Difference between revisions of "ATD 489-524"

Revision as of 14:36, 8 January 2007 (view source) Juandel (Talk | contribs) (→‎Page 521) ← Older edit		Revision as of 15:05, 8 January 2007 (view source) UncleWiggly (Talk | contribs) (→‎Page 499) Newer edit →
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	'''ζ-function'''<br>		'''ζ-function'''<br>
−	???	+	Another reference to the Riemann zeta function.
	'''Hilbert thinks of nothing else'''<br>		'''Hilbert thinks of nothing else'''<br>

---

Revision as of 15:05, 8 January 2007

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

Page 489

desolate sighs
(They're not gay?)

Apostlet
???

Cyprian Latewood
Possibly named after third-century Saint Cyprian, during his lifetime made Bishop of Carthage and eventually martyred under a Valerian persecution of Christians. Saint Cyprian is notable for having ordered his executioner to be paid twenty-five pieces of gold, then having stripped himself of clothes and awaiting, in prayer, his beheading. There are a number of thematic resonances between Pynchon's Cyrian and the biblical one; notably their primary characterization as men of submission and servitude. Additionally, etymologically, 'cyprian' signifies both Aphrodite-worshiper and prostitute. remy 07:33, 29 December 2006 (PST)

Eastern wog
Cf p222.

The German Sea
???

sub-Clerkenwell
???

annoyance
(Why?)

Page 490

gyps
???

Byron's Pool
???

"Div!"
???

"Whizzo!"
???

"That is that of which I speak!"
prob. homosexuality. cf. "I am the Love that dare not speak its name." -- Lord Arthur Douglas's poem 'Two Loves' in Chameleon ca. 1896.

Made more famous as an utterance by Oscar Wilde during his trial for sodomy. His response: '"The Love that dare not speak its name" in this century is such a great affection of an elder for a younger man as there was between David and Jonathan, such as Plato made the very basis of his philosophy, and such as you find in the sonnets of Michelangelo and Shakespeare.[...]. It is intellectual, and it repeatedly exists between an elder and a younger man, when the elder man has intellect, and the younger man has all the joy, hope and glamour of life before him."

This seems wrong, given the typical Pynchon scene of males ogling/desiring women. There is no homosexuality invloved with these guys

but a "'range' [again] of remarks" and 'all-night rhapsodizing' over the beauty of naked women. This line "That, etc." seems more likely a comic spin on a famous line which we know Pynchon has alluded to before [V.]: Wittgenstein's "whereof I can not speak, thereof I must remain silent" from the Tractatus. He could NOT not speak of their nakedness.

A rendition of That's what I'm talkinabout!

This whole scene is reminiscent, perhaps, of the biblically famous Susannah and the Elders, where she, too, is watched appreciatively bathing. Wallace Stevens, among others, has a famous poem about it.

Cloisters Court
A Court in Pynchon's Candlebrow U. named after the famous Cloisters in New York City, home to much revered religious art of the Middle Ages particularly?

King's
King's College of Candlebrow U., an allusion to King's of Oxford U.? King being the 'tops', where philosophy and classics are read?

Queen Anne's Gate
a place in the university named after Queen Anne or because of its Queen Anne's lace?

Newnham
???

Wrangleresses
???

Phillippa Fawcett
???

Grace Chisolm and Will Young
???

nautch-girl
notch-girl? A woman who could 'notch' a lot of men?

socio-acrobatic aggrandizement
'social climbing'

opium beer
laudanum?, if not literally.

duc de Richelieu
Armand Jean du Plessis de Richelieu, Cardinal-Duc de Richelieu (September 9, 1585 – December 4, 1642), was a French clergyman, noble, and statesman.

Consecrated as a bishop in 1607, he later entered politics, becoming a Secretary of State in 1616. Richelieu soon rose in both the Church and the state, becoming a cardinal in 1622, and King Louis XIII's chief minister in 1624. He remained in office until his death in 1642; from Wikipedia.

Page 491

the City
Major banks and other big-money institutions are located in the City of London, a fairly small subset of Metropolitan London.

can't ever tell
Dog-eat-dog capitalism?

Reginald "Ratty" McHugh

"fifteen years later Reginald nodded appreciatively FIFTEEN YEARS OR SO LATER?...What is going on here time-wise?

one more flag
IE, his father's wallpaper brand.

