Pages 733-735

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 734

734.2 GE_ _RAT_ _
Weisenburger believes that adding the missing letters in this game of hangman would spell out GENERATOR. This, in fact, appears to be the only German word (or English, for that matter), to fit the description, and it fits the story too. However, since the letters E and R already occur in GE_ _RAT_ _, the incomplete mystery word would have been left as GE_ERAT_R.

734.17 May he be blind now to all but me. . . .
Steven C. Weisenburger, in A Gravity's Rainbow Companion notes that Geli Tripping's spell on Tchitcherine is derived from A. E. Waite's Book of Black Magic. A. E. Waite is noted several times in Against the Day.

734.19 by the Angels Melchidael, Yahoel, Anafiel, and the great Metatron...
This incantation is a variant on many in mystical traditions, invoking various spiritual beings and deities. In Kabbalah, Metatron is the angel that governs the Tree of Life and the teachings of the Kabbalah. Melchidael is one of the top three of the seven archangels; Yahoel was the angel that taught Abraham the Torah and was his earthly and heavenly guide. Anafiel, "Branch of God," keeper of the keys of heaven, and the angel who looks after birds, and who carried Enoch to heaven.