Thomas Pynchon Wiki - User contributions [en]

Pages 626-640

2014-08-08T19:15:48Z

Dgorsline: page 627: commas, brimstones, painted ladies

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==Page 626==
626.20 '''Double-declutchingly, heel and toe...'''

Another concealed poem (others on 167, 451, and 508). See also ''Inherent Vice'' p. 134.

==Page 627==
627.28-29 '''Commas, brimstones, painted ladies''' 
Three taxa of butterflies. The Comma (''Polygonia c-album'') is one of the anglewings; sulfur-yellow brimstones are in the genus ''Gonepteryx'' in the family Pieridae; painted ladies are in the genus ''Vanessa''. The Comma is named for a so-shaped white mark on the underside of its hindwing; a similarly-marked North American congener is called the Question Mark (''P. interrogationis'').

==Page 637==
[[image:saboteur.jpg|thumb|Chase scene from ''Saboteur''|100px|right]]637.10 '''aficionados of the chase scene, those who cannot look at the Taj Mahal, the Uffizi, the Statue of Liberty...''' 

The Uffizi chase scene Pynchon is referencing here may be from one of the six vignettes that comprise [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Roberto_Rossellini Roberto Rossellini's] ''Paisà'' (1946), a military travelogue, following Allied (mainly American) soldiers during the 1943 invasion of Italy as they eventually wrest the country from Fascist control. In one of the vignettes, a nurse and her friend are running through the maze-like Uffizi, its treasures packed in crates, trying to cross into occupied Florence.

The Statue of Liberty references the final chase scene in Alfred Hitchcock’s [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Saboteur_%28film%29 ''Saboteur''] (1942).

637.11 '''Douglas Fairbanks scampering across that moon minaret''' 
Refers to the 1924 film [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Thief_of_Baghdad_%281924%29 ''The Thief of Baghdad''] in which swashbuckling [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Douglas_Fairbanks Douglas Fairbanks] plays a thief who falls in love with the Caliph's beautiful daughter.

637.37-38 '''Dick Whittington''' 
According to popular legend, Whittington (c. 1350-1423) was one of the preterite who made good, a penniless boy who was about to leave London when he heard the city’s bells calling, "Turn back, Dick Whittington, Lord Mayor of London!" [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Richard_Whittington Wikipedia entry]

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Pages 537-548

2014-08-08T19:00:35Z

Dgorsline: /* Page 537 */ Route One revised routing

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==Page 537==
537.16-17 '''big as pantechnicons''' 
That is, big as furniture vans. See [[Pages 17-19#19|19.30]].

537.33-34 '''Route One where it passes through the heart of Providence''' 
Per Google Maps, the current routing of U. S. 1 in downtown Providence, Rhode Island follows Broad Street, Franklin Street and Broadway (northbound) and Empire Street (southbound), Fountain (northbound) and Sabin Streets (southbound), Francis Street, Gaspee Street, Smith Street, and North Main Street. There's a crossover in La Salle Square where, for a few yards, the north- and southbound routes go in the same direction. (Not surprisingly, Mapquest and Bing Maps have slightly different routings).

==Page 540==
[[image:St_Just.jpg|thumb|Louis de Saint-Just|80px|right]]540.34 '''St.-Just Grossout''' 
"Grossout" is 60s slang for "disgusting," "repulsive." [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/St._Just Louis Antoine Leon de Saint-Just] was the French radical leader known as the "Conscience of the Revolution" for his egalitarian principles but he was also one of the harshest advocates of the Reign of Terror. Also see note at [[Pages 706-717#713|713.10]]

540.23 '''Rock-Scissors-and-Paper''' 
가위, 바위, 보 (pronounced Gah Wee Bah Wee Boh) is somewhat similar to ''Evens & Odds'' in terms of using hand signals to resolve an impasse but quite different in terms of application. Whereas ''Evens & Odds'' is used to expedite the choosing of sides, 가위, 바위, 보 is used to beguile the time when time is at a stagnant stand still as it often is when a stranger appears amongst our midst.

==Page 541==
541.21-22 '''a discredit to his people''' 
A play on the racistly condescending phrase "a credit to his people," usually indicating someone who meets official standards of behavior. In this case, a Welshman who can't sing.

==Page 542==
542.40 '''Lucifer Amp''' 
An electrical sort of person. "Lucifer" was the original name of the bright angel who rebelled and was expelled from Heaven to become Satan, but it has also been a name for a kind of match and a brand name for lightbulbs. "Amps" (after French physicist Andre Marie Ampere) are the units that measure the rate of flow of the charge in an electrical circuit. AMP, though, can also stand for adenosine monophosphate, a substance found in all animal cells and that controls the cell’s electrical activity.

This may also reference the [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Syd_Barrett Syd Barrett] tune [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lucifer_Sam "Lucifer Sam"], which was on the British group Pink Floyd's first, Barrett-led, album, [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Piper_at_the_Gates_of_Dawn ''The Piper At The Gates of Dawn''] (1967).

==Page 544==

'''Gongylakis '''
Might be a variant on the name of [http://textiles.ucdavis.edu/laky/ Gyöngy Laky], a textile sculptor and arts professor, who was active in San Francisco when ''Gravity's Rainbow'' was written.

'''sufficient unto the day''' 
From [http://www.jesus-is-lord.com/matthew.htm#c6 The Gospel According to Saint Matthew: 6:34]. "Take therefore no thought for the morrow: for the morrow shall
take thought for the things of itself. Sufficient unto the day is the evil thereof." (The New Testament of the King James Bible) In
[http://against-the-day.pynchonwiki.com/wiki/index.php?title=ATD_81-96#Page_96 ''Against the Day''], Webb Traverse quotes it. Here, "They" update daily a list of those who will soon get 'hit' the evil thereof [the day].

==Page 545==
[[image:blowout.jpg|thumb|100px|right]]545.04-05 '''young Porky Pig holding out the anarchist’s bomb''' 
[[Weisenburger's Companion to Gravity's Rainbow|Weisenburger]]’s cartoon history is more than a bit off in his note here. Porky Pig and Bugs Bunny would not have been featured in Walt Disney’s Comics and Stories because they were Warner Brothers characters. (Woody Woodpecker came from Walter Lantz’s studio.) Porky and Bugs were featured in ''Looney Tunes'' and ''Merrie Melodies Comics'', starting with the first issue in 1941. Porky had been one of Warner Brothers’ most popular cartoon characters since his first appearance in "I Haven’t Got a Hat" in 1935 (made in 2-strip Technicolor; 3-color Technicolor cartoons with the pig did not appear until the early 1940s). The cartoon alluded to here is quite specific: "The Blow-Out" (1936), directed by Fred "Tex" Avery and animated by Sid Sutherland and Charles "Chuck" Jones. Porky’s voice is by Joe Dougherty, who dubbed the pig until he was replaced by the familiar voice of Mel Blanc in the late 1930s. In the cartoon, young Porky is earning money for ice-cream sodas by doing favors for people. Thinking that the shadowy "Mad Bomber" has lost his bomb, Porky keeps returning it until the inevitable explosion. This cartoon, a favorite of Pynchon’s, was originally mentioned to Oedipa by Mr. Thoth in ''The Crying of Lot 49'' and reoccurs as an image in the "Incident in the Transvestites Toilet" later in ''Gravity’s Rainbow''. See note at [[Page 580-591#586|586.38-39]].

