Difference between revisions of "ATD 26-56"

Revision as of 00:12, 3 March 2007

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

Page 26

Little Egypt
was the stage name for two popular exotic dancers, Ashea Wabe who danced at the Seeley banquet at the 1893 World's Fair and Farida Mazar Spyropoulos, also performing under the stage name Fatima, appeared at the "Street in Cairo" exhibition on the Midway at the World's Columbian Exposition, held in Chicago in 1893. Wikipedia entry Also a 1961 song by the Coasters.

Page 27

Bacchanale
From Samson et Dalila, op. 47 (1877) Wikipedia entry. Listen to a 30 second MP3 sample

Maxim whirling machines...
This paragraph describes a number of real flying apparati: This article from October 1893 describes the Maxim whirling machine and others.

Dally
Merle's relationship with Dally is reminiscent of Ryan and Tatum O'Neal's characters in the 1973 Peter Bogdanovich film, "Paper Moon". Merle's family situation (single father, smart aleck daughter, mother who took off) is identical to that of Vineland's protagonist Zoyd Wheeler.

Page 28

Imbottigliata!
Italian for "bottled".

Dahlia Rideout
The lolita motif is common in Pynchon's works. Other lolitas include Bianca in Gravity's Rainbow.

Dahlia is four or five years old! She is not a lolita motif here. Lolita was twelve and Humbert was sick. Even her sick father, Merle Rideout, who would sell her to one of the Chums, won't until she is sixteen, maybe fifteen.

in Randolph's face a degree of stupefaction one regrets to term characteristic
Randolph "froze" previously, on page 12; evidently this is a trait already established in the Chums novels.

this Trouvé-screw unit over here
Gustave Trouvé built advanced machinery from the 1860s to the 1890s; his work on airscrews was pivotal, and he also invented the outboard motor. Before Trouvé's design studies, propulsion in the air used sail-rotors like windmills or depended on slightly modified marine propellers.

Page 29

a l'étouffée
French, meaning braised. So, braised alligator meat. Braised food, for instance crawfish, is a culinary specialty of New Orleans.

Sloane Laboratory
Yale's physics lab built 1882. Cf page 33.

Professor Gibbs
Josiah Williard Gibbs (1839-1903), American mathematical physicist. He was born in New Haven, Connecticut. In 1854 he went to Yale and won prizes for excellence in Latin and mathematics. He undertook research in engineering and received his Ph.D in 1863, the first doctorate in engineering to be confered in the US. From 1866 to 1869 Gibbs studies in Europe - first in Paris, then in Berlin and finally in Heidelberg. He was professor at Yale from 1871 to 1903. He contributed substantially to the study of thermodynamics, and his most important work, On the Equilibrium of Heterogeneous Substances (1876 and 1878) and his "phase rule" established him as a founder of physical chemistry. Gibbs' work on vector analysis was also of major importance in pure mathematics. Gibbs was one of the greatest American scientists in the 19th century. (Gibbs.)

De Forest
Lee De Forest (1873-1961), American invetor. He was born in Council Bluffs, Iowa and educated at Yale and Chicago. A pioneer of radio, he introduced the grid into the therm-ionic valve, and invented the audion (1907), feedback circuit (1912) and the four-electode valve. He involved in first news by radio (1916). He also did much early work on sound reproduction and on television. He patented over 300 inventions in wireless telegraphy, radio, telephony, talking pictures, high-speed facsimile transmission, television, radiotherapy, radar, etc. He was called, sometimes, "the father of radio." (De Forest.)

Kimura
He received his Ph.D degree in mathematics from Yale University in 1896. (Dissertation: Studies on General Spherical Functions.) He published a paper On the Nabla of Quaternions in The Annals of Mathermatics, Vol 10, No. 1/6 (1895-1896). In 1912, he published a paper called One-Waveness in Wireless Telegraphy; Pseudo-Impact Excitation in Physical Review of May 1912. (Nabla is an early name for the "del" operator, symbolized by the inverted Greek letter Δ.)

Ray Ipsow
In Latin re ipso means "the thing itself." "To the thing itself" was the motto and rallying cry of the investigational method known as phenomenology Wikipedia entry developed by Edmund Husserl Wikipedia entry. As the phrase indicates, it is a plea against abstraction--a theme of GR--- and for reality 'itself'.

