ATD 36-66 IT

Si raccomanda di mantenere le informazioni delle seguenti pagine prive di anticipazioni su ciò che si trova nelle pagine successive.

Nella numerazione delle pagine si tiene in considerazione quella della prima edizione italiana del testo.

I testi ove possibile sono riportati sia in lingua originale che nella traduzione della prima edizione italiana fatta da Massimo Bocchiola.

Pagina 36

piume di egretta
egret plumes
Alcune specie di egretta erano sull'orlo dell'estinzione nel XIX secolo proprio perché le loro piume venivano usate moltissimo nella modisteria. Questo perché le egrette sviluppano le loro piume più pregiate durante la stagione dell'accoppiamento e quindi venivano cacciati proprio prima di riprodursi.

La Piccola Egiziana
Little Egypt
"La Piccola Egiziana" era il nome d'arte di due ballerine esotiche: Ashea Wabe che tenne il suo spettacolo al banchetto Seeley durante l'Esposizione Mondiale del 1893, e Farida Mazar Spyropoulos, anche nota come Fatima sul palco, che partecipò allo show "Street in Cairo" sulla Midway durante la Fiera di Chicago del 1893. Wikipedia entry
E' da segnalare anche una canzone dei The Coasters intitolata "Little Egypt"

"Ammiro moltissimo la musica di quella regione", osservò Miles, "e in particolare l'ukulele"
“I greatly admire the music of the region,” said Miles, “the ukulele in particular.”
Le Hawaii e la loro cultura (in particolare l'ukulele) sono un tema ricorrente della narrativa pynchoniana: li ritroviamo in Vineland e in L'Arcobaleno della Gravità. Leggi un approfondimento sui riferimenti hawaiiani in Contro il Giorno

Pagina 37

'Baccanale
Bacchanale
Un brano da Sansone e Dalila, op. 47 (1877). A disposizione anche un estratto di 30 secondi in mp3.
Nel contesto ovviamente la parola Baccanale non descrive solo la musica ma anche lo spettacolo nel suo complesso e la danza che vi si svolgerà.

da qui a Timbuctù
from here to Timbuctoo
La città all'origine di questo detto si chiama ora Timbuktu,

... le macchine a turbina di Maxim...
... Maxim whirling machines...
Il paragrafo descrive una certa quantità di apparati di volo realmente esistenti: Questo articolo (in inglese) dell'ottobre del 1893 ne descrive alcuni.

prodigi di orniturgia che battevano le ali
wing-flapping miracles of ornithurgy
La parola "orniturgia" è un neologismo di Pynchon che sembra potersi tradurre con "opere realizzate con uccelli" (dal greco ornis, ornithos, "uccello" e -ourgia "lavoro, lavorare"). L'intero passaggio sembra un'anticipazione per l'ingresso sulla scena del Sodalizio degli Eteronauti (pagina 1030 del testo originale.

Dally
Dally
La relazione tra Dally e Merle richiama quella tra i personaggi di Ryan e Tatum O'Neal nel film "Paper Moon" di Peter Bogdanovich del 1973 (padre single, ragazzina super sveglia, madre che li abbandona), ed è identica a quella del protagonista di Vineland Zoyd Wheeler.

Pagina 38

Dahlia Rideout
Il tema delle lolite è molto diffuso nei lavori di Pynchon. Un'altra famosa è Bianca in [L'Arcobaleno della Gravità

Dahlia ha quattro anni, non può essere una lolita. Per essere una lolita devi avere almeno una dozzina di anni e in ogni caso Humbert era uno psicopatico.

E' presto nel libro per trarre certe conclusioni così perentorie :)

sulla faccia di Randolph un grado di sbalordimento che duole definire caratteristico
in Randolph's face a degree of stupefaction one regrets to term characteristic
Randolph era rimasto di sasso già a pagina 22: evidentemente questa è una delle caratteristiche del personaggio già molto nota ai lettori delle avventure dei Compari del Caso.

davanti a questo apparecchio a elica di Trouvé
this Trouvé-screw unit over here
Gustave Trouvé progettò e realizzò apparecchiature all'avanguardia dagli anni Sessanta dell'Ottocento fino alla fine del secolo. Il suo lavoro sulle eliche fu fondamentale per le tecnologie di volo e ha anche inventato il motore fuoribordo. Prima dei progetti di Trouvé la prpulsione aerea usava ancora rotori a vela come i mulini o propulsori marini lievemente modificati.