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Pages 537-548

2014-08-08T18:45:19Z

Dgorsline: /* Page 537 */ Route One

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==Page 537==
537.16-17 '''big as pantechnicons''' 
That is, big as furniture vans. See [[Pages 17-19#19|19.30]].

537.33-34 '''Route One where it passes through the heart of Providence''' 
The current routing of U. S. 1 in downtown Providence, Rhode Island follows Broad Street, East and West Franklin Street, Fountain (northbound) and Sabin Streets (southbound), Francis Street, Gaspee Street, Smith Street, and North Main Street.

==Page 540==
[[image:St_Just.jpg|thumb|Louis de Saint-Just|80px|right]]540.34 '''St.-Just Grossout''' 
"Grossout" is 60s slang for "disgusting," "repulsive." [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/St._Just Louis Antoine Leon de Saint-Just] was the French radical leader known as the "Conscience of the Revolution" for his egalitarian principles but he was also one of the harshest advocates of the Reign of Terror. Also see note at [[Pages 706-717#713|713.10]]

540.23 '''Rock-Scissors-and-Paper''' 
가위, 바위, 보 (pronounced Gah Wee Bah Wee Boh) is somewhat similar to ''Evens & Odds'' in terms of using hand signals to resolve an impasse but quite different in terms of application. Whereas ''Evens & Odds'' is used to expedite the choosing of sides, 가위, 바위, 보 is used to beguile the time when time is at a stagnant stand still as it often is when a stranger appears amongst our midst.

==Page 541==
541.21-22 '''a discredit to his people''' 
A play on the racistly condescending phrase "a credit to his people," usually indicating someone who meets official standards of behavior. In this case, a Welshman who can't sing.

==Page 542==
542.40 '''Lucifer Amp''' 
An electrical sort of person. "Lucifer" was the original name of the bright angel who rebelled and was expelled from Heaven to become Satan, but it has also been a name for a kind of match and a brand name for lightbulbs. "Amps" (after French physicist Andre Marie Ampere) are the units that measure the rate of flow of the charge in an electrical circuit. AMP, though, can also stand for adenosine monophosphate, a substance found in all animal cells and that controls the cell’s electrical activity.

This may also reference the [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Syd_Barrett Syd Barrett] tune [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lucifer_Sam "Lucifer Sam"], which was on the British group Pink Floyd's first, Barrett-led, album, [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Piper_at_the_Gates_of_Dawn ''The Piper At The Gates of Dawn''] (1967).

==Page 544==

'''Gongylakis '''
Might be a variant on the name of [http://textiles.ucdavis.edu/laky/ Gyöngy Laky], a textile sculptor and arts professor, who was active in San Francisco when ''Gravity's Rainbow'' was written.

'''sufficient unto the day''' 
From [http://www.jesus-is-lord.com/matthew.htm#c6 The Gospel According to Saint Matthew: 6:34]. "Take therefore no thought for the morrow: for the morrow shall
take thought for the things of itself. Sufficient unto the day is the evil thereof." (The New Testament of the King James Bible) In
[http://against-the-day.pynchonwiki.com/wiki/index.php?title=ATD_81-96#Page_96 ''Against the Day''], Webb Traverse quotes it. Here, "They" update daily a list of those who will soon get 'hit' the evil thereof [the day].

==Page 545==
[[image:blowout.jpg|thumb|100px|right]]545.04-05 '''young Porky Pig holding out the anarchist’s bomb''' 
[[Weisenburger's Companion to Gravity's Rainbow|Weisenburger]]’s cartoon history is more than a bit off in his note here. Porky Pig and Bugs Bunny would not have been featured in Walt Disney’s Comics and Stories because they were Warner Brothers characters. (Woody Woodpecker came from Walter Lantz’s studio.) Porky and Bugs were featured in ''Looney Tunes'' and ''Merrie Melodies Comics'', starting with the first issue in 1941. Porky had been one of Warner Brothers’ most popular cartoon characters since his first appearance in "I Haven’t Got a Hat" in 1935 (made in 2-strip Technicolor; 3-color Technicolor cartoons with the pig did not appear until the early 1940s). The cartoon alluded to here is quite specific: "The Blow-Out" (1936), directed by Fred "Tex" Avery and animated by Sid Sutherland and Charles "Chuck" Jones. Porky’s voice is by Joe Dougherty, who dubbed the pig until he was replaced by the familiar voice of Mel Blanc in the late 1930s. In the cartoon, young Porky is earning money for ice-cream sodas by doing favors for people. Thinking that the shadowy "Mad Bomber" has lost his bomb, Porky keeps returning it until the inevitable explosion. This cartoon, a favorite of Pynchon’s, was originally mentioned to Oedipa by Mr. Thoth in ''The Crying of Lot 49'' and reoccurs as an image in the "Incident in the Transvestites Toilet" later in ''Gravity’s Rainbow''. See note at [[Page 580-591#586|586.38-39]].

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Pages 640-655

2014-08-08T18:24:37Z

Dgorsline: page 651: cullet

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==Page 640==
640 '''A certain lycanthropophobia or fear of Werewolves occupies minds at higher levels''' 
Post-war Nazi partisans called themselves "Werwolf". [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Werwolf Wikipedia entry on Werwolf]

640.30 '''Eddie Pensiero''' 
The name is actually an old pun, taken from "La Donna e Mobile," the most famous aria in Verdi’s ''Rigoletto''. The main verse reads:

:La donna e mobile 
:Quai piuma al vento, 
:Muta d’accento 
:'''E di pensiero'''. [emphasis added]

English:

:Woman is fickle 
:As a feather in the wind, 
:She changes her tune 
:And her thoughts.

==Page 642==
642.05-06 '''It’s really a train of imperceptible light and dark.''' 
The glow of the light bulb only appears to be steady, like the flow of light broken by the shutter in a movie projector.

==Page 645==
645.12 '''Buddy at the last minute decided to go see ''Dracula''''' 
See note at [[Pages_580-591#Page 591|591.18]].

==Page 651==
651.14 '''cullet''' 
Recycled glass, crushed in preparation to be remelted.

