, I contradict myself.''' 
???

==Page 492==

'''divine... prosaic''' 
(Walt was of course prosaic himself before he became divine.)

'''xanthrocroid''' 
???

'''Capsheaf''' 
Is this a third speaker, or another name for Ratty?

'''viva''' 
???

'''Crayke''' 
???

'''''D'accord''''' 
???

'''reputation for viciousness''' 
???

'''croft''' 
???

'''Mavis Grind''' 
???

'''orthopædic journals''' 
???

'''Dymphna''' 
???

'''decks full of hearts''' 
(52 or 13 per deck?)

==Page 493==

'''Thucydides... remind me''' 
Thucydides' book is an account of the Peloponnesian war, organized in a rather difficult method in which all the actions of one season are described before proceeding to the next. Here are some erotic possibilities in it, however: 
-Pericles, in his famous funeral oration, says the citizen ought to have an eros for the city. 
-At one point some Athenians are lured out of a garrison by way of a gymnastic (that is male, nude) demonstration. 
-On the eve of the fateful Sicilian expedition, all the oversized phalloi of the hermes are mysteriously knocked off. One of the generals on the expedition, Alcibiades, is accused of the offense and is eventually called called back. In Plato's Symposium Alcibiades drunkenly crashes the party and confesses that Socrates has consistently spurned his sexual advances.

'''McHugh''' 
Talking to self?

'''alfresceehwh''' 
???

'''Lorelei, Noellyn, and Faun''' 
???

'''High Albedo''' 
???

'''white veils''' 
???

'''Pinky''' 
Nicknames opposite of truth?

''''''sans merci'''''' 
???

==Page 494==

'''wrong altar''' 
???

'''gnomic tenses''' 
???

'''circs''' 
???

''''If she's not content with a vegetable love'''' 
???

'''Rugby blue''' 
???

'''Mâconnais''' 
???

'''George Grossmith...and that jolly Weedon''' 

George and Weedon Grossmith, authors of the sublime, hillarious 'Diary of a Nobody', which gave the world the adjective 'pooterish'. Undoubtedly an influence on Pynchon's depictions of the 'oh dear' side of Englishness. Pooter is a 'nobody' who decides to publish his diaries, even though he is of no interest and nothing of any note occurs. A prototypical blogger, some might suggest. Originally published in Punch magazine (I think), set in late 19th Century. Don't know if the Grossmiths went to Cambridge, will check....

[plenty of info here: http://ehlt.flinders.edu.au/english/DON/Diary_Home.htm]

==Page 495==

'''Junior or Senior?''' 
???

'''cp. Wilhelm II file''' 
???

'''"Map of the World"''' 
???

'''Newmarket''' 
???

'''Morse and Vassilev''' 
???

'''East Rumelian''' 
???

'''''zadruga''''' 
???

'''''tchifliks''''' 
???

'''''gradinarski druzhini''''' 
???

'''gossamer''' 
Pynchon draws him as 'wet' as possible?

==Page 496==

'''sod... pouffe''' 
???

'''failed canards''' 
???

'''Lent... Easter... Long Vacation''' 
???

'''Colonial Office''' 
???

'''Okhrana''' 
???

'''Ballhausplatz''' 
???

'''Wilhelmstrasse''' 
???

'''G.F.B. Riemann''' 
???

'''Zeta function... conjecture''' 
???

''''joint'''' 
???

'''Bob's your uncle''' 
???

'''Limehouse''' 
???

==Page 497==

'''excess''' 
(So not wholly gossamer?)

'''Coronation Red''' 
???

'''Ranji and C.B. Fry''' 
???

'''Australian season''' 
???

'''New Court''' 
???

'''Tavernier-Gravet slide rules''' 
???

'''High Church''' 
???

'''Mags and Nuncs and Matins''' 
???

'''not Zion''' 
???

'''Compline hour''' 
???

'''Te Deum''' 
???

'''Khaki Election''' 
???

'''Filtham''' 
???

==Page 498==

'''chromaticism... Richard Strauss''' 
???

'''Staindrop''' 
???

'''"Filtham's Tedium"''' 
(Talk about overlabored puns...)

'''dress regulations''' 
???

'''Gauss''' 
???

'''Ramanujan''' 
???

'''display of hurt feelings''' 
Cf p30.

==Page 499==

'''light up''' 
Dark world vs spark of value.

'''[zeta]-function''' 
???

'''Hilbert thinks of nothing else''' 
???

'''desire... of rather a specialized sort''' 
???

'''Great Eastern''' 
???

==Page 500==

'''Weierstrass and Sofia Kovalevskaia''' 
???

'''sounds like maths''' 
???

'''folio''' 
???

'''four-color chromolithograph''' 
???

'''Snazzbury''' 
???

'''Silent Frock''' 
Cf noise-canceling headphones.

'''toilette''' 
???

==Page 501==

'''green, white, and mauve stripes''' 
???

'''black crepon''' 
???

'''Italian-cloth''' 
???

==Page 502==

'''modern lettering''' 
???

'''L'ARIMEAUX ET QUEURLIS''' 
???

'''twilling''' 
???

==Page 502==

'''Earl's Court Wheel''' 
???

'''whelks''' 
???

'''Chinese Turkestan railway shares''' 
???

'''jellied eel''' 
???

'''West Ham, the Park, Upton Lane, lads all in claret and blue''' 
The "lads in claret and blue" are kicking a football around, as they are players of current Premiership side West Ham United. Found in 1895, the "Hammers" are playing their home games at Boleyn Ground aka "Upton Park". Yep, soccer.

'''lupine liminality''' 
???

'''hydrangeas''' 
???

'''Hardy, whimsical''' 
???

==Page 504==

'''Harwich... German Sea''' 
???

'''Hook of Holland''' 
???

'''madhouse at Osnabrück''' 
???

==Page 505==

'''plug hats''' 
???

'''Cobh''' 
???

==Page 506==

'''Euclid''' 
???

'''elms in Cleveland''' 
(Before Dutch elm disease?)

'''went on for years''' 
???

'''Shorty''' 
???

==Page 507==

'''how little I cared''' 
(Blaming Krakatoa???)

'''palm upward''' 
???

'''Prospect Avenue''' 
???

'''leaf-spring suspension''' 
???

'''overrun''' 
???

