Thomas Pynchon Wiki - User contributions [en]

Chapter 9

2009-06-11T18:20:38Z

Anrosa:

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229/247 - '''Kalkfontein South''' <br />
Site of present day Karasburg, Namibia, which still hosts a Kalkfontein Hotel.

229/247 - '''Windhoek''' <br />
Capital of Namibia, seat of German control during colonial period.

230/247 - '''Karl Baedeker''' <br />
Too late to be the publisher of the once Baedeker travel guides, a household name in the 19th century, upon which Pynchon relied heavily for names & details about colonial Africa in his short story "Under the Rose" as well as ''V.''

230/248 - '''spherics. . .H. Barkhausen''' <br />
Technically, a spheric is one descriptor for the sounds created by natural radio emisions from the earth or the atmosphere -- "whistlers" and "tweaks" being two other forms. The effect, as noted, was discovered by Heinrich Barkhausen (1881-1956), a German physicist who taught at Technische Hochschule in Dresden.

230/248 - '''. . . what had once been a German colony''' <br />
Namibia was formerly called South West Africa, and was originally a German colony. The territory was lost after WWI, and placed by the League of Nations under the authority of South Africa.

231/249 - '''Warmbad District''' <br />
An area roughly 50km south of Karasburg (in which resides our speaker) around the modern city of Warmbad. Considered to be the site of the beginning of the Great Resistance War when, in 1903, Jacobus Christian was shot resisting arrest by a German Military Detachment. The region was also the site of the 1922 uprising, sparked by locals refusal to turn over resistance leader Abraham Morris.

231/249 - '''Bondelswaartz''' <br />
The Bondelswarts Nama (sp?) were the first known settlers of the Warmbad area.

231/249 - '''Abraham Morris has crossed the Orange''' <br />
Abraham Morris was cocommander to Jacob Marengo during the Great Resistance War of 1903-1909. He fled to South Africa during the war but returned to further the cause of resistance to the German colonial authorities. He crossed the Orange river into German territory on April 16, 1922

232/250 - '''Veldschoendragers and Witboois''' <br />
Rebelious tribes from Southwest Africa. The Witboois were some of the first to refuse to sign treaties w/ the German colonial authorities or allow encroachment on their land, resulting in ongoing skirmishes w/ German forces from 1893-1894.

233/251 - '''. . . the days of Von Trotha''' <br />
General Lother Van Trotha, veteran of actions in East Africa and China, arrived in South West Africa in 1904 to put down the Herero resistance. After defeating the Herero forces, he drove (and accompanying women & children) into the Kalahari, where most died of starvation. The tactics he used to break the spirit of the remaining Herero--hangings, mass-extermination and detention in concentration camps--resemble those of the "Final Solution" of the 3rd Reich.

239/258 '''schottische''' <br ?>
A Bohemian folk dance.

<div id="duse">239/258 - '''the nine planets'''</div>
J. Kerry Grant in his ''Companion to V.'' correctly points out that a planetarium operating in 1922 would show only eight planets, as Pluto was not discovered until 1930, but he misses the point that the story "had become, as Eigenvalue put it, Stencilized." (p. 228)

242/261 - '''Schwabing Quarter''' <br />
Artistic district in Munich, stomping grounds for a young Hitler.

242/261 - '''Brennessel cabaret''' <br />
A nightclub in the Schwabing Quarter popular w/ early National Socialist figures.

242/261 - '''D'Annunzio . . . Kautsky's Independents''' <br />
A collection of German and Italian political buzzwords. Hitler, Mussolini and the National Socialists require no comment. ''D'Annuzio'' (1863-1938) was an artistic and political figure in Italy, influential in the rise of the Italian Fascist Movement. ''Fiume'' was an eastern European city/state, which gained its autonomy from Austria in 1779 and maintained this status until Fascists came to power in 1922 and agreed to annexation by Italy in 1924. ''Italia irredentia'' was a philosphical movement which advocated the expansion of Italy to its "natural borders" (in which Italian was spoken) including Malta as well as territory from France, Greece, Switzerland, as well as various eastern European nations. ''Kautsky's Independents'' were followers of German socialist leader (and marxist critic) Karl Joseph Kautsky (1854-1938).