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Pages 336-359

2014-08-08T18:21:54Z

Dgorsline: /* Page 339 */ dessiatinas

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==Page 337==
'''''337:17 stvyeh''s and ''znyi''s''' 
These are suffixes but both of the examples which Weisenburger quotes from Terrill Shepard Soules miss the point. There is no such word as ''sdravstuyeh''; the Russian word for 'hello' is ''zdravstvuy'' or ''zdravstvuyte'', second person imperative forms of the verb zdravstvovat', literally 'to be healthy". There is no such word as ''nebreznieh'' either; ''nebrezhnyi'' (masculine, singular) means 'careless, neglectful'. The suffix ''-stviye'' produces nouns, as in ''udovol'stviye'', 'pleasure'. The suffix ''-nyi'' (where y is for the central close vowel "yery", and i is for the half-vowel y) is an adjective ending (masculine, singular, nominative); when it is attached to a noun stem with z, it becomes -znyi, as in ''groznyi'', 'terrible".

==Page 338==

'''338:21 Seven Rivers Country''' 
In Russian, Semirechye; the relatively fertile easternmost region of Kazakhstan, near the present-day Chinese border. The western and norther parts of Kazakhstan (then an Autonomous Soviet Socialist Republic within the Russian Federation) was the target of intensive Russification at that time but Slavic resettlement did not affect the Semirechye.

'''the local Likbez center''' 
Likbez was a campaign of eradication of illiteracy in Soviet Russia in the 1920s and 1930s. It was started on December 26, 1919, when Lenin signed the decree "On eradication of illiteracy among the population of RSFSR." According to this decree, all people from 8 to 50 years old were required to become literate in their native language.

==Page 339==
339.11 '''dessiatina''' 
A unit of land measurement used in tsarist Russia, equal to 2400 square sazhens, approximately equal to 2.702 English acres or 10,925 square meters.

339.17-18 '''naked Leningrad encounters with the certainty of his death''' 
The 872-day Siege of Leningrad by German forces in World War II was one of the longest battles in the history of warfare and one of the costliest in human lives.

==Page 341==
341.18-19 '''O, wie spurlos zerträte ein Engel (ihnen) den Trostmarkt''' 
'Oh, how an angel would trample--and leave no trace--their marketplace of solace'. As Weisenberger points out, Pynchon misses out the bracketed word from the Rilke quote, but he gets the word wrong; 'inhem' is not a German preposition.

==Page 345==
345.19 '''passementerie''' 
The art of making elaborate trimmings or edgings (in French, passements) of applied braid, gold or silver cord, embroidery, colored silk, or beads for clothing or furnishings.

==Page 346==
346.3 '''Parabellum rounds'''
A cartridge made by German arms maker Deutsche Waffen und Munitionsfabriken; derived from the Latin saying ''si vis pacem, para bellum'', meaning 'If you wish for peace, prepare for war'.

==Page 347==
347.2-5 '''an enormous closed sleigh, big as a ferryboat, bedizened all over with Victorian gingerbread - inside are decks and levels for each class of passenger, velvet saloons, well-stocked galleys...''' 

Echoes here of the opening passage of the book, with its 'carriage, which is built on several levels', the 'velveteen darkness', and the class theme - 'ruinous secret cities of the poor'. Then there are the girders 'old as an iron queen', perhaps a reference to Queen Victoria and/or Victoria Station, echoed here by the Victorian gingerbread. That passage has a lot of metal(s) in it, and it turns out to be a dream from which wakes Captain Prentice, feeling metallic. Here, we have 'Captain' Tchitcherine, a man who is 'more metal than anything else'.

Certainly the multi-leveled carriages are deliberate mirrorings. Is there a connection between Prentice and Tchitcherine?

==Page 351==
351.06 '''Jablochkov candles''' 
Paul Jablochkov (or Pavel Yablochkov, 1847-1894) was a Russian engineer. His "candles" were the first practical electric carbon-arc lamps, hence the connection here with Tchitcherine’s vision of the carbonized faces of the war dead.

==Page 354==
'''354:33-36 Dutch Shell... the Nobels''' 
Both Royal Dutch Shell and the Nobel brothers had interests in the Baku oil industry until it was taken over by the bolshevik régime. As the foreign engineers "went all home", the nationalized industry was rebuilt using American know-how in the 1920s.

==Page 355==
'''355:38-39 Samarkand and Pishpek, Verney and Tashkent''' 
Samarkand and Tashkent are cities in Uzbekistan; Pishpek (now Bishkek) in Kyrgyzstan, and Vernyi (correct transcription of the original Russian name; now Almaty) in Kazakhstan.
[[http://www.example.com link title]]

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User:Dgorsline

2014-07-23T18:35:45Z

Dgorsline:

I recently reread ''Gravity's Rainbow'' for the first time since college. I live in Reston, Virginia, and I blog at [http://www.ahoneyofananklet.com/ A Honey of an Anklet].

S

2014-07-23T18:35:08Z

Dgorsline: add info to Scombroid

<div id="sachsa">'''Sachsa, Peter'''</div>
31; the "control" in Psi Section; lover of Leni Pökler, 147; medium at Rathenau seance, 163-65; killed in communist street action in 1930 in Neukölln (Berlin) by Schutzmann Jöche, a Nazi cop, 152; as Zaxa, 218; 219-20; 590; [[Peter Sachsa|Etymological Musings]]

'''scombroid''' 
217.20; Peter Sachsa is described as having a scombroid face, by which Pynchon means narrow. The family Scombridae, from which scombroid derives, are marine fishes which have in common, among other features, a tail which is connected to the body by a thin, but flexible and strong muscle. This family of streamlined predators of the open ocean includes the tunas and mackerels. "Scombroid" also refers to a type of food poisoning.

'''skivvies''' 
Not female servants as ''Webster's Third International Unabridged'' defines it, but undergarments as defined by Google. For a sec, the contributor wrongly suspected Pynchon had made a howler, for the sentence goes "He runs into the bedroom, finds everything else he had on is gone too, down to shoes and skivvies." 199

[[Sado-Masochism|'''SADOMASOCHISM (S/M)''']]

<div id="basher"></div>'''St. Blaise, Group Capt. "Basher"''' 
146; sees angel of death during RAF Lübeck strike, 151; [["Basher" St. Blaise|Etymological Musings]]; See also [[C#church|Church of St. Blasius]]

'''St. Elmo's fire''' 
The glow accompanying the brushlike discharges of atmospheric electricity that usually appears during stormy weather as a tip of light on the extremities of such pointed objects as church towers or the masts of ships; "will be seen spurting at moments from crossends" on the Anubis, 491

'''St. Felix''' 
37; "the clock of" in London

'''St. John's Wood''' 
544; an exclusive district in West London, where the Mossmoons live

'''Saint Pauli''' 
the English translation for "Sankt Pauli," which is the main red-light district in Hamburg/Germany. It's known for its sex-bars and its fusion of pimps, prostitutes and working-class inhabitants. St. Pauli is famous for the atmosphere that the harbour of Hamburg brings into the district. Sailors, seaman and other stranded creatures are walking over the Reeperbahn (St. Pauli's main street). The Star-Club, where the Beatles paid their dues before becoming hugely famous, is in St. Pauli; 525

