Pages 47-53

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 47

autoclave
An autoclave is an instrument used to sterilize equipment and supplies by subjecting them to high pressure saturated steam at 121 °C for around 15–20 minutes depending on the size of the load and the contents. It was invented by Charles Chamberland in 1879, although a precursor known as the steam digester was created by Denis Papin in 1679. The name comes from Greek auto-, ultimately meaning self, and Latin clavis meaning key — a self-locking device. [1]

run three times around the building without thinking of a fox and you can cure anything
Hofstadter says in his book that a cure for hiccups is to run three times around the building without thinking about the word "wolf". His source?

Which book? Probably his most-quoted-from one, Godel, Escher, Bach MKOHUT 13:23, 8 July 2007 (PDT)

(Note that an injunction not to think of something is a perfect example of anthropologist Gregory Bateson's 'Double Bind'.)

Page 48

sybilline cries arriving out of the darkness
The Sibyl, with frenzied mouth uttering things not to be laughed at, unadorned and unperfumed, yet reaches to a thousand years with her voice by aid of the god. - Homer

Abreactions of the Lord of the Night
Abreaction is a psychoanalytical term for reliving an experience in order to purge it of its emotional excesses; a type of catharsis. Sometimes it is a method of becoming conscious of repressed traumatic events. [2]

48.25 " . . . one of Lazslo Jamf’s subjects . . . "
The name "Jamf" apparently derives from an acronym used by Charlie Parker: "Jive-Ass Mother-Fucker"!

48.38 Transmarginal and Paradoxical phases
see here

Page 51

Cobb & Beach at Lyme Regis

The name is Pynchon’s but evokes "The Cobb," the famous jetty at the city of Lyme Regis on the southern coast of England.

Regis is the Latin genitive of Rex, "the King" thus, "of the king." As William Safire notes, "The colloquial noun and interjection ick, as well as its adjectival form, icky, are terms of disgust, distaste and revulsion." Oedipa Maas uses the term in CoL49 in response to a grisly play.

Combining Ick and Regis, could therefore render the anarchic sentiment "sick of the king."

Ick Regis, when spoken aloud, sounds like 'egregious'--perhaps a comment on the programs being run at the White Visitation?

Interestingly, for PISCES and White Visitation to be headquartered in a place named Ick Regis, brings associations with the fish sickness "ick" also known as the white spot disease, which is a severe dermatitis of freshwater fish caused by a protozoan of the genus Ichthyophthirius and is especially destructive in aquariums and hatcheries called also ichthyophthiriasis, ichthyophthirius. Hence, the "white visitation" could, again, be a sickness.

blastulablob
Apparently a TRP neologism. More about blastulas here: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blastula --Jpicco 10:12, 16 May 2009 (PDT)

Page 52

Rundstedt offensive
A reference to The Battle of the Bulge. http://encyclopedia2.thefreedictionary.com/Rundstedt+Offensive --Jpicco 10:19, 16 May 2009 (PDT)