Pagina 39

Midway Plaisance
L'arteria principale della Città Bianca. La parola "plaisance" è una versione francesizzata di "pleasance," un luogo piacevole alla vista. Secondo questo sito molto dettagliato sull'Esposizione Colombiana la Midway Plaisance ha dato il nome alle passerelle di tutti i circhi del mondo (che in inglese si chiamano così, ndr).

a l'étouffée
Parola francese per brasato o stufato, da cui si deduce che si stia parlando di uno stufato di alligatore. E' da notare che a New Orleans è famoso lo stufato di granchio e di altre carni, anche se la parola stufato non rende merito della particolare preparazione Cajun di questo piatto tipico. Per essere chiari segue la ricetta, largamente rimaneggiata: saltare la cipolla, i peperoncini verdi, il sedano, il prezzemolo e l'aglio in abbondante burro; aggiungere pomodori pelati e tagliati a pezzi, e altri condimenti; far cuocere lentamente il tutto coprendo con un coperchio per 5-10 minuti; preparare una pastella di olio e farina e aggiungere le verdure; aggiungere i frutti di mare e portare il tutto a ebollizione; aggiungere alla fine gamberetti spelati o polpa di granchio lasciando cuocere per 2-3 minuti prima di servire sopra un letto di riso.

Laboratorio Sloane
Sloane Laboratory
Laboratorio di fisica di Yale costruito nel 1882. Si veda anche pagina 43.

Professor Gibbs
Josiah Williard Gibbs (1839-1903), fisico e matematico americano, nato a New Haven nel Connecticut. Nel 1854 si è iscritto a Yale ed è stato premiato per i suoi eccellenti risultati in matematica e latino. Si è specializzato in ingegneria e ha preso il primo dottorato in ingegneria della storia americana nel 1863. Dal 1866 al 1869 Gibbs ha studiato in Europa (Parigi, Berlino e infine Heidelberg). E' stato professore a Yale dal 1871 al 1903 e ha contribuito immensamente agli studi sulla termodinamica con forse il suo lavoro più importante Sull'equilibrio delle sostanze eterogenee (1876-1878). La sua regola delle fasi lo ha di fatto reso il padre della chimica fisica. I suoi lavori sull'analisi vettoriale sono stati un contributo importantissimo per la matematica moderna. Gibbs è stato uno degli scienziati americani più importanti di tutto il XIX secolo. Si veda per approfondimenti la pagina di wikipedia e altri siti sulla storia della matematica e delle scienze.

De Forest
Lee De Forest (1873-1961), inventore americano, nato a Council Bluffs nell'Iowa. Studia a Yale e a Chicago. E' un pioniere della radiofonia, introducendo la grigliadi comando nelle valvole termoioniche; ha inventato il triodo (1907), il circuito a retroazione o feedback (1912) e la valvola a quattro elettrodi. Ha brevettato oltre 300 invenzioni legate al telegrafo senza fili, la radiofonia, la telefonia, la cinematografia, la televisione, la radioterapia, i radar, la trasmissione di fax, ecc. Da alcuni è considerato il padre della radiofonia.

Kimura
Ha ricevuto un dottorato in matematica all'Università di Yale nel 1896 con la tesi Studi sulle funzioni sferiche generali. Ha pubblicato successivamente studi "Gli operatori Nabla dei Quaternioni" e nel 1912 "Onde uniche nella telegrafia senza fili: eccitazione per pseudo impatti". (Gli operatori Nabla sono una forma arcaica degli operatori "del", per i quali si usa come simbolo una delta greca Δ rovesciata).

Pagina 40

Ray Ipsow
In latino re ipso significa "la cosa in sé". Il motto del metodo investigativo fenomenologico di Edmund Husserl era proprio "Fino alla cosa in sé" (in italiano in realtà si chiama "oggetto intenzionale"). La frase è chiaramente un invocazione dell'autore contro l'astrazione e a favore della realtà per quello che è, un tema ricorrente anche in altre opere di Pynchon, come L'Arcobaleno della Gravità.

