Thomas Pynchon Wiki - User contributions [en]

ATD 243-272

2010-02-02T17:24:03Z

Thorras: /* Page 249 */ Orientalism

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

==Page 243==

'''The Chums return''' 
When were the Chums last seen in AtD? As far back as page 142?

A brief reminder of who the Chums are and what we know about them so far:
:'''Randolph St. Cosmo''', commander.
:'''Lindsay Noseworth''', Master-at-Arms and second in command, hates slackers and slang.
:'''Miles Blundell''', handyman, awkward, with an "ample waist" (11), also ship's Commissary, whose cooking ranges from pure cordon bleu to inedible. (110)
:'''Darby Suckling''', the baby of the crew, served "as both factotum and mascotte". By page 141 or so, has transformed from spirited youth to bomb obsessed, (111) sneering, snide cynic. Because of hitting adolescence?
:'''Chick Counterfly''', the newest member of the crew, picked up by the Chums in the South while on the run from the KKK. At last appearance, had become Dr. Counterfly, knowledgeable Science Officer aboard the Inconvenience (141). Reliably humorous. (110). Chick's style of speech here seems intermediate between the country boy of the early chapters and the sophisticated Dr Counterfly who met the Vormance expedition. Are we also at an intermediate point on the timeline?

[[image:fumaioli.jpg|thumb|150px|Fumaioli in Venice|right]]
'''''fumaioli''''' 
Italian: ''funnels''; fumaioli are large wide-topped chimneys, common to the rooftops of Venice.

'''''certo''''' 
sure, certain.

'''''Seccatura''''' 
Italian: ''Inconvenience''

==Page 244==

'''''ragazza''''' 
Italian: ''girl''.

'''Picardy thirds''' 
The use of a major chord at the end of a musical section in a minor key. Miles seems just as moved by them as Lew. [[ATD_26-56#Page_50 | Cf p50]]

The gondolier is singing harmony with himself, or else Miles is imagining the accompaniment.

Picardie is also a region in northern France and "during the Middle Ages... included the Dutch speaking Flanders." [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Picardy] The region was a hotbed of action along the Western Front in WWI and played host to the Battle of the Somme, which totaled more than a million casualties and was "one of the bloodiest battles in human history."[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_the_Somme]

'''''stabilimento''''' 
Italian: establishment.

==Page 245==
'''Garibaldi''' 
Famous Italian leader, major figure in the Italian Unification. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Garibaldi Wikipedia]

'''''"Ehi, sugo!"''''' 
"Hey, sauce!" Does this make sense to anyone?
It does not make any sense in Italian. 
To a good approximation, this is what the Fonz used to say in the TV series ''Happy Days.'' People mostly understood his melodic "Aaayy" as a variant of "Hey," but maybe instead it was something his Uncle Pio brought from the old country.

'''twentyfold''' 
5 chums times 4 suspects each. (Randolph suspects Lindsay, Miles, Darby and Chick of being the leak; and so on around the crew. And that assumes no one suspects Pugnax!)

'''''osteria''''' 
tavern.

'''San Polo''' 
The smallest district/area in Venice, and among the oldest. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/San_Polo Wikipedia]

'''''rio''''' 
narrow waterway in Venice.

'''against the night''' 
OK...

'''''calli''''' 
Venetian 'street' or 'lane'.

==Page 246==

'''''sotoporteghi''''' 
passageways. See picture for one example [http://www.dialetto-veneto.it/images/FotoComano/Comano-Cattognano.jpg].

'''''"Sa stai, O! Lungo, ehi!"''''' 
It does not mean anything in Italian or in the Venetian dialect. One possibility is mimicking the callouts of gondoliers. ''Lungo'' could be someone's nickname. 
Other possibility is a wrong lettering of: ''Xa star, oh! Lungo, ehi!'', meaning ''Ehi, Lungo, let it be and let's go!'' or something similar.

'''''cameriere''''' 
Italian: waitresses (plural of ''cameriera'').

'''''pallonisti''''' 
(fake-)Italian: balloonists.

'''''Ehi, macché, Pina! ''''' 
Italian: Ehi, Giusep(Pina), what are you telling me?

'''''giadrul''''' 
Again, doesn't mean anything in Italian or Venetian dialect. Seems to be a [https://listserv.heanet.ie/cgi-bin/wa?A2=ind0007&L=irtrad-l&D=0&T=0&P=94630 term of insult], variously described as American-Italian only (see previous link) and southern Italian (see next). One source gives one meaning as "[http://it.answers.yahoo.com/question/index?qid=20070318034908AAem49X zuccone]" - this appears to mean "[http://notes.tranq.com/archives/2004/01/23/zuccone/ pumpkinhead]". I guess we're looking for something phallic, given the context. 
(''as far as I can see, it is an American-Italian deformation of the correct italian word "citrullo", which in fact is some sort of "dumb ass", and is derived from neapolitan for "cetriolo", that is, "cucumber" '')

'''"with all the spaghetti-joints in this town to choose from, are you saying those dadblame Russians have come in ''here''?"''' 
reminiscent of a similar line from the film ''Casablanca'', spoken by Humphrey Bogart: "Of all the gin joints in all the towns in all the world, she walks into mine."

==Page 247==

'''tacchino in pomegranate sauce''' 
turkey in pomegranate sauce and, presumably, the "Purple Thanksgiving" to which Miles refers above.

'''''Dum vivimus, bibamus''''' 
While we live, let us drink. Paraphrase of "Dum vivimus, vivamus".

'''vini frizzanti''' 
sparkling wine (plural).

'''SANGUIS RUBER, MENS PURA''' 
Latin: Red blood, clean mind.

'''''Serrata del Maggior Consiglio''''' 
Great Council Lockout, 1297. Link to the "Maggior Consiglio" entry on Reference.com [http://www.reference.com/browse/all/Maggior%20Consiglio]

'''Napoleon's abolition''' 
1797. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Doge_of_Venice Wikipedia]

'''Polos' return''' 
Marco Polo together with his father and uncle returned to Venice in 1295 from their travel to China started in 1271. 

''Marco Polo'' (1254-1324), a Venetian traveller. Was born of a nobel family at Venice, while his father and uncle had gone on a mercantile expedition by Constantinople and the Crimea to Bokhara and to Cathy (China). The Mongol prince commissioned them as envoys to the Pope, a commission they tried in vain to carry out in Italy (1269). The Polos started again a new trip to China in 1271, taking with them young Marco,
and arrived at the court of Kublai Khan in 1275 by way of Kashgar, Yarkand, and Khotan to Lop Nor, then across the Gobi desert to Kansu and Shang-tu. Marco Polo entered the diplomatic service of Kublai Khan and was sent on missions to various parts of the Mongol empire. The Polos left China on 1282 and returned by way of Sumatra, India, and Persia to Venice (1295). In 1298 Marco was in command of a galley at the battle of Curzola, where the Venetians were defeated by the Genoese, and he was a prisoner for a year at Genoa. Here it was thought that he dictated to another captive an account of his travels, published under the title of ''Divisamemt dou monde''. (English title: ''The Travels of Marco Polo''.) ([http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Marco_Polo Marco Polo].)

''Kublai Khan'' (1214-94), Mongol khan, emperor of China, grandson of Jenghiz Khan. He completed the conquest of northern China and became the first foreigner ever to rule China. An enegetic prince, he suppressed his rivals, adopted the Chinese mode of civilisation, encouraged men of letters and made Buddhism the state religion. But his attempt to invade Japan ended in disaster. His dominions extended from Arctic Ocean to the Strait of Malacca, and from Korea to Asia Minor and the confines of Hungary. The splendor of his court inspired the graphic pages of Marco Polo. (from Chambers Biographical Dictionary, 1984 edition.) 
Jack Weatherford, in ''Genghis Khan and the Making of the Modern World'' (2004), calls him Khubilai Khan and makes rather different statements about the extent of his realm and his treatment of religion. 
Samuel Taylor Coleridge's 1816 poem "Kubla Khan" uses yet another spelling. Weatherford identifies "Xanadu" as Shengdu.

==Page 248==

[[image:doge.jpg|thumb|100px|Doge by Giovanni Bellini|right]]'''Doge's hat''' 
For some thousand years, the chief magistrate and leader of the Most Serene Republic of Venice was styled the Doge, a rare but not unique Italian title derived from the Latin Dux, as the major Italian parallel Duce and the English Duke. Doges of Venice were elected for life by the city-state's aristocracy. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Doge_of_Venice Wikipedia entry]

'''''Attenzione al culo''''' 
Italian: watch your ass.

'''Shambhala''' 
In Tibetan Buddhist tradition, Shambhala is a mystical kingdom hidden somewhere beyond the snowpeaks of the Himalayas. Shambhala is believed to be a society where all the inhabitants are enlightened. During the 19th century, Theosophical Society founder H.P. Blavatsky alluded to the Shambhala myth, giving it currency for Western occult enthusiasts. Later esoteric writers further emphasized and elaborated on the concept of a hidden land inhabited by a hidden mystic brotherhood whose members labor for the good of humanity. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shambhala Wikipedia entry]

'''cicerone''' 
A guide who shows and explains the antiquities or curiosities of a place to strangers. <ref>'''The Oxford English Dictionary'''. 2nd ed. 1989.</ref>

'''Professor Svegli of the University of Pisa''' 
The fictional professor's name comes from the Italian ''sveglio'' for "clever, dextrous, skillful."

'''"try to forget the usual picture in two dimensions"''' 
Cf. page 220, the idea behind the ''Tetractys'' as explained by Nigel and Neville.

'''an episode of intentional blindness''' 
Echoes the "denial of ordinary vision" that Lew sees when he meets Professor Renfrew (p. 240). Might these "blind spots" in sense evoke Iceland Spar?

==Page 249==

'''"there are two distinct versions of 'Asia' out there, one an object of political struggle among the Powers of the Earth -- the other a timeless faith by whose terms all such earthly struggle is illusion."''' 
Perhaps a reference to [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Orientalism Orientalism], or Western (mis)representations of indigenous cultures, which functioned as the knowledge apparatus of the colonial project. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Orientalism_(book) The eponymous text], a seminal one in literary theory, was written in 1978 by [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Edward_Said Edward Said].

'''"Those whose enduring object is power in this world are only too happy to use without remorse the others, whose aim is of course to transcend all question of power. Each regards the other as a pack of deluded fools."''' 
Over time, Pynchon appears to have come to a belief in a massive conflict between cultures "valuing analysis and differentiation" and those valuing "unity and integration". The two alternate maps of Asia could be a reference to these disparate worldviews.[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/V. Wikipedia entry on V.]

'''The problem lies with the projection''' 
(a) Projection by each group of its own obsession onto the other group. (b) Cartographic projection, i.e., how the round world gets imaged onto a flat sheet of paper.

'''Imaginary surface''' 
Presumably meant to mean (or at least allude to) imaginary in the mathematical sense: involving the square root of -1.

'''paramorphoscope''' 
AtD is itself a paramorphoscope; satire and science fiction typically hold up a distorting mirror to the world in which they are written, and present worlds "set to the side of the one we have taken". In the end the correct paramorphic "mirror" shows the world clearly.

'''"a certain percentage of them went mad and ended up in the asylum on San Servolo"''' 
Cf. the Northern Ohio Insane Asylum with its light-obsessed inmates at [[ATD_57-80#Page_59|page 59]].

'''the asylum on San Servolo''' 
First established as a military hospital in 1715, later became a mental asylum. Seems that San Servolo is to Venice what Bedlam is to London. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/San_Servolo Wikipedia]

'''Clifford's term''' 
W.K. Clifford, (1845-1879): an English mathematician. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/William_Kingdon_Clifford Wikipedia]

==Page 250==

[[Image:stmarks.jpg|thumb|200px|right|St Mark's Basilica (Basilica di San Marco) in Venice]]
'''Dr. Cantor''' 
Georg Cantor (1845 - 1918), German mathematician. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cantor%27s_theorem Cantor's Theorem] is what is most relevant to his mention here.

'''the plano-convex designs of Griendl von Ach''' 
For a brief history of the compound-lens microscope, and the roles played by the Italians and the Dutch, including Griendl von Ach, see:
http://www.1911encyclopedia.org/Microscope

'''prophetic vision of St. Mark''' 
Mark the Evangelist (1st century) is traditionally believed to be the author of the Gospel of Mark and a companion of Peter. From [http://www.nytimes.com/books/first/b/brown-venice.html this site]: "...a prophetic dream that Mark was said to have experienced during his earlier, supposed ministry in the area of the Venetian lagoon. In it he was visited by an angel who told him that he would find his final resting place on the very site where San Marco would later be built." In the first century there was no settlement worth mentioning in the Lagoon yet. The prophecy was "fulfilled" in 828 when the saint's remains stolen on orders of Doge Giustiniano Participazio in Alexandria were brought to Venice. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mark_the_Evangelist Wikipedia entry] St. Mark is represented by a winged lion and is the patron saint of Venice [http://www.catholic-forum.com/SAINTS/saintm08.htm].

'''''but in reverse''''' 
Miles now takes the place of the angel. Who or what is the "Being" and what form does the prophecy take?

'''cormorant''' 
A large and voracious sea-bird, about three feet in length, and of a lustrous black color. <ref>Def.1. '''The Oxford English Dictionary'''. 2nd ed. 1989.</ref>

'''scirocco''' 
An oppressively hot and blighting wind, blowing from the north coast of Africa over the Mediterranean and affecting part of southern Europe. <ref>Def.1a. '''The Oxford English Dictionary'''. 2nd ed. 1989.</ref>

'''neither sails, masts, nor oars''' 
Not a craft that is driven by the wind or human muscle. To say more could spoil a plot point.

==Page 251==

[[Image:stmarklion.jpg|thumb|600px|center|The Lion of St. Mark, by Carpaccio]]

'''Lion of St. Mark by Carpaccion''' 
Vittore Carpaccio (c.1460–1525/6) was a Venetian painter. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vittore_Carpaccio Wikipedia entry]

'''the vision of St. Mark, but in reverse''' 
In St. Mark's vision, an angel appeared to Mark and informed him that his remains would one day end up in his present location, which later became Venice. Here, Miles seems to assume the form of the angel (in the form of a lion?) and the 'promise' Pynchon mentions seems to be the angel's promise to Mark.

'''our own duty, our own fate... the real journey''' 
Pynchon's one-paragraph summation of human life and its meaning recalls a letter Pynchon wrote in the early 1960s, [[The_World_is_at_Fault|The World is at Fault]], in which he also summed up the entirety of human life in a few tidy sentences. Both employ the word 'pilgrimage.'

==Page 252==

'''''sotopòrteghi''''' 
Tunnels or passageways under large buildings.

'''tenebrous''' 
Means "shadowy" but is also a link back to the previous paragraph. The Tenebrae Service is a special form that is meant to recreate the feelings of the Passion story, also represented by the Stations of the Cross.

'''Renata''' 
Note that Renata is the name of the female protagonist in Ernest Hemingway's ''Across the River and into the Trees'', set in Venice.

'''Glagolitic''' 
The Glagolitic Alphabet is the oldest known Slavic alphabet (9th c.). It originated as a tactic to lessen the dependence of the subjects of the Prince of Greater Moravia on Frankish priests, who banned it but could not suppress it; it played a similar role in preserving Bulgarian independence from Byzantium. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Glagolitic] It appears to be a nexus of the kind of simultaneous temporal and spiritual tasks the Chums of Chance are now involved in. In this, it raises the issues first explored by Pynchon in the "Tchitcherine in Kyrghizia" sections of ''Gravity's Rainbow'' in which the introduction of a written alphabet causes immense political and social change.

'''Gauloise''' 
famous French cigarette. See [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gauloise Wikipedia].

'''''scusi''''' 
Italian: Excuse me.

'''''Affascinante, caro''''' 
Italian: Fascinating, dear (addressed to a male person).

'''''ragazzo''''' 
Italian: Boy.

'''''Mattoidi''''' 
Italian: Semi-insane persons. The word was [http://www.worldwidewords.org/weirdwords/ww-mat1.htm coined by Cesare Lombroso,] the physiognomist.

'''''Prego''''' 
Italian: Please.

==Page 253==

'''Pozzuoli''' 
A city in the Province of Naples (''Napoli'') in the region of Campania. See [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pozzuoli Wikipedia].

'''The Tarocchi are much, much older.''' 
Not at all! This is one of those ideas that rarely gets questioned, especially since some "interpreters" of the tarot claim ancient Egyptian origins. The actually only [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tarot date back to the 15th century], as playing cards, and tarot divination was invented in the 19th century, with absolutely no historical precedent.

However, [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aleister_Crowley Aleister Crowley] in his writings and the design of his own version of the tarot, the [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Book_of_Thoth_(Crowley) Thoth Deck], made a case for the Tarot unifying and being rooted in much older divination methods from Ancient egypt to the[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kabbalah Kabbalah] to Greek [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Astrology astrology]. Crowley's Golden Dawn gets a previous mention in ATD. Though work on the Thoth deck would not begin until 1938, Crowley´s assignment of the Kabbalah's [http://jktarot.com/naples Sephiroth to the major arcana] probably bears attention when considering the chapter structure of ATD: he called the correspondence "The Naples Arrangement" in honour of having worked it out there, and this passage's mention of Renata's business associate being in Naples at this moment is unlikely to be coincidence.
:Surely a robust skepticism toward Crowley and his research methods is in order? Consider, for example, this [http://www.tarothermit.com/letter.htm "open letter"] to tarot users—from a judicious scholar and believer, not a committed skeptic—making the point that if the cards embody images (of whatever origin) "speaking" to the reader or student, it isn't essential to press the further claim that they were invented by the god Thoth. The paintings lack a couple of millennia of "temporal bandwidth" but aren't necessarily voided of appeal by that, any more than Michelangelo's ''Pietà'' is a less-valid devotional object for having been sculpted 1500 years after the event.

'''''sfumato''''' 
Refers to a well known painting method which blends so subtly the colors and tones that no perceptible transition is visible, as demonstrated by Leonardo da Vince's ''Mona Lisa''. See [http://en/wikipedia.org/wiki/Sfumato Wikipedia]. 
The context seems to imply ''smoke'', then ''fumo'' instead should be used.
:No, the evocation of the painterly effect becomes a metaphor for the way the boat comes into sight.

:might just be a description the morning fog over the water, but the following sentence ("which would not burn off till later in the morning"), although possibly another element of the allegory, could point to actual smoke.

==Page 254==

'''''Pax tibi, Darbe''''' 
Latin: Peace to you, Darby. ''Pax tibi'' is not at all obscure—devout Catholics used it as a parting formula—but Chick has Latinized Darby's name to ''Darbus'' (vocative case ''Darbe'') and may be consciously echoing the text in [[#Page_251|Carpaccio's lion painting]] or on a [[#Page_247|pre-Napoleonic]] [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Image:Flag_of_Most_Serene_Republic_of_Venice.svg flag of the Most Serene Republic of Venice:] ''Pax tibi Marce evangelista meus,'' "Peace to you, Mark, my evangelist."

'''like some damned ''Farewell'' Symphony''' 
Franz Josef Haydn, 1772, Hungary. Musicians at Count Esterházy's court had been kept too long on duty (and away from their families). Going on strike would have been disrespectful, so in the last movement of Haydn's hinting work, the players one by one extinguish their candles and exit, leaving two violins to play the last phrases.

'''"Chums of Chance were expected to die on the job. Or else live forever, there being two schools of thought, actually."''' 
Possibly a reference to the fact that the Chums seem to live simultaneously in the "real" world of the novel and also in fictional stories within the novel.

'''Irredentist''' 
In Italian politics (after 1878), an adherent of the party which advocated the recovery and union to Italy of all Italian-speaking districts subject to other countries (OED).

==Page 255==

'''Mostruccio''' 
Italian, literally: small monster, meant as a lovely nickname.

[[Image:samoyeds.jpg|thumb|150px|right|Samoyeds]]
'''Samoyeds''' 
These nomadic reindeer herders help with the herding, pull sleds, and are sometimes called "the smiley dog" in reference to their seemingly smiling faces. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Samoyed_(dog) Wikipedia]

'''Bastille Day''' 
The Campanile di San Marco collapsed 14 July 1902. Pynchon Wiki on the [[Campanile]].

'''''lasagnoni''''' 
Italian, plural of ''lasagnone'': Blowhard, braggart.

A hint may come from an Italian dictionary: a ''lasagnone'' being an awkward, simple person, the kind of loafers who abound on city squares or street corners and, consequently, may appear in tourists' pictures.

==Page 256==
[[Image:Campanile.jpg|thumb|200px|right]]

'''dual citizenship''' 
They live in two places, there are two skycraft, they point a gun at one place but the shell strikes a different place. Lots of '''bi-''' somethings in this passage.

'''the little-understood enigmata of the simultaneous''' 
The concept of simultaneous events, including the accurate definition and, moreover, the very ''need'' of such a definition, played a significant role in the soon-to-be formulated [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Special_relativity Special Relativity Theory]. One of the main consequences of the theory is the [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Relativity_of_simultaneity relativity of simultaneity].

'''four-brick groupings''' 
Padzhitnoff sees the Campanile come apart as a game of Tetris! The "four-brick groupings [...] begin their gentle, undeadly descent, rotating and translating in all available modes". (See [[ATD_119-148#Page_123|page 123]] for more on Tetris.)

'''the tower collapses''' 
Might have some relation to the final poem of ''Gravity's Rainbow''. The fall of the tower is foreshadowed -- foretold, actually -- in Chick´s Tarot reading by Renata (See [[ATD_243-272#Page_253|page 253]]).

==Page 257==

'''What stood for a thousand years''' 
Pretty close: Construction of the Campanile began in the year 912.

'''deciduous''' 
Something that falls, drops or is shed, like leaves from a tree or baby teeth.

'''We had the weather-gauge''' 
In the days of sail, [http://www.weathergage.com/ weather gage] described the relative position of two ships or forces. If you were downwind you could run or, if you meant to engage the enemy, tack to approach him. Every time you changed tack you lost an opportunity to shoot (because your guns pointed left and right). If you lay upwind, you could keep your guns trained on the enemy throughout the engagement. The weather gage was an often decisive battle advantage, and the phrase is common in nautical narratives.

'''Or we might send in pursuit your maternal relation...transform them all into masonry''' 
Yet another Mother joke. This time in reference to her being as ugly as Medusa and therefore able to turn the crew of the enemy airship into stone (masonry).

'''neuræsthenic prostration''' 
This is the third (at least) time Randolph has exhibited this tendency.

:This is the third time that this word has appeared so far, but in the second instance (page 188) it was used by Nigel to describe Lew Basnight, not Randolph.

:Not the word, but this reaction in Randolph occurred on pages 12 and 28. It seems to be a regular thing with him.

==Page 258==
'''Vibrational Rays... sympathetic frequency... divergent oscillation''' 

ie, what took down the [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tacoma_Narrows_Bridge_Collapse Tacoma Narrows], the famous wobbly bridge collapse I'm sure we've all seen footage of. Same phenomenon weaponized taking down the Campanile, or at least, this is the best guess by Dr. Gerasimoff.

'''Tetralith''' 
Modern math term for three dimensional solid formed by merging three hyperbolic paraboloids in a manner that they have a common midpoint. See [http://www.tetranometry.com/#tetralith Tetralith Photo #2]. Pynchon just means a Tetris-shaped projectile, a [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tetromino Tetromino].
:A "monolith" (as in ''2001: A Space Odyssey'')means an "object made of a single block of stone". Hence "tetralith" means an "object made of four blocks of stone", which is exactly what you see on the game "Tetris".

'''Japanese character for "four" being same as that for "death"''' 
Not quite correct. The Japanese kanji (Chinese) characters for four 四 and death 死 are quite distinct, but can be pronounced in the same way, hence the taboo.

'''Ryohei Uchida''' 
Ultra-nationalist, founder of the Black Dragon Soceity (see below), a right-wing, paramilitary organization. See [http://members.tripod.com/ravenshrine/uchida.html Ryohei Uchida].

Interestingly - or, perhaps, as certain sorts of people might be inclined to say, coincidentally - the name 'Uchida' is homonymous with the Italian 'uccidere', meaning 'to kill', in several of its commonly seen conjugated forms.

'''''polny pizdets''''' 
Crude Russian: a total screwup.

'''Black Dragon Society''' 
A paramiltary, ultra-nationalist, right-wing organization in Japan founded by Ryohei Uchida in 1901. Its initial public goal was to support Janpanese expansion in Manchuria. Therefore, during the period from 1901 to the end of World War I, it aimed to help the Japanese government drive the Russian presence out of that region. During the Russo-Japanese War of 1904-1905 (a war fought over Manchuria, with the Russians soundly defeated) it was active in espionage, sabotage and assassination against the Russians. During the 20's, 30's and later periods the Black Dragon Society evolved and expanded its activities around the world, including the United States. It was finally disbanded in 1946 by General MacArthur after World War II. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kokuryu-kai Wikipedia entry].

'''''Smirno''''' 
Russian: quiet!

==Page 259==

'''''dov'era, com'era''''' 
Italian: where it was, as it was. See [http://veniceblog.typepad.com/veniceblog/2003/12/comera_dovera.html veniceblog]. On July 14, 1902 the St. Mark's Campanile in Piazza San Marco, Venice, mysteriously and totally collapsed. Under the 'battle cry' of '''''com'era, dov'era''''' it was rebuilt. The Campanile was reopened on April 25 (St. Mark's Day) 1912. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/St_Mark's_Campanile St. Mark's Campanile]. Also, Cf [[ATD_243-272#Page 256|page 256:the tower collapses]].

''''La Marangona''''' 
The largest bell in the campanile is called la Marangona. At midnight, that massive bell resounds alone from high in the Piazza, and can be heard from almost any point in the city. There are four other bells in the campanile and they each have a name.

'''"Bells are the most ancient objects. They call to us out of eternity"''' 
This chapter is bookended by references to bells. It opens, "Across the city noontide a field of bells emerged into flower."

==Page 260==

'''Deuce and Sloat return''' 
These two, it will be recalled, are the men hired by the mine owners to kill Webb Traverse. (193) It is unclear who is whose sidekick. ([[ATD_171-198#Page_195|195]]) Sloat tends to bodies, Deuce the spirit. ([[ATD_171-198#Page_197|197]])

'''Curly Dee''' 
Mathematicians call the "partial derivative" symbol "curly d." [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Partial_derivative Wikipedia shows the symbol.]

'''Big Billy's or Jew Fanny's''' 
Big Billy (or "Billie") was a madam at the Silver Bell in Telluride, Colorado. Found on the corner of Pacific Avenue and Spruce Street, the Silver Bell was situated in the center of Telluride’s red-light district. According to [http://telluridepublishing.com/articles.asp?title=112 this source], Jew Fanny was a prostitute who worked for Big Billy.

[[image:Cosmopolitan.jpg|thumb|200px|right|Interior of Cosmopolitan Saloon, c. 1905]]'''the Cosmopolitan''' 
The Cosmopolitan Saloon in Telluride, Colorado, featured all the masculine comforts gambling, plenty of bar space, tables for talk, and an assortment of saloon art. [http://books.google.com/books?id=X3hSG8xhScMC&pg=PA147&lpg=PA147&dq=cosmopolitan+%2B+saloon+%2B++telluride+%2B+gambling+%2B+mining&source=web&ots=YyBLNquez5&sig=cyt612wQnVOEVU8yPrwqiQQWfw4&hl=en]

The Cosmopolitan was a sophisticated establishment located at 109 East Colorado Avenue and was frequented by merchants, lawyers, and mine officials. Its bill of fare listed "fine old California wines and champaigns." Papered walls were hung with art, and a hired hand kept the spittoon and brass rails polished. At the bar, lawman Kenneth Angus Maclean keeps an eye on things (at right). [http://books.google.com/books?id=HPNgqJI7WJoC&pg=PA85&lpg=PA85&dq=%22cosmopolitan+saloon%22+telluride&source=web&ots=l9Zw--XiJa&sig=A_YlheB44cus8oh-n3kAOlFPAs0&hl=en#PPA85,M1]

'''"Pussy on the brain, Big S."''' 
Cf. the "Beavers of the Brain"/"Beaver on the Brain" episode, [[ATD_171-198#Page_183|p.183]]

'''inside out''' 
Optical illusion.

'''Deuce's on-and-off romance with Hsiang-Chiao''' 

Hsiang-Chiao: (Chinese) Banana

==Page 261==

'''Nonpareil Eating House''' 
The motto over the door was probably "None Like It!"

French, meaning "without equal". Webster's also lists other definitions, including this one, pertaining to the animal kingdom: "Marked with bright colors; as, the painted turtle; painted bunting". I have also noticed that whenever I buy capers, they tend to be of the "nonpareille" variety (at least that's what the label says). This most likely refers to their size, as nonpareil is also a printing term that describes "A size of type next smaller than minion and next larger than agate".

'''Mayva and Lake''' 
Webb Traverse's wife and daughter.

'''lard smoke''' 
Cf. p. 10, "tall smokestacks unceasingly vomiting black grease-smoke," and p. 216, "Just greasy ashes by the trailside."

'''biscuit-shooter''' 
I.e., a cook.

'''Cañon City''' 
Site of the Colorado State Penitentiary, meant to suggest Deuce and Sloat had done time there.

'''gong''' 
???
17:18, 1 January 2007 (PST)[[User:Bklyn48|Bklyn48]]
 "kicking the gong around" is slang for [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Minnie_the_Moocher smoking opium]. Here, Sloat seems to mean that Deuce's opium smoking has affected his judgement.

==Page 262==

'''Willis Turnstone''' 
Turnstones are members of the sandpiper family, stocky birds that use their stout bills to flip over rocks and such in search of food. There are two species: Black Turnstone (''Arenaria melanocephala'') and Ruddy Turnstone (''A. interpres''). The [http://www.birds.cornell.edu/AllAboutBirds/BirdGuide/Ruddy_Turnstone.html Ruddy's] breeding plumage is a bold calico of white, orange, and black.

==Page 263==

'''"Crazier."''' 
Cf Bonnie and Clyde.

'''Oleander Prudge''' 
A name that brings joy to the heart of any Dickensian who happens to be reading along.

==Page 264==

'''single-jacker''' 
A miner who with a hammer and spike cuts a hole into rock for placement of a stick of dynamite. A set of holes are cut for each "synchronized" blast.
(Double jackers work as a team.)
Infer (this) one as a loner, a bit crazy, single minded, silent, easily hurt or misunderstood, doesn't play well with others...

'''How I feel about Mr. Kindred...and...Webb Traverse are two different things''' 

This is an interesting exchange between Lake and Oleander Prudge. Clearly Oleander hits a nerve as Lake spills the hotcakes. Lake goes into denial, saying her love of someone she would normally hate (Deuce -- her father's killer) and hating someone she would normally love (her father Webb) are "two different things."

Oleanders rejoinder, "they can't be," has the finality of a mathematical proof.

It's as if Lake is looking at passion through an emotional lense of iceland spar and sees two sets of images (father/lover, hate/love)and wants to believe they're different, whereas Oleander sees that in fact they are one. This won't be the last time Lake gets herself a "twofer."

==Page 265==

'''backing away down the valley''' 
It's instructive to look at a [http://www.vacationtelluride.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=standard&categoryId=11&subCategoryId=0 map or satellite photo of Telluride.] You could very well lay a single track from the mouth of the valley up to the town, but no farther. So the train drives into the station, then backs out until there's room for a spur where it can turn around.

'''gullet of days''' 
Metaphor. The miners' lives "as easily (as jug whisky)disappeared down the throat of everyday life".

==Page 266==

'''white-throated swift''' 
A swift is a small plainly colored bird similar to a swallow. The [http://identify.whatbird.com/obj/187/_/White-throated_Swift.aspx white-throated species,] which breeds in the western U.S. and winters in Mexico, is less plain than some. And get the species name: '''''Aeronaut'''es saxatalis.''

'''November''' 
November 1903.

'''in January, martial law''' 
January 3, 1904.

'''nymph du pave''' 
should probably read "nymphE du pave": [http://dict.die.net/nymphe%20du%20pave/ street-whore]. Theoretically this could also translate as: (image of a) nymph on a mosaic (tesselated floor) - like the huge roman one of Ariadne in the Rue du Pavé in Avenche (Switzerland) [http://www.stub.unibe.ch/welten/texte/herzig.html german weblink]

Most likely not (the mosaic idea); this is a consecrated term for prostitute. Note: in French, pavé means cobblestone. --[[User:Kirkm|Kirkm]] 02:09, 3 March 2007 (PST)

'''geometric episode''' 
Vaguely reminiscent of Proust on Combray: "And on one of the longest walks we ever took from Combray there was a spot where the narrow road emerged suddenly on to an immense plain, closed at the horizon by strips of forest over which rose and stood alone the fine point of Saint-Hilaire's steeple, but so sharpened and so pink that it seemed to be no more than sketched on the sky by the finger-nail of a painter anxious to give to such a landscape, to so pure a piece of 'nature,' this little sign of art, this single indication of human existence." [http://www.gutenberg.org/dirs/etext04/8swnn10.txt etext]

'''Engelmann spruce''' 
[http://www.cnr.vt.edu/dendro/dendrology/syllabus/factsheet.cfm?ID=175 Picea engelmannii,] a light-colored, easily worked wood with fairly straight grain and slight contrast between heartwood and sapwood; [http://www.fs.fed.us/r4/boise/trees/engelmann.shtml uses include] piano sounding boards and the tops of violins and guitars, hence the association with the acoustics of the church.

A short biography of Dr. Engelmann (lit. Angel-Man) [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/George_Engelmann Wikipedia-Entry], more elaborated on [http://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Georg_Engelmann german site]

'''albatross cloth''' 
Evidently a distinct color/design for a wedding or wedding party dress in the West at the time. I have no OED at the moment, but there are at least two online "diaries" or descriptions using the phrase. Here is one: "We were married August 6, 1896 at 7:30 AM at my folk’s residence among friends and relatives. To honor the event, my folks had our parlor decorated with many flowers including roses, myrtle and geraniums. I wore an elegant gown of white silk and albatross cloth."

==Page 267==

'''Osterbybruk''' 
Town noted for ironmaking, 20 miles (32 km) north of Uppsala, eastern Sweden, nowhere near Jämtland (next entry).

The reference is probably more to a tune than a place. Swedish folk fiddlers, accordionists etc. have lots of bridal marches, waltzes etc. called after the place where they were composed/first used. There are collections of folk tunes from Österby bruk. I would guess that TRP has probably heard a recording of this kind of music.

'''Jemt-land''' 
A Province in west central Sweden [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/J%C3%A4mtland Wikipedia.] The hyphen is not part of the name and probably marks a syncopation in the rev's delivery.

Vintage Books paperback edition gives "Jämtland" as the name of the region.

'''Virgin bride''' 
Oh no she wasn't. See pp 190-191.

'''Child of the storm''' 
See the [http://againsttheday.wordpress.com/?s=child+of+the+storm ATD Weblog entry]. And page 190.

==Page 268==

'''sideways pussy''' 
Folklore.

'''side hobbles''' 
A hobble is a device for a horse or a dog that restricts the range of motion of the legs. See [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hobble Wikipedia entry]. 
A [http://www.chronicleforums.com/Forum/archive/index.php/t-67850.html side hobble or Scotch hobble] links the horse's two left or two right legs, restricting its movement. 
"Hobble" also describes a type of skirt used (apparently) in bondage, see this [http://www.darksidecreations.com/product.asp?productid=19 example (not safe for work)] in latex.

==Page 269==

'''items, nearly always stolen''' 
Cf bower-bird.

'''marmot''' 
A stout-bodied, short-legged rodent that has coarse fur, a short bushy tail, and very short ears, lives in burrows, and hibernates in winter; also: a prairie dog or one of the larger ground squirrels. Marmots are native to Colorado and live at the higher altitudes. They are about the size of a weasel.

'''''"huevón"''''' 
From huevo (egg). According to [http://juantornoe.blogs.com/hispanictrending/2004/06/huevon_and_guey.html this blog] huevon "literally refers to the size of a mans "cojones" (another pseudo decent word that has seen a lot of mainstream play). It is commonly used to indicate how lazy someone is. The bigger the "huevon" you are, the lazier. As with "guey", however, this too has often been used to say dude or buddy."

'''''pinche cabron''''' 
fucking asshole.

==Page 270==

'''same hour, just before dawn...he even bombs by the moon''' 
I.e., he waits for a favorable phase. People who "plant by the signs," for example, associate days of the lunar month to parts of the plant and of the human body. They sow squash (vines) under one sign and lettuce (leaves) under another; they sow nothing at all when the moon is waning. Would a moon-guided bomber blow up trestles (legs) at one phase and plutocrats (belly) at another?

Here we see that Webb is "deuced" again -- first by being killed by Deuce, second by having his modus [operandi] imitated.

The time signature for the modus is given in both solar terms -- "the same hour just before dawn" -- and lunar terms. Depending on the time of year, the bombings probably happen from 4am to 6am.

It would be interesting if the anarchists had esoteric moon teachings as to which moon position is best for success.

Given that the authorities know the time of day and that the moon is the same in a relative way, they pretty much can predict the time of the next bombing, they just don't know exactly where. Sort of a variation of the Heisenberg Uncertainty Principle.

Since TRP is conversant with astrology and the moon seems to be signaling ideas in AtD, it may be of interest to drill down into this passage a bit more from an astronomical, astrological perspective.

In the Northern Hemisphere, in the hours just before dawn, any visible moon will be a waning moon along the full to new moon spectrum. Vedic astrology calls this the Krishna Paksha or dark half of the full lunar cycle. A waning moon 72 degrees (approx) past full (a waning moon less than 108 degrees from the sun) takes on a negative, slightly malefic tone. If you had a clock where the sun was the hour hand stuck at noon, and the minute hand was the moon, the moon turns bad at 18 minutes to the hour and reaches it nadir in badness at the hour or new moon. 

Drilling down further, Indian astrological analysis considers the tithi. A tithi does not consider the stellar zodiacal place of the moon, but the angular distance between sun and moon -- in the clock metaphor, we look at the minute. Instead of the 8 phases of standard western classificaton, there are 30 tithis, each lasting a little less than a day. Each tithi has its own interpretation. 

If there were an esoteric aspect to anarchist bombing technique regarding an auspicious time for maximum destruction, it would perhaps be in the Mars-ruled 11th tithi (Ekadasi), a time of strong, energetic conflict, fighting, explosions. Such a moon can be seen the morning of Oct 6th, 2007. At 42 to 54 degress before new moon, it's analogous to the sun at noon and the moon at 7-9 minutes to the hour. It's your basic waning crescent moon. Further, this moon can be in the 12th house (loss and secret enemies) when the sun is predawn, but only for about 2.5 hours.
In Telluride, CO, on Oct 6th, 2007, this type of moon will be in the 12th house from about 3:14am to 5:42am with sunrise at 7:15am. So one could expect an explosion probably between first predawn light and 5:42am.

==Page 271==

'''"...sufficient unto the day and so forth"''' 
Deuce is reiterating Webb's own words from Matthew 6:34 [[ATD_81-96#Page 96]]"Sufficient unto the day is the evil thereof."

'''skip''' 
In mining, a skip is "an iron bucket, which slides between guides,
for hoisting mineral and rock." Webster's Revised Unabridged Dictionary (1913) 

'''ex-Danite''' 
Danites were Joseph Smith's vigilantes, "Armies of Israel", during the Mormon War 1838 in Missouri, i.e., before travel to Utah.

'''"Avenging Angels"''' 
Refers to [http://www.ugca.org/ugca1099/ugca1099main.htm Civil War-vintage Colt pistols] usually with sawn off barrels.

==Page 272==

'''the Dolores''' 
Dolores River runs through Cortez (where Deuce seems to be, next to exploding cactus p270). "We woke up in the Dolores... [VALLEY/REGION/HOTEL]"

'''a luminous face suspended''' 

Some large convex object in the sky.

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

ATD 219-242

2010-01-27T17:11:38Z

Thorras: /* Page 228 */ Link to Wikipedia article on Baghdad Railway

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

==Page 219==

'''they would have little clue . . . their more or less ambushed keesters''' 
One of half a dozen Pynchonian circumlocutions for "wouldn't know [blank] if it bit them in the ass."

[[image:tetractys.png|thumb|175px|right|The Tetractys]]'''True Worshippers of the Ineffable Tetractys''' 
The Tetractys is a triangular figure consisting of ten points arranged in four rows: one, two, three, and four points in each row. As a mystical symbol, it was very important to the followers of the secret worship of the Pythagoreans, Kabbalists, and nutbars of other affiliations since. It has all kinds of symbological meaning, including the four elements, the organization of space, the Tarot, etc. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tetractys Wikipedia entry];

:In the Pythagorean tetractys the supreme symbol of universal forces and processes are set forth the theories of the Greeks concerning color and music. The first three dots represent the threefold White Light, which is the Godhead containing potentially all sound and color. The remaining seven dots are the colors of the spectrum and the notes of the musical scale. The colors and tones are the active creative powers which, emanating from the First Cause, establish the universe. The seven are divided into two groups, one containing three powers and the other four a relationship also shown in the tetractys. The higher group that of three becomes the spiritual nature of the created universe; the lower group that of four manifests as the irrational sphere, or inferior world. <ref>From [http://www.sacred-texts.com/eso/sta/ ''The Secret Teachings of All Ages''] by Manly P. Hall (1928)</ref>

:This division (three/four) has to be related to the "trivium" (grammar, rhetoric, logic) and "quadrivium" (arithmetic, geometry, music, astronomy) of the [http://www.cosmopolis.com/villa/liberal-arts.html Medieval liberal arts.]

More effably, if you flip the Tetractys left to right, it gives the positions of the pins in ten-pin bowling.

The acronym T.W.I.T is most appropriate: a twit is an ineffectual buffoon. Neville and Nigel are certainly twits.

I believe the above really misses the Big Symbol, i.e., Pynchon's linking of T.W.I.T. with the vagina, i.e., the female ''sex'' organ. "T.W.I.T." sounds like no, ''is'' a cross between "clit" and "twat." And, natch, it's headed up by [[#Page 220|Nookshaft]]. And, let's face it, that tetractys is surely an inverted beaver, yes? (See [[ATD 171-198#Page 183|"Beavers of the Brain"]]). Its male counterpart is [[ATD 397-428#Page 405|Candlebrow U.]], to be encountered down the road apiece (and that ain't no spoiler!).

"The Tetractys" is also the name of a poem by the Quaternionist prophet Hamilton. I can't imagine Pynchon didn't find it fairly interesting reading. [http://math.ucr.edu/home/baez/octonions/node24.html Read it for yourself here]

'''Chunxton Crescent''' 
Invented by Pynchon. "Crescent" is a female symbol in many mythologies and cultures, and it reinforces T.W.I.T.'s association with the female sex. But "Chunxton"?