'''St. Veronica's Hospital''' 
46; of the True Image for Colonic and Respiratory Diseases; St. Veronica wiped Christ's forehead with her veil while he carried the cross; St. Veronica Papers, 688

'''St.-Just Grossout''' 
540; blackman worked for Firm infiltrating Schwarzkommando (aka "Sam Juiced")

<div id="salitieri">'''Salitieri, Poore, Nash, De Brutus and Short'''</div>
591; [a pun on Thomas Hobbes' (1588-1679) description, in Leviathan (1651), of the life of the members of the commonwealth in the absence of an all-powerful sovereign: "No arts; no letters; no society; and which is worst of all, continual feare and danger of violent death; and the life of Man, solitary, poore, nasty, brutish, and short."]; Lyle Bland's lawyers, 591; pallbearers at Lyle Bland's funeral, 652; Recall the law firm representing Pierce Inverarity in [http://cl49.pynchonwiki.com/wiki/index.php?title=Chapter_1#warpe ''The Crying of Lot 49'']: Warpe, Wistfull, Kubitschek and McMingus.

'''Sandhurst''' 
202; a military academy, the British equivalent to West Point in the U.S

'''Sandoz''' 
250; Swiss chemical company which joined Geigy and Ciba in a cartel, in the early '20s; Hoffman was working for Sandoz when he synthesized LSD; Schweitar worked there, 260;

'''Sandra''' 
685; has "run away from the Kleinburgerstrasse" and staying at Der Platz

'''Sandra''' 
606; acquaintance of Manuela's at Putzi's

'''Sandys, Duncan''' 
Sandys, who was married to Churchill's daughter Diana, was Under-secretary of the Ministry of Supply in Britain during WWII. He was appointed by Churchill to investigate the rumored German experiments with secret weapons, which investigation led to the discovery of the rocket facilities at Peenemünde; "the P.M.'s son-in-law" who works out of the Ministry of Supply at Shell Mex House, 228; "Churchill's own son-in-law" 251

'''Sanktwolke, Edouard''' 
385; German: "Saint Cloud"; "veteran automotive jobber" who supplied transportation for von Göll's and Waxwing's "travelling business conference"

'''Santora''' 
744; family in Mingeborough, MA

'''Sargasso Sea''' 
Area of the North Atlantic Ocean, elliptical in shape and relatively still, that is strewn with free-floating seaweed of the genus Sargassum. Encompassing the Bermuda Islands, a combination of ecological and biological conditions result in a dirth of plankton (a fish staple), creating a biological desert. Early navigators had the (unfounded) fear of becoming entangled within the mass of seaweed and unable to escape; "the sun-resorts of Sargasso where the bones come up to lie and bleach and mock the passing ships" 564;

'''Sargner''' 
152; "a civilian attached to the General Staff" who is keyed on by Wimpe at séance

'''Sarnaki''' 
424; target area for A-4, near Blizna, Poland

'''Sarts''' 
340; Central Asian people

'''Sassoon, Lt. Siegfried Lorraine (1886-1967)''' 
79; English poet and novelist whose experiences in World War I made him fiercely anti-war and he wrote numerous works which reflected this hatred, including Counterattack (1918) and Satirical Poems (1926)

'''sastrugi''' 
420; Sastrugi are smooth, gently rolling snowfields, often covered with wind-drifted formations, on the interior of the Greenland ice sheet which is second in area only to the Antarctic ice sheet. It extends about 1,570 miles from north to south and has a maximum width of some 600 miles and an average thickness of about 5,800 feet.

'''Saturday Evening Post''' 
435; American weekly magazine the covers of which often had Norman Rockwell illustrations

'''Saville Row''' 
526; swank shopping district in London

'''Scammony, Sir Marcus (aka Angelique)''' 
615; drinking with Clive Mossmoon at "their club"

'''Schacht, Hjalmar (1877-1970)''' 
According to Sasuly, Schacht was head of the Reichsbank in the 1920s and 40s and was a key player in manipulating the German inflation of that time, while blaming it on "reparations and an unfavorable balance of payments." (p.47); his "many bookkeeping dodges to keep official records clear of any hint of weapons procurement banned under the terms of Versailles." 285

'''Schadenfreude''' 
526; German: "joy at another's misfortune"; described but not named, 36; 745

'''Scheveningen''' 
97; coastal town in Holland, just north of The Hague [MAP]; 102; 104; 105; 535

'''Schicksal''' 
416; German: "fate, destiny" (misspelled "Shicksal" in earlier editions)

'''Schiller, Professor''' 
224; Slothrop studying his book on regenerative cooling

'''Schilling''' 
527; "[Närrisch] worked in guidance, he was Schilling's best man"

'''Schlabone, Gustav''' 
366; composer buddy (and "unwelcome doping partner" 711) of Säure Bummer; 621; 2nd violin at Krupp affair (aka "Captain Horror"), 711; at Der Platz, 745

'''Schleim, Josef''' 
630; "a defector of secondary brilliance, who had once worked for the IG out of Dr. Reithinger's office, VOWI"; 631;

'''Schlepzig, Max''' 
Franz Pökler putting up handbills for a movie starring, 165; name on Slothrop's pass to get into Potsdam Conference, 377; actor in von Göll films who whipped Erdmann ("the Reich's Sweethearts"), 395; 439; 461

'''Schmeil''' 
518; engineer at Peenemünde

'''Schmitz, Carl''' 
565; "'Didn't Schmitz of the IG sit on Siemens's board of directors?'" 565;

'''Schnorp''' 
332-36; Geli's friend who gives Slothrop balloon ride to Berlin

'''Schokoladestrasse''' 
646; German: "Chocolate Street"; in Happyville

'''Schraub''' 
568; German: "screw"; "the shoemaker" whose played Plechazunga "for the past 30 years"

'''Schumann of Düsseldorf''' 
702; "army surgeons and dentists [...] will pick out [of Tchitcherine's body] what has entered it by violence with an electromagnetic device bought between the wars from"

'''Schußstelle 3''' 
95; German: "firing site"; in Holland on the North Sea coast, near The Hague; moved, 104; the allies were after it, 105; "why did [Katje] leave?" 107; See also Lüneburg Heath

'''Schwindel operative''' 
286;

'''''schwarz''''' 
German: literally 'black', but also 'secret' and/or 'illicit' as in 'Secret Service' or 'black market'; see ''Schwarzgerät'' and ''Schwarzkommando'' below