'''Flats''' 
???

==Page 508==

'''Cuyahoga''' 
???

'''your exact face''' 
(How common?)

==Page 509==

'''descending minor triad''' 
???

'''Svengali''' 
???

'''tea roses''' 
???

'''cosmos''' 
???

==Page 510==

'''first momentous glance''' 
Page 349 only?

'''Elis''' 
???

==Page 511==

'''preferring''' 
Cf Rose in "Titanic".

'''Root Tubsmith''' 
???

'''Fuchs, Schwarz... Frobenius''' 
???

'''Professor Manning''' 
???

'''Marseilles''' 
???

'''species of tarantella''' 
???

'''dreamed it''' 
(Page?)

'''Cigar Deck''' 
???

==Page 512==

'''how to stop looking''' 
Cf p27.

'''fooling''' 
(They both miss it?)

'''lobelias''' 
???

'''Victor Herbert''' 
???

'''Wolf-Ferrari''' 
???

==Page 513==

'''1st Edition Typo''' 
"She smlld falsely"

==Page 515==

'''high-hatting''' 
???

'''twenty-knot''' 
???

'''uncreated''' 
Featureless?

'''after 1914''' 
Still 10 years away.

'''S.M.S. ''Emperor Maximilian''''' 
???

'''25,000-ton''' 
???

'''dreadnoughts''' 
???

'''Slavonian''' 
???

'''Schultz-Thorneycroft''' 
???

'''Parsons turbines''' 
???

'''British men-o'-war''' 
???

==Page 516==

'''shell-rooms-to-be''' 
???

'''twelve-inch barrels''' 
???

'''shelter deck''' 
???

'''casemates''' 
???

'''freeboard''' 
???

'''"Dazzle" camouflage''' 
???

'''dihedrals''' 
???

'''Fangsley''' 
???

'''horizontally disposed''' 
???

'''Lloyd Arsenale''' 
???

'''Stabilimento Tecnico''' 
???

==Page 517==

'''Promontorio''' 
???

'''O.I.C. Bodine''' 
Stands for...? [http://onelook.com/?w=o*+i*+c*&ls=a nope]

'''fermented potato mash''' 
Cf Veikko's vodka p82.

'''four shafts''' 
???

'''''Mauretania''''' 
???

'''''Zu befehl, Herr Hauptheitzer''''' 
???

'''Black Gang''' 
???

'''Oberhauptheitzer''' 
???

'''Mannlicher''' 
???

'''''"Dampf mehr!"''''' 
???

'''singlet''' 
???

==Page 518==

'''Marconi room''' 
???

'''design maximum of nine degrees''' 
???

'''nymphs''' 
???

'''''"Porca miseria"''''' 
???

==Page 519==

'''tight circle''' 
Military as inane as circus clowns.

'''deeper levels''' 
(Eg particle vs wave?)

'''Chinese''' 
???

'''''nicht wahr''''' 
???

'''Graz''' 
???

'''bilge-crab''' 
???

==Page 520==

'''Teutonic''' 
???

'''Mulai Ahmed er-Raisuli''' 
???

'''Agadir, Queen of the Iron Coast''' 
???

'''Sus... Susi''' 
???

'''Abdel Aziz''' 
???

'''Canaries''' 
???

'''Lübeck''' 
???

'''Berbers''' 
???

==Page 521==

'''tree-climbing goats''' 
???

'''argan trees''' 
???

'''Gnaoua''' 
???

'''''mlouk gnaoui''''' 
???

'''Seigneurs Noirs''' 
???

'''Habsburg navy''' 
???

'''Mogador road''' 
???

'''Tawil Balak''' 
???

'''Rahman''' 
???

'''''Formalhaut''''' 
???

'''Moïsés''' 
???

'''Jonah... Massa''' 
???

==Page 522==

'''kashbah''' 
???

'''Ighir Ufrani''' 
???

'''''alimzah''''' 
???

'''''tasargelt''''' 
???

'''scruff''' 
???

'''Staketsel''' 
???

'''lazarettes''' 
???

'''''mon chou''''' 
???

==Page 523==

'''moon deck''' 
???

'''lower orlop''' 
???

'''lateen-riggers''' 
???

==Page 524==

'''Piazza Grande''' 
???

'''Denza''' 
???

'''Antonio Smareglia''' 
???

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

ATD 97-118

2006-12-27T00:36:59Z

Thecutiestpuppy: /* Page 110 */ platonic polyhedra

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

==Page 97==

'''the Rebellion''' 
What the North called the Civil War. [[ATD_1-25#Page_7|Another reference...]]

'''Tesla, Dr. Nikola''' (1856-1943) 
Tesla was a Serb-American inventor, engineer and physicist whose patents and theoretical work form the basis of modern alternating current electric power (AC) systems, radio, and a bunch of other stuff. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nikola_Tesla Wikipedia entry] Tesla researched in Colorado Springs from May 1899 - January 1900, a location he chose because of the frequent thunderstorms, the high altitude, and the dryness of the air. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nikola_Tesla#Colorado_Springs Wikipedia on Tesla at Colorado Springs].

Much of the the funding for his Colorado Springs laboratory came from Colonel John Jacob Astor. Tesla's friend and patent lawyer, Leonard E. Curtis, persuaded the El Paso Power Company to supply Tesla with all the electricity he wanted, free of charge. The arrangement ended the night Tesla's activities burned out the dynamo and the entire city lost power. [http://www.pbs.org/tesla/ll/ll_colspr.html PBS: Tesla - Master of Lightning]

"Tesla logged in his diary on July 3, 1899 that a separate resonance transformer tuned to the same high frequency as a larger high-voltage resonance transformer would transceive energy from the larger coil, acting as a transmitter of wireless energy, which was used to confirm Tesla's patent for radio during later disputes in the courts. These air core high-frequency resonate coils were the predecessors of systems from radio to radar and medical magnetic resonance imaging devices." [http://www.crystalinks.com/tesla.html] This information was later used to confirm his patent for radio which he received posthumously in 1946, 3 years after his death. [http://www.resonanceresearch.com/nikola-tesla-coils-picture-colorado-1899-labratory.htm].

Pynchon confuses this 03 July 'vision', during a natural electrical storm, with later experimental generation of high voltages.