:The moon is seen as a female symbol, and was worshipped in ancient times as a powerful force. It is believed to be linked to the unconscious and our feminine side. The sacredness of the moon has been connected with the basic cyclic rhythms of life. The changing phases of the moon were linked to the death and rebirth seen in crops and the seasons, and also to the female monthly cycle that controls human fertility. The moon calendar is still important and many festivals exist around the lunar phases. [http://www.new-age.co.uk/moon-dates.htm]

[[image:bap.gif|thumb|200px|right|Eliphas Levi's Baphomet]]
The crescent is also said "to represent silver (the metal associated with the moon) in alchemy, where, by inference, it can also be used to represent
qualities that silver possesses." (Alchemy and Symbols, By M. E. Glidewell, Epsilon.)

Additionally, the crescent was an important symbol for Eliphas Levi, occultist, magician, and spiritual antecedent to the Hermetic Order of the Golden Dawn, and, in turn, the T.W.I.T.

''Chunxton'' may be derived from "chunk stone" or "chunk(s) town." I'm inclined to favor the first. "Chunk stone" has two main meanings: (1) stone that's quarried in chunks instead of blocks, slabs or crystals; (2) a magical stone that figures in some American Indian stories. Turquoise and amethyst chunk stones are often made into jewelry as-is, or [http://www.bridastone.com/chunkstone.htm larger chunks of (say) marble] can be used as decoration. Here are links to two Indian stories in which people use chunk stones in finding or tracking: [http://www.sacred-texts.com/nam/se/mtsi/mtsi156.htm first,] [http://romeoandjuliet.ws/books/native_american/se/mtsi/mtsi270.shtml second.] Of course it's also possible that "chunk" is the verb meaning "throw," in which case there ought to be a "glass houses" connection somewhere; I can't find it.

:Pure speculation here, but our own moon is a giant "chunk" of "stone". And how did that "chunk" get there? Well, this being Thomas Pynchon's universe, sometime early in the solar system's history, this proto-planet called [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Orpheus#Orpheus_in_astronomy Orpheus] comes along and smacks into the Earth so violently that it not only creates the moon, but at the same time expels enough water and gas to make "it possible for life on Earth to evolve as we currently know it." Seems to me like something worthy of Occultist reverence

:In [http://cl49.pynchonwiki.com/wiki/ ''CoL49''], TRP states at least twice that the Pacific Ocean is "the hole left by the moon's tearing-free and the monument to her exile." ([http://cl49.pynchonwiki.com/wiki/index.php?title=Chapter_3 ''The Crying of Lot 49'', p.41])

'''Tyburnia''' 
"Tyburnia occupies the ground on the north side of Hyde-park and Kensington-gardens, and stretches from Edgware-road on the east to about Inverness-terrace on the west. This is not, strictly speaking, a fashionable quarter; but it is not absolutely unfashionable, and is a very favourite part with those — lawyers, merchants, and others—who have to reside in town the greater part of the year." Charles Dickens (Jr.), ''Dickens's Dictionary of London'', 1879.

'''Sir John Soane''' 
(1753 – 1837) was an English architect who specialised in the Neo-Classical style. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Soane Wikipedia entry]

'''Madame Blavatsky''' 
Helena Petrovna Blavatsky (1831-1891), Russian-born founder of the Theosophical Society. Madame Blavatsky claimed that all religions were both true in their inner teachings and false or imperfect in their external conventional manifestations. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Madame_Blavatsky Wikipedia]

[[image:Ts_seal.gif|thumb|200px|right|Theosophical Society Seal]]
'''Theosophical Society''' 
The Theosophical Society was founded in New York City, USA, in 1875 by H.P. Blavatsky, Henry Steel Olcott, William Quan Judge and others. Its initial objective was the investigation, study and explanation of mediumistic phenomena. After a few years Olcott and Blavatsky moved to India and established the International Headquarters at Adyar, Madras (Chennai). There, they also became interested in studying Eastern religions, and these were included in the Society's agenda. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Theosophical_Society Wikipedia entry]
"Its post-blavatskian fragments" refers to the schism that occured between some of the founding members after the passing of H.P. Blavatsky in 1891.

'''Society for Psychical Research''' 
The Society for Psychical Research (SPR) is a non-profit organization which started in the United Kingdom and was later imitated in other countries. Its stated purpose is to understand "events and abilities commonly described as psychic or paranormal by promoting and supporting important research in this area" and to "examine allegedly paranormal phenomena in a scientific and unbiased way."[1] It was founded in 1882 by a group of eminent thinkers including Edmund Gurney, Frederic William Henry Myers, William Fletcher Barrett, Henry Sidgwick, and Edmund Dawson Rogers. The Society's headquarters are in Marloes Road, London. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Society_for_Psychical_Research Wikipedia entry]

[[image:Gdrosycross.gif|thumb|140px|right|Rosy Cross of the Golden Dawn]]
'''Order of the Golden Dawn''' 
The Hermetic Order of the Golden Dawn (or, more commonly, the Golden Dawn) was a magical order of the late 19th and early 20th centuries, practicing a form of theurgy and spiritual development. William Wynn Westcott, also a member of the Theosophical Society, appears to have been the initial driving force behind the establishment of the Golden Dawn. See also the aforementioned schism within the Theosophical Society. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Order_of_the_Golden_Dawn Wikipedia entry]

'''of whom there seemed an ever-increasing supply''' 
Supply of seekers, not of "arrangements." (Well, this contributor read it wrong . . . twice.)

'''century had rushed . . . out the other side''' 
An instant of zero, not a whole year, because they aren't yet "out the other side" of 1900. ??? A century is 100 years. The one referred to here lasted from 1800-1899 and, since it's 1900, it has "rushed to its end."
:Missing the point. The image focuses on the ''zero.'' And please, let's not have that sterile argument about when a century begins! 
Don't know if this is of any significance, but in the Tarot the Fool (or Jester), says Wikipedia, is "often numbered 0." [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Fool_(Tarot_card)]

==Page 220==

'''not even if that tartan were authentic''' 
It's a solecism in England, but is (or was—at least until well up in the 19th century) a prosecutable offense in Scotland, to wear the tartan of a clan one doesn't belong to. At the time of the action, Lew's offense against taste is not to wear tartan (see below in this entry) but to wear a tartan he isn't entitled to wear.

The previous statement doesn't quite jibe. In the late 17 cent. it was prosecutable for any '''Scot''' (read Highlander) to wear a tartan. Those tartans we see ascribed to clans were creations made to please Queen Victoria. Tartans and the Kilt are from Scottish '''and Irish''' Clans; from the oppressed. Thus, the fun in the line comes from the fact that an '''''authentic''''' tartan was false to begin with, but that doesn't keep Nigel from ''lording'' the ''fact'' that Lew's argyle sox are not up to snuff. 
Kilts came from an earlier garment which covered more of the body than today's piece, and those in plaid were called '''''Breacan''''', meaning partially colored or speckled. The plaids also came in trews (trousers), and ruanas (shawls). Many had uniformity in design, but probably because those were the colors available and thus recognized as part of a family, clan or sept. 

'''Caen stone''' 
A cream-colored limestone for building, found near Caen, France.

'''syrinx''' 
a primitive wind instrument consisting of several parallel pipes bound together; panpipes.

'''lyre''' 
an ancient form of harp, so syrinx and lyre are like flute and harp. A famous Concerto for flute and harp is the work of G. F. Handel, who also composed the ''Messiah.''

'''ten-in-one''' 
Ten sideshow acts for one admission. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sideshow Wikipedia]

Also, a description of the Tetractys.

'''masses of shadow . . . bright presences''' 
We've had suggestions, at least, that shadow is more hospitable than brightness.

'''humans reincarnated as cats, dogs, and mice''' 
Do the T.W.I.T. members just take the word of the creatures, or do they have some way to be sure?

'''Nicholas Nookshaft''' 
Grand Cohen Nicholas Nookshaft's name reinforces the linking of [[#Page 219|T.W.I.T.]] to the female sex organ, "Nooky shaft" being a vulgarism for the vagina. Interestingly, "shaft" is both a rod or pole, or penis, as well as a vertical passageway, thus its connations are bisexual.

Anyone familiar with Ceremonial Magick is aware of [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aleister_Crowley Aleister Crowley]. Crowley was famously bisexual, responsible for one of the most famous Tarot Decks the "Thoth" deck and was involved in spycraft for British Intelligence and, it is rumored, was a double agent for the Germans as well. Nicholas Nookshaft is a parody of Crowley.

'''Grand Cohen''' 
'Cohen' is Hebrew for 'priest'.

==Page 221==

'''Couldn't have been the same world as the one you're in now''' 
We can infer that Lew got blown up in one world and shifted to another. A review of the explosion episode, particularly with [[ATD_171-198#Page_188|the annotations to p. 188,]] will be worthwhile.

'''"Lateral world-sets, other parts of the Creation, lie all around us, each with its crossover points or gates of transfer from one to another, and they can be anywhere, really."''' 
Could this be the explanation for some of the most inexplicable scenes from the book thus far: Lew Basnight's mysterious offense, causing him to lose his wife, and his first encounter with the Drave group (around [[ATD_26-56#Page_39|page 39]]); and Hunter Penhallow's escape from the mysterious creature (around [[ATD_149-170#Pages_154-155|page 154]])? Parallel worlds?

'''Yashmeen Halfcourt''' 
Her initials YH are the first half of the Tetragrammaton -- YHVH or YHWH in English.

'''seventeenth degree Adept''' 
Masonic and other esoteric mystery schools have differing number of degrees. Attaining a degree shows that one has sufficiently mastered the material, undergone the tests and passed through any initiations involved with that degree.

The Masonic system has three degrees. These are extended to 32 in the Scottish Rite and a 33rd degree is the ultimate akin to a Distinguished Service award. By comparison, the Golden Dawn has 11 degrees divided in three orders; and the Order of the Temple of the East (Order Templi Orientis, O.T.O) has 12. In TWIT, the 17th appears to be the final degree where one becomes a Master TWIT or a Grand TWIT, I suppose.

Why 17 degrees? Other than 17 being prime, there seems to be no symbolic or geometric significance to 17. Since the Crowley-associated systems do not reach 17, whereas the Masonic system does, looking to the Masonic A & A Scottish Rite [http://www.freemasonry101.org.uk/the_book/219-17th_degree/17th_degree.htm 17th degree] we find it is the "Knight of the East and West" which teaches that loyalty to God is man's primary allegiance, and the temporal governments not founded upon God and His righteousness will inevitably fall. Compare this to the Bogomils later in AtD.

On the other hand, T.W.I.T. is centered on Tarot cards, so the relationship between number and any correspondences to the Tarot would be very much to the point. In this case, the Major Arcana assigned to the number 17 is the [http://www.angelpaths.com/majors/star.html Star]. The Crowley-associated system for Tarot consists of the [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thoth Thoth ] [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tarot Tarot] deck, along with Crowley's "explanatory" [http://tinyurl.com/yu4ye3 'Book of Thoth']:

:As has been explained elsewhere. It refers to the Zodiacal sign of Aquarius, the water-bearer. The picture represents Nuith, our Lady of the Stars. For the full meaning of this sentence it is necessary to understand the first chapter of the ''Book of the Law''. . . .

The full text can be found at [http://altreligion.about.com/library/texts/bl_thoth34.htm About.com's] site on the Thoth "Star" card, albiet with the wrong card illustrated, in this case atu 18, "The Moon".

:'''Symbolic and Cultural Meanings of [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/17_%28number%29#In_culture 17]:''' 

Because 17 has no symbolic significance, it does! In ''The Illuminatus! Trilogy,'' the symbol for Discordianism includes a pyramid with 17 steps because 17 has "virtually no interesting geometric, arithmetic, or mystical qualities." 

In the Harry Potter universe, 17 is the coming of age for wizards. 

Described at MIT as 'the most random number', according to hackers' lore. This is supposedly because in a study where respondents were asked to choose a random number from 1 to 20, 17 was the most common choice. 

The number of syllables in a haiku (5+7+5). 

The number of special significance to Yellow Pig's Day and Hampshire College Summer Studies in Mathematics.

and on and on.....

''''Tzaddik'''' 
A righteous Jew. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tzadik Wikipedia]
"One whose merit surpasses his iniquity."
The Talmud says that at least 36 anonymous tzadikim are living among us at all times; they are anonymous, and it is for their sake alone that the world is not destroyed.

The common theme between the Masonic 17th degree and Tzaddik seems to be '''righteousness'''.

==Page 222==

'''The Tetractys isn't the only thing round here that's ineffable''' 
Schoolyard joke. "F" a euphemism for fuck, so "ineffable" = unfuckable also describes Yashmeen.

'''squadron commander''' 
A [http://pinetreeweb.com/13th-south-african-war-36-01.htm squadron of hussars] would number 100-200 troopers commanded by a major. (The linked page concerns Baden-Powell's regiment—the 13th, not the 18th—in the South African War.)

'''Auberon Halfcourt''' 
Auberon means royal or noble bear. 
Punning, "Au" is the chemical symbol for gold, thus, "Golden Bear", mascotte of UC Berkeley. 

'''Eighteenth Hussars''' 
Prestigious British cavalry regiment. Stationed in India 1864-76 and 1890-98; Halfcourt's secondment must have taken place at one of these times.

'''Simla''' 
Summer capital of the British Raj in India in the Himalayas. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shimla Wikipedia]. 
A terminus of the Kalka-Simla railway line (built 1906) aka the "British Jewel of the Orient." 
Named for the goddess Shyamala Devi, an incarnation of the Hindu Goddess Kali.

'''Smartly taken at silly point''' 
A cricketing reference. Silly point is a fielding position very close to the batsman. [http://www.google.com/search?num=100&hl=en&lr=&q=smartly.taken+silly.point examples] 
With the infield pulled in for a bunt, the cleanup man swings away and pulls a clothesline drive between third and short, which the shortstop snares for the out. (Teach ''you'' lot to come over here and talk cricket.)

'''To know, to dare, to will, to keep silent''' 
Mystical formula. [http://www.google.com/search?num=100&hl=en&lr=&q=to.know.to.dare.to.will examples]
The four precepts of Western Magick, extensively discussed in the writings of Aleister Crowley.

'''In the States, "detective" doesn't mean—''' 
. . . An agent who solves criminal cases. The major "detective" bureaus hired personnel out as bodyguards and muscle.

'''"There is but one 'case' which occupies us"''' 
This echoes the famous quote from Wittgenstein's ''Tractatus Logico-Philosophicus'': "The world is all that is the case." (See the full text of the ''Tractatus'' [http://www.kfs.org/~jonathan/witt/tlph.html here].) This quote also factors in heavily in V. (Specifically, in two places: there's the [http://www.phil-reed.com/2006/02/14/the-love-songs-of-thomas-pynchon/ P's and Q's love song], and also in Captain Weissman's repeating, encoded, hallucinated message over the telegraph in Africa.)

'''The Number 22''' 
I found it interesting that the significance of the number 22 was first brought up on page 222. might be nothing, really. 22 is the number of cards in the Major Arcana of the Tarot deck, the section of the deck that has been removed from the modern playing deck which only has the suits (elements) and the Court cards. The 22 Major Arcana are numbers 0 to 21 and move from The Fool card to the Universe. Purportedly and symbolically, the progression of cards tell a tale of the evolutionary path of the Soul in its course. The 22 cards also, in some systems, map onto the 22 paths that connect the spheres of the Kabalistic Tree of Life (which also is mentioned in this chapter). An understanding of the Tarot cards cannot be achieved with an understanding how they relate to the Tree of Life. They are the relationships between the Sephiroths which in turn at 10 in number, just like the Tetractys and portray the energies that flow from the highest monad of Divinity (Kether) down into the manifested world (Malkuth). Pynchon makes use of both the Tarot and the Kabalah in Against the Day as well as Gravity's Rainbow.

See also the novel ''The Greater Trumps'' by Charles Williams for a similar intrusion of the characters of the Major Arcana into everyday English life.

22 is two times two, so a quaternion...

==Page 223==

'''"And the crime... just what would be the nature of that?"''' 
Might Lew himself be one of the 22 suspects? Perhaps the ineffable crime is what made people treat him like a pariah earlier in the book.

==Page 224==

'''"'walking out'"''' 
A walking date.

'''the veil of ''maya''''' 
In Hinduism, maya is the phenomenal world of separate objects and people, which creates for some the illusion that it is the only reality. In Hindu philosophy, maya is believed to be an illusion, a veiling of the true, unitary Self. Many philosophies or religions seek to "pierce the veil" in order to glimpse the transcendent truth. Arthur Schopenhauer used the term "Veil of Maya" to describe his view of ''The World as Will and Representation''. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Maya_(illusion) Wikipedia entry]

'''the ancient London landscape . . . known to the Druids''' 
Peter Ackroyd's recent ''London, the Biography'' devotes many pages to sacred and magical features of the city. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Druid "Druid"].

'''Trumper's''' 
London's royal barbers since 1875. [http://www.trumpers.com/ site] 
And what other barber would you mention in a passage about the Greater Trumps . . . .

'''On this island [...] all English, spoken or written, is looked down on as no more than strings of text cleverly encrypted''' 
A sentiment echoed in the first sentence of Pynchon's December 2006 letter written in defense of novelist Ian McEwan: "Given the British genius for coded utterance..." [http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/main.jhtml?xml=/news/2006/12/06/nwriter06.xml Image of Letter]

'''crosswords in newspapers''' 
The first crossword to appear in a newspaper was in [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Crossword#History 1913]. Cryptic crosswords in British newspapers certainly match Pynchon's description. See, for example, [http://www.crossword.org.uk/listen.htm the Listener crossword].

==Page 225==

'''Girton College''' 
Of Cambridge University, for women, founded 1869. [http://www.girton.cam.ac.uk/about/history/brief.html history]

'''Next they'll be letting you folks vote.''' 
Women were granted the right to vote in England in 1928.

'''"the vast jangling thronged somehow monumental London evening"''' 
This kind of eschewing of punctuation might be expected in Joyce but it's not typical of Pynchon and seems to serve no special purpose here. A typo?

:Purposive or no, that ain't no typo. First, numerous compound adjectives reminiscent of Faulknerian portmanteau words are sprinkled throughout the book. Second, this particular deployment of zero-degree punctuation and massing of modifiers jibes with TRP's obvious delight in tripping us readers up and sending us back into sentences for another looksee. Finally, the musicality of this phrase sounds properly Pynchonlike t'me.

'''Pamela Colman Smith''' 
Illustrator of the Rider-Waite-Smith Tarot deck [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pamela_Colman_Smith "Wikipedia"].

'''Arthur Edward Waite''' 
Occultist and co-creator of the Rider-Waite Tarot deck. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Arthur_Waite Wikipedia]

'''four stone''' 
56 pounds.

'''Uckenfays''' 
Ucken-fay is [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pig_Latin "pig latin"] for 'fucken'.

'''''gaver du visage''''' 
A literal translation of "stuff one's face", though this is not how it is said in French (it would be se gaver or se baffrer). [http://french.about.com/od/vocabulary/g/gaver.htm cite]

'''cigar-divan''' 
A smoking salon (divan) for cigar smokers.

Interestingly, a work by Robert Louis Stevenson, from 1903, entitled The Dynamiter begins with a "Prologue of the Cigar Divan".

==Page 226==

'''Seven Dials''' 
bad area in London, see [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Seven_Dials Wikipedia entry]

[[image:tarotdevil.jpg|thumb|150px|right|The Devil by Colman-Smith]]

'''growler''' 
Four-wheeled [http://www.bbno.freeserve.co.uk/glossary.htm carriage] drawn by four horses. Supplanted by the Hansom cab.

<div id="renfrew"></div>'''Renfrew at Cambridge and Werfner at Göttingen''' 
Note that each Professor's name is the other's spelled backward.

Also notice the theme of dual natures or forces. The two professors are "bound and ... could not separate even if they wanted to." They become rivals within the broader conflict of the 'Great Game' -- the political rivalry over Central Asia being played out by the various European powers, but especially by Great Britain and the Russian Empire.

Pynchon toys with the idea that World War I was really just the extension of an academic rivalry. This secret scholastic conspiracy also references the role supposedly played in the US policy establishment by neoconservatives [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Neoconservatism] (or "neocons") in the run up to the US invasion of Iraq in 2003. Just as Pynchon's professors held great influence over a number of their students, "[s]ome of whom found employment with the Foreign Services", etc., neoconservative professors such as Leo Strauss [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Leo_Strauss] had a number of disciplines who came to occupy key positions in government and business (for example, Deputy Secretary of Defense (2001-2005) Paul Wolfowitz [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Paul_Wolfowitz]). This interpretation is further bolstered by the geographic positioning of the "Bagdad" (sic) railway, and the Ottoman territories as the region "where Renfrew and Werfner have often found their best opportunities to make mischief".

[http://www.cam.ac.uk/cambuniv/index.html Cambridge University] is one of the oldest and the best universities in the world. In 2009 it will be celebrating its 800th Anniversary. In its early day, Cambridge was a center of the new learning of the Renaissance and of the theology of the Reformation; in modern times it has excelled in science. It is now a confederation of 31 Colleges (such as King's, Girton, St.John, Trinity and others mentioned in ATD), consists of over 100 departments and faculties, and other institutions. Since 1904, 81 affiliates of Cambridge have won Nobel Prize in every category: 29 in Physics, 22 in Medicine, 19 in Chemistry, 7 in Economics, 2 in Literature and 2 in Peace.

[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Georg-August_University_of_G%C3%B6ttingen Göttingen University], one of the most famous universities in Europe, founded in Göttingen, Germany, in 1737 by King George II of England in his capacity as Elector of Hanover. At the end of the 19th century, it became world famous because of its Departments of Mathematics and Physics and rivaled Cambridge for eminence. The reputation of the university was founded by many eminent professors who are commemorated by statues and plaques all over the campus. It claimed 44 Nobel Laureates. But it suffered from the 1933 Great Purge of the Nazi crackdown on "Jewish Physics" and never recovered its original fame.

'''Berlin Conference of 1878''' 
Divided Balkans after Russo-Turkish War. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Congress_of_Berlin Wikipedia]

'''English, . . . , Japanese—not to mention indigenous—components''' 
''Not to mention'' them was exactly the point as the Great Powers sorted out the Ottoman possessions.

==Page 227==

'''"The Great Game"''' 
The Great Game was a term used to describe the rivalry and strategic conflict between the British Empire and the Tsarist Russian Empire for supremacy in Central Asia. The term was later popularized by Rudyard Kipling in his novel, ''Kim''. The classic Great Game period is generally regarded as running from approximately 1813 to the Anglo-Russian Convention of 1907. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Great_Game Wikipedia entry] Also the name of Padzhitnoff's airship. I believe the great game stands for Espionage in the Age of Gentlemen, the substance of Pynchon's '''''Under the Rose'''''. 

'''mamluk lamps''' 
A [http://www.metmuseum.org/toah/ho/07/nfe/hob_17.190.985.htm mosque lamp]
from the [http://www.nmhschool.org/tthornton/mehistorydatabase/mamluks.php mamluk] era.

'''...the Kabbalist Tree of Life, with the names of the Sephiroth spelled out in Hebrew, which had brought her more than enough of that uniquely snot-nosed British anti-Semitism... ''' 

[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kabbalah Kabbalah] is the ancient study of Jewish mysticism, long shrouded in mystery and kept from all but a devout few of the most dedicated Talmudic scholars. The [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Image:Tree_of_Life_Medieval.jpg.jpg Tree of Life] is one of the central symbols of Kabbalah, supposedly a physical representation of the path of enlightenment from the most base knowledge of the physical world (at the bottom), to the highest spiritual planes of understanding (at the top). The [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sephirot Sephiroth] are the nodes of the Tree, representing the various "stages" of understanding. Of course, tihs is all a very gross oversimplifcation and hardly does justice to the term itself.

The "Quabbalah" or "Cabalah" being studied by Madonna and others in Hollywood is a secularized and co-opted form of the original Kabbalah, which is deeply connected to the Torah and Jewish life.

In Medieval Europe, Kabbalist scholars wore amulets and other symbols on their clothing, and were often misunderstood to be magicians or wizards (think Merlin). The common magician's expression "abra cadabra" has Kabbalistic origins.

'''"Eskimoff . . . I say what sort of name is that?"''' 
Tiptoeing around the real question, "Is she Jewish?"

'''English Rose''' 
The phrase "English Rose" or "Bonnie English Rose" when applied to a woman means her skin is unblemished, her coloring subtle, her temper sweet. Madame Eskimoff, in short, is a beauty in a traditional English style. 
(Incidentally, an officially unrecognized designation of [http://www.marinrose.org/englishroses.html roses].)

==Page 228==

'''Oliver Lodge''' 
English physicist, inventor and writer (1851-1940) involved in the development of wireless telegraphy and radio. After the death of his son in 1915, Lodge became interested in spiritualism and life after death and wrote several books on the subject. Lodge conducted research on lightning, electricity, electromagnetism and wrote about the aether, themes that are repeated throughout ''ATD.'' [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Oliver_Joseph_Lodge Wikipedia entry].

'''William Crookes''' 
English chemist and physicist (1832-1919) who worked in spectroscopy and whose work pioneered the construction and use of vacuum tubes. Like Oliver Lodge, Crookes was also a spiritualist, which appears to be Pynchon's reason for grouping him with others in this passage, although his experiments in electricity and light also tie in with these themes in ''ATD.'' [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/William_Crookes Wikipedia entry].

'''Mrs. Piper''' 
Probably [http://www.survivalafterdeath.org/mediums/piper.htm Leonora Piper] 1857-1950.

'''Eusapia Palladino''' 
(1854-1918) Famous italian spiritualist medium.
[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eusapia_Palladino Wikipedia entry]. It's fair to say she was often caught cheating.

'''W.T. Stead''' 
William T. Stead (1849-1912), British writer, poet, social crusader, and spiritualist. He went down with the ''Titanic.'' [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/William_Thomas_Stead Wikipedia entry].

'''Mrs. Burchell''' 
The Yorkshire Seeress, investigated by WT Stead. [http://www.wholeagain.com/prophecyfodor.html cite]

'''assassination''' 
Trouble with the time here. Lew's timeline points pretty strongly to autumn 1900. A séance that's "about to" go on Mme. Eskimoff's résumé, however, leads the murder of the Serbian king and queen by three months, and the murder itself occurred in June 1903, which seems to imply March of that year. 

This seems as good an instance as any to question the insistence of some here to pin down the exact date (and season?). Pynchon doesn't knock it to the wall, doesn't find cause to bother and I think the reason for that is obvious... the ambiguity lends a freer hand with which to paint. So don't fuck with the butterfly on the wheel. 

'''Alexander and Draga Obrenovich, the King and Queen of Serbia''' 
According to [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alexander_Obrenovich Wikipedia] the assassination occured on 11 June 1903, so the seance at which Mrs. Burchell "witnessed" it, should have taken place in March 1903.

'''Parsons-Short Auxetophone''' 
[http://www.dself.dsl.pipex.com/MUSEUM/COMMS/auxetophone/auxetoph.htm pic and info]. The Auxetophone appears to have been a sound amplification device, not a recorder. Parsons did not enter the picture till 1903, so the apparatus would not have this name in 1900, but Short demonstrated it as early as 1898.

'''electros of the original wax impressions''' 
A thin film of metal was electroplated onto the wax, then peeled off and wrapped around a new cylinder.

'''"Bagdad" railway''' 
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Baghdad_Railway

==Page 229==

'''syntonic''' 
A term used in both engineering and psychology. Psychology: "Characterized by a high degree of emotional responsiveness to the environment." Electricity: "Of or relating to two oscillating circuits having the same resonant frequency."

The [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Syntonic_comma syntonic comma], a small interval in the frequency ratio of 81:80, is a problem in musical [http://www.albany.edu/piporg-l/tmprment.html temperament].

'''the Russo-Turkish War''' 
[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Russo-Turkish_War,_1877–1878 The Russo-Turkish War] (1877-1878), the latest Russo-Turkish War of many fought between these two contries since 16th century as a result of Russian attempts to find an outlet on the Black Sea and to conquer the Caucasus, dominate the Balkan Peninsula, gain control of the Dardanelles and Bosporus straits, and retain access to world trade routes. The last Russo-Turkish War came as a result of the anti-Ottoman uprising (1875) in Bosnia and Herzegovina and Bulgaria. On Russian instigation, Serbia and Montenegro joined the rebels; after securing Austrian neutrality, Russia openly entered the War in 1877. The War ended in 1878 resulted in the Treaty of San Stefano which so thoroughly revised the map in favor of Russia and her client, Bulgaria, that the European powers called a conference (the Congress of Berlin) to revise its terms by the Treaty of Berlin.

'''kilometric guarantee''' 
Money offered by the government to building companies.
Apparently, the railroad companies fooled the Ottoman Empire building trails which were much longer than needed.
[http://books.google.es/books?id=uei7q4YCaqUC&pg=PA28&lpg=PA28&dq=kilometric+guarantee&source=web&ots=fK9IVpG7Yx&sig=-7WX_2T0OPqXp2DEVAtRIRJPBQY&hl=ca&sa=X&oi=book_result&resnum=6&ct=result Google books citation]

==Page 230==

'''King's... Girton''' 
King's College is one of the most famous and historic colleges at Cambridge, founded in 1441. Girton College, Cambridge, was established in 1869 as the first residential college for women in England.

'''Michaelmas term''' 
The fall term, starting early October (1900 here). [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Michaelmas_term Wikipedia]

'''tweeny''' 
A [http://www.bartleby.com/68/30/830.html between-maid].

'''Edward Oxford''' 
attempted to shoot Queen Victoria and her husband, Prince Albert, at the time of her first pregnancy (1840).[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Edward_Oxford Wikipedia]

'''had the young Queen died then without issue''' 
Nookshaft posits two scenarios: (1) The implicit, unmentioned, and not as "interesting" possibility that everything is actual, as it "appears" to be in the "real" world, surrounding Queen Victoria; that she is simply an old, vain regent. (2) "the 'real' Vic is elsewhere," and the current, aged Victoria is a ghostly stand-in. Nookshaft implies that this figure is a proxy or puppet of Ernst-August. If this were "the case," then the question shifts to the following: (a) Is the ruler of the underworld, who holds the "real," eternally young Victoria captive in cahoots with Ernst-August in the "real" world? or: (b) Is the ruler of the underworld, who holds the "real," eternally young Victoria captive NOT in cahoots with Ernst-August, who nevertheless ascends to the throne with real-Vic out of the way, and imposes the stand-in? In which case: What would be the motivation of the underworld-entity third-party? And who, or what, specifically, is it?

'''sixty years ago''' 
One event of 1840, the attempt on Victoria's life, is referred to as sixty years ago; another, the issue of the first adhesive stamps, as more than sixty years ago. 
If it weren't for these nagging problems in Lew's timeline, we could peg the date as 1900.

'''Salic law''' 
originated in the Late Roman Empire as Germanic tribes invaded and their law codes were translated into Latin and written down. Salic Law was that of the
Franks who settled in present-day northern France and the law code of Charlemagne. Over the course of the Middle Ages it was largely replaced by Roman Law. For examples, see [http://www.fordham.edu/halsall/source/salic-law.html]. 

However, Salic Law continued to be used in a number of European areas to decide matters of noble inheritance. Specifically, Salic Law stated that no female could inherit rulership (above by [[User:Owl of Minerva|Owl of Minerva]] 18:03, 4 April 2007 (PDT)) and, indeed, a royal or noble title could be inherited only through the "male line." When King William IV, ruler of both the United Kingdom and Hanover, died, the Crowns separated. Hanover practiced Salic law, while Britain did not. King William's niece Victoria ascended to the throne of Great Britain and Ireland, but the throne of Hanover went to William's brother Ernest Augustus, Duke of Cumberland. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Salic_Law Wikipedia entry]

'''Tory despotism''' 
Thatcher?
: Not necessarily-- it describes Ernest himself. "The Duke of Cumberland had a reputation as one of the least pleasant of the sons of George III. Politically an arch-reactionary, he opposed the 1828 Catholic Emancipation Bill proposed by the government of the Prime Minister, the Duke of Wellington." [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ernest_Augustus_I_of_Hanover Wikipedia entry]

It can describe Ernst August and still be an allegory of Thatcher. The description of Ireland fits that of some world-views during her time.

All parallels between past and present are worth considering. They don't have to be direct references. The present-day Ernst August - famous for pissing on the Turkish Pavilion at EXPO 2000 - carries on the family tradition.

'''Catholics''' 
Someone famously cited James Joyce as proof that Catholics shouldn't get university educations.

==Page 231==

'''Orange Lodges''' 
Lodges of the Orange Order, a protestant fraternal organisation based predominantly in Northern Ireland and Scotland. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Orange_lodge Wikipedia entry]. The Orange Order was founded to subvert the '''''United Irishmen''''' of Wolfe Tone by agitating against Protestant and Catholic community. It was hostile to the idea of Irish Home Rule or independence. In the 1880's it developed the Ulster Unionist Party to politically parry Parliamentary attempts at Home Rule for Ireland.

'''"from the first to the twelfth of July, anniversaries of the Boyne and Aughrim."''' 
i.e. anniversaries of the [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_the_Boyne Battle of the Boyne] and the [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_Aughrim Battle of Aughrim] of the Williamite War in Ireland. 
This was and still is known as "Marching Season" in Northern Ireland; the time when 'parades' are traditionally a source of fear and violence. Nearly all the parades are organized by the Orange Lodges and hence anti-Catholic.

[[Image:pennyblack.jpg|thumb|100px|right|The first adhesive stamp, 1840]]
'''"the first adhesive stamps of 1840"''' 
This stamp has come to be called the Penny Black. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Penny_Black Wikipedia entry] 
Penny Black is also the name of a character ([[ATD_1-25#Page 18|p.18]])

'''"immune to Time, [...] neither of them aging"''' 
Cf Oscar Wilde's only novel [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Picture_of_Dorian_Gray The Picture of Dorian Gray], in which Dorian Gray remains young while his portrait ages.

'''springtide''' 
Cf Stray's pregnancy, a "dreamy thing" (page 201). The definition of springtide is springtime.

==Page 232==

'''Éliphaz Lévi''' 
A/K/A Eliphas Levi, ''nom de plume'' of Alphonse Louis Constant (1810-1875), French occultist and writer who pioneered a revival of Magick in the 19th Century, and was an influence on A.E. Waite, the Order of the Golden Dawn, and Aleister Crowley. An acquaintance of novelist Edward ("It was a dark and stormy night") Bulwer-Lytton. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eliphas_Levi Wikipedia entry].

'''punters''' 
Punter is being used in the sense of someone who bets, someone who is taking a chance.
Or more probably in the common extended sense meaning merely "customer"

'''''akousmata''''' 
Greek: things heard. [[A|Good information under "A" in the alpha index.]]

'''number twenty-four''' 
Or 25? [http://www.sacred-texts.com/cla/gvp/gvp11.htm etext]

'''Iamblichus''' 
(ca. 245 - ca. 325, Greek) was a neoplatonist philosopher who determined the direction taken by later Neoplatonic philosophy, and perhaps western Paganism itself. He is perhaps best known for his compendium on Pythagorean philosophy.[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Iamblichus_%28philosopher%29 Wikipedia]

'''maquillage''' 
Make-up, cosmetics; the application of make-up (especially in heavy or theatrical fashion).<ref>'''The Oxford English Dictionary'''. 2nd ed. 1989</ref>

==Page 233==
'''catarrh''' 
Inflammation of a mucous membrane; usually restricted to that of the nose, throat, and bronchial tubes, causing increased flow of mucus, and often attended with sneezing, cough, and fever; constituting a common ‘cold’.<ref>Def.3. '''The Oxford English Dictionary'''. 2nd ed. 1989.</ref>

'''Collis Brown's Mixture''' 
Contained morphine, chloroform, and caramel, among other things. [http://admin.safescript.com/drugcgic.cgi/DRUG?1006901319+0 Full ingredients]

'''xylene''' 
Xylene abuse is similar to "glue sniffing"-- xylene is a strong solvent able to cause several damages to health, especially to the brain. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Xylene wikipedia]

'''a thousand pounds a year''' 
Over $100,000 today. [http://futureboy.homeip.net/fsp/dollar.fsp?quantity=1000&currency=pounds&fromYear=1900 cite]

'''"pinky"''' 
Condy's fluid is pink to purple. Methylated spirits is a kind of denatured alcohol: 95% ethyl alcohol, 5% methyl alcohol. "Pinky" would have a variety of effects, very possibly including blindness.

==Page 234==

'''Condy's fluid''' 
A disinfectant used to treat and prevent Scarlet Fever, among other things. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Henry_Bollmann_Condy Wikipedia]

'''''tonight's the night''''' 
Considering the content here, probable reference to Neil Young's drug-addled album and its title song, "Tonight's The Night" from 1975. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tonight%27s_the_Night_%28album%29 Wiki]

'''Cheapside''' 
an important market street in the City of London.

'''mews''' 
A street originally for stabling; but in modern times often converted into houses/apartments.

'''Coombs de Bottle''' 
"comes the bottle" ?

'''Russian duck''' 
Duck is strong, untwilled linen or cotton, lighter and finer than canvas. Russian duck is coarse, heavy and unbleached but softer than English duck.

==Page 235==

'''sensitive flames''' 
Cf GR p.29-32, 715.

'''extractors . . . distillation columns''' 
Separatory apparatus. An extractor works on differences in solubility, a distillation column differences in volatility.

'''tremblers and timers''' 
A trembler is a kind of motion detector used in both bombs and alarms; one kind has a flexible stem with a heavy contact on the free end so that disturbing the package it contains causes a trigger circuit to close. A timer uses a clocklike mechanism to bring two contacts together.

'''proper solvent procedures''' 
Famous 1960s "Anarchist Cookbook" was infamously inaccurate. [http://www.amazon.com/Anarchist-Cookbook-C-066-William-Powell/dp/0962303208 Amazon w/author's note]

==Page 236==

'''Breathless hush in the close tonight''' 
Dr. De Bottle quoting from Henry Newbolt's poem [[Vitai Lampada|"Vitaï Lampada,"]] which makes school games a metaphor and model for martial bravery.

'''The Gentleman Bomber of Headingly''' 
Cf Hornung's 'Gentleman Thief' and cricket player, Raffles. [http://www.mysterynet.com/books/testimony/hardknox.shtml info]

Reminds me of the Krikkit Robots in Douglas Adams' ''Life, The Universe, and Everything,'' where a bomb is put in place of a Cricket Ball at a match between Britain and Australia. 

Also, acronymically, the GBH=Grievous Bodily Harm, the British term for felonious assault.

Here and elswhere the spelling of the cricket ground should be 'Headingley'.

'''The Ashes''' 
An international cricket series between England and Australia dating back to 1882. [http://www.334notout.com/ashes/reports/report21.htm dates] A number of references in this chapter relate to this rivalry. For example, on this page the English cricket ball is compared to the Australian "kookaburra". Kookaburra is the brand name of the balls used in Australia, in England it's Duke. The properties of the English ball was one of the keys to England's success in the summer of 2005. Was Pynchon's writing here influenced by the hype in the UK at the time?

'''Phosgene''' 
A poison gas used in World War I.[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Phosgene Wikipedia]

'''logwood''' 
Source of red dye. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Logwood Wikipedia]

'''adjutor''' 
A helper, assistant. <ref>Def.1. '''The Oxford English Dictionary'''. 2nd ed. 1989.</ref>

'''exhiliration''' 
Misspelling of ''exhilaration.''

==Page 237==

'''beige substance''' 
Presumably Cyclomite.

'''Happy Birthday! . . . Gemini''' 
Ordinarily you would think this tagged the date as 21 May to 20 June [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gemini_%28astrology%29 Wikipedia.] But other evidence in the text points to deepening autumn.

One of two possible explanations: 
1. The T.W.I.T. is perhaps using an ascendent or lunar based astrological system rather than the solar-based system commonly used in the West. This resolves the apparent contradiction of a Gemini in autumn since the ascendent travels through all signs every 24 hours and the moon travels through the entire zodiac once a month. For example, Vedic astrology looks primarily to the ascendent, then the moon, and lastly the sun to study respectively the body, the mind and the spirit of the native. Basnight does have a mind that operates on two planes -- hence a moon in Gemini reading. 
2. The explosion carried Lew to a place on the other side of the Sun. Deep autumn would then be November 23 to December 21th, our sign of Sagittarius.

'''get the Ashes back . . . next year''' 
On page 236 the Ashes (Test Matches, cricket competitions between England and Australia) are "in progress." At some time previous to this conversation Mme. Eskimoff said England will regain the trophy "next year" provided they use the young bowler Bosanquet (next entry). Test Matches took place in (a) December 1901 to March 1902, Australia victorious; (b) May to August 1902, Australia again; (c) December 1903 to March 1904, England bringing back the Ashes and Bosanquet figuring as a key bowler.

If Mme. Eskimoff has foreseen aright, "next year" is 1904 and the time of the action is 1903. The conflict in dates is troubling: In a matter of weeks and a few pages, Lew just misses the 1900 Hurricane and gets information that definitely points to 1903. (And he proves to be a Gemini with an autumn birthday!) I don't think there is anything accidental—or negligible—about the discrepancies.

'''Bosanquet''' 
Another Ashes reference. [http://content-uk.cricinfo.com/england/content/player/9158.html Bernard Bosanquet] invented the bosie (or googly), as described here, around 1900. A major factor in England's 2005 Ashes success was [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Reverse_swing reverse swing], another type of delivery whose physical dynamics are poorly understood.

Check out the [[Cricket_in_Against_the_Day|"Cricket in ''Against the Day'' article]] by Peter Vernon, which is an in-depth look at, well, cricket in ''Against the Day''.

'''Pom''' 
A somewhat derogatory term for a British person, commonly used in Australian English. Also [http://www.phrases.org.uk/meanings/287200.html Pommy or Pommie.]

'''Hebrew letter Shin''' 
Obviously a nod to the Vulcan greeting in ''Star Trek'', with the distinctive hand sign and the phrase, "Live long and prosper." Perhaps also to the Jewish faith of Leonard Nimoy, who played Spock. See [http://www.pinenet.com/~rooster/v-salute.html The Jewish origin of the Vulcan Salute]

Pynchon placed one of these in [http://masondixon.pynchonwiki.com/wiki/ ''Mason & Dixon''], as well:

:Dixon discovers "The Rabbi of Prague, headquarters of a Kabbalistick Faith, in Correspondence with the Elect Cohens of Paris, whose private Salute they now greet Dixon with, the Fingers spread two and two, and the Thumb held away from them likewise, said to represent the Hebrew letter ''Shin'' and to signify, 'Live long and prosper.'([http://masondixon.pynchonwiki.com/wiki/index.php?title=Chapter_50:_484-490 ''M&D'' p.485]) 
Might there be a further connection between The Cohen of T.W.I.T., the "Cohens of Paris" and these backwoods Kabbalists?