242/262 - '''Someday we'll need you . . .''' <br />
Prefiguring the fate of Mondaugen as well as Franz Pokler in ''Gravity's Rainbow''.

245/264 - '''Vernichtungs Befehl''' <br />
German: annihilations command.

247/266 - '''the Japanese . . .bottled us up in Port Arthur''' <br />
Port Arthur was a deep water port and Russian naval base in Manchuria, at the time, one of the most heavilty fortified positions in the world. The Japanese laid seige to the port from August 1904 - January 1905, during the Ruso-Japanese War. The seige resulted in the almost complete destruction of the Russian fleet and the surrender of the Russian forces there.

<div id="duse">248/267 - '''She was past forty and in love'''</div>
"I am past forty and I am in love" was reportedly Duse's response when told about D'Annunzio's novel, ''Il Fuoco'', in which she is portrayed unflatteringly.

249/270 - '''heterodont configuration''' <br />
Heterodont describes animals with more than one kind of tooth--humans, for instance have incisors as well as molars. Given the conversation, is Eigenvalue using this as a psychodontic description of Stencil's character?

<div id="firelily">258/280 - '''a lovely mare named Firelily'''</div>
According to Molly Hite in ''Ideas of Order in the Novels of Thomas Pynchon'' (p.162, fn.12), one of the Third Reich's V-weapons was called "Feuerlily" (citing von Braun and Ordway's ''A History of Rocketry and Space Travel'' at page 112).

269/292 - '''B.O.Q.''' <br />
Bachelor Officers' Quarters

269/292 - '''The Southern Cross''' <br />
A constellation visible in the southern hemisphere, formerly much valued by sailors.

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Chapter 7

2009-06-10T02:49:54Z

Anrosa:

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156/165 - '''entrenchat deux''' <br />
Classical ballet term for a jump in which the individual switches the legs alternately forward and backward very quickly. I think the deux implies 2 switches, or 4 kicks altogether. Prissy, energetic jump.

156/165 - '''Captain Hugh, F.R.G.S''' <br />
Fellow of the Royal Geographic Society.

157/166 - '''. . .author of ''The Renaissance''''' <br />
Walter Pater. Young Godolphin (Godot + Dolphin?) is among a literary elite, clearly evinced by his love of obscure in-jokes.

159/168 - '''Mazzini''' <br />
19th century politician & Italian nationalist who was instrumental in the creation of modern Italy from divided monarchies & states.

<div id="mantissa">159/168 - '''Signor Mantissa'''<br />
''Mantissa'' = Latin: "makeweight": something thrown onto a scale to bring the weight to a desired value; In mathematics: the decimal part of a logarithm; [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mantissa Wikipedia]

[[image:machiavelli.jpg|thumb|150px|Machiavelli by Santi di Tito|right]]<div id="machiavelli">160/169 - '''Like Machiavelli he was in exile'''<br />
In a famous letter to his friend Francesco Vettori, [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Niccol%C3%B2_Machiavelli Machiavelli] described how he spent his days in exile:

:When evening comes, I return home [from work and from the local tavern] and go to my study. On the threshold I strip naked, taking off my muddy, sweaty workday clothes, and put on the robes of court and palace, and in this graver dress I enter the courts of the ancients and am welcomed by them, and there I taste the food that alone is mine, and for which I was born. And there I make bold to speak to them and ask the motives of their actions, and they, in their humanity reply to me. And for the space of four hours I forget the world, remember no vexation, fear poverty no more, tremble no more at death; I pass indeed into their world.