==Page 98==

'''engineering students... from Cornell, Yale''' 
Cornell is Pynchon's alma mater, where he initially studied engineering. [[Thomas Pynchon|Pynchon bio]]

'''Maxwell''' 
James Clerk Maxwell (1831-1879) was a Scottish mathematical physicist among the pioneers of electromagnetism. Pynchon made use of his theoretical "Maxwell's Demon" in ''The Crying of Lot 49''. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/James_Clerk_Maxwell Wikipedia entry]

'''Maxwell's ''Treatise on Electricity and Magnetism'' of 1873''' 
Full text of [http://www.archive.org/details/electricandmagne01maxwrich Volume 1] and [http://www.archive.org/details/electricandmag02maxwrich Volume 2] at the Internet Archive.

==Page 99==
'''"So is altitude transformed, continuously, to light"''' 
The potential energy of water at an altitude is realized when it falls, producing the flow of electricity required for the production of artificial light. 

'''"Hamilton had experienced at Brougham Bridge in Ireland"''' 
William Rowan Hamilton (1805-1865) was an Irish mathematician, physicist, and astronomer who made important contributions to the development of optics, dynamics, and algebra. His discovery of quaternions is perhaps his best known investigation. The discovery of quaternions reportedly occurred during a walk with his wife by the Royal Canal in Dublin. Upon having the inspiration for the formula, he promptly carved it into the side of the nearby Broom (or Brougham) Bridge. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/William_Rowan_Hamilton Wikipedia entry]

'''"a jump from one place to another"''' 
An allusion to quantum jump (or quantum leap), which would be proposed some years later as a model for the electron's transition between energy states within an atom and as the sole cause of the emission of electromagnetic radiation, including that of ''light'', by atoms. Interestingly enough, the term "quantum leap" would later become a standard vernacular term to describe abrupt advances. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Quantum_leap Wikipedia entry]

'''Pike's Peak or Bust!'''
The slogan of miners heading to Colorado during the Gold Rush of 1859.

==Page 100==

'''Mr. Merriwell, we really need this touchdown''' 
An allusion to the fictional character Frank Merriwell, an adventuresome student at Yale and football hero, he was created by the pulp fiction writer Gilbert Patten, who wrote under the pen name Burt L. Standish. The first story, "Frank Merriwell: or, First Days at Fardale" appeared in ''Tip Top Weekly'' on April 18, 1896. Merriwell went on to appear in comic books, radio programs, and dime novels. As the passage suggests, Merriwell constituted an idealized picture of the east coast, old money elite. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Frank_Merriwell Wikipedia Entry on Frank Merriwell]

'''Yale''' 
This possible deal with the devil that Kit makes to get into Yale recalls the evil pact made to get Tyrone Slothrop into Harvard in ''Gravity's Rainbow''.

'''Horsefeathers''' 
The title of a 1932 Marx Brothers film ("Horse Feathers"). Another possible indication for the promised Groucho Marx cameo. See also "ducksoup" (p.25)

'''Antietam''' 
1862.

'''substitute conscriptee''' 
The Enrollment Act of 1863 allowed draftees to pay $300 to a substitute who would serve for them. (See [http://www.rootsweb.com/~nygenese/purchase.jpg here] for an example substitution form.) J.P. Morgan, John D. Rockefeller, Andrew Carnegie, Jay Gould, James Mellon and future president Grover Cleveland all hired substitutes. Within a year the price had gone up to $1,100, however. [http://www.archives.gov/publications/prologue/1994/winter/civil-war-draft-records.html Civil War Draft Records: Exemptions and Enrollments]

==Page 101==

'''Minié ball''' 
Prior to the development of the minie ball, rifles were not used in combat due to the difficulty in loading. The ammunition used by rifles was the same diameter as the barrel in order for the bullet to engage the groves of the rifled barrel. As a result the ball had to be forced into the barrel. The minie ball, originally designed by Captain Claude-Etienne Minie of France and improved on by manufacturers in the United States, changed warfare. Since the minie ball was smaller than the diameter of the barrel, it could be loaded quickly by dropping the bullet down the barrel. This conical lead bullet had two or three grooves and a conical cavity in its base. The gases, formed by the burning of powder once the firearm was fired, expanded the base of the bullet so that it engaged the rifling in the barrel. Thus, rifles could be loaded quickly and yet fired accurately; 620; [http://www.civilwar.si.edu/weapons_minieball.html From the Smithsonian website]

'''"far, far away"''' 
A nod to the opening lines of ''Star Wars''? “A long time ago in a galaxy far, far away..." 
A similar episode is in Richard Powers' "Three Farmers on their Way to a Dance" (1985), in which a character affirms that he can get military radio communications thanks to a dental filling. Richard Powers has often been compared to Pynchon.

'''physical well-being''' 
The dichotomy of bodily and spiritual well-being appears in the [[The World is at Fault]] letter that Pynchon wrote in the early 60s.

'''"if it exists"''' 
Assuming this is c1882, when the Standard Oil Trust was formed, it was already well-known.

==Page 102==
'''ten gallons of coffee''' 
Major caffeine abuse also figured in to ''Mason & Dixon''.

'''''"Izvinite... Hvala"''''' 
'Excuse me'... 'Thank you' in Croatian. [http://www.bugeurope.com/essentials/croatian.html [cite]]

==Page 104==

'''"Tithing," Tesla said, "giving back to the day."''' Tesla's contempt for this tithing positions him as--wait for it--against the day.

==Page 107==

Since this is 1899, the Chums should be six years older than they were in Chicago.

'''Tesla device''' 
A radio. He received a patent for the radio after his death. The transmissions of July 3, 1899 (see Page 97, above) were used as evidence that he should be granted the patent.

'''Indian Ocean islands of Amsterdam and St.Paul''' 
As noted in the text, Indian Ocean Islands. They remain without permanent residents.
[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/%C3%8Ele_Saint-Paul Wikipedia article on St. Paul Island]

==Page 108==

'''''Megaera''''' 
One of the Greek Furies. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Megaera [Wikipedia]]

==Page 109==

'''blindness at the heart of a diamond''' 
This enigmatic imagery is reflected (no pun intended) in a few references: 

"where the light came down sifted through so many emerald screens that it was as flawless as the heart of a diamond. " (''Anne of Green Gables'', Chapt. 15, by Lucy Maud Montgomery) 

"It was a singularly sharp night, and clear as the heart of a diamond."'' A Story that is Untrue'' by Ambrose Bierce 

==Page 110==
'''Platonic polyhedra'''

In the Timaeus of Plato, the eponymous character claims, in what he calls his "likely story," that the cosmos was created by the gathering of triangles into regular solids which coincide with the four elements: the pyramid (fire), cube (earth), octahedron (air), icosahedron (water), and dodecahedron. The dodecahedron becomes associated with Æther.

