Difference between revisions of "ATD 557-587"

Revision as of 06:17, 12 January 2007

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

Page 557

Viktor Mulciber
???

bespoke
made to order, hence hand-made and expensive. Somewhere in the novel is a reference to 1 Savile Row, the address of Gieves and Hawkes, a very traditional English tailor.

Basil Zaharoff
???

trains of history... run
???

Q-weapon
Allusion to Professor Kokintz's "Q-bomb" in The Mouse That Roared (1959).

Balkan komitadji
Bulgarian: revolutionaries. This equivalent comes from a communist-era dictionary, and it is quite possible the word meant something a little different before World War I.

waybill
Ancestor of what Fedex and UPS call "shipping document"; it identifies the article shipped and contains necessary addresses and instructions.

metamorphosed into an American Negro
Cf honorary Negro (Frank above).

Nipponese
Japanese

Hertzian
Electromagnetic waves, first demonstrated by Heinrich Hertz

they cannot strictly . . . longitudinal as well as transverse
Hertz's theory and Maxwell's equations describe transverse waves in which the electric and magnetic fields are perpendicular to the direction of travel; no longitudinal waves--with vibrations parallel to the direction of travel--are permitted. In air, sound waves are longitudinal; what's suggested here is a new wave that does not fit the Hertz-Maxwell paradigm.

Page 558

scalar part
Quaternion equivalent of the real part.
Time is a scaler term.

baritone in a barbershop quartet
Quote:Technically speaking, barbershop harmony is a style of unaccompanied singing with three voices harmonizing to the melody. The lead usually sings the melody, with the tenor harmonizing above the lead. The bass sings the lowest harmonizing notes and the baritone provides in-between notes, either above or below the lead to make chords (specifically, dominant-type or "barbershop" sevenths) that give barbershop its distinctive, "full" sound.

viola in a string quartet
Two violins, a viola, and a violoncello make up a string quartet. The viola is between the others in pitch and is generally considered to have been given the least interesting parts in Classical and Romantic music for string quartet.

Further Term
The three parts of a quaternion that are multiples of i, j and k

the fulfiller of the Trinity
the name of the first atom bomb detonated at Los Alamos. Alluded to earlier. The origin of the name Trinity for this event is uncertain. It is commonly thought that Robert Oppenheimer provided the name, which would seem logical, but even this is not definitely known. A leading theory is that Oppenhimer did select it, and that he did so with reference to the divine Hindu trinity of Brahma (the Creator), Vishnu (the Preserver), and Shiva (the Destroyer). Oppenheimer had an avid interest in Sanskrit literature (which he had taught himself to read), and following the Trinity test is reported to have recited the passage from the Bhagavad-Gita that opens this page.

Also, a religious allusion to the three-person Godhead in Christian theology. 

laterite
A mineral structure formed by erosion, see Wikipedia. Laterite is typically rich in metal oxides and poor in organic matter.

Inner Boulevards
???

Gare du Midi
The largest railway station in Brussels and a haunt of prostitutes.

Edouard Gevaert
(No ligature?)

Page 559

Krupp field-piece
The Krupps are an ancient German family, famous for making weapons. A field-piece is a light-cannon.

vaguely glandular
???

ostinato
A continually repeated musical phrase or rhythm.

poleaxed
Stunned, brought to a mental standstill. (I believe a poleaxe was used in slaughterhouses. --Volver 11:31, 3 January 2007 (PST))

lost to silence
(Not silent, or very?)

Page 560

Estacade
???

mousmée... mouchard
French: a young Japanese woman; a police spy.

always lead an irregular life
Cf GR.

Maria Bayley Hamilton
???

council meeting
???

Page 561

Brougham Bridge
???

pulls a knife
(Folklore, really later?)

on the stone
???

Pentecostal
???

official Mischief Opportunity
???

absinthe spoons
absinthe spoons have slits whereon are placed sugar cubes through which one pours the absinthe

cravats
???

"four-door farce"
(See eg Bogdanovich's "What's Up, Doc?") This is also a pun on the name of Georges Feydeau, French writer of farces who was writing when Pynchon's novel is set. One of the recurring physical jokes involves sets with many doors and people coming in and out, just missing each other....

Page 562

Minque
???

carillons... carilloneur
???

Hanseatic
The Hansa or Hanseatic League (definitely a creation of "the Christian North," next paragraph) was a great mercantile system that held itself above national rule.

burghers
???

silted up
???

Damme and Sluis
???

Page 563

trusted his intuitiveness
???

"Jou moerskont!"... Afrikaans
Possibly "you horse's ass"?

