Difference between revisions of "R"

Latest revision as of 03:11, 21 April 2012

radius of annihilation
95; area to be destroyed in a bomb explosion, as imagined by Reef Traverse DISCUSSION

Rafaello
855; at the Excelsior in Venice

Ragtime
a "small house band . . . tirelesssly 'ragging,'" 399;

Rahman
521; barkeep at Tawil Balak

Railway Brain
802;

Ramanujan (1887-1920)
498; mathematician; Srinivasa Ramanujan Iyengar was an Indian mathematician who is considered to be amongst the most talented mathematicians in recent history. With almost no formal training in pure mathematics, Ramanujan made substantial contributions in the areas of analysis, number theory, infinite series and continued fractions; his formula, 815-816; Wikipedia entry

Ramiz
653; in the Swiss Alps; and the Tatzelwurm, 658; tunnel mate of Reef's in Albania;

Rand shares
146; 167;

Ranji and C. B. Fry
497; cricketeers

Rao, V. Ganeshi
130; "noted Quaternionist" of Calcutta University; disappearing act at Kursaal, 539; "metamorphosed as an American Negro" 557;

Raoul's Atelier de la Vitesse
531; in Ostend, Belgium

Rapée, Erno
1042; author of "movie-theme book"

rationalization / routinization
10: "unshaped freedom being rationalized into movement..."; Venice, 575;

82, 89; Finn who Webb Traverse finds "holding a vodka jug in one hand while battling a number of camp guards with the other"; 197; Veikko, diminutive of Veli meaning "brother." His last name could be a nod to the modern Finnish composer Einojuhani Rautavaara (1928- ). Although Rautavaara experimented with modernist styles, including serialism, his later works are quite accessible and often have a mystical element (such as in several works with titles making reference to angels). A characteristic 'Rautavaara sound' might be a rhapsodic string theme of austere beauty, with whirling flute lines, gently dissonant bells, and perhaps the suggestion of a pastoral horn. A number of his works have parts for magnetic tape, including Cantus Arcticus (1972, also known as Concerto for Birds & Orchestra) for taped bird song and orchestra:

Cantus Arcticus is unique in that it is the marriage of sounds produced by a live orchestra and pre-recorded bird sounds. Rautavaara himself taped the bird of Finland both in the marshlands as well as above the Arctic Circle. The result is the sound of peaceful nature, the harmony of what surrounds us when we venture off into the unspoiled wild. [1]

This bird connection may be a factor in Pynchon naming Veikko thus.

Rayleigh, Lord (1842-1919)
565; John William Strutt, third Baron Rayleigh, was born on November 12, 1842 at Langford Grove, Maldon, Essex, as the son of John James Strutt, second Baron, and his wife Clara Elizabeth La Touche, eldest daughter of Captain Richard Vicars, R. E. He was one of the very few members of higher nobility who won fame as an outstanding scientist. Lord Rayleigh's first researches were mainly mathematical, concerning optics and vibrating systems, but his later work ranged over almost the whole field of physics, covering sound, wave theory, colour vision, electrodynamics, electromagnetism, light scattering, flow of liquids, hydrodynamics, density of gases, viscosity, capillarity, elasticity, and photography. From NobelPrize.org; Wikipedia entry

The specific reference in ATD is to Lord Rayleigh's paper published in the Proceedings of the Royal Society of London. Series A, Containing Papers of a Mathematical and Physical Character, Vol. 98, No. 692 (Jan. 3, 1921), pp. 284-296, entitled "Double Refraction and Crystalline Structure of Silica Glass." The introduction:

Silica glass, as is well known, may be produced by the fusion of clear crystalline quartz. In this way a clear transparent product is obtained. The present paper deals only with this kind of silica glass. The cruder variety, known as vitreosil, which is prepared from sand, is not free enough from bubbbles and striae to allow satisfactory observation.

That silica glass may be doubly refracting was noticed in casual observations, made to test its suitability for windows, in my experiments on the scattering of light by gases. It soon become clear that this double refraction could not in all cases be due to stress, but was to be attributed to something of the nature of crystalline structure. At the same time, the double refraction is very weak indeed compared with that of crystalline quartz.

Glasses have generally been considered essentially amorphous, and, indeed, this property would usually be invoked in the definition of a glass. It may be that, in view of the present results, the definition will need to be modified, though this point is hardly ripe for discussion. In the meantime, I still use the term silica glass.

I have not met with similar effects in any of the ordinary complex glasses. When these are doubly refracting, it is always attributable to strain. [2]

Razvedka
779; Russian: Intelligence/Reconnaissance;

Rebellion, The
7; aka the Civil War; the Civil War was not called such during the time it was happening; the South called it "the war between the states" to emphasize both their right to secede from the union and that this was a war between sovereign states; the North called it "the Rebellion of 1861" or, after termination of hostilities, "the Rebellion of 1861-1865," appellations that did not recognize the South's right to secede; 61; 92;

Reclus
528;  See Élisée Reclus on Wikipedia

Red Onion
371; club in New Orleans where the Merry Coons played and survived;

Red Scare
1075; The term "Red Scare" has been retroactively applied to two distinct periods of strong anti-Communism in United States history: first from 1917 to 1920, and second from the late 1940s through the late 1950s. These periods were characterized by heightened suspicion of Communists and other radicals, and the fear of widespread infiltration of Communists in U.S. government; Wikipedia entry; See also McNamaras, John L. and James B.;

Reindeer
23, 84, 784–6

René
1065; in Paris, "smoking Gauloises one after another, studying [Dally] through the smoke"

226; as "opposite number" of Professor Werfner; 495; at Cambridge; 602; "co-tenant of Tarot card XV" 679; Balkans map, 689; "his web" 936; See also Werfner