'''Clarendons'''

Clarendon is a serif typeface created in 1845 that was often used for wanted posters in the Old West. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Clarendon_%28typeface%29 Wikipedia entry, with a sample]

==Page 111==

'''Haymarket bomb . . . wonders of chemistry''' 
Cf. p. 79, "the widely admired Mexican principle of politics through chemistry."

==Page 113==

'''X.O.''' 
In many militaries' units, the executive officer (XO) is the second-in-command, reporting to the commanding officer (CO).

'''"contamination by the secular"''' 
Secular can be defined as "denoting attitudes, activities, or other things that have no religious or spiritual basis." As the Chums have so far not been overtly religious, perhaps they mean secular in the spiritual sense?

'''Gloymbroognitz thidfusp''' 
?

'''Surabaya''' 
Today in Indonesia. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Surabaya Wikipedia entry]

==Page 114==

'''Nernst lamps''' An early incandescent lamp invented by Hermann Nernst (1864-1941), which made use of a heated ceramic rod to produce light in ambient air (in contrast to Edison's incandescent, which required a vacuum to operate).

'''Dr. Mikimoto (Kokichi)''' Produced the first cultured pearl in 1893 in Toba, Japan. As he left school at 13 to help support his family, any Doctorate he may have obtained must have been honorary.

'''Iceland Spar''' 
See this handy "About Geology" page [http://geology.about.com/library/bl/images/blcalcite.htm], with an illustration demonstrating a spar's double-refraction effect on printed letters--remarkably like that on the cover of ATD! This kind of calcite has rhombohedral cleavage, because each of its faces is a rhombus, a warped rectangle in which none of the corners are square. A "spar" would be not the whole calcite crystal, but a cleavage fragment. Is each of the rectangular pages of ATD then a warped cleavage from some sort of crystalline whole, refracting its text in several directions at once? Of course, to the Chums the text message they receive from Upper Hierarchy has but one simple meaning. "Paramorphism" = the structural alteration of a mineral without any change in its chemical composition.

'''Etienne-Louis Malus''' 
1775-1812, a French officer and mathematician whose work was predominantly concerned with light. He studied ray systems, and his theory on polarisation was published in 1809. His theory of the double refraction of light in crystals was published in 1810. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Etienne-Louis_Malus Wikipedia] Malus is also the genus of the apple. Malus is best known for his law describing intensity of light as it passes through polarized materials. There are delicious metaphorical implications for any reader of a Pynchon novel.

==Page 115==
'''Kepler'''

'''Edmond Halley''' 
1656-1742, [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Edmund_Halley Halley] was an English physical scientist most remembered for the comet he which he predicted would return. In 1692 he proposed that the earth was [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hollow_Earth hollow]. In 1698 he departed on a two year voyage as captain of the HMS Paramore in order to measure variations in the Earth's magnetic field. In 1716 he suggested timing the transit of Venus to determine the distance between the earth and the sun.

'''(Leonhard) Euler''' 
The method of traverse (pun ignored) by which the Chums proceed became known as a Symmes' Hole after John Cleeves Symmes who, in 1818 circulated a pamphlet arguing for the existence of such holes in the polar regions and further volunteered to lead an expedition to said regions.

Symmes' following lecture tours were further carried forth by one J.N. Reynolds. "[Edgar Allen] Poe is said to have repeatedly called out the name "Reynolds" on the night before his death, though no one has ever been able to identify the person to whom he referred." [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Edgar_allen_poe Edgar Allen Poe's] first published short story, "Ms. Found in a Bottle" (1833) took, as its premise, the existence of Symmes' Holes: theoretical holes in the polar areas which led to a hollow interior.

==Page 116==

'''vatic''' 
Prophetic. [http://dictionary.reference.com/wordoftheday/archive/2004/10/21.html [def]]

==Page 117==
'''royal court of Chthonica''' 
The adjective ''chthonic'' means "of the earth" or "of the underworld" and is often used to refer to the gods and other entities residing under the surface of the earth. The adjective is used creatively, and most famously, in the fictional works of H.P. Lovecraft ... a chief deity of his ficitional universe being Cthulhu.

'''Plutonia''' 
As above, a reference to the underworld and its inherent connotations of underground voyage, from the Aeneid to Christ to Dante to Tarzan, et al. The "Plutonist" movement, as opposed to the "Neptunist", was quite in vogue in the late 1800s, being a theory of geography which held that the interior heat of the earth was somehow responsible for various geological processes.

'''Tunbridge Wells''' 
[http://www.icons.org.uk/nom/nominations/disgusted-of-tunbridge-wells "Disgusted of Tunbridge Wells"] is an archetypal figure of conservative England whose correspondence can be found frequently in newspapers railing at the latest outrages of modernity. Tunbridge Wells briefly features in Gravity's Rainbow.

'''my harmless little intraterrestrial scherzo''' 
Once again, the unseen narrator appears. By inference, the narrator is also the author of the various ''Chums of Chance...'' books referenced in ATD. This episode's also a little ''inter-textual'' scherzo: Poe (''Arthur Gordon Pym''), Jules Verne, Edgar Rice Burroughs and Pelucidar, ''Star Trek'', Indiana Jones and the Hollow Earth... and Jeremiah Dixon's own underground journey in M&D. Doesn't Chick Counterfly sound rather Spockian here (cf. 115, bottom)?

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

ATD 1-25

2006-12-27T00:21:15Z

Thecutiestpuppy: /* Page 10 */ cartesian grid

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

'''cover text''' 
The shadow-text is in different fontfaces.