Page 564

immense choir
???

Voetsak
Dutch or Afrikaans, "Go away!", also spelled "voertsek" or "voetsek"

starers
???

tobacco-stricken
???

half-silvering
A design for an optical beam splitter that causes half of the incident light to be transmitted and the other half to be reflected.

four cusps... index-surface
???

co-conscious
???

Page 565

true icosahedron
Probably an regular icosahedron, where the sides are formed by 20 equilateral triangles

12+8... pyrites
Pyrite crystals form a structure that can be decomposed into unit cells that contain (part of) 12 sulphur atoms and 8 iron atoms.

Riemann sphere
Wikipedia

Felix Klein
German mathematician (Wikipedia)

ebonite
An early plastic(Wikipedia)

Ohmic Drift
???

speed of the earth... kinetic energy
Einstein in 1905 showed most of this argument to be nonsense, but if Lorentz's paper is still recent (next entry) the shift in thinking may not have happened yet.

Recently Lorentz's paper
Lorentz's 1904 "Electromagnetic phenomena in a system moving with any velocity less than that of light" (PDF)

Lorentz . . . Fitzgerald . . . along the axis of motion
It was the phenomenon of the Lorentz-Fitzgerald contraction, together with the abolition of the æther by Michelson and Morley, that led Einstein to his theory of special relativity.

Lord Rayleigh
British physicist (Wikipedia)

Page 566

In a dream...

This passage, describing Kit's dream of Umeki and the message it conveys, pulls together many of the main themes of Against the Day, tying things together in a way that Pynchon seldom does, almost as if he's providing a rather large piece of the puzzle to help the reader understand the novel:

"Deep among the equations describing the behavor of light, field equations, Vector and Quaternion equations, lies a set of directions, an intinerary, a map to a hidden space. Double refraction appears again and again as a key element, permitting a view into a Creation set just to the side of this one, so close as to overlap, where the membrane between the worlds, in many places, has become too frail, too permeable, for safety.... Within the mirror, with the scalar term, within the daylit and obvious and taken-for-granted has always lain, as if in wait, the dark intinerary, the corrupted pilgrim's guide, the nameless Station before the first, in the lightless uncreated, where salvation does not yet exist."

analogies
(Pynchonian heuristics.)

nameless Station
???

lightless uncreated
(Gnostic heresy?)

stuffed sinus
sinus/nasal congestion. It is like looking out onto a new world when one's sinus finally clears after days of congestion.

Konichiwa
Japanese greeting

Page 567

new Puccini opera
Obviously, Madame Butterfly

Borel-Clerc... "La Matchiche"
Popular vaudeville song from 1903. "La Matchiche" is French for the Brazilian dance Maxixe.

western anchor
What about France, Spain, Portugal?

Compaignie Internationale des Wagons-Lits
"International Sleeping-Car Company", Wikipedia

two hundred francs
???

theory of sets
???

Bruges Canal
???

Page 568

vaporetto
A Venetian water-bus.

Grand Canal
The main canal that runs through the heart of Venice and down past San Marco, the city's main square.

San Marco end
See above. This is where Florian's (appears in the novel) is situated.

Piazzetta
???

San Giorgio Maggiore
A rather over-ornate church on the Grand Canal opposite San Marco.

spreading... cloak
Cliche/allusion?

live here forever
Pynchon special-pleading that Dally isn't just another tourist. Or is this just a typical reaction of the tourist? And a Pynchonesque longing for home?

Page 569

Malibran... Polo's house
The Teatro Malibran, built at the site of Marco Polo's house, which was destroyed in 1596.

"pincette" pass
Probably from the pincer movement of military strategy.

profondes
"Large pockets in tail coats which can be used for vanishes or productions", Wikipedia

Vincenzo Miserere
???

train to Trieste
???

Svegli
???

shark leather
Different from sharkskin?

Specchiere
Mirror-maker

glassmakers on Murano
Wikipedia

Page 570

another one of his stories
(Jackson Pynchon should highlight all the AtD passages that originated as bedtime stories.)

TERAPIA
Italian, "therapy"

San Servolo
An island in the Venetian archipelago, Wikipedia, Google Maps

Palazzo Ducale
The Ducal Palace in Venice, residence of the Doge. It's by San Marco.

manicomio
Italian, "madhouse"

uterine vellum
Vellum produced from the skin of an unborn calf

pitch, rouge
Products used in the grinding of lenses and mirrors.

Page 571

La Doppiatrice
Italian: the Doubler.

Ettore Sananzolo
???

Maskelyne cabinet
After Neville Maskelyne, from Mason and Dixon. Maskelyne sent M and D to record the Transit of Venus.

