Difference between revisions of "Pages 83-92"

Latest revision as of 14:20, 1 March 2016

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 83

Topiary trees line the drive
Topiary is the horticultural practice of training live perennial plants, by clipping the foliage and twigs of trees, shrubs and subshrubs to develop and maintain clearly defined shapes, perhaps geometric or fanciful; and the term also refers to plants which have been shaped in this way. It can be an art and is a form of living sculpture. The word derives from the Latin word for an ornamental landscape gardener, topiarius, creator of topia or "places", a Greek word that Romans applied also to fictive indoor landscapes executed in fresco. No doubt the use of a Greek word betokens the art's origins in the Hellenistic world that was influenced by Persia, for neither Classical Greece nor Republican Rome developed any sophisticated tradition of artful pleasure grounds. [1]

Cf. Mason & Dixon pg. 722

83.34-37 meddling with another man's mind...Harvard University
During WWII Dr Henry A. Murray, then assistant director of the Harvard Psychological Clinic, joined the OSS in Europe and assisted James Miller in developing psychological profiles of prospective special agents -- so called stress tests. He also analyzed Hitler for the Allies, predicting that if Germany lost the war, Hitler would commit suicide; that Hitler was impotent as far as heterosexual relations were concerned; and that Hitler had possibly participated in a homosexual relationship -- all suggestive of Blicero.

After 1947 and the Cold War it seemed every self-respecting psychologist was doing side jobs for the CIA in "persuasion technologies" including LSD, various other drugs, sleep deprivation, isolation tanks, hypnosis, etc. even, allegedly, unto the death of the "patient". Perhaps best well known was MK Ultraunder the direction of Dr. Sidney Gottlieb.

Murray himself returned to Harvard where he continued his meddling with the minds of others. One of the minds he meddled with from 1958 to 1962 belonged to Theodore Kaczynski. Alston Chase's book Harvard and the Unabomber: The Education of an American Terrorist tells of the psychological experiments which Kaczynski is reported to have undergone at Harvard, under the direction of Murray. Chase connects these experiences in a controversial thesis to Kaczynski's later career as the Unabomber. As is generally well known in Pynchon circles, TRP himself was suspected of being the Unabomber.

And then of course there was the Leary-Alpert led Harvard Psilocybin Project between 1960 and 1962 ...

Page 84

Watson and Rayner... "Infant Albert"
The Little Albert experiment was a case study showing empirical evidence of classical conditioning in humans. This study was also an example of stimulus generalization. It was conducted in 1920 by John B. Watson along with his assistant Rosalie Rayner. The study was done at Johns Hopkins University. John B. Watson, after observing children in the field, was interested in finding support for his notion that the reaction of children, whenever they heard loud noises, was prompted by fear. Furthermore, he reasoned that this fear was innate or due to an unconditioned response. He felt that following the principles of classical conditioning, he could condition a child to fear another distinctive stimulus which normally would not be feared by a child. [2]

Darmstadt
Darmstadt is a city in the Bundesland (federal state) of Hesse in Germany, located in the southern part of the Rhine Main Area. [3]

Kekulé's own famous switch into chemistry from architecture
Friedrich August Kekule von Stradonitz a.k.a. August Kekulé (7 September 1829–13 July 1896) was a German organic chemist. From the 1850s until his death, Kekule was one of the most prominent chemists in Europe, especially in theoretical chemistry. He was the principal founder of the theory of chemical structure. [4]

Larson-Keeler three-variable "lie detector"
A device recording both blood pressure and galvanic skin response was invented in 1921 by Dr. John A. Larson of the University of California and first applied in law enforcement work by the Berkeley Police Department under its nationally renowned police chief August Vollmer. Further work on this device was done by Leonarde Keeler. [5]

Page 85

"...a silent extinction beyond the zero."
A quote from Pavlov. Read the essay on conditioned reflexes that contains it here.

Passage in question from Pavlov:
Hitherto, when referring to the degree of extinction, we have only spoken of the extinction as being partial or as being complete, but we shall now have to extend our conception. Not only must we speak of partial or of complete extinction of a conditioned reflex, but we must also realize that extinction can proceed beyond the point of reducing a reflex to zero. We cannot therefore judge the degree of extinction only by the magnitude of the reflex or its absence, since there can still be a silent extinction beyond the zero. This statement rests upon the fact that a continued repetition of an extinguished stimulus' beyond the zero of the positive reflex deepens the extinction still further. Such an extension of our conception serves fully to elucidate the experiment just described, and it explains why the seemingly inactive thermal component when subjected to experimental extinction led to such a profound secondary extinction of the stronger tactile component. The importance of considering the degree of extinction in all experiments thus becomes evident. The methods of determining the degree of extinction when it goes beyond zero will be explained in connection with the question which will next be discussed.