<div id="schwartzgerat">'''''Schwarzgerät'''''</div>
252;"S-Gerät, 11/00000." 252;"Document SG-1" 252;"the one rocket out of 6000 that carried the Imipolex G device" 292; for sale for .5M francs by guy in Swinemünde who waits on Strand-Promenade until noon daily, 294; "The Schwartzgerät is no Grail" 364; "They want the Schwarzgerät." 455;"'F-Gerät, you sure of that?'" 487 details, 517; mandala (KEZVH), 560, 563;"'. . . that was the name of the German who commanded the battery that used the S-Gerät?'" 562;; 611; firing on Lüneburg Heath, 667; 706; "00001, the second in its series" 724; 00001, 728; "SG-1" 736; "the assembly of the 00001 is occurring also in a geographical way, a Diaspora running backwards" 737; as womb, 750; See also Rocket

'''''Schwarzkommando''''' 
74-75; German: "blackcommand"; black rocket troops; credibillity of, 92; 112;found out about a week before V.E. Day 276; Slothrop runs into two dozen on train to Nordhausen, 286; Hitler's failed plan to create Nazi empire in black Africa, training troops in Südwest, 287; "They have a plan. . .I think it's rockets" 288; "we're DPs like everybody else" 288; Herero rocket troops assembling a rocket for one last stand, 326; "it is their time, their space" 326; their mandala is the five positions of the launching switch for A4, 361; digging up A4 in Berlin, 361; "mba-kayere" (I am passed over), 362; why they seek the Rocket, 362, 563; growing away from SS and their power becoming information and expertise, 427; in their own space, 519; Herero village arranged like a mandala, 563; must be stopped before they fire the Rocket, 565; "they have their rocket all assembled at last" 673; the trek to the firing site of the 00001, 726; 12 children at a "children's resort" (Zwölfkinder means "12 children" in German--GET IT?), 725

'''Schweitar, Mario''' 
260, 268; troubleshooter around the Cartel; worked for Sandoz

'''Schwindel''' 
286; German: "fraud" "trick", also "dizziness"; "code name for Hugo Stinnes"

[[Science, Physics, Math &c.|'''SCIENCE, PHYSICS, MATH &c.''']] 
See also [[D#delta-t|delta-t]]; [[P#poisson|Poisson Distribution]]

'''screen door salesman''' 
447; "dumb and easygoing" husband of woman in Slothrop's dream in three parts; 665, "Minnie Calkins (Chapter 1.793) got married Easter Sunday to a screen-door salesman from California. Sorry to say he's not eligible for Membership - at least not yet. But with all those screen doors around, we'll sure keep our fingers crossed!"

'''scrip''' 
105; temporary paper currency issued during emergencies/special circumstances

'''Scrubs''' 
Wormwood Scrubs Prison, in London; "I'll see you two in the Scrubs if it kills me!" 717

'''Scuffling, Ian''' 
256; Pseudonym given to T. Slothrop by Waxwing in Nice; See also Slothrop, Tyrone

'''Scylla and Charybdis''' 
239; In Greek legend, Scylla was a monster with twelve feet and six heads each with three rows of teeth who lived on the rock of Scylla on the Italian side of the Straits of Messina which are between Italy and Sicily. Charybdis, who was a monster, the whirlpool she formed and the rock cliff under which she lived, faced Scylla on the other side of the Straits. Such a situation made passage through the Straits a very dodgy proposition for sailors.

'''SD''' 
431; German: Sicherheitsdienst = police-duty; The Nazi Party's intelligence and security body. Created by Himmler, it operated in foreign countries, creating instability and attempting to foment revolution.

'''séance''' 
29-30; 4-way entente: medium; control; spirit; survivor; Feldspath, 30; Overbaby, 152; "a visitation by the dead" 153; Rathenau, 163-67; at The Castle with Blicero, 487; "other fourfold expressions" 624; "sensitive flames" 715; Brigadier Pudding, 715

'''Second Empire''' 
The Second Empire (1852-70) of Napoleon III; 675

'''Section 8''' 
114; a category of discharge from the United States military for reason of being mentally unfit for service; 182

'''Seele''' 
654; German: "soul, spirit"; "as the core of the earlier carbon filament was known in Germany"

[[Self-reference in Gravity's Rainbow|'''SELF-REFERENCE''']]

'''Semirechie''' 
611; province in Kazakhstan, in the Soviet Union

'''Semyavin''' 
258; local Waxwing rep in Zürich?; 261

'''1 September''' 
479; On September 1, 1939, the German Army invaded Poland, thus "initiating" WWII

[[Serpents/Snakes References|'''SERPENT/SNAKE''']] 
See also [[#snake|Snake]]

'''SEZ WHO''' 
270; Slothropian Episodic Zone, Weekly Historical Observations

'''Seven Rivers country''' 
338; where Tchitcherine was stationed, "in a remote 'bear's corner'"

'''sfacim-a''' 
299; sfacim: from "sfaciàre" = to dismantle''' 
Tony Assenza graciously supplied the following regarding "sfacim":''' 
Having been called a "sfacim" by my uncles and other relatives more than a few times in my life, I believe your reference might require more elaboration. In its original form, "sfacim" is Neapolitan slang for semen — equivalent to US slang such as spunk or gism. However, it's also widely used as a term of endearment, as in "Hey, sfacim. Come over here and give your grandmother a kiss before I break your face." The closest US slang term would be "spunky." It's a term that someone living on Long Island or Upstate New York would probably hear a lot in Italian-American neighborhoods. One would pronounce it "SFA CHEEM."

''''s Gravenhage''' 
209; aka The Hague;

'''shadows''' 
316; God-shadows, 330; 332; 333; 336; 342; 359; 363; 397; 405; darkness at the edges of things, 446; 458; 482; 500; 510; 524; 536; 539; 543; 561; Pointsman's corner, 633; Slothrop as "shadow-child" 677; stars as shadows of the creator's bones and ducts, 699; "sound-shadow" (when the roaring of the sun stops), 695, 711; 740; 749; 760

'''SHAEF''' 
17; Supreme Headquarters, Allied Expeditionary Force; 74; 76; 121; 210; 244; 287

'''Shatsk''' 
352; nose-fetishist in Weird Letter Assignments; Shatsk is a town in the Volynskaja oblast [political subdivision], in the Ukraine.

'''Shays''' 
Shays's Rebellion (August 1786-February 1787) was an uprising in western Massachusetts in opposition to high taxes and harsh economic conditions. Led by Daniel Shays (1747-1825), the rebellion was decisively defeated on February 4, but it did result in the passage of laws easing the economic condition of debtors; "fought the federal troops across Massachusetts" 268

'''Shearer, Norma (1900-83)''' 
690; Hollywood actress who played sophisticated roles, and the wife of producer Irving Thalberg; "Your closet could make Norma Shearer's look like the wastebasket in Gimbel's basement."

