Difference between revisions of "A"

Latest revision as of 08:12, 18 March 2021

a/a
328; anti-aircraft

Abbasiyeh
85; the slaughterhouse of, in Cairo, where Girgis the mountebank [charlatan] performs

abdelawi
82; a desert fruit; 85

abortion
50; Esther and Slab debate on, 353-54; "I'm against it because of what it does to the abortionee." 357; "that lump that wasn't aborted," 358

Abstentionists
472; non-participants in political life or in international affairs; 477

Achphenomenon
277; In German, an Achphänomen might be translated as an "'ah!' experience"; as used here, perhaps an epiphany

Adams, Henry (1838-1918)
62; American historian and author of, among other books, The Education of Henry Adams an autobiography which won the Pulitzer prize in 1919;

From Pynchon's short story Entropy:

Henry Adams, three generations before his own, had stared aghast at Power; Callisto found himself now in much the same state over Thermodynamics, the inner life of that power, realizing like his predecessor that the Virgin and the dynamo stand as much for love as for power; that the two are indeed identical; and that love therefore not only makes the world go round but also makes the boccie ball spin, the nebula precess. ^[1]

Excerpts...; Wikipedia Entry

A.E.F.
99; American Expeditionary Force; 102

AF of L
115; American Federation of Labor; See also Walter Reuther

A gang 427; auxiliary division onboard a ship, responsible for specific maintenance and support

Aghtina, Mrs.
324; wife of Saturno Aghtina; 332

Aghtina, Saturno
324; he and his wife lived in sewer during Siege of Malta and took care of Paola while Fausto and Elena were out; 332

Aïeul, P.
63; "café waiter and amateur libertine" at Place Mohammed Ali in Alexandria

AKA
429; U.S. Navy: Attack Cargo Ship

alcázar
62; a Spanish fortress or palace

Alden, John (1599?-1687)
352; Pilgrim settler who came to America on the Mayflower and settled in Plymouth, Massachussetts

Alexandria
64; A port city of northern Egypt, where the Nile River flows into the Mediterranean Sea, on a strip of land between Lake Mareotis and the sea. Founded by Alexander the Great in 331 BC, it was the capital of ancient Egypt.</p>

18; a North African republic bounded on the west by Morocco, on the southwest by Western Sahara, Mauritania and Mali, on the southeast by Mali, on the east by Libya, northeast by Tunisia and on the north by the Mediterranean Sea. Gained independence from France, after a long struggle, in 1962. See also F.L.N.

Alice
70; the subdeb who is "the ruin of" Ralph MacBurgess; they have sex in Athenaeum Theatre in Lardwick-in-the Fen; "a ghost of," 76

Alligator Patrol
39; 42-43; 153

alter kocker
133; Yiddish: "old shitter": a disgusting old man

Amiens
395; city in Normandy on the Somme

"anarchists, plotting to assassinate Sir Alistair Wren," 64; "Yusef was an anarchist," 66; "devotee of annihilation," 67; "a jaunty anarchist," 474; See also nihilism

andanti
311; probably variant on "andante" to describe a musical performance instruction to play slowly

247; Italian battleship which shelled Fiume in 1920 after D'Annunzio declared war on Italy; See also Fiume

Andreas
240; Bondel male Mondaugen discovers being whipped by Foppl

"voice of an angel," 15; Angel of Death, 29; "waggled his shoulderblades like wings," 52; "dissolute" angel, 58; "squeezing her shoulderblades together," 58; "shaped like the Angel's trumpet," 82; "The Lord's angel, Gebrail," 83; Angel Asrafil, 84; "the intense halo of a paraboloid reading light," 96; "an irritated young man with wings," 178; guardian angels, 183; "Poetry is not communication with angels," 318; recording angel, 338; "cabal of faceless angels," 348; guardian angels, 362; See also Angel Asrafil; Death; Gebrail

82; sounds trumpet on Last Day (Moslem); 84; 85

Angelo
180; guardia who keeps an eye on the Gaucho while he's pissing

Angevine, Miss
379; lived in Profane's old neighborhood

Anglo Airlines
362; flight booked to Cuba on for Esther's abortion

Annexationists
487; group in Italy that wants to annex Malta, in 1919

Annunziata, Sister Maria
145; mentioned by Profane in talking with Fina about screwing

Antarctic
"headlong dive for the Pole," 184; "attempting the Pole in midwinter," 185; 192; "What sends the English into these terrible places?" 204; "I have been at the Pole." 205; "a dream of annihilation," 206; "Everyone has an Antarctic" says Hugh Godolphin, 241; "the cold tongue of a current from the Antarctic south," 266; "cold as Antarctica," 271; the moon's, 274; "Only by the merest happenstance did he escape the private logic of that ice world." 484