Also, note the hand on the devil tarot card above.

Shin "also stands for the word Shaddai, a name for God. Because of this, a kohen (priest) forms the letter Shin with his hands as he recites the Priestly Blessing. In the mid 1960s, actor Leonard Nimoy used a single-handed version of this gesture to create the Vulcan Hand Salute for his character, Mr. Spock, on Star Trek."[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shin_%28letter%29#In_Judaism]

"In the Septuagint and other early translations Shaddai was translated with words meaning "Almighty". The root word "shadad" (שדד) means "to overpower" or "to destroy". This would give Shaddai the meaning of "destroyer" as one of the aspects of God. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Names_of_God_in_Judaism#Shaddai]

...and if we look back to the Devil tarot card we see the shin hand sign and the inverted pentagram. Thus through Eliphas Levi and then Coleman-Smith/Waite a connection is created between shin and the inverted pentagram. And then we can make connections with the Jeshimonians and the TWITsters.

This might be why "the cure grows right next to the cause" in Jeshimon. They are under the winged protection of God-the-Destroyer.

'''bog-standard''' 
British term indicating complete ordinariness.
Possible Entymology (Dog's Bollocks, British Or German Standard): [http://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/bog_standard Wiktionary]

==Page 238==

'''Second Law of Thermodynamics''' 
The law of entropy... "The entropy of an isolated system not in equilibrium will tend to increase over time, approaching a maximum value at equilibrium." (Rudolf Clausius) [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Second_law_of_thermodynamics]

There's no such thing as a perfectly efficient engine, i.e., a box that does work by taking in heat from where there is lots of heat (e.g., combustion chamber) and throwing off heat where there is not much (exhaust pipe). Something always gets lost. Similarly, the transfer of money from where there is plenty (bank) to where there isn't much (Europe) is never perfectly efficient.

"He began then, bewilderingly, to talk about something called entropy. The word bothered him... But it was too technical for her. She did gather that there were two distinct kinds of this entropy. One having to do with heat engines, the other to do with communication... The two fields were entirely unconnected, except at one point: Maxwell's Demon. As the Demon sat and sorted his molecules into hot and cold, the system was said to lose entropy. But somehow the loss was offset by the information the Demon gained about what molecules were where... Entropy is a figure of speech, then, a metaphor. It connects the world of thermodynamics to the world of information flow." ''The Crying of Lot 49'' (Pages 84 - 85)

'''''morsus fundamento''''' 
Latin: A bite on the ass?

The meaning is that he wouldn't know metaphysics if it bit him in the ass. Like "octogenarihexation" ("86"-ing) in Vineland--the vulgar faux fancied up.

'''three-percent consols''' 
British "consolidated" bonds, for many years the conservative investment ''par excellence.'' [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Consols wikipedia]

==Page 239==

'''mental''' 
Not mental as in "of the mind" but mental as in "mad". "You're mental, you are" is a common british playground taunt.

'''Colney Hatch''' 
London lunatic asylum. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Colney_Hatch_Lunatic_Asylum Wikipedia]

'''Out of the dust . . . beam of morning sunlight''' 
I.e., sometimes your horse wins.

'''ENCYCLICAL''' 
An encyclical is a letter circulated by the pope or other figure of high authority in a body of believers. A comprehensive [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Encyclical Wikipedia article] explains and adds a list of papal encyclicals. An encyclical usually takes its first 2 or 3 words as its title (''Multi et Unus'' in this case).

Of course, the Vatican would strongly protest that McTaggart, an atheist, should send out an encyclical!

'''MCTAGGART . . . HARDY''' 
Seems to refer to a historical logician joke. [http://www.anvari.org/shortjoke/Science_Humor/1210.html explanation] Professor McTaggart was, perhaps, the most famous philosopher
who argued that Time did not exist as we seem to experience it.
W.H. Hardy was a very famous Cambridge mathematician who knew all the
famous philosophers in England. 

[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/J._M._E._McTaggart John McTaggart Ellis (J. M. E.) McTaggart] (1866-1925), British philosopher. He was born in London and educated at Clifton College, Bristol and Trinity College, Cambridge. He lectured Philosophy at Trinity College from 1897 to 1923. His brilliant commentaries and studies on Hegel's dialectic (1896), cosmology (1901) and logic (1910) were preliminaries to his own constructive system-building in ''Nature of Existence'' (3 vols., 1921-1927). In his 1908 essay "The Unreality of Time" he argued that our perception of time is an illusion (Cf [[ATD_397-428#Page_412|page 412]]: dismissing . . . the ''existence'' of Time).

[http://www-groups.dcs.st-and.ac.uk/~history/Biographies/Hardy.html Godfrey Harold Hardy] (1877-1947), English mathematician. He was a lecturer at Cambridge (1906-1919), professor at Oxford (1919-31) and Cambridge (1931-47). Concurrently with Wilhelm Weinberg developed Hardy-Weinberg law (1906) describing genetic distribution and dequilibrium in large populations. He was also known for contributions to complex analysis, Diophantine analysis, Fourier series, distribution of prime numbers, etc.

'''''Multi et Unus''''' 
Many and One.

'''CREATE MORE DUKES''' and '''EXPROPRIATE CHUCKERS''' 
Is the grafitti in Cambridge another cricketing reference? Dukes are the balls used in England (cf. p236). Chucking (or bending the arm when bowling) is an emotive topic in cricket that arises from time to time. It first arose around 1900 [http://content-uk.cricinfo.com/ci/content/story/258016.html]. In 2005 it caused administrators to change the rules of the game [http://content-uk.cricinfo.com/ci/content/story/144358.html].

"Create More Dukes" has a second meaning, suggested by the odd choice of verb. ''Duke'' in Britain refers to the highest rank of nobility, and fittingly there are not many of them. At present only about a dozen people hold the title. Since sometime in the 1870s new dukes have been ''created'' (by decree of the monarch) only in the royal family. Most recently at the time of the action, Queen Victoria had promoted a run-of-the-mill marquess to the dukedom of Fife to set the stage for his marriage to one of her granddaughters. If some group of activists thought the nation needed to beef up its peerage, they might adopt the slogan found here as a graffito. 
[http://www.ukdukes.co.uk/ Here is a colorful summary] of UK dukes today and through history, although it is '''unsound''' on coats of arms and such. [http://website.lineone.net/~david.beamish/index.htm This site] has more names and fewer pictures, listing all the titles (from dukes to lowly barons) created since the year Dot.

'''the Laplacian, a relatively remote mathematicians' pub''' 
A little Pynchonian joke? The Laplacian operator is a component of the Schrödinger equation, the basis of quantum mechanics. Quantum mechanics was famously rejected by Albert Einstein (many references on the net but see [http://www.hawking.org.uk/lectures/dice.html Stephen Hawking]), known for his theories of relativity. Moreover, quantum mechanics deals with the very small and relativity with the very large (this is a simplification of course), so the Laplacian is indeed remote from relativity!
:No such pub during ''my'' stay in Cambridge (1998-2000). Also not today, according to [http://www.cambridgepubs.com/alphabetical/ this] list.

:Obviously more than a little joke. Refers to Pierre-Simon, marquis de Laplace (1749-1827)[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Laplace Wikipedia Entry], aka "the French Newton", probably the greatest mathematician and astronomer of his time. Most of the scientific principles derived from his findings are explored in AtD (from lumineferous ether to the existence of black holes). Laplace was also instrumental in the advancement of the science of probabilities.
:The ever quotable Laplace, much loved by atheists worldwide, famously replied to Napoléon, when he asked why there was no mention of God in his treatise on astronomy: "Sir, there was no need for that hypothesis". Also responsible for what is known as the Laplacian principle: "The weight of evidence for an extraordinary claim must be proportioned to its strangeness."

:The literal translation of Laplace is "The Place".

==Page 240==

'''Worse than Gordon at Khartoum''' 
Refers to Charles George Gordon, British Major-General, whose attempted defense of Khartoum versus Arabi rebels in 1884-85 ended with his beheading. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Charles_George_Gordon Wikipedia] cf. Basil Dearden's 1966 film ''Khartoum'', in which the role of Gordon is played by Charlton Heston.

==Page 241==

'''"You recognize him?"''' 
As, presumably, Webb.
:How can that be? Webb is dead, there's nothing to suggest he went to England, the costume is not right for him, and—most tellingly—his medium is dynamite, not phosgene.
:Who might Lew recognize in the photo? The "suspects" are Neville, Nigel, the Grand Cohen, Dr. Coombs De Bottle, Clive Crouchmas and Professor Renfrew. If Prof. Werfner looks much like Prof. Renfrew, he goes on the list too. If the "Gentleman Bomber" could possibly be female, add Yashmeen and Mme. Eskimoff. We haven't met anyone else (except members of the Icosadyad, who don't have faces).

:Suppose we rule out the ladies and Werfner. Neville or Nigel wouldn't be able to hide their identities with a suit of white flannels. Renfrew is sitting right there when Lew sees the picture, but Lew's reaction (his stomach sinks) does not seem Lew-like if it's Renfrew he has recognized, plus Renfrew himself wants to meet the Bomber. That leaves the Cohen, De Bottle and Crouchmas.

:Would Lew experience dread on spotting Crouchmas? He doesn't know much about C.C. at this point, so it isn't clear why he would suppress that recognition.

:Seeing the Cohen might lead to this gastric reaction: Lew might think he's on the fringe of an anarchist group again (and look where it got him the last time). The Cohen stays on the list.

:Dr. De Bottle not only follows cricket but bets on it; he speaks almost with reverence about phosgene; he knows a nonobvious fact about the bombs; and he dresses like a gentleman. None of these points applies to the Cohen. And recognizing De Bottle would give Lew that sinking feeling because D.B. is purportedly fighting against bombers on behalf of the government. De Bottle goes to the top of the short list.

::Alternately, there's no clear answer and not enough clues (especially considering the role of time, forces beyond anyone's control, double agents, etc.). This Gentleman Bomber can be any person from Lew's past or a deja vu from the future. The G. Bomber seems to be England's answer to the Kieselguhr Kid, a nebulous personality working against the forces of history. The important thing about this situation is not the Bomber's identity, but the fact that Lew is being thrown into an assignment much like his last one in America (and we know how that ended...) He's obviously not very happy about it, and not inclined to tell anyone what he knows, or might know.

:: For what it's worth, my take was also Webb, especially in the context of all the bilocation business. It isn't "Webb" but evil alter-land "Webb"! (no dig on ya'll Brit folk intended, although the "...''my'' stay at Cambridge" bit was just wonderful :)

::--There is a suspect that was left off that list, who occurred to me before any of the others--Lew himself. If we're dealing with bilocation, doubles, and the possibility that 'our' Lew was brought here via the explosion in the creek bed, couldn't the G.B.H. be this world's Lew? Recall that just prior to the explosion, Lew had resolved to choose a side in the Anarchist/plutocrat battle, and had come down on the side of the people. Did this world's Lew make the same choice, somehow ending up in Britain... Also conspicuous is that it is Renfrew showing him the photo with a sly expression, Renfrew who's own double, Werfner, is his very own nemesis? That's how I read it anyway. But, much like the Kieselguhr Kid, we the readers never actually know the identity of this renegade bomb-lobber.

'''A bosie from a beamer''' 
More cricket! A bosie is now more commonly known as a googly (cf. p237). A beamer is a full-pitched delivery that reaches the batsman above waist height.

==Page 242==

[[Image:globenorth.gif|thumb|150px|The northern hemisphere]]

'''''unheimlich''''' 
German: uncanny, sinister.

 

==References==
<references />

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

ATD 219-242

2010-01-27T17:09:48Z

Thorras: /* Page 226 */

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

==Page 219==

'''they would have little clue . . . their more or less ambushed keesters''' 
One of half a dozen Pynchonian circumlocutions for "wouldn't know [blank] if it bit them in the ass."

[[image:tetractys.png|thumb|175px|right|The Tetractys]]'''True Worshippers of the Ineffable Tetractys''' 
The Tetractys is a triangular figure consisting of ten points arranged in four rows: one, two, three, and four points in each row. As a mystical symbol, it was very important to the followers of the secret worship of the Pythagoreans, Kabbalists, and nutbars of other affiliations since. It has all kinds of symbological meaning, including the four elements, the organization of space, the Tarot, etc. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tetractys Wikipedia entry];

:In the Pythagorean tetractys the supreme symbol of universal forces and processes are set forth the theories of the Greeks concerning color and music. The first three dots represent the threefold White Light, which is the Godhead containing potentially all sound and color. The remaining seven dots are the colors of the spectrum and the notes of the musical scale. The colors and tones are the active creative powers which, emanating from the First Cause, establish the universe. The seven are divided into two groups, one containing three powers and the other four a relationship also shown in the tetractys. The higher group that of three becomes the spiritual nature of the created universe; the lower group that of four manifests as the irrational sphere, or inferior world. <ref>From [http://www.sacred-texts.com/eso/sta/ ''The Secret Teachings of All Ages''] by Manly P. Hall (1928)</ref>

:This division (three/four) has to be related to the "trivium" (grammar, rhetoric, logic) and "quadrivium" (arithmetic, geometry, music, astronomy) of the [http://www.cosmopolis.com/villa/liberal-arts.html Medieval liberal arts.]

More effably, if you flip the Tetractys left to right, it gives the positions of the pins in ten-pin bowling.

The acronym T.W.I.T is most appropriate: a twit is an ineffectual buffoon. Neville and Nigel are certainly twits.

I believe the above really misses the Big Symbol, i.e., Pynchon's linking of T.W.I.T. with the vagina, i.e., the female ''sex'' organ. "T.W.I.T." sounds like no, ''is'' a cross between "clit" and "twat." And, natch, it's headed up by [[#Page 220|Nookshaft]]. And, let's face it, that tetractys is surely an inverted beaver, yes? (See [[ATD 171-198#Page 183|"Beavers of the Brain"]]). Its male counterpart is [[ATD 397-428#Page 405|Candlebrow U.]], to be encountered down the road apiece (and that ain't no spoiler!).

"The Tetractys" is also the name of a poem by the Quaternionist prophet Hamilton. I can't imagine Pynchon didn't find it fairly interesting reading. [http://math.ucr.edu/home/baez/octonions/node24.html Read it for yourself here]

'''Chunxton Crescent''' 
Invented by Pynchon. "Crescent" is a female symbol in many mythologies and cultures, and it reinforces T.W.I.T.'s association with the female sex. But "Chunxton"?

:The moon is seen as a female symbol, and was worshipped in ancient times as a powerful force. It is believed to be linked to the unconscious and our feminine side. The sacredness of the moon has been connected with the basic cyclic rhythms of life. The changing phases of the moon were linked to the death and rebirth seen in crops and the seasons, and also to the female monthly cycle that controls human fertility. The moon calendar is still important and many festivals exist around the lunar phases. [http://www.new-age.co.uk/moon-dates.htm]

[[image:bap.gif|thumb|200px|right|Eliphas Levi's Baphomet]]
The crescent is also said "to represent silver (the metal associated with the moon) in alchemy, where, by inference, it can also be used to represent
qualities that silver possesses." (Alchemy and Symbols, By M. E. Glidewell, Epsilon.)

Additionally, the crescent was an important symbol for Eliphas Levi, occultist, magician, and spiritual antecedent to the Hermetic Order of the Golden Dawn, and, in turn, the T.W.I.T.

''Chunxton'' may be derived from "chunk stone" or "chunk(s) town." I'm inclined to favor the first. "Chunk stone" has two main meanings: (1) stone that's quarried in chunks instead of blocks, slabs or crystals; (2) a magical stone that figures in some American Indian stories. Turquoise and amethyst chunk stones are often made into jewelry as-is, or [http://www.bridastone.com/chunkstone.htm larger chunks of (say) marble] can be used as decoration. Here are links to two Indian stories in which people use chunk stones in finding or tracking: [http://www.sacred-texts.com/nam/se/mtsi/mtsi156.htm first,] [http://romeoandjuliet.ws/books/native_american/se/mtsi/mtsi270.shtml second.] Of course it's also possible that "chunk" is the verb meaning "throw," in which case there ought to be a "glass houses" connection somewhere; I can't find it.

:Pure speculation here, but our own moon is a giant "chunk" of "stone". And how did that "chunk" get there? Well, this being Thomas Pynchon's universe, sometime early in the solar system's history, this proto-planet called [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Orpheus#Orpheus_in_astronomy Orpheus] comes along and smacks into the Earth so violently that it not only creates the moon, but at the same time expels enough water and gas to make "it possible for life on Earth to evolve as we currently know it." Seems to me like something worthy of Occultist reverence

:In [http://cl49.pynchonwiki.com/wiki/ ''CoL49''], TRP states at least twice that the Pacific Ocean is "the hole left by the moon's tearing-free and the monument to her exile." ([http://cl49.pynchonwiki.com/wiki/index.php?title=Chapter_3 ''The Crying of Lot 49'', p.41])

'''Tyburnia''' 
"Tyburnia occupies the ground on the north side of Hyde-park and Kensington-gardens, and stretches from Edgware-road on the east to about Inverness-terrace on the west. This is not, strictly speaking, a fashionable quarter; but it is not absolutely unfashionable, and is a very favourite part with those — lawyers, merchants, and others—who have to reside in town the greater part of the year." Charles Dickens (Jr.), ''Dickens's Dictionary of London'', 1879.

'''Sir John Soane''' 
(1753 – 1837) was an English architect who specialised in the Neo-Classical style. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Soane Wikipedia entry]

'''Madame Blavatsky''' 
Helena Petrovna Blavatsky (1831-1891), Russian-born founder of the Theosophical Society. Madame Blavatsky claimed that all religions were both true in their inner teachings and false or imperfect in their external conventional manifestations. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Madame_Blavatsky Wikipedia]

[[image:Ts_seal.gif|thumb|200px|right|Theosophical Society Seal]]
'''Theosophical Society''' 
The Theosophical Society was founded in New York City, USA, in 1875 by H.P. Blavatsky, Henry Steel Olcott, William Quan Judge and others. Its initial objective was the investigation, study and explanation of mediumistic phenomena. After a few years Olcott and Blavatsky moved to India and established the International Headquarters at Adyar, Madras (Chennai). There, they also became interested in studying Eastern religions, and these were included in the Society's agenda. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Theosophical_Society Wikipedia entry]
"Its post-blavatskian fragments" refers to the schism that occured between some of the founding members after the passing of H.P. Blavatsky in 1891.

'''Society for Psychical Research''' 
The Society for Psychical Research (SPR) is a non-profit organization which started in the United Kingdom and was later imitated in other countries. Its stated purpose is to understand "events and abilities commonly described as psychic or paranormal by promoting and supporting important research in this area" and to "examine allegedly paranormal phenomena in a scientific and unbiased way."[1] It was founded in 1882 by a group of eminent thinkers including Edmund Gurney, Frederic William Henry Myers, William Fletcher Barrett, Henry Sidgwick, and Edmund Dawson Rogers. The Society's headquarters are in Marloes Road, London. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Society_for_Psychical_Research Wikipedia entry]

[[image:Gdrosycross.gif|thumb|140px|right|Rosy Cross of the Golden Dawn]]
'''Order of the Golden Dawn''' 
The Hermetic Order of the Golden Dawn (or, more commonly, the Golden Dawn) was a magical order of the late 19th and early 20th centuries, practicing a form of theurgy and spiritual development. William Wynn Westcott, also a member of the Theosophical Society, appears to have been the initial driving force behind the establishment of the Golden Dawn. See also the aforementioned schism within the Theosophical Society. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Order_of_the_Golden_Dawn Wikipedia entry]

'''of whom there seemed an ever-increasing supply''' 
Supply of seekers, not of "arrangements." (Well, this contributor read it wrong . . . twice.)

'''century had rushed . . . out the other side''' 
An instant of zero, not a whole year, because they aren't yet "out the other side" of 1900. ??? A century is 100 years. The one referred to here lasted from 1800-1899 and, since it's 1900, it has "rushed to its end."
:Missing the point. The image focuses on the ''zero.'' And please, let's not have that sterile argument about when a century begins! 
Don't know if this is of any significance, but in the Tarot the Fool (or Jester), says Wikipedia, is "often numbered 0." [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Fool_(Tarot_card)]

==Page 220==

'''not even if that tartan were authentic''' 
It's a solecism in England, but is (or was—at least until well up in the 19th century) a prosecutable offense in Scotland, to wear the tartan of a clan one doesn't belong to. At the time of the action, Lew's offense against taste is not to wear tartan (see below in this entry) but to wear a tartan he isn't entitled to wear.

The previous statement doesn't quite jibe. In the late 17 cent. it was prosecutable for any '''Scot''' (read Highlander) to wear a tartan. Those tartans we see ascribed to clans were creations made to please Queen Victoria. Tartans and the Kilt are from Scottish '''and Irish''' Clans; from the oppressed. Thus, the fun in the line comes from the fact that an '''''authentic''''' tartan was false to begin with, but that doesn't keep Nigel from ''lording'' the ''fact'' that Lew's argyle sox are not up to snuff. 
Kilts came from an earlier garment which covered more of the body than today's piece, and those in plaid were called '''''Breacan''''', meaning partially colored or speckled. The plaids also came in trews (trousers), and ruanas (shawls). Many had uniformity in design, but probably because those were the colors available and thus recognized as part of a family, clan or sept. 

'''Caen stone''' 
A cream-colored limestone for building, found near Caen, France.

'''syrinx''' 
a primitive wind instrument consisting of several parallel pipes bound together; panpipes.

'''lyre''' 
an ancient form of harp, so syrinx and lyre are like flute and harp. A famous Concerto for flute and harp is the work of G. F. Handel, who also composed the ''Messiah.''

'''ten-in-one''' 
Ten sideshow acts for one admission. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sideshow Wikipedia]

Also, a description of the Tetractys.

'''masses of shadow . . . bright presences''' 
We've had suggestions, at least, that shadow is more hospitable than brightness.

'''humans reincarnated as cats, dogs, and mice''' 
Do the T.W.I.T. members just take the word of the creatures, or do they have some way to be sure?

'''Nicholas Nookshaft''' 
Grand Cohen Nicholas Nookshaft's name reinforces the linking of [[#Page 219|T.W.I.T.]] to the female sex organ, "Nooky shaft" being a vulgarism for the vagina. Interestingly, "shaft" is both a rod or pole, or penis, as well as a vertical passageway, thus its connations are bisexual.

Anyone familiar with Ceremonial Magick is aware of [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aleister_Crowley Aleister Crowley]. Crowley was famously bisexual, responsible for one of the most famous Tarot Decks the "Thoth" deck and was involved in spycraft for British Intelligence and, it is rumored, was a double agent for the Germans as well. Nicholas Nookshaft is a parody of Crowley.

'''Grand Cohen''' 
'Cohen' is Hebrew for 'priest'.

==Page 221==

'''Couldn't have been the same world as the one you're in now''' 
We can infer that Lew got blown up in one world and shifted to another. A review of the explosion episode, particularly with [[ATD_171-198#Page_188|the annotations to p. 188,]] will be worthwhile.

'''"Lateral world-sets, other parts of the Creation, lie all around us, each with its crossover points or gates of transfer from one to another, and they can be anywhere, really."''' 
Could this be the explanation for some of the most inexplicable scenes from the book thus far: Lew Basnight's mysterious offense, causing him to lose his wife, and his first encounter with the Drave group (around [[ATD_26-56#Page_39|page 39]]); and Hunter Penhallow's escape from the mysterious creature (around [[ATD_149-170#Pages_154-155|page 154]])? Parallel worlds?

'''Yashmeen Halfcourt''' 
Her initials YH are the first half of the Tetragrammaton -- YHVH or YHWH in English.

'''seventeenth degree Adept''' 
Masonic and other esoteric mystery schools have differing number of degrees. Attaining a degree shows that one has sufficiently mastered the material, undergone the tests and passed through any initiations involved with that degree.

The Masonic system has three degrees. These are extended to 32 in the Scottish Rite and a 33rd degree is the ultimate akin to a Distinguished Service award. By comparison, the Golden Dawn has 11 degrees divided in three orders; and the Order of the Temple of the East (Order Templi Orientis, O.T.O) has 12. In TWIT, the 17th appears to be the final degree where one becomes a Master TWIT or a Grand TWIT, I suppose.

Why 17 degrees? Other than 17 being prime, there seems to be no symbolic or geometric significance to 17. Since the Crowley-associated systems do not reach 17, whereas the Masonic system does, looking to the Masonic A & A Scottish Rite [http://www.freemasonry101.org.uk/the_book/219-17th_degree/17th_degree.htm 17th degree] we find it is the "Knight of the East and West" which teaches that loyalty to God is man's primary allegiance, and the temporal governments not founded upon God and His righteousness will inevitably fall. Compare this to the Bogomils later in AtD.

On the other hand, T.W.I.T. is centered on Tarot cards, so the relationship between number and any correspondences to the Tarot would be very much to the point. In this case, the Major Arcana assigned to the number 17 is the [http://www.angelpaths.com/majors/star.html Star]. The Crowley-associated system for Tarot consists of the [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thoth Thoth ] [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tarot Tarot] deck, along with Crowley's "explanatory" [http://tinyurl.com/yu4ye3 'Book of Thoth']:

:As has been explained elsewhere. It refers to the Zodiacal sign of Aquarius, the water-bearer. The picture represents Nuith, our Lady of the Stars. For the full meaning of this sentence it is necessary to understand the first chapter of the ''Book of the Law''. . . .

The full text can be found at [http://altreligion.about.com/library/texts/bl_thoth34.htm About.com's] site on the Thoth "Star" card, albiet with the wrong card illustrated, in this case atu 18, "The Moon".

:'''Symbolic and Cultural Meanings of [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/17_%28number%29#In_culture 17]:''' 

Because 17 has no symbolic significance, it does! In ''The Illuminatus! Trilogy,'' the symbol for Discordianism includes a pyramid with 17 steps because 17 has "virtually no interesting geometric, arithmetic, or mystical qualities." 

In the Harry Potter universe, 17 is the coming of age for wizards. 

Described at MIT as 'the most random number', according to hackers' lore. This is supposedly because in a study where respondents were asked to choose a random number from 1 to 20, 17 was the most common choice. 

The number of syllables in a haiku (5+7+5). 

The number of special significance to Yellow Pig's Day and Hampshire College Summer Studies in Mathematics.

and on and on.....

''''Tzaddik'''' 
A righteous Jew. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tzadik Wikipedia]
"One whose merit surpasses his iniquity."
The Talmud says that at least 36 anonymous tzadikim are living among us at all times; they are anonymous, and it is for their sake alone that the world is not destroyed.

The common theme between the Masonic 17th degree and Tzaddik seems to be '''righteousness'''.

==Page 222==

'''The Tetractys isn't the only thing round here that's ineffable''' 
Schoolyard joke. "F" a euphemism for fuck, so "ineffable" = unfuckable also describes Yashmeen.

'''squadron commander''' 
A [http://pinetreeweb.com/13th-south-african-war-36-01.htm squadron of hussars] would number 100-200 troopers commanded by a major. (The linked page concerns Baden-Powell's regiment—the 13th, not the 18th—in the South African War.)

'''Auberon Halfcourt''' 
Auberon means royal or noble bear. 
Punning, "Au" is the chemical symbol for gold, thus, "Golden Bear", mascotte of UC Berkeley. 

'''Eighteenth Hussars''' 
Prestigious British cavalry regiment. Stationed in India 1864-76 and 1890-98; Halfcourt's secondment must have taken place at one of these times.

'''Simla''' 
Summer capital of the British Raj in India in the Himalayas. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shimla Wikipedia]. 
A terminus of the Kalka-Simla railway line (built 1906) aka the "British Jewel of the Orient." 
Named for the goddess Shyamala Devi, an incarnation of the Hindu Goddess Kali.

'''Smartly taken at silly point''' 
A cricketing reference. Silly point is a fielding position very close to the batsman. [http://www.google.com/search?num=100&hl=en&lr=&q=smartly.taken+silly.point examples] 
With the infield pulled in for a bunt, the cleanup man swings away and pulls a clothesline drive between third and short, which the shortstop snares for the out. (Teach ''you'' lot to come over here and talk cricket.)

'''To know, to dare, to will, to keep silent''' 
Mystical formula. [http://www.google.com/search?num=100&hl=en&lr=&q=to.know.to.dare.to.will examples]
The four precepts of Western Magick, extensively discussed in the writings of Aleister Crowley.

'''In the States, "detective" doesn't mean—''' 
. . . An agent who solves criminal cases. The major "detective" bureaus hired personnel out as bodyguards and muscle.

'''"There is but one 'case' which occupies us"''' 
This echoes the famous quote from Wittgenstein's ''Tractatus Logico-Philosophicus'': "The world is all that is the case." (See the full text of the ''Tractatus'' [http://www.kfs.org/~jonathan/witt/tlph.html here].) This quote also factors in heavily in V. (Specifically, in two places: there's the [http://www.phil-reed.com/2006/02/14/the-love-songs-of-thomas-pynchon/ P's and Q's love song], and also in Captain Weissman's repeating, encoded, hallucinated message over the telegraph in Africa.)

'''The Number 22''' 
I found it interesting that the significance of the number 22 was first brought up on page 222. might be nothing, really. 22 is the number of cards in the Major Arcana of the Tarot deck, the section of the deck that has been removed from the modern playing deck which only has the suits (elements) and the Court cards. The 22 Major Arcana are numbers 0 to 21 and move from The Fool card to the Universe. Purportedly and symbolically, the progression of cards tell a tale of the evolutionary path of the Soul in its course. The 22 cards also, in some systems, map onto the 22 paths that connect the spheres of the Kabalistic Tree of Life (which also is mentioned in this chapter). An understanding of the Tarot cards cannot be achieved with an understanding how they relate to the Tree of Life. They are the relationships between the Sephiroths which in turn at 10 in number, just like the Tetractys and portray the energies that flow from the highest monad of Divinity (Kether) down into the manifested world (Malkuth). Pynchon makes use of both the Tarot and the Kabalah in Against the Day as well as Gravity's Rainbow.

See also the novel ''The Greater Trumps'' by Charles Williams for a similar intrusion of the characters of the Major Arcana into everyday English life.

22 is two times two, so a quaternion...

==Page 223==

'''"And the crime... just what would be the nature of that?"''' 
Might Lew himself be one of the 22 suspects? Perhaps the ineffable crime is what made people treat him like a pariah earlier in the book.

==Page 224==

'''"'walking out'"''' 
A walking date.

'''the veil of ''maya''''' 
In Hinduism, maya is the phenomenal world of separate objects and people, which creates for some the illusion that it is the only reality. In Hindu philosophy, maya is believed to be an illusion, a veiling of the true, unitary Self. Many philosophies or religions seek to "pierce the veil" in order to glimpse the transcendent truth. Arthur Schopenhauer used the term "Veil of Maya" to describe his view of ''The World as Will and Representation''. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Maya_(illusion) Wikipedia entry]

'''the ancient London landscape . . . known to the Druids''' 
Peter Ackroyd's recent ''London, the Biography'' devotes many pages to sacred and magical features of the city. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Druid "Druid"].

'''Trumper's''' 
London's royal barbers since 1875. [http://www.trumpers.com/ site] 
And what other barber would you mention in a passage about the Greater Trumps . . . .

'''On this island [...] all English, spoken or written, is looked down on as no more than strings of text cleverly encrypted''' 
A sentiment echoed in the first sentence of Pynchon's December 2006 letter written in defense of novelist Ian McEwan: "Given the British genius for coded utterance..." [http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/main.jhtml?xml=/news/2006/12/06/nwriter06.xml Image of Letter]

'''crosswords in newspapers''' 
The first crossword to appear in a newspaper was in [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Crossword#History 1913]. Cryptic crosswords in British newspapers certainly match Pynchon's description. See, for example, [http://www.crossword.org.uk/listen.htm the Listener crossword].

==Page 225==

'''Girton College''' 
Of Cambridge University, for women, founded 1869. [http://www.girton.cam.ac.uk/about/history/brief.html history]

'''Next they'll be letting you folks vote.''' 
Women were granted the right to vote in England in 1928.

'''"the vast jangling thronged somehow monumental London evening"''' 
This kind of eschewing of punctuation might be expected in Joyce but it's not typical of Pynchon and seems to serve no special purpose here. A typo?

:Purposive or no, that ain't no typo. First, numerous compound adjectives reminiscent of Faulknerian portmanteau words are sprinkled throughout the book. Second, this particular deployment of zero-degree punctuation and massing of modifiers jibes with TRP's obvious delight in tripping us readers up and sending us back into sentences for another looksee. Finally, the musicality of this phrase sounds properly Pynchonlike t'me.

'''Pamela Colman Smith''' 
Illustrator of the Rider-Waite-Smith Tarot deck [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pamela_Colman_Smith "Wikipedia"].

'''Arthur Edward Waite''' 
Occultist and co-creator of the Rider-Waite Tarot deck. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Arthur_Waite Wikipedia]

'''four stone''' 
56 pounds.

'''Uckenfays''' 
Ucken-fay is [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pig_Latin "pig latin"] for 'fucken'.

'''''gaver du visage''''' 
A literal translation of "stuff one's face", though this is not how it is said in French (it would be se gaver or se baffrer). [http://french.about.com/od/vocabulary/g/gaver.htm cite]

'''cigar-divan''' 
A smoking salon (divan) for cigar smokers.

Interestingly, a work by Robert Louis Stevenson, from 1903, entitled The Dynamiter begins with a "Prologue of the Cigar Divan".

==Page 226==

'''Seven Dials''' 
bad area in London, see [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Seven_Dials Wikipedia entry]

[[image:tarotdevil.jpg|thumb|150px|right|The Devil by Colman-Smith]]

'''growler''' 
Four-wheeled [http://www.bbno.freeserve.co.uk/glossary.htm carriage] drawn by four horses. Supplanted by the Hansom cab.

<div id="renfrew"></div>'''Renfrew at Cambridge and Werfner at Göttingen''' 
Note that each Professor's name is the other's spelled backward.

Also notice the theme of dual natures or forces. The two professors are "bound and ... could not separate even if they wanted to." They become rivals within the broader conflict of the 'Great Game' -- the political rivalry over Central Asia being played out by the various European powers, but especially by Great Britain and the Russian Empire.

Pynchon toys with the idea that World War I was really just the extension of an academic rivalry. This secret scholastic conspiracy also references the role supposedly played in the US policy establishment by neoconservatives [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Neoconservatism] (or "neocons") in the run up to the US invasion of Iraq in 2003. Just as Pynchon's professors held great influence over a number of their students, "[s]ome of whom found employment with the Foreign Services", etc., neoconservative professors such as Leo Strauss [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Leo_Strauss] had a number of disciplines who came to occupy key positions in government and business (for example, Deputy Secretary of Defense (2001-2005) Paul Wolfowitz [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Paul_Wolfowitz]). This interpretation is further bolstered by the geographic positioning of the "Bagdad" (sic) railway, and the Ottoman territories as the region "where Renfrew and Werfner have often found their best opportunities to make mischief".

[http://www.cam.ac.uk/cambuniv/index.html Cambridge University] is one of the oldest and the best universities in the world. In 2009 it will be celebrating its 800th Anniversary. In its early day, Cambridge was a center of the new learning of the Renaissance and of the theology of the Reformation; in modern times it has excelled in science. It is now a confederation of 31 Colleges (such as King's, Girton, St.John, Trinity and others mentioned in ATD), consists of over 100 departments and faculties, and other institutions. Since 1904, 81 affiliates of Cambridge have won Nobel Prize in every category: 29 in Physics, 22 in Medicine, 19 in Chemistry, 7 in Economics, 2 in Literature and 2 in Peace.

[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Georg-August_University_of_G%C3%B6ttingen Göttingen University], one of the most famous universities in Europe, founded in Göttingen, Germany, in 1737 by King George II of England in his capacity as Elector of Hanover. At the end of the 19th century, it became world famous because of its Departments of Mathematics and Physics and rivaled Cambridge for eminence. The reputation of the university was founded by many eminent professors who are commemorated by statues and plaques all over the campus. It claimed 44 Nobel Laureates. But it suffered from the 1933 Great Purge of the Nazi crackdown on "Jewish Physics" and never recovered its original fame.

'''Berlin Conference of 1878''' 
Divided Balkans after Russo-Turkish War. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Congress_of_Berlin Wikipedia]

'''English, . . . , Japanese—not to mention indigenous—components''' 
''Not to mention'' them was exactly the point as the Great Powers sorted out the Ottoman possessions.

==Page 227==

'''"The Great Game"''' 
The Great Game was a term used to describe the rivalry and strategic conflict between the British Empire and the Tsarist Russian Empire for supremacy in Central Asia. The term was later popularized by Rudyard Kipling in his novel, ''Kim''. The classic Great Game period is generally regarded as running from approximately 1813 to the Anglo-Russian Convention of 1907. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Great_Game Wikipedia entry] Also the name of Padzhitnoff's airship. I believe the great game stands for Espionage in the Age of Gentlemen, the substance of Pynchon's '''''Under the Rose'''''. 

'''mamluk lamps''' 
A [http://www.metmuseum.org/toah/ho/07/nfe/hob_17.190.985.htm mosque lamp]
from the [http://www.nmhschool.org/tthornton/mehistorydatabase/mamluks.php mamluk] era.

'''...the Kabbalist Tree of Life, with the names of the Sephiroth spelled out in Hebrew, which had brought her more than enough of that uniquely snot-nosed British anti-Semitism... ''' 

[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kabbalah Kabbalah] is the ancient study of Jewish mysticism, long shrouded in mystery and kept from all but a devout few of the most dedicated Talmudic scholars. The [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Image:Tree_of_Life_Medieval.jpg.jpg Tree of Life] is one of the central symbols of Kabbalah, supposedly a physical representation of the path of enlightenment from the most base knowledge of the physical world (at the bottom), to the highest spiritual planes of understanding (at the top). The [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sephirot Sephiroth] are the nodes of the Tree, representing the various "stages" of understanding. Of course, tihs is all a very gross oversimplifcation and hardly does justice to the term itself.

The "Quabbalah" or "Cabalah" being studied by Madonna and others in Hollywood is a secularized and co-opted form of the original Kabbalah, which is deeply connected to the Torah and Jewish life.

In Medieval Europe, Kabbalist scholars wore amulets and other symbols on their clothing, and were often misunderstood to be magicians or wizards (think Merlin). The common magician's expression "abra cadabra" has Kabbalistic origins.

'''"Eskimoff . . . I say what sort of name is that?"''' 
Tiptoeing around the real question, "Is she Jewish?"

'''English Rose''' 
The phrase "English Rose" or "Bonnie English Rose" when applied to a woman means her skin is unblemished, her coloring subtle, her temper sweet. Madame Eskimoff, in short, is a beauty in a traditional English style. 
(Incidentally, an officially unrecognized designation of [http://www.marinrose.org/englishroses.html roses].)

==Page 228==

'''Oliver Lodge''' 
English physicist, inventor and writer (1851-1940) involved in the development of wireless telegraphy and radio. After the death of his son in 1915, Lodge became interested in spiritualism and life after death and wrote several books on the subject. Lodge conducted research on lightning, electricity, electromagnetism and wrote about the aether, themes that are repeated throughout ''ATD.'' [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Oliver_Joseph_Lodge Wikipedia entry].

'''William Crookes''' 
English chemist and physicist (1832-1919) who worked in spectroscopy and whose work pioneered the construction and use of vacuum tubes. Like Oliver Lodge, Crookes was also a spiritualist, which appears to be Pynchon's reason for grouping him with others in this passage, although his experiments in electricity and light also tie in with these themes in ''ATD.'' [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/William_Crookes Wikipedia entry].

'''Mrs. Piper''' 
Probably [http://www.survivalafterdeath.org/mediums/piper.htm Leonora Piper] 1857-1950.

'''Eusapia Palladino''' 
(1854-1918) Famous italian spiritualist medium.
[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eusapia_Palladino Wikipedia entry]. It's fair to say she was often caught cheating.

'''W.T. Stead''' 
William T. Stead (1849-1912), British writer, poet, social crusader, and spiritualist. He went down with the ''Titanic.'' [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/William_Thomas_Stead Wikipedia entry].

'''Mrs. Burchell''' 
The Yorkshire Seeress, investigated by WT Stead. [http://www.wholeagain.com/prophecyfodor.html cite]

'''assassination''' 
Trouble with the time here. Lew's timeline points pretty strongly to autumn 1900. A séance that's "about to" go on Mme. Eskimoff's résumé, however, leads the murder of the Serbian king and queen by three months, and the murder itself occurred in June 1903, which seems to imply March of that year. 

This seems as good an instance as any to question the insistence of some here to pin down the exact date (and season?). Pynchon doesn't knock it to the wall, doesn't find cause to bother and I think the reason for that is obvious... the ambiguity lends a freer hand with which to paint. So don't fuck with the butterfly on the wheel. 

'''Alexander and Draga Obrenovich, the King and Queen of Serbia''' 
According to [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alexander_Obrenovich Wikipedia] the assassination occured on 11 June 1903, so the seance at which Mrs. Burchell "witnessed" it, should have taken place in March 1903.

'''Parsons-Short Auxetophone''' 
[http://www.dself.dsl.pipex.com/MUSEUM/COMMS/auxetophone/auxetoph.htm pic and info]. The Auxetophone appears to have been a sound amplification device, not a recorder. Parsons did not enter the picture till 1903, so the apparatus would not have this name in 1900, but Short demonstrated it as early as 1898.

'''electros of the original wax impressions''' 
A thin film of metal was electroplated onto the wax, then peeled off and wrapped around a new cylinder.

==Page 229==

'''syntonic''' 
A term used in both engineering and psychology. Psychology: "Characterized by a high degree of emotional responsiveness to the environment." Electricity: "Of or relating to two oscillating circuits having the same resonant frequency."

The [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Syntonic_comma syntonic comma], a small interval in the frequency ratio of 81:80, is a problem in musical [http://www.albany.edu/piporg-l/tmprment.html temperament].

'''the Russo-Turkish War''' 
[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Russo-Turkish_War,_1877–1878 The Russo-Turkish War] (1877-1878), the latest Russo-Turkish War of many fought between these two contries since 16th century as a result of Russian attempts to find an outlet on the Black Sea and to conquer the Caucasus, dominate the Balkan Peninsula, gain control of the Dardanelles and Bosporus straits, and retain access to world trade routes. The last Russo-Turkish War came as a result of the anti-Ottoman uprising (1875) in Bosnia and Herzegovina and Bulgaria. On Russian instigation, Serbia and Montenegro joined the rebels; after securing Austrian neutrality, Russia openly entered the War in 1877. The War ended in 1878 resulted in the Treaty of San Stefano which so thoroughly revised the map in favor of Russia and her client, Bulgaria, that the European powers called a conference (the Congress of Berlin) to revise its terms by the Treaty of Berlin.

