Chapter 3

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Please keep these annotations SPOILER-FREE by not revealing information from later pages in the novel.
492-page edition / 547-page edition
a: 63; b: 61 - murdered in Egypt under the duello

It is clearer in Pynchon's short story Under The Rose (which he repurposed for V.) why Porpentine is murdered "under the duello". He had violated "a tradition in espionage where everything was tacitly on a gentlemanly basis" [1]:

"'You screamed at the Chief,' Bongo-Shaftsbury announced. 'You said: Go away and die.'" [2]
a: 69; b: 68 - the man with the blue eyeglasses

Likely a reference Karl Richard Lepsius (1810-84), German Egyptologist and the author of numerous books including Chronologie der Aegypter (which laid the foundation for a scientific treatment of early Egyptian history) and Todtenbuch (the Egyptian Book of the Dead) (1867); Lepsius was involved with the study of ancient Egyptian blue glass and its possible material sources, particularly the turquoise blue and greenish-blue of some Egyptian glass.[3] Wikipedia entry

a: 73; b: 72 - God wore a wideawake hat
Wideawake-hat.gif
A Wideawake Hat is a men's hat resembling those worn by the Quakers that settled parts of the United States. They are usually made from black or brown felt and have a fairly wide brim that is upturned slightly (maybe 15 degrees) from the base of the hat on the left and right sides, while being pretty flat on the front and back with a fairly blunt top (as opposed to the well rounded top of a bowler). Usually there is also a fairly tall black hatband around the base, just above the brim. [1]

From Henry Adams' "Les Miracles de Notre Dame" in Mont Saint Michel and Chartres:

"[the Virgin] was above the law; she took feminine pleasure in turning Hell into an ornament" [4]

a: 85; b: 86 - Girgis the mountebank
A mountebank is person who sells quack medicines from a platform, a boastful unscrupulous pretender, or charlatan.

References

  1. ↑ Pynchon, Thomas, Slow Learner, Jonathan Cape, 1985, p.102
  2. ↑ Ibid., p.136
  3. ↑ Lucas, Alfred, Ancient Egyptian Materials and Industries, 1926
  4. ↑ Adams, Henry, Mont Saint Michel and Chartres and The Education, The Library of America, 1983, p.596


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
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