Difference between revisions of "ATD 57-80"

Revision as of 14:55, 2 February 2007

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

Page 57

Her name was never far from the discourse of the day.
Another reference of something w.r.t. the day.

Page 58

a couple of professors at the Case Institute in Cleveland, who were planning an experiment
The Michelson–Morley experiment, one of the most important and famous experiments in the history of physics, was performed in 1887 by Albert Michelson and Edward Morley at what is now Case Western Reserve University, and is generally considered to be the first strong evidence against the theory of a luminiferous aether. Primarily for this work, Albert Michelson was awarded the Nobel Prize in 1907. Wikipedia entry

In oversimplified form: Michelson and Morley built an instrument that would signal any change in the speed of light traveling along its axis. They measured no change when the instrument was rotated. Now a wave in the æther should appear to go faster if you are moving against it, slower if you are moving with it (like ripples in a pond: walk beside the pond in the same direction as the ripples, and you catch up to them, finding a lower speed; walk the other way and they come toward you at a higher rate, seeming to move faster). By the theory that was then accepted, the instrument certainly should have reported a difference. After repeating the experiment many times, M&M concluded that the æther was somehow always moving the same way relative to the instrument, an absurd behavior, or that light was not, after all, a wave in the æther. And if the æther doesn't convey light waves, there is no justification for including it in physical theory.

the luminiferous Æther
This passage recalls Pynchon's discussion of the "soniferous asther" in Gravity's Rainbow (695).

one finds in the devout Ætherist a propensity of character evertoward the continuous as against the discrete
Particale or Wave? Aether is the medium that light would move in, if it were a wave. This enters the question of whether light is a particle or a wave into the discussion. Pynchon sets up the dichotomy: (aether/wave/continuous vs. empty space/particle/discrete) (also, see page 61)

Töpler influence machine
A machine for producing electrical charges. [Wikipedia].

all those tiny whirlpools the theory has come to require
People still write articles and books about physics based on the æther. Many university physics departments put such publications in the "crank file," but now the World Wide Web makes them available to everybody. One way of finagling the æther to accommodate "real" matter is to postulate vortices or whirlpools in the medium, corresponding to electrons and other particles. Ætherism escaped the fate of Ptolemaic astronomy, which collapsed because it had to grow in complexity to keep up with improving accuracy in observation, but ideas about the æther could not be rigged up to fit Michelson and Morley's results: one experiment spelled the death of the theory.

Michelson
Albert A. Michelson (1852-1931), American physicist. He was born in Strelno, Prussia (now Strzelno, Poland). His family emigrated to the US in 1854. He attended the U.S. Naval Academy and graduated in 1873. After some studies in Europe (Berlin, Heidelberg and Paris) he became Professor of Physics in Case School of Applied Science (1883-89), Clark Univeristy (1889-92) and University of Chicago (1892-1931). He invented an interferometer and an echelon grating, and did important experimental work on the spectrum, but is chiefly remembered for the Michelson-Morley experiment to determine æther drift, the negative result of which set Einstein on the road to the Theory of Relativity. In 1907 he became the first American scientist to win a Nobel prize "for his optical precision instruments and the spectroscopic and metrological investigations carried out with their aid." (Michelson.)

Maxwell Field Equations
In 1864, Maxwell advanced a set of four equations that would describe almost all phenomena involving electricity and magnetism. They not only explained the interrelationship of these two but also showed these two could not be separated. There was only a single electromagnetic field. These equations predicted the existence of electromagnetic radiation. By taking the ratio of certain corresponding values in the equations describing the force between electric charges and the force between magnetic poles one can calculate the velocity at which the electromagnetic wave would have to move. This ratio turned out to be precisely equal to the velocity of light. In 1865 Maxwell wrote that "light itself is an electromagnetic disturbance in the form of waves propagated through the electromagnetic field according to electromagnetic laws".

in Berlin
1881.

Page 59

Ohio
Harks back to M&D's visit with George Washington.

Northern Ohio Insane Asylum
Full of light enthusiastes who invented light-powered bicycles (see p 76,) believe light to have consciousness and personality, and who eat light.

"Originally known as the Northern Ohio Lunatic Asylum, this was the second of 6 public asylums established in Ohio in the 1850's. In later years it was commonly known as Newburgh State Hospital because it was located in Newburgh Township as recompense for Cleveland having been awarded the location of Cuyahoga County Seat. The main building, containing 100 beds,was completed in 1855 on land in Newburgh donated by the Garfield family." [1]

Could there exist some subtly altered version of the Northern Ohio Insane Asylum, filled with scientists? A university perhaps, from which physicists sometimes escape to wreak havoc upon the world? Surely, not: that would be Para-NOIA.

Page 60

Lightarians
see Breatharians Wikipedia entry, who claim that it is possible to live without food.

Aether reports
Associations of light with "wind."

Roswell Bounce
GR includes a character named Hillary Bounce.