'''kilometric guarantee''' 
Money offered by the government to building companies.
Apparently, the railroad companies fooled the Ottoman Empire building trails which were much longer than needed.
[http://books.google.es/books?id=uei7q4YCaqUC&pg=PA28&lpg=PA28&dq=kilometric+guarantee&source=web&ots=fK9IVpG7Yx&sig=-7WX_2T0OPqXp2DEVAtRIRJPBQY&hl=ca&sa=X&oi=book_result&resnum=6&ct=result Google books citation]

==Page 230==

'''King's... Girton''' 
King's College is one of the most famous and historic colleges at Cambridge, founded in 1441. Girton College, Cambridge, was established in 1869 as the first residential college for women in England.

'''Michaelmas term''' 
The fall term, starting early October (1900 here). [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Michaelmas_term Wikipedia]

'''tweeny''' 
A [http://www.bartleby.com/68/30/830.html between-maid].

'''Edward Oxford''' 
attempted to shoot Queen Victoria and her husband, Prince Albert, at the time of her first pregnancy (1840).[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Edward_Oxford Wikipedia]

'''had the young Queen died then without issue''' 
Nookshaft posits two scenarios: (1) The implicit, unmentioned, and not as "interesting" possibility that everything is actual, as it "appears" to be in the "real" world, surrounding Queen Victoria; that she is simply an old, vain regent. (2) "the 'real' Vic is elsewhere," and the current, aged Victoria is a ghostly stand-in. Nookshaft implies that this figure is a proxy or puppet of Ernst-August. If this were "the case," then the question shifts to the following: (a) Is the ruler of the underworld, who holds the "real," eternally young Victoria captive in cahoots with Ernst-August in the "real" world? or: (b) Is the ruler of the underworld, who holds the "real," eternally young Victoria captive NOT in cahoots with Ernst-August, who nevertheless ascends to the throne with real-Vic out of the way, and imposes the stand-in? In which case: What would be the motivation of the underworld-entity third-party? And who, or what, specifically, is it?

'''sixty years ago''' 
One event of 1840, the attempt on Victoria's life, is referred to as sixty years ago; another, the issue of the first adhesive stamps, as more than sixty years ago. 
If it weren't for these nagging problems in Lew's timeline, we could peg the date as 1900.

'''Salic law''' 
originated in the Late Roman Empire as Germanic tribes invaded and their law codes were translated into Latin and written down. Salic Law was that of the
Franks who settled in present-day northern France and the law code of Charlemagne. Over the course of the Middle Ages it was largely replaced by Roman Law. For examples, see [http://www.fordham.edu/halsall/source/salic-law.html]. 

However, Salic Law continued to be used in a number of European areas to decide matters of noble inheritance. Specifically, Salic Law stated that no female could inherit rulership (above by [[User:Owl of Minerva|Owl of Minerva]] 18:03, 4 April 2007 (PDT)) and, indeed, a royal or noble title could be inherited only through the "male line." When King William IV, ruler of both the United Kingdom and Hanover, died, the Crowns separated. Hanover practiced Salic law, while Britain did not. King William's niece Victoria ascended to the throne of Great Britain and Ireland, but the throne of Hanover went to William's brother Ernest Augustus, Duke of Cumberland. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Salic_Law Wikipedia entry]

'''Tory despotism''' 
Thatcher?
: Not necessarily-- it describes Ernest himself. "The Duke of Cumberland had a reputation as one of the least pleasant of the sons of George III. Politically an arch-reactionary, he opposed the 1828 Catholic Emancipation Bill proposed by the government of the Prime Minister, the Duke of Wellington." [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ernest_Augustus_I_of_Hanover Wikipedia entry]

It can describe Ernst August and still be an allegory of Thatcher. The description of Ireland fits that of some world-views during her time.

All parallels between past and present are worth considering. They don't have to be direct references. The present-day Ernst August - famous for pissing on the Turkish Pavilion at EXPO 2000 - carries on the family tradition.

'''Catholics''' 
Someone famously cited James Joyce as proof that Catholics shouldn't get university educations.

==Page 231==

'''Orange Lodges''' 
Lodges of the Orange Order, a protestant fraternal organisation based predominantly in Northern Ireland and Scotland. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Orange_lodge Wikipedia entry]. The Orange Order was founded to subvert the '''''United Irishmen''''' of Wolfe Tone by agitating against Protestant and Catholic community. It was hostile to the idea of Irish Home Rule or independence. In the 1880's it developed the Ulster Unionist Party to politically parry Parliamentary attempts at Home Rule for Ireland.

'''"from the first to the twelfth of July, anniversaries of the Boyne and Aughrim."''' 
i.e. anniversaries of the [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_the_Boyne Battle of the Boyne] and the [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_Aughrim Battle of Aughrim] of the Williamite War in Ireland. 
This was and still is known as "Marching Season" in Northern Ireland; the time when 'parades' are traditionally a source of fear and violence. Nearly all the parades are organized by the Orange Lodges and hence anti-Catholic.

[[Image:pennyblack.jpg|thumb|100px|right|The first adhesive stamp, 1840]]
'''"the first adhesive stamps of 1840"''' 
This stamp has come to be called the Penny Black. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Penny_Black Wikipedia entry] 
Penny Black is also the name of a character ([[ATD_1-25#Page 18|p.18]])

'''"immune to Time, [...] neither of them aging"''' 
Cf Oscar Wilde's only novel [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Picture_of_Dorian_Gray The Picture of Dorian Gray], in which Dorian Gray remains young while his portrait ages.

'''springtide''' 
Cf Stray's pregnancy, a "dreamy thing" (page 201). The definition of springtide is springtime.

==Page 232==

'''Éliphaz Lévi''' 
A/K/A Eliphas Levi, ''nom de plume'' of Alphonse Louis Constant (1810-1875), French occultist and writer who pioneered a revival of Magick in the 19th Century, and was an influence on A.E. Waite, the Order of the Golden Dawn, and Aleister Crowley. An acquaintance of novelist Edward ("It was a dark and stormy night") Bulwer-Lytton. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eliphas_Levi Wikipedia entry].

'''punters''' 
Punter is being used in the sense of someone who bets, someone who is taking a chance.
Or more probably in the common extended sense meaning merely "customer"

'''''akousmata''''' 
Greek: things heard. [[A|Good information under "A" in the alpha index.]]

'''number twenty-four''' 
Or 25? [http://www.sacred-texts.com/cla/gvp/gvp11.htm etext]

'''Iamblichus''' 
(ca. 245 - ca. 325, Greek) was a neoplatonist philosopher who determined the direction taken by later Neoplatonic philosophy, and perhaps western Paganism itself. He is perhaps best known for his compendium on Pythagorean philosophy.[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Iamblichus_%28philosopher%29 Wikipedia]

'''maquillage''' 
Make-up, cosmetics; the application of make-up (especially in heavy or theatrical fashion).<ref>'''The Oxford English Dictionary'''. 2nd ed. 1989</ref>

==Page 233==
'''catarrh''' 
Inflammation of a mucous membrane; usually restricted to that of the nose, throat, and bronchial tubes, causing increased flow of mucus, and often attended with sneezing, cough, and fever; constituting a common ‘cold’.<ref>Def.3. '''The Oxford English Dictionary'''. 2nd ed. 1989.</ref>

'''Collis Brown's Mixture''' 
Contained morphine, chloroform, and caramel, among other things. [http://admin.safescript.com/drugcgic.cgi/DRUG?1006901319+0 Full ingredients]

'''xylene''' 
Xylene abuse is similar to "glue sniffing"-- xylene is a strong solvent able to cause several damages to health, especially to the brain. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Xylene wikipedia]

'''a thousand pounds a year''' 
Over $100,000 today. [http://futureboy.homeip.net/fsp/dollar.fsp?quantity=1000&currency=pounds&fromYear=1900 cite]

'''"pinky"''' 
Condy's fluid is pink to purple. Methylated spirits is a kind of denatured alcohol: 95% ethyl alcohol, 5% methyl alcohol. "Pinky" would have a variety of effects, very possibly including blindness.

==Page 234==

'''Condy's fluid''' 
A disinfectant used to treat and prevent Scarlet Fever, among other things. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Henry_Bollmann_Condy Wikipedia]

'''''tonight's the night''''' 
Considering the content here, probable reference to Neil Young's drug-addled album and its title song, "Tonight's The Night" from 1975. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tonight%27s_the_Night_%28album%29 Wiki]

'''Cheapside''' 
an important market street in the City of London.

'''mews''' 
A street originally for stabling; but in modern times often converted into houses/apartments.

'''Coombs de Bottle''' 
"comes the bottle" ?

'''Russian duck''' 
Duck is strong, untwilled linen or cotton, lighter and finer than canvas. Russian duck is coarse, heavy and unbleached but softer than English duck.

==Page 235==

'''sensitive flames''' 
Cf GR p.29-32, 715.

'''extractors . . . distillation columns''' 
Separatory apparatus. An extractor works on differences in solubility, a distillation column differences in volatility.

'''tremblers and timers''' 
A trembler is a kind of motion detector used in both bombs and alarms; one kind has a flexible stem with a heavy contact on the free end so that disturbing the package it contains causes a trigger circuit to close. A timer uses a clocklike mechanism to bring two contacts together.

'''proper solvent procedures''' 
Famous 1960s "Anarchist Cookbook" was infamously inaccurate. [http://www.amazon.com/Anarchist-Cookbook-C-066-William-Powell/dp/0962303208 Amazon w/author's note]

==Page 236==

'''Breathless hush in the close tonight''' 
Dr. De Bottle quoting from Henry Newbolt's poem [[Vitai Lampada|"Vitaï Lampada,"]] which makes school games a metaphor and model for martial bravery.

'''The Gentleman Bomber of Headingly''' 
Cf Hornung's 'Gentleman Thief' and cricket player, Raffles. [http://www.mysterynet.com/books/testimony/hardknox.shtml info]

Reminds me of the Krikkit Robots in Douglas Adams' ''Life, The Universe, and Everything,'' where a bomb is put in place of a Cricket Ball at a match between Britain and Australia. 

Also, acronymically, the GBH=Grievous Bodily Harm, the British term for felonious assault.

Here and elswhere the spelling of the cricket ground should be 'Headingley'.

'''The Ashes''' 
An international cricket series between England and Australia dating back to 1882. [http://www.334notout.com/ashes/reports/report21.htm dates] A number of references in this chapter relate to this rivalry. For example, on this page the English cricket ball is compared to the Australian "kookaburra". Kookaburra is the brand name of the balls used in Australia, in England it's Duke. The properties of the English ball was one of the keys to England's success in the summer of 2005. Was Pynchon's writing here influenced by the hype in the UK at the time?

'''Phosgene''' 
A poison gas used in World War I.[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Phosgene Wikipedia]

'''logwood''' 
Source of red dye. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Logwood Wikipedia]

'''adjutor''' 
A helper, assistant. <ref>Def.1. '''The Oxford English Dictionary'''. 2nd ed. 1989.</ref>

'''exhiliration''' 
Misspelling of ''exhilaration.''

==Page 237==

'''beige substance''' 
Presumably Cyclomite.

'''Happy Birthday! . . . Gemini''' 
Ordinarily you would think this tagged the date as 21 May to 20 June [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gemini_%28astrology%29 Wikipedia.] But other evidence in the text points to deepening autumn.

One of two possible explanations: 
1. The T.W.I.T. is perhaps using an ascendent or lunar based astrological system rather than the solar-based system commonly used in the West. This resolves the apparent contradiction of a Gemini in autumn since the ascendent travels through all signs every 24 hours and the moon travels through the entire zodiac once a month. For example, Vedic astrology looks primarily to the ascendent, then the moon, and lastly the sun to study respectively the body, the mind and the spirit of the native. Basnight does have a mind that operates on two planes -- hence a moon in Gemini reading. 
2. The explosion carried Lew to a place on the other side of the Sun. Deep autumn would then be November 23 to December 21th, our sign of Sagittarius.

'''get the Ashes back . . . next year''' 
On page 236 the Ashes (Test Matches, cricket competitions between England and Australia) are "in progress." At some time previous to this conversation Mme. Eskimoff said England will regain the trophy "next year" provided they use the young bowler Bosanquet (next entry). Test Matches took place in (a) December 1901 to March 1902, Australia victorious; (b) May to August 1902, Australia again; (c) December 1903 to March 1904, England bringing back the Ashes and Bosanquet figuring as a key bowler.

If Mme. Eskimoff has foreseen aright, "next year" is 1904 and the time of the action is 1903. The conflict in dates is troubling: In a matter of weeks and a few pages, Lew just misses the 1900 Hurricane and gets information that definitely points to 1903. (And he proves to be a Gemini with an autumn birthday!) I don't think there is anything accidental—or negligible—about the discrepancies.

'''Bosanquet''' 
Another Ashes reference. [http://content-uk.cricinfo.com/england/content/player/9158.html Bernard Bosanquet] invented the bosie (or googly), as described here, around 1900. A major factor in England's 2005 Ashes success was [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Reverse_swing reverse swing], another type of delivery whose physical dynamics are poorly understood.

Check out the [[Cricket_in_Against_the_Day|"Cricket in ''Against the Day'' article]] by Peter Vernon, which is an in-depth look at, well, cricket in ''Against the Day''.

'''Pom''' 
A somewhat derogatory term for a British person, commonly used in Australian English. Also [http://www.phrases.org.uk/meanings/287200.html Pommy or Pommie.]

'''Hebrew letter Shin''' 
Obviously a nod to the Vulcan greeting in ''Star Trek'', with the distinctive hand sign and the phrase, "Live long and prosper." Perhaps also to the Jewish faith of Leonard Nimoy, who played Spock. See [http://www.pinenet.com/~rooster/v-salute.html The Jewish origin of the Vulcan Salute]

Pynchon placed one of these in [http://masondixon.pynchonwiki.com/wiki/ ''Mason & Dixon''], as well:

:Dixon discovers "The Rabbi of Prague, headquarters of a Kabbalistick Faith, in Correspondence with the Elect Cohens of Paris, whose private Salute they now greet Dixon with, the Fingers spread two and two, and the Thumb held away from them likewise, said to represent the Hebrew letter ''Shin'' and to signify, 'Live long and prosper.'([http://masondixon.pynchonwiki.com/wiki/index.php?title=Chapter_50:_484-490 ''M&D'' p.485]) 
Might there be a further connection between The Cohen of T.W.I.T., the "Cohens of Paris" and these backwoods Kabbalists?

Also, note the hand on the devil tarot card above.

Shin "also stands for the word Shaddai, a name for God. Because of this, a kohen (priest) forms the letter Shin with his hands as he recites the Priestly Blessing. In the mid 1960s, actor Leonard Nimoy used a single-handed version of this gesture to create the Vulcan Hand Salute for his character, Mr. Spock, on Star Trek."[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shin_%28letter%29#In_Judaism]

"In the Septuagint and other early translations Shaddai was translated with words meaning "Almighty". The root word "shadad" (שדד) means "to overpower" or "to destroy". This would give Shaddai the meaning of "destroyer" as one of the aspects of God. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Names_of_God_in_Judaism#Shaddai]

...and if we look back to the Devil tarot card we see the shin hand sign and the inverted pentagram. Thus through Eliphas Levi and then Coleman-Smith/Waite a connection is created between shin and the inverted pentagram. And then we can make connections with the Jeshimonians and the TWITsters.

This might be why "the cure grows right next to the cause" in Jeshimon. They are under the winged protection of God-the-Destroyer.

'''bog-standard''' 
British term indicating complete ordinariness.
Possible Entymology (Dog's Bollocks, British Or German Standard): [http://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/bog_standard Wiktionary]

==Page 238==

'''Second Law of Thermodynamics''' 
The law of entropy... "The entropy of an isolated system not in equilibrium will tend to increase over time, approaching a maximum value at equilibrium." (Rudolf Clausius) [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Second_law_of_thermodynamics]

There's no such thing as a perfectly efficient engine, i.e., a box that does work by taking in heat from where there is lots of heat (e.g., combustion chamber) and throwing off heat where there is not much (exhaust pipe). Something always gets lost. Similarly, the transfer of money from where there is plenty (bank) to where there isn't much (Europe) is never perfectly efficient.

"He began then, bewilderingly, to talk about something called entropy. The word bothered him... But it was too technical for her. She did gather that there were two distinct kinds of this entropy. One having to do with heat engines, the other to do with communication... The two fields were entirely unconnected, except at one point: Maxwell's Demon. As the Demon sat and sorted his molecules into hot and cold, the system was said to lose entropy. But somehow the loss was offset by the information the Demon gained about what molecules were where... Entropy is a figure of speech, then, a metaphor. It connects the world of thermodynamics to the world of information flow." ''The Crying of Lot 49'' (Pages 84 - 85)

'''''morsus fundamento''''' 
Latin: A bite on the ass?

The meaning is that he wouldn't know metaphysics if it bit him in the ass. Like "octogenarihexation" ("86"-ing) in Vineland--the vulgar faux fancied up.

'''three-percent consols''' 
British "consolidated" bonds, for many years the conservative investment ''par excellence.'' [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Consols wikipedia]

==Page 239==

'''mental''' 
Not mental as in "of the mind" but mental as in "mad". "You're mental, you are" is a common british playground taunt.

'''Colney Hatch''' 
London lunatic asylum. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Colney_Hatch_Lunatic_Asylum Wikipedia]

'''Out of the dust . . . beam of morning sunlight''' 
I.e., sometimes your horse wins.

'''ENCYCLICAL''' 
An encyclical is a letter circulated by the pope or other figure of high authority in a body of believers. A comprehensive [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Encyclical Wikipedia article] explains and adds a list of papal encyclicals. An encyclical usually takes its first 2 or 3 words as its title (''Multi et Unus'' in this case).

Of course, the Vatican would strongly protest that McTaggart, an atheist, should send out an encyclical!

'''MCTAGGART . . . HARDY''' 
Seems to refer to a historical logician joke. [http://www.anvari.org/shortjoke/Science_Humor/1210.html explanation] Professor McTaggart was, perhaps, the most famous philosopher
who argued that Time did not exist as we seem to experience it.
W.H. Hardy was a very famous Cambridge mathematician who knew all the
famous philosophers in England. 

[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/J._M._E._McTaggart John McTaggart Ellis (J. M. E.) McTaggart] (1866-1925), British philosopher. He was born in London and educated at Clifton College, Bristol and Trinity College, Cambridge. He lectured Philosophy at Trinity College from 1897 to 1923. His brilliant commentaries and studies on Hegel's dialectic (1896), cosmology (1901) and logic (1910) were preliminaries to his own constructive system-building in ''Nature of Existence'' (3 vols., 1921-1927). In his 1908 essay "The Unreality of Time" he argued that our perception of time is an illusion (Cf [[ATD_397-428#Page_412|page 412]]: dismissing . . . the ''existence'' of Time).

[http://www-groups.dcs.st-and.ac.uk/~history/Biographies/Hardy.html Godfrey Harold Hardy] (1877-1947), English mathematician. He was a lecturer at Cambridge (1906-1919), professor at Oxford (1919-31) and Cambridge (1931-47). Concurrently with Wilhelm Weinberg developed Hardy-Weinberg law (1906) describing genetic distribution and dequilibrium in large populations. He was also known for contributions to complex analysis, Diophantine analysis, Fourier series, distribution of prime numbers, etc.

'''''Multi et Unus''''' 
Many and One.

'''CREATE MORE DUKES''' and '''EXPROPRIATE CHUCKERS''' 
Is the grafitti in Cambridge another cricketing reference? Dukes are the balls used in England (cf. p236). Chucking (or bending the arm when bowling) is an emotive topic in cricket that arises from time to time. It first arose around 1900 [http://content-uk.cricinfo.com/ci/content/story/258016.html]. In 2005 it caused administrators to change the rules of the game [http://content-uk.cricinfo.com/ci/content/story/144358.html].

"Create More Dukes" has a second meaning, suggested by the odd choice of verb. ''Duke'' in Britain refers to the highest rank of nobility, and fittingly there are not many of them. At present only about a dozen people hold the title. Since sometime in the 1870s new dukes have been ''created'' (by decree of the monarch) only in the royal family. Most recently at the time of the action, Queen Victoria had promoted a run-of-the-mill marquess to the dukedom of Fife to set the stage for his marriage to one of her granddaughters. If some group of activists thought the nation needed to beef up its peerage, they might adopt the slogan found here as a graffito. 
[http://www.ukdukes.co.uk/ Here is a colorful summary] of UK dukes today and through history, although it is '''unsound''' on coats of arms and such. [http://website.lineone.net/~david.beamish/index.htm This site] has more names and fewer pictures, listing all the titles (from dukes to lowly barons) created since the year Dot.

'''the Laplacian, a relatively remote mathematicians' pub''' 
A little Pynchonian joke? The Laplacian operator is a component of the Schrödinger equation, the basis of quantum mechanics. Quantum mechanics was famously rejected by Albert Einstein (many references on the net but see [http://www.hawking.org.uk/lectures/dice.html Stephen Hawking]), known for his theories of relativity. Moreover, quantum mechanics deals with the very small and relativity with the very large (this is a simplification of course), so the Laplacian is indeed remote from relativity!
:No such pub during ''my'' stay in Cambridge (1998-2000). Also not today, according to [http://www.cambridgepubs.com/alphabetical/ this] list.

:Obviously more than a little joke. Refers to Pierre-Simon, marquis de Laplace (1749-1827)[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Laplace Wikipedia Entry], aka "the French Newton", probably the greatest mathematician and astronomer of his time. Most of the scientific principles derived from his findings are explored in AtD (from lumineferous ether to the existence of black holes). Laplace was also instrumental in the advancement of the science of probabilities.
:The ever quotable Laplace, much loved by atheists worldwide, famously replied to Napoléon, when he asked why there was no mention of God in his treatise on astronomy: "Sir, there was no need for that hypothesis". Also responsible for what is known as the Laplacian principle: "The weight of evidence for an extraordinary claim must be proportioned to its strangeness."

:The literal translation of Laplace is "The Place".

==Page 240==

'''Worse than Gordon at Khartoum''' 
Refers to Charles George Gordon, British Major-General, whose attempted defense of Khartoum versus Arabi rebels in 1884-85 ended with his beheading. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Charles_George_Gordon Wikipedia] cf. Basil Dearden's 1966 film ''Khartoum'', in which the role of Gordon is played by Charlton Heston.

==Page 241==

'''"You recognize him?"''' 
As, presumably, Webb.
:How can that be? Webb is dead, there's nothing to suggest he went to England, the costume is not right for him, and—most tellingly—his medium is dynamite, not phosgene.
:Who might Lew recognize in the photo? The "suspects" are Neville, Nigel, the Grand Cohen, Dr. Coombs De Bottle, Clive Crouchmas and Professor Renfrew. If Prof. Werfner looks much like Prof. Renfrew, he goes on the list too. If the "Gentleman Bomber" could possibly be female, add Yashmeen and Mme. Eskimoff. We haven't met anyone else (except members of the Icosadyad, who don't have faces).

:Suppose we rule out the ladies and Werfner. Neville or Nigel wouldn't be able to hide their identities with a suit of white flannels. Renfrew is sitting right there when Lew sees the picture, but Lew's reaction (his stomach sinks) does not seem Lew-like if it's Renfrew he has recognized, plus Renfrew himself wants to meet the Bomber. That leaves the Cohen, De Bottle and Crouchmas.

:Would Lew experience dread on spotting Crouchmas? He doesn't know much about C.C. at this point, so it isn't clear why he would suppress that recognition.

:Seeing the Cohen might lead to this gastric reaction: Lew might think he's on the fringe of an anarchist group again (and look where it got him the last time). The Cohen stays on the list.

:Dr. De Bottle not only follows cricket but bets on it; he speaks almost with reverence about phosgene; he knows a nonobvious fact about the bombs; and he dresses like a gentleman. None of these points applies to the Cohen. And recognizing De Bottle would give Lew that sinking feeling because D.B. is purportedly fighting against bombers on behalf of the government. De Bottle goes to the top of the short list.

::Alternately, there's no clear answer and not enough clues (especially considering the role of time, forces beyond anyone's control, double agents, etc.). This Gentleman Bomber can be any person from Lew's past or a deja vu from the future. The G. Bomber seems to be England's answer to the Kieselguhr Kid, a nebulous personality working against the forces of history. The important thing about this situation is not the Bomber's identity, but the fact that Lew is being thrown into an assignment much like his last one in America (and we know how that ended...) He's obviously not very happy about it, and not inclined to tell anyone what he knows, or might know.

:: For what it's worth, my take was also Webb, especially in the context of all the bilocation business. It isn't "Webb" but evil alter-land "Webb"! (no dig on ya'll Brit folk intended, although the "...''my'' stay at Cambridge" bit was just wonderful :)

::--There is a suspect that was left off that list, who occurred to me before any of the others--Lew himself. If we're dealing with bilocation, doubles, and the possibility that 'our' Lew was brought here via the explosion in the creek bed, couldn't the G.B.H. be this world's Lew? Recall that just prior to the explosion, Lew had resolved to choose a side in the Anarchist/plutocrat battle, and had come down on the side of the people. Did this world's Lew make the same choice, somehow ending up in Britain... Also conspicuous is that it is Renfrew showing him the photo with a sly expression, Renfrew who's own double, Werfner, is his very own nemesis? That's how I read it anyway. But, much like the Kieselguhr Kid, we the readers never actually know the identity of this renegade bomb-lobber.

'''A bosie from a beamer''' 
More cricket! A bosie is now more commonly known as a googly (cf. p237). A beamer is a full-pitched delivery that reaches the batsman above waist height.

==Page 242==

[[Image:globenorth.gif|thumb|150px|The northern hemisphere]]

'''''unheimlich''''' 
German: uncanny, sinister.

 

==References==
<references />

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

ATD 219-242

2010-01-27T17:09:07Z

Thorras: /* Page 226 */ Two professors as allusions to US neocons

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

==Page 219==

'''they would have little clue . . . their more or less ambushed keesters''' 
One of half a dozen Pynchonian circumlocutions for "wouldn't know [blank] if it bit them in the ass."

[[image:tetractys.png|thumb|175px|right|The Tetractys]]'''True Worshippers of the Ineffable Tetractys''' 
The Tetractys is a triangular figure consisting of ten points arranged in four rows: one, two, three, and four points in each row. As a mystical symbol, it was very important to the followers of the secret worship of the Pythagoreans, Kabbalists, and nutbars of other affiliations since. It has all kinds of symbological meaning, including the four elements, the organization of space, the Tarot, etc. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tetractys Wikipedia entry];

:In the Pythagorean tetractys the supreme symbol of universal forces and processes are set forth the theories of the Greeks concerning color and music. The first three dots represent the threefold White Light, which is the Godhead containing potentially all sound and color. The remaining seven dots are the colors of the spectrum and the notes of the musical scale. The colors and tones are the active creative powers which, emanating from the First Cause, establish the universe. The seven are divided into two groups, one containing three powers and the other four a relationship also shown in the tetractys. The higher group that of three becomes the spiritual nature of the created universe; the lower group that of four manifests as the irrational sphere, or inferior world. <ref>From [http://www.sacred-texts.com/eso/sta/ ''The Secret Teachings of All Ages''] by Manly P. Hall (1928)</ref>

:This division (three/four) has to be related to the "trivium" (grammar, rhetoric, logic) and "quadrivium" (arithmetic, geometry, music, astronomy) of the [http://www.cosmopolis.com/villa/liberal-arts.html Medieval liberal arts.]

More effably, if you flip the Tetractys left to right, it gives the positions of the pins in ten-pin bowling.

The acronym T.W.I.T is most appropriate: a twit is an ineffectual buffoon. Neville and Nigel are certainly twits.

I believe the above really misses the Big Symbol, i.e., Pynchon's linking of T.W.I.T. with the vagina, i.e., the female ''sex'' organ. "T.W.I.T." sounds like no, ''is'' a cross between "clit" and "twat." And, natch, it's headed up by [[#Page 220|Nookshaft]]. And, let's face it, that tetractys is surely an inverted beaver, yes? (See [[ATD 171-198#Page 183|"Beavers of the Brain"]]). Its male counterpart is [[ATD 397-428#Page 405|Candlebrow U.]], to be encountered down the road apiece (and that ain't no spoiler!).

"The Tetractys" is also the name of a poem by the Quaternionist prophet Hamilton. I can't imagine Pynchon didn't find it fairly interesting reading. [http://math.ucr.edu/home/baez/octonions/node24.html Read it for yourself here]

'''Chunxton Crescent''' 
Invented by Pynchon. "Crescent" is a female symbol in many mythologies and cultures, and it reinforces T.W.I.T.'s association with the female sex. But "Chunxton"?

:The moon is seen as a female symbol, and was worshipped in ancient times as a powerful force. It is believed to be linked to the unconscious and our feminine side. The sacredness of the moon has been connected with the basic cyclic rhythms of life. The changing phases of the moon were linked to the death and rebirth seen in crops and the seasons, and also to the female monthly cycle that controls human fertility. The moon calendar is still important and many festivals exist around the lunar phases. [http://www.new-age.co.uk/moon-dates.htm]

[[image:bap.gif|thumb|200px|right|Eliphas Levi's Baphomet]]
The crescent is also said "to represent silver (the metal associated with the moon) in alchemy, where, by inference, it can also be used to represent
qualities that silver possesses." (Alchemy and Symbols, By M. E. Glidewell, Epsilon.)

Additionally, the crescent was an important symbol for Eliphas Levi, occultist, magician, and spiritual antecedent to the Hermetic Order of the Golden Dawn, and, in turn, the T.W.I.T.

''Chunxton'' may be derived from "chunk stone" or "chunk(s) town." I'm inclined to favor the first. "Chunk stone" has two main meanings: (1) stone that's quarried in chunks instead of blocks, slabs or crystals; (2) a magical stone that figures in some American Indian stories. Turquoise and amethyst chunk stones are often made into jewelry as-is, or [http://www.bridastone.com/chunkstone.htm larger chunks of (say) marble] can be used as decoration. Here are links to two Indian stories in which people use chunk stones in finding or tracking: [http://www.sacred-texts.com/nam/se/mtsi/mtsi156.htm first,] [http://romeoandjuliet.ws/books/native_american/se/mtsi/mtsi270.shtml second.] Of course it's also possible that "chunk" is the verb meaning "throw," in which case there ought to be a "glass houses" connection somewhere; I can't find it.

:Pure speculation here, but our own moon is a giant "chunk" of "stone". And how did that "chunk" get there? Well, this being Thomas Pynchon's universe, sometime early in the solar system's history, this proto-planet called [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Orpheus#Orpheus_in_astronomy Orpheus] comes along and smacks into the Earth so violently that it not only creates the moon, but at the same time expels enough water and gas to make "it possible for life on Earth to evolve as we currently know it." Seems to me like something worthy of Occultist reverence

:In [http://cl49.pynchonwiki.com/wiki/ ''CoL49''], TRP states at least twice that the Pacific Ocean is "the hole left by the moon's tearing-free and the monument to her exile." ([http://cl49.pynchonwiki.com/wiki/index.php?title=Chapter_3 ''The Crying of Lot 49'', p.41])

'''Tyburnia''' 
"Tyburnia occupies the ground on the north side of Hyde-park and Kensington-gardens, and stretches from Edgware-road on the east to about Inverness-terrace on the west. This is not, strictly speaking, a fashionable quarter; but it is not absolutely unfashionable, and is a very favourite part with those — lawyers, merchants, and others—who have to reside in town the greater part of the year." Charles Dickens (Jr.), ''Dickens's Dictionary of London'', 1879.

'''Sir John Soane''' 
(1753 – 1837) was an English architect who specialised in the Neo-Classical style. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Soane Wikipedia entry]

'''Madame Blavatsky''' 
Helena Petrovna Blavatsky (1831-1891), Russian-born founder of the Theosophical Society. Madame Blavatsky claimed that all religions were both true in their inner teachings and false or imperfect in their external conventional manifestations. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Madame_Blavatsky Wikipedia]

[[image:Ts_seal.gif|thumb|200px|right|Theosophical Society Seal]]
'''Theosophical Society''' 
The Theosophical Society was founded in New York City, USA, in 1875 by H.P. Blavatsky, Henry Steel Olcott, William Quan Judge and others. Its initial objective was the investigation, study and explanation of mediumistic phenomena. After a few years Olcott and Blavatsky moved to India and established the International Headquarters at Adyar, Madras (Chennai). There, they also became interested in studying Eastern religions, and these were included in the Society's agenda. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Theosophical_Society Wikipedia entry]
"Its post-blavatskian fragments" refers to the schism that occured between some of the founding members after the passing of H.P. Blavatsky in 1891.

'''Society for Psychical Research''' 
The Society for Psychical Research (SPR) is a non-profit organization which started in the United Kingdom and was later imitated in other countries. Its stated purpose is to understand "events and abilities commonly described as psychic or paranormal by promoting and supporting important research in this area" and to "examine allegedly paranormal phenomena in a scientific and unbiased way."[1] It was founded in 1882 by a group of eminent thinkers including Edmund Gurney, Frederic William Henry Myers, William Fletcher Barrett, Henry Sidgwick, and Edmund Dawson Rogers. The Society's headquarters are in Marloes Road, London. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Society_for_Psychical_Research Wikipedia entry]

[[image:Gdrosycross.gif|thumb|140px|right|Rosy Cross of the Golden Dawn]]
'''Order of the Golden Dawn''' 
The Hermetic Order of the Golden Dawn (or, more commonly, the Golden Dawn) was a magical order of the late 19th and early 20th centuries, practicing a form of theurgy and spiritual development. William Wynn Westcott, also a member of the Theosophical Society, appears to have been the initial driving force behind the establishment of the Golden Dawn. See also the aforementioned schism within the Theosophical Society. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Order_of_the_Golden_Dawn Wikipedia entry]

'''of whom there seemed an ever-increasing supply''' 
Supply of seekers, not of "arrangements." (Well, this contributor read it wrong . . . twice.)

'''century had rushed . . . out the other side''' 
An instant of zero, not a whole year, because they aren't yet "out the other side" of 1900. ??? A century is 100 years. The one referred to here lasted from 1800-1899 and, since it's 1900, it has "rushed to its end."
:Missing the point. The image focuses on the ''zero.'' And please, let's not have that sterile argument about when a century begins! 
Don't know if this is of any significance, but in the Tarot the Fool (or Jester), says Wikipedia, is "often numbered 0." [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Fool_(Tarot_card)]

==Page 220==

'''not even if that tartan were authentic''' 
It's a solecism in England, but is (or was—at least until well up in the 19th century) a prosecutable offense in Scotland, to wear the tartan of a clan one doesn't belong to. At the time of the action, Lew's offense against taste is not to wear tartan (see below in this entry) but to wear a tartan he isn't entitled to wear.

The previous statement doesn't quite jibe. In the late 17 cent. it was prosecutable for any '''Scot''' (read Highlander) to wear a tartan. Those tartans we see ascribed to clans were creations made to please Queen Victoria. Tartans and the Kilt are from Scottish '''and Irish''' Clans; from the oppressed. Thus, the fun in the line comes from the fact that an '''''authentic''''' tartan was false to begin with, but that doesn't keep Nigel from ''lording'' the ''fact'' that Lew's argyle sox are not up to snuff. 
Kilts came from an earlier garment which covered more of the body than today's piece, and those in plaid were called '''''Breacan''''', meaning partially colored or speckled. The plaids also came in trews (trousers), and ruanas (shawls). Many had uniformity in design, but probably because those were the colors available and thus recognized as part of a family, clan or sept. 

'''Caen stone''' 
A cream-colored limestone for building, found near Caen, France.

'''syrinx''' 
a primitive wind instrument consisting of several parallel pipes bound together; panpipes.

'''lyre''' 
an ancient form of harp, so syrinx and lyre are like flute and harp. A famous Concerto for flute and harp is the work of G. F. Handel, who also composed the ''Messiah.''

'''ten-in-one''' 
Ten sideshow acts for one admission. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sideshow Wikipedia]

Also, a description of the Tetractys.

'''masses of shadow . . . bright presences''' 
We've had suggestions, at least, that shadow is more hospitable than brightness.

'''humans reincarnated as cats, dogs, and mice''' 
Do the T.W.I.T. members just take the word of the creatures, or do they have some way to be sure?

'''Nicholas Nookshaft''' 
Grand Cohen Nicholas Nookshaft's name reinforces the linking of [[#Page 219|T.W.I.T.]] to the female sex organ, "Nooky shaft" being a vulgarism for the vagina. Interestingly, "shaft" is both a rod or pole, or penis, as well as a vertical passageway, thus its connations are bisexual.

Anyone familiar with Ceremonial Magick is aware of [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aleister_Crowley Aleister Crowley]. Crowley was famously bisexual, responsible for one of the most famous Tarot Decks the "Thoth" deck and was involved in spycraft for British Intelligence and, it is rumored, was a double agent for the Germans as well. Nicholas Nookshaft is a parody of Crowley.

'''Grand Cohen''' 
'Cohen' is Hebrew for 'priest'.

==Page 221==

'''Couldn't have been the same world as the one you're in now''' 
We can infer that Lew got blown up in one world and shifted to another. A review of the explosion episode, particularly with [[ATD_171-198#Page_188|the annotations to p. 188,]] will be worthwhile.

'''"Lateral world-sets, other parts of the Creation, lie all around us, each with its crossover points or gates of transfer from one to another, and they can be anywhere, really."''' 
Could this be the explanation for some of the most inexplicable scenes from the book thus far: Lew Basnight's mysterious offense, causing him to lose his wife, and his first encounter with the Drave group (around [[ATD_26-56#Page_39|page 39]]); and Hunter Penhallow's escape from the mysterious creature (around [[ATD_149-170#Pages_154-155|page 154]])? Parallel worlds?

'''Yashmeen Halfcourt''' 
Her initials YH are the first half of the Tetragrammaton -- YHVH or YHWH in English.

'''seventeenth degree Adept''' 
Masonic and other esoteric mystery schools have differing number of degrees. Attaining a degree shows that one has sufficiently mastered the material, undergone the tests and passed through any initiations involved with that degree.

The Masonic system has three degrees. These are extended to 32 in the Scottish Rite and a 33rd degree is the ultimate akin to a Distinguished Service award. By comparison, the Golden Dawn has 11 degrees divided in three orders; and the Order of the Temple of the East (Order Templi Orientis, O.T.O) has 12. In TWIT, the 17th appears to be the final degree where one becomes a Master TWIT or a Grand TWIT, I suppose.

Why 17 degrees? Other than 17 being prime, there seems to be no symbolic or geometric significance to 17. Since the Crowley-associated systems do not reach 17, whereas the Masonic system does, looking to the Masonic A & A Scottish Rite [http://www.freemasonry101.org.uk/the_book/219-17th_degree/17th_degree.htm 17th degree] we find it is the "Knight of the East and West" which teaches that loyalty to God is man's primary allegiance, and the temporal governments not founded upon God and His righteousness will inevitably fall. Compare this to the Bogomils later in AtD.

On the other hand, T.W.I.T. is centered on Tarot cards, so the relationship between number and any correspondences to the Tarot would be very much to the point. In this case, the Major Arcana assigned to the number 17 is the [http://www.angelpaths.com/majors/star.html Star]. The Crowley-associated system for Tarot consists of the [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thoth Thoth ] [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tarot Tarot] deck, along with Crowley's "explanatory" [http://tinyurl.com/yu4ye3 'Book of Thoth']:

:As has been explained elsewhere. It refers to the Zodiacal sign of Aquarius, the water-bearer. The picture represents Nuith, our Lady of the Stars. For the full meaning of this sentence it is necessary to understand the first chapter of the ''Book of the Law''. . . .

The full text can be found at [http://altreligion.about.com/library/texts/bl_thoth34.htm About.com's] site on the Thoth "Star" card, albiet with the wrong card illustrated, in this case atu 18, "The Moon".

:'''Symbolic and Cultural Meanings of [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/17_%28number%29#In_culture 17]:''' 

Because 17 has no symbolic significance, it does! In ''The Illuminatus! Trilogy,'' the symbol for Discordianism includes a pyramid with 17 steps because 17 has "virtually no interesting geometric, arithmetic, or mystical qualities." 

In the Harry Potter universe, 17 is the coming of age for wizards. 

Described at MIT as 'the most random number', according to hackers' lore. This is supposedly because in a study where respondents were asked to choose a random number from 1 to 20, 17 was the most common choice. 

The number of syllables in a haiku (5+7+5). 

The number of special significance to Yellow Pig's Day and Hampshire College Summer Studies in Mathematics.

and on and on.....

''''Tzaddik'''' 
A righteous Jew. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tzadik Wikipedia]
"One whose merit surpasses his iniquity."
The Talmud says that at least 36 anonymous tzadikim are living among us at all times; they are anonymous, and it is for their sake alone that the world is not destroyed.

The common theme between the Masonic 17th degree and Tzaddik seems to be '''righteousness'''.

==Page 222==

'''The Tetractys isn't the only thing round here that's ineffable''' 
Schoolyard joke. "F" a euphemism for fuck, so "ineffable" = unfuckable also describes Yashmeen.

'''squadron commander''' 
A [http://pinetreeweb.com/13th-south-african-war-36-01.htm squadron of hussars] would number 100-200 troopers commanded by a major. (The linked page concerns Baden-Powell's regiment—the 13th, not the 18th—in the South African War.)

'''Auberon Halfcourt''' 
Auberon means royal or noble bear. 
Punning, "Au" is the chemical symbol for gold, thus, "Golden Bear", mascotte of UC Berkeley. 

'''Eighteenth Hussars''' 
Prestigious British cavalry regiment. Stationed in India 1864-76 and 1890-98; Halfcourt's secondment must have taken place at one of these times.

'''Simla''' 
Summer capital of the British Raj in India in the Himalayas. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shimla Wikipedia]. 
A terminus of the Kalka-Simla railway line (built 1906) aka the "British Jewel of the Orient." 
Named for the goddess Shyamala Devi, an incarnation of the Hindu Goddess Kali.

'''Smartly taken at silly point''' 
A cricketing reference. Silly point is a fielding position very close to the batsman. [http://www.google.com/search?num=100&hl=en&lr=&q=smartly.taken+silly.point examples] 
With the infield pulled in for a bunt, the cleanup man swings away and pulls a clothesline drive between third and short, which the shortstop snares for the out. (Teach ''you'' lot to come over here and talk cricket.)