<div id="pessimism">From Pynchon's short story ''Entropy'':</div>

:His had always been a vigorous, Italian sort of pessimism: like Machiavelli, he allowed the forces of virtù and fortuna to be about 50/50; but the equations now introduced a random factor which pushed the odds to some unutterable and indeterminate ratio which he found himself afraid to calculate. <ref>Pynchon, Thomas, ''Slow Learner'', Jonathan Cape, 1985, pp. 87-88</ref>

<div id="minghe">164/174 - '''"Capo di minghe!"'''</div>
"Minghe" stands for "minchia" (a very common expression, like the American "shit"  and quite vulgar). "Minghe" is how "minchia" is spelled (pronounced) by southern Italians. "Minchia" means "dick", so "minghe morte" means "your dick is dead" (i.e, "impotent"), and "capo di minghe" means "dickhead", "dick-headed" &c. "Minghe" by itself would be like saying "shit" or any sort of profane exclamation."

From Pynchon's short story ''Entropy'' <ref>''Ibid.'', p. 96</ref>:

:"''Minghe morte''," said Duke. "I ''figured'' we were playing it a little slow," Krinkles said.

Also, Mingeborough is where the kids live in Pynchon's short story ''The Secret Integration.''

164/175 - '''Birth of Venus''' <br />
The Botticelli referenced earlier, famously depicting the goddess Venus arising in full womanhood from the sea. [[Image:Example.jpg|right]]

166/177 - '''the Fashoda crisis''' <br />
See Ch.3 - Fashoda

167/178 - '''Mahdists''' <br />
Islamic followers of Muhammed Ahmad, or "Al-Mahdi", a late 19th century religious & theocratic leader in Sudan. Ahmad organized local tribes in an attempt to create an Islamic state in Sudan, & eventually the world. The British organized an opposition & eventually crushed the movement at the battle of Omdurman in 1898.

171/183 - '''Khartoum''' <br />
Site of an 1884-1885 seige, in which rebeling Mahdists surrounded the colonial forces of General Gordon. When relief forces arrived, Gordon was defeated and his head displayed on a pike.

171/183 - '''General Gordon''' <br />
Charles George Gordan, veteran of British campaigns in China and Africa, and governor general of Sudan from 1874 to his death in 1885 at the hands of Mahdist insurrectionists.

175/187 - '''caviliere''' <br />
Italian: a knight, although the conotation here may be a "Knight of Labor," an important political or economic figure in a territory.

176/188 - '''Garibaldi''' <br />
Giuseppe Garibaldi, revolutionary leader of forces for Italian unification in the 19th century - an Italian insurrectionist hero. Earlier in his life, Garibaldi lived in Uruguay and fought against conservative forces in the civil war there. He was famous for his gaucho costume & red shirt that became a symbol for the unification movement in Italy. Some connection, here, with the Argentine gaucho?

179/191 - '''his lieutenant, Cuernacabron''' <br />
Spanish: "horn" + "bastard" = horny bastard?

<div id="morra">191/205 - '''a loud morra game'''</div>
From Pynchon's short story ''Entropy'' <ref>''ibid'', p. 96</ref>:
:"There was a two-handed, bilingual morra game on over by the icebox. Saul had filled several paper bags with water and was sitting on the fire escape, dropping them on passersby in the street. A fat government girl in a Bennington sweatshirt, recently engaged to an ensign attached to the Forrestal, came charging into the kitchen, head lowered, and butted Slab in the stomach. Figuring this was as good an excuse for a fight as any, Slab's buddies piled in. The morra players were nose-to-nose, screaming trois, sette at the top of their lungs."

From [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Morra_%28game%29 Wikipedia]:

:While there are many variations, most forms of morra can be played with two, three or more players. In the most popular version of Morra both players throw out a single hand each showing one or two fingers, and call out loud their guess at what the sum of all fingers shown will be. If one player guesses the sum, that play earns one point. The first player to reach three points wins the game.

==References==
<references />

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Chapter 6

2009-06-10T02:44:44Z

Anrosa:

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136/143 '''"Mierda. Mierda. Mierda."''' <br />
Shit. Shit. Shit.

136/143 '''Randolph Scott'''<br />
Stage & screen actor who played in many Westerns in the 30's, 40's and 50's.