More likely a descendant, Jasper M., famous stage magician and designer of dazzle camouflage.Volver 15:34, 2 January 2007 (PST)

Page 572

smoke back into a cigar
Time's arrow/ entropy motif.

hard-as-a-rock black cigar
???

thumping
???

salso
???

sandoli
???

trains pulling in
Famous early film.

Page 573

Cannareggio
Cannaregio

Page 574

thirty years older
About 65yo?

that day
In NYC when Dally showed up.

when she was born
Cf Pretenders/Chryssie Hynde.

Stronzo
Italian curse word, roughly "asshole"

In bocc' al lupo!
From the Roman dialect, in which the Italians - including Rocco and Pino - seem to speak. Meaning, literally, "In the mouth of the wolf," and idiomatically, "Good luck."

Specifically the good-luck wish among actors: "Break a leg!" Volver 15:36, 2 January 2007 (PST)

campielli
???

Page 575

Riva
???

middy blouses
???

not yet been rebuilt
Remember p256.

lucciole
???

fondamenta
A waterside street in Venice

ombreta
???

light's good here
Old joke about drunk looking for car keys under streetlight though he dropped them somewhere else.

inside that labyrinth . . . microcosm of all Venice
A hologram has this property, that a little chip broken off it contains the entire image.

Page 576

twelve soldi
???

franc... ten francs
???

Canaletto
???

Beppo
???

pitch
???

Bauer-Grünwald
An expensive hotel near San Marco in Venice.

Page 577

'Safe'
Recent art-movie title?

Castello
???

Evening Gun
???

importunate
???

Dr. Grace
Renowned, full-bearded 19th-century English cricket player.

Page 578

Dorsoduro
An area of Venice.

pensione
A cheap Italian hotel, like a bed and breakfast.

La Calcina
???

Zattere
An area of wide waterfront pavements in Venice.

cimici
???

bora
???

Page 579

Tintoretto's Abduction...
???

Accademia
The major art-gallery in Venice

Titian
16th century Venetian painter.

Infancy Gospel of Thomas
???

Page 580

Pentecost story in Acts
???

Galilean dialect
Of Aramaic.

rii
Plural of rio.

Page 581

sotopòrteghi
An open doorway for public access.

Bodeo 10.4 mm
???

Page 582

foschetta
???

masègni
???

patrone
???

wine trains up from Puglia
???

Winter
1904-1905?

Principessa Spongiatosta
Is Pugnax's book from p6 at all relevant here?

Ca'
Abbreviated form of "Casa," Italian for "house."

Roman Composite order
???

japonica
???

Page 583

Iron Bridge
???

Le Havre
???

ma via
???

third eyes touching
The third eye, as existing on some reptiles is a dorsal organ that is receptive to light, otherwise known as the pineal eye. Since the two half-sisters are obviously not reptiles, this reference might allude to the figurative third eye, or the eye of the mind, heart or soul. When the two touch foreheads, they are able to peer into each other consciences, by way of these third eyes. /Dictionary Entry

Page 584

"Swiss insurance salesman. Wolf. No, Putzi."
Bria's had so many beaux she gets them confused?

topo
???

Dogana
???

Andrea Tancredi
An artist and acquaintence made by Hunter Penhallow in Venice. His name is likely derived from the Gioacchino Rossini opera Tancredi or the Voltaire play by the same name. Wikipedia Entry

Seurat and Signac
George Seurat (1859-1891) and Paul Signac (1863-1935), French painters who developed pointillism. Wikipedia entry.

Divisionism
???

Marinetti
???

"Futurists"
Practitioners or followers of Futurism, an early 20th century art movement that is considered the genesis of Cubism, Dada and Art Deco. Wikipedia entry.

brutalism
???

Torcello
A lonely Venetian island: very peaceful and beautiful with a church and little else.

primitivo
???

Page 585

green-and-lavender
Another clashing color scheme.

sirocco
A hot dust-laden wind from the Libyan deserts that blows on the northern Mediterranean coast chiefly in Italy, Malta, and Sicily.

San Michele
???

futuristic vehicle
P155.

Preliminary Studies...
???

Page 586

Always with us.
Gospel of ?.

vero
Cf 'verdad'.

orpiment yellow
A yellow color pigment (Wikipedia)

Nürnberg violet
An artificial color pigment discovered in 1868 in the city of Nuremberg

Page 587

nebbia, nebbietta, foschia, caligo, sfumato
???

speed of sound
Air temperature is more important that density.

La Velocità del Suono
Italian, "speed of sound"

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