'''To know, to dare, to will, to keep silent''' 
Mystical formula. [http://www.google.com/search?num=100&hl=en&lr=&q=to.know.to.dare.to.will examples]
The four precepts of Western Magick, extensively discussed in the writings of Aleister Crowley.

'''In the States, "detective" doesn't mean—''' 
. . . An agent who solves criminal cases. The major "detective" bureaus hired personnel out as bodyguards and muscle.

'''"There is but one 'case' which occupies us"''' 
This echoes the famous quote from Wittgenstein's ''Tractatus Logico-Philosophicus'': "The world is all that is the case." (See the full text of the ''Tractatus'' [http://www.kfs.org/~jonathan/witt/tlph.html here].) This quote also factors in heavily in V. (Specifically, in two places: there's the [http://www.phil-reed.com/2006/02/14/the-love-songs-of-thomas-pynchon/ P's and Q's love song], and also in Captain Weissman's repeating, encoded, hallucinated message over the telegraph in Africa.)

'''The Number 22''' 
I found it interesting that the significance of the number 22 was first brought up on page 222. might be nothing, really. 22 is the number of cards in the Major Arcana of the Tarot deck, the section of the deck that has been removed from the modern playing deck which only has the suits (elements) and the Court cards. The 22 Major Arcana are numbers 0 to 21 and move from The Fool card to the Universe. Purportedly and symbolically, the progression of cards tell a tale of the evolutionary path of the Soul in its course. The 22 cards also, in some systems, map onto the 22 paths that connect the spheres of the Kabalistic Tree of Life (which also is mentioned in this chapter). An understanding of the Tarot cards cannot be achieved with an understanding how they relate to the Tree of Life. They are the relationships between the Sephiroths which in turn at 10 in number, just like the Tetractys and portray the energies that flow from the highest monad of Divinity (Kether) down into the manifested world (Malkuth). Pynchon makes use of both the Tarot and the Kabalah in Against the Day as well as Gravity's Rainbow.

See also the novel ''The Greater Trumps'' by Charles Williams for a similar intrusion of the characters of the Major Arcana into everyday English life.

22 is two times two, so a quaternion...

==Page 223==

'''"And the crime... just what would be the nature of that?"''' 
Might Lew himself be one of the 22 suspects? Perhaps the ineffable crime is what made people treat him like a pariah earlier in the book.

==Page 224==

'''"'walking out'"''' 
A walking date.

'''the veil of ''maya''''' 
In Hinduism, maya is the phenomenal world of separate objects and people, which creates for some the illusion that it is the only reality. In Hindu philosophy, maya is believed to be an illusion, a veiling of the true, unitary Self. Many philosophies or religions seek to "pierce the veil" in order to glimpse the transcendent truth. Arthur Schopenhauer used the term "Veil of Maya" to describe his view of ''The World as Will and Representation''. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Maya_(illusion) Wikipedia entry]

'''the ancient London landscape . . . known to the Druids''' 
Peter Ackroyd's recent ''London, the Biography'' devotes many pages to sacred and magical features of the city. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Druid "Druid"].

'''Trumper's''' 
London's royal barbers since 1875. [http://www.trumpers.com/ site] 
And what other barber would you mention in a passage about the Greater Trumps . . . .

'''On this island [...] all English, spoken or written, is looked down on as no more than strings of text cleverly encrypted''' 
A sentiment echoed in the first sentence of Pynchon's December 2006 letter written in defense of novelist Ian McEwan: "Given the British genius for coded utterance..." [http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/main.jhtml?xml=/news/2006/12/06/nwriter06.xml Image of Letter]

'''crosswords in newspapers''' 
The first crossword to appear in a newspaper was in [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Crossword#History 1913]. Cryptic crosswords in British newspapers certainly match Pynchon's description. See, for example, [http://www.crossword.org.uk/listen.htm the Listener crossword].

==Page 225==

'''Girton College''' 
Of Cambridge University, for women, founded 1869. [http://www.girton.cam.ac.uk/about/history/brief.html history]

'''Next they'll be letting you folks vote.''' 
Women were granted the right to vote in England in 1928.

'''"the vast jangling thronged somehow monumental London evening"''' 
This kind of eschewing of punctuation might be expected in Joyce but it's not typical of Pynchon and seems to serve no special purpose here. A typo?

:Purposive or no, that ain't no typo. First, numerous compound adjectives reminiscent of Faulknerian portmanteau words are sprinkled throughout the book. Second, this particular deployment of zero-degree punctuation and massing of modifiers jibes with TRP's obvious delight in tripping us readers up and sending us back into sentences for another looksee. Finally, the musicality of this phrase sounds properly Pynchonlike t'me.

'''Pamela Colman Smith''' 
Illustrator of the Rider-Waite-Smith Tarot deck [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pamela_Colman_Smith "Wikipedia"].

'''Arthur Edward Waite''' 
Occultist and co-creator of the Rider-Waite Tarot deck. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Arthur_Waite Wikipedia]

'''four stone''' 
56 pounds.

'''Uckenfays''' 
Ucken-fay is [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pig_Latin "pig latin"] for 'fucken'.

'''''gaver du visage''''' 
A literal translation of "stuff one's face", though this is not how it is said in French (it would be se gaver or se baffrer). [http://french.about.com/od/vocabulary/g/gaver.htm cite]

'''cigar-divan''' 
A smoking salon (divan) for cigar smokers.

Interestingly, a work by Robert Louis Stevenson, from 1903, entitled The Dynamiter begins with a "Prologue of the Cigar Divan".

==Page 226==

'''Seven Dials''' 
bad area in London, see [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Seven_Dials Wikipedia entry]

[[image:tarotdevil.jpg|thumb|150px|right|The Devil by Colman-Smith]]

'''growler''' 
Four-wheeled [http://www.bbno.freeserve.co.uk/glossary.htm carriage] drawn by four horses. Supplanted by the Hansom cab.

<div id="renfrew"></div>'''Renfrew at Cambridge and Werfner at Göttingen''' 
Note that each Professor's name is the other's spelled backward.

Also notice the theme of dual natures or forces. The two professors are "bound and ... could not separate even if they wanted to." They become rivals within the broader conflict of the 'Great Game' -- the political rivalry over Central Asia being played out by the various European powers, but especially by Great Britain and the Russian Empire.

Pynchon toys with the idea that World War I was really just the extension of an academic rivalry. This secret scholastic conspiracy also references the role supposedly played in the US policy establishment by neoconservatives [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Neoconservatism] (or "neocons") in the run up to the US invasion of Iraq in 2003. Just as Pynchon's professors held great influence over a number of their students, "[s]ome of whom found employment with the Foreign Services", etc., neoconservative professors such as Leo Strauss [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Leo_Strauss] had a number of disciplines who came to occupy key positions in government and business (for example, Deputy Secretary of Defense (2001-2005) Paul Wolfowitz [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Paul_Wolfowitz]). This interpretation is further bolstered by the geographic positioning of the "Bagdad" (sic) railway, and the Ottoman territories as the region "where Renfrew and Werfner have often found their best opportunities to make mischief". [[User:Thorras|Thorras]] 09:09, 27 January 2010 (PST)

[http://www.cam.ac.uk/cambuniv/index.html Cambridge University] is one of the oldest and the best universities in the world. In 2009 it will be celebrating its 800th Anniversary. In its early day, Cambridge was a center of the new learning of the Renaissance and of the theology of the Reformation; in modern times it has excelled in science. It is now a confederation of 31 Colleges (such as King's, Girton, St.John, Trinity and others mentioned in ATD), consists of over 100 departments and faculties, and other institutions. Since 1904, 81 affiliates of Cambridge have won Nobel Prize in every category: 29 in Physics, 22 in Medicine, 19 in Chemistry, 7 in Economics, 2 in Literature and 2 in Peace.

[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Georg-August_University_of_G%C3%B6ttingen Göttingen University], one of the most famous universities in Europe, founded in Göttingen, Germany, in 1737 by King George II of England in his capacity as Elector of Hanover. At the end of the 19th century, it became world famous because of its Departments of Mathematics and Physics and rivaled Cambridge for eminence. The reputation of the university was founded by many eminent professors who are commemorated by statues and plaques all over the campus. It claimed 44 Nobel Laureates. But it suffered from the 1933 Great Purge of the Nazi crackdown on "Jewish Physics" and never recovered its original fame.

'''Berlin Conference of 1878''' 
Divided Balkans after Russo-Turkish War. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Congress_of_Berlin Wikipedia]

'''English, . . . , Japanese—not to mention indigenous—components''' 
''Not to mention'' them was exactly the point as the Great Powers sorted out the Ottoman possessions.

==Page 227==

'''"The Great Game"''' 
The Great Game was a term used to describe the rivalry and strategic conflict between the British Empire and the Tsarist Russian Empire for supremacy in Central Asia. The term was later popularized by Rudyard Kipling in his novel, ''Kim''. The classic Great Game period is generally regarded as running from approximately 1813 to the Anglo-Russian Convention of 1907. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Great_Game Wikipedia entry] Also the name of Padzhitnoff's airship. I believe the great game stands for Espionage in the Age of Gentlemen, the substance of Pynchon's '''''Under the Rose'''''. 

'''mamluk lamps''' 
A [http://www.metmuseum.org/toah/ho/07/nfe/hob_17.190.985.htm mosque lamp]
from the [http://www.nmhschool.org/tthornton/mehistorydatabase/mamluks.php mamluk] era.

'''...the Kabbalist Tree of Life, with the names of the Sephiroth spelled out in Hebrew, which had brought her more than enough of that uniquely snot-nosed British anti-Semitism... ''' 

[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kabbalah Kabbalah] is the ancient study of Jewish mysticism, long shrouded in mystery and kept from all but a devout few of the most dedicated Talmudic scholars. The [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Image:Tree_of_Life_Medieval.jpg.jpg Tree of Life] is one of the central symbols of Kabbalah, supposedly a physical representation of the path of enlightenment from the most base knowledge of the physical world (at the bottom), to the highest spiritual planes of understanding (at the top). The [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sephirot Sephiroth] are the nodes of the Tree, representing the various "stages" of understanding. Of course, tihs is all a very gross oversimplifcation and hardly does justice to the term itself.

The "Quabbalah" or "Cabalah" being studied by Madonna and others in Hollywood is a secularized and co-opted form of the original Kabbalah, which is deeply connected to the Torah and Jewish life.

In Medieval Europe, Kabbalist scholars wore amulets and other symbols on their clothing, and were often misunderstood to be magicians or wizards (think Merlin). The common magician's expression "abra cadabra" has Kabbalistic origins.

'''"Eskimoff . . . I say what sort of name is that?"''' 
Tiptoeing around the real question, "Is she Jewish?"

'''English Rose''' 
The phrase "English Rose" or "Bonnie English Rose" when applied to a woman means her skin is unblemished, her coloring subtle, her temper sweet. Madame Eskimoff, in short, is a beauty in a traditional English style. 
(Incidentally, an officially unrecognized designation of [http://www.marinrose.org/englishroses.html roses].)

==Page 228==

'''Oliver Lodge''' 
English physicist, inventor and writer (1851-1940) involved in the development of wireless telegraphy and radio. After the death of his son in 1915, Lodge became interested in spiritualism and life after death and wrote several books on the subject. Lodge conducted research on lightning, electricity, electromagnetism and wrote about the aether, themes that are repeated throughout ''ATD.'' [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Oliver_Joseph_Lodge Wikipedia entry].

'''William Crookes''' 
English chemist and physicist (1832-1919) who worked in spectroscopy and whose work pioneered the construction and use of vacuum tubes. Like Oliver Lodge, Crookes was also a spiritualist, which appears to be Pynchon's reason for grouping him with others in this passage, although his experiments in electricity and light also tie in with these themes in ''ATD.'' [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/William_Crookes Wikipedia entry].

'''Mrs. Piper''' 
Probably [http://www.survivalafterdeath.org/mediums/piper.htm Leonora Piper] 1857-1950.

'''Eusapia Palladino''' 
(1854-1918) Famous italian spiritualist medium.
[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eusapia_Palladino Wikipedia entry]. It's fair to say she was often caught cheating.

'''W.T. Stead''' 
William T. Stead (1849-1912), British writer, poet, social crusader, and spiritualist. He went down with the ''Titanic.'' [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/William_Thomas_Stead Wikipedia entry].

'''Mrs. Burchell''' 
The Yorkshire Seeress, investigated by WT Stead. [http://www.wholeagain.com/prophecyfodor.html cite]

'''assassination''' 
Trouble with the time here. Lew's timeline points pretty strongly to autumn 1900. A séance that's "about to" go on Mme. Eskimoff's résumé, however, leads the murder of the Serbian king and queen by three months, and the murder itself occurred in June 1903, which seems to imply March of that year. 

This seems as good an instance as any to question the insistence of some here to pin down the exact date (and season?). Pynchon doesn't knock it to the wall, doesn't find cause to bother and I think the reason for that is obvious... the ambiguity lends a freer hand with which to paint. So don't fuck with the butterfly on the wheel. 

'''Alexander and Draga Obrenovich, the King and Queen of Serbia''' 
According to [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alexander_Obrenovich Wikipedia] the assassination occured on 11 June 1903, so the seance at which Mrs. Burchell "witnessed" it, should have taken place in March 1903.

'''Parsons-Short Auxetophone''' 
[http://www.dself.dsl.pipex.com/MUSEUM/COMMS/auxetophone/auxetoph.htm pic and info]. The Auxetophone appears to have been a sound amplification device, not a recorder. Parsons did not enter the picture till 1903, so the apparatus would not have this name in 1900, but Short demonstrated it as early as 1898.

'''electros of the original wax impressions''' 
A thin film of metal was electroplated onto the wax, then peeled off and wrapped around a new cylinder.

==Page 229==

'''syntonic''' 
A term used in both engineering and psychology. Psychology: "Characterized by a high degree of emotional responsiveness to the environment." Electricity: "Of or relating to two oscillating circuits having the same resonant frequency."

The [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Syntonic_comma syntonic comma], a small interval in the frequency ratio of 81:80, is a problem in musical [http://www.albany.edu/piporg-l/tmprment.html temperament].

'''the Russo-Turkish War''' 
[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Russo-Turkish_War,_1877–1878 The Russo-Turkish War] (1877-1878), the latest Russo-Turkish War of many fought between these two contries since 16th century as a result of Russian attempts to find an outlet on the Black Sea and to conquer the Caucasus, dominate the Balkan Peninsula, gain control of the Dardanelles and Bosporus straits, and retain access to world trade routes. The last Russo-Turkish War came as a result of the anti-Ottoman uprising (1875) in Bosnia and Herzegovina and Bulgaria. On Russian instigation, Serbia and Montenegro joined the rebels; after securing Austrian neutrality, Russia openly entered the War in 1877. The War ended in 1878 resulted in the Treaty of San Stefano which so thoroughly revised the map in favor of Russia and her client, Bulgaria, that the European powers called a conference (the Congress of Berlin) to revise its terms by the Treaty of Berlin.

'''kilometric guarantee''' 
Money offered by the government to building companies.
Apparently, the railroad companies fooled the Ottoman Empire building trails which were much longer than needed.
[http://books.google.es/books?id=uei7q4YCaqUC&pg=PA28&lpg=PA28&dq=kilometric+guarantee&source=web&ots=fK9IVpG7Yx&sig=-7WX_2T0OPqXp2DEVAtRIRJPBQY&hl=ca&sa=X&oi=book_result&resnum=6&ct=result Google books citation]

==Page 230==

'''King's... Girton''' 
King's College is one of the most famous and historic colleges at Cambridge, founded in 1441. Girton College, Cambridge, was established in 1869 as the first residential college for women in England.

'''Michaelmas term''' 
The fall term, starting early October (1900 here). [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Michaelmas_term Wikipedia]

'''tweeny''' 
A [http://www.bartleby.com/68/30/830.html between-maid].

'''Edward Oxford''' 
attempted to shoot Queen Victoria and her husband, Prince Albert, at the time of her first pregnancy (1840).[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Edward_Oxford Wikipedia]

'''had the young Queen died then without issue''' 
Nookshaft posits two scenarios: (1) The implicit, unmentioned, and not as "interesting" possibility that everything is actual, as it "appears" to be in the "real" world, surrounding Queen Victoria; that she is simply an old, vain regent. (2) "the 'real' Vic is elsewhere," and the current, aged Victoria is a ghostly stand-in. Nookshaft implies that this figure is a proxy or puppet of Ernst-August. If this were "the case," then the question shifts to the following: (a) Is the ruler of the underworld, who holds the "real," eternally young Victoria captive in cahoots with Ernst-August in the "real" world? or: (b) Is the ruler of the underworld, who holds the "real," eternally young Victoria captive NOT in cahoots with Ernst-August, who nevertheless ascends to the throne with real-Vic out of the way, and imposes the stand-in? In which case: What would be the motivation of the underworld-entity third-party? And who, or what, specifically, is it?

'''sixty years ago''' 
One event of 1840, the attempt on Victoria's life, is referred to as sixty years ago; another, the issue of the first adhesive stamps, as more than sixty years ago. 
If it weren't for these nagging problems in Lew's timeline, we could peg the date as 1900.

'''Salic law''' 
originated in the Late Roman Empire as Germanic tribes invaded and their law codes were translated into Latin and written down. Salic Law was that of the
Franks who settled in present-day northern France and the law code of Charlemagne. Over the course of the Middle Ages it was largely replaced by Roman Law. For examples, see [http://www.fordham.edu/halsall/source/salic-law.html]. 

However, Salic Law continued to be used in a number of European areas to decide matters of noble inheritance. Specifically, Salic Law stated that no female could inherit rulership (above by [[User:Owl of Minerva|Owl of Minerva]] 18:03, 4 April 2007 (PDT)) and, indeed, a royal or noble title could be inherited only through the "male line." When King William IV, ruler of both the United Kingdom and Hanover, died, the Crowns separated. Hanover practiced Salic law, while Britain did not. King William's niece Victoria ascended to the throne of Great Britain and Ireland, but the throne of Hanover went to William's brother Ernest Augustus, Duke of Cumberland. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Salic_Law Wikipedia entry]

'''Tory despotism''' 
Thatcher?
: Not necessarily-- it describes Ernest himself. "The Duke of Cumberland had a reputation as one of the least pleasant of the sons of George III. Politically an arch-reactionary, he opposed the 1828 Catholic Emancipation Bill proposed by the government of the Prime Minister, the Duke of Wellington." [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ernest_Augustus_I_of_Hanover Wikipedia entry]

It can describe Ernst August and still be an allegory of Thatcher. The description of Ireland fits that of some world-views during her time.

All parallels between past and present are worth considering. They don't have to be direct references. The present-day Ernst August - famous for pissing on the Turkish Pavilion at EXPO 2000 - carries on the family tradition.

'''Catholics''' 
Someone famously cited James Joyce as proof that Catholics shouldn't get university educations.

==Page 231==

'''Orange Lodges''' 
Lodges of the Orange Order, a protestant fraternal organisation based predominantly in Northern Ireland and Scotland. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Orange_lodge Wikipedia entry]. The Orange Order was founded to subvert the '''''United Irishmen''''' of Wolfe Tone by agitating against Protestant and Catholic community. It was hostile to the idea of Irish Home Rule or independence. In the 1880's it developed the Ulster Unionist Party to politically parry Parliamentary attempts at Home Rule for Ireland.

'''"from the first to the twelfth of July, anniversaries of the Boyne and Aughrim."''' 
i.e. anniversaries of the [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_the_Boyne Battle of the Boyne] and the [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_Aughrim Battle of Aughrim] of the Williamite War in Ireland. 
This was and still is known as "Marching Season" in Northern Ireland; the time when 'parades' are traditionally a source of fear and violence. Nearly all the parades are organized by the Orange Lodges and hence anti-Catholic.

[[Image:pennyblack.jpg|thumb|100px|right|The first adhesive stamp, 1840]]
'''"the first adhesive stamps of 1840"''' 
This stamp has come to be called the Penny Black. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Penny_Black Wikipedia entry] 
Penny Black is also the name of a character ([[ATD_1-25#Page 18|p.18]])

'''"immune to Time, [...] neither of them aging"''' 
Cf Oscar Wilde's only novel [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Picture_of_Dorian_Gray The Picture of Dorian Gray], in which Dorian Gray remains young while his portrait ages.

'''springtide''' 
Cf Stray's pregnancy, a "dreamy thing" (page 201). The definition of springtide is springtime.

==Page 232==

'''Éliphaz Lévi''' 
A/K/A Eliphas Levi, ''nom de plume'' of Alphonse Louis Constant (1810-1875), French occultist and writer who pioneered a revival of Magick in the 19th Century, and was an influence on A.E. Waite, the Order of the Golden Dawn, and Aleister Crowley. An acquaintance of novelist Edward ("It was a dark and stormy night") Bulwer-Lytton. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eliphas_Levi Wikipedia entry].

'''punters''' 
Punter is being used in the sense of someone who bets, someone who is taking a chance.
Or more probably in the common extended sense meaning merely "customer"

'''''akousmata''''' 
Greek: things heard. [[A|Good information under "A" in the alpha index.]]

'''number twenty-four''' 
Or 25? [http://www.sacred-texts.com/cla/gvp/gvp11.htm etext]

'''Iamblichus''' 
(ca. 245 - ca. 325, Greek) was a neoplatonist philosopher who determined the direction taken by later Neoplatonic philosophy, and perhaps western Paganism itself. He is perhaps best known for his compendium on Pythagorean philosophy.[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Iamblichus_%28philosopher%29 Wikipedia]

'''maquillage''' 
Make-up, cosmetics; the application of make-up (especially in heavy or theatrical fashion).<ref>'''The Oxford English Dictionary'''. 2nd ed. 1989</ref>

==Page 233==
'''catarrh''' 
Inflammation of a mucous membrane; usually restricted to that of the nose, throat, and bronchial tubes, causing increased flow of mucus, and often attended with sneezing, cough, and fever; constituting a common ‘cold’.<ref>Def.3. '''The Oxford English Dictionary'''. 2nd ed. 1989.</ref>

'''Collis Brown's Mixture''' 
Contained morphine, chloroform, and caramel, among other things. [http://admin.safescript.com/drugcgic.cgi/DRUG?1006901319+0 Full ingredients]

'''xylene''' 
Xylene abuse is similar to "glue sniffing"-- xylene is a strong solvent able to cause several damages to health, especially to the brain. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Xylene wikipedia]

'''a thousand pounds a year''' 
Over $100,000 today. [http://futureboy.homeip.net/fsp/dollar.fsp?quantity=1000&currency=pounds&fromYear=1900 cite]

'''"pinky"''' 
Condy's fluid is pink to purple. Methylated spirits is a kind of denatured alcohol: 95% ethyl alcohol, 5% methyl alcohol. "Pinky" would have a variety of effects, very possibly including blindness.

==Page 234==

'''Condy's fluid''' 
A disinfectant used to treat and prevent Scarlet Fever, among other things. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Henry_Bollmann_Condy Wikipedia]

'''''tonight's the night''''' 
Considering the content here, probable reference to Neil Young's drug-addled album and its title song, "Tonight's The Night" from 1975. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tonight%27s_the_Night_%28album%29 Wiki]

'''Cheapside''' 
an important market street in the City of London.

'''mews''' 
A street originally for stabling; but in modern times often converted into houses/apartments.

'''Coombs de Bottle''' 
"comes the bottle" ?

'''Russian duck''' 
Duck is strong, untwilled linen or cotton, lighter and finer than canvas. Russian duck is coarse, heavy and unbleached but softer than English duck.

==Page 235==

'''sensitive flames''' 
Cf GR p.29-32, 715.

'''extractors . . . distillation columns''' 
Separatory apparatus. An extractor works on differences in solubility, a distillation column differences in volatility.

'''tremblers and timers''' 
A trembler is a kind of motion detector used in both bombs and alarms; one kind has a flexible stem with a heavy contact on the free end so that disturbing the package it contains causes a trigger circuit to close. A timer uses a clocklike mechanism to bring two contacts together.

'''proper solvent procedures''' 
Famous 1960s "Anarchist Cookbook" was infamously inaccurate. [http://www.amazon.com/Anarchist-Cookbook-C-066-William-Powell/dp/0962303208 Amazon w/author's note]

==Page 236==

'''Breathless hush in the close tonight''' 
Dr. De Bottle quoting from Henry Newbolt's poem [[Vitai Lampada|"Vitaï Lampada,"]] which makes school games a metaphor and model for martial bravery.

'''The Gentleman Bomber of Headingly''' 
Cf Hornung's 'Gentleman Thief' and cricket player, Raffles. [http://www.mysterynet.com/books/testimony/hardknox.shtml info]

Reminds me of the Krikkit Robots in Douglas Adams' ''Life, The Universe, and Everything,'' where a bomb is put in place of a Cricket Ball at a match between Britain and Australia. 

Also, acronymically, the GBH=Grievous Bodily Harm, the British term for felonious assault.

Here and elswhere the spelling of the cricket ground should be 'Headingley'.

'''The Ashes''' 
An international cricket series between England and Australia dating back to 1882. [http://www.334notout.com/ashes/reports/report21.htm dates] A number of references in this chapter relate to this rivalry. For example, on this page the English cricket ball is compared to the Australian "kookaburra". Kookaburra is the brand name of the balls used in Australia, in England it's Duke. The properties of the English ball was one of the keys to England's success in the summer of 2005. Was Pynchon's writing here influenced by the hype in the UK at the time?

'''Phosgene''' 
A poison gas used in World War I.[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Phosgene Wikipedia]

'''logwood''' 
Source of red dye. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Logwood Wikipedia]

'''adjutor''' 
A helper, assistant. <ref>Def.1. '''The Oxford English Dictionary'''. 2nd ed. 1989.</ref>

'''exhiliration''' 
Misspelling of ''exhilaration.''

==Page 237==

'''beige substance''' 
Presumably Cyclomite.

'''Happy Birthday! . . . Gemini''' 
Ordinarily you would think this tagged the date as 21 May to 20 June [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gemini_%28astrology%29 Wikipedia.] But other evidence in the text points to deepening autumn.

One of two possible explanations: 
1. The T.W.I.T. is perhaps using an ascendent or lunar based astrological system rather than the solar-based system commonly used in the West. This resolves the apparent contradiction of a Gemini in autumn since the ascendent travels through all signs every 24 hours and the moon travels through the entire zodiac once a month. For example, Vedic astrology looks primarily to the ascendent, then the moon, and lastly the sun to study respectively the body, the mind and the spirit of the native. Basnight does have a mind that operates on two planes -- hence a moon in Gemini reading. 
2. The explosion carried Lew to a place on the other side of the Sun. Deep autumn would then be November 23 to December 21th, our sign of Sagittarius.

'''get the Ashes back . . . next year''' 
On page 236 the Ashes (Test Matches, cricket competitions between England and Australia) are "in progress." At some time previous to this conversation Mme. Eskimoff said England will regain the trophy "next year" provided they use the young bowler Bosanquet (next entry). Test Matches took place in (a) December 1901 to March 1902, Australia victorious; (b) May to August 1902, Australia again; (c) December 1903 to March 1904, England bringing back the Ashes and Bosanquet figuring as a key bowler.

If Mme. Eskimoff has foreseen aright, "next year" is 1904 and the time of the action is 1903. The conflict in dates is troubling: In a matter of weeks and a few pages, Lew just misses the 1900 Hurricane and gets information that definitely points to 1903. (And he proves to be a Gemini with an autumn birthday!) I don't think there is anything accidental—or negligible—about the discrepancies.

'''Bosanquet''' 
Another Ashes reference. [http://content-uk.cricinfo.com/england/content/player/9158.html Bernard Bosanquet] invented the bosie (or googly), as described here, around 1900. A major factor in England's 2005 Ashes success was [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Reverse_swing reverse swing], another type of delivery whose physical dynamics are poorly understood.

Check out the [[Cricket_in_Against_the_Day|"Cricket in ''Against the Day'' article]] by Peter Vernon, which is an in-depth look at, well, cricket in ''Against the Day''.

'''Pom''' 
A somewhat derogatory term for a British person, commonly used in Australian English. Also [http://www.phrases.org.uk/meanings/287200.html Pommy or Pommie.]

'''Hebrew letter Shin''' 
Obviously a nod to the Vulcan greeting in ''Star Trek'', with the distinctive hand sign and the phrase, "Live long and prosper." Perhaps also to the Jewish faith of Leonard Nimoy, who played Spock. See [http://www.pinenet.com/~rooster/v-salute.html The Jewish origin of the Vulcan Salute]

Pynchon placed one of these in [http://masondixon.pynchonwiki.com/wiki/ ''Mason & Dixon''], as well:

:Dixon discovers "The Rabbi of Prague, headquarters of a Kabbalistick Faith, in Correspondence with the Elect Cohens of Paris, whose private Salute they now greet Dixon with, the Fingers spread two and two, and the Thumb held away from them likewise, said to represent the Hebrew letter ''Shin'' and to signify, 'Live long and prosper.'([http://masondixon.pynchonwiki.com/wiki/index.php?title=Chapter_50:_484-490 ''M&D'' p.485]) 
Might there be a further connection between The Cohen of T.W.I.T., the "Cohens of Paris" and these backwoods Kabbalists?

Also, note the hand on the devil tarot card above.

Shin "also stands for the word Shaddai, a name for God. Because of this, a kohen (priest) forms the letter Shin with his hands as he recites the Priestly Blessing. In the mid 1960s, actor Leonard Nimoy used a single-handed version of this gesture to create the Vulcan Hand Salute for his character, Mr. Spock, on Star Trek."[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shin_%28letter%29#In_Judaism]

"In the Septuagint and other early translations Shaddai was translated with words meaning "Almighty". The root word "shadad" (שדד) means "to overpower" or "to destroy". This would give Shaddai the meaning of "destroyer" as one of the aspects of God. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Names_of_God_in_Judaism#Shaddai]

...and if we look back to the Devil tarot card we see the shin hand sign and the inverted pentagram. Thus through Eliphas Levi and then Coleman-Smith/Waite a connection is created between shin and the inverted pentagram. And then we can make connections with the Jeshimonians and the TWITsters.

This might be why "the cure grows right next to the cause" in Jeshimon. They are under the winged protection of God-the-Destroyer.

'''bog-standard''' 
British term indicating complete ordinariness.
Possible Entymology (Dog's Bollocks, British Or German Standard): [http://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/bog_standard Wiktionary]

==Page 238==

'''Second Law of Thermodynamics''' 
The law of entropy... "The entropy of an isolated system not in equilibrium will tend to increase over time, approaching a maximum value at equilibrium." (Rudolf Clausius) [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Second_law_of_thermodynamics]

There's no such thing as a perfectly efficient engine, i.e., a box that does work by taking in heat from where there is lots of heat (e.g., combustion chamber) and throwing off heat where there is not much (exhaust pipe). Something always gets lost. Similarly, the transfer of money from where there is plenty (bank) to where there isn't much (Europe) is never perfectly efficient.

"He began then, bewilderingly, to talk about something called entropy. The word bothered him... But it was too technical for her. She did gather that there were two distinct kinds of this entropy. One having to do with heat engines, the other to do with communication... The two fields were entirely unconnected, except at one point: Maxwell's Demon. As the Demon sat and sorted his molecules into hot and cold, the system was said to lose entropy. But somehow the loss was offset by the information the Demon gained about what molecules were where... Entropy is a figure of speech, then, a metaphor. It connects the world of thermodynamics to the world of information flow." ''The Crying of Lot 49'' (Pages 84 - 85)

'''''morsus fundamento''''' 
Latin: A bite on the ass?

The meaning is that he wouldn't know metaphysics if it bit him in the ass. Like "octogenarihexation" ("86"-ing) in Vineland--the vulgar faux fancied up.

'''three-percent consols''' 
British "consolidated" bonds, for many years the conservative investment ''par excellence.'' [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Consols wikipedia]

==Page 239==

'''mental''' 
Not mental as in "of the mind" but mental as in "mad". "You're mental, you are" is a common british playground taunt.

'''Colney Hatch''' 
London lunatic asylum. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Colney_Hatch_Lunatic_Asylum Wikipedia]

'''Out of the dust . . . beam of morning sunlight''' 
I.e., sometimes your horse wins.

'''ENCYCLICAL''' 
An encyclical is a letter circulated by the pope or other figure of high authority in a body of believers. A comprehensive [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Encyclical Wikipedia article] explains and adds a list of papal encyclicals. An encyclical usually takes its first 2 or 3 words as its title (''Multi et Unus'' in this case).

Of course, the Vatican would strongly protest that McTaggart, an atheist, should send out an encyclical!

'''MCTAGGART . . . HARDY''' 
Seems to refer to a historical logician joke. [http://www.anvari.org/shortjoke/Science_Humor/1210.html explanation] Professor McTaggart was, perhaps, the most famous philosopher
who argued that Time did not exist as we seem to experience it.
W.H. Hardy was a very famous Cambridge mathematician who knew all the
famous philosophers in England. 

[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/J._M._E._McTaggart John McTaggart Ellis (J. M. E.) McTaggart] (1866-1925), British philosopher. He was born in London and educated at Clifton College, Bristol and Trinity College, Cambridge. He lectured Philosophy at Trinity College from 1897 to 1923. His brilliant commentaries and studies on Hegel's dialectic (1896), cosmology (1901) and logic (1910) were preliminaries to his own constructive system-building in ''Nature of Existence'' (3 vols., 1921-1927). In his 1908 essay "The Unreality of Time" he argued that our perception of time is an illusion (Cf [[ATD_397-428#Page_412|page 412]]: dismissing . . . the ''existence'' of Time).

[http://www-groups.dcs.st-and.ac.uk/~history/Biographies/Hardy.html Godfrey Harold Hardy] (1877-1947), English mathematician. He was a lecturer at Cambridge (1906-1919), professor at Oxford (1919-31) and Cambridge (1931-47). Concurrently with Wilhelm Weinberg developed Hardy-Weinberg law (1906) describing genetic distribution and dequilibrium in large populations. He was also known for contributions to complex analysis, Diophantine analysis, Fourier series, distribution of prime numbers, etc.

'''''Multi et Unus''''' 
Many and One.

'''CREATE MORE DUKES''' and '''EXPROPRIATE CHUCKERS''' 
Is the grafitti in Cambridge another cricketing reference? Dukes are the balls used in England (cf. p236). Chucking (or bending the arm when bowling) is an emotive topic in cricket that arises from time to time. It first arose around 1900 [http://content-uk.cricinfo.com/ci/content/story/258016.html]. In 2005 it caused administrators to change the rules of the game [http://content-uk.cricinfo.com/ci/content/story/144358.html].

"Create More Dukes" has a second meaning, suggested by the odd choice of verb. ''Duke'' in Britain refers to the highest rank of nobility, and fittingly there are not many of them. At present only about a dozen people hold the title. Since sometime in the 1870s new dukes have been ''created'' (by decree of the monarch) only in the royal family. Most recently at the time of the action, Queen Victoria had promoted a run-of-the-mill marquess to the dukedom of Fife to set the stage for his marriage to one of her granddaughters. If some group of activists thought the nation needed to beef up its peerage, they might adopt the slogan found here as a graffito. 
[http://www.ukdukes.co.uk/ Here is a colorful summary] of UK dukes today and through history, although it is '''unsound''' on coats of arms and such. [http://website.lineone.net/~david.beamish/index.htm This site] has more names and fewer pictures, listing all the titles (from dukes to lowly barons) created since the year Dot.

'''the Laplacian, a relatively remote mathematicians' pub''' 
A little Pynchonian joke? The Laplacian operator is a component of the Schrödinger equation, the basis of quantum mechanics. Quantum mechanics was famously rejected by Albert Einstein (many references on the net but see [http://www.hawking.org.uk/lectures/dice.html Stephen Hawking]), known for his theories of relativity. Moreover, quantum mechanics deals with the very small and relativity with the very large (this is a simplification of course), so the Laplacian is indeed remote from relativity!
:No such pub during ''my'' stay in Cambridge (1998-2000). Also not today, according to [http://www.cambridgepubs.com/alphabetical/ this] list.

:Obviously more than a little joke. Refers to Pierre-Simon, marquis de Laplace (1749-1827)[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Laplace Wikipedia Entry], aka "the French Newton", probably the greatest mathematician and astronomer of his time. Most of the scientific principles derived from his findings are explored in AtD (from lumineferous ether to the existence of black holes). Laplace was also instrumental in the advancement of the science of probabilities.
:The ever quotable Laplace, much loved by atheists worldwide, famously replied to Napoléon, when he asked why there was no mention of God in his treatise on astronomy: "Sir, there was no need for that hypothesis". Also responsible for what is known as the Laplacian principle: "The weight of evidence for an extraordinary claim must be proportioned to its strangeness."

:The literal translation of Laplace is "The Place".

==Page 240==

'''Worse than Gordon at Khartoum''' 
Refers to Charles George Gordon, British Major-General, whose attempted defense of Khartoum versus Arabi rebels in 1884-85 ended with his beheading. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Charles_George_Gordon Wikipedia] cf. Basil Dearden's 1966 film ''Khartoum'', in which the role of Gordon is played by Charlton Heston.

==Page 241==

'''"You recognize him?"''' 
As, presumably, Webb.
:How can that be? Webb is dead, there's nothing to suggest he went to England, the costume is not right for him, and—most tellingly—his medium is dynamite, not phosgene.
:Who might Lew recognize in the photo? The "suspects" are Neville, Nigel, the Grand Cohen, Dr. Coombs De Bottle, Clive Crouchmas and Professor Renfrew. If Prof. Werfner looks much like Prof. Renfrew, he goes on the list too. If the "Gentleman Bomber" could possibly be female, add Yashmeen and Mme. Eskimoff. We haven't met anyone else (except members of the Icosadyad, who don't have faces).

:Suppose we rule out the ladies and Werfner. Neville or Nigel wouldn't be able to hide their identities with a suit of white flannels. Renfrew is sitting right there when Lew sees the picture, but Lew's reaction (his stomach sinks) does not seem Lew-like if it's Renfrew he has recognized, plus Renfrew himself wants to meet the Bomber. That leaves the Cohen, De Bottle and Crouchmas.

:Would Lew experience dread on spotting Crouchmas? He doesn't know much about C.C. at this point, so it isn't clear why he would suppress that recognition.

:Seeing the Cohen might lead to this gastric reaction: Lew might think he's on the fringe of an anarchist group again (and look where it got him the last time). The Cohen stays on the list.

:Dr. De Bottle not only follows cricket but bets on it; he speaks almost with reverence about phosgene; he knows a nonobvious fact about the bombs; and he dresses like a gentleman. None of these points applies to the Cohen. And recognizing De Bottle would give Lew that sinking feeling because D.B. is purportedly fighting against bombers on behalf of the government. De Bottle goes to the top of the short list.

::Alternately, there's no clear answer and not enough clues (especially considering the role of time, forces beyond anyone's control, double agents, etc.). This Gentleman Bomber can be any person from Lew's past or a deja vu from the future. The G. Bomber seems to be England's answer to the Kieselguhr Kid, a nebulous personality working against the forces of history. The important thing about this situation is not the Bomber's identity, but the fact that Lew is being thrown into an assignment much like his last one in America (and we know how that ended...) He's obviously not very happy about it, and not inclined to tell anyone what he knows, or might know.

:: For what it's worth, my take was also Webb, especially in the context of all the bilocation business. It isn't "Webb" but evil alter-land "Webb"! (no dig on ya'll Brit folk intended, although the "...''my'' stay at Cambridge" bit was just wonderful :)

::--There is a suspect that was left off that list, who occurred to me before any of the others--Lew himself. If we're dealing with bilocation, doubles, and the possibility that 'our' Lew was brought here via the explosion in the creek bed, couldn't the G.B.H. be this world's Lew? Recall that just prior to the explosion, Lew had resolved to choose a side in the Anarchist/plutocrat battle, and had come down on the side of the people. Did this world's Lew make the same choice, somehow ending up in Britain... Also conspicuous is that it is Renfrew showing him the photo with a sly expression, Renfrew who's own double, Werfner, is his very own nemesis? That's how I read it anyway. But, much like the Kieselguhr Kid, we the readers never actually know the identity of this renegade bomb-lobber.

'''A bosie from a beamer''' 
More cricket! A bosie is now more commonly known as a googly (cf. p237). A beamer is a full-pitched delivery that reaches the batsman above waist height.

==Page 242==

[[Image:globenorth.gif|thumb|150px|The northern hemisphere]]

'''''unheimlich''''' 
German: uncanny, sinister.

 

==References==
<references />

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

ATD 149-170

2009-11-01T17:34:25Z

Thorras: /* Page 150 */

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

==Page 149==

'''meteorite''' 
Cf ''Smilla's Sense of Snow'' by Peter Hoeg.

'''the far-fallen object''' 
That makes one think of Milton's Lucifer, doesn't it? But going back a few pages, "Flames were always your destiny, my children" (p. 145). And if the object doesn't bring light to the great city, it does bring fire. Lucifer is not too strong a connection, but still in the background.

The Yiddish word ''farfallen'' means both "fallen" and "bygone."

The alien visitors disguised as a meterorite is reminiscent of the arrival of Martians in Grovers Mill, NJ in Orson Wells adaptation of ''War of the Worlds.''

==Page 150==
'''the entangled carriages, wagons, and streetcars ... hitched to animals months dead and yet unremoved''' 
An anticipation of the scenes of destruction following the U.S. federal government's and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fema FEMA]'s botched relief efforts at the onset and aftermath of Hurricane Katrina in New Orleans and the southeastern United States in August and September 2005. 
:also a likely visual reference to the popular belief that the Christian Rapture will involve abandoned vehicles jamming the highways as motorists ascend skyward.

Another possibility would be a reference to the 1917 [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Halifax_Explosion Halifax Explosion], in which the French freighter [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SS_Mont-Blanc SS Mont-Blanc] accidentally exploded in Halifax harbor. The next day saw a terrible blizzard hit the city, bringing the total death toll from the event up to around 2,000.

'''Tammanoid creatures, able to deliver votes''' 
As in "Tammany Hall", the often corrupt political machine that played a role in New York City politics for nearly two centuries. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tammany_Hall Wikipedia entry].

'''a stationary star, let alone one of the falling sort''' 
''Gravity's Rainbow'', p. 760: "But it was ''not a star'', it was falling, a bright angel of death." The whole passage seems strongly connected to GR. Could also be a reference to Lucifer, who is referred to as the falling star. 
And behind both AtD and GR, there are strong overtones from the ''Book of Revelation:''
:9:1 -''The fifth angel blew his trumpet. I saw a star, that had fallen down from Heaven to earth, and he was given the key to the fathomless pit.''
:9:2 - ''Then he opened the pit and smoke like the smoke of a vast furnace rose out of it, so that the light of the sun and the air itself grew dark from the smoke of the pit.''

