The Sexual Angle

T.W.I.T.

"T.W.I.T." sounds like — no, is — a cross between "clit" and "twat." And, natch, it's headed up by Grand Cohen Nicholas Nookshaft (Nooky shaft: a vulgarism for "vagina"? Duh... A-and I'll be damned if that tetractys isn't an inverted beaver! (See "Beavers of the Brain") (Shades of V. ...) And that Yashmeen certainly is a very sexual woman.

Candlebrow University

Yes, "Candlebrow"? Well, remember Randolph St. Cosmo, the ship commander? Historically, there are two versions of the 3rd century CE figure St. Cosmo (aka St. Cosmas): the "randy" St. Cosmo, aka the "modern Priapus," and the saintly martyred St. Cosmo of Church lore. Pynchon, it seems, is connecting Randolph St. Cosmo to the former. "Randy," as astute observers will note, is an adjective which means "horny." There's a distinct sexual thread woven throughout Against the Day — a-and Heartsease, St. Cosmo's mate, is the first to get pregnant! — so this seems to fit right in. Read more about the historical St. Cosmo...; and Wikipedia entry

In Mason & Dixon, Pynchon gave us the Veery brothers, Cosmo and Damian, who are professional effigy makes in Philadelphia! And, just to make it interesting, "He's a rare Wax Artist, our Cosmo is." (p. 290) (Note: Wax phallus effigies were offered by the women to St. Cosmo at the festivals held in his name, as shown above, with the utterance "Blessed St. Cosmo, let it be like this.")

So what is a "candlebrow"? Consider those phallic ex voti candles offered up to St. Cosmo. The head of the candle-phallus, brow shaped, sits atop the cyclindrical candle-shaft and is, metaphorically, the candle's brow. And, natch, Gideon Candlebrow made the bucks necessary to fund Candlebrow U. with the miracle product "Smegmo," the "Messiah of kitchen fats" — and we all know what smegma is...

Thus, we have the female T.W.I.T. (clit/twat), and the male Candlebrow U.

Sure, it's just a hunch right now, and I'll look into it further. But I think there's something there, oh yes....

Sexual Characters &c.

From the obvious to the oblique:

Ball in Hand
Carnal, Reverend Lube
Chirpingdon-Groin, Ruperta ("Pert")
Counterfly, "Dick"
Finding of Unusual Circumstances Questionnaire (p. 411)
Meatman, Alonzo
Moistleigh, Bevis
Nookshaft, Grand Cohen Nick
Penhallow, Hunter (Pen = phallic object + hallow = "consecrate: render holy by means of religious rites" [1])

The Penhallow Pendant

What does it take to see the Otherworld? Keen eyesight? Special vision? A willingness to believe?

Whatever it is, Matthew Penhallow had it. So did Kathy Henley. Both families shared the ability to see from one generation to the next. And the tommyknockers knew it.

The tommyknockers also knew, or at least believed, it was important to cultivate these gifted family lines. It was important to keep communication open. So they crafted special pendants in bronze and gold and silver and marked them with symbols of ancient lore. They sealed the emblems with bits of magic, then gave them to families that could hear and see. Special families. Families that accepted the terms of a bond and a pledge.

So what were the symbols that marked the pendants? What was the magic embedded inside?

The Penhallow pendant eased the way between the world of men and the Otherworld. It kept communication open. That’s why the pendant was shaped in the form of the Tree of Life. That’s why the Three Elders where placed among its branches. The Tree of Life connected the worlds. The Three Elders carried messages between them. [2]

Thick Bush (the town where Chick is recognized as the son of "Dick")

Basnight Etymology

Very possibly, Pynchon is having some fun here, working a whole sexual angle, naming his character after the very 21st century phrase "BAS night," meaning a boys' night out, "BAS" being an acronym for "Bitches Ain't Shit" from the "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 (p. 183) (Beavers, fercrissakes!); and in Venice we meet, yes, Bevis Moistleigh! Perhaps something worth following up.WikiAdmin 07:31, 6 March 2007 (PST)

Lewis' surname may be connected to basalt, whose origin is the Latin basaltes, a variant of the Greek basanites, from the Greek basanos, 'touchstone' (indicating Basnight may be a schist, a bellwether, or a barometer).

Basalt is a dark, fine-grained volcanic rock that sometimes displays a columnar structure. It is typically composed largely of plagioclase, a feldspar, with pyroxene (pyro-, of or relating to fire, + the Greek xenos, 'stranger'), a prismatic crystal, and olivine.

"Basnight" could also by a process of wacky subsitution (i.e., bas+night, bas+knight, bas chevalier, bachelor) associate Lewis with the Knights Bachelor, the earliest form of English knighthood but ironically also the lowest in order of precedence. Knights Bachelor were landless knights who belonged to no recognized Order (like the Knights Hospitalers, Knights Templars or Knights of the Garter), so they had no banner to call their own, fighting instead under the banner of whichever Order contracted their services. The sort of Joe Dokes of the Knightworld that Bill Mauldin might have sketched. Although Lewis is himself no bona fide bachelor, such an association seems fitting in a book set into motion by those daring young bachelors, the Chums of Chance.