Pages 92-113

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 93

Amanita muscaria
Amanita muscaria, commonly known as the fly agaric, is a poisonous and psychoactive basidiomycete fungus, one of many in the genus Amanita. Native throughout the temperate and boreal regions of the Northern Hemisphere, Amanita muscaria has been unintentionally introduced to many countries in the Southern Hemisphere, generally as a symbiont with pine plantations, and is now a true cosmopolitan species. It associates with various deciduous and coniferous trees. The quintessential toadstool, it is a large white-gilled, white-spotted, usually deep red mushroom, one of the most recognizable and widely encountered in popular culture. [1]

Destroying Angel
The name destroying angel applies to several similar, closely related species of deadly all-white mushrooms in the genus Amanita. They are Amanita bisporigera and A. ocreata in eastern and western North America, and A. virosa in Europe... Closely related to the death cap (A. phalloides), they are among the most toxic known mushrooms, containing amatoxins as death caps do. [2]

Dispossessed elves run around up on the roof, gibbering
Appears Osbie is already tripping quite a bit here.

Huntley & Palmers biscuit tin
Huntley & Palmers was a British firm of biscuit makers originally based in Reading, Berkshire. The company created one of the world's first global brands and ran what was once the world’s largest biscuit factory. Over the years, the company was also known as J. Huntley & Son and Huntley & Palmer. [3]

Rizla
French brand of rolling papers.

Page 94

Harvey Nicholls
Harvey Nichols, founded in 1813, is an upmarket department store chain. Its original store is in London. Founded in 1813 as a linen shop, it sells many international brands of clothing for women and men, fashion accessories, beauty products, wine and food. Harvey Nichols attracts more younger shoppers than its rival Harrods. [4]

soignée
Of a woman: elegant, well-groomed, sophisticated. [5]

Der Kinderofen
The child-oven

"the Rome-Berlin Axis"
The "Rome-Berlin Axis" became a full military alliance in 1939 under the Pact of Steel, and the Tripartite Pact of 1940 fully integrated the military aims of Germany, Italy, and Japan. [6]

old Märchen
old fable, fairy tale

Page 95

NSB
The National Socialist Movement in the Netherlands (Dutch: Nationaal-Socialistische Beweging in Nederland, NSB) was a Dutch fascist and later national socialist political party. As a parliamentary party participating in legislative elections, the NSB had some success during the 1930s. It remained the only legal party in the Netherlands during most of the Second World War. [7]

95.17 Wassenaar
Wassenaar is in the Netherlands.

"Hexeszüchtigung"
German: "Witch chastisement". Pynchon has either invented or misremembered this word. The correct form would be "Hexenzüchtigung", but it is in any case extremely rare, not part of the normal vocabulary of witch trials.

Page 96

this Northern and ancient form... the strayed children, the wood-wife in the edible house, the captivity, the fattening, the Oven...
"Hansel and Gretel" (German: Hänsel und Gretel, "Little John and Little Margaret") is a well-known fairy tale of German origin, recorded by the Brothers Grimm and published in 1812. Hansel and Gretel are a young brother and sister threatened by a cannibalistic witch living deep in the forest in a house constructed of cake and confectionery. The two children save their lives by outwitting her. The tale has been adapted to various media, most notably the opera Hänsel und Gretel (1893) by Engelbert Humperdinck and a stop-motion animated feature film made in the 1950s based on the opera. Under the Aarne-Thompson classification system, "Hansel and Gretel" is classified under Class 327, "The Children and the Ogre". [8]

Dutch underground
Dutch resistance to the Nazi occupation of the Netherlands during World War II can be mainly characterized by its prominent non-violence, summitting in over 300,000 people in hiding in the fall of 1944, tended to by some 60,000 to 200.000 illegal landlords and caretakers and tolerated knowingly by some 1 million people, including German occupiers and military. [9]

Page 97

the Spitfires
The Supermarine Spitfire is a British single-seat fighter aircraft which was used by the Royal Air Force and many other Allied countries throughout the Second World War. The Spitfire continued to be used as a front line fighter and in secondary roles into the 1950s. It was produced in greater numbers than any other British aircraft, and was the only British fighter in production throughout the war. [10]

Mussert's people
Anton Adriaan Mussert (May 11, 1894, Werkendam, North Brabant – May 7, 1946) was one of the founders of the National Socialist Movement (NSB) in the Netherlands and its de jure leader. As such, he was the most prominent national socialist in the Netherlands before and during the Second World War. During the war, he was able to keep this position, due to the support he received from the Germans. After the war, he was convicted and executed for high treason. [11]

Scheveningen
Scheveningen is one of the eight districts of The Hague, as well as a subdistrict (wijk) of that city. Scheveningen is a modern seaside resort with a long sandy beach, an esplanade, a pier, and a lighthouse. The beach is popular for water sports such as windsurfing and kiteboarding. A nudist section is 1 km to the north. The harbor is used for both fishing and tourism. [12]

Rilke
René Karl Wilhelm Johann Josef Maria Rilke (4 December 1875 – 29 December 1926), better known as Rainer Maria Rilke, was a Bohemian–Austrian poet. He is considered one of the most significant poets in the German language. His haunting images focus on the difficulty of communion with the ineffable in an age of disbelief, solitude, and profound anxiety: themes that tend to position him as a transitional figure between the traditional and the modernist poets. [13]

Page 98

98.16 Young Rauhandel
A former friend of Blicero, probably a lover willing to indulge his sado-masochistic tastes. The name literally means "Rough Trade."