137/144 '''. . .ready to come in a flying machine''' <br />
Reference to the popular song "Come Josephine, In My Flying Machine (Up She Goes!)"  words by Alfred Bryan, music by Fred Fisher. [http://www.geocities.com/dferg5493/comejosephineinmyflyingmachine.htm Lyrics & Music...] Clearly irresistible to Pynchon, in addition to the double ''entendre'' on "come."

140/147 '''Sfacim'''<br />
Italian for semen, insulting or ironically affectionate name, like a**hole. [http://forum.wordreference.com/showthread.php?t=219182 WordReference.com]

148/156 '''George Raft''' <br />
Screen Actor & pop icon from the 30's. Dapper dresser in the period gangster style. Pynchons description of the padded shoulders seems to fit.

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Chapter 5

2009-06-10T02:42:40Z

Anrosa:

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112/116 -- '''Walter Reuther'''<br />
Walter Philip Reuther (September 1, 1907 – May 9, 1970) was a labor leader with the UAW & CIO.

<div id="113">113/117 -- '''Mikolaj Rej'''</div>
Renaisance era Polish poet, one of the founders of Polish literature. An article by the ''Finish Maritime Index'' (Brzoza, K. "Finish Maritime Sisters" 04-05) lists a cargo ship of the sizable ''Wihuri'' class under just such a name, operated by Polish Ocean Lines of Gdynia.

113/117 -- '''the Great Sewer Scandal of 1955'''<br />
From the June 10, 1955 edition of ''The New York Times'':
:5 IN QUEENS GUILTY IN SEWER SCANDAL; CASE RAN 202 DAYS; 5 Guilty in Queens Sewer Case; 202-Day Trial Believed Record Clemente and Son Convicted With 3 Borough Employes on Laurelton Project ONE ENGINEER CLEARED 3 Could Be Fined $800,000 Each--Two-Mile Sewer Had to Be Replaced. [...] Five defendants were found guilty yesterday of conspiracy and fraud in a Laurelton, Queens, sewer scandal. A sixth was acquitted. Twelve male jurors had deliberated two and a half days.

At the time, it was the nation's longest criminal trial, at 14 months.

123/128 -- '''killed and boiled a catechumen'''<br />
A catechumen is a "learner," one who is being instructed in the Christian faith. In the early church, a catechumen was one who underwent rigorous instruction in preparation for Holy Baptism. The word comes from the Greek and means "to echo" or "sound in the ear." Catechumens were traditionally taught through question and answer, with the answer echoing back what was first taught. A catechism is a book of instruction, often in the form of questions and answers. <ref>[http://www.lcms.org/pages/internal.asp?NavID=3714 Lutheran Church Liturgical Glossary]</ref>

<div id="magdalen">123/129 -- '''Mafia'''<br />
According to Molly Hite in ''Ideas of Order in the Novels of Thomas Pynchon'', "Mafia is a parody of [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ayn_Rand Ayn Rand], whose influence was at its peak in the early sixties when ''V.'' first appeared." Ayn Rand (1905-1982) was an American novelist and philosopher widely known for her best-selling novels [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Fountainhead ''The Fountainhead''] and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Atlas_Shrugged ''Atlas Shrugged''], and for developing a philosophical system called [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Objectivism_(Ayn_Rand) Objectivism]. <ref>Hite, Molly, ''Ideas of Order in the Novels of Thomas Pynchon'', Ohio State University Press, 1983p.162, fn.13</ref>

127/133 '''"All quite mysterious and Dashiell Hammettlike"''' <br />
Referring, of course, to the author of detective novels such as ''The Maltese Falcon''.

128/135 '''Taken a Brody''' <br />
This colorful term refers to Steve Brody, 1st man to survive a jump off the Brooklyn Bridge in 1885.

133/140 '''alter kocker''' <br />
Jewish phrase of German origin, literally "old defecator" but describes someone who is "inept at everything they do" (see [http://members.tripod.com/talk_jewish/id19.htm Talking Jewish])

==References==
<references />

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