Chapter 1
- Please keep these annotations SPOILER-FREE by not revealing information from later pages in the novel.
One meaning of bennie is: Shortened form of benefit. All services provided to or for soldiers, sailors, airmen or Marines are considered bennies.--Answers.com.
Another meaning is: short for Benzadrine, a trademarked amphetamine often prescribed for anxiety, also spelled bennie. First discovered serendipitously in 1954. Bennie
Profane: Since 1912, as defined in The Elementary Forms of Religious Life by the sociologist Emile Durkheim, profane has had the social meaning of 'everything that is not sacred'.
"The division of the world into two domains, one containing all that is sacred and the other all that is profane—such is the distinctive trait of religious thought."--Durkheim (p. 34)
Science Encyclopedia: History of Ideas, Vol. 5
The first time that the Continental Air Defense Command (CONAD) received a call concerning Santa's whereabouts: The tradition began after a Colorado Springs-based Sears Roebuck & Co. store advertisement for children to call Santa on a special "hotline" included an inadvertently misprinted telephone number. Instead of Santa, the phone number put kids through to the CONAD Commander-in-Chief's operations "hotline." The Director of Operations, Colonel Harry Shoup, received the first "Santa" call on Christmas Eve 1955. Tracking Santa
Port city.wikipedia
The city has a long history as a strategic military and transportation point. Norfolk is home to both the Norfolk Naval Base, the world's largest naval base and was in 1955. Urban renewal, starting
in the 1970s also included the demolition of many prominent city buildings, and large swaths of urban fabric that, were they still in existence today, might be the source of additional historic urban character, a-and including the East Main Street district (where the current civic complex is located), and where Benny starts yo-yoing.
His particular naval ship.
Sterno Canned Heat is a fuel made from denatured and jellied alcohol. It is designed to be burned directly from its can.wikipedia
The Packard Patrician was an automobile built by the Studebaker-Packard Corporation of Detroit, Michigan, from model years 1951 through the 1956 model. There was even an eight-passenger model.1958 was the last year of Packard production. The Packard had a high reputation for quality, for value that would last and Packards are highly-prized by collectors today.
A seaman apprentice. See "Deuce Kindred," a character in Pynchon's Against the Day, his 2006 novel.
"One year of those times [Fifties] was much like another...there was a lot of aimlessness going around". Introduction to Slow Learner, p.14, by Thomas Pynchon.
Here, actually beginning on the first page, appears Pynchon's lifelong stylistic use of capitalization--for a certain kind of emphasis?, for a kind of reification?, and for much, much more certainly. See Pynchon's 1997 novel, Mason & Dixon for the most extensive use of capitalization.
Cf. Zoyd Wheeler's annual "act of televised insanity" in Pynchon's 1990 novel, Vineland
Shore Patrol, the naval 'police'.
Carnies'--circus folk--call to come together when in a dispute with townspeople.
Misc: reviewer, writer, Michael Moorcock, who published an early Pynchon story when he was a young magazine editor, has pointed to circuses as motifs
in Pynchon, calling Against the Day, a massive 'circus' novel.
This is the first appearance of the letter that is the title. It describes ugly green mercury-vapor lamps. Not positive associations--to say the least-- in Pynchon's world. See Against the Day, passim, especially in the Telluride sections. The V of the lamps recedes to the east, usually a positive association in Pynchon, especially in intellectual connotations.
Pronunciation: 'do-(")gO
Function: adverb
Etymology: probably from dog
in hiding -- used chiefly in the phrase to lie doggo. Merriam Webster
Dictionary.
Probable allusion — see 'all barmaids' coming up — to Beatrice, [Beatrice Poltinari] guide through 'Paradise' of Dante's The Divine Comedy, whom Dante loves.
Destroyer Division 22. Possible allusion to Catch 22 ?, another now-classic comic, famously anti-war, novel, published in 1961, but sections were published even earlier in magazines.
