Difference between revisions of "ATD 81-96"
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'''Skinner'''<br> | '''Skinner'''<br> | ||
A person who drives mules. | A person who drives mules. | ||
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| + | '''Chinaman'''<br> | ||
| + | This is the latest of many allusions to China or Chinese in an exotic, oriental way. This may simply be imitating Gilded Age and early 20th century American fiction and films, which often featured mystical Chinese as characters and villains. It also recalls the use of Feng Shui in ''Mason & Dixon''. | ||
'''Cripple Creek'''<br> | '''Cripple Creek'''<br> | ||
Revision as of 02:02, 29 November 2006
Page 81
Feast of St. Barbara. External link
Page 82
Skinner
A person who drives mules.
Chinaman
This is the latest of many allusions to China or Chinese in an exotic, oriental way. This may simply be imitating Gilded Age and early 20th century American fiction and films, which often featured mystical Chinese as characters and villains. It also recalls the use of Feng Shui in Mason & Dixon.
Cripple Creek
Cripple Creek was the location of a miner's strike in 1894. It was a significant labor event and it was the first time that a state Militia was called out in support of the miners. Wikipedia entry
Page 85
Innocent Victims...Monsters That Did the Deed
Use of capitals seems to emphasize the fact that these persons are simply convenient stock characters in the forwarding of the owners'/government's agenda.
Page 87
Rev. Moss Gatlin's rhetorical question "How can anyone set off a bomb that will take innocent lives?" and its wisecrack response, "Long fuse" seems a calculated echo of Kubrick's 'Full Metal Jacket.' ("How can you shoot women and children?" "Easy -- don't lead 'em so much.")
Mason-Dixon line
We learn that the Traverse family had been "an old ridegerunning caln from southern Pennsylvania, close to the Mason-Dixon. The Civil War, which ate up a good part of Wbb's boyhood, split the family as well, so that shortly before it was over, he found himself in the back of a agon heading west..."
I searched through all of M&D and didn't find any Traverses who had met
the exporers, but it's obvious that there were there and that the Traverse
family are victim's of the Line's bad Feng Shui. So interesting, then to
see the link between the Line, Colarado Anarchism, and the Labor movemnet
in California.
Page 89
Repeal of the Silver Act of 1893
Prior to 1893, both Silver and Gold were used as a metallic standard for currency in the United States. The Sherman Act authorized the treasury to purchase 4.5 million ounces of silver per month. This inflated the price of silver, causing eastern investors to start hoarding gold as a hedge. The unrest this caused in the Colorado mines resulted in the repeal of the Act. When this happened, the mining of silver began to rapidly decline, causing further destabilization in the silver mining industry.
Page 93
plutes
plutocrats: members of the wealthy class controlling a government
Page 95
a radius of annhilation that, if it could not include the ones who deserved it, might as well include himself
Hair-raising to see Pynchon put the suicide bomber/terrorists back in the US where they also have a home; the effect also to make them (the suicide bombers over there somewhere - Afghanistan, Iraq, etc.) a bit less foreign, and to make ourselves, good US citizens, appear foreign to ourselves: how could we, civilized Americans interested only in democracy and freedom for all, have these feelings and desires?
September 11, 2001 and its consequences seem obvious on this novel, at least in these first 95 pages.
