ATD 199-218

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

Page 205

against the daylight
A direct example of against the day as against the light. Significantly, Frank's attempt to discern Stray's true facial expression is thwarted by the daylight behind her. An object positioned against the daylight, or, in general, between an observer and a light source, is shadowed or silhouetted -- in Pynchon's words of the same sentence, "veiled by its own penumbra". This is suggestive of the idea that light does not always illuminate.

Page 212

The upside down star
Talking about the Marshal of Jeshimon, The Rev. of the town says: "'notice anything in particular?...Observe the star Wes is wearing.'...It was a five-pointed star, nickel-plated, like they tended to war, except that it was on upside down. 'Whith the two points up-that's the horns of the Devil, and signifies that Elderly Gent and his works.'"

In Mason and Dixon: The upside star is a symbol two things that are connected: 1. when M&D are trying to find true north, they look at starts in their telescope at measure when they reach the peak of their arc arcoss the sky. In the telescope the star is upside down. Thus, upside down stars symbolize points which cut through distortion. 2. The star is seen again and again on rifles of both Dutch and American design. They pop up around slavery, a massacre, and an Iron refinery used for making impliments of slavery and war. The rifle is much like a telescope, but differs in that it shoots lead rather then huge sweaping cuts across the landscape. But they are both acts that are branded by evil.

The "upside down star" is also known as the inverted pentagram (with "two horns exalted"), an emblem of the Devil.