"Single up all lines" is a common nautical term. Ships are docked with lines doubled -- that is, with two sets of ropes or chains holding the vessel to the dock. To "single up all lines" is to remove the redundant second lines in preparation to make way. See Against the Day for at least three uses and some thematic meanings.
Naval Operations Base.
Merriam Webster entry: ploy
Pronunciation: 'ploi'..Function: noun
Etymology: probably from employ..Date: 1722
1 : ESCAPADE, FROLIC
2 a : a tactic intended to embarrass or frustrate an opponent b : a devised or contrived move : STRATAGEM (a ploy to get her to open the door -- Robert B. Parker)
Ploy rendered toothless by the Navy, their ploy, so to speak?
Known as truth serum.wikipedia
Pynchon wit in fine evidence when Ploy sees apocalypse
when injected and shouts obscenities! Buried cameo of the future writer of
an apocalyptic novel, said by some---The Pulitzer Prize Board---to be obscene?- Gravity's Rainbow
What a ploy! [User: MKohut]
12/4 Negro
Negro is a racial term applied to people of Sub Saharan African origin; The word is now largely seen as archaic, usually neutral and, depending on the user, occasionally offensive. However, prior to the shift in the "lexicon" of American and worldwide classification of race and ethnicity in the late 1960s, the appellation was accepted as a normal formal term both by those of African descent as well as non-blacks. Negro means black in Spanish and Portuguese, and the Italian nero is similar (Latin: niger = "black").Wikipedia
V. is early sixties, before the word shift in the late sixties.
12/4 Dahoud
Name of an inquisitive youth who tended to the camels in El-Jaziri.
12/4 "life is the most precious possession you have?"..."without it, you'd be dead."
The 'meaning' of life reduced to this? Somehow seems akin to Profane's yo-yoing, or later randomness. Satire of existentialism?
12/4 Lights Out
lights out at 2200 (10:00 PM)---Navy Boot Camp.
12/4 snipes A snipe is naval slang for a member of the engineering crew on a ship. Historically, there was always tension between snipes and the deck crew. http://oldsnipe.com/SnipeBegin.html
Destroyer Force, North Atlantic Fleet.
13/5 Mrs. Buffo...also named Beatrice
A basso buffo, a comic bass, a staple of nearly every classic Italian comic opera.
13/5 dragon-embroidered kimono
The Kimono (着物, Kimono? literally "something worn", i.e., "clothes") is the national costume of Japan. Originally kimono indicated all types of clothing, but it has come to mean specifically the full-length traditional garment worn by women, men, and children. Kimonos are T-shaped, straight-lined robes that fall to the ankle, with collars and full-length sleeves. The sleeves are commonly very wide at the wrist, as much as a half meter. Traditionally, on special occasions unmarried women wear kimonos (furisode) with extremely long sleeves that extend almost to the floor. Wikipedia http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kimonos
Kimonos were originally worn only by the nobility.
Given Pynchon's obs of aspects of America, this user wonders if there was
a fad of wearing kimonos in the 50's and 60's, because my mother wore one regularly, with no Japanese connections nor reasons.````[MKohut]````
Toward a more complete answer:
During the Showa period 1926-1989, the japanese government curtailed silk production by taxing it to support the military buildup. Kimono designs became less complex and material was conserved. After World War II, as Japan's economy gradually recovered, kimono became even more affordable and were produced in greater quantities. Europe and America fashion ideas affected the kimono designs and motifs. japanesekimono http://www.japanesekimono.com/kimono_history.htm
Souvenir kimonos collected in great numbers by returning GIs (after WW 2) rekindled interest [in kimonos]. This postwar interest in Japan combined with a rekindled interest in the craft aesthetic created a new wave of kimono influence in America during the late 1960s and 1970s. page 18, Kimono Inspiration: Art and Art-to-Wear in America Pomegranate Books, Textile Museum, Washington, D.C. 1996, the book of an exhibit in 1997.
