Pages 83-92

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 85

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 88

88.10 the submontane Venus
That is, the goddess of the Tannhauser legend and opera. 88.34 yang-yin rubbish
Note that Pointsman here rejects the concept only to become entranced by it later.

Venus is also the goddess of love, of course.

Page 91

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