Cyclomite

2006-12-03T18:48:23Z

Zombini:

Joe Varo reports, on Pynchon-l at [http://www.waste.org/mail/?list=pynchon-l&month=0612&msg=112054&sort=date,] regarding Cyclopropane, "At first I thought that this was just something the TP made up. But just for the hell of it I looked it up and found that it is an explosive with anaesthetic properties, or vice versa."

[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cyclopropane Wikipedia entry]

Quoting page 184, Varo also asks, " 'From then on, whenever a dynamite blast went off, even far away out of earshot, something concurrent was triggered somewhere in Lew's consciousness...after awhile even if one was only ''about'' [italics in original] to go off. Anywhere.' Am I missing something or reading too much into it? Or does this make cyclomite akin to another pynchonian compound?"

Is Cyclomite somehow related to Imipolex G?

Anville Azote responds to Varo:
[...]
There's a darkly comic scene hinging on this property in the first
episode of James Burke's series **Connections** (1978), wherein the
Great Northeastern Blackout strikes just when a woman is giving birth
to twins --- under cyclopropane anaesthesia. In the darkness, a nurse
walks into the room with a lighted candle. . . .
[...]
[http://www.waste.org/mail/?list=pynchon-l&month=0612&msg=112055&sort=date] to

One should perhaps note the triangular shape of cyclopropane.

ATD 26-56

2006-11-28T19:04:33Z

Zombini: /* Page 36 */ corrected typo amgazines

==Page 26==

'''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 28==

'''''Imbottigliata!''''' Italian for "bottled"?

'''Dahlia Rideout''' 
A child who drinks and the unexpectedly sexual nature of her father and Chick's discussion of her recall Bianca from ''Gravity's Rainbow,'' another child given certain adult characteristics. The tone that accompanies this bizarre conversation strikes one as the first sour note of the book.

==Page 29==

'''a l'étouffée''' 
French, meaning a dish fried in a pan. So, pan-fried alligator meat.

'''Khartoum... Mahdi's army... Oltre Giubba, instead of down in Alex''' 
Khartoum is the capital of Sudan. The Mahdi army 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].

==Page 36==

'''Lew Basnight''' 
"Bas" is French for "low."

A detective named 'Lew' reminds 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.

'''fictitiousness''' 
On this page and the next, 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. But their answer is strange:
"No more than Wyatt Earp or Nellie Bly...Although the longer a fellow's name has been in the magazines, the harder it is to tell fiction from non-fiction."

==Page 39==

'''kazoos''' 
This silly instrument appears in many (all?) Pynchon novels.

'''"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 as part of the establishment Pynchon seems to rail against in the novel.

I have to ask: WHO are these people and what have they done to poor Lew? Is this all hallucination?

==Page 44==

'''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]

'''"He had learned to step to the side of the day."''' 
Through the book there are juxtapositions of things with and against the day. Here, we see Lew set "to the side" of the day.

==Page 45==

'''"have a lawyer explain civil liability to you"''' 
Again, law. Pynchon must have boned up on legal jargon (or perhaps he got sued?).

'''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.

==Page 46==

'''"Hungarians are the lowest level of brute existence"''' 
It is unclear whether this shocking sentiment (especially to Hungarians!) expressed by the Archduke is more fictitious than factual. Hungary had become an equal partner in the Austro-Hungarian empire by the 1890s, and Empress Elizabeth herself spoke the Hungarian language and loved its country and people, visiting and residing there often. Pynchon's portrayal of Franz seems to indicate, however, that despite the historic nature of his assassination, he deserved it...!

==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].

==Page 48==

'''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.

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 49==

'''Kinsley's''' 
A famous steakhouse at 105-107 Adams St. in downtown Chicago. The building was erected in 1885.

'''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].

'''Reverand 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.

'''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. 

==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==

'''"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?

'''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.

==Page 53==

'''cause and effect''' 
A major theme in ''Gravity's Rainbow''.

'''"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.

==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. unfocuses, depressed, without direction, it may lead to patterns in the plot.

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Cyclomite

ATD 26-56