'''White Wings''' 
For many years (1880s or 1890s through 1950s?) the most visible and dependable of New York City's public services: the street sweepers. And of course, just a wee bit of angelic resonance.

==Page 151==

'''the Eskimo view''' 
But cf page 142, where the Eskimos are "eager" to help.

'''...at least one consultation with somebody - that "there would always be time..."''' 
once more ''Gravity's Rainbow'', p.760: "There is time, if you need the comfort, to touch the person next to you...".

'''Panic fear''' 
Note the capital letter; this is not blind, uncontrolled fear in general but specifically fear associated with the great nature-god Pan.

'''Panic fear... affecting pose''' 
Although there are hints in the previous pages, here is where the parallels with 9/11 become too clear to ignore. Pynchon's presenting 9/11 as a story of a meteor dug from the ice will no doubt fill pages of analysis soon. To start, though, Pynchon critiques post-9/11 opportunism ("many in the aftermath did profit briefly by... affecting that pose"). Many say 'opportunism' has attended many, many disasters. For a full, spoiler-filled discussion, see [[Against the Day and September 11]] 

'''Deep downtown, where a narrow waterway from long ago still ran up into the city...''' 
Ok, this is fiction but we've all convinced ourselves we're talking about New York. Pynchon could have invented this waterway but that's not his style. So where is this waterway in downtown NY? 

Several waterways existed in lower Manhattan that were later filled in or paved over. [http://www.archaeology.org/online/features/nycolonial/index.html A map from 1874] --[[User:Kirkm|Kirkm]] 12:14, 20 February 2007 (PST)

The most prominent, which makes sense of the geography ("deep downtown")but not the time, would be Canal Street; the eponymous canal had been filled in long before the time of this action.

'''a cargo ship... in whose hold... kept in restraints... stirred a Figure with supernatural powers''' 
Also reminiscent of ''King Kong'', where the chained ape is transported by ship to New York.

'''which no one in its as-yet-unwritten history had ever known how to stop''' 
Christian religions teach that the work of the Devil can be stopped; on the other hand, the Devil's history is anything but unwritten (see Genesis, ''Paradise Lost,'' Neil Gaiman, etc.). Keep searching.

==Page 152==

'''with only dwindling moments of normal history remaining''' 
Do we infer that history, somehow plotted in advance, is about to go off its rails? ''AtD'' refers several times to the idea of an already settled history being disrupted by some action. Drave on p. 41, for example: "Most people have a wheel riding up on a wire, or some rails in the street, some kind of guide or groove, to keep them moving in the direction of their destiny. But you keep bouncing free." And Lew's summary: "Going off my trolley." Also [[ATD_26-56#Page_33|on p. 33: Scarsdale Vibe on the essence of modern history.]]

'''Tenderloin toughs''' 
The red-light district of Manhattan at the time, in Midtown Manhattan from 23rd Street to 42nd Street and Fifth Avenue to Seventh Avenue.

'''Fire and blood were about to roll like fate upon the complacent multitudes''' 
cf. Genesis 19:24: "and then the LORD rained down fire and brimstone from the skies on Sodom and Gomorrah."
:Well, in its own terms Genesis is describing a punishment. It would be a distortion to say the "complacent multitudes" are being punished. Scarred, killed, robbed, yes, but not punished.

'''beautiful patterns''' 
Cf. "picturesque patterns," p. 81, as well as Igor Padzhitnoff's Tetris-like bombardments on [[ATD 119-148#Page 123|p. 123]].

==Page 153==

'''a chorale of pain''' 
If enough people are suffering together, they become a choir; see annotations to [[ATD_1-25#Page_19|page 19]] and [[ATD_97-118#Page_116|page 116.]]

'''a three dimensional image in full color, not exactly of Christ but with the same beard, robes, ability to emit light''' 
Note that the unnamed enemy allegedly said, "The man-shaped light shall not deliver you" back on page 145. On whether this may or may not also allude to Osama bin Laden, see the [[Talk:ATD_149-170|149-170 Talk Page]].

:Or Christ himself "doubly refracted" into the anti-Christ.[[User:S-Fremin|S-Fremin]] 08:19, 20 January 2007 (PST)

:Also recalls, once again, the last page of ''Gravity's Rainbow'', with its "closeup of the face, a face we all know".

Projecting a three dimensional image: most projections are two dimensional, like a movie. This is holographic projection. Holography was invented in 1947, so this is either an anachronism or a slip into science fiction or just fiction.
:Since Iceland spar is used to make holograms, I would argue that within the "reality" of the text, there is no reason the Figure from the ice could not project a hologram image.

If not Christ then possibly the 12th Imam, [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mahdi the Mahdi] which ties in with the Doosra later. Incidentally, Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad concluded his 17 September 2005 address to the United Nations General Assembly with discussion of the Mahdi and a [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mahdaviat prayer] for his appearance.

Scene also, with mass hysteria, noise, and especially this hologram image recall climax of classic film, ''Quatermass and the Pit'' [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Quatermass_and_the_pit Wikipedia]

'''Our Protector...who remained, guardedly, unnamed''' 
unnamable--ineffable--like the atomic bomb on p.78 (Cf. Webb, Merle and the "Anti-Stone") 

The Godhead, the highest God, is the unnameable, the ineffable.

The word "guardedly," however, can take on two meanings here. 

First, it can refer to the proscription in many religions of saying the name of God, which is beyond human language anyhow, but is thought of as the ultimate word of power, hence the Commandment:
:''Thou shalt not take the name of the LORD thy God in vain; for the LORD will not hold him guiltless that taketh his name in vain''
Also consider the Jewish use of the [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tetragrammaton Tetragrammaton] refered to as "The Name" often pronounced Yahweh or Jehovah, but in fact no one knows the true pronunciation. 

Second "guardedly" in a protective or spineless sense: they don't know which devine or demonic power they're dealing with. Even the Archbishop seems unsure who the Figure is and everyone is hedging their bets so that once they learn the name of this god (the Figure) they can then claim to have known it all along as a way to propitiate it. In so doing they ''may'' save their hides and cities, but from a Judeo-Christian perspective they have violated the commandment of having no gods before the God of the Covenant. They have already violated the commandment(s) regarding the making of graven images or likenesses, or the bowing down to and serving such likeness (like the golden calf). Bottom line: they're selling their souls to save their skins.

'''recent incorporation''' 
1898. New York City is a special case. The city consists of the entire area of five counties. These counties retain a small amount of governance as boroughs. Under the state legislation, commonly called Consolidation, that allowed the city (as the City of Greater New York) to annex huge areas beyond its original borders (including smaller cities, towns and villages) in 1898, the State of New York retains certain powers over the city. At the time of Consolidation, Queens County was split between the western towns, which voted to join the city, and those that did not. The next year (1899), the eastern towns of Queens County separated to become Nassau County. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Administrative_divisions_of_New_York#Borough Wikipedia entry]

'''So the city . . . face of their violator''' 
It's important that this paragraph describes the great city ''before'' the Figure devastated it.

==Pages 154-155==

'''weeping widow...cruelest bitch of a city''' 
Personifications of the city, as in ''Gravity's Rainbow'' (p.4: "last crystallizations of all the city has denied, threatened, lied to its children"). What is "he" and "she" referring to in the following paragraph?

'''Hellfire''' 
once more fire and brimstone.

'''the Destroyer''' 
Allusion to the Hindu god Shiva?

'''I AM THE WAY INTO THE DOLEFUL CITY''' 
From the description of the gate to hell in Canto III in ''The Divine Comedy Volume I: Inferno'' by Dante Alighieri (1265-1321). Pynchon quotes from the modern translation by Mark Musa:

:"I AM THE WAY INTO THE DOLEFUL CITY,
:I AM THE WAY INTO ETERNAL GRIEF,
:I AM THE WAY TO A FORSAKEN RACE.

:JUSTICE IT WAS THAT MOVED MY GREAT CREATOR;
:DIVINE OMNIPOTENCE CREATED ME,
:AND HIGHEST WISDOM JOINED WITH PRIMAL LOVE.

:BEFORE ME NOTHING BUT ETERNAL THINGS
:WERE MADE, AND I SHALL LAST ETERNALLY.
:ABANDON EVERY HOPE, ALL YOU WHO ENTER."

Note that Pynchon echoes the word "race" on the previous page: "an embittered and amnesiac race".

:The "votive shrine . . . Downtown" may be intended to evoke the shrine at the footprints at Ground Zero, "votive" here invoking the twin beams of light that took the place of the WTC towers in the months following 9-11, though it should be noted that the actual description invokes the basement cavities of the the towers' foot-prints much more accurately.

'''From the Journals of Mr. Fleetwood Vibe...''' 
The short narrative spanning pp.138-155 bears some of the hallmarks characteristic of the fiction of H.P. Lovecraft: (1) a narrator (Fleetwood) who relates a series of horrible, cosmic events in the form of a memoir or journal entry; (2) a slumbering entity, or "visitor" (p149), mistaken for a more mundane object (meteorite, in this case), and; (3) the incapacity of humans to anticipate or respond to the foreignness of this cosmic vistior and its actions. Given that this horrible thing was retrieved from the Arctic, it is reminiscent of Lovecraft's "At the Mountains of Madness" (though, ''Antarctic'' in setting; 1931; [http://en.wikisource.org/wiki/At_the_Mountains_of_Madness Wikisource text of the novella]) and, given the meteor-like form of this visitor, "The Colour out of Space" (1927; [http://en.wikisource.org/wiki/The_Colour_Out_of_Space Wikisource text of the story]).

:Also, the beginning of Hunter's escape, when he gets "lost" and the streets "made no sense anymore" recalls the Lovecraft story, [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Music_of_Erich_Zann "The Music of Erich Zann"]. It is also similar to Winston Smith's early wanderings in ''1984''.

In addition, the whole passage probably makes reference to several 1950s Sci-Fi movies, most importantly "The Thing from Another World" (1951) by Howard Hawks and Christian Nyby (remade as "The Thing" by John Carpenter in 1982) in which scientists discover an alien and lethal lifeform under the ice of the arctic. The idea of the alien lifeform falling to earth and being mistaken for a meteorite at first is prominent in Jack Arnold's "It Came from Outer Space" (1954), although the aliens in that case are benevolent rather than dangerous.

Hunter Penhallow's escape might be read as a happy ending getaway inversion of the claustrophobic opening sequence of ''Gravity's Rainbow'', where nobody gets saved; "in this world brought low" echoes "the Light that hath brought the Towers low" on the final page of Gravity's Rainbow..."Light" may prefigure Against the Day's treatment of that subject, too.

:cf also "The Museum at night...unlighted and towering", p.150

The disorientation that Hunter experiences (city streets skewing, finding a mysterious group of people) echoes Lew Basnight's encounter with Drave's group ([[ATD_26-56#Page_39|p39]]), and the vision on the opening pages of ''Gravity's Rainbow''.

:In regards to Hunter's escape echoing Lew Basnight's "Chicago" sequence: It seems as if Hunter is also able to step to the side of the day? [[User:Greenlantern|Greenlantern]] 13:35, 20 February 2007 (PST)

:The connection of Hunter's "meeting" and Lew's encounter with Drave seems valid and useful. As to Hunter's having a power of invisibility, that's less well substantiated. I suggest instead that the refugees (throughout history refugees have known to keep their coats and hats on) have a way of fleeing into time. "The longer they traveled, the more 'futuristic' would the scenery grow." It's futuristic because it exists in the future!

I agree that the two scenes are linked. There is another link, which is the distortion of space that has been mentioned already several times in AtD, in contexts of map lines or electromagnetic fields that become distorted so that parallel lines are no longer that.

==Page 156==

'''clouded and windless late-November day''' 
From 1898 to 1942 and again from 1946 to 1975, the [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Harvard-Yale_football_games Harvard-Yale football game]—followed by persons in one province of the United States—was played in the last half of every November. 
The timing—a matter of months from Tesla's storm to now—suggests that the game is that of 1899, which was played on November 18 at Cambridge. A Cornell man might relish the fact that the outcome was a 0-0 tie.

'''Taft Hotel''' 
The Taft in New Haven opened in 1912; it isn't clear whether there might have been an earlier property of that name. The Taft in New York City opened in 1926. So placing a Taft Hotel in New Haven in 1899 is another anachronism (which appear often and seem to serve some purpose). A Google search turns up the suggestion (on an ephemeral eBay page) that there may have been a Taft's Hotel in West Cambridge in the mid-19th century too.

Not so hidden Ohio president: Wm H. Taft, of Cincinnati was president in 1912, a Yale grad, Skull&Bones member.

'''Irish pennants''' 
[http://www.jacksjoint.com/sailor_terminology.htm#Irish%20Pennant Untidy ends of thread or string.]

'''rival school hues''' 
Yale: blue and white. Harvard: crimson white, and black.

'''"Mr. Rinehart"''' 
A Harvard rallying cry, supposedly dating to 1900. The original Rinehart obtained his law degree from Harvard in 1903. In 1900 Mr. Rinehart occupied a high room in Gray's Hall at Harvard. It was easier for his friends to call to him from the ground than to climb three flights of stairs when they wanted him to join them. They would stand at the corner of Gray's and shout, "Oh, Rinehart." Many another student was called in the same way, and no particular attention was paid. But one sweltering night, when students were grinding for final examinations, one of them heard the familiar "Oh, Rinehart" from below and reacted instantly. He tossed aside his book and echoed the cry into the Yard. Within a minute, the enclosure resounded with the phrase from side to side and end to end. Something about the sound and accent of the name appealed to the students and from then until the end of the session the cry was heard nightly throughout the Yard. [http://listserv.linguistlist.org/cgi-bin/wa?A2=ind0110b&L=ads-l&P=9765 source]

In later years, the origin story for the tradition changed: Rinehart became a lonely freshman who shouted his own name to see what it would sound like to be popular. He was discovered shouting his own name and the cry of "Rinehart" was used to make fun of him. The tradition continued until after World War II, when it faded from memory. Contemporary students apparently aren't familiar with the story or tradition. [http://itre.cis.upenn.edu/%7Emyl/languagelog/archives/003880.html Language Log]

'''Tibetan prayer wheel principle''' 
Previously mentioned on [[ATD_119-148#Page_130|page 130]], where the principle was used to transport oneself to the tropical locale of the ''¡Cuidado, Cabrón!'' hot sauce label.

==Page 157==

'''"crimson" is cognate with "worm"''' 
[http://itre.cis.upenn.edu/~myl/languagelog/archives/003873.html Largely true.] The American Heritage Dictionary gives the [http://www.bartleby.com/61/79/W0227900.html etymology for ''worm''] as "Middle English, from Old English ''wurm,'' variant of ''wyrm.''" The root ''wyrm'' in turn derives from the Indo-European base [http://www.bartleby.com/61/roots/IE571.html wer-2], meaning to turn or bend. (Words descended from wer-2 include ''stalwart, weird, vertebra, wrath, wrong, wrestle, briar'' and ''rhapsody.'') The modern word ''crimson'' derives from Middle English ''cremesin,'' which (via one of several alternative pathways) comes from Arabic ''qirmizy,'' a word based on ''qirmiz,'' the kermes insect. This insect, which lives on the Kermes oak (''Quercus coccifera''), was an early source for red dye but fell out of favor after the introduction of [http://www.bell.lib.umn.edu/Products/cochinea.html cochineal]. The Arabic name for this insect probably stems from the Sanskrit ''kṛmi-ja-,'' referring to a red dye produced from worms. The ''-ja'' is from an Indo-European root ''*gene-,'' meaning "to produce" (whence, ultimately, our word "gene" and the ''-gen'' in chemical element names). The other component, ''kṛmi-,'' means "worm", and takes us back to Indo-European wer-2.

'''"no professional football"''' 
NFL founded 1902. [http://www.nfl.com/history/chronology/1869-1910 cite]

'''grease runs''' 
Deliveries of graft payments.

'''the Tombs''' 
A prison in New York City. [http://www.correctionhistory.org/html/chronicl/nycdoc/html/histry3a.html History of the Tombs]

'''dime novel''' 
Adoption of poor but plucky boy by industrialist in need of an heir sounds like a plot by [http://www-sul.stanford.edu/depts/dp/pennies/1860_alger.html Horatio Alger, Jr.] (1832 or 1834-99). A [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Horatio_Alger,_Jr. Wikipedia entry] gives one plot summary that serves for quite a few of Alger's 135 dime novels.

'''crockful of cucumbers''' 
Male children? (Cucumber is slang for penis.) 
Obviously, yes, but not because they have penises. You put cucumbers in a crock to pickle them; Vibe's sons have all the energy and initiative of vegetables soaking up brine.

==Page 158==

'''Willard Gibbs''' 
Cf [[ATD_26-56#Page 29|page 29]]. J. Willard Gibbs (1839-1903), an American mathematical physicist.

'''it was desire''' 
"Desire" is a word of power in ''AtD.'' We saw it in Harald the Ruthless, [[ATD_97-118#Page_117|p. 117,]] and will see it again.

'''lust in idleness''' 
"Love-in-idleness" is a traditional name for the pansy.

'''Hamiltonian''' 
Hamilton Quaternion (Cf [[ATD_119-148#Page 130|page 130]]) disciples.

In classical mechanics, Hamiltonian is a function used to describe a dynamical system (as a pendulum or a particle in motion) in terms of generalized coordinates and momenta. It is equal to the total energy of the system when time is not explicitly part of the function. It is named after the Irish mathematician Sir William R. Hamilton (1805-1865). ([http://www-history.mcs.st-andrews.ac.uk/Mathematicians/Hamilton.html Hamilton].)

==Page 159==

'''Walter Camp''' 
[http://www.waltercamp.org/history5.htm Yale University athlete (1859-1925) who helped create the game of American football.]

'''Witherspoon Street''' 
Runs to the north, away from the main gate of the Princeton campus. See also [[Witherspoon Street|DISCUSSION]].

'''Rooseveltian strenuosity''' 
Theodore Roosevelt (1858-1919) advised Americans to live "the strenuous life"—and provided an example. 
[http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,1207796-1,00.html He suffered from asthma as a boy] and was considered a poor risk to grow up at all. Through vigorous exercise and outdoor living he became strong and, more often than not, healthy. He was elected vice-president after service in the Spanish-American War, succeeding to [http://www.whitehouse.gov/history/presidents/tr26.html the presidency (1901-9)] when William McKinley was assassinated. 
In a speech to the Hamilton Club of Chicago in 1899, he said:
<blockquote>I wish to preach, not the doctrine of ignoble ease, but the doctrine of the strenuous life, the life of toil and effort, of labor and strife; to preach that highest form of success which comes, not to the man who desires mere easy peace, but to the man who does not shrink from danger, from hardship, or from bitter toil, and who out of these wins the splendid ultimate triumph. 
("The Strenuous Life," collected in [http://www.bartleby.com/58/ his book of the same name, 1900.])</blockquote>

''''Fax's brother Cragmont''' 
There is a Cragmont area in Berkeley, Calif., and a Cragmont assembly ground (church campground) in Black Mountain, N.C. Doesn't seem to be a New York suburb, though.

'''across the perilous æther''' 
Repeating the phrase from p. 99 [[ATD_97-118#Page_99|(see annotations).]] Here ''æther'' means "air" or "empty space."

'''an expedition heading for Africa''' 
At the time of the Vormance expedition, Fleetwood has already been to Africa, so this episode precedes Vormance.

'''meat lozenges''' 
Lightweight for hikers. "Brand's meat lozenges, which are about the size of a four-penny piece and a quarter of an inch thick" [http://www.rootsweb.com/~nzlscant/mountcook.htm cite]

'''Seven Sisters''' 
Seven women's colleges at the time. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Seven_Sisters_(colleges) Wikipedia]

==Page 160==

'''Dittany''' 
(1) [http://www.alchemy-works.com/herb_dittany.html White dittany,] ''Dictamnus albus'' var. ''dasycarpus,'' with reputed medicinal properties; (2) [http://www.bbg.org/gar2/topics/design/handbooks/herbgarden/7.html common dittany,] Maryland dittany or stone mint, ''Cunila origanoides''; or (3) [http://cretashop.gr/br/productsbr/diet/dittany_br.htm dittany of Crete,] ''Origanum dictamnus'' L., a species of oregano said to have aphrodisiac qualities. Herb (2) is native to North America, but the smart money's on (3).

==Page 161==

'''Elsie de Wolfe''' 
(1865-1950), American interior designer, hostess, and actress, best known for her innovative and anti-Victorian interiors. She is often credited with inventing the profession of interior decoration. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Elsie_De_Wolfe Wikipedia entry]

'''"musical dramas"''' 
The musical ''comedy'' genre was nascent, while operetta was a mature form with plenty of audience appeal. R.W. Vibe was misguided, though, if he thought Conkling's 30-year career (see next entry) could be condensed to three entertaining acts.

'''Roscoe Conkling''' 
New York Radical Republican politician (1829–1888) who served in both the House and the Senate. He opposed reform, acted as a friend of big business, engineered the selection of Chester A. Arthur as vice-president, and was suspected of involvement in the Garfield assassination that made Arthur president. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Roscoe_Conkling See also his Wikipedia entry.]

'''Tubby the pig''' 
Pynchon thinks pigs are cool. For examples, the character Pig Bodine, the Porky Pig tattoo and the Plechazunga costume in ''Gravity's Rainbow''. Pynchon was allegedly notorious for carrying around a 6- to 7-inch yellow plastic pig ([http://www.theaesthetic.com/NewFiles/pynchon.html source]), and his room was allegedly decorated with pig toys around the 1960s, according to Jules Siegel's Playboy article on the writer.

==Page 162==

'''Sillery''' 
Wine from the French town of the same name. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sillery%2C_Marne Wikipedia]

'''puce''' 
A brownish color; perhaps meant as a play on "puke"? 
Seems straigtforward in the text: overlay Scarsdale's gray tones with Edwarda's mauve and sometimes you get puce. Sort of.

==Page 163==

'''"Kit was wondering through the house when he heard piano music"''' 
Just like Kurt Mondaugen, in chapter 9 of ''V.'' (p. 238)

'''R. Wilshire Vibe had not endeared himself to his nephew''' 
Because ''African Antics'' comically played up the dangers Fleetwood was about to face.

'''Tell me, what-cha gonn-na do, When they come screamin, after you?''' 
This reminds me of The Guns of Brixton, by The Clash, which contains the lines:

''When they kick out your front door 
''How you gonna come? 
''With your hands on your head 
''Or on the trigger of your gun ''

Is it possible this line is a reference to the popular American television reality series [http://www.cops.com/ COPS], whose theme song contains the lyrics:

''Bad boys, bad boys 
''Whatcha gonna do? 
''Boad boys, bad boys 
''Whatcha gonna do? 
''Whatcha gonna do 
''When they come for you? ''

The series follows the daily lives and patrols of "real life" police officers on patrol in varoius American cities, often focusing on the down-trodden and marginalized in American society. The overall effect of the program is often to further separate the "us" from the "them", in that we can sit idly by and use the unfortunate, stupid, or criminal as our entertainment.

==Page 164==

'''Logical paradoxes''' 
Fleetwood has presented Kit with a statement similar to the notorious liar paradox with "...you shouldn't trust anything I have to say about this family."
[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Liar_paradox Wikipedia] 
Whether the statement actually qualifies as a paradox is not immediately clear. Fleetwood is not just saying "you shouldn't trust anything I have to say," which is self referential in the manner of the liar paradox. He is specifically referring to some sentences he might utter "...about this family." Unless we are willing to interpret Fleetwood's sentence itself as being about his family, and not just some other sentences he might utter, it is not paradoxical. Fleetwood is a member of the family. His sentence makes a statement that casts doubt on what he might say about a member of the family. This statement by Fleetwood about what he might say can be (but arguably not "must be") interpreted, in a general sense, as a statement about his family (which includes himself). On that interpretation he is making a statement that denies that the statement itself can be trusted. 
There is a second way Fletwood's statement does not clearly show itself to be a paradox. Most variations on the liar paradox are statements that claim themselves to be false; this is different from a statement saying that it cannot be trusted. If something cannot be trusted, it might still be true.

==Page 165==

'''"your strongest certainty...you remember everything"''' 
The whole paragraph recalls Proust's ''A la recherche du temps perdu'', where random perceptions suddenly bring back lost memories. Through this remembrance the past is regained, and it is suddenly possible to constitute identity. This might be mirrored in Fleetwood's "single great episode of light" in which one hasn't "discovered it but returned to it".

'''all my colleagues care about is finding waterfalls''' 
A quest Kit must have sympathized with; see p. 98 [[ATD_97-118#Page_98|and annotations.]]

'''a simply-connected space with an unbroken line around it''' 
Orthodox Jewish communities often make a symbolic perimeter around their space so that they can, for example, carry a book as they walk to Sabbath worship; by convention they are still "home"—thus not enjoined against some kinds of work—as long as they stay inside this ''eruv.'' One such neighborhood in Atlanta uses a set of electrical power lines to bound its area.

In this context, "simply connected" means the region inside the perimeter does not contain any "islands" that don't belong to the space. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Simply_connected Wikipedia gives an admirably clear explanation.]

==Page 166==

'''hair ropes''' 
Cowboy superstition: horsehair ropes kept snakes away.

'''"some peaceful expanse of rangeland"''' 
The use of the word "range" along with the previous page's description of heavenly light suggest some connection to the phrase, "the light over the range."

In fact, there were several proposals for an African "Zion", most notoriously a Nazi plan to settle all Jews in Madagascar.

'''by way of commentary''' 
On Fleetwood's rotten joke.

'''"stand your ground"''' 
Ellmann tells a similar story about Joyce's father facing charging riders in Phoenix Park.

==Page 167==

'''...it was a time honored principle to do nothing for free [...] Trust me. Buy Rand shares''' 
It is implied that Rand is a gold mining company (does anyone know if this is/was a real company?). Regardless, Yitzhak and Fleetwood are talking about South Africa. Although the ''rand'' is the currency of South Africa today, it was not in circulation intil 1961. ([http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/South_African_pound source]) The famous Kruger''rand'' is a gold coin, but that was introduced in 1967. ([http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Krugerrand source]) The Witwaters''rand'' is the ridge upon which Johannesburg is built.

The Rand is a gold field, not a company or currency (in this context). See [http://against-the-day.pynchonwiki.com/wiki/index.php?title=ATD_119-148#Page_146 note on page 146]

It is possible that Pynchon is also mocking the philosophy of Ayn Rand, which is often characterized as a defense of selfishness or strong individualism. Pynchon [http://links.jstor.org/sici?sici=0277-335X(198201)47%3A1%3C62%3ALATWWO%3E2.0.CO%3B2-W previously parodied] Ayn Rand and her Theory of Objectivism as "Mafia Winsome" and her "Theory of Heroic Love" in ''V.''
: It seems a stretch to interpret this as a reference to Ayn Rand, especially as these sound like historical facts: although the Australian gold rush began in the 1850s, the rich Kalgoorlie and Coolgardie fields of gold were found in the 1890s, apparently triggering later rushes. ([http://www.cultureandrecreation.gov.au/articles/goldrush/ source]) But perhaps... [[User:Bleakhaus|Bleakhaus]] 17:59, 22 December 2006 (PST)

'''war going on''' 
The Second Boer War started 11 October 1899, between the British Empire and the two independent Boer republics of the Orange Free State and the South African Republic (Transvaal Republic). After a protracted hard-fought war, the two independent republics lost and were absorbed into the British Empire. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Second_Boer_War Wikipedia]

==Page 168==

'''Eastern Question''' 
Europe's concern with post-Ottoman Turkey. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eastern_Question Wikipedia]

'''"Fleetwood wanted to be like them...He prayed to become one of them. [...] Nothing "took." "''' 
Cf. William Gibson's 1981 short story ''Hinterlands'' ([http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hinterlands_%28short_story%29 Wikipedia entry]), for a similar case of people willing unsuccesfully to be "taken" by the unknown (albeit without Pynchon's explanation as to why this doesn't happen):
:"We both have the drive, though, that special need, that freak dynamic that lets us keep going back to Heaven. We both got it the same way, lay out there in our little boats for weeks, waiting for the Highway to take us. And when our last flare was gone, we were hauled back here by tugs. Some people just aren't taken, and nobody knows why. And you'll never get a second chance. [...] But I'd wanted to go, wanted it so bad. Charmian, too."

'''Massawa''' 
a port on the Red Sea coast of Eritrea. Important for many centuries, it has been colonised by Egypt, the Ottoman Empire, Italy, Britain... It became the capital of the Italian colony of Eritrea until this was moved to Asmara in 1900. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Massawa Wikipedia entry]

'''Lourenço Marques''' 
Today known as Maputo, capital city of Mozambique. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Maputo Wikipedia entry]

'''''cantinhas''''' 
Portuguese: taverns (like Spanish ''cantinas'').

'''rotgut rejectamenta of Bucelas and Dão''' 
Rotgut= "poor-quality and potentially toxic alcoholic liquor." Rejectamenta= "things thrown out or away," so the reject wine. Bucelas, Portugal is a famous wine-growing region. Dão is a type of Portuguese wine.

'''Johannesburg''' 
[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Johannesburg Johannesburg], also known as ''eGoli'', the place of Gold, is the financial, economic and cultural center, but not the capital, of South Africa. The discovery of gold in 1880s brought a large number of whites to this region from all over the world. Apartheid, a racial segregation system, was enforced between 1948-1990. While gold mining no longer takes place within the city limits, most mining companies still have their headquarters in Johannesburg.

'''"like Baku with giraffes"''' 
''Gravity's Rainbow'' mentions Baku by name three times, according to [http://www.hyperarts.com/pynchon/gravity/alpha/b.html the Pynchon Pages index]:

352; seaport capital of Azerbaydzhanskaya SSR, Soviet Union, on the west coast of the Caspian Sea; 353; Blobadjian "pursued through the black end of Baku by a passel of screaming Arabists" 354
(Actually there are four references, as it appears twice in page 354 - [[User:Ctsats|Ctsats]] 20:28, 25 January 2007)

And not to forget the giraffe: "Foppl stood holding a sjambok or cattle whip of giraffe hide" (''V.'', chapter 9, p. 240)

After reading this section, and the oddly-separated text of Fleetwood's reverie about his pursuit of wealth in the Transvaal, and his murder of the Kaffir, the family name struck me, "Vibe" = "V" I be. Certainly this section brings back the African horror of "V."

[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Baku Baku], Azerbaijan's capital, is located on the southern shore of the Apsheron peninsula of the Caspian Sea. The origin of the name, based on the most widely known theory, comes from ''bad kube'', meaning "city of winds". Today's Baku is reallly three cities rolled into one: the old town (885-1872), the boomtown (1872-1920) and the Soviet-built town (1921-1991). The basis of Baku's economy is petroleum. Commercial exploitation began in 1872, (Baku is where Nobel Brothers acquired their wealth and the money for the ''Nobel Peace Prize''), and by the beginning of the 20th century the Baku oil field was the largest in the world and Baku supplied half of the world's oil production. But towards the end of the 20th century much of the land's petroleum had been exhausted, and drilling had extended into the sea. Baku ranks as one of the largest world centers for the production of oil industry equipment.

==Page 169==

'''Kaffirs''' 
African blacks. The word Kaffir, derived from Arabic ''kafir,'' "infidel," is considered [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kaffir_%28ethnic_slur%29 extremely insulting,] and calling someone this name has been a civil cause of action in South Africa since the 1970s.

'''eGoli''' 
Zulu name for Johannesburg and a possible pun on e-coli.

'''to be shot or to step into a mine shaft''' 
Completing the story Fleetwood didn't tell on p. 147.

==Page 170==

'''some grave imbalance in the structure of the world . . . Be serious''' 
Fleetwood's dreams connect forward (in time—but back to pp. 121-55 in ''AtD'') to the scourging of the great city.

'''Word was about that Alden Vormance was getting up a party to go north and recover a meteorite.'''

Admiral Robert E. Peary, arctic explorer, recovered two large meteorites on his Greenland expedition of 1893-1895. He recovered a third meteorite on his expedition of 1896-1897. He recounted these experiences in ''Northward Over the Great Ice'' published in 1898 and now available on Google Books.

In The Shooting Star, the tenth book of The Adventures of Tintin by Hergé, the ship The Aurora is on a mission to recover a meteorite from the Arctic Circle.

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

ATD 1063-1085

2009-10-15T19:51:00Z

Thorras: /* Page 1071 */

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

==Page 1063==

'''Rue du Départ''' 
Street in Montparnasse, Paris. The name means "street of departing or setting out." 
Piet Mondrian had a studio at No. 26. A film titled
[http://www.blockbuster.com/catalog/movieDetails/82185 ''Rue du Départ'' starring Gérard Depardieu] was released in 1986. 
:The street is called "rue du départ" (departure street) because it flanks the train station (Gare Montparnasse). The street opposite is called "rue de l'arrivée" (arrival street). Therefore this may also be an echo to "the melancholy of departure" and Chirico's painting of Gare Montparnasse, cf [http://against-the-day.pynchonwiki.com/wiki/index.php?title=ATD_724-747#Page_747 note to p.747] 

==Page 1064==

==Page 1065==

'''Reynaldo Hahn''' 
[http://www.answers.com/topic/reynaldo-hahn Reynaldo Hahn] (1875-1947) was a French composer best known for his vocal works, ranging from serious opera and operetta to solo songs. He was the director of the ''Paris Opéra'' since 1945.

'''''Ciboulette''''' 
French: Chive. Also a feminine given name, from which the title of this [http://musicaltheatreguide.com/composers/hahn/ciboulette.htm operetta] comes.

'''''C'est pas Paris, c'est sa banlieue''''' 
French: It isn't Paris, it's a suburb of Paris.

==Page 1066==

'''"J'ai Deux Amants"''' 
French: I have two lovers.

'''Sacha Guitry''' 
[http://www.infoplease.com/ipea/A0766430.html Sacha Guitry] (1885-1957) was a French film actor and director. 
:The Guitry production in question is "l'Amour masqué", first staged in 1923. André Messager wrote the music and Yvonne Printemps, Guitry's wife, sang it.

''''Jour''' 
For ''Bonjour.'' French: Hello. Literally: '''Day.''

'''Scyuzay mwah''' 
For ''Excusez-moi.'' French: Excuse me.

'''ain't you that La Jarretière?''' 
In ''V.'' she died graphically around the time of the World War. Her stage name is French: The Garter.

'''''succès de scandale''''' 
French, literally: success of scandal. In this case, the hype that the show needed to put customers in the seats.

'''''Mon Dieu! . . . que les hommes sont bêtes''''' 
French: My God, how stupid men are. 
:a line in the aforementioned song "j'ai deux amants", it is also a line in Offenbach's operetta La Perichole.

'''''Fossettes l'Enflammeuse''''' 
French: Dimples, the Inflamer. "Fossettes" has verbal echoes (as foreshadowing sound, so to speak) of [Bob] Fosse, much later American choreographer and director.

'''Jean-Raoul Oeuillade''' 
The surname is the name of a restaurant and a wine grape. It also appears to be a French misspelling of ''œillade'' = wink, leer.

'''''Dimples''''' 
R. Wilshire knows you can print a one-word title in bigger letters than a whole phrase. 
He's also the producer of such highbrow fare as African Antics, Shanghai Scampers and Roguish Redheads.

'''Solange St.-Emilion''' 
'Solange' is the name of a saint; and St. Emilion is a wine - a claret, a British term for a Bordeaux.

'''Casse-cou . . . n'importe quoi!''' 
Daredevil, that's me. / This little don't-give-a-damn. / Daredevil, husband, your women, / All the other men, no matter who!

==Page 1067==

'''"It won't be a stylish marriage"''' 
Quoting from the popular song [[ATD_644-677#Page_647|"Daisy Bell."]]

Last alluded to on P.647, just before the gunfight that wasn't, with Frank and Stray in El Paso. Difficult relationships seem to bring out this ditty.

'''the disaster up at Caporetto''' 
The [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_Caporetto Battle of Caporetto] was fought between October 24 and November 9, 1917, on the Austro-Italian front. Austrian forces, with German support, broke through the Italian lines, killing 11,000, wounding 25,000, and taking 250,000 prisoners. In the aftermath of the battle, Austrian forces advanced on Venice, but were ultimately stopped by a newly formed defensive line.

==Page 1068==

'''Bleriot monoplanes''' 
The [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blériot_XI Bleriot] was a pioneering monoplane built of oak and poplar and surfaced with cloth. It was the first plane to cross the English Channel and to fly over the Alps.

==Page 1069==

'''Italo-Turkish War''' 
Over control of Libya, 1911-12, important precursor of the Balkan Wars. An Italian flyer dropped history's first aerial bomb on Turkish troops. See [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Italo-Turkish_War Italo-Turkish War].

'''the Cambio''' 
"The [http://www.thi.it/eng/benvenuto_ristoranti.asp?id=2 Ristorante del Cambio], known locally as 'the old lady'" (ATD, p. 1073), is a famous restaurant in Turin, in operation since 1757, where important politicians and generals have dined. It is located at ''2, Piazza Carignano, Turin''. (See also pages 1070 and 1073.)

'''I Murazzi''' 
The name given to a stretch of riverfront arcades on the west bank of the Po in central Turin. They were originally boat-houses and landing places, but eventually developed into discos and bars and so became a center of Turin's nightlife. The name comes from the stone embankment ("walls") that were built along the Po in the nineteenth century to prevent flooding of the city center.

'''''una picchiata''''' 
Italian: a nosedive.

==Page 1070==

'''''mia bella'' Caproni''' 
My beautiful Caproni. ''Caproni'' was the Italian World War I heavy bomber designed by the talented pioneer Italian aircraft designer and manufacturer [http://www.allstar.fiu.edu/aero/caproni.htm Gianni Caproni] (1886-1957). The model described here is likely the [http://www.answers.com/topic/caproni-ca-4 ''Caproni Ca.4''], a triplane with a four-man (not five-man) crew, three Isotta-Fraschini engines (270HP each), a maximum speed of 87 mph, two forward and two rearward mounting Revelli machine guns. (note: being a 'male' word - italian has no neutral, so words are either male or female, Renzo would certainly say 'il mio bel Caproni')

'''''Si, certo''''' 
Italian: Yes, sure.

'''''Lucrezia'' Borgia''' 
[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lucrezia_Borgia Lucrezia Borgia] (1480-1519) was an Italian noblewoman, a famous figure of the Italian Renaissance. She was always casted as ''femme fatale'' in many artworks, novels and films. One of the numerous legends about her said that Lucrezia was in possession of a hollow ring that she used frequently to poison drinks.

'''''Andiamo''''' 
Italian: Let's go.

'''the SVA''' 
[http://www.fiddlersgreen.net/AC/aircraft/Ansaldo-SVA/info/info.htm The SVA] (Savoia Verduzio Ansaldo) World War I Italian bi-plane reconnaissance-bomber.

'''''Macché''''' 
Italian: Naw. Macché is an Italian interjection, not slang, translated as of course not, not on your life, go on!, come off it!, depending upon context: take your pick.

'''Molo Antonelliana''' 
[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mole_Antonelliana Mole Antonelliana] is a major landmark and the highest (550 ft) building of Turin, Italy. It was built in 1863 to be a Jewish synagogue. Since 2000, it houses Italy's National Cinema Museum. See photos of [http://digilander.libero.it/fotogian/mole.html Mole Antonelliana].

==Page 1071==

'''''picchiate . . . picchiata''''' 
The first is plural, the second its singular. Italian: nosedives, nosedive.

'''a Certain Word that would not quite exist for another year or two''' 
Of course it's "Fascism." "It was all political." Politics through aerobatics instead of chemistry? 
Fascism is the unity of government and industry, or big business - clearly a consistent theme in ATD. 
Granted on a theme of ATD, but Fascism is, historically and conceptually,
more--far worse-- than the unity of government and industry. 
True. I should have said it's "a key element." Interesting reading at Wikipedia on [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Definitions_of_fascism Definitions of fascism]. I tend to think we're heading that way ourselves. But then, George Orwell's comment is valid, too. 
''Vineland'', that homage inspired by ''1984'' has three major, overt instances of the Government [A fictional Reagan America] pre-emptively destroying our basic civil rights. Not to mention the thrust of the whole
novel, perhaps only now, 2007, revealing its prescience to we readers.[[User:MKOHUT|MKOHUT]] 12:53, 17 June 2007 (PDT) 
:More than the unity of government and industry, yes. You also need the military - in fact the 'military-industrial complex'. Remember we're talking about Italian Fascism here. Antisemitism, for example, isn't (at least yet) an inevitable part of it. The essence of Fascism is 'corporatism', where state, military and industry are all run like one big corporation with the same people at the top. This is the symbolism of the [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fascist_symbolism#Militarist_uniforms_with_nationalist_insignia 'fasces'], the bunch of sticks or reeds that can't be broken because it all hangs together, and that is of course why Renzo says: "You saw how they broke apart...But we did not. We remained single, aimed, unbreakable."

'''''Um vettore, si?''''' 
''Um'' is a slurred form of ''un''. Italian: A vector, yes? Actually, even though it is always written "un" in the Italian national standard (many dialects still exist), in front of words that start with "v" or "f", the "n" in "un" is sounded as a nasalized "m." (In front of words that start with "b" or "p" the "n" in "un" is simply pronounced like "m.")

==Page 1072==

'''in uniform all the time. Eagles . . . a prominent motif''' 
eagles have been referred to often as predators in ATD. 
A reference to [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fascist_symbolism#Militarist_uniforms_with_nationalist_insignia Fascist insignia].

'''''abrazo''''' 
Spanish: embrace.

'''''teleferiche''''' 
Italian: cars suspended from cables, cableways.

==Page 1073==

'''agnolotti''' 
Italian. A filled pasta similar to ravioli.

'''risotto''' 
The renowned northern Italian rice dish.

'''tagliarini''' 
Long, thin, narrow noodles.

'''Nebbiolo''' 
A wine grape originating in northern Italy.

'''Carpano's for a ''punt e mes''' 
Carpano's--a notable name in Turin--probably refers to a family bar or restaurant. Antonio Benedetto Carpano (1764–1815) was a Torinese distiller who, in 1786, invented vermouth--wine infused with herbs and and spices including wormwood (German Wermut). ''Punt e mess'' is a dark, brown, bitter vermouth originally produced by the Carpano distillery; the product earned its name (meaning "point and a half") because it was originally marketed during a boom in the stock market, and the Carpanos wanted to benefit from the association.