'''cover seal''' 
The seal appears to be written in Tibetan language, according to somebody who posts regularly to Pynchon-l under the name "Ya Sam", who reports:

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

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

Read their response below:

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

:Best wishes,

:Sandy Belth 
:Tibetan Cultural Center

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:

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

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

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

'''"It's always night, or we wouldn't need light."''' 
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 "God"; 2) the character McClintick Sphere in ''V''. takes Monk's middle name, Sphere; and 3) "It's always night, or we wouldn't need light" was apparently something Monk was given to saying, rather than something he once said. For more on McClintick Sphere and Monk, see Charles Hollander's [http://www.howardm.net/tsmonk/pynchon.php essay].

==Page 1==

'''The Light Over the Ranges''' 
The singular 'range' seems called for-- so why plural here?
:Range is defined in the Oxford American Dictionary as "a line or series of mountains or hills : the coastal ranges of the northwest," so perhaps "range" or "ranges" can be used to denote a number of mountains.

:It seems likely that 'ranges' refers to farms, homesteads and ranches in 1893 America. America was predominantly that in 1893. Cf. "Home, home on the range".

==Page 3==

'''"Now single up all lines!"''' 
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 "single up all lines" 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 "single up all lines" is to remove the redundant second lines in preparation to make way.

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

:"Single up all lines" is used in its normal nautical context in ''V.'', 11; ''COL49'', 31; ''Gravity's Rainbow'', 489; and ''Mason & Dixon'', 258, 260. Perhaps we can understand this "line" as a text-string linking Pynchon's novels together (all but ''Vineland''?)--in preparation for a voyage to . . . .?

:Note that the first word in ATD is "now," the last word in ''Gravity's Rainbow''.

'''"Cheerly now...handsomely...very well!!"''' 
Cheerly means cheerily. Just as 'single up all lines' is used in nautical context in ''V.'', so 'cheerly' appears on page 54 of ''Mason & Dixon'' ("Cheerly. Cheerly, then, Lads..."). 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 & Dixon'' as "the finest yarn-spinner in all the Fleets," may also be an inspiration for the nautical language here.

'''"Windy City, here we come!"''' 
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 " White City"...and full of "wonders"--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.

'''''Inconvenience''''' 
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.
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).

Also, recall Fender-Belly Bodine, in [http://masondixon.pynchonwiki.com/wiki/index.php?title=I#inconvenience ''Mason & Dixon'']:

:"Back on old H.M.S. ''Inconvenience'', we wasted many a Day and Night watching that fancy Counter get smaller by the minute..." (p.28)

'''patriotic bunting''' 
AtD has many echoes of Doctorow's "Ragtime": Doctorow fictionalises the same era, including anarchists, bombings, and early Hollywood.
The Chums are dressed in red-and-white striped blazer and sky blue trousers. Hello Columbus, America, everything suggests and says.

'''aeronautics''' 
Pynchon leaned on the Britannica 11th as a major reference. It's online and linkable: [http://www.1911encyclopedia.org/Aeronautics EB11-aeronautics]
:I know this may not be the best locale to sxplain why, for spoiler related issues, but what evidence do we have that Pynchon leaned heavily on the Britannica 11th?

'''five-lad crew''' 
Randolph St. Cosmo (ship commander), Lindsay Noseworth (master-at-arms), Miles Blundell (handyman apprentice), Darby Suckling (factotum and mascot), and Chick Counterfly. 'Lad' suggests all are under 18 years old.
: "Lad" 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.
The commander's name evokes Randolph St., a main thoroughfare in the city they are bound for.
The commander's name also invokes Saint(liness)? And Cosmo = cosmos?

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

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

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].

'''Chicago''' 
Pynchon leaned on the Britannica 11th as a major reference. It's online and linkable: [http://www.1911encyclopedia.org/Chicago EB11-Chicago]

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

'''mascotte''' 
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]]

==Page 4==

Randolph St. Cosmo is called Professor. Professor of flight as some early aeronauts were called?

==Page 5==

'''"all tableware with Chums of Chance Insignia is Organizational property"''' 
What Organization are they part of?
:I believe the organization in question is the Chums of Chance themselves, here considered as an institution rather than as a collection of individuals.

'''Pugnax''' 
The name meaning, in Latin, "likes to fight." Pugnax's fantastic intelligence recalls another intelligent dog, the Learned English Dog in ''Mason & Dixon''. His manner of speech is also reminiscent of the mystery-solving cartoon dog Scooby-Doo, and [http://waste.org/mail/?list=pynchon-l&month=0612&msg=112507&sort=date members of PYNCHON-L] have speculated that his eyebrows and reading habits allude to Gromit, from the [http://www.wallaceandgromit.com/ Wallace and Gromit] claymation films.

'''"...during a confidential assignment in Our Nation's Capitol (see ''The Chums of Chance and the Evil Halfwit'')..."''' 
This could be seen as a criticism of American Presidents present or past, or perhaps the Vietnam War, which Pynchon himself opposed. The Chums "rescued Pugnax, then but a pup"--an innocent, a child creature--"from a furious encounter..between rival packs of the city's wild dogs".
The wild dogs equal both political parties?

Pugnax and the crew pee over the gondola. These "lavatorial assaults" from the sky,which no one can "begin to try to record, much less coordinate reports of" seem to be an allusion to the V-2 rockets which
are linked to Slothrop's erections in Gravity's Rainbow. That is, pee from the sky is "folklore, superstition, or perhaps...the religious" in ATD compared to rockets screaming across the sky and the destruction in GR.

May also refer to President Bush, considering the Pynchon-authored [[Against the Day description|Amazon.com book description]] which included "With a worldwide disaster looming just a few years ahead, it is a time of unrestrained corporate greed, false religiosity, moronic fecklessness, and evil intent in high places. No reference to the present day is intended or should be inferred."

==Page 6==

'''''Princess Casamassima''''' 
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
late 20th Century. It is also 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. Pugnax prefers in his reading "sentimental tales about his own species [rather] than those exhibiting extremes of human behavior, which he appeared to find a bit lurid." As many who have had dogs know, often when raised from puppyhood
with loving owners, they 'think they are human'. Pugnax learns where to pee off the gondola - a pretty natural function for a dog - "like the rest of the crew".

Pynchon may be commenting here that Henry James did not 'get' terrorism despite his genius. That even Princess Casamassima is a "sentimental tale".