98.24 the Ufa-Theatre
Weisenburger’s information on UFA is essentially correct, but he misgives Georg Wilhelm Pabst’s first name as "Rudolf." One curiosity in Pynchon's German film references is the lack of any mention of F.W. Murnau, perhaps the greatest director of that era. His films Nosferatu (the first film version of Dracula) and Faust would seem to be natural allusions for Pynchon to use.

Universum Film AG, better known as UFA or Ufa, is a film company that was the principal film studio in Germany, home of the German film industry during the Weimar Republic and through World War II, and a major force in world cinema from 1917 to 1945. After World War II, UFA continued producing movies and television programmes to the present day, making it the longest standing film company in Germany. [14]

Friedrichstrasse
The Friedrichstraße (lit. Frederick Street) is a major culture and shopping street in central Berlin, forming the core of the Friedrichstadt neighborhood. It runs from the northern part of the old Mitte district (north of which it is called Chausseestraße) to the Hallesches Tor in the district of Kreuzberg. Due to its north-southerly direction, it forms important junctions with the east-western axes, most notably with Leipziger Straße and Unter den Linden. [15]

Page 99

99.2 Wandervogel
German youth movement promoting a love of nature and the outdoors; see note here

A wanderer.

Duino Elegies
The Duino Elegies (German Duineser Elegien) are a set of ten elegies written in German by the poet Rainer Maria Rilke from 1912 to 1922. Rilke had been visiting Princess Marie von Thurn und Taxis in the Duino castle near Trieste in January 1912 and, according to his own recounting, had taken a stroll near the castle, atop the steep cliffs that dropped down to the beach. Rilke said later he had heard a voice calling to him as he walked near the cliffs, and he had used its words as the opening... [16]

the great Herero Rising
The Herero and Namaqua Genocide is considered to have been the first genocide of the 20th century. It took place between 1904 and 1907 in German South-West Africa (modern day Namibia), during the scramble for Africa. On January 12, 1904, the Herero people, led by Samuel Maharero, rebelled against German colonial rule. In August, German general Lothar von Trotha defeated the Herero in the Battle of Waterberg and drove them into the desert of Omaheke, where most of them died of thirst. In October, the Nama people also rebelled against the Germans only to suffer a similar fate. [17]

Page 100

Ndjambi Karunga
A deity to the Herero peoples, the supreme being. Thought to have created the world, put a tree on it from which humans emerged. Ndjambi returned to heaven. Is all-knowing & giver of blessings & kindness.

Rhenish Missionary Society
The Rhenish Missionary Society (Rhenish - of the river Rhine) was one of the largest missionary societies in Germany. Formed from smaller missions founded as far back as 1799, the Society was amalgamated on 23 September 1828, and its first missionaries were ordained and sent off to South Africa by the end of the year. [18]

talion
Retaliation.

clonic
Pertaining to clonus; having irregular, convulsive spasms. [19]

Harz
The Harz is the highest mountain range in northern Germany and its rugged terrain extends across parts of Lower Saxony, Saxony-Anhalt and Thuringia. The name Harz derives from the Middle High German word Hardt or Hart (mountain forest). The legendary Brocken is the highest summit in the Harz with a height of 1,141.1 metres (3,744 ft) above sea level. The Wurmberg (971 metres (3,186 ft)) is the highest peak located entirely within Lower Saxony. [20]

mandala
Maṇḍala is a Sanskrit word that means "circle". In the Hindu and Buddhist religious traditions their sacred art often takes a mandala form. The basic form of most Hindu and Buddhist mandalas is a square with four gates containing a circle with a center point; each gate is in the shape of a T. [21]

Page 101

swastika
The word swastika came from the Sanskrit word svastika, meaning any lucky or auspicious object, and in particular a mark made on persons and things to denote good luck. It is composed of su- meaning "good, well" and asti "to be" svasti thus means "well-being." The suffix -ka either forms a diminutive or intensifies the verbal meaning, and svastika might thus be translated literally as "that which is associated with well-being," corresponding to "lucky charm" or "thing that is auspicious." [22]

101.1-2 In Hoc Signo Vinces
Latin, "in this sign you will conquer.". According to legend Constantine the Great adopted this Greek phrase, "εν τούτω νίκα", after his vision of a chi and rho on the sky just before the Battle of the Milvian Bridge (312 CE). He had his men paint the chi rho on their sheilds and led them all to victory. Thus did he become the Emperor of Rome and subsequently moved the capital of the empire to Constantinople (formerly Byzas, now Istanbul) and most important for the history of the west -- proclaimed Christianity the official religion of the empire.