Balkan Sobranies
An upscale brand of cigarette.

lilies-and-lassitude humor of the '90s
Cult of Oscar Wilde? Aubrey Beardsley and the pre-Raphaelites?

table d'hôte
French: host's table. In a restaurant, a meal chosen by the management, no substitutions please. If the appetizer is shrimp and you don't like shrimp, then don't eat the appetizer.

Very well, I contradict myself.
Walt Whitman allusion. See Leaves of Grass. Next line in ADT affirms this.

Page 492

divine... prosaic
(Walt was of course prosaic himself before he became divine.)

xanthrocroid
???

Capsheaf
Is this a third speaker, or another name for Ratty?

viva
Slangy short form of viva voce, an oral examination.

Crayke
???

D'accord
French: right, OK.

reputation for viciousness
???

croft
???

Mavis Grind
???

orthopædic journals
???

Dymphna
After St. Dymphna, whose intercession is effective against insanity, possession and epilepsy.

decks full of hearts
(52 or 13 per deck?)

Page 493

Thucydides... remind me
Thucydides' book is an account of the Peloponnesian war, organized in a rather difficult method in which all the actions of one season are described before proceeding to the next. Here are some erotic possibilities in it, however:
-Pericles, in his famous funeral oration, says the citizen ought to have an eros for the city.
-At one point some Athenians are lured out of a garrison by way of a gymnastic (that is male, nude) demonstration.
-On the eve of the fateful Sicilian expedition, all the oversized phalloi of the hermes are mysteriously knocked off. One of the generals on the expedition, Alcibiades, is accused of the offense and is eventually called called back. In Plato's Symposium Alcibiades drunkenly crashes the party and confesses that Socrates has consistently spurned his sexual advances.

McHugh
Talking to self?

alfresceehwh
An alfresco, an outdoor gathering. -eehwh is a rendering of the accent for comic effect.

Lorelei, Noellyn, and Faun
???

High Albedo
Albedo: power of reflecting light. Blondes reflect more light than brunettes.

white veils
???

Pinky
Nicknames opposite of truth?

'sans merci'
a reference to Keats's 19th century Romantic ballad 'La Belle Dame Sans Merci'. The lady of the title entraps men by making them fall in love with her and abandoning them.

Page 494

wrong altar
She, a lesbian, tells him that he 'worships' a woman who is wrong for him.

gnomic tenses
Gnomic = marked by aphorisms; aphoristic...'gnomic verse, a gnomic style". American Heritage Dictionary.

circs
Short form (typically British): circumstances.

'If she's not content with a vegetable love'
a reference to Marvell's seventeenth century poem 'To His Coy Mistress'. "Vegetable love" refers to the slow, slow way he would let his love grow, to become "vaster than empires and more slow" had they "world enough and time", but since they don't, since they are in human time, he is trying to 'convince' her to make love with him now.

Rugby blue
To be a 'Rugby blue' means to have represented Oxford (colour: dark blue) or Cambridge (light blue) at Rugby, which is a major European sport, invented, supposedly, at Rugby school in England in the nineteenth century.

Mâconnais
???

George Grossmith...and that jolly Weedon

George and Weedon Grossmith, authors of the sublime, hillarious 'Diary of a Nobody', which gave the world the adjective 'pooterish'. Undoubtedly an influence on Pynchon's depictions of the 'oh dear' side of Englishness. Pooter is a 'nobody' who decides to publish his diaries, even though he is of no interest and nothing of any note occurs. A prototypical blogger, some might suggest. Originally published in Punch magazine (I think), set in late 19th Century. Don't know if the Grossmiths went to Cambridge, will check....

[plenty of info here: http://ehlt.flinders.edu.au/english/DON/Diary_Home.htm]

Page 495

Junior or Senior?
expressions used at traditional English (independent) schools to refer to younger and older brothers. Thus Smith Junior or Smith Senior.

cp. Wilhelm II file
Wikipedia: William II, German Emperor Reign 1888-1918 Born 27 January 1859

Berlin, Germany 

Died 4 June 1941

Doorn, Netherlands 

Predecessor Frederick III Successor None (monarchy abolished)

Royal House House of Hohenzollern William II or Wilhelm II (born Frederick William Albert Victor; German: Friedrich Wilhelm Albert Victor) (27 January 1859–4 June 1941) was the last German Emperor and King of Prussia (German: Deutscher Kaiser und König von Preußen), ruling both the German Empire and Prussia from 15 June 1888 to 9 November 1918.