Outer Indianoplace
Derogatory nickname for Indianapolis.

Khartoum... Mahdi's army... Oltre Giubba, instead of down in Alex
Khartoum is the capital of Sudan. The Mahdi army was an Islamic group in the 1880s that advocated a return to strict Islamic values and battled with the government of Khartoum and Egyptian armies. More on these convoluted events at the Wikipedia entry.

Page 30

railroad watch
High-quality pocket watch. [pix and info]

Page 31

Scarsdale Vibe
Scarsdale NY boasts that it's Westchester County's wealthiest community, so a 'Scarsdale vibe' implies 'stinking of money'. Vibe is another Pynchon baddie whose last name starts with "V", e.g., Brock Vond in Vineland.

in disguise . . . bodyguards and secretaries . . . ebony stick
Some great disguise!

Foley Walker
"Foley walker" is a term used to indicate a sound-effects expert. Also known as a foley artist [cite]

Coalhouse Walker is a major character in Doctorow's Ragtime, mentioned earlier as a book set within the same time period.

Probably a stretch: "One of the company's (i.e. Thiel‘s Detective Service Company) first employees was John F. Farley, a former U.S. Cavalry trooper. In 1885, Farley was appointed manager of Thiel's Denver office. Farley was known as the 'King of the Strikebreakers.' In 1895 Farley gave up any pretense of detective work and specialized in strike services, at one point allegedly earning $1 million from a strike in San Francisco. After a decade of strikebreaking, Farley retired—not having lost a single one of the 35 strike actions to which he had supplied personnel. Farley later became Denver's chief of police." from Wikipedia. The Denver city election results trial of 1889 invited media focus on corruption ties and payoffs between "Soapy" Smith (Criminal Boss of Denver), the mayor and Farley, the chief of police (see Note 6 in this Wikipedia entry)

Forty-seventh and Ashland
[...] First, the story [...] about Ashland being named for the ashes of the Great Chicago Fire is an urban legend. Ashland Avenue, first known as Reuben Street, was already developed before the fire and was considered the height of suburban living on the West Side in the 1860s. [cite] [...] The spread of movie palaces in the automobile age presaged the spread of commercial buildings from the Loop to the neighborhoods and suburbs. By 1930, Marshall Field & Co. had created smaller versions of its downtown store in Evanston and Oak Park, while neighborhood retailers like Goldblatt's and Wieboldt's were moving downtown. Chicago developed regional shopping districts at 47th and Ashland, 63rd and Halsted, Irving Park and Pulaski, and many other locations. Certain areas catered to specialized industries, such as “Automobile Row” on South Michigan Avenue, or the Maxwell Street Market, an open-air European-style market that resisted every effort at modernization until its destruction in the 1990s. [...] [cite] [photo]

Page 32

Second Corinthians
This exchange between Vibe and Ipsow refers specifically to 2 Corinthians 11:19 -- For ye suffer fools gladly, seeing ye yourselves are wise. [cite]

Ipsow's response to S. Vibe on lines 21-23( ...in these days need arises directly from criminal acts of the rich) can be seen as a direct paraphrase of Ch. 5 of the book of James: Now listen you rich.. you have hoarded wealth in the last days. Look! the wages you failed to pay the workers who mowed your fields cry out against you... you have lived in luxury and fattened yourself in the day of slaughter. You have condemned and killed innocent men ... James 5

Page 33

"Old Zip Coon"
"Old Zip Coon" dates from as early as 1834 and is considered the original name for the 19th-century American folk song, 'Turkey in the Straw'. lyrics Wikipedia See also [1] and [2].

Dr. Tesla
Nikola Tesla (1856-1943), American inventor. He was born in Croatia of Serbian parents. He studied at Graz (Austria), Prague and Paris. He discovered (1881) principle of rotating magnetic field, basis of practically all alternating-current (AC) machinery. Between 1882-1884 he was an engineer in Paris (1882-84) and constructed his first induction motor (1883). He emigrated to the United States (1884, naturalized in 1889). Worked for Thmoas Edison (1884-85) but left the Edison Works at Menlo Park (Edison opposed to AC idea) to concentrate on his own inventions, which include improved dynamos, transformers, electric bulbs, wireless communication (1897) and the high-frequency coil which bears his name. (Cf page 97 and Telsa.)