'''Sheila''' 
449; Steve's (GE employee on the Toiletship) fiancée

'''Shekhinah''' 
479: Hebrew: "(female) neighbor"

'''Shell Mex House''' 
Shell Mex House, built 1930-31 is situated at number 80, Strand, London. It was for many years the London headquarters of Shell-Mex and BP Ltd for whom it was originally built. During WWII the building became home to the Ministry of Supply which co-ordinated supply of equipment to the national armed forces. It was also the home of the "Petroleum Board" which handled the distribution and rationing of petroleum products during the war. 251; "Where all the rocket intelligence is being gathered"; 272

'''Shell Oil''' 
Dutch Shell, 240-41, 251; 1939 agreement with ICI, 250; Shell Mex House, 251; "The representative from Shell Mex House, Mr. Dennis Joint" 272; "frantic about Slothrop's disappearance" 272; "after the [Russian] revolution, when the emissaries from Dutch Shell were asked to leave" 354

'''Shetzline''' 
389; "classic study" of the time-modulation properties of Oneirine

'''Shirley''' 
599; pretty girl driving the Red Cross Clubmobile that is hijacked

'''Short, Coolidge ("Hot")''' 
591; "of the State Street law firm of Salitieri, Poore, Nash, De Brutus, and Short" and a friend of Lyle Bland's

'''Shufflin' Sam''' 
558; "the game of skill where you have to shoot the Negro before he gets back over the fence with the watermelon"

'''Sidney's Great Yellow Grille''' 
65; recalled by Slothrop during Sodium Amytal session

'''Siege Perilous''' 
According to Arthurian legend, the Round Table was reserved for only the most valiant knights, while the Siege Perilous was left waiting for the coming of Galahad, the pure knight who would achieve the quest of the Grail (the vessel from which Christ drank at the Last Supper) and bring the marvels of Arthur's kingdom to a close; "jokers around the table be sneaking Whoopee Cushions into the" 321

'''Siemens-Schuchert''' 
"the horizontal electrical trust of Siemens-Schuchert" 284; "Siemens milliammeters set on slate surfaces" 518; "GE has connections with Siemens over here" 565; "Didn't Närrisch, under the drug, mention a Siemens representative at the S-Gerät meetings in Nordhausen? [...] Didn't Carl Schmitz of the IG sit on Siemens's board of directors?" 565; "Russia bought from Krupp, didn't she, from Siemens, the IG...." 566; "a contract the Bland Institute landed a few years ago and subbed part of out to Siemens over there in Germany" 583; "Fibel worked for Siemens back when it was still part of the Stinnes trust [...] he also put in some time as a Stinnes intelligence agent." 587; "an ingenious Osmo-elektrische Schalterwerke, developed by Siemens" 646; "clever Siemens Electric Baby Bulb Pacifiers" 647;"bright here as the morning shift at Siemens with the centaurs struggling high on the wall" 725; See also Siemens, Wernher; Stinnes; [[Sasuly's ''IG Farben'']]; Siemens AG Homepage!

'''Siemens, Wernher (d. 1892)''' 
649; German electrical engineer; one of the discoverers of the self-acting dynamo; See also Siemens-Schuchert

'''Siggi''' 
157; old friend of Leni's, known as "the Troll"

'''Sigmund''' 
457; with Greta Erdmann, 474-78; 480

'''Silberschlag, Frau''' 
165; German: "silver shock or blow"; next door neighbor of Leni and Franz Pökler's who delivers Leni's "last message" to Franz

'''Silvernail, Webley''' 
79; works in ARF wing at White Visitation; audiovisual guy; shows Katje film to Grigori, 113; in rat production number, 229; named "Twelfth House" 274; 533; 620

'''Simpson, Mrs. Bessie Wallis Warfield Spencer (1896-1986)''' 
177; An American who married Prince Edward, Duke of Windsor, formerly King Edward VIII. Edward abdicated the throne in order to marry this twice-divorced commoner.

'''Skinner, Burrhus Frederic (1904-1990)''' 
American psychologist and a persistent proponent of Behaviorism, expanding on the ideas of John Watson who advocated the study of behavior as the only way to provide psychology with a scientific basis. Skinner died of leukemia on August 18, 1990; 77

[[image:skippy.gif|106px|left]]'''Skippy''' 
644-45; and Mr. Information; [[Skippy|Etymological Musings]]; [http://www.skippy.com/ Skippy's Home Page]

'''Slothrop, Broderick''' 
285; Tyrone's father; aka "Schwarzvater" (Jamf), 286; hated FDR, 373; Tyrone's dream about, 392; sold experimental rights to Tyrone to Jamf for $5000 for Harvard education, 444; Paternal Peril "a murderin' fool" 674; 677; 682

'''Slothrop, Constant (d. 1766)''' 
26; ancestor of Tyrone; tombstone depicts Hand of God coming out of a cloud

'''Slothrop, Mrs. Elizabeth''' 
27; wife of Isaiah

'''Slothrop, Frederick (d. 1933)''' 
27; Tyrone's grandfather

'''Slothrop, Hogan''' 
29; Tyrone's brother; his Hawaiian shirt, 184, 201; 266; 304; "in love with Chiquita Banana" 678; 682; 744

'''Slothrop, Hogan Jr.''' 
744; son of Hogan Slothrop; [From Pynchon's short story "The Secret Integration" in Slow Learner:"the doctor's kid, who at the age of eight had taken to serious after-bedtime beer-drinking and at the age of nine got religion, swore off beer and joined the Alcoholics Anonymous, a step his father, who was what is know as permissive, gave his blessing" (p.151)]

'''Slothrop, Lt. Isaiah (d. 1812)''' 
27; ancestor of Tyrone

'''Slothrop, John''' 
555; son of William Slothrop, who helped his dad get the "pig operation" going

'''Slothrop, Nalline''' 
18; Tyrone's mother; 116; 360; "always happy to see young people getting together" 499; 674; letter to Joe Kennedy, 682-83; 712

'''SLOTHROP, Lt. Tyrone''' 
[[Tyrone Slothrop|Etymological Musings]]; See also Slothrop's girls/stars;

[[Slothrop's Tarot|'''SLOTHROP'S TAROT''']]

'''Slothrop's girls/stars''' 
Delores, 19; Alice, 19; Gladys, 19; Lorraine and Judy, 19; Darlene, 19, 271; Katherine, 19; Shirley, 19; "a couple of Sallys" 19; "Carolines, Marias, Annes, Susans, Elizabeths" 19; "Gloria and her nubile mother" 19; Marjorie, 22, 25, 744; Norma, 22, 25; Allison, 23; Irene, 23; Jennifer, 23, 271; Cynthia, 26; "'What about the girls??'" 91; Madelyn, 252; Jenny's ghost, 255-56; Angela, 271; Lucy, 271; Jenny, Sally W., Cybele, Catherine, Gretchen, 271

'''Slothrop, Variable''' 
27; son of Constant

'''Slothrop, William''' 
21; Tyrone's first American ancestor; 27; 364; came to US in 1630 on Arabella, 554; On Preterition - published in England, burned in Boston, 555 [http://www.hyperarts.com/pynchon/bookstore.html Available in the HyperArts BookShop - Really! sort of...]; returned to England and died there missing USA, 556; his hymn, 760; [[William Slothrop|The "Real" William Slothrop/Pynchon]]