In context in GR there are various possible meanings: - The swastika, the broken cross at the mandala's center on the launch pad, the symbol of the Reich, shall win the war and proclaim a new empire -- the Third Reich which was to last a 1000 years -- which, come to think of it, was about as long as Constantinople was the center of the Roman, then Eastern Roman, then Byzantine (but always Christian) Empire (Constantinople falling to the Ottoman Turks in 1459). Common to both Nazi and Constantine rendering is the interplay of the Cross/Swastika over the face of the sun.

- Subsequently, the phrase became the motto of the Sobieski line -- Jan III Sobieski having defeated the Ottomans in 1683 at the Battle of Vienna just outside the city's gates. The phrase has also been used by Irish nobility, the Sacred Military Constantinian Order of Saint George, the Portuguese, the Knights Templars, Freemasons, and the Sigma Chi fraternity.

Which leads to the most amusing reading of the passage: whoever carved the words into the tree did so as a fraternity prank.

the Underground
See page 96.

Erwartung
Anticipation

Page 106

106.34-37 White Zombie ... perhaps Dumbo
Despite the connections with other forms of death-in-life that are referred to throughout Gravity’s Rainbow, White Zombie is the only direct reference to zombies. That may be because the zombie myth is of black and African origin. Pynchon has carefully chosen the title to reflect his use of whiteness as the color of death. Although the depiction of the crows in Dumbo is clearly racist, they give the little elephant the "magic" feather that he thinks he needs (but really doesn’t) in order to fly. The Disney film will continue to be an important touchstone later in the novel when Slothrop meets Pig Bodine. Compare Pynchon's bitterly ironic use of the Dumbo reference at V135.02-07. Although it is not clear that Pynchon was aware of it, the B-17 bomber was nicknamed the "Dumbo" by American troops in the Pacific during World War II.

This contributor would bet a first edition hardcover of Gravity's Rainbow that Pynchon was aware of the "Dumbo". Even I knew it and I know next to nothing about WW II factually.MKOHUT 13:40, 8 July 2007 (PDT)

Page 108

108 ic heb u liever dan ên everswîn
These lines (English: "I love you more than a wild boar / even if it were made of fine gold") are from the 15th century Middle Dutch verse drama Lanseloet van Denemerken ("Lancelot of Denmark"). Precisely these two lines are quoted and discussed in Chapter 10 of Jacob Grimm's Deutsche Mythologie, Vol. 1, p. 213 in the English translation Teutonic Mythology, which must be Pynchon's source.

Page 109

109.9-11 freak saffrons, streaming indigos
The isolated Dutchman going slowly mad under the southern sun, whose "very perceptions" are changed (and who writes numerous letters to his brother) seems to be a reference to Vincent Van Gogh; the kind of tacit anachronism that Pynchon likes to use in Mason & Dixon.

Page 110

110.6 This furious host...
Evokes 'Wuotan and his mad army'; see notes 72.27 and 75.13

Page 111

111.07-09 For as much as they are creatures of God and have the gift of rational discourse, acknowledging that only in his Word is eternal life to be found...
Weisenburger suggests that this is a prayer for new colonial subjects, but the context — Frans van der Groov’s hopes for a Conversion of the Dodos — suggests that it comes from a discourse on the possibility of salvation or conversion for Jews or others. Given Katje’s problematic relationship to the Holocaust, the passage becomes even more suggestively sinister. The sentence does suggest the views of James (or Jacob) Arminius, the Dutch theologian who broke with the Dutch Reformed Church over issues of predestination and election. Arminius argued that Christ’s salvation was available to all in contrast to the official church's staunch belief in predestination. Frans would extend that grace to dodos as well. Also see note at 555.29.

1 Beyond the Zero	3-7, 7-16, 17-19, 20-29, 29-37, 37-42, 42-47, 47-53, 53-60, 60-71, 71-72, 72-83, 83-92, 92-113, 114-120, 120-136, 136-144, 145-154, 154-167, 167-174, 174-177
2 Un Perm' au Casino Herman Goering	181-189, 189-205, 205-226, 226-236, 236-244, 244-249, 249-269, 269-278
3 In the Zone	279-295, 295-314, 314-329, 329-336, 336-359, 359-371, 371-383, 383-390, 390-392, 392-397, 397-433, 433-447, 448-456, 457-468, 468-472, 473-482, 482-488, 488-491, 492-505, 505-518, 518-525, 525-532, 532-536, 537-548, 549-557, 557-563, 563-566, 567-577, 577-580, 580-591, 591-610, 610-616
4 The Counterforce	617-626, 626-640, 640-655, 656-663, 663-673, 674-700, 700-706, 706-717, 717-724, 724-733, 733-735, 735-760