Indianopoli
Outer Indianoplace
Ottima traduzione del termine dispregiativo usato per Indianapolis nel testo originale.

laggiù a Khartum
down in New Orleans . . . that Khartoum business
Evidentemente ci sono diverse avventure dei Compari del Caso che non conosciamo ancora, qualcosa tipo: I Compari del Caso e lo Stregone Voodoo e I Compari del Caso e le Orde Musulmane.

Khartum... l'esercito del Mahdi
Khartoum... Mahdi's army
Khartum è la capitale del Sudan. L'esercito del Mahdi a cui si fa riferimento era un gruppo islamico che nel 1880 chiedeva un ritorno dell'area alla legge islamica, combattendo contro il governo e contro le milizie egiziane. E' possibile reperire maggiori informazioni sugli eventi dell'area su wikipedia
Il concetto di Mahdi è un concetto chiave però tra le figure religiose islamiche e tuttora gli Stati Uniti stanno combattendo una guerra in Iraq contro un esercito di un Mahdi.

vento contrario... Oltre Giuba, anziché ad Alessandria
contrary wind . . . Oltre Giubba, instead of down at Alex
Da Khartum puoi raggiungere Alessandria volando verso Nord/Nord-Ovest. Il vento che hanno incontrato i Compari era contrario che più contrario non si possa, dato che l'Oltre Giuba è a Sud/Sud-Est. L'Oltre Giuba (con una sola b) è l'estremità sudoccidentale della Somalia e comprende tutti i territori oltre il fiume Giuba. Non deve essere confusa con la regione di Giuba nel SUdan meridionale.

Per inciso la deviazione sull'Oltre Giuba deve essere avvenuta prima che la Inconvenience fosse dotata del motore a idrogeno, altrimenti avrebbero potuto volare contro vento.

orologio da ferroviere
railroad watch
Orologio da tasca di alta qualità: [immagini e informazioni qui]

Pagina 41

Scarsdale Vibe
Scarsdale a New York si vanta di essere l'area più ricca di tutta la Contea di Westchester. Scarsdale Vibe quindi suona come "la vibra di Scarsdale", ovvero qualcosa collegato a una montagna di quattrini. Tra l'altro Vibe è l'ennesimo cattivo dei libri di Pynchon il cui nome comincia con la "V", come ad esempio Brock Vonc in Vineland.

"Il Juggernaut"
"The Juggernaut"
Il nome del treno privato di Vibe è derivato dal sanscrito Jagannātha, che significa "Signore dell'Universo" ed è uno dei molti nomi di Krishna. Lo stesso nome Krishna in realtà vuol dire "nero" e "scuro di pelle". Una leggenda metropolitana in voga tra i coloni britannici raccontava che gli Indù si lanciassero sotto le ruote dei carri giganti che sfilavano per le strade di Puri durante le festività dedicate a Krishna come forma di redenzione dai propri peccati. Per maggiori informazioni sul termine Juggernaut, si veda l'apposita pagina su Wikipedia.
Il capitalismo è stato spesso descritto come un juggernaut, nella connotazione di una macchina che travolge tutto ciò che incontra.

Non solo, una delle frasi di punta del sociologo Anthony Giddens è "il juggernaut della modernità" e i suoi studi sembrano abbastanza vicini alle tematiche pynchoniane:

