Difference between revisions of "Pages 706-717"

Latest revision as of 01:13, 25 September 2009

This page-by-page annotation is organized by sections, as delineated by the seven squares (sprockets) which separate each section. The page numbers for this page-by-page annotation are for the original Viking edition (760 pages). Editions by other publishers vary in pagination — the newer Penguin editions are 776 pages; the Bantam edition is 886 pages.

Contributors: Please use a 760-page edition (either the original Viking edition with the orange cover or the Penguin USA edition with the blue cover and rocket diagram — there are plenty on Ebay for around $10) or search the Google edition for the correct page number. Readers: To calculate the Bantam edition use this formula: Bantam page # x 1.165. Before p.50 it's about a page earlier; as you get later in the book, add a page.

Finally, profound thanks to Prof. Don Larsson for providing the foundation for this page-by-page annotation.

Page 707

707.31 Saeugling
German: a human baby, suckling, as it is also clear from the description of the picture.

Page 709

709.15 Crime Does Not Pay Comics
Formerly Silver Streak Comics, published by Lev Gleason, the title changed with issue #22 in 1942. The Comic Book Price Guide remarks that it was the first crime comic book and the first comic to be aimed at adult readers. Its influence, with lurid covers and violent stories, contributed to the wave of official disapproval that fell on the comics industry in the early 1950s. See note above at 586.38-39.

709.18 Is this Noel Coward or some shit?
Roger’s antipathy to http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Noel_Coward Coward’s] comedies of manners echoes the comments about Blithe Spirit in the Advent passage at 134 and passim. Pynchon’s own antipathy to the composer, writer and actor goes all the way back to "Lowlands," one of his first published stories.

709.33 Little sigma, times P of s-over-little-sigma
"Little sigma, times P of s equals one over the square root of two pi, times e to the minus s squared over two little-sigma squared" would be the probability density function for a Normally Distributed random variable with mean zero and standard deviation little sigma (though here the traditional form has been multiplied through by little sigma, probably to make it easier for Roger to say). But this is "P of s-over-little-sigma" - a reference to things not being quite Normal?

Page 712

Ingrid Bergman in Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde

Not the 1932 Fredric March version but the 1941 Victor Fleming remake starring Spencer Tracy. In this version Ingrid Bergman plays a barmaid who sings, "You Should See Me Dance the Polka." The song itself was composed around 1887 by George Grossmith, star of Gilbert and Sullivan's operettas at the Savoy Theater. The lyrics to the song include:

You should see me dance the Polka,

You should see me cover the ground,

You should see my coat- tails flying,

As I jump my partner round;

When the band commences playing,

My feet begin to go,

For a rollicking romping Polka

Is the jolliest fun I know.

In the film, Tracy hums the song just before his first transformation into Mr. Hyde.

Page 713

713.10 Thermidor
Not just a month on the French Revolutionary calendar, the name here signifies the defeat of the radical elements in the revolutionary leadership. On Thermidor 8, Year II of the Revolution (July 27, 1794), Robespierre, Saint-Just, and their followers were arrested. These leaders of the radical faction, which had promoted the Reign of Terror but also advocated redistribution of wealth and power for the lower classes, were executed the next day, bringing the Reign of Terror to a close. In one of his newspaper articles later, Pynchon would speak of the Nixon years as a "Thermidorian reaction" to the 1960s.