'''Slug''' 
229; rat who got "fried" the first time he fucked up running the maze

'''Smaragd, Generaldirektor''' 
164-66; (German: "Emerald"); Nazi with IG Farben; "from Leverkusen. An elderly man who used a cane, a notorious spiritualist before the War" 486

'''smegma''' 
"layers, over a base of bureaucratic smegma" 18; "Tchitcherine has found it necessary to abandon his smegma-gathering stake-out on the Argentine anarchists" 700;

'''Smile, Murray''' 
255; appears in Slothrop's dream as "next to you in basic, company 84"; Etymology: Murray Wilson was Brian Wilson's father; Tom hung out with Brian during the legendary "Smile" Period [[Pynchon and Brian Wilson]]

'''Smithfield Market''' 
Famous meat market in the old City of London. During the Reformation and the Counter-Reformation it was used as a place of execution; where Lucifer Amp "makes a spectacle of himself" every day, 542

'''Smith, Klein, 'n' French''' 
518; "Enzian, Andreas, and Christian, coming on like"

'''Smith, Sir Denis Nayland''' 
See Sir Denis Nayland-Smith

'''Snade, Mrs.''' 
169; "wrote in to the Times from Luton Hoo, Bedfrdshire" regarding Gwenhidwy's singing voice

'''Snake''' 
342-43; Tchitcherine's horse (methodically homicidal; unpredictable); Gretel's (Greta Erdmann's) co-star in Weisse Sandwuste von Neumexiko, 482

'''Snipe and Shaft''' 
9; Slothrop's and Tantivy's watering hole; 19; 21

'''Snodd, Mrs.''' 
744; in Mingeborough, MA

'''snowdrops''' 
247; Slang for GI military police in WWII; 601

'''Snoxall's''' 
32; place where seances are held; 33; 37; 238

'''Sodium Amytal''' 
61; truth serum; used on Slothrop; induces "toilet"/Kenosha Kid episode; used on von Göll, 511-14; 746

<div id="soe"></div>'''S.O.E.''' 
5; Special Operations Executive; aka the "Firm" 12; 32; Pirate "browned-off with" 270; "no one has ever left the Firm alive" 543; 620; [About]

<div id="solange"></div>'''Solange''' 
603; German: "as long as" "while" [[Q#quoad|compare etymologies with Mrs. Quoad]]; "masseuse" at Putzi's See also [[P#pokler-l|Pökler, Leni]]

'''Somerset Club''' 
28; exclusive club "no Slothrop ever made it into"

'''''Son of Frankenstein''''' 
106; The third film in Universal Studios' ''Frankenstein'' series and the last to feature Boris Karloff as the Monster as well as the first to feature Bela Lugosi as Ygor.

[[Songs/Compositions|'''SONGS/COMPOSITIONS''']]

'''Sooty''' 
174; Jessica's cat; 177

'''Sound-Shadow''' 
"the silences here are retreats of sound [...] sound draining away, down slopes of acoustic passage, to gather, someplace else, to a great surge of noise" 336-37; "a very shallow pocket of no-sound, [...] sound-energy from Outside is shut off. The roaring of the sun stops. [...] the arousing feather-point of the Sound-Shadow has touched you, enveloping you in sun-silence" 695; "this subversive use of sudden fff quieting to ppp. It's the touch of the wandering sound-shadow, the Brennschluss of the Sun." 711

'''sour stuff''' 
240; oxygen; the German word for oxygen is "Sauerstoff"

[[Spanish Translations|'''SPANISH TRANSLATIONS''']]

'''Spaniols''' 
549; Spaniards

'''Sparks''' 
732; aka Ozohande, with Enzian

'''Sparte IV''' 
630; "Slothrop surveillance being assigned to a newly created 'Sparte IV' under Vermittlungsstelle W"

'''Spectro, Dr. Kevin''' 
46; "neurologist and casual Pavlovian" at St. Veronica's; "one of the original seven owners of The Book" 47; killed in a V-2 hit on St. Veronica's, 138; 139; 140; 167

'''Speed, Harvey''' 
270; SEZ WHO Englishman hired by Pointsman to check out Slothrop's sexual conquests; See also Perdoo, Floyd; SEZ WHO

'''Speer, Albert (d. 1981)''' 
298; Architect for the Third Reich; "in charge of the New German Architecture then, and later he went on to become Minister of Munitions, and nominal chief customer for the A4"; "Albert Speer Touch" 298; Ölsch designing Nordhausen factory, 411; and Toiletship, 448; "alabaster open-air stadium with giant cement birds" 687

'''SPOG''' 
272; Special Projectiles Operations Group of which Operation Backfire is a part; 277; 391; 595; 601

'''Spontoon, Doctor''' 
591; with Dr. Muffage, out to castrate Slothrop; has a black spade on his cheek

<div id="sporri"></div>'''Spörri''' 
455; aerodynamics person on S-Gerät project; ignores Khlaetsch's cries for help, 684; [[Spörri|Etymological Musings]]

'''Spottbilligfilm AG''' 
163; German: "spottbillig" = "dirt cheap"; subsidiary of IG Farben "whose entire management are about to be purged for sending to OKW weapons procurement a design proposal for a new airborne ray which could turn whole populations [...] blind"; "from whom von Göll used to get cut rates on most of his film stock" 387;

'''SPQR''' 
135; Latin: senatus populusque Romanus = the senate and the people of Rome; also acronym for small profits, quick returns

'''S.P.R.''' 
153; Society for Psychical Research; 633;

'''Spree-Oder Canal''' 
433; in the Russian sector of Berlin, where Slothrop & Margherita stay; 457 [MAP]

<div id="springer"></div>'''Springer, Der''' 
376; German: "chess knight"; aka von Göll; the "Knight who leaps perpetually across the chessboard of the Zone"; white plastic chess knight (his symbol), 436; "white knight of the black market" 492; described, 494; aka Herr Gemütlich ("good-natured"), 496; on Sodium Amytal, 512, 514, 746; See also Göll, Gerhardt von; [[Der Springer|Etymological Musings...]]