"La proprietà che maggiormente definisce la modernità secondo Giddens è il fatto di essere disinnestata dal tempo e dallo spazio. Nelle società pre-moderne lo spazio era l'area in cui una persona si muoveva, e il tempo erano le esperienze che si facevano durante il proprio percorso. Nelle società moderne, però, lo spazio sociale non è più confinato dai confini determinati dallo spazio in cui ci si muove. E' possibile ora immaginare come si presentino altri spazi anche se non ci si è mai stati. In questo senso Giddens parla di spazio virtuale e tempo virtuale. Un'altra caratteristica della modernità ha a che fare con il campo della conoscenza. Nelle società pre-moderne erano gli anziani i depositare di ciò che un popolo conoscenza: erano definibili nello spazio e nel tempo. Nelle società moderne dobbiamo affidarci ai sistemi di trasmissione di esperienza. Essi non sono presenti nel tempo e nello spazio, ma non abbiamo altra scelta che fidarci di loro. Sappiamo che qualcosa potrebbe andare storto, ma è un rischio che dobbiamo correre. Anche le tecnologie che usiamo, che trasformano i nostri limiti in strumenti, sono dei rischi. Di conseguenza c'è sempre un certo senso di incertezza nelle società contemporanee. Ed è anche in questo senso che Giddens usa la figura del "juggernaut": la modernità è vista come un inarrestabile juggernaut che viaggia attraverso lo spazio."

Foley Walker
" Foley Walker" - a volte "Foley Artist" - in americano è un termine usato per indicare un esperto di effetti sonori. Uno dei lavori principali di un tale esperto è quello di aggiungere il rumore di passi in film dove questo è richiesto, imitando il modo in cui il personaggio camminerebbe nella eraltà. E' una specie di controfigura sonora, in un certo senso, dei personaggi di un film.

fra la 47esima e Ashland
Forty-seventh and Ashland

[...] Il fatto che Ashland (ovvero "terra di cenere", in italiano, ndr) sia stata chiamata così per le ceneri del Grande Incendio di Chicago è una leggenda metropolitana. Ashland Avenue era precedentemnete nota come Reuben Street ed esisteva già prima della famosa tragedia. Negli anni Sessanta dell'Ottocento era considerata il centro della vita culturale suburbana del West Side. La diffusione di palazzi e uffici durante il boom dell'automobile spinse molti degli esercizi commerciali lontano dal Loop (il centro di Chicago, ndr) verso le periferie e i sobborghi della città. Nel 1930 Marshall Field & Co aveva creato versioni più piccole dei propri negozi del centro a Evanston e Oak Park, e molti negozietti di quartiere come Goldblatt's e Wieboldts si stavano spostano nel centro. Chicago decise di creare delle aree commerciali in città tra la 47esima e Ashland, tra la 63esima e Halsted, tra Irving Park e Pulaski, e in molti altri luoghi. Alcune aree vennero occupate solo da un tipo di negozi come l'"Automobile Row" sulla South Michigan Avenue, o il Maxwell Street Market, un mercato a cielo aperto in stile europeo che si oppose a ogni forma di modernizzazione fino a che venne abbattuto negli anni Novanta del XX secolo. [...] (brano tratto dall'enciclopedia online sulla storia di Chicago

Pagina 42

"... in questi tempi il "bisogno" nasce direttamente dagli atti criminali dei ricchi..."
"...in these days need arises directly from criminal acts of the rich"
Sembra una parafrasi del Capitolo 5 del Vangelo apocrifo di Giacomo:
"Ora ascoltatemi oh ricchi... avete accumulato ricchezza in questi ultimi giorni, ma guardate! gli stipendi che non avete pagato ai lavoratori che aravano i vostri campi ora si ritorcono contro di voi... Avete vissuto nel lusso e siete ingrassati nei giorni del massacro... Avete condannato e ucciso uomini innocenti..." [Giacomo, 5]

Pagina 43

la Seconda ai Corinti
Second Corinthians
Lo scambio tra Vibe e Ipsow si riferisce direttamente a 2Cor11:19

"Sopporterai gli stolti senza dolertene, consapevole della tua saggezza"

"Old Zip Coon"
La canzone "Old Zip Coon" è datata 1834 ed è considerata la versione originale della canzone folk americana " Turkey in the Straw". Si veda anche [1] e [2].
La parola "coon" sembrerebbe avere origine in America ed essere un termine dispregiativo per un uomo di colore, ma era usata anche in Inghilterra e quindi non poteva riferirsi solo agli Afroamericani.