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, "who placed upon the word 'book' . . . contempt" did, however, know the subject matter of 'Princess Casamassima.' He, Noseworth, hopes they will "suffer no occasion for exposure more immediate than that to be experienced, as with Pugnax at this moment, safely within the leaves of some book." It matters that the Chums ARE also characters in books of their adventures.

The Chums have 'orders' to proceed to Chicago. From whom?

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

'''Heino Vanderjuice of New Haven''' 
Scientist who designed the ''Inconvenience's'' hydrogen engine. "Vanderjuice" suggests both "wonder juice" and "wander juice," 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]. "Heino," we can only hope, is an allusion to [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Second_law_of_thermodynamics the German pop star of the same name].

'''". . . anemometer of the Robinson's type"''' 
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.

==Page 7==

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

'''"beside a black-water river of the Deep South". 
Blackwater River is in lower central Florida, pretty deep south.

'''"the Rebellion of thirty years previous"''' 
The Civil War was not called such during the time it was occurring; the South called it "the war between the states" to emphasize both their right to secede from the union and that this was a war between sovereign states; the North called it "the Rebellion of 1861" or, after termination of hostilities, "the Rebellion of 1861-1865," appellations that did not recognize the South's right to secede.

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

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

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

==Page 8==

'''"which directs us never to interfere with legal customs of any locality down at which we may happen to have touched"''' 
Like the [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Prime_directive Prime Directive] in [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Star_trek ''Star Trek''].

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

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

==Page 9==

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

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

North is not a positive place in Pynchon's world. It is associated with anti-life---coldness as here---compared to the South, a place of light and warmth, such as the tropics. See GR.

But to go far enough north means heading south again, observes Chick Counterfly--is this one meaning of his name? Then one would be "approaching the surface of another planet, maybe?" asks Chick.

"Not exactly" [answers Randolph] "No. Another 'surface', but an earthly one"
"You'll see. In time, of course". Time is earthly?

'''"Another 'surface'"''' 
In ancient conics the cone is formed by taking a line through a point (the vertext) 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.

==Page 10==

'''like the dark conjugate of some daylit fiction they had flown here . . . to help promote'''. 
The World's Columbian Exposition is a "daylit fiction"?
The 400th birthday celebration of America is a "daylit fiction"? The White City is such?

'''Cartesian grid''' 
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.

'''that unshaped freedom being rationalized into movement only in straight lines''' 
Rationalization is a key sociological concept[from online Dictionary of Social Science]:RATIONALIZATION
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.

Very Pynchonian. "Single up all lines!"

'''"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."''' 
From innocent bovines to ...the world? "Single up all lines"....

==Page 11==

'''plummet''' 
Bad physics here—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.
: Not necessarily-- ship's hydrogen producing apparatus would kick in and and slow and eventually stop their descent.

==Page 12==

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

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

==Page 13==

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

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

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

'''"...quite as if were some giant eyeball, perhaps that of Society itself, ever scrutinizing from above, in a spirit of constructive censure."''' 
This is strikingly reminiscent of [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Odilon_Redon Odilon Redon's] 1882 Lithograph ''L'Oeil, comme un ballon bizarre se dirige vers l'infini (The Eye Like a Strange Balloon Mounts Toward Infinity).'' [http://www.moma.org/collection/browse_results.php?criteria=O%3ADE%3AI%3A2&page_number=4&template_id=1&sort_order=1 At MoMa's Online Collection]
Notice that society = censure, if constructive. Gamboling nude on a summer day was OK until the ''Inconvenience'', as eyeball, appeared.

==Page 14==

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

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

==Page 15==

'''ukulelist''' 
Ukuleles also appear in ''Gravity's Rainbow'' and ''Vineland''. According to Jules Siegel's article, "Who is Thomas Pynchon, and why did he take off with my wife?", Pynchon himself played the ukulele in college.

'''Beaufort Scale''' 
Developed 1805.

==Page 17==

'''"as if it were something the stripling had only read about, in some boys' book of adventures...as if that page of their chronicles lay turned and done"''' 
The narrator makes us aware that Darby's adventures are as if/will be written down...the 'reality' of almost killing all of them is now just words on a page...as is this book, ATD?...Again a Pynchonian theme: no book is the reality.

'''"and the order 'About-face' had been uttered by some potent though invisible Commandant of Earthly Days, toward whom Darby, in amiable obedience, had turned again."''' 
Is this just a metaphor from the narrator to describe what it is like for Darby, or is it also self-referential to
all the adventures of the Chums?. Another Q: Is the Commandant of Earthly Days the invisible presence from whom the chums get their orders? Cf. earthly surface, p.9

'''cubeb''' 
The name for the berry and for the oil obtained from the unripe berry of the East Indian climbing shrub ''P. cubeba''. The dried fruits are sometimes used as a condiment or are ground and smoked in cigarette form as 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.

'''"...goldurn Keeley Cure"''' 
A treatment for alcohol, nicotine and narcotic addiction involving injections of "bichloride" or "double chloride" of gold, and also known as the "gold cure". Named for Dr. Leslie E. Keeley, who opened the first of many Keeley Institutes in 1879.

==Page 18==

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

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

'''A.C.''' 
Athletic Club.

'''("Penny") Black''' 
The Penny Black was the world's first official adhesive postage stamp, issued by the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland in 1840. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Penny_Black [Wikipedia]]

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

'''Egypt''' 
Little Egypt is the southern area of the state of Illinois in the United States of America. The region is and was sometimes called simply "Egypt," especially in the 19th century. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Little_Egypt_(region) [Wikipedia]]

==Page 22==

'''Isandhlwana''' 
Isandlwana is an isolated hill in the KwaZulu-Natal province of South Africa. On January 22, 1879, it was the site of the Battle of Isandlwana, where over 20,000 Zulu warriors defeated a contingent of British soldiers in the first engagement of the Anglo-Zulu War. Almost the entire column of about 1,200 British soldiers was killed, [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Isandhlwana [Wikipedia]]

==Page 23==

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

==Page 24==

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

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

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

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

==Page 25==

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

'''duck soup''' 
Meaning "an easy task," but also the name of a Marx Bros. movie. Perhaps relevant, given the cameo by Groucho promised on the book sleeve.

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

ATD 1-25

2006-12-26T23:37:22Z

Thecutiestpuppy: /* Page 9 */ conic surfaces

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

'''cover text''' 
The shadow-text is in different fontfaces.