Anthroresearch Associates
217; where Profane works; subsidiary of Yoyodyne, 284

Antonia
82; daughter of Waldetar

41; great Venezuelan-born shortstop for the Chicago White Sox. He was Rookie of the Year in 1956. (Odd that some kid in New York should know about him in January 1956, eh?) In 1959, White Sox owner Bill Veeck dreamed up a stunt whereby the diminutive Aparacio and his double-play partner, Nellie Fox, were abducted by a bunch of midgets posing as Martians who landed at Chicago's Comiskey Park in a helicopter. Aparacio was admitted to the baseball Hall of Fame in 1984; Wikipedia

APCs
449; little white (or pink) pills that contain aspirin, phenacetin and caffeine and are taken to reduce fever, relieve headache pain, etc.

apocalypse
"Ploy saw apocalypse," 11; "Perhaps in a matter of weeks [...] the whole world will be plunged into apocalypse" 192; holocaust, 194; "slow apocalypse," 316; "What Apocalypse?" 472; 474; See also Armageddon

apocheir
9; 35; the yo-yo's farthest point from the yo-yo-ist's hand; apo is Greek for "away," "off," "apart, or "from"; cheir (χείρ) is ancient Greek for "hand".

Apollo
394; Greek god of youth, manly beauty, poetry, music and the wisdom of the Oracles

apostrophe
465; the addressing of an absent person or personified thing

Aquilina
451; shipfitter who has information on V.; (The victim in the Ghallis Tower Murder was named Aquilina.)

Arab, the
78; with a pistol wrestling w/Goodfellow on train, 81; 82

arête
474; a sharp-crested ridge in rugged mountains

Aristotle (384-322 BC)
354; Greek philosopher

Ark Royal
429; a class of British aircraft carrier, each one called "Ark Royal" (It has always been a tradition of the British Navy to preserve the same name throughout the dynasty of ships of war)

461; In the book of Revelation in the Bible, the site of the final, conclusive battle between good and evil

Armistice
458; the armistice ending WWI, November 11, 1918; 459; 467; 480

Arno
159; river on which Florence is situated; 188

arras
215; a wall hanging or screen of tapestry; 239; 260

arrondissement
394; an administrative district in some large French cities

art
"what Dadaists called a ready-made," 56; Catatonic Expressionism, 56, 296; "Cubist, Fauve and Surrealist cheese Danishes," 282; revolt against Catatonic Expressionism, 282; Cheese Danish #35, 282; Cheese Danish #41, 295; "leprous pointillism of orris root," 296; "technique for the sake of technique," 297; di Chirico's street, 303; di Chirico's Hebdomeros, 307; accidental, 348; Cheese Danish #56, 353; the Whitney, 415; National Gallery, 418; Dali's Last Supper, 418; "cubist moth," 451; objects, 486-87; See also Botticelli, Sandro; de Chirico, Giorgio

Ash Wednesday
308; first day of Lent which ends with Easter, 40 days later; 317

aspetti
165: Italian: "be on the lookout"

456; Astarte is also known as Astarat and Astoreth. She is an incarnation of Ishtar and Inanna. This Semitic Goddess was worshipped by the Syrians, Palestinians, Phoenicians, Egyptians and other Semitic Tribes. King Solomon built a Temple to her as Astoreth, near Jerusalem. Astarte was worshipped as many things — to the Egyptians, She was honored as a Goddess of War and tenacity; to the Semites, She was a Goddess of Love and Fertility. Among the Greeks She was transposed into the Goddess of Love Aphrodite. In the Bible, She is referred to as "the abomination" (from Spiral Goddess Grove website); figurehead on Mehemet's xebec, 492; See also Esther Harvitz (Esther = Astarte)

Athenaeum Theatre
70; in Lardwick-in-the-Fen, Yorkshire, where Ralph MacBurgess is busted

auberge
307; the Order of the Knights of St. John was divided into eight langues (nationalities), each having its own auberge (place of assembly). The original eight [Allemagne (Germany), Aragon (Spain), Auvergne, England, France, Italy, Provence and Portugal] were established in Vittoriosa. All were built by Cassar between 1571 and 1590; bombed, 319

312; Maltese priest who is the Bad Priest's counterpart; 341; with H. Stencil, 448; 482; possible Etymology

avanti
178; Italian: "Quick!"

References

1. ↑ Pynchon, Thomas, Slow Learner, Jonathan Cape, 1985, pp.84-85

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