Renzo
1069; friend of Kit's in Torino

Repeal
89; of the Silver Act in 1893; See Silver Act

Replevin, Lamont
606; antiques dealer; "communication by means of coal-gas" 607; has map of Shambhala, 608; "life-size sculpture groups exhibited the more disreputable of classical and biblical themes" 610; Replevin is an Ango-French law term signifing the recovery of stolen goods by means of a special form of legal process; Wikipedia

Republicans
93; victors, 334; 469;

Reynolds Number
1031; In fluid mechanics, the Reynolds number is the ratio of inertial forces (vsρ) to viscous forces (μ/L) and consequently it quantifies the relative importance of these two types of forces for given flow conditions. Thus, it is used to identify different flow regimes, such as laminar or turbulent flow; Wikipedia entry

Richardsonian Romanesque
419; the architectural style of American Henry Hobson Richardson, who, as did many Victorian architects, modeled his style on a past age, in his case the rounded arches, thick stone, and small windows of the Romanesque of the early Middle Ages. For examples and biography, see [3].

Rideout, Dahlia ("Dally")
27; daughter "4 or 5", helpless angel; in New York City, 336; "white-slave simulation industry" 339; red hair and freckles, 339; rescued by magicians, 350; to Europe with Erlys and the Zombini's, 505; "I am Beppo" 729; the rage in London theatre, 898-899; living in London, a star of the stage, 1046; as La Jarretie`re before the war, 1066;

Rideout, Erlys
28; wife of Merle who ran off with Zombini; 57, aka Erlys Mills; 67, aka Erlys Mills Snidell; in Smokefoot's, 347; at R. W. Vibe's party, 350; to Europe on Stupendica, 506; 573;

Rideout, Merle
26; photographer; Museum dream, 57; from NW Connecticutt, 59; lightning rod salesman, 73; heading east, 449; arrives at Candlebrow, 451; fixture at summer Tim bazaar at Candlebrow, 451; and Chick Counterfly and Roswell Bounce, 454; in Los Angeles, 1035;

The name Merle can either mean "blackbird" from the Old French or "sparkling sea" from the Irish Gaelic Muirgheal and Scots Gaelic Muireall. Seeing how Pynchon likes mashups of musician's names, it's interesting to note that four out of eight "Merle" first names Wikipedia lists belong to musicians (Merle Wikipedia Entry). Furthermore, Merle Johnston (who isn't listed) was a popular sax player in the 1920s and 1930s and devised a sax mouthpiece (Bixography) mentioned in passing in Charles Mingus's autobiography Beneath the Underdog (p. 155).

The name "Merle Rideout" is a near anagram of "Muybridge", a 19th century photographer obsessed with capturing motion in images, who exhibited at the 1893 Chicago World's Fair. Muybridge Wikipedia Entry

Reilly, Sidney
630; aka Chong

Riemann, Georg Friedrich Bernhard (1826-1866)
12; (pronounced REE mahn or in IPA: ['ri:man]) was a German mathematician who made important contributions to analysis and differential geometry, some of them paving the way for the later development of general relativity; space, 131; "göttingen eminence" 496; Riemann sphere, 565, 628; Riemann's Hypothesis, 589; 596; Habilitationsschrift of 1854, 616; 618; Riemann Elipsoid, 626; Wikipedia entry. Riemann's geometry allowed for additional dimensions, which is relevant to several aspects of AtD, such as bilocation and travellers from another time.

Riley
18; member of the Bindlestiffs of the Blue A.C.

Rinehart
156;

Rinpungpa
750;

rishta
792; In Arabic-speaking countries, the word for macaroni during the 12th and 13th centuries was either rishta (or erishte in Turkish), from the Persian word for "threads," or itriya, as well as a few other words mentioned above. The fourteenth-century Arab traveler Ibn Batutta described the rishta he encountered in Anatolia as a kind of shu’ayriya, a word that even today means vermicelli. Also, the Urdu word for engagement (as in pre-marriage commitment) is rishta, but Pynchon's use here suggests the Arabic word for "worm" or "snake", although "threads" and "tying the knot" seem related, so perhaps rishta, meaning "engagement," is later meaning of the word.

River of Time
412;

Rocco and Pino
529; Italian naval renegades; 546; 561;

Rodolfo
656; with Ruperta Chirpingdon-Groin;

Rodrigo
920; Stray's beau, an "impossibly good-looking Mexican dude"

'Roscoe Conkling'
349; a musical production by R. Wilshire Vibes; Roscoe Conkling (1829 – 1888) was a politician from New York who served both as a member of the United States House of Representatives and the U.S. Senate Wikipedia entry

Rosie's Cantina
649; in El Paso, just like that Marty Robbins song...

Routinization of Charisma
as pertains to art, 738;

Roxana
67; Zombini's stage assistant

681; the son of Emperor Franz Joseph I. In 1887, Rudolf bought Mayerling and adapted it into a hunting lodge. In the autumn of 1888, the 30-year-old crown prince met the 17-year-old Baroness Marie Vetsera, known by the more fashionable Anglophile name Mary. From the start, Mary adored him, and was ready to do anything for him. It was almost certainly not the great romance of his life, but Rudolf did have feelings for her, and was touched by her limitless, almost fanatical, love for him. When Franz Joseph demanded that Rudolf end the relationship, the Crown Prince, as part of a suicide pact, shot his mistress in the head, then himself. This has been referred to as the "Tragedy of Mayerling." Wikipedia entry

708; "Rapid Unit for Shadowing and Harassment" - motorcyclist crew in Vienna

Ruskin
578;

Russell, Bertrand
538; 594; Wikipedia entry

Russell, Lillian
345; hat Wikipedia entry