The role of William II in German history is sometimes a controversial issue in historical scholarship. Initially seen as an important, but embarrassing figure in German history until the late 1950s, for many years after that, the dominant view was that he had little or no influence on German policy leading up to the First World War. This has been challenged since the late 1970s, particularly by Professor John C. G. Röhl who saw William II as the key figure in understanding the recklessness and subsequent downfall of Imperial Germany.[1]

more Pynchon and Germany.

"Map of the World"
???

Newmarket
A famous English race-course, hence the following reference to the 'racing season'.

Morse and Vassilev
???

East Rumelian
???

zadruga
???

tchifliks
???

gradinarski druzhini
???

gossamer
Pynchon draws him as 'wet' as possible?

Page 496

sod... pouffe
???

failed canards
???

Lent... Easter... Long Vacation
???

Colonial Office
???

Okhrana
a secret police force of the Russian Empire and part of the Ministry of Internal Affairs Wikipedia Entry

Ballhausplatz
Location of the Austrian State Chancellery and Foreign Ministry Wikipedia Entry

Wilhelmstrasse
Administrative Center of the Kingdom of Prussia Wikipedia Entry

G.F.B. Riemann
???

Zeta function... conjecture
???

'joint'
???

Bob's your uncle
???

Limehouse
???

Page 497

excess
(So not wholly gossamer?)

Coronation Red
???

Ranji and C.B. Fry
Two notable cricketers who would have been in their prime when the novel is set. Both played for England. 'Ranji' is short for Ranjitsinhji and is how he was familiarly known.

Australian season
A reference to the Australian cricket season which runs throughout their summer and the Eurpopean winter.

New Court
???

Tavernier-Gravet slide rules
???

High Church
???

Mags and Nuncs and Matins
???

not Zion
???

Compline hour
???

Te Deum
???

Khaki Election
???

Filtham
???

Page 498

chromaticism... Richard Strauss
???

Staindrop
???

"Filtham's Tedium"
(Talk about overlabored puns...)

dress regulations
???

Gauss
???

Ramanujan
???

display of hurt feelings
Cf p30.

Page 499

light up
Dark world vs spark of value.

ζ-function
Another reference to the Riemann zeta function.

Hilbert thinks of nothing else
???

desire... of rather a specialized sort
???

Great Eastern
???

Page 500

Weierstrass and Sofia Kovalevskaia
???

sounds like maths
???

folio
???

four-color chromolithograph
???

Snazzbury
???

Silent Frock
Cf noise-canceling headphones.

toilette
???

Page 501

green, white, and mauve stripes
???

black crepon
???

Italian-cloth
???

Page 502

modern lettering
???

L'ARIMEAUX ET QUEURLIS
Larry, Moe, and Curly's

twilling
???

Page 502

Earl's Court Wheel
???

whelks
???

Chinese Turkestan railway shares
???

jellied eel
???

West Ham, the Park, Upton Lane, lads all in claret and blue
The "lads in claret and blue" are kicking a football around, as they are players of current Premiership side West Ham United. Found in 1895, the "Hammers" are playing their home games at Boleyn Ground aka "Upton Park". Yep, soccer.

lupine liminality
???

hydrangeas
???

Hardy, whimsical
???

Page 504

Harwich... German Sea
???

Hook of Holland
???

madhouse at Osnabrück
???

Page 505

plug hats
???

Cobh
???

Page 506

Euclid
???

elms in Cleveland
(Before Dutch elm disease?)

went on for years
???

Shorty
???

Page 507

how little I cared
(Blaming Krakatoa???)

palm upward
???

Prospect Avenue
???

leaf-spring suspension
???

overrun
???

Flats
???

Page 508

Cuyahoga
???

your exact face
(How common?)

Page 509

descending minor triad
???

Svengali
In George Du Maurier's novel Trilby (1894), the hypnotist who makes the title character a great singer but keeps her under rigorous control.

tea roses
???

cosmos
???

Page 510

first momentous glance
Page 349 only?

Elis
Yale University students, called so after founder Eli Yale.

