ATD 243-272
- Please keep these annotations SPOILER-FREE by not revealing information from later pages in the novel.
Contents
Page 244
ragazza
Italian 'girl'.
Picardy thirds
Cf p50.
Page 245
twentyfold
5 chums times 4 suspects each.
San Polo
Wikipedia
Page 246
giadrul
???
"with all the spaghetti-joints in this town to choose from, are you saying those dadblame Russians have come in here?"
reminiscent of a similar line from the film Casablanca, spoken by Humphrey Bogart: "Of all the gin joints in all the towns in all the world, she walks into mine."
Page 247
Dum vivimus, bibamus
While we live, let us drink. Corruption of "Dum vivimus, vivamus".
Napoleon's abolition
1797. Wikipedia
Polos' return
1295. Wikipedia
Page 248
Doge's hat
For some thousand years, the chief magistrate and leader of the Most Serene Republic of Venice was styled the Doge, a rare but not unique Italian title derived from the Latin Dux, as the major Italian parallel Duce and the English Duke. Doges of Venice were elected for life by the city-state's aristocracy. Wikipedia entry
Page 249
"Those whose enduring object is power in this world are only too happy to use without remorse the others, whose aim is of course to transcend all question of power. Each regards the other as a pack of deluded fools."
Over time, Pynchon appears to have come to a belief in a massive conflict between cultures "valuing anaysis and differentiation" and those valuing "unity and integration". The two alternate maps of Asia could be a reference to these disparate worldviews.Wikipedia
Clifford's term
WK Clifford. Wikipedia
Page 252
Mattoidi
Borderland cases between sanity and insanity.
Page 254
"Chums of Chance were expected to die on the job. Or else live forever, there being two schools of thought, actually." Possibly a reference to the fact that the Chums seem to live simultaneously in the "real" world of the novel and also in fictional stories within the novel.
Page 255
Bastille Day
The Campanile di San Marco collapsed 14 July 1902. cite and pic
Page 256
"four-brick groupings
Padzhitnoff sees the Campanile come apart as a game of Tetris! The "four-brick groupings [...] begin their gentle, undeadly descent, rotating and translating in all available modes". (See page 123 for more on Tetris.)
Page 260
Curly Dee
???
Jew Fanny
???
inside out
Optical illusion.
Hsiang-Chao
???
Page 261
lard smoke
Cf. p. 10, "tall smokestacks unceasingly vomiting black grease-smoke," and p. 216, "Just greasy ashes by the trailside."
biscuit-shooter
I.e., a cook.
gong
???
Page 262
Willis Turnstone
???
"Crazier."
Cf Bonnie and Clyde.
Page 263
Oleander Prudge
???
Page 264
single-jacker
A miner who with a hammer and spike cuts a hole into rock for placement of a stick of dynamite. A set of holes are cut for each "synchronized" blast.
(Double jackers work as a team.)
Infer (this) one as a loner, a bit crazy, single minded, silent, easily hurt or misunderstood, doesn't play well with others...
Page 265
gullet of days
???
Page 266
white-throated swift
???
November
???
nymph du pave
should probably read "nymphE du pave": street-whore. Theoretically this could also translate as: (image of a) nymph on a mosaic (tesselated floor) - like the huge roman one of Ariadne in the Rue du Pavé in Avenche (Switzerland) german weblink
geometric episode
Vaguely reminiscent of Proust on Combray.
Engelmann spruce
Picea engelmannii A short biography of Dr. Engelmann (lit. Angel-Man) Wikipedia-Entry, more elaborated on german site
albatross cloth Evidently a distinct color/design for a wedding or wedding party dress in the West at the time. I have no OED at the moment, but there are at least two online "diaries" or descriptions using the phrase. Here is one: "We were married August 6, 1896 at 7:30 AM at my folk’s residence among friends and relatives. To honor the event, my folks had our parlor decorated with many flowers including roses, myrtle and geraniums. I wore an elegant gown of white silk and albatross cloth."
Page 267
Jemt-land
A Province in the center of Sweden Wikipedia
Page 268
side hobbles
???
Page 269
items, nearly always stolen
Cf bower-bird.
the dirt, the blood-red dirt
This line recalls Homer's "wine-dark sea" first found in The Iliad (Bk VII) in a scene in which Achilles grieves for the death of Patroclus. Given the context here, it might be thought of as "mock-heroic."
marmot
According to Merriam-Webster: a stout-bodied, short-legged rodent of the genus Marmota that has coarse fur, a short bushy tail, and very short ears, lives in burrows, and hibernates in winter; also: a prairie dog or one of the larger ground squirrels.
Marmots are native to Colorado and live at the higher altitudes. They are larger than squirrels, prairie dogs or ground squirrels (a/k/a chipmunks), about the size of a weasel but smaller than an otter
"huevón"
From hueva (egg). According to this blog huevon "literally refers to the size of a mans "cojones" (another pseudo decent word that has seen a lot of mainstream play). It is commonly used to indicate how lazy someone is. The bigger the "huevon" you are, the lazier. As with "guey", however, this too has often been used to say dude or buddy."
"pinche cabrón"
???
Page 271
skip
A wagon or basket on a track in a mine, or generally any scooter.
ex-Danite
Danites were Joseph Smith's vigilantes, "Armies of Israel", during the Mormon War 1838 in Missouri, i.e., before travel to Utah.
"Avenging Angels"
Brigham Young's group with similar purpose as Danite above, sometimes called Danites as well.
Page 272
the Delores
Dolores River runs through Cortez (where Deuce seems to be, next to exploding cactus p270). "We woke up in the Dolores... [VALLEY/REGION/HOTEL]"
Annotation Index
| Part One: The Light Over the Ranges |
|
|---|---|
| Part Two: Iceland Spar |
119-148, 149-170, 171-198, 199-218, 219-242, 243-272, 273-295, 296-317, 318-335, 336-357, 358-373, 374-396, 397-428 |
| Part Three: Bilocations |
429-459, 460-488, 489-524, 525-556, 557-587, 588-614, 615-643, 644-677, 678-694 |
| Part Four: Against the Day |
695-723, 724-747, 748-767, 768-791, 792-820, 821-848, 849-863, 864-891, 892-918, 919-945, 946-975, 976-999, 1000-1017, 1018-1039, 1040-1062 |
| Part Five: Rue du Départ |