Il dottor Tesla
Dr. Tesla
Nikola Tesla (1856-1943), inventore americano, nato in Croazia da genitori serbi. Studia a Graz in Austria, Praga e Parigi. Nel 1881 scopre il principio del campo magnetico uniforme, la base di ogni macchinario a corrente alternata. Tra il 1882 e il 1884 lavora come ingegnere a Parigi e costruisce il suo primo motore a induzione (1883). Emigra negli Stati Uniti (1884, naturalizzato nel 1889) e lavora per Thomas Edison (1884-1885). Abbandona la Edison Works a Menlo Park (Edison si opponeva all'idea della corrente alternata) per concentrarsi sulle proprie invenzioni tra cui migliori dinamo, trasformatori, lampadine, comunicazioni senza fili (1897) e gli avvolgimenti ad alta frequenza che portano ancora il suo nome.

Sistema Mondiale
World-System
L'idea di Tesla di fornire energia elettrica a chiunque con un sistema mondiale interconnesso e gratuito allude alla nascita di Internet e del Wireless prima dell'intervento del desiderio di monopolio e di guadagno delle grandi corporations.

Pagina 44

"violare... l'essenza di tutto quello che la storia moderna dovrebbe essere"
violate . . . the essence of everything modern history is supposed to be
Notare che Vibe non parla dei principi del libero mercato, l'essenza del sistema economico capitalista. Parla della storia moderna come se fosse già scritta e come se la ricerca di Tesla potesse minarne il progetto.

Laboratorio Sloane
Sloane Lab
Completato nel 1912, fu realizzato grazie alle donazioni di Henry T. Sloane, BA 1866, e William D. Sloane, MA HON 1889, in pietra in stile Gotico Americano dietro il progetto di Charles C. Haight. (Una porzione sotterranea fu aggiunta nel 1958 per ospitare le apparecchiature di Van de Graaff ora rimosse.) Il Laboratorio Sloane è stata la prima Università costruita sulla Hillhouse Estate.
[cite] and [photo].
Lo stesso architetto responsabile del progetto del parco intorno ai Laboratori Sloane, Frederick Law Olmstead, è stato anche uno dei principali protagonista dello sviluppo dei terreni su cui si sviluppà l'Esposizione Colombiana del 1893. E la sua "Isola di Legno" è ancora uno dei luoghi più famosi del Jackson Park di Chicago. Si veda: [link] e [photo].
Per maggiori informazioni sull'approccio all'architettura paesaggistica di Olmstead e alla sua relazione con la Fiera Mondiale del 1893 si veda anche The Devil in the White City di Erik Larson.

l'arma più terribile che il mondo abbia veduto... sistemi razionali di controllo
the most terrible weapon the world has seen . . . rational systems of control
Questo passo definisce molto bene la minaccia che il potere libero (anarchia) rappresenta per i plutocrati e la giustificazione che essi si danno per forzare governi e ogni altra forma costituita di potere per attaccare gli attivisti di tale pensiero politico.

dall'anarchia da mercato del pesce del tutti contro tutti
out of the fish-market anarchy of all battling all
Vibe cita Thomas Hobbes che nel Leviatano (1651) descrive lo stato primitivo della razza umana come Vibe quotes Thomas Hobbes, who in Leviathan (1651) described the primitive state of the human race as bellum omnium contra omnes, la guerra di tutti contro tutti, conclusa solo dalla creazione dello Stato. Notare l'accezione della citazione che cambia la parola "guerra" di Hobbes in "anarchia".

Pierpont
John Pierpont Morgan I (April 17, 1837 – March 31, 1913), finanziere e banchiere americano fondamentale per il consolidamento dell'industria americana e della finanza corporativa.
[...] Nel 1900 Morgan finanziò l'inventore Nikola Tesla e la sua Wardenclyffe Tower con 150.000 dollari per sperimentare con le onde radio. Tesla non ebbe successo e nel 1904 Morgan ritirò i suoi finanziamenti. Più tardi Tesla riuscì nel suo intento di creare un generatore di corrente alternata.

effetti di scala non lineare
non-linear phenomena of scale
Un effetto di scala lineare significa che per esempio accumulando il doppio della carica elettrica si ottiene il doppio della tensione. Un esempio di comportamento non lineare è per esempio quando il potere isolante dell'aria non è più sufficiente a contenere la carica elettrica (archi voltaici, fulmini): in questi casi aggiungere ancora carica porta a una diminuzione della tensione per esempio.

