ATD 919-945

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

Page 919

the recent battle
Battle of Casas Grandes, March 5, 1911; the action begins a few days later.

novio
Spanish: boyfriend.

Page 920

¿qué tal, amigo?
Spanish: What's up, my friend?

brujo
Spanish: wizard.

¿verdad?
Spanish: don't you?

Page 921

Page 922

Bolsón de Mapimí
See p.395

Page 923

...the mysterious ruins thought to have been built by refugees fleeing from their mythical homeland of Aztlan up north.
An interesting anacronism here. From this website, we learn that

At first, because of its Pueblo-like architecture, Paquime [aka Casas Grandes] had been regarded as a sort of southern extension of the ancient Pueblo world. But Charles Di Peso's excavations in the 1950's raised a "storm of controversy," revealing pyramid platforms mounds, ball-courts, and macaw breeding pens, leading him to conclude that what he had found was a major Mesoamerican "Gateway City," a 14th century urban trading center from whence Mesoamerican prestige items (macaw feathers, marine shells, copper bells) were exported to the American Southwest, bringing "higher" Mesoamerican culture with them.

So it seems that at the time Wren Provenance would have been part of a "semi-official" Harvard dig at Casas Grandes, the original inhabitants wouldn't have been considered to be from Aztlan, unless they are (gasp!) Trespassers/visitors from the future. And on page 930, this is supported.

Also, Pynchon seems to subscribe here to the theory that the actual geographical location of Aztlan was somewhere in what is now the southwestern United States. He refers to Aztlan being "up north" of Casas Grandes. This theory, held by some, seems to contradict a well-established consensus among scholars that these areas were inhabited by North American Indians who, as opposed to Aztecs, left enough artifacts in these areas to document their existence there, and that Aztlan would have been closer to Central Mexico.

Page 924

Frank found himself in a strange yet familiar City [...] nobody but the most senior Astrologers even being allowed to view the sky.
An amazing sentence, perhaps the longest in the novel (more than a page in length), reminiscent of the opening dream sequence or that evensong service in Gravity's Rainbow — a hallucinogenic cinematic pan. Awesome!

Page 930

"The professors she works for return in September to the other side..."
Aha, no wonder these professors "under semi-office Harvard auspices" know about the Casas Grandes/Aztlan connection which arose in the 1950s, but they're digging in the summer of 1911! They're from "the other side" — visitors/Trespassers from the future!

Page 934

Brambled golf balls

A "guttie" golf ball has a solid gutta-percha core [ See page 403 annotation ]; gutta-percha cores were invented in 1848. Modern golf balls have cores of titanium compounds, hybrid materials, softer shells and a more pressurized core. "Brambled" golf balls have hemispherical bumps molded into the surface to improve aerodynamics when the ball spins, the exact opposite of dimples which is what the surface of modern golf balls has. A brambled golf ball (sometimes called a Cayman ball) is specifically designed to fly true, but short. It is used on particularly short golf courses where space is at a premium. The brambles help it fly a trajectory that a normal golf ball would so that hooks and slices, fades and draws are possible.

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