==Page 1074==

'''S.S. ''Persia'' had been torpedoed by a U-boat captain named Max Valentiner. . .''' 
[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SS_Persia_(1900) S.S ''Persia''] was a P & O passenger liner built in 1900. It was sunk on December 30, 1915 within five to tem minutes by a German U-Boat, U-38, off Crete with a loss of 343 of the 519 aboard. The commander of U-38 was [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Max_Valentiner Max Valentiner] (1883-1949).

'''Eleanor Thornton''' 
Like Dally (ATD 893–5), [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eleanor_Thornton Eleanor Velasco Thornton] was a sculptors' model. She was a passenger on the S. S. Persia and drowned when it was sunk. She inspired Charles Robinson Sykes (see Sykes, Charlie, in the ATD Alphabetical Index) to create the Rolls-Royce hood-ornament known as "[http://against-the-day.pynchonwiki.com/wiki/index.php?title=Image:Spirit-of-ecstacy.jpg The Spirit of Ecstasy]."

'''...Reef, Stray and Ljubica returned to the U.S. pretending to be Italian immigrants.''' 
Somebody dropped the ball here; obviously this should read "Reef, Yash and Ljubica." But Yashmeen had never before been in the United States.
:Even Homer nods.
:Ljubica was born outside, and had never been in, the U.S. !
:If they pretending to be immigrants getting into the country first time, then they were NOT returning to the U.S. Because they are pretending, they could be returning. If they were actually immigrants, they would not be returning.

'''''I,'' for Idiot''' 
Another character assuming the character of an [[Idiots and Idiocy in Against the Day| — a minor theme of ''AtD''.]]

'''I, also, in 'the immigrants they were pretending to be'''' 
...soon obliterated.

'''"The Obliterator"''' 
A figure almost of legend, who causes unwelcome entries in your file to ''vanish without trace.'' But a member of the wiki was once friends with a bureaucrat, in a university registrar's office, who knew the "oblit" code. Like "The Obliterator," she used her power only for good.

==Page 1075==

'''Red Scare . . . Palmer raids''' 
Public and media panic over the ideas of communists, other leftists and Anarchists led to a government crackdown on these elements in the years after the World War. Alexander M. Palmer, U.S. Attorney General under Woodrow Wilson, was a leading figure in the campaign. The Red Scare led more or less directly to the supremacy of the F.B.I., which some may view as [[ATD_1018-1039#Page_1021|"the control of the evil and moronic,"]] and also to the founding of the American Civil Liberties Union.

==Page 1076==

'''Frank and Stray's daughter Ginger and the baby Plebecula''' 
"Ginger" is sometimes a nickname for Virginia but also sometimes a substitute for "Red": a redheaded person. "Plebecula" can mean "the common people" . . . or a species of ant. Both children (Jesse too, could be) have political given names.

'''Kitsap Peninsula''' 
Dissected peninsula in Puget Sound, Washington state. Not the northernmost point in the 48 states, but maybe the remotest.

Not far from Port Renfrew, B. C.

Could be a reference to the one-time anarchist community of Home, Washington, on the Kitsap Peninsula near Tacoma. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Home,_Washington Home, Washington] But the community had been officially harassed out of existence by about 1915.

'''"Mr. Becker was at the Cour d'Alene back in the olden days. Guess I forgot to mention that."''' 
In Pynchon's "Vineland", the action follows Jess' grand-daughter Frenesi, and great-granddaughter Prairie through some of the same kind of power-vs-preterite struggles that have haunted the family here in AtD. In "Vineland" Jess marries a woman named Eula Becker-- this may be Pynchon's way of tying up some strings for those of us who obsess over such details.
"Vineland" dedicates a fair amount of time to discussions of light and shadow and the powers of silver emulsions in the golden age of Hollywood, too.

==Page 1077==

''''''Soir''''' 
For ''Bonsoir.'' French: good evening, or just hello.

'''It was Policarpe, an old acquaintance of Kit''' 
Belgian anarchist, named for St. Polycarp; see [[ATD_525-556#Page_527|annotation to page 527.]]

'''licking a few vitrines''' 
The French phrase "leche vitrine" is the American equivalent of "window shopping" and literally means "window licking."

'''Lwów''' 
A city in western Ukraine, [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lwow see Wikipedia.] The city's emblem shows a lion in front of a castle wall with 3 towers. It is strikingly reminiscent of the Tibetan seal on the cover of ATD. Recall that Venetia also claims the Lion (the winged Lion of St. Mark) as its emblem.

'''Galicia''' 
If the complex history of this region—now partly in western Ukraine and partly in southern Poland—moves you, there's a pretty fair [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Galicia_%28Central_Europe%29 Wikipedia entry] that also covers the next item. Lots of Americans trace their ancestry back to Galicia. See also the [[ATD_695-723#Page_697|annotations to page 697.]]

'''West Ukraine Republic''' 
Or West Ukrainian People's Republic, or [http://www.answers.com/topic/west-ukrainian-national-republic West Ukrainian National Republic], existed between October 19,1918 and July 1919—long enough to [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Image:Flag_of_Ukraine.svg adopt a flag].

'''E. Percy Movay''' 
When the Inquisition compelled Galileo to recant his ideas about the celestial realm (he had blasphemed by reporting that Jupiter's moons orbit the planet and by reasoning that the Earth moves around the Sun too), he left the courtroom muttering, "And yet it ''does'' move." In Italian: ''Eppur si muove.''

'''a fabled group of mathematicians in Lwów''' 
[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lw%C3%B3w_School_of_Mathematics The Lwów School of Mathematics] led by Stefan Banach, a founder of functional analysis, who became a professor there in 1920. They often met at the famous Scottish Café.

==Page 1078==

'''Scottish Café''' 
An extraordinarily talented group of mathematicians could be found in Lwow in the 1930s. Much of their best work was inspired by their meetings in [http://www-history.mcs.st-andrews.ac.uk/HistTopics/Scottish_Book.html the Scottish Café]. It's a shame that Kit got there early.

'''Zermelo's Axiom Of Choice''' 
[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Axiom_of_choice The Axiom of Choice] in set theory was formulated in 1904 by [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zermelo Ernst Zermelo] (1871-1953), a German mathematician. It states that given any set of nonempty sets, there exists at least one set that contains exactly one element from each of the nonempty sets. The Axiom of Choice is related to the first of Hilbert's problems.

Here used to explain a variant of
[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Banach%E2%80%93Tarski_paradox the Banach-Tarski paradox] of 1924 which says in effect that it is possible to "carve up" a 3-dimensional solid unit ball into finitely many pieces and, using only rotation and translation, reassemble the pieces into two balls each with the same volume as the original. An infinitley re-assemblable universe?

'''the set of all sets that are not members of themselves''' 
Quick, does it contain itself? Bertrand Russell's pursuit of this paradox forced a major realignment of axiomatic set theory.

'''Q.E.D.''' 
Proofs in geometry and algebra, in fact, all mathematics, end with this statement. Q.E.D. = ''Quod Erat Demonstrandum'' = which was to be demonstrated. Some math professors after putting a difficult proof on the board and after writing QED jokingly translate it as "quite easily done."

==Page 1079==

'''Lemberg, Léopol, Lvov, Lviv and Lwów''' 
Names applied to the city by its various rulers. Today it's Lviv, but its citizens are sometimes called Leopolitans.

==Page 1080==

'''Glowny Dworzec''' 
Polish: Main Station.

'''the Iron Gate . . . the Defile of Kazan''' 
[http://donsmaps.com/irongatesoverview.html Two historical sites] along the Danube. The Iron Gate, 100 miles east of Belgrad, separated the Balkan and the Carpathian ranges. The Kazan Defile is further upstream near Belgrade where the Danube has dangerous currents and whirlpools.

'''There was music...attended to''' 
Thelonius Monk's music was once described this way. Quotation, reference being sought.

Also reminds me of John Cage's idea of an 'anarchic harmony', where all individual sounds have the same value and importance (and require to be listened to by themselves, "each note insisted on being attended to"), and 'dissonant' as they may appear, form a 'harmony' of individual sounds, "non-obstructive and interpenetrating".

==Page 1081==

'''tarboosh''' 
[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fez_(clothing) A fez].

'''the man in the tarboosh''' 
So Lord Overlunch has been a secret operator in all this? He is apparently an agent of Shamballa.

'''the Ferrary sale''' 
[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Philipp_von_Ferrary Philipp von Ferrary] was a legendary stamp collector. Wishing to make his unequaled collection accessible to the public, on January 30, 1915 he willed it to the Postmuseum in Berlin, along with funds for maintenance, 30,000 guldens. But as a citizen of Austria living in France, World War I put him at risk. Leaving his several hundred albums in the Austrian embassy, he fled to Switzerland in 1917. He died soon after, and so did not see the dismantling of his life's work after the war. The French government confiscated Ferrary's collection, claiming it as a war reparation. The massive assemblage was auctioned off between 1921 and 1926, in 14 separate sales, realizing some 30 million francs. Many of the rare stamps of today proudly bear an "ex-Ferrary" in their provenance.

[[image:Gul_tre_skilling_banco.jpg|thumb|150px|The Treskilling Yellow|right]]'''Swedish three-skilling yellow''' A valuable [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tre_Skilling_Yellow Swedish postage stamp] because it was issued, in 1855, printed on yellow colored paper (which was for the eight-skilling stamp) instead of the customary green. It is now estimated to be worth over US$2 million.

'''since the Spanish Lady passed through''' 
The great influenza pandemic of 1918-20. The disease got the name "Spanish flu" because Spain, neutral in the World War and therefore not censoring its press, was the country where the spread of the illness was most openly reported.

'''Chez Rosalie''' 
An Italian restaurant in Montparnasse, Paris.

==Page 1082==

'''Hesitation Waltz''' 
One of [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Waltz#Various_styles_of_waltz many styles of waltz]. In the 1910s a form called the "Hesitation Waltz" incorporated Hesitations and was danced to fast music. A Hesitation is basically a halt on the standing foot during the full waltz measure, with the moving foot suspended in the air or slowly dragged.

'''''bandoneón''''' 
Musical instrument similar to an accordion, named for its inventor Heinrich Band, heavily used in Argentine tango music.

'''the taxis, battered veterans of the mythic Marne''' 
World War, First Battle of the Marne, 1914. To shore up their Sixth Army the French commandeered 600 Paris taxicabs and used them to carry 6000 reserve troops to the front.

==Page 1083==

'''''bals musettes''''' 
French: dance halls, with the music provided by an accordion band. cf [http://against-the-day.pynchonwiki.com/wiki/index.php?title=ATD_864-891#Page_891 page 891]

'''Garçons de '71''' 
Interesting [http://www.centennialofflight.gov/essay/Lighter_than_air/military_balloons_in_Europe/LTA4G2.htm note and pic] here.

'''Penny Black''' 
[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Penny_Black The Penny Black], the world's first official adhesive postage stamp, was issued by the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland on 1 May 1840.

==Page 1084==

'''Puisieulx''' 
One of the 17 Grand Cru (highest level of classification) of Champagne.

'''no longer a matter of gravity'''

==Page 1085==

'''Pugnax and Ksenija's Generations''' 
Pugnax seems to be over 30 years old already, having been no longer a pup in 1893. p. 5. Long lived for a natural dog, not necessarily for a cartoon dog like Scooby Doo and Pugnax.

'''grace''' 
Cf. what Lew Basnight "came to think of as grace". p. 42.

 Gravity and Grace, a reference to Simone Weil.

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

ATD 1063-1085

2009-10-15T19:50:00Z

Thorras: /* Page 1072 */

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

==Page 1063==

'''Rue du Départ''' 
Street in Montparnasse, Paris. The name means "street of departing or setting out." 
Piet Mondrian had a studio at No. 26. A film titled
[http://www.blockbuster.com/catalog/movieDetails/82185 ''Rue du Départ'' starring Gérard Depardieu] was released in 1986. 
:The street is called "rue du départ" (departure street) because it flanks the train station (Gare Montparnasse). The street opposite is called "rue de l'arrivée" (arrival street). Therefore this may also be an echo to "the melancholy of departure" and Chirico's painting of Gare Montparnasse, cf [http://against-the-day.pynchonwiki.com/wiki/index.php?title=ATD_724-747#Page_747 note to p.747] 

==Page 1064==

==Page 1065==

'''Reynaldo Hahn''' 
[http://www.answers.com/topic/reynaldo-hahn Reynaldo Hahn] (1875-1947) was a French composer best known for his vocal works, ranging from serious opera and operetta to solo songs. He was the director of the ''Paris Opéra'' since 1945.

'''''Ciboulette''''' 
French: Chive. Also a feminine given name, from which the title of this [http://musicaltheatreguide.com/composers/hahn/ciboulette.htm operetta] comes.

'''''C'est pas Paris, c'est sa banlieue''''' 
French: It isn't Paris, it's a suburb of Paris.

==Page 1066==

'''"J'ai Deux Amants"''' 
French: I have two lovers.

'''Sacha Guitry''' 
[http://www.infoplease.com/ipea/A0766430.html Sacha Guitry] (1885-1957) was a French film actor and director. 
:The Guitry production in question is "l'Amour masqué", first staged in 1923. André Messager wrote the music and Yvonne Printemps, Guitry's wife, sang it.

''''Jour''' 
For ''Bonjour.'' French: Hello. Literally: '''Day.''

'''Scyuzay mwah''' 
For ''Excusez-moi.'' French: Excuse me.

'''ain't you that La Jarretière?''' 
In ''V.'' she died graphically around the time of the World War. Her stage name is French: The Garter.

'''''succès de scandale''''' 
French, literally: success of scandal. In this case, the hype that the show needed to put customers in the seats.

'''''Mon Dieu! . . . que les hommes sont bêtes''''' 
French: My God, how stupid men are. 
:a line in the aforementioned song "j'ai deux amants", it is also a line in Offenbach's operetta La Perichole.

'''''Fossettes l'Enflammeuse''''' 
French: Dimples, the Inflamer. "Fossettes" has verbal echoes (as foreshadowing sound, so to speak) of [Bob] Fosse, much later American choreographer and director.

'''Jean-Raoul Oeuillade''' 
The surname is the name of a restaurant and a wine grape. It also appears to be a French misspelling of ''œillade'' = wink, leer.

'''''Dimples''''' 
R. Wilshire knows you can print a one-word title in bigger letters than a whole phrase. 
He's also the producer of such highbrow fare as African Antics, Shanghai Scampers and Roguish Redheads.

'''Solange St.-Emilion''' 
'Solange' is the name of a saint; and St. Emilion is a wine - a claret, a British term for a Bordeaux.

'''Casse-cou . . . n'importe quoi!''' 
Daredevil, that's me. / This little don't-give-a-damn. / Daredevil, husband, your women, / All the other men, no matter who!

==Page 1067==

'''"It won't be a stylish marriage"''' 
Quoting from the popular song [[ATD_644-677#Page_647|"Daisy Bell."]]

Last alluded to on P.647, just before the gunfight that wasn't, with Frank and Stray in El Paso. Difficult relationships seem to bring out this ditty.

'''the disaster up at Caporetto''' 
The [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_Caporetto Battle of Caporetto] was fought between October 24 and November 9, 1917, on the Austro-Italian front. Austrian forces, with German support, broke through the Italian lines, killing 11,000, wounding 25,000, and taking 250,000 prisoners. In the aftermath of the battle, Austrian forces advanced on Venice, but were ultimately stopped by a newly formed defensive line.

==Page 1068==

'''Bleriot monoplanes''' 
The [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blériot_XI Bleriot] was a pioneering monoplane built of oak and poplar and surfaced with cloth. It was the first plane to cross the English Channel and to fly over the Alps.

==Page 1069==

'''Italo-Turkish War''' 
Over control of Libya, 1911-12, important precursor of the Balkan Wars. An Italian flyer dropped history's first aerial bomb on Turkish troops. See [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Italo-Turkish_War Italo-Turkish War].

'''the Cambio''' 
"The [http://www.thi.it/eng/benvenuto_ristoranti.asp?id=2 Ristorante del Cambio], known locally as 'the old lady'" (ATD, p. 1073), is a famous restaurant in Turin, in operation since 1757, where important politicians and generals have dined. It is located at ''2, Piazza Carignano, Turin''. (See also pages 1070 and 1073.)

'''I Murazzi''' 
The name given to a stretch of riverfront arcades on the west bank of the Po in central Turin. They were originally boat-houses and landing places, but eventually developed into discos and bars and so became a center of Turin's nightlife. The name comes from the stone embankment ("walls") that were built along the Po in the nineteenth century to prevent flooding of the city center.

'''''una picchiata''''' 
Italian: a nosedive.

==Page 1070==

'''''mia bella'' Caproni''' 
My beautiful Caproni. ''Caproni'' was the Italian World War I heavy bomber designed by the talented pioneer Italian aircraft designer and manufacturer [http://www.allstar.fiu.edu/aero/caproni.htm Gianni Caproni] (1886-1957). The model described here is likely the [http://www.answers.com/topic/caproni-ca-4 ''Caproni Ca.4''], a triplane with a four-man (not five-man) crew, three Isotta-Fraschini engines (270HP each), a maximum speed of 87 mph, two forward and two rearward mounting Revelli machine guns. (note: being a 'male' word - italian has no neutral, so words are either male or female, Renzo would certainly say 'il mio bel Caproni')

'''''Si, certo''''' 
Italian: Yes, sure.

'''''Lucrezia'' Borgia''' 
[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lucrezia_Borgia Lucrezia Borgia] (1480-1519) was an Italian noblewoman, a famous figure of the Italian Renaissance. She was always casted as ''femme fatale'' in many artworks, novels and films. One of the numerous legends about her said that Lucrezia was in possession of a hollow ring that she used frequently to poison drinks.

'''''Andiamo''''' 
Italian: Let's go.

'''the SVA''' 
[http://www.fiddlersgreen.net/AC/aircraft/Ansaldo-SVA/info/info.htm The SVA] (Savoia Verduzio Ansaldo) World War I Italian bi-plane reconnaissance-bomber.

'''''Macché''''' 
Italian: Naw. Macché is an Italian interjection, not slang, translated as of course not, not on your life, go on!, come off it!, depending upon context: take your pick.

'''Molo Antonelliana''' 
[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mole_Antonelliana Mole Antonelliana] is a major landmark and the highest (550 ft) building of Turin, Italy. It was built in 1863 to be a Jewish synagogue. Since 2000, it houses Italy's National Cinema Museum. See photos of [http://digilander.libero.it/fotogian/mole.html Mole Antonelliana].

==Page 1071==

'''''picchiate . . . picchiata''''' 
The first is plural, the second its singular. Italian: nosedives, nosedive.

'''a Certain Word that would not quite exist for another year or two''' 
Of course it's "Fascism." "It was all political." Politics through aerobatics instead of chemistry? 
Fascism is the unity of government and industry, or big business - clearly a consistent theme in ATD. 
Granted on a theme of ATD, but Fascism is, historically and conceptually,
more--far worse-- than the unity of government and industry. 
True. I should have said it's "a key element." Interesting reading at Wikipedia on [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Definitions_of_fascism Definitions of fascism]. I tend to think we're heading that way ourselves. But then, George Orwell's comment is valid, too. 
''Vineland'', that homage inspired by ''1984'' has three major, overt instances of the Government [A fictional Reagan America] pre-emptively destroying our basic civil rights. Not to mention the thrust of the whole
novel, perhaps only now, 2007, revealing its prescience to we readers.[[User:MKOHUT|MKOHUT]] 12:53, 17 June 2007 (PDT) 
:More than the unity of government and industry, yes. You also need the military - in fact the 'military-industrial complex'. Remember we're talking about Italian Fascism here. Antisemitism, for example, isn't (at least yet) an inevitable part of it. The essence of Fascism is 'corporatism', where state, military and industry are all run like one big corporation with the same people at the top. This is the symbolism of the 'fasces', the bunch of sticks or reeds that can't be broken because it all hangs together, and that is of course why Renzo says: "You saw how they broke apart...But we did not. We remained single, aimed, unbreakable."

'''''Um vettore, si?''''' 
''Um'' is a slurred form of ''un''. Italian: A vector, yes? Actually, even though it is always written "un" in the Italian national standard (many dialects still exist), in front of words that start with "v" or "f", the "n" in "un" is sounded as a nasalized "m." (In front of words that start with "b" or "p" the "n" in "un" is simply pronounced like "m.")

==Page 1072==

'''in uniform all the time. Eagles . . . a prominent motif''' 
eagles have been referred to often as predators in ATD. 
A reference to [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fascist_symbolism#Militarist_uniforms_with_nationalist_insignia Fascist insignia].

'''''abrazo''''' 
Spanish: embrace.

'''''teleferiche''''' 
Italian: cars suspended from cables, cableways.

==Page 1073==

'''agnolotti''' 
Italian. A filled pasta similar to ravioli.

'''risotto''' 
The renowned northern Italian rice dish.

'''tagliarini''' 
Long, thin, narrow noodles.

'''Nebbiolo''' 
A wine grape originating in northern Italy.

'''Carpano's for a ''punt e mes''' 
Carpano's--a notable name in Turin--probably refers to a family bar or restaurant. Antonio Benedetto Carpano (1764–1815) was a Torinese distiller who, in 1786, invented vermouth--wine infused with herbs and and spices including wormwood (German Wermut). ''Punt e mess'' is a dark, brown, bitter vermouth originally produced by the Carpano distillery; the product earned its name (meaning "point and a half") because it was originally marketed during a boom in the stock market, and the Carpanos wanted to benefit from the association.

==Page 1074==

'''S.S. ''Persia'' had been torpedoed by a U-boat captain named Max Valentiner. . .''' 
[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SS_Persia_(1900) S.S ''Persia''] was a P & O passenger liner built in 1900. It was sunk on December 30, 1915 within five to tem minutes by a German U-Boat, U-38, off Crete with a loss of 343 of the 519 aboard. The commander of U-38 was [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Max_Valentiner Max Valentiner] (1883-1949).

'''Eleanor Thornton''' 
Like Dally (ATD 893–5), [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eleanor_Thornton Eleanor Velasco Thornton] was a sculptors' model. She was a passenger on the S. S. Persia and drowned when it was sunk. She inspired Charles Robinson Sykes (see Sykes, Charlie, in the ATD Alphabetical Index) to create the Rolls-Royce hood-ornament known as "[http://against-the-day.pynchonwiki.com/wiki/index.php?title=Image:Spirit-of-ecstacy.jpg The Spirit of Ecstasy]."

'''...Reef, Stray and Ljubica returned to the U.S. pretending to be Italian immigrants.''' 
Somebody dropped the ball here; obviously this should read "Reef, Yash and Ljubica." But Yashmeen had never before been in the United States.
:Even Homer nods.
:Ljubica was born outside, and had never been in, the U.S. !
:If they pretending to be immigrants getting into the country first time, then they were NOT returning to the U.S. Because they are pretending, they could be returning. If they were actually immigrants, they would not be returning.

'''''I,'' for Idiot''' 
Another character assuming the character of an [[Idiots and Idiocy in Against the Day| — a minor theme of ''AtD''.]]

'''I, also, in 'the immigrants they were pretending to be'''' 
...soon obliterated.

'''"The Obliterator"''' 
A figure almost of legend, who causes unwelcome entries in your file to ''vanish without trace.'' But a member of the wiki was once friends with a bureaucrat, in a university registrar's office, who knew the "oblit" code. Like "The Obliterator," she used her power only for good.

==Page 1075==

'''Red Scare . . . Palmer raids''' 
Public and media panic over the ideas of communists, other leftists and Anarchists led to a government crackdown on these elements in the years after the World War. Alexander M. Palmer, U.S. Attorney General under Woodrow Wilson, was a leading figure in the campaign. The Red Scare led more or less directly to the supremacy of the F.B.I., which some may view as [[ATD_1018-1039#Page_1021|"the control of the evil and moronic,"]] and also to the founding of the American Civil Liberties Union.

==Page 1076==

'''Frank and Stray's daughter Ginger and the baby Plebecula''' 
"Ginger" is sometimes a nickname for Virginia but also sometimes a substitute for "Red": a redheaded person. "Plebecula" can mean "the common people" . . . or a species of ant. Both children (Jesse too, could be) have political given names.

'''Kitsap Peninsula''' 
Dissected peninsula in Puget Sound, Washington state. Not the northernmost point in the 48 states, but maybe the remotest.

Not far from Port Renfrew, B. C.

Could be a reference to the one-time anarchist community of Home, Washington, on the Kitsap Peninsula near Tacoma. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Home,_Washington Home, Washington] But the community had been officially harassed out of existence by about 1915.

'''"Mr. Becker was at the Cour d'Alene back in the olden days. Guess I forgot to mention that."''' 
In Pynchon's "Vineland", the action follows Jess' grand-daughter Frenesi, and great-granddaughter Prairie through some of the same kind of power-vs-preterite struggles that have haunted the family here in AtD. In "Vineland" Jess marries a woman named Eula Becker-- this may be Pynchon's way of tying up some strings for those of us who obsess over such details.
"Vineland" dedicates a fair amount of time to discussions of light and shadow and the powers of silver emulsions in the golden age of Hollywood, too.

==Page 1077==

''''''Soir''''' 
For ''Bonsoir.'' French: good evening, or just hello.

'''It was Policarpe, an old acquaintance of Kit''' 
Belgian anarchist, named for St. Polycarp; see [[ATD_525-556#Page_527|annotation to page 527.]]

'''licking a few vitrines''' 
The French phrase "leche vitrine" is the American equivalent of "window shopping" and literally means "window licking."

'''Lwów''' 
A city in western Ukraine, [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lwow see Wikipedia.] The city's emblem shows a lion in front of a castle wall with 3 towers. It is strikingly reminiscent of the Tibetan seal on the cover of ATD. Recall that Venetia also claims the Lion (the winged Lion of St. Mark) as its emblem.

'''Galicia''' 
If the complex history of this region—now partly in western Ukraine and partly in southern Poland—moves you, there's a pretty fair [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Galicia_%28Central_Europe%29 Wikipedia entry] that also covers the next item. Lots of Americans trace their ancestry back to Galicia. See also the [[ATD_695-723#Page_697|annotations to page 697.]]

'''West Ukraine Republic''' 
Or West Ukrainian People's Republic, or [http://www.answers.com/topic/west-ukrainian-national-republic West Ukrainian National Republic], existed between October 19,1918 and July 1919—long enough to [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Image:Flag_of_Ukraine.svg adopt a flag].

'''E. Percy Movay''' 
When the Inquisition compelled Galileo to recant his ideas about the celestial realm (he had blasphemed by reporting that Jupiter's moons orbit the planet and by reasoning that the Earth moves around the Sun too), he left the courtroom muttering, "And yet it ''does'' move." In Italian: ''Eppur si muove.''

'''a fabled group of mathematicians in Lwów''' 
[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lw%C3%B3w_School_of_Mathematics The Lwów School of Mathematics] led by Stefan Banach, a founder of functional analysis, who became a professor there in 1920. They often met at the famous Scottish Café.

==Page 1078==

'''Scottish Café''' 
An extraordinarily talented group of mathematicians could be found in Lwow in the 1930s. Much of their best work was inspired by their meetings in [http://www-history.mcs.st-andrews.ac.uk/HistTopics/Scottish_Book.html the Scottish Café]. It's a shame that Kit got there early.

'''Zermelo's Axiom Of Choice''' 
[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Axiom_of_choice The Axiom of Choice] in set theory was formulated in 1904 by [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zermelo Ernst Zermelo] (1871-1953), a German mathematician. It states that given any set of nonempty sets, there exists at least one set that contains exactly one element from each of the nonempty sets. The Axiom of Choice is related to the first of Hilbert's problems.

Here used to explain a variant of
[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Banach%E2%80%93Tarski_paradox the Banach-Tarski paradox] of 1924 which says in effect that it is possible to "carve up" a 3-dimensional solid unit ball into finitely many pieces and, using only rotation and translation, reassemble the pieces into two balls each with the same volume as the original. An infinitley re-assemblable universe?

'''the set of all sets that are not members of themselves''' 
Quick, does it contain itself? Bertrand Russell's pursuit of this paradox forced a major realignment of axiomatic set theory.

'''Q.E.D.''' 
Proofs in geometry and algebra, in fact, all mathematics, end with this statement. Q.E.D. = ''Quod Erat Demonstrandum'' = which was to be demonstrated. Some math professors after putting a difficult proof on the board and after writing QED jokingly translate it as "quite easily done."

==Page 1079==

'''Lemberg, Léopol, Lvov, Lviv and Lwów''' 
Names applied to the city by its various rulers. Today it's Lviv, but its citizens are sometimes called Leopolitans.

==Page 1080==

'''Glowny Dworzec''' 
Polish: Main Station.

'''the Iron Gate . . . the Defile of Kazan''' 
[http://donsmaps.com/irongatesoverview.html Two historical sites] along the Danube. The Iron Gate, 100 miles east of Belgrad, separated the Balkan and the Carpathian ranges. The Kazan Defile is further upstream near Belgrade where the Danube has dangerous currents and whirlpools.

'''There was music...attended to''' 
Thelonius Monk's music was once described this way. Quotation, reference being sought.

Also reminds me of John Cage's idea of an 'anarchic harmony', where all individual sounds have the same value and importance (and require to be listened to by themselves, "each note insisted on being attended to"), and 'dissonant' as they may appear, form a 'harmony' of individual sounds, "non-obstructive and interpenetrating".

==Page 1081==

'''tarboosh''' 
[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fez_(clothing) A fez].

'''the man in the tarboosh''' 
So Lord Overlunch has been a secret operator in all this? He is apparently an agent of Shamballa.

'''the Ferrary sale''' 
[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Philipp_von_Ferrary Philipp von Ferrary] was a legendary stamp collector. Wishing to make his unequaled collection accessible to the public, on January 30, 1915 he willed it to the Postmuseum in Berlin, along with funds for maintenance, 30,000 guldens. But as a citizen of Austria living in France, World War I put him at risk. Leaving his several hundred albums in the Austrian embassy, he fled to Switzerland in 1917. He died soon after, and so did not see the dismantling of his life's work after the war. The French government confiscated Ferrary's collection, claiming it as a war reparation. The massive assemblage was auctioned off between 1921 and 1926, in 14 separate sales, realizing some 30 million francs. Many of the rare stamps of today proudly bear an "ex-Ferrary" in their provenance.

[[image:Gul_tre_skilling_banco.jpg|thumb|150px|The Treskilling Yellow|right]]'''Swedish three-skilling yellow''' A valuable [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tre_Skilling_Yellow Swedish postage stamp] because it was issued, in 1855, printed on yellow colored paper (which was for the eight-skilling stamp) instead of the customary green. It is now estimated to be worth over US$2 million.

'''since the Spanish Lady passed through''' 
The great influenza pandemic of 1918-20. The disease got the name "Spanish flu" because Spain, neutral in the World War and therefore not censoring its press, was the country where the spread of the illness was most openly reported.

'''Chez Rosalie''' 
An Italian restaurant in Montparnasse, Paris.

==Page 1082==

'''Hesitation Waltz''' 
One of [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Waltz#Various_styles_of_waltz many styles of waltz]. In the 1910s a form called the "Hesitation Waltz" incorporated Hesitations and was danced to fast music. A Hesitation is basically a halt on the standing foot during the full waltz measure, with the moving foot suspended in the air or slowly dragged.

'''''bandoneón''''' 
Musical instrument similar to an accordion, named for its inventor Heinrich Band, heavily used in Argentine tango music.

'''the taxis, battered veterans of the mythic Marne''' 
World War, First Battle of the Marne, 1914. To shore up their Sixth Army the French commandeered 600 Paris taxicabs and used them to carry 6000 reserve troops to the front.

==Page 1083==

'''''bals musettes''''' 
French: dance halls, with the music provided by an accordion band. cf [http://against-the-day.pynchonwiki.com/wiki/index.php?title=ATD_864-891#Page_891 page 891]

'''Garçons de '71''' 
Interesting [http://www.centennialofflight.gov/essay/Lighter_than_air/military_balloons_in_Europe/LTA4G2.htm note and pic] here.

'''Penny Black''' 
[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Penny_Black The Penny Black], the world's first official adhesive postage stamp, was issued by the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland on 1 May 1840.

==Page 1084==

'''Puisieulx''' 
One of the 17 Grand Cru (highest level of classification) of Champagne.

'''no longer a matter of gravity'''

==Page 1085==

'''Pugnax and Ksenija's Generations''' 
Pugnax seems to be over 30 years old already, having been no longer a pup in 1893. p. 5. Long lived for a natural dog, not necessarily for a cartoon dog like Scooby Doo and Pugnax.

'''grace''' 
Cf. what Lew Basnight "came to think of as grace". p. 42.

 Gravity and Grace, a reference to Simone Weil.

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

ATD 26-56

2009-10-15T19:33:04Z

Thorras: /* Page 47 */ Added reference to the Cotton Club

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

==Page 26==

'''egret plumes''' 
Some species of egrets were threatened with extinction in the 19th century because their plumes (also called ''aigrettes'') were much used in millinery. Problem is, the egrets grew the showy feathers only in breeding season, so that's when they were killed, hence no little egrets (egretlets?).

'''Little Egypt''' 
was the stage name for two popular exotic dancers, Ashea Wabe who danced at the Seeley banquet at the 1893 World's Fair and Farida Mazar Spyropoulos, also performing under the stage name Fatima, appeared at the "Street in Cairo" exhibition on the Midway at the World's Columbian Exposition, held in Chicago in 1893. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Little_Egypt_(dancer) Wikipedia entry] Also a 1961 [[Little_Egypt|song]] by the Coasters.

==Page 27==

'''“I greatly admire the music of the region,” said Miles, “the ukulele in particular.”''' 
[http://www.thomaspynchon.com/hawaiian-vacations-pynchon.html The Hawaiian Islands and culture] (particularly ukuleles) have a strong presence in [http://vineland.pynchonwiki.com/wiki/index.php?title=The_Hawaiian_Islands_and_Ukuleles ''Vineland''] and [http://gravitys-rainbow.pynchonwiki.com/wiki/index.php?title=The_Hawaiian_Islands_and_Ukuleles ''Gravity's Rainbow'']. [[Hawaii|More on Hawaiian references in ''Against the Day'']]...

'''Bacchanale''' 
From ''Samson et Dalila'', op. 47 (1877) [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Samson_and_Delilah_%28opera%29 Wikipedia entry]. Listen to a [http://themodernword.com/wiki/bacchanale.mp3 30 second MP3 sample]

"Bacchanalia" describes not just the music but the dance too, in this context.

'''from here to Timbuctoo''' 
Now known as [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Timbuktu Timbuktu,] a standard figure of speech for the other end of Creation.

'''Maxim whirling machines...''' 
This paragraph describes a number of real flying apparati: [http://invention.psychology.msstate.edu/i/Chanute/library/Prog_Aero_Oct1893.html This article] from October 1893 describes the Maxim whirling machine and others.

'''wing-flapping miracles of ornithurgy''' 
"ornithurgy" appears to be a Pynchon neologism meaning "bird-works" (Greek: ''ornis'', ''ornithos'', "bird" + ''-ourgia'' work, working). This entire passage seems proleptic, prefiguring the appearance of the [[ATD_1018-1039#Page_1030|Sodality of Ǣtheronauts]].

'''Dally''' 
Merle's relationship with Dally is reminiscent of Ryan and Tatum O'Neal's characters in the 1973 Peter Bogdanovich film, "Paper Moon". Merle's family situation (single father, smart aleck daughter, mother who took off) is identical to that of ''Vineland's'' protagonist Zoyd Wheeler.

==Page 28==

'''''Imbottigliata!''''' Italian for "bottled".

'''in Randolph's face a degree of stupefaction one regrets to term characteristic''' 
Randolph "froze" previously, on page 12; evidently this is a trait already established in the ''Chums'' novels.

'''fulminate me if she ain't''' 
What an odd turn of phrase: "set me off explosively." Actually, fulminate is derived from the Latin ''fulminat'' - "struck by lightning" - so it's more, May I be struck by lightning if she ain't.

'''this Trouvé-screw unit over here''' 
Gustave Trouvé built advanced machinery from the 1860s to the 1890s; [http://invention.psychology.msstate.edu/i/Chanute/library/Prog_Screws_May1892.html his work on airscrews] was pivotal, and he also invented [http://www.electricrecordteam.com/history.htm the outboard motor.] Before Trouvé's design studies, propulsion in the air used sail-rotors like windmills or depended on slightly modified marine propellers.

==Page 29==

'''Midway Plaisance''' 
The big central concourse of the White City. "Plaisance" is an alternative (or Frenchified) spelling of "pleasance," an esthetically appealing spot. According to [http://users.vnet.net/schulman/Columbian/columbian.html this very good site] on the Columbian Exposition, the Midway Plaisance lent its name to the midways of circuses ever after.

'''a l'étouffée''' 
French, meaning braised. So, braised alligator meat. Braised food, for instance crawfish, is a culinary specialty of New Orleans.

In the New Orleans context, a recipe is pertinent because "braise" doesn't exactly tell the story of this Cajun preparation. The following is drastically abridged from, of all things, the obituary of Joe Daole ("Joe Dale") in the ''Atlanta Journal-Constitution,'' April 21, 2007:
:Saute onion, green pepper, celery, parsley and garlic in a great deal of butter. Add peeled and chopped tomatoes and seasonings. Simmer, covered, 5-10 minutes. Make a dark brown roux with oil and flour; add to vegetables. Add seafood stock and bring to a boil. Add peeled shrimp or crawfish tail meat and cook just 2-3 minutes. Serve over rice.

'''Sloane Laboratory''' 
Yale's physics lab built 1882. Cf [[ATD_26-56#Page_33|page 33]].

'''Professor Gibbs''' 
Josiah Williard Gibbs (1839-1903), American mathematical physicist. He was born in New Haven, Connecticut. In 1854 he went to Yale and won prizes for excellence in Latin and mathematics. He undertook research in engineering and received his Ph.D in 1863, the first doctorate in engineering to be conferred in the US. From 1866 to 1869 Gibbs studies in Europe - first in Paris, then in Berlin and finally in Heidelberg. He was professor at Yale from 1871 to 1903. He contributed substantially to the study of thermodynamics, and his most important work, ''On the Equilibrium of Heterogeneous Substances'' (1876 and 1878) and his "phase rule" established him as a founder of physical chemistry. Gibbs' work on vector analysis was also of major importance in pure mathematics. Gibbs was one of the greatest American scientists in the 19th century. ([http://www-history.mcs.st-andrews.ac.uk/Mathematicians/Gibbs.html Gibbs].)

'''De Forest''' 
Lee De Forest (1873-1961), American inventor. He was born in Council Bluffs, Iowa and educated at Yale and Chicago. A pioneer of radio, he introduced the grid into the therm-ionic valve, and invented the audion (1907), feedback circuit (1912) and the four-electrode valve. He involved in first news by radio (1916). He also did much early work on sound reproduction and on television. He patented over 300 inventions in wireless telegraphy, radio, telephony, talking pictures, high-speed facsimile transmission, television, radiotherapy, radar, etc. He was called, sometimes, "the father of radio." ([http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lee_De_Forest De Forest].)

'''Kimura''' 
He received his Ph.D degree in mathematics from Yale University in 1896. (Dissertation: ''Studies on General Spherical Functions''.) He published a paper ''On the Nabla of Quaternions'' in ''The Annals of Mathermatics'', Vol 10, No. 1/6 (1895-1896). In 1912, he published a paper called ''One-Waveness in Wireless Telegraphy; Pseudo-Impact Excitation'' in ''Physical Review'' of May 1912. (''Nabla'' is an early name for the "del" operator, symbolized by the inverted Greek letter Δ.)

'''Ray Ipsow''' 
In Latin ''re ipso'' means "the thing itself." "To the thing itself" was the motto and rallying cry of the investigational method known as phenomenology [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Phenomenology Wikipedia entry] developed by Edmund Husserl [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Edmund_Husserl Wikipedia entry]. As the phrase indicates, it is a plea against abstraction--a theme of GR--- and for reality 'itself'.

'''Outer Indianoplace''' 
Derogatory nickname for Indianapolis.

'''down in New Orleans . . . that Khartoum business''' 
Evidently two Chums of Chance books we didn't know about. Perhaps ''The Chums of Chance and the Voodoo Priest'' and ''The Chums of Chance and the Mussulman Hordes.''

'''Khartoum... Mahdi's army''' 
Khartoum is the capital of Sudan. The Mahdi army refered to here was an Islamic group in the 1880s that advocated a return to strict Islamic values and battled with the government of Khartoum and Egyptian armies.More on these convoluted events at the [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_Sudan_(1884-1898) Wikipedia entry].

The concept of the Mahdi is far beyond this one historic event, however.
In point of fact, the U.S. is fighting the [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mahdi_Army Mahdi Army] in Iraq right now.

==Page 30==

'''contrary wind . . . Oltre Giubba, instead of down at Alex''' 
From Khartoum you fly north by west to Alexandria. That wind was about as contrary as it could be: from Khartoum to Oltre Giuba is south by east. Now called [http://www.jubaland.org/ Jubaland,] Oltre Giuba (just one B, please, this isn't ''Pagliacci'') is [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Oltre_Giuba the southwesternmost part of Somalia,] across the Juba River from the rest. Not to be confused with Juba province in southern Sudan.
:Oh, and the Oltre Giuba diversion must have taken place before ''Inconvenience'' was fitted with hydrogen steam power, else she could have flown against the wind.

'''railroad watch''' 
High-quality pocket watch. [http://www.pockethorology.org/Railroad/Railroad.htm [pix and info]]

'''The Palmer House''' 
A beautiful old Chicago hotel, still in operation. See [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Palmer_House here].

==Page 31==

'''Scarsdale Vibe''' 
Scarsdale NY boasts that it's Westchester County's wealthiest community, so a 'Scarsdale vibe' implies 'stinking of money'. Vibe is another Pynchon baddie whose last name starts with "V", ''e.g.'', Brock Vond in ''Vineland.''

'''"The Juggernaut"''' 
The name of Vibe's private train derives from the Sanskrit Jagannātha, meaning "Lord of the Universe" one of the many names of Lord Krishna. "Krishna" itself means "black" or "dark" skinned. British colonial "urban" legend had it that Hindus sought to be crushed under the wheels of giant cars in Krishna's "chariot procession" at Puri as a way of gaining salvation. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Juggernaut see the Wikipedia entry.]