13/5 Seventh Fleet
The United States 7th Fleet is a naval military formation based in Yokosuka, Japan, with units positioned near South Korea and Japan.
13/5 Dewey Gland
Spelled "Dewy", it means moist, wet--from dew. "Dewy-eyed" means innocent, naive.-M-W Dictionary. The dewy glands of mountian elk are sought for medicinal purposes. Dros"e*ra (?), n. [NL., fr. Gr. dewy.] Bot. A genus of low perennial or biennial plants, the leaves of which are beset with gland-tipped bristles.http://www.everything2.com/index.pl?
Musicians, often guitar and ukelele players, are positive characters in Pynchon's oeuvre. Since music is a great joy in Pynchon's world, musicians seem often to be his archetypal artist figures. See, as context, the myth of Orpheus,"the music of [whose] lyre was so beautiful that when he played, wild beasts were soothed, trees danced, and rivers stood still."
14/6 goat hole
The goat is the naval mascot.
Goat Locker - Chiefs' Quarters and Mess. The term originated during the era of wooden ships, when Chiefs were given charge of the milk goats on board. Nowadays more a term of respect for the age of its denizens.
14/6 Pig Bodine
Pig- Etymology: Middle English pigge;
1 a : a young domesticated swine not yet sexually mature; broadly : a wild or domestic swine.
3 : a dirty, gluttonous, or repulsive person.--Merriam-Webster Dictionary
American Heritage Dictionary:
2. Informal: A person regarded as being piglike, greedy, or gross. 3a. A crude block of metal, chiefly iron or lead, poured from a smelting furnace. b. A mold in which such metal is cast. c. Pig iron. 5. Slang: A member of the social or political establishment, especially one holding sexist or racist views.
Bodine: In 1905, two years after the Wright brothers powered flight, the Bodine brothers produced their first electric motor for a dental drill manufacturer.http://www.bodine-electric.com/Asp/AboutUs.asp
15/8 jarhead(s)
Marine Corps slang for a Marine, perhaps for the shape of the hat/helmet they wore.
The term was well-established by the fifties. Answers.com.
`7/10 broad
slang term for a woman; "a broad is a woman who can throw a mean punch"
17/10 "Where we going," Profane said. "The way we're heading," said
Pig.
Notice the tie-in with yo-yoing, immediacy and goallessness. Also notice that Profane's question is presented as a statement and Pig's answer is all part of the same paragraph. (Unlike almost all dialogue in novels.)
52 uses of the word inanimate in V.; 13 of animate. Thematic: Life vs. Non-Life/Death. Notice bar, the Sailor's Grave and ship, the U.S.S. Scaffold vs. the Impulsive (a mine sweeper)--LOL.
The word trocadero, which in Spanish means "place of barter" (from trocar: "to barter"), goes back to a fortified site near Cadiz, Spain, that was the stronghold of the Constititutionalists in the revolution of 1820 and that fell to the French in 1823. During the International Exhibition of 1878 an ornate palace was built to commemorate the French victory. "Trocadero" became a popular name for public places in Europe, one being the Trocadero Palace of Varieties in London, known as "The Troc," which opened as a music hall in 1882 on the corner of Shaftsbury Avenue and Windmill Street.
A "bravo" is a villain, desperado; esp. a hired assassin
37/32 - horniness
a state of sexual excitement. OED
Pynchon is the first citation in the OED for use of this word in print in V..
'Zeit' [German] = Time.
'Suss':
Pronunciation: 's&s
Function: transitive verb
Etymology: by shortening & alteration from suspect
1 chiefly British : FIGURE OUT -- usually used with out
2 chiefly British : to inspect or investigate so as to gain more knowledge -- usually used with out. Merriam-Webster
Australian variant, 'suss' alone without 'suss out':1. suspicious; distrustful; eg, "I'm a bit suss about him and his actions". 2. deceitful; underhanded; clandestine. No OED to check if variant dates to 1960s.
| 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 |