Page 511

preferring
Cf Rose in "Titanic".

Root Tubsmith
???

Fuchs, Schwarz... Frobenius
???

Professor Manning
???

Marseilles
???

species of tarantella
Tarantella is a fast dance or dance tune in 6/8 time. Probably named for Taranto, not tarantula.

dreamed it
(Page?)

Cigar Deck
???

Page 512

how to stop looking
Cf p27.

fooling
(They both miss it?)

lobelias
???

Victor Herbert
Irish-born American composer (1859-1924) of songs, operettas, light classics.

Wolf-Ferrari
Ermanno Wolf-Ferrari (1876-1948), born in Venice, composer of many extremely popular operas.

Page 513

1st Edition Typo
"She smlld falsely"

Page 515

high-hatting
Snubbing, cutting.

twenty-knot
???

uncreated
Featureless?

after 1914
Still 10 years away.

S.M.S. Emperor Maximilian
S.M.S.: Seiner Majestäts Schiff, His Majesty's Ship (German or, as in this case, Austrian). One Habsburg Emperor Maximilian was set up in Mexico, then deposed and killed.

25,000-ton
???

dreadnoughts
HMS Dreadnought gave her name to a new philosophy that governed the design of capital ships beginning in the 1890s and continuing past the 1920s: high speed, heavy armor, heavy investment in the "main battery" and de-emphasis of secondary battery, main battery comprising the largest practicable guns mounted in turrets on the ship's centerline.

Slavonian
???

Schultz-Thorneycroft
???

Parsons turbines
???

British men-o'-war
Warships.

Page 516

shell-rooms-to-be
???

twelve-inch barrels
???

shelter deck
???

casemates
???

freeboard
The amount of the ship above the water. You need a certain amount of freeboard to maintain balance, but battleships try to limit it as much as possible (so as to present a smaller target).

"Dazzle" camouflage
Patterns as described in the text, meant to confuse enemy eyes. Camouflage techniques used in World War I were developed in part by magician Jasper Maskelyne, a descendant of the Astronomer Royal in Mason & Dixon.

dihedrals
A dihedral is the figure formed by two planes intersecting in a line. The bow of a ship is pretty close.

Fangsley
???

horizontally disposed
???

Lloyd Arsenale
???

Stabilimento Tecnico
???

Page 517

Promontorio
???

O.I.C. Bodine
Stands for...? nope

fermented potato mash
Cf Veikko's vodka p82.

four shafts
???

Mauretania
???

Zu befehl, Herr Hauptheitzer
???

Black Gang
???

Oberhauptheitzer
???

Mannlicher
???

"Dampf mehr!"
???

singlet
???

Page 518

Marconi room
???

design maximum of nine degrees
???

nymphs
???

"Porca miseria"
???

Page 519

tight circle
Military as inane as circus clowns.

deeper levels
(Eg particle vs wave?)

Chinese
???

nicht wahr
German: aint it true?

Graz
Capital of the Austrian province of Styria Wikipedia

bilge-crab
???

Page 520

Teutonic
???

Mulai Ahmed er-Raisuli
Infamous Morrocan outlaw/warlord. From this website: "Several decades before Saddam Hussein, Osama bin Laden, and Islamic insurgents, an international crisis ignited between the United States and the Middle East. In May 1904 Moroccan warlord Mulai Ahmed er Raisuli kidnapped Ion Perdicaris, a wealthy Greek-American resident of Tangier, in an attempt to extort money from the Sultan of Morocco. President Theodore Roosevelt responded with his "big stick" approach to diplomacy by dispatching a squadron of seven battleships to the Moroccan coast with the order: "Perdicaris alive or Raisuli dead." The nine-week standoff, with US troops and ships in Tangier Bay and Raisuli holding fort in the mountains, exposed the impotence of emerging American power and a critical misunderstanding about Moroccan politics. When it was discovered that Perdicaris was not an American citizen after all, the US government kept the embarrassing episode a secret until 1933. Profiting royally from the conflict, Raisuli built his palace, which he called the "House of Tears"."