Pagina 45

Somble, Strool & Fleshway
I nomi degli studi legali nei romanzi di Pynchon sono sempre incredibili: pensate al Salitieri, Poore, Nash, de Brutus, and Short di L'Arcobaleno della Gravità o al Warpe, Wistfull, Kubitschek and McMingus di L'incanto del Lotto 49. Questo in particolare suona molto dickensiano. Somble richiama le parole somber ("sobrio"), tremble ("tremare") o some bull (il suono è simile, "molti tori"); Strool forse è un misto di strait ("stretto") e cruel ("crudele"), o di stool ("sgabello") e drool ("sbavare"); infine Fleshway potrebbe richiamare l'opera inedita fino al 1903 di Samuel Butler The Way of All Flesh (Così muore la carne in italiano) o la frase biblica da cui sembra che il titolo dell'opera sia stato ispirato.
Per inciso il Leviatano di Hobbes è anche la fonte dell'onomatopea a cui è ispirato lo studio legale de L'Arcobaleno della Gravità: "solitary, poor, nasty, brutish and short" (ovvero "solitaria, povera, miserevole, brutale e breve") come descrizione della vita degli esseri umani nel loro stato primitivo.

Page 36

Fairgoers would see the ship overhead and yet not see it
Useful property for a surveillance platform.

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.

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 "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!). 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." [3]

"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." [4] 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 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, link 1, 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. 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. 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 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." 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
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. [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.

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.

scorcher cap
The cap of an early bicycling enthusiast. According to 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

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, 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.

Page 43

transfigured
In Lew's time of grace, he shows a changed face.

leisurely rips through the fabric of the day
See below

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). Wikipedia entry. He did indeed attend the Chicago Exposition. [5]

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, rewrite? As Vibe did on 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
One source says it was jute, not hemp.

According to 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 rebuilt to the original exterior design in limestone and marble.

to counterfeit some deathless white stone

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 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. 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 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
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. [Wikipedia]

1893 is too soon for the songs and probably for the lounge too. Cotton was still king in the South; the big 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. [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. [Wikipedia]

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"". See this article.
For more "coon" references see text and annotations: page 33, page 344, page 369 and especially page 424.

scapegrace
Scoundrel.

And when Franz Ferdinand pays, everybody pays!

keester
Buttocks.

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. [6].

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. 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. Wikipedia

Some real, or anyway nonfictional, anarchist preachers:

• Thomas Olney, 17th-century Baptist anarchist who was influential in Rhode Island
• Rudolf Rocker (1873-1958), nicknamed the "anarchist rabbi"
• Ferdinand Domela Nieuwenhuis, Dutch minister who came to anarchism in 1897
• Albert Dahlquist and Joseph A. Wildman, caught up in persecutions after the McKinley assassination (Dahlquist was nearly lynched; Wildman was tarred and feathered)
• Father Frank Morales, participant in Portland anti-globalization demonstrations
• 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. [pix]

bearing the insults of the day
See notes on pages 43 and 44 above.

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. Wikipedia entry

Page 51

deadfalls
Low points where refuse collects? Cf. Pynchon's story, Low-Lands?[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?

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 page 13.

bay rum
A type of cologne or after-shave. 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.--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." eText here...; 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' [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. 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. 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!

Speculation began to fill the day.
See note on 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.
(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

Parte Prima: La luce sulle praterie	1-19, 20-35, 36-66, 67-90, 81-96, 97-118
Part Two: Iceland Spar	119-148, 149-170, 171-198, 199-218, 219-242, 243-272, 273-295, 296-317, 318-335, 336-357, 358-373, 374-396, 397-428
Part Three: Bilocations	429-459, 460-488, 489-524, 525-556, 557-587, 588-614, 615-643, 644-677, 678-694
Part Four: Against the Day	695-723, 724-747, 748-767, 768-791, 792-820, 821-848, 849-863, 864-891, 892-918, 919-945, 946-975, 976-999, 1000-1017, 1018-1039, 1040-1062
Part Five: Rue du Départ	1063-1085