Capitalism has often been described as a juggernaut. One of numerous uses:
"Even as leaders of nation states compete for power and prestige, the juggernaut of capitalism diminishes borders, weakens governments and, eventually," ...
http://www.southpacific.arts.unsw.edu.au/resources/resource_nissology.htm - 
:A leading sociologist, Anthony Giddens, is also responsible for the phrase, "the juggernaut of modernity". See this incredibly relevant definition and analysis of this phrase: "The most defining property of modernity, according to Giddens, is '''that we are disembedded from time and space'''. In pre-modern societies, space was the area in which one moved, time was the experience one had while moving. In modern societies, however, the social space is no longer confined by the boundaries set by the space in which one moves. One can now imagine what other spaces look like, even if he has never been there. In this regard, Giddens talks about virtual space and virtual time. Another distinctive property of modernity lies in the field of knowledge. In pre-modern societies, it were the elders who possessed the knowledge: they were definable in time and space. In modern societies we must rely on expert systems. These are not present in time and space, but we must trust them. Even if we trust them, we know that something could go wrong: there's always a risk we have to take. Also the technologies which we use, and which transform constraints into means, hold risks. Consequently, there is always a heightened sense of uncertainty in contemporary societies. It is also in this regard that Giddens uses the image of a 'juggernaut': modernity is said to be like an unsteerable juggernaut traveling through space." Wikipedia [[http://www.en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anthony_Giddens]]

'''in disguise . . . bodyguards and secretaries . . . ebony stick''' 
Some great disguise!

'''establishment defined by State, Monroe, and Wabash''' 
aka, The Palmer House (see note on previous page above).

'''Foley Walker''' 
"Foley walker" is a term used to indicate a sound-effects expert. Also known as a foley artist [http://www.natf.org/wad/foley.htm [cite]]. One of the foley walker's main jobs is to add the sound of footsteps to movies where required, imitating the way the character would walk. So, a kind of 'stand-in'.

'''Forty-seventh and Ashland''' 
[[image:47th-Ashland.jpg|right|thumb|caption|47th & Ashland Avenue, 1935| 200px]][...] First, the story [...] about Ashland being named for the ashes of the Great Chicago Fire is an urban legend. Ashland Avenue, first known as Reuben Street, was already developed before the fire and was considered the height of suburban living on the West Side in the 1860s.
[http://www.gapersblock.com/airbags/archives/ashland_the_great_fire_and_the_ruins_of_chicago/ [cite]] [...] The spread of movie palaces in the automobile age presaged the spread of commercial buildings from the Loop to the neighborhoods and suburbs. By 1930, Marshall Field & Co. had created smaller versions of its downtown store in Evanston and Oak Park, while neighborhood retailers like Goldblatt's and Wieboldt's were moving downtown. Chicago developed regional shopping districts at 47th and Ashland, 63rd and Halsted, Irving Park and Pulaski, and many other locations. Certain areas catered to specialized industries, such as “Automobile Row” on South Michigan Avenue, or the Maxwell Street Market, an open-air European-style market that resisted every effort at modernization until its destruction in the 1990s. [...]
[http://www.encyclopedia.chicagohistory.org/pages/316.html [cite]]

==Page 32==

'''Second Corinthians''' 
This exchange between Vibe and Ipsow refers specifically to 2 Corinthians 11:19 -- For ye suffer fools gladly, seeing ye yourselves are wise.
[http://www.kingjamesversionofthebible.com/47-secondcorinthians.html [cite]]

'''Ipsow's response to S. Vibe on lines 21-23( ...in these days need arises directly from criminal acts of the rich)''' can be seen as a direct paraphrase of Ch. 5 of the book of James:
Now listen you rich.. you have hoarded wealth in the last days. Look! the wages you failed to pay the workers who mowed your fields cry out against you... you have lived in luxury and fattened yourself in the day of slaughter. You have condemned and killed innocent men ... James 5

==Page 33==

'''"Old Zip Coon"''' 
"Old Zip Coon" dates from as early as 1834 and is considered the original name for the 19th-century American folk song, 'Turkey in the Straw'. [[Old Zip Coon | lyrics]] [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Turkey_in_the_Straw Wikipedia] See also [http://www.stephen-foster-songs.de/Amsong59.htm] and [http://www.csufresno.edu:80/folklore/ballads/RJ19258.html]. 
The word "coon" may originate in America as a derogatory name for a Negro, but it was current in England too (therefore not "for an African-American"). For other occurrences of the word, with show business associations in every case, see text and annotations: [[#Page_48|page 48]], [[ATD_336-357#Page_344|page 344]], [[ATD_358-373#Page_369|page 369]] and [[ATD_397-428#Page 424|page 424.]]
:In this contributor's boyhood, a brand of chewing tobacco heavily advertised on East Tennessee radio and television used the tune in its jingle, with lyrics close to:
<blockquote>If you like a spicy taste 
Every morning, night and noon, 
Then you're bound to like the taste 
When you chew Red Coon.</blockquote>
:The package at this time portrayed a raccoon, but it's possible a different image had come before.

'''Dr. Tesla''' 
Nikola Tesla (1856-1943), American inventor. He was born in Croatia of Serbian parents. He studied at Graz (Austria), Prague and Paris. He discovered (1881) principle of rotating magnetic field, basis of practically all alternating-current (AC) machinery. Between 1882-1884 he was an engineer in Paris (1882-84) and constructed his first induction motor (1883). He emigrated to the United States (1884, naturalized in 1889). Worked for Thmoas Edison (1884-85) but left the Edison Works at Menlo Park (Edison opposed to AC idea) to concentrate on his own inventions, which include improved dynamos, transformers, electric bulbs, wireless communication (1897) and the high-frequency coil which bears his name. (Cf [[ATD_97-118#Page_97|page 97]] and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nikola_Tesla Tesla].)

<div id="rewrite">'''violate . . . the essence of everything modern history is supposed to be''' 
Notice what he ''doesn't'' say: the principles of the free market, the essence of the capitalist economic system. As if modern history has already been written and such research would somehow undermine it.</div>

'''Sloane Lab''' 
Completed in 1912, was the gift of Henry T. Sloane, BA 1866, and William D. Sloane, MA HON. 1889. Of Longmeadow stone, it is Collegiate Gothic in style. Charles C. Haight was the architect. (An underground addition was constructed in 1958 to house a Van de Graaff machine-now removed. The John A. Hartford Foundation, Inc., and the U.S. Public Health Service financed it. Sloane Lab was the first University constructed on the Hillhouse Estate (less the three acres adjoining Sachem’s Wood). The property was a gift in 1910 of Mrs. Russell Sage, and called Pierson Sage Square. The University had wanted to acquire the land to develop into a turn-of-the-century “science park”. The well-known landscape architect, Frederick Law Olmstead advised in the land’s development. [217 Prospect Street]
[http://www.facilities.yale.edu/campus/Building1.asp?lstBldg=1075 [cite]] and [http://www.facilities.yale.edu/images/BFS/1075.jpg [photo]].

Interestingly, Frederick Law Olmstead was also pivital in the development of the grounds for the 1893 Columbian Exposition in Chicago. His famous "Wooded Isle" remains a centerpiece in Chicago's Jackson Park. [http://www.hydepark.org/parks/jpac/jpkhistoryandfair.htm [link]] and
[http://www.hydepark.org/parks/pics/laggen4.JPG [photo]].

For a more detailed account of Olmstead's landscape architecture as it relates to the 1893 World's Fair, see Erik Larson's ''The Devil in the White City''.

:These would be anachronistic, but as the note for p29 above mentions, a lab existed by 1882.

'''World-System''' 
Dr. Tesla's idea of providing electrical power that anyone could tap in for free alludes the birth of wireless internet before being monopolized by b(p)ig companies and corporate greed.

==Page 34==

'''the most terrible weapon the world has seen . . . rational systems of control''' 
This statement defines the threat—as the plutocrats see it—of free power (anarchy) and their justification for bending government and every other compelling force to stamp it out.

'''out of the fish-market anarchy of all battling all''' 
Vibe quotes Thomas Hobbes, who in ''Leviathan'' (1651) described the primitive state of the human race as ''bellum omnium contra omnes,'' the war of all against all, which was ended only by the creation of the State. Note the change of "war" to "anarchy."

'''Pierpont''' 
John Pierpont Morgan I (April 17, 1837 – March 31, 1913) was an American financier and banker, who dominated corporate finance and industrial consolidation.
[...]
In 1900, Morgan financed inventor Nikola Tesla and his Wardenclyffe Tower with $150,000 for experiments in radio. Tesla was unsuccessful and, in 1904, Morgan pulled out. Later, Tesla created an AC generator
[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/J._P._Morgan [cite]]

'''his arrangement with Edison''' 
Tesla and Edison were essentially enemies, both jockeying for position in the world of electricity.

'''non-linear phenomena of scale''' 
Linear scaling means, for example, store twice as much charge, get twice as much voltage. An instance of behavior becoming nonlinear is when air insulation breaks down (arcs, lightning); here adding charge may lead to a ''decrease'' in voltage.

'''Somble, Strool & Fleshway''' 
Law firms in Pynchon have such charming names; compare Salitieri, Poore, Nash, de Brutus, and Short in [http://gravitys-rainbow.pynchonwiki.com/wiki/ ''Gravity's Rainbow''] or Warpe, Wistfull, Kubitschek and McMingus in [http://cl49.pynchonwiki.com/wiki/ ''The Crying of Lot 49'']. This one has more of a Dickensian sound. Somble could be a portmanteau of ''somber'' and ''tremble'' or ''some bull''; Strool, perhaps, of ''strait'' (= narrow) and ''cruel,'' or ''stool'' and ''drool''. "Fleshway" might suggest a reference to Samuel Butler's ''The Way of All Flesh,'' which was not published until 1903, but it seems more likely to go back to [http://www.gracecathedral.org/enrichment/brush_excerpts/brush_20041027.shtml a biblical phrase] associated with death.

Using the onomatapeia technique such as in the ''Gravity's Rainbow'' law firm, we start to get 'Some Bull, is ('t) Drool And.......Help needed! How about "some bull's strool and fleshway." Strool being the portmanteau of stool and drool, and fleshway being the meaty part of the flushway (g.i. tract, anus) -- you know, something like bullshit with the consitency of diarrhea.

Incidentally, Strool is an actual surname as well as the name of a town in South Dakota.

By the way, Thomas Hobbes' ''Leviathan'' (see "all against all" entry toward the top of this page) is also the source of Salitieri et al. ("solitary, poor, nasty, brutish and short," describing the life of human beings in their primitive state). 

'''vestiary''' 
Of, or relating to, clothing.

==Page 36==

'''Fairgoers would see the ship overhead and yet not see it''' 
Useful property for a surveillance platform. And a perfect description of the [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Panopticon Panopticon], which is a prison design in which prisoners can see the tower watching them but never know exactly when they're being watched. Michel Foucault discusses this in his book ''Discipline and Punish''.

'''Ferris Wheel''' 
Debuted at the Fair.

'''Lew Basnight''' 
"Bas" is French for "low", though "bas nuit" means nothing in French.

A detective named 'Lew' reminds us (who is "us"?) of Ross Macdonald's character Lew Archer which in turn recalls another detective, Miles Archer, partner of Sam Spade in San Francisco detective agency Spade & Archer. This may be a bad pun on 'lube-ass night' and also might refer to the incident causing Lew to be shunned by his peers.

[[image:beaver-on-the-brain.jpg|thumb|Beaver on the Brain T-Shirt|right]]Very possibly, Pynchon is having some fun here, working a whole sexual angle, naming his character after the phrase "BAS night," meaning a boys' night out, "BAS" being an acronym for "Bitches Ain't Shit" from the [http://www.azlyrics.com/lyrics/drdre/bitchesaintshit.html "song" by Dr. Dre] (featuring Snoop Dogg, Dat Nigga Daz, Kurupt, Jewel). And, hey, Lew meets Nicholas Nookshaft, Grand Cohen of T.W.I.T. (Nookie Shaft? Twat crossed w/clit? A-and isn't that tetractys an inverted beaver?), where he meets Yashmeen, a ''very'' sexual woman. And then there's that whole "Beavers of the Brain" cyclomite episode ([[ATD 171-198#Page 183|p. 183]]) (Beavers, fercrissakes!). Perhaps something worth following up ... or not!

It is possible Basnight is an Americanization of the German "Fasnacht". "Fastnacht or Fasnacht is the pre-Lenten carnival in Alemannic folklore in Switzerland, southern Germany, Alsace and western Austria. It is also known in parts of Pennsylvania Dutch Country as Fauschnaut Day and is celebrated on the day before Ash Wednesday, or the last Tuesday before Lent." [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fasnacht]

"A likely derivation is from PIE pwo- "purify" (cognate to pava-mana), or alternatively connected with Middle High German vaselen "prosper, bud" and interpreted as a fertility rite."

Fasnacht Day is known in English as Shrove Tuesday. "The word shrove is a past tense of the English verb "shrive," which means to obtain absolution for one's sins by confessing and doing penance." [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shrove_Tuesday] All of this seems to tally well with the Basnight character.

Another pun theory: on page 38, Lew is described as being in an ignorance "black as night." This can be abbreviated to "Basnight."
Lew is pronounced "loo," which of course is the British toilet.
Lew Basnight then means, "toilet, black as night." Just a thought...

'''White City Investigations''' 
Since the White City dates from 01 May 1893, this ought to be later.

The name recalls the White Visitation of [http://gravitys-rainbow.pynchonwiki.com/wiki/ ''Gravity's Rainbow'']. Any connection?

==Page 37==
'''fictitiousness''' 
On this and the previous page, there is a question raised of whether the Chums are fictional. Or it could be saying that such fantastical sights as the airship are easy to miss at the fair.

It seems more likely that the comparison here is simply between that of the fair, a small, self-contained world of marvels (like all World's Fairs) and the "real world" outside its gates.

There is lots more going on (and it's ''lots'' more interesting). Consider these passages on pages 36-37:
*the . . . celebration possessed the exact degree of fictitiousness to permit the boys access and agency
*The harsh nonfictional world waited outside the White City's limits
*he (Lew) had not . . . heard of the Chums of Chance
*every boy knows the Chums of Chance
*you're not storybook characters. . . . Are you?
Too much back-and-forth about fiction to be '''just''' about the exposition and the real world. Some premises that are implicit here:
*The Chums know that they live in literature whether they have a "real" existence or not.
*They know their books are popular with an audience of boys. (Lindsay is surprised that Lew didn't read them earlier, not that he isn't reading them now.)
*Lew doesn't regard objective evidence (they are standing before him, he's ascended in their ship) as sufficient to rule out ambiguity (". . . Are you?").
*The lads are able to experience and act only in a quasi-fictitious environment. Off the fairgrounds (in the WCI office), Randolph gives nothing but answers scripted for him by National.
All this suggests that even the Chums aren't sure on what level they exist. They definitely have adventures, as recorded in their books, but they don't seem to have adventures ''not'' contained in the novels.
What will happen if they come to the end of a ''Chums'' book while we are still reading ''AtD''?

'''No more than Wyatt Earp or Nellie Bly''' 
See the next two entries. Earp had a "real" life but people remember him chiefly because of stories written about him (and by him through ghostwriters, [http://baseportal.com/cgi-bin/baseportal.pl?htx=/zpub2000/sfentries&cmd=list&range=0,50&Title~=E&cmd=all&Id=98 link 1], [http://www.ferncanyonpress.com/tombston/robbery.shtml link 2]). Bly entertained masses of people by having adventures and then writing about them. Each "lived" through a body of literature.

'''Wyatt Earp''' 
(1848–1929), was a teamster, sometime buffalo hunter, officer of the law in various Western frontier towns, gambler, and saloon-keeper in the Wild West and the U.S. mining frontier from California to Alaska. He is best known for his participation in the Gunfight at the O.K. Corral. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wyatt_Earp Wikipedia]

'''Nellie Bly''' 
(1864-1922) was an American journalist, author, industrialist, and charity worker. She is most famous for an undercover exposé in which she faked insanity to study a mental institution from within. She is also well-known for her record-breaking trip around the world. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nellie_Bly Wikipedia]

'''Regarding Lew Basnight's malady...''' 
Again, there seems to be a character with a neurological illness; in this case it is presented as amnesia, but seizures also result in "lost time". (See comments on Miles' "electricity coming on" on page 24.) Such maladies are more common than one supposes, and can offer a glimpse of other-worldliness akin to that of hallucinogenics, and epileptics have, at times, been considered to have access to past or future lives.
:OR it could be the case that Lew has fallen through a crack in time-space and entered a parallel universe; in the previous universe (which he simply remembers as the past), he had not done anything wrong, which explains his perplexity. The same might be the case with Miles, which would be why he did not expect baskets of crockery near his feet. Such moving among worlds is a thread in this work.

'''making a point of pronouncing his name disrespectfully''' 
The only way it could be done is, apparently, by saying Lube Ass Night. Well, that or tone of voice.

'''the Upstate-Downstate Beast''' 
Illinois is one of three states with an Upstate, though one of them doesn't use the term Downstate (South Carolina divides itself into Upstate and Lowcountry). The nickname points to a traveling man, perhaps. "Moral horror," "denounced," "revulsion" probably fit with many crimes, though most of those would have led to a prison sentence and we don't have any information of Lew's serving time.

'''"Although the longer a fellow's name has been in the magazines, the harder it is to tell fiction from non-fiction."''' 
May express Pynchon's reaction to the press' treatment of him over the years. In 1964, when Pynchon heard that the ''New York Herald Tribune'' was writing an article about him, Pynchon wrote to his agent that he assumed the piece "will be riddled with the same lies, calumnies and all-around knavish disregard for my privacy" as previous articles. ("Pynchon's Letters Nudge His Mask," ''New York Times,'' 4 Mar 1998).

'''Wensleydale''' 
A type of cheese made in Yorkshire, England.

==Page 38==

'''"You have destroyed your name."''' 
Wensleydale using very strong language. He doesn't say "destroyed your reputation" or "discredited your name" but "''destroyed'' your name." Does anyone else see this as suggesting Lew's name was not Lew Basnight before his sin?

'''to plead with him to come back''' 
A strange response, that Troth should ask the Upstate-Downstate Beast to return to her. You would think she'd prefer him as far away as he could get.

'''one of your other wives''' 
A direct reference to Lew's sin, or is Troth just pelting Lew with anything that's in reach?

==Page 39==

'''kazoos''' 
This silly instrument appears in several Pynchon novels.

'''slow ritual movement''' 
Maybe tai chi, or anachronistic Gurdjieffian dance?

'''Drave''' 
A noun meaning, according to the OED, a "fishing expedition in which several men take part, each supplying a net and receiving a share of the profits made. Later, A haul (of fish); also, a shoal." There is also a [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Drave Drave river] in south central Europe, though there seems to be no textual evidence to support this association.

'''Saratoga chips''' 
Potato chips were invented in Saratoga Springs, NY, and were often called Saratoga chips in the 19th century.

'''Esthonia Hotel''' 
How the country Estonia was spelled in English during the 18th and early 19th centuries.

Atonia is a lack of normal muscle tension, but also, "A frightening form of paralysis that occurs when a person suddenly finds himself or herself unable to move for a few minutes, most often upon falling asleep or waking up. Commonly called sleep paralysis, the condition is due to an ill-timed disconnection between the brain and the body." [http://www.medterms.com/script/main/art.asp?articlekey=9811 Definition] This could mean that the hotel in question is nothing more than an internal hallucination of Basnight's, further suggesting that his problem is one of neurological rather than simply moral or spiritual cause.

'''"liable for criminal penalties"''' 
Law and the legal profession so far appear in AtD more than any other Pynchon novel (perhaps save ''The Crying of Lot 49''), and so far, like here, in a negative or confusing light. Perhaps Pynchon sees law as part of the general establishment the novel seems to criticize/oppose.--("Seems to?" Is there some way in which, in the end, that this novel is SUPPORTING the "general establishment?" That would be an interesting hypothesis.)

==Page 40==

'''lofty regions no high-iron pioneer had yet dared''' 
[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wainwright_Building In the early 1890s] anything taller than about 10 stories would have qualified.

'''remembrance stick''' 
Similar to keisaku in Zen Buddhism, an attempt by a sensei to alert students to their mindlessness in zazen (sitting meditation), usually administered by a stick. An English translation is stick of compassion. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kyosaku [Wikipedia]]

Lew's performance of commonplace and strange chores is also similar to the way Zen training can proceed for novitiates.

==Page 41==

'''you keep bouncing free. Avoiding penance and thereby definition''' 
It is hard to tie Drave down philosophically. No connection between sin and penance, penance as destiny, penance happens or doesn't, and now this idea that penance ''defines'' one's existence.

'''Delirium literally means going out of a furrow''' 
Drave is right. Here's the [http://www.etymonline.com/index.php?search=delirium&searchmode=none etymology of the word].

==Page 42==

'''Spring arrived''' 
We've seen Lew pretty well through a year: summertime (p. 38) when Troth followed him to Chicago, autumn (p. 40) when he checked in at the Esthonia, winter (p. 41) as his bank account starved, now in the spring his moment of grace.

'''grace''' 
Also the last word of this novel.

'''scorcher cap''' 
The cap of an early bicycling enthusiast. According to [http://www.velorution.biz/?p=1288 this site]:

:"In […]1892 [… a] bicyclist to be considered genuine had to be dressed in bicycle clothes. A man had to wear bicycle pants which were baggy at the top and tight to the legs below. Then he had to have bicycle socks and shoes. The shoes were made of canvass. Then he had to have a loose fitting grey colored short which we would designate now as a sport shirt. Then on his head he had to wear a tight fitting cap with a long bill in front, the longer the better up to a certain ceiling length. With this outfit and a bicycle with drop handlebars he was ready to appear in public as a real cyclist. If he could make 20 miles an hour on a good track he was called a 'scorcher,' the idea being that he was going so fast that he would scorch at least the end of his nose if nothing else."

'''shirtwaists with huge shoulders''' 
[[image:shirtwaist.jpg|thumb|caption|Shirtwaists|150px|right]]Fashionable the year of the Fair, the shirtwaist is a dress with a bodice (waist) like a tailored shirt and an attached straight or full skirt, the huge shoulders being the sort of "puffy" look of the sleeves. They are now called blouses. Compare Chevrolette McAdoo's outfit, [[ATD_26-56#Page 26|p. 26]].

'''He understood that things were exactly what they were.''' 
This sentence sums up the entire experience at the Esthonia hotel, which seems to be a Zen-like initiation. Here, Lew Basnight seems to have attained some form of enlightenment, and the description ("a condition...which he later came to think of as grace"), along with this sentence, are almost textbook examples of Zen enlightenment. No lights flash, no changes are seen; one merely understands that things are what they are. After this experience, he leaves the hotel, and no longer needs to be there. He then embarks on his new career, in part because of his extreme ability to notice minute details; something that he was not said to have had before.
:The sentence can also serve as a guide to readers of ''AtD.'' Even when it is tempting to speculate that "this paragraph is about Richard Nixon" or protest that "you can't see Sirius on a summer evening," it is worth the effort to let the text mean what it means.

'''descended to the sidewalk''' 
Most of the public trains in Chicago are above street level. They are ''elevated'', which is why even today the train is called [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chicago_L "the L" or "the El."] Here's a good [http://www.cera-chicago.org/images/a001_Chicago_L_tn.jpg picture].

==Page 43==

'''transfigured''' 
In Lew's time of grace, he shows a changed face.

'''leisurely rips through the fabric of the day''' 
See below

'''working for the Eye''' 
aka, working for the Pinkertons, whose logo was [http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/c/c4/We_never_sleep.jpg an eye].

==Page 44==

'''He had learned to step to the side of the day.''' 
Through the book there are juxtapositions of things with and against the day (the 'title motif'). Here, we are told that Lew has learned to step "to the side" of the day. Possibly he is able to enter another plane? This is possible considering the dream-like hotel sequence on previous pages.
:I think that the "other plane" interpretation is a bit of a stretch. The passage seems to imply that Lew has learned to will and maintain a degree of detachment from his surroundings, perhaps a relinquishment of his perceived control over events or his attempts to control them.
: -- I don't see it as a stretch if we accept that he now recognizes that there are alternate, parallel, universes.

'''it was apparently not as easy for anyone in "Chicago" to be that certain of his whereabouts''' 
The quotes here may be to distinguish the fact that while technically living in Chicago, Lew sometimes exists or moves within a place or plane that others also living there don't see, or have access to.
:Yes, or universes rather than planes.

==Page 45==

'''two-headed eagle''' 
As Holy Roman Emperor, the Austro-Hungarian emperor bore a two-headed eagle (each head crowned) as part of his arms. The Tsar of Russia also used a two-headed eagle, but it was triply crowned (one crown between the heads). The Serbian two-headed eagle appeared on a shield with one crown above it, and the Montenegrin one had a single crown between the heads. Other details of the envelope would serve to disambiguate.

'''Trabants''' 
"Trabanten" (German for 'satellites') originally - during the Thirty Years' War - were lightly armed foot soldiers; later this term was used for servants and/or bodyguards of high-ranking persons.

'''"have a lawyer explain civil liability to you"''' 
Again, law.

'''gumshoe''' 
Perhaps a bit too early to use this term; the Dictionary of American Slang dates it as "by 1906".

'''a couple a thousand hunkies''' 
"Hunkies" was a slur against Hungarians and other eastern Europeans. The word may have morphed into "honkies."

'''Francis Ferdinand''' 
This is indeed the same Franz Ferdinand whose assassination in 1914 triggered World War I. At the time of his appearance in ''AtD'', he would have been 30, and his two passions throughout young adulthood and his 20s were travel and hunting (it is estimated that he shot more than 5,000 deer in his lifetime). [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Archduke_Franz_Ferdinand_of_Austria Wikipedia entry]. He did indeed attend the Chicago Exposition. [http://columbus.iit.edu/bookfair/ch27.html]

Click for [[The Habsburgs in Against the Day]]...

See the annotation about Austria-Hungary on the next page.

'''shive artist''' 
Someone proficient with a knife (shive=knife or razor).

'''to rewrite history''' 
Hold on, '''re'''write? As Vibe did on [[#rewrite|page 33,]] Privett seems to reason that history has already been decided and some action would change it rather than generate a valid new history.

==Page 46==

'''"staff," a mixture of plaster and hemp fibers''' 
[http://users.vnet.net/schulman/Columbian/columbian.html One source] says it was jute, not hemp.

According to [http://www.buildingstonemagazine.com/summer-06/historic.html ''Building Stone'' magazine,] the buildings were meant to be painted in bright colors, but the Chicago climate put the kibosh on that. Even keeping them white called for continuous repainting.

The Museum of Science and Industry is the only structure surviving from the exposition. Built as the Palace of Fine Arts, it started out faced in staff but was later [http://www.aviewoncities.com/chicago/museumofscienceandindustry.htm rebuilt] to the original exterior design in limestone and marble.

'''to counterfeit some deathless white stone''' 
Most of the buildings constructed for the Fair were finished with white stucco.
Given the many references throughout ''AtD'' to "white" and "stones" to ''counterfeit'' a ''deathless'' white stone seems portentous.

'''"In Austria," the Archduke was explaining, ". . . the Chicago Stockyards might possibly be rented out . . . for a weekend's amusement"''' 

Pynchon continues his linking of the Stockyard killing-floor with the genocidal horrors of the 20th Century, it seems. See above. Heidegger (sic) made this connection somewhere and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Maxwell_Coetzee J.M Coetze's] novel ''Elizabeth Costello'' uses it in a key chapter that was published separately.

'''beaters who drive the animals toward the hunters . . . waiting to shoot them''' 
Skillful use of ambiguity: waiting to shoot the animals or the beaters?

'''"Hungarians occupy the lowest level of brute existence"''' 
Even if the quote might be fictive, the Archduke's characterization is close to the point. Franz Ferdinand, a dour reactionary with aggressive ideas in foreign policy, had the reputation of an avowed Hungarophobe. The Compromise of 1867 created a dualistic Austro-Hungarian Monarchy, which the Archduke sought to transform in a "trialistic" way, giving an enivsioned southern Slav union of Croatia (which was united in a sub-confederation with Hungary), Bosnia and Dalmatia a status similar to that of the Kingdom of Hungary. Note how the Czechs, a population about twice as large as southwestern Slavs, were omitted from this scheme. The idea was evidently to weaken the Hungarian establishment, and recentralize power in Vienna.

'''Mannlicher''' 
A double-barreled rifle designed by Ferdinand Ritter von Mannlicher. It is reported that Archduke Franz Ferdinand had several of these made special for him.

Interestingly enough, the rifle is also mentioned in ''Green Hills of Africa'' and ''The Short Happy Life of Francis Macomber'' by Ernest Hemingway, who used it extensively on hunting.

Franz was eventually assassinated in Sarajevo. Coincidentally (?), fellow assassinee JFK was initially claimed to have been a victim of Lee Harvey Oswald's Mannlicher rifle.

==Page 47==

'''K&K Special Security''' 
"K&K" stands for "Kaiserlich und Königlich," German for "imperial and royal (kingly)," to indicate the Austrian two titles of the ruler of the Dual Monarchy: King of Hungary and Emperor of Austria. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kaiserlich_und_königlich Wikipedia entry].

'''Kuchenteigs-Verderbtheit''' 
This is not a German word as far as I know and most likely not even a degenerate Habsburg or one of his officers would have used it (but then I haven't read Franz Ferdinand's account of his travels...). Sounds more like some Babelfish machine translation of "pastry-depravity" to me. I wonder what the German translator will make of this. My guess is, s/he will not make a "typical German" combined noun out of it, but turn the phrase to be able to use an adverb like "mehlspeisennarrisch" instead (what with in Austria and Bavaria there is a word for (mostly sweet) pastry: "Mehlspeise" (literally "flour-meal), and "narrisch" is Austrian/Viennese for being (slightly) mad). But then, of course, there might be a pun intended I as a bad english-speaker just dont get. Maybe via the pronounciation? Check out this [http://www.dict.cc/?s=Kuchenteigs-Verderbtheit dictionary], head for "continue searching" and press "voice output" - voila, thats what "Kuchenteigs-Verderbtheit" sounds like.

The term probably is made up, but the meaning is more like "shameful addiction to cookie dough." In the context of detectives, what may be happening here is this: The Austrians have heard the canard that American policemen are addicted to doughnuts, but they misunderstand both ''doughnut'' and ''addicted.''

Another possibility: Austrians have read that American detectives will do anything for dough.

'''Boll Weevil Lounge''' 
[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Boll_weevil The boll weevil], a destructive cotton pest, first arrived in America (via Mexico) in 1892, only one year before the opening section of ATD. It is a fitting name for a "Negro Bar" as the boll weevil is the subject of dozens of blues songs. The Boll Weevil Lounge might also be a reference to the famous Prohibition-era New York nightclub known as [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cotton_Club_(New_York_City) the Cotton Club]

1893 is too soon for the songs and probably for the lounge too. Cotton was still king in the South; the big [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cotton_States_and_International_Exposition_%281895%29 Atlanta exposition] was two years in the future, and the economic dislocation had not properly begun. The boll weevil songs date from the teens-20s and later.

'''...the only place in Chicago a man could find a decent orange phosphate...''' 
A reference to the modern stereotype that black people like orange soda, here called a phosphate.

==Page 48==

'''Wassermelone''' 
Watermelon; another black stereotype...

'''grip cars''' 
The lead cars in cable-car systems. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chicago_City_Railway [Wikipedia]]

'''''deine Mutti'', as you would say''' 
Franz Ferdinand is attempting to engage the patrons of the Boll Weevil Lounge in a game of "the dozens", an insult contest in which opponents make fun of each other's mothers. "The dozens" has its origins in the New Orleans slave trade. As with the boll weevil, "the dozens" is closely associated with blues music. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_dozens [Wikipedia]]

"yo mama" jokes also appear in ''Mason & Dixon'' (pg. 445) and ''Inherent Vice'' [http://inherent-vice.pynchonwiki.com/wiki/index.php?title=Chapter_10 (pg. 155)].

'''one has to take the 'El'''' 
The "EL" or the "L" is the nickname for the train system in downtown Chicago. Many of the train tracks are above the street--or '''EL'''evated.

'''the World's Fair, not the World's Ugly''' 
A fairly sophisticated pun, if F.F.'s English is so rudimentary.

'''''...'st los, Hund?''''' 
German for "'s up, dog?"

'''All Pimps Look Alike to Me''' 
An early rag by Ernest Hogan was entitled All Coons Look Alike to Me; "Hogan was evidently not the originator of the song's lyrics, having appropriated them after hearing a pianist in a Chicago salon playing a song titled "All Pimps Look Alike to Me"". [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ernest_Hogan See this article.] 
For more "coon" references see text and annotations: [[#Page_33|page 33]], [[ATD_336-357#Page_344|page 344]], [[ATD_358-373#Page_369|page 369]] and especially [[ATD_397-428#Page 424|page 424]].

'''scapegrace''' 
Scoundrel.

'''And when Franz Ferdinand pays, everybody pays!''' 
A remarkably concise and prophetic summary of the subsequent 20th century.

'''keester''' 
Buttocks.
<ref><references/></ref>

==Page 49==

'''Kinsley's''' 
A famous steakhouse at 105-107 Adams St. in downtown Chicago. The building was erected in 1885.

'''At first Lew took it for a church''' 
This could be an allusion to the film, ''On The Waterfront'', and a similar scene when Terry Malloy (Marlon Brando) is sent by Johnny Friendly and Co. to eavesdrop on a meeting being held in a church by local priest Father Barry (Karl Malden) along with workers from the docks who are fed up with Friendly and the Mob, especially in light of a recent death. Social themes of film seem apt as well. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/On_the_waterfront].

Karl Malden (Mladen Sekulovich)incidentally was a product of this milieu, born in Chicago in 1912 to a Serb steelworker father and Czech seamstress mother. The Sekulovich family hails from Herzegovina.

'''Welsbach mantles''' 
One of the most important advances in the history of lighting, the Welsbach mantle (for a period so ubiquitous it became more commonly known simply as 'gas mantle') was first sold commercially in 1892 and quickly spread throughout Europe. It remained an important part of street lighting until the widespread introduction of electric lighting in the early 1900s. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gas_mantle Wikipedia entry].

'''Reverend Moss Gatlin''' 
A fictional character. Is he connected to Rev. Cherrycoke? They are both Reverends with strong political opinions and you can hear Pynchon's voice here very strong.

Possible allusion to Reverend Fr. John M. Corridan, the real-life counterpart of Father Barry in ''On The Waterfront''. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_M._Corridan Wikipedia]

Some real, or anyway nonfictional, anarchist preachers:
*[http://www.lewrockwell.com/rothbard/rothbard107.html Thomas Olney,] 17th-century Baptist anarchist who was influential in Rhode Island
*[http://www.loc.gov/catdir/description/hol055/96047023.html Rudolf Rocker] (1873-1958), nicknamed the "anarchist rabbi"
*[http://recollectionbooks.com/bleed/gallery/galleryindex.htm Ferdinand Domela Nieuwenhuis,] Dutch minister who came to anarchism in 1897
*[http://dwardmac.pitzer.edu/Anarchist_archives/critics/mckinley/chap4.html Albert Dahlquist and Joseph A. Wildman,] caught up in persecutions after the McKinley assassination (Dahlquist was nearly lynched; Wildman was tarred and feathered)
*[http://portland.indymedia.org/en/2004/10/301208.shtml Father Frank Morales,] participant in Portland anti-globalization demonstrations
*[http://www.deadanarchists.org/anton.html Hugh O. Pentecost,] who in 1889 was slated to address a meeting in commemoration of the Haymarket; Philadelphia authorities suppressed the gathering

'''fascinators''' 
Hair adornments. [http://www.ribbonsandpearls.co.uk/catalogue/fascinators/fascinator_hair_accessories_intro.htm [pix]]

'''bearing the insults of the day''' 
See notes on [[ATD_26-56#Page_43|pages 43 and 44]] above.

'''the ''Workers' Own Songbook''''' 
Perhaps a forerunner to the [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Little_Red_Songbook ''Little Red Songbook'']?

'''Blake's Jerusalem''' 
The original lines From William Blake's poem are:

I will not cease from mental fight, 
Nor shall my sword sleep in my hand 
Till we have built Jerusalem 
In England's green and pleasant land.

'''Fierce as the winter's tempest . . . Death's for the bought and sold!''' 
This lyric does not come up in a Google search. It doesn't flow like any other lyric in Pynchon but reads like a rather good hymn text. No variations in the meter, no words broken for the sake of rhyme, no punctuation to show lengthened or chopped syllables. And yet thematically it is a seamless fit with the text around it. Are the lines original in ''AtD,'' or can their source be identified?

==Page 50==

'''Picardy third''' 
The use of a major chord at the end of a musical section in a minor key. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Picardy_third Wikipedia entry]

==Page 51==

'''deadfalls''' 
Low points where refuse collects? Cf. Pynchon's story, Low-Lands?[http://www.thefreedictionary.com/deadfalls [def]]

'''prophesiers who had seen America as it might be in visions America's wardens could not tolerate''' 
Coupled with the cover blurb Pynchon wrote: "If it is not the world, it is what the world might be with a minor adjustment or two. According to some, this is one of the main purposes of fiction." Could ''Against the Day'' be Pynchon's prophecy of a future America?

[[image:we_never_sleep.jpg|thumb|175px|right]]'''The Unsleeping Eye''' 
Reference to Pinkerton's competing PI agency. Pinkerton's National Detective Agency had a logo with an eye in the center, and below it read, "We Never Sleep." See also [[ATD_1-25#Page_13|page 13]].

'''bay rum''' 
A type of cologne or after-shave. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bay_rum Wikipedia article]

==Page 52==

'''''Inconvenience''''' 
Lew Basnight's temporary presence on the airship may be the first clue as to why it's called ''Inconvenience''. Perhaps his growing sympathy for the anarchists will lead to greater involvement by him, the Chums, or at least the book in portraying the anarchist movement, which is viewed as an inconvenience to the ruling classes. Pynchon may consider his novel's message, similarly, as an inconvenient truth about America's past, present or both.

:I thought it was just a polysyllable that sounds stately but means the opposite.--[[User:Robot|Robot]] 13:18, 5 December 2006 (PST)

In ''Mason & Dixon'', the willful reality of other people are referred to as inconveniences more than once.

'''the whiteness of the place nearly unbearable''' 
Causing an effect something like snow blindness.

'''some weeks till the fair closes''' 
30 October 1893.

'''our future's all a blank''' 
Whoever the Chums get their orders from, they have not received any new ones yet. They look ahead and see a blank page.

'''Freddie Turner''' 
Frederick Jackson Turner (1861 - 1932) was, with Charles A. Beard, the most influential American historian of the early 20th century. He is best known for ''The Significance of the Frontier in American History'', an essay which describes his views on how the idea of the frontier shaped the American character, and how the frontier drove American history and America's westward expansion. Excerpt: "In this advance, the frontier is the outer edge of the wave the meeting point between savagery and civilization."
[http://www.fordham.edu/halsall/mod/1893turner.html eText here...]; [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Frederick_Jackson_Turner Wikipedia]

==Page 53==

'''Here's where the Trail comes to an end at last''' 
With the advent of the railroad, the West changed dramatically. Chicago became the stockyards and slaughterhouse of America, and cowboys only funneled their cattle in that direction, no longer simply following them on the range or leading them to more local places of slaughter. The cowboy had become a cog in the wheel of a mechanism of death.

'''Blitz Instruments and Wackett Punches''' 
Mentioned in 1911 Britannica article 'Slaughter-house' [http://www.1911encyclopedia.org/Slaughter-house [etext]]

'''charabanc''' 
An open-topped bus for tourists.

'''"The frontier ends and disconnection begins"''' 
Here, the free cowboy myth of Buffalo Bill's show is replaced by the grim reality of the stockyard worker.

'''Cause and effect''' 
A major theme in ''Gravity's Rainbow''.

'''How the dickens do I know?''' 
A possible reference to the novels of Charles Dickens, who critiques in such works as ''Hard Times'' (1854) the onset of urban decay, and the choked living and working conditions of the proletariat as the Industrial Revolution steams onward. 
Or it may just be a standard euphemism; polite speakers were enjoined not to name the Devil.

'''hob-raising years''' 
Hell-raising years; his early years. [http://www.thefreedictionary.com/hob Definition of "hob".]

==Page 54==

'''where you knew you could stand and piss would flow two ways at once.''' 
The Professor is talking about growing up in Colorado, where the Continental Divide passes. On one side of the divide, rivers flow west into the Pacific; on the other, rivers flow east. Thus, it would be logical to suggest that, at the precise location of this divide, piss would indeed flow both east and west.
:For Easterners at least, it's a well-known tourist ritual to pee right on the line.

The best place to do this, for tourists, is at Cache La Poudre Lake, headwaters of the Colorado River on Trail Ridge Road (US 34) in Rocky Mountain National Park—it is exactly on the Divide, and water exits to East and West, Atlantic and Pacific.

'''into the control of potent operatives who did not wish him well''' 
Describing Lew's movement now, but a few pages previously that of the stock at the slaughterhouse.

'''Cheerfulness . . . a precarious commodity''' 
The original narrator of the Chums passages has definitely been pushed aside now. They seem to be in a totally different book.

==Page 55==

'''. . . they continued in a fragmented reverie which, . . . often announced some change in the works''' 
Good to notice when the Chums get like this again: i.e. unfocused, depressed, without direction, it may lead to patterns in the plot.
:No Fair, no orders, no adventures: The Chums are between books!

'''Bear east''' 
As if on the Continental Divide (see note on previous page above), Lew goes West and the Chums go East.

'''Speculation began to fill the day.''' 
See note on [[ATD_26-56#Page_43|pages 43 and 44]] above.

'''the ill-famed Hawk''' 
In deepening autumn it is ''rehearsing'' "swift descent, merciless assault, rapture of souls"; at the end of the passage "the temperature head[s] down." The Hawk appears to be a metaphor for winter or its storms. ([http://www.barrypopik.com/index.php/new_york_city/entry/the_hawk/ possible definition?]) 
:That is pretty conclusive. ''Hawk'' an established and documented metaphor for the winter wind.
The Hawk is also one of the ubiquitous birds of prey in ATD. The words showing its lethal effect and the drop in temperature are Pynchon themes
for evil. Evil comes from the lands of low temperatures. See GR.

In addition to these meanings, TRP also demonstrates local knowledge here, as the Hawk is the name of a specific wind in Chicago. The Hawk is the name of a northeast wind, one that comes off Lake Michigan usually in the spring. A meteorologist will tell you that a northeast wind is somewhat unusual, contrary to (or against) the prevailing winds that generally come from the west. The effects of the Hawk can be seen at Wrigley Field in Chicago, where centerfield is on the northeast corner of Sheffield and Waveland. When the Hawk is blowing hits that, given a usual southwest wind, have a chance at being home runs will die in the outfield and are easily caught. The Hawk is a reminder that, though winter has left town, it will be back. The wind has a very particular resonance for a Chicagoan, and it's very impressive that Pynchon, not a native, should make use of it, especially in such an offhand manner.

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