'''cover seal''' 
The seal appears to be written in Tibetan language, according to somebody who posts regularly to Pynchon-l under the name "Ya Sam", who reports:

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

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

Read their response below:

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

:Best wishes,

:Sandy Belth 
:Tibetan Cultural Center

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:

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

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

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

'''"It's always night, or we wouldn't need light."''' 
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 "God"; 2) the character McClintick Sphere in ''V''. takes Monk's middle name, Sphere; and 3) "It's always night, or we wouldn't need light" was apparently something Monk was given to saying, rather than something he once said. For more on McClintick Sphere and Monk, see Charles Hollander's [http://www.howardm.net/tsmonk/pynchon.php essay].

==Page 1==

'''The Light Over the Ranges''' 
The singular 'range' seems called for-- so why plural here?
:Range is defined in the Oxford American Dictionary as "a line or series of mountains or hills : the coastal ranges of the northwest," so perhaps "range" or "ranges" can be used to denote a number of mountains.

:It seems likely that 'ranges' refers to farms, homesteads and ranches in 1893 America. America was predominantly that in 1893. Cf. "Home, home on the range".

==Page 3==

'''"Now single up all lines!"''' 
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 "single up all lines" 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 "single up all lines" is to remove the redundant second lines in preparation to make way.

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

:"Single up all lines" is used in its normal nautical context in ''V.'', 11; ''COL49'', 31; ''Gravity's Rainbow'', 489; and ''Mason & Dixon'', 258, 260. Perhaps we can understand this "line" as a text-string linking Pynchon's novels together (all but ''Vineland''?)--in preparation for a voyage to . . . .?

:Note that the first word in ATD is "now," the last word in ''Gravity's Rainbow''.

'''"Cheerly now...handsomely...very well!!"''' 
Cheerly means cheerily. Just as 'single up all lines' is used in nautical context in ''V.'', so 'cheerly' appears on page 54 of ''Mason & Dixon'' ("Cheerly. Cheerly, then, Lads..."). 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 & Dixon'' as "the finest yarn-spinner in all the Fleets," may also be an inspiration for the nautical language here.

'''"Windy City, here we come!"''' 
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 " White City"...and full of "wonders"--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.

'''''Inconvenience''''' 
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.
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).

Also, recall Fender-Belly Bodine, in [http://masondixon.pynchonwiki.com/wiki/index.php?title=I#inconvenience ''Mason & Dixon'']:

:"Back on old H.M.S. ''Inconvenience'', we wasted many a Day and Night watching that fancy Counter get smaller by the minute..." (p.28)

'''patriotic bunting''' 
AtD has many echoes of Doctorow's "Ragtime": Doctorow fictionalises the same era, including anarchists, bombings, and early Hollywood.
The Chums are dressed in red-and-white striped blazer and sky blue trousers. Hello Columbus, America, everything suggests and says.

'''aeronautics''' 
Pynchon leaned on the Britannica 11th as a major reference. It's online and linkable: [http://www.1911encyclopedia.org/Aeronautics EB11-aeronautics]
:I know this may not be the best locale to sxplain why, for spoiler related issues, but what evidence do we have that Pynchon leaned heavily on the Britannica 11th?

'''five-lad crew''' 
Randolph St. Cosmo (ship commander), Lindsay Noseworth (master-at-arms), Miles Blundell (handyman apprentice), Darby Suckling (factotum and mascot), and Chick Counterfly. 'Lad' suggests all are under 18 years old.
: "Lad" 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.
The commander's name evokes Randolph St., a main thoroughfare in the city they are bound for.
The commander's name also invokes Saint(liness)? And Cosmo = cosmos?

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

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

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].

'''Chicago''' 
Pynchon leaned on the Britannica 11th as a major reference. It's online and linkable: [http://www.1911encyclopedia.org/Chicago EB11-Chicago]

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

'''mascotte''' 
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]]

==Page 4==

Randolph St. Cosmo is called Professor. Professor of flight as some early aeronauts were called?

==Page 5==

'''"all tableware with Chums of Chance Insignia is Organizational property"''' 
What Organization are they part of?
:I believe the organization in question is the Chums of Chance themselves, here considered as an institution rather than as a collection of individuals.

'''Pugnax''' 
The name meaning, in Latin, "likes to fight." Pugnax's fantastic intelligence recalls another intelligent dog, the Learned English Dog in ''Mason & Dixon''. His manner of speech is also reminiscent of the mystery-solving cartoon dog Scooby-Doo, and [http://waste.org/mail/?list=pynchon-l&month=0612&msg=112507&sort=date members of PYNCHON-L] have speculated that his eyebrows and reading habits allude to Gromit, from the [http://www.wallaceandgromit.com/ Wallace and Gromit] claymation films.

'''"...during a confidential assignment in Our Nation's Capitol (see ''The Chums of Chance and the Evil Halfwit'')..."''' 
This could be seen as a criticism of American Presidents present or past, or perhaps the Vietnam War, which Pynchon himself opposed. The Chums "rescued Pugnax, then but a pup"--an innocent, a child creature--"from a furious encounter..between rival packs of the city's wild dogs".
The wild dogs equal both political parties?

Pugnax and the crew pee over the gondola. These "lavatorial assaults" from the sky,which no one can "begin to try to record, much less coordinate reports of" seem to be an allusion to the V-2 rockets which
are linked to Slothrop's erections in Gravity's Rainbow. That is, pee from the sky is "folklore, superstition, or perhaps...the religious" in ATD compared to rockets screaming across the sky and the destruction in GR.

May also refer to President Bush, considering the Pynchon-authored [[Against the Day description|Amazon.com book description]] which included "With a worldwide disaster looming just a few years ahead, it is a time of unrestrained corporate greed, false religiosity, moronic fecklessness, and evil intent in high places. No reference to the present day is intended or should be inferred."

==Page 6==

'''''Princess Casamassima''''' 
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
late 20th Century. It is also 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. Pugnax prefers in his reading "sentimental tales about his own species [rather] than those exhibiting extremes of human behavior, which he appeared to find a bit lurid." As many who have had dogs know, often when raised from puppyhood
with loving owners, they 'think they are human'. Pugnax learns where to pee off the gondola - a pretty natural function for a dog - "like the rest of the crew".