85.25 Edwin Treacle
Although derived from a word meaning an antidote to poison, "treacle" is the British term for molasses and is often used to describe something excessively sweet and sticky.

85.37 Poisson Distribution/Equation

See entry on page 54

Page 86

86.40 Flanders
Northern region of Belgium bordering the North Sea. At least 60 miles from the English coast.

Page 87

ultraparadoxical phase
See page 78.

B-17s
The Boeing B-17 Flying Fortress is a four-engine heavy bomber aircraft developed in the 1930s for the then-United States Army Air Corps (USAAC). Competing against Douglas and Martin for a contract to build 200 bombers, the Boeing entry outperformed both competitors and more than met the Air Corps' expectations. Although Boeing lost the contract because the prototype crashed, the Air Corps was so impressed with Boeing's design that they ordered 13 more B-17s for further evaluation. From its introduction in 1938, the B-17 Flying Fortress evolved through numerous design advances. [6]

nacelle
The nacelle is a cover housing (separate from the fuselage) that holds engines, fuel, or equipment on an aircraft. In some cases—the most notable one being the World War II-era P-38 Lightning airplane—an aircraft's cockpit may also be housed in a nacelle. The covering is typically aerodynamically shaped. [7]

perspex nose
Poly(methyl methacrylate) (PMMA) is a transparent thermoplastic, often used as a light or shatter-resistant alternative to glass. It is sometimes called acrylic glass. Chemically, it is the synthetic polymer of methyl methacrylate. The material was developed in 1928 in various laboratories, and was first brought to market in 1933 by Rohm and Haas Company, under the trademark Plexiglas. It has since been sold under many different names including Lucite and Perspex. [8]

Battle of Britain
See page 40.

Page 88

Dr. Horsley Gantt
A former student and colleague of Pavlov.

88.10 the submontane Venus
That is, the goddess of the Tannhauser legend and opera.

Venus is also the goddess of love, of course.

Harley Street
Harley Street is a street in the City of Westminster in London, England which has been noted since the 19th century for its large number of private specialists in medicine and surgery. [9]

Ariadne
Ariadne, in Greek mythology, was the daughter of King Minos of Crete, and his queen Pasiphaë, daughter of Helios, the Sun-titan. She aided Theseus in overcoming the Minotaur and was the bride of the god Dionysus. [10]

their eyes, which glisten with frost or flakes of mica
Cf. page 38.

Pierre Janet
Pierre Marie Félix Janet (30 May 1859 - 24 February 1947) was a pioneering French psychologist, philosopher and psychotherapist in the field of dissociation and traumatic memory. He was one of the first people to draw a connection between events in the subject's past life and his or her present day trauma, and coined the words ‘dissociation’ and ‘subconscious’. [11]

88.34 yang-yin rubbish
Note that Pointsman here rejects the concept only to become entranced by it later.

Page 89

P.R.S.
The Philosophical Research Society (P.R.S.) is an American nonprofit organization founded in 1934, by the prolific author and scholar Manly Palmer Hall, which provides learning and development of a philosophy of life which embraces conciliation of religion and science and higher understandings of life itself. [12]

Page 90

MMPI
Minnesota Multiphasic Personality Inventory. Cf. page 81.

F Scale
The F-scale is a 1947 personality test, designed by Theodor W. Adorno and others to measure the authoritarian personality. The "F" stands for "fascist." The F-scale measures responses on several different components of authoritarianism, including conventionalism, authoritarian submission, authoritarian aggression, anti-intraception, superstition and stereotype, power and "toughness," destructiveness and cynicism, projectivity, and sex. The F-scale is meant to identify how racism develops in people. Scores on the F Scale can be used to generate inferences about other extratest characteristics and behaviors. [13]

the three phases
See page 78.

Page 91

moiré
In physics, a moiré pattern is an interference pattern created, for example, when two grids are overlaid at an angle, or when they have slightly different mesh sizes. [14]

91.27 Dr. Bleagh
An expression of disgust. (Try saying it!)

King Tigers
Tiger II is the common name of a German heavy tank of the Second World War. The final official German designation was Panzerkampfwagen Tiger Ausf. B, often shortened to Tiger B. The ordnance inventory designation was Sd.Kfz. 182. It is also known under the informal name Königstiger (the German name for the "Bengal tiger"), often translated as King Tiger or Royal Tiger by Allied soldiers. [15]

Zouave
Zouave was the title given to certain light infantry regiments in the French Army, normally serving in French North Africa between 1831 and 1962. The name was also adopted during the 19th century by units in other armies, especially volunteer regiments raised for service in the American Civil War. The chief distinguishing characteristics of such units were the zouave uniform, which included short open-fronted jackets, baggy trousers and often sashes and oriental headgear. [16]