Sloane Lab
Completed in 1912, was the gift of Henry T. Sloane, BA 1866, and William D. Sloane, MA HON. 1889. Of Longmeadow stone, it is Collegiate Gothic in style. Charles C. Haight was the architect. (An underground addition was constructed in 1958 to house a Van de Graaff machine-now removed. The John A. Hartford Foundation, Inc., and the U.S. Public Health Service financed it. Sloane Lab was the first University constructed on the Hillhouse Estate (less the three acres adjoining Sachem’s Wood). The property was a gift in 1910 of Mrs. Russell Sage, and called Pierson Sage Square. The University had wanted to acquire the land to develop into a turn-of-the-century “science park”. The well-known landscape architect, Frederick Law Olmstead advised in the land’s development. [217 Prospect Street] [cite] and [photo].

Interestingly, Frederick Law Olmstead was also pivital in the development of the grounds for the 1893 Columbian Exposition in Chicago. His famous "Wooded Isle" remains a centerpiece in Chicago's Jackson Park. [link] and [photo].

For a more detailed account of Olmstead's landscape architecture as it relates to the 1893 World's Fair, see Erik Larson's The Devil in the White City.

These would be anachronistic, but as the note for p29 above mentions, a lab existed by 1882.

Page 34

the most terrible weapon the world has seen . . . rational systems of control
This statement defines the threat—as the plutocrats see it—of free power (anarchy) and their justification for bending government and every other compelling force to stamp it out.

Pierpont
John Pierpont Morgan I (April 17, 1837 – March 31, 1913) was an American financier and banker, who dominated corporate finance and industrial consolidation. [...] In 1900, Morgan financed inventor Nikola Tesla and his Wardenclyffe Tower with $150,000 for experiments in radio. Tesla was unsuccessful and, in 1904, Morgan pulled out. Later, Tesla created a AC generator [cite]

Somble, Strool & Fleshway
Law firms in Pynchon have such charming names; compare Salitieri, Poore, Nash, de Brutus, and Short in GR. This one has more of a Dickensian sound. "Fleshway" might suggest a reference to Samuel Butler's The Way of All Flesh, which was not published until 1903, but it seems more likely to go back to a biblical phrase associated with death.

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 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'.

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.

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.

making a point of pronouncing his name disrespectfully
The only way it could be done is, apparently, by saying Lube Ass Night.

"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 39

kazoos
This silly instrument appears in several Pynchon novels.

slow ritual movement
Maybe tai chi, or anachronistic Gurdjieffian dance?

Drave
Possibly a back formation from 'Dravidians,' referring to David Koresh's Branch Davidians.

huh? Bleakhaus 16:23, 19 December 2006 (PST)

I have to second that "huh?" This seems exceedingly improbable. Kirkm 06:15, 15 February 2007 (PST)

Another possibility is that Pynchon had in mind the Scottish noun "drave," which the OED defines as 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." This resonates with the evangelical role that Drave plays (Cf. Matthew 4:18, where Jesus addresses Peter and Matthew, "And he saith unto them, Follow me, and I will make you fishers of men.")

It should be noted, though, that there is also a Drave river in south central Europe, though there seems to be little 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
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.

Could be, but at the same time let's not overlook the plain reading: Esthonia is an obsolete spelling of the country Estonia.

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 as part of the establishment Pynchon seems to rail against in the novel.

Page 40

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 42

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."

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.

Page 43

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.

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.

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.

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."

"have a lawyer explain civil liability to you"
Again, law. Pynchon must have boned up on legal jargon (or perhaps he got sued?).

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. [3]

shive artist
Someone proficient with a knife (shive=knife or razor).

Page 46

"staff," a mixture of plaster and hemp fibers
[pix and info]

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, built as the expo's Palace of Fine Arts, is still faced in staff.

"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. Researching the details.

"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.

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]

...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]

...'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.

scapegrace
Scoundrel.

And when Franz Ferdinand pays, everybody pays!
WWI?

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. [4].

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

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
an apparent 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 image] 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)

some weeks till the fair closes
30 October 1893.

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.

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.

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.

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?)

Annotation Index