Difference between revisions of "ATD 243-272"

Revision as of 09:30, 6 January 2007

Please keep these annotations SPOILER-FREE by not revealing information from later pages in the novel.

Page 243

fumaioli
see picture in [1].

certo
sure, certain.

Seccature
Inconvenience in Italian.

Page 244

ragazza
Italian 'girl'.

Picardy thirds
Cf p50.

stabilimento
establishment

Page 245

"Ehi, sugo!"
"Hey, sauce!"

twentyfold
5 chums times 4 suspects each.

osteria
tavern.

San Polo
Wikipedia

calli
Venetian 'stree' or 'lane'.

Page 246

sotoporteghi
passageways. See picture for one example [2].

"Sa stai, O! Lungo, ehi!"
???

cameriere
waiter. A typo. The context clearly indicated cameriera (waitress).

pallonisti
ballonists.

Ehi, macche, Pina!
???

giadrul
???

"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
turkey.

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

vini frizzanti
sparkling wine.

SANGUIS RUBER, MENS PURA
???

Serrata del Maggior Consiglio
Great Council Lockout. (?)

Napoleon's abolition
1797. Wikipedia

Polos' return
1295. Wikipedia

Page 248

Attenzione al culo
attention to ass. (?)

Doge by Giovanni Bellini

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. Wikipedia entry

Page 249

"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 anaysis and differentiation" and those valuing "unity and integration". The two alternate maps of Asia could be a reference to these disparate worldviews.Wikipedia

Clifford's term
WK Clifford. Wikipedia

Page 250

For a brief history of the compound-lens microscope, including a reference to the role played by Italians and the Dutch, including Griendl von Ach, see: http://www.1911encyclopedia.org/Microscope

Page 252

Gauloise
famous French cigarette. See Wikipedia.

scusi
excuse me.

Affascinante, caro
Fascinating, dear.

ragazzo
boys.

Mattoidi
Borderland cases between sanity and insanity.

Prego
Please.

Page 253

sfumato
smoke. It commonly refers to a well known painting method as demonstrated by Leonardo da Vince's Mona Lisa. See Wikipedia.

Page 254

Pax tibi
Peace to you.

"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.

Page 255

Bastille Day
The Campanile di San Marco collapsed 14 July 1902. cite and pic

Page 256

"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 page 123 for more on Tetris.)

Page 258

polny pizdets
sad state of affairs.

Smirno
???

Japanese character for 'four' being same as that for 'death'
Not quite true. The Japanese characters for four and death are quite distinct, but can be pronounced in the same way, hence the taboo.

Page 259

dov'era, com'era
where it was, as it was. See veniceblog.

Page 260

Curly Dee
???

Jew Fanny
???

inside out
Optical illusion.

Hsiang-Chao
???

Page 261

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.

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

gong
??? 17:18, 1 January 2007 (PST)Bklyn48

Page 262

Willis Turnstone
???

"Crazier."
Cf Bonnie and Clyde.

Page 263

Oleander Prudge
???

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...

Page 265

gullet of days
???

Page 266

white-throated swift
???

November
???

nymph du pave
should probably read "nymphE du pave": 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) german weblink

geometric episode
Vaguely reminiscent of Proust on Combray.

Engelmann spruce
Picea engelmannii A short biography of Dr. Engelmann (lit. Angel-Man) Wikipedia-Entry, more elaborated on 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

Jemt-land
A Province in the center of Sweden Wikipedia

Page 268

side hobbles
???

Page 269

items, nearly always stolen
Cf bower-bird.

the dirt, the blood-red dirt
This line recalls Homer's "wine-dark sea" first found in The Iliad (Bk VII) in a scene in which Achilles grieves for the death of Patroclus. Given the context here, it might be thought of as "mock-heroic."

marmot
According to Merriam-Webster: a stout-bodied, short-legged rodent of the genus Marmota 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 larger than squirrels, prairie dogs or ground squirrels (a/k/a chipmunks), about the size of a weasel but smaller than an otter

"huevón"
From hueva (egg). According to 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 ass hole.

Page 271

skip
A wagon or basket on a track in a mine, or generally any scooter.

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"
Brigham Young's group with similar purpose as Danite above, sometimes called Danites as well.

Page 272

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

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