Agadir, Queen of the Iron Coast
Agadir is a city in southwest Morocco, capital of the Souss-Massa-Dra region. Wikipedia From the Encyclopedia Britannica: "Sixty miles farther south lies Mogador, beyond which the coast becomes more and more inaccessible and dangerous in winter, being known to navigators as the " Iron Coast." From Cape Sim (Ras Tagriwalt), to m. south of Mogador, the direction is due south to Cape Ghir (Ighir Ufrani), the termination of Jebel Ida u Taman, a spur of the Atlas. Beyond this headland lies Agadir (Agadir Ighir), the Santa Cruz Mayor or Santa Cruz de Berberia of the Spaniards, formerly known as the Gate of the Sudan.' It is a little town with white battlements three-quarters of a mile in circumference, on a steep eminence 600 ft. high. In the 16th century it was seized by the Portuguese; but in 1536 it was captured by Mulai Ahmad, one of the founders of the Sa'adi dynasty."

Sus... Susi
The Sous Basin Wikipedia and it‘s inhabitants, probably.

Abdel Aziz
Sultan of Morocco 1894-1908 (aged 10-24yrs.) Wikipedia

Canaries
Canary Islands, about 80 miles off Morocco‘s Atlantic coast Wikipedia

Lübeck
???

Berbers
The Berbers (also called Amazigh people or Imazighen, "free men") are an ethnic group indigenous to Northwest Africa, speaking the Berber languages of the Afroasiatic family. In actuality, Berber is a generic name given to numerous heterogeneous ethnic groups that share similar cultural, political, and economic practices. It is not a term originated by the group itself. Wikipedia. Berbers of southwestern Morocco usually belong to the ones known as Chleuhs pics

Page 521

tree-climbing goats
Can be seen often, esp. in Morocco Pic

argan trees
The Argan (Argania spinosa, syn. A. sideroxylon Roem. & Schult.) is a species of tree endemic to the calcareous semi-desert Sous valley of southwestern Morocco. It is the sole species in the genus Argania. Wikipedia

Gnaoua
The Gnawa or Gnaoua refers at once to a style of Moroccan music with sub-Saharan Africa origins or influence, an ethnic group and religious order at least in part descended from former slaves from Sub-Saharan Africa or black Africans migrated in caravans with the Trans-Saharan trade, or a combination of both Wikipedia more on Gnaoua Gnaoua music sample mp3 nicely made site on Gnawa

mlouk gnaoui
Mlouk is the plural of melk, a supernatural entity envoked in the Gnawa rituals. Various types are known and they are distinguished by colors. The following is a google translation of the relevant paragraph from this site: "The mlouk are of male or female sex, Moslems or Jews. Their color corresponds to their origins. Thus one distinguishes the mlouks from the sea (bahriyin) to which one allots the light blue; the celestial ones (samaouiyin), have as a color dark blue; the mlouk of the forest (rijal el ghaba), originating in Africa, have as a color the black just like the mlouk pertaining to the troop of Sidi Mimoun, finally the red mlouk (Al homar), related to blood and which haunt the slaughter-houses, have as a color the red. The white and the green, colors symbols of Islam sunnite, are reserved to the called upon saints, in particular Moulay Abdelkader Jilali and Chorfa. To the female mlouk three colors are allotted: the yellow for the coquettery of Lala Reflected, the red for Lala Rkia for its capacity to cure the menorrhagia and the black for Lala Aïcha Kendisha because of its Sudanese origin. The Jewish mlouks which are sometimes called upon after the troop of the female mlouk have the black color. Incense fumigations of various perfumes accompany the invocations by these mlouks, with a preference however for the benzoin or jaoui."

Seigneurs Noirs
French: Black Lords. According to the above translation, those most probably are jewish mlouks.

Habsburg navy
???

Mogador road
Mogador is another name for Essaouira Wkipedia

Tawil Balak
???

Rahman
???

Formalhaut
???

Moïsés
???

Jonah... Massa
???

Page 522

kashbah
???

Ighir Ufrani
???

alimzah
???

tasargelt
???

scruff
???

Staketsel
???

lazarettes
???

mon chou
"My cabbage." A french term of affection.

Page 523

moon deck
???

lower orlop
???

lateen-riggers
???

Page 524

exhilirated Second occurrence of this misspelling of exhilarated.

Piazza Grande
???

Denza
???

Antonio Smareglia
???

Annotation Index

Part One: The Light Over the Ranges	1-25, 26-56, 57-80, 81-96, 97-118
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	1063-1085