The mentions of cosmic space, balloons, a US Bureau "in charge of reporting," and his occupation as a photograper seem to allude to the 1947 Roswell UFO incident, an alleged alien crash that the US government insisted was a downed weather balloon. Wikipedia entry

Page 61

Somehow Merle got the idea in his head that the Michelson-Morley experiment and the Blinky Morgan manhunt were connected.
Vaguely recalls the use of John Dillinger in Gravity's Rainbow (741), insofar as they both read a surprising amount of metaphysical meaning into the death or final apprehension of a notorious criminal. It also ties the criminal underground (out of the light) with the properties of light.

box job
Safecracking. [cite]

Each of Blinky's eyes . . . a walking interferometer
The instrument used by Michelson and Morley (see annotations to page 58) was called an interferometer. It worked by leading light along two paths, then back to the source. Light also reaches Blinky by two distinct paths.

Page 62

A walking interferometer
Blinky Morgan is a walking interferometer.

Edward Morley
Edward W. Morley (1838-1912), American chemist and physicist. He was born in Newark, N.J. He was a professor at Western Reserve (1869-1906) and conducted researches in the variations of atmosphere oxygen content, thermal expansion of gases, vapor tension of mercury, desities of oxygen and hydrogen. He was best known for collaboration with Michelson on æther effect experiment (1887).

emerges from invisibility
Blinky "emerges from invisibility" thus dooming the existence of aether. Aether is then "Against the Day" undetectable, unknowable, invisible.

Page 63

O.D. Chandrasekhar
Perhaps a nod to Subrahmanyan Chandrasekhar (1910-1995), an Indian-American physicist, astrophysicist and mathematician, known to the world as Chandra, who was awarded the 1983 Nobel Prize in Physics. He calculated and discovered the Chandrasekhar Limit which is the maximum mass possible for a white dwarf star (one of the end stages of stars that have exhausted their fuel) supported by electron degeneracy pressure, and is approximately 3 × 1030 kg, around 1.44 times the mass of the Sun. The initials O.D.C. refer to the novel "2001: A space odyssey" by Arthur C. Clarke, where Chandra is the inventor of the HAL computer system. In ATD p. 63 O.D.Chandrasekhar mentions akasa as the solution for the problems the aetherists have discussing implications of the Michelson-Morley experiment, akasa referring to space in hindu cosmology, alas O.D. is proposing space itself here as the medium for light.

If we can explain . . . why keep it?
If Roswell doesn't engage his internal censor pretty quickly, he will be asking this question about God indeed.

Page 64

Photography
Light tied to silver and chemistry.

Page 66

murders in Ravenna
There is a Ravenna, Ohio. TRP may have trimmed the explanation from an earlier draft?

If the U.S. was a person . . . and it sat down, Columbus, Ohio would instantly be plunged into darkness.
Merle stole this gag from Mason & Dixon.

Lorain County
Greater Cleveland. [Wikipedia]

Page 67

Beast Without Shame
Inexplicably recalls the epithet earlier used to denounce Lew Basnight on page 36: "the Upstate-Downstate Beast."

Merle's backstory probably got rewritten very late in the game (see also pp30, 58, 64, and 75).

Page 68

. . . have you ever felt that you wished to suddenly disappear . . . ?
While Merle is getting obsessed with revealing images from darkrooms and chemicals, Zombini comes and makes Erlys "disappear."

Page 69

some larger plan
May be talking about writing Against the Day itself.

Page 70

man-made bad times
The Panic of 1893 and the 1893-95 depression. The Wikipedia article goes into causes and effects.

'seng
Ginseng. Panax sp. The "red berries" Merle refers to.
American Ginseng and the Idea of the Commons at the LOC.

. . . herbs the wildcrafters knew the names and market prices of . . .
"Wildcrafting" here means the harvest of any plant parts from non-cultivated medicinal plants, plants which have essentially planted themselves in any location". (wildcrafting also contains a detailed explanation of the author's wildcrafting.)

Page 71

Ottumwa
City in Iowa. [Wikipedia]

Albert Lea
City in Minnesota. Hometown of Seaman Bodine from Gravity's Rainbow (710).

before the sun had moved a minute of arc
Pedantry alert: The sun moves 1 minute of arc in 4 clock seconds.

Page 72

brightly lit against the stormy days
Cf page 57.

thorned helixes
An allusion to Thurn and Taxis?

Premo
1903. [cite]

Brownie
1900.

calm as a sharpshooter
Allusion of camera as a gun.

There was always plenty of bell-hanger work
In this and the subsequent pages we see Merle getting involved, apart from his usual light-related job (photography), to sound-related and electricity-related jobs.