Pynchon may be commenting here that Henry James did not 'get' terrorism despite his genius. That even Princess Casamassima is a "sentimental tale".

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, "who placed upon the word 'book' . . . contempt" did, however, know the subject matter of 'Princess Casamassima.' He, Noseworth, hopes they will "suffer no occasion for exposure more immediate than that to be experienced, as with Pugnax at this moment, safely within the leaves of some book." It matters that the Chums ARE also characters in books of their adventures.

The Chums have 'orders' to proceed to Chicago. From whom?

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

'''Heino Vanderjuice of New Haven''' 
Scientist who designed the ''Inconvenience's'' hydrogen engine. "Vanderjuice" suggests both "wonder juice" and "wander juice," 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]. "Heino," we can only hope, is an allusion to [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Second_law_of_thermodynamics the German pop star of the same name].

'''". . . anemometer of the Robinson's type"''' 
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.

==Page 7==

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

'''"beside a black-water river of the Deep South". 
Blackwater River is in lower central Florida, pretty deep south.

'''"the Rebellion of thirty years previous"''' 
The Civil War was not called such during the time it was occurring; the South called it "the war between the states" to emphasize both their right to secede from the union and that this was a war between sovereign states; the North called it "the Rebellion of 1861" or, after termination of hostilities, "the Rebellion of 1861-1865," appellations that did not recognize the South's right to secede.

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

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

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

==Page 8==

'''"which directs us never to interfere with legal customs of any locality down at which we may happen to have touched"''' 
Like the [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Prime_directive Prime Directive] in [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Star_trek ''Star Trek''].

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

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

==Page 9==

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

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

North is not a positive place in Pynchon's world. It is associated with anti-life---coldness as here---compared to the South, a place of light and warmth, such as the tropics. See GR.

But to go far enough north means heading south again, observes Chick Counterfly--is this one meaning of his name? Then one would be "approaching the surface of another planet, maybe?" asks Chick.

"Not exactly" [answers Randolph] "No. Another 'surface', but an earthly one"
"You'll see. In time, of course". Time is earthly?

'''"Another 'surface'"''' 
In ancient conics the cone is formed by taking a line through a point (the vertext) 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.

==Page 10==

'''like the dark conjugate of some daylit fiction they had flown here . . . to help promote'''. 
The World's Columbian Exposition is a "daylit fiction"?
The 400th birthday celebration of America is a "daylit fiction"? The White City is such?

'''that unshaped freedom being rationalized into movement only in straight lines''' 
Rationalization is a key sociological concept[from online Dictionary of Social Science]:RATIONALIZATION
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.

Very Pynchonian. "Single up all lines!"

'''"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."''' 
From innocent bovines to ...the world? "Single up all lines"....

==Page 11==

'''plummet''' 
Bad physics here—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.
: Not necessarily-- ship's hydrogen producing apparatus would kick in and and slow and eventually stop their descent.

==Page 12==

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

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

==Page 13==

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

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

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

'''"...quite as if were some giant eyeball, perhaps that of Society itself, ever scrutinizing from above, in a spirit of constructive censure."''' 
This is strikingly reminiscent of [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Odilon_Redon Odilon Redon's] 1882 Lithograph ''L'Oeil, comme un ballon bizarre se dirige vers l'infini (The Eye Like a Strange Balloon Mounts Toward Infinity).'' [http://www.moma.org/collection/browse_results.php?criteria=O%3ADE%3AI%3A2&page_number=4&template_id=1&sort_order=1 At MoMa's Online Collection]
Notice that society = censure, if constructive. Gamboling nude on a summer day was OK until the ''Inconvenience'', as eyeball, appeared.

==Page 14==

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

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

==Page 15==

'''ukulelist''' 
Ukuleles also appear in ''Gravity's Rainbow'' and ''Vineland''. According to Jules Siegel's article, "Who is Thomas Pynchon, and why did he take off with my wife?", Pynchon himself played the ukulele in college.

'''Beaufort Scale''' 
Developed 1805.

==Page 17==

'''"as if it were something the stripling had only read about, in some boys' book of adventures...as if that page of their chronicles lay turned and done"''' 
The narrator makes us aware that Darby's adventures are as if/will be written down...the 'reality' of almost killing all of them is now just words on a page...as is this book, ATD?...Again a Pynchonian theme: no book is the reality.

'''"and the order 'About-face' had been uttered by some potent though invisible Commandant of Earthly Days, toward whom Darby, in amiable obedience, had turned again."''' 
Is this just a metaphor from the narrator to describe what it is like for Darby, or is it also self-referential to
all the adventures of the Chums?. Another Q: Is the Commandant of Earthly Days the invisible presence from whom the chums get their orders? Cf. earthly surface, p.9

'''cubeb''' 
The name for the berry and for the oil obtained from the unripe berry of the East Indian climbing shrub ''P. cubeba''. The dried fruits are sometimes used as a condiment or are ground and smoked in cigarette form as 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.

'''"...goldurn Keeley Cure"''' 
A treatment for alcohol, nicotine and narcotic addiction involving injections of "bichloride" or "double chloride" of gold, and also known as the "gold cure". Named for Dr. Leslie E. Keeley, who opened the first of many Keeley Institutes in 1879.

==Page 18==

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

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

'''A.C.''' 
Athletic Club.

'''("Penny") Black''' 
The Penny Black was the world's first official adhesive postage stamp, issued by the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland in 1840. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Penny_Black [Wikipedia]]

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

'''Egypt''' 
Little Egypt is the southern area of the state of Illinois in the United States of America. The region is and was sometimes called simply "Egypt," especially in the 19th century. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Little_Egypt_(region) [Wikipedia]]

==Page 22==

'''Isandhlwana''' 
Isandlwana is an isolated hill in the KwaZulu-Natal province of South Africa. On January 22, 1879, it was the site of the Battle of Isandlwana, where over 20,000 Zulu warriors defeated a contingent of British soldiers in the first engagement of the Anglo-Zulu War. Almost the entire column of about 1,200 British soldiers was killed, [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Isandhlwana [Wikipedia]]

==Page 23==

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

==Page 24==

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

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

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

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

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

'''duck soup''' 
Meaning "an easy task," but also the name of a Marx Bros. movie. Perhaps relevant, given the cameo by Groucho promised on the book sleeve.

==Annotation Index==
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