Chapter 7
- Please keep these annotations SPOILER-FREE by not revealing information from later pages in the novel.
492-page edition / 547-page edition
a: 164; b: 174 - "Capo di minghe!"
"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":
- "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."
- "'Capo di minghe!' The Gaucho sat back, shaking his head." (V. , p.164)
a: 191; b: 205 - a loud morra game
From Pynchon's short story Entropy [1]:
- "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." (p.96)
References
- ↑ Pynchon, Thomas, Slow Learner, Jonathan Cape, 1985, p. 96
| Chapter 1 In which Benny Profane, a schlemihl and human yo-yo, gets to an apocheir 9/1 |
Chapter 2 The Whole Sick Crew 44/39 |
Chapter 3 In which Stencil, a quick-change artist, does eight impersonations 61/59 |
Chapter 4 In which Esther gets a nose job 95/97 |
|---|---|---|---|
| Chapter 5 In which Stencil nearly goes West with an alligator 111/115 |
Chapter 6 In which Profane returns to street level 134/141 |
Chapter 7 She hangs on the western wall 152/161 |
Chapter 8 In which Rachel gets her yo-yo back, Roony sings a song, and Stencil calls on Bloody Chiclitz 213/229 |
| Chapter 9 Mondaugen's story 229/247 |
Chapter 10 In which various sets of young people get together 280/305 |
Chapter 11 Confessions of Fausto Maijstral 304/333 |
Chapter 12 In which things are not so amusing 347/385 |
| Chapter 13 In which the yo-yo string is revealed as a state of mind 367/407 |
Chapter 14 V. in love 393/437 |
Chapter 15 Sahha 415/461 |
Chapter 16 Valletta 424/471 |
| Epilogue, 1919 456/507 |