Page 73

frog-bonding
Can mean a technique in brick masonry. [source], but when referring to streetcars, "frogs" are the heavy metal flangeways that connect track to switches, diamonds, cross-overs and other track structures. Frogs guide wheels from one track structure to another. Pynchon may be confusing the term. (Frog-bonding here is probably the electrician's task of installing cables to link the frog and the tracks to either side of it, so that the car's front and rear wheels are at the same potential relative to the catenary wire.)

Skip
Obviously recalls Byron the sentient lightbulb from Gravity's Rainbow. Also possibly the movie "Ghostbusters". Also recalls Insane Asylum where he is told light has "consciousness and personality." But Merle's "hitch as a lightning-rod salesman" also may be read as Pynchon's tip-of-the-hat (or the copper rod) to a certain nineteenth-century American predecessor, the author of a story called "The Lightning Rod Man" (1854). Come to think of it, Pynchon may be the one contemporary author able to match Melville in whimsy, satire, melancholia, encryption, Jehovah-like ambition, and periodic sentences that are light on their feet yet labyrinthine. Cf. M&D's link to Melville's Israel Potter (now, sadly, unread), or GR's line trailing back toward that book about a whale.... Cf. ATD, p. 123. This 'Skip' episode is not to be skipped or skimmed; it sets ATD's readers briefly aglow with sweetness and light--and sadness.

Ball Lightning
Ball lightning reportedly takes the form of a short-lived, glowing, floating object often the size and shape of a basketball, but it can also be golf ball size or smaller. It is sometimes associated with thunderstorms, but unlike lightning flashes arcing between two points, which last a small fraction of a second, ball lightning reportedly lasts many seconds. There have been some reports of production of a similar phenomenon in the laboratory, but some still disagree on whether it is the same phenomenon. See Ball Lightning, Ball lightning explained and Anatomy of a lightning ball.

Page 74

two bits
The equivalent of an absurdly generous $5 in today's money. [calculator]

Page 75

She watched the invisible force at work
This subchapter, in which we have watched Merle getting involved in jobs about sound and electricity, on top of his usual job about light, closes with an image of the blowing wind, the "invisible force". A couple of lines back, we have Merle saying "There's your gold, Dahlia", pointing to the wind "blowing in the high Indian grass" and Dally thinking "what an alchemist [he] was" (italics mine). It is the first allusion of Merle as an alchemist.

San Juans
[map]

Dishforth's Illustrated Weekly
"dish" - gossip

Page 76

Electric Generator hooked to an old bicycle
Don't know if this is that important, but similar to Insane Asylum light-bicycle. (There was one in GR, too-- somebody giving a haircut.)

photographer's or, if you like, alchemist's stuff
Second allusion of Merle as an alchemist (see also previous and next page).

Page 77

Webb Traverse
The character is introduced mere paragraphs after the description of spiderwebs "that when the early daylight was right cause you to stand there just stupefied." As "traverse" means to travel across or through, perhaps the character's name signifies his ability to navigate the complicated webs off.. I dunno, society, the establishment or something?

Traversing the WorldWideWeb is a common expression, eg by search engine 'spiders'.

In law, to "traverse" means to deny, and a "traverse" to a pleading is a denial of its allegations. This appellation fits Webb Traverse, whose anarchism is a denial of industrial capitalism. He also traverses moral boundaries: he kills innocents.

Mason and Dixon's survey was a traverse, as opposed to a triangulation.

alchemists keep tryin, it's what we do
Photography as alchemy. Mercury and the Philosopher's stone Wikipedia entry on Silver Fulminate

Page 78

The Anti-Stone
Probably anticipates the atom bomb. See page 79 on "politics through chemistry"...."temples of Mammon all in smithereens".

This statement that Anti-Stone, if it is an allusion to the atomic bomb, "has another name that we'd just get into trouble saying out loud" reminds of Oppenheimer and what he said the detonation of the first atomic bomb "Trinity" in the New Mexico desert made him think of: "We knew the world would not be the same. A few people laughed, a few people cried, most people were silent. I remembered the line from the Hindu scripture, the Bhagavad-Gita. Vishnu is trying to persuade the Prince that he should do his duty and to impress him takes on his multi-armed form and says, 'Now, I am become Death, the destroyer of worlds.' I suppose we all thought that one way or another."[11]

breathin in those fumes
Mercury fumes are what made hatters mad.

Page 79

poor folks on the march, bigger than Coxey’s Army
Group of unemployed men who marched to Washington, D.C., in the depression year of 1894. Jacob S. Coxey (1854–1951), a businessman, led the group, which hoped to persuade Congress to authorize public-works programs to provide jobs. It left Ohio on March 25 and reached Washington on May 1 with about 500 men, the only one of several groups to reach its destination. It attracted much attention but failed to bring about any legislation Answers.com, Britannica

Page 80

not the result of any idle drift but more of a secret imperative, like the force of gravity
Ties into the central scientific metaphor of GR, that the laws of physics and fate are somehow connected.

as if silver were alive, with a soul and a voice
. . . like Skip the ball lightning.

Annotation Index