'''Sprudelhof''' 
458; German: "Spring or Well" + "Yard" or "Palace"; main drag of Bad Karma on the Spree-Oder Canal; 476

'''Sprue, Amy''' 
329-30; Tyrone's ancestor who was a "genuine Salem Witch"

'''Squalidozzi, Francisco''' 
263; Argentine exile, paranoid about Peronists; hijacked German U-Boat in Mar de Plata; his group (incl. Graciela Portales) seeking political exile in Germany after the War; want open spaces--no fences; meets von Göll in abandoned harmonica factory, 384; "Old Squalidozzi, ploughman of the deep" 447; 613; being sought by Slothrop, 681

'''ss''' 
second sheep, 3, 555; sour smell, 3, 171; "cast-iron pulleys whose spokes are shaped like Ss" 4; saddleback sows, 5; split second 7, 199; sour stomach, 17; Selena. Selena., 30; speedy stalk, 35; 3-sigma, 40, 523, 635, 709; systematic stealth, 42; soft smell, 43, 754; separate straws, 43; stray shadow, 49; silverblue stalks, 54; silver string, 59; silver seeds, 63; smooth sinewaving, 67; silk stockings, 74, 211, 395, 410, 629; shadowy smells, 78; stronger stimulus, 79; structured stimulus, 82; spilled sand, 91; simple sorrow, 98; sugar-smears, 99; soft-wood smells, 106; snow-skin, 107; slate shadows, 108; southern stars, 109; steel snake, 109; smoky spires, 111; starving spring, 111; soap-heavy smell, 112; sunlit shops, 119; spiral stairways, 122; sour salt, 124; spider-statistician, 124; sound stimuli, 125; soap spots, 125; small stitches, 126; snow-sky, 128; steam smells, 132; seasonal swell, 132; semi-detached Sunday, 132; shiny suits, 133; snowy soot, 138; sheet steel, 139; "sibilant weave" 152; single subculture, 153; swampy suburbs, 160; Sunday strolls, 162; squeak-stockinged slavegirl, 168; slime stone, 169; scratched silver, 186; shaking Slothrop, 187; Slothrop staggering, 187; sudden shrewdness, 188; silent sea, 195; "S'd against the S of himself" 198; social sense, 206; "Old Norse rune for S" 206; study sessions, 211; slack-jawed subalterns, 212; sensitive son, 215; simultaneous stimuli, 226; ssörrender, 230; starch shirt, 232; star shell, 233; sovereign smell, 235, 736; Slothropian space, 238; sad story, 238, 285, 445, 667; self-sufficiency, 240; sour stuff (oxygen), 240; Esso, 240; stiff shirts, 243; secret service, 244; sea-steps, 245; 454: setting sun, 253, 454; striped socks, 254, saddle stitching, 254; sun-black skiers, 258; somber street, 259; senseless screaming, 263; spy-sign, 263; south sea, 266; stumbling surrender, 271; sexual sigh, 272; Slothropian stars, 272; salt sea, 273; stainless steel, 274; suspicious stare, 274; spy system, 286; sad surprise, 289; tunnels, 299; double-integral sign, 300-01; "Summe, Summe" 300; static space, 301; "Double integral is also the shape of lovers curled asleep" 302; scorched skullcap, 304; silk spill, 314; shadow states, 315; scientific speculating, 317; simple steel, 324; shining steel, 325; scarlet silk, 332; Soviet state, 349; sea story, 351; secret spaces, 354; scientist-surrogate, 361; staring sun, 372; smiling sentry, 378; suspended storm, 378; stenciled signs, 380; S-curve, 380; steel spaces, 384; sea-squirm, 389; subjective sense, 389; silver sponge, 389; soup-stock, 389; sentimental side-trip, 393; social spectrum, 402; stormy shore, 409; double-summing, 411; second shadow, 424; string shadows, 436; southern slop, 442; spring-suspension, 446; sound stages, 446; stud service, 446; S-curved spokes, 450; sailors' superstitions, 450; Scatotechnic Snipes, 451; sun suits, 453; star streaks, 457; suspender straps, 466; satin straps, 469; summer spook, 472; silver stork, 486; salty snot, 492; smooth stones, 494; sweet smile, 496; sleepy summer, 505; steel smile, 512; serpentine slagheap, 520; silver stars, 530; slippery satin, 531; Sickly Smile, 534; single set, 556; smalltown space, 556; Special Services, 558, 700; Shufflin' Sam, 558; surveying stakes, 560; starch-colored sky, 564; "curving through the ogival opening" 573; silver streak, 583, 586; spherical soul, 583; State Street, 589, 591; "Yess, yess" 590; straw stomach, 596; soapy sponge, 603; "silver straw" 613; streamlined spires, 624; Slothrop surveillance, 630; ssem, 633; saffron spindles, 634; summer stillness, 639; sudden surprises, 643; sailor suits, 657; "screen-door salesman" 665; "the invisible SS" 666; straw space, 669; saucy sideways smile, 670; subdeb secretaries, 674; submarine skipper, 674; Sniveling Slothrop, 679; spirited salt, 684; Scatterbrained Suicidekicks, 691; Semlower Strasse, 692; Sound Shadow, 695, 711; Sentimental Surrealist, 696; suitable stimuli, 699; sandy streets, 700; sister ships, 715; snot soup (unter anderem), 715; still strata, 720; striving subcreation, 720; Subsequent Sin, 722; 729: silk scarf, 729; Spaceman Smile, 732; See also chess; Rossini. See [[Patterns in Words and Letters]]

'''Stage Door Canteen''' 
134; During World War II, the American Theatre Wing ran New York's Stage Door Canteen for the benefit of soldiers on leave. It was frequented by many stars, some of whom graciously performed menial tasks, while others entertained the crowd. Dozens of those celebrities appear as themselves in this lavish musical about romances that blossom between canteen employees and soldiers. The film ''The Stage Door Canteen'' (1943), starring Katharine Hepburn, is set there.

<div id="stalin">'''Stalin, Joseph (1879-1953)'''</div>
Born Iosif Vissarionovich Dzhugashvili in Gori, Georgia; Stalin was expelled from the Tiflis Theological Seminary for being a Marxist. He joined the Bolsheviks and was arrested and sent to Siberia from whence he escaped in 1904. From being general secretary to the Central Committee under Lenin in 1922, he became Soviet leader in 1924 upon Lenin's death. He was a brutal dictator whose purges resulted in the deaths of millions as well as the suppression of artistic expression in Russia; "during the Stalin days, Tchitcherine was stationed in a remote 'bear's corner'" 338; "conspiracy to hit Stalin in the face with a grape chiffon pie" 353; "big chromo of" in Berlin, [[M#mustache|mustache]] 368; 373; "Even Stalin's had [doubts]" 703

'''Statue of Liberty''' 
The colossal statue on Liberty Island in the Upper Bay of New York Harbour, U.S., was a gift from France commemorating the friendship of the peoples of the U.S. and France. The statue, designed by French sculptor Frederic Auguste Barthold, is constructed of copper sheets which are assembled on a framework of steel supports designed by Eugene-Emmanuel Viollet-le-Duc and Alexandre-Gustave Eiffel. For transit to America, the figure was disassembled into 350 pieces and packed in 214 crates. Four months later, it was reassembled on Bedloe's Island (renamed Liberty Island in 1956). It was dedicated by President Cleveland on October 28,1886; 637

'''Sterling, Alan''' 
277; fiancé of Fleurette who was raised from birth to carry on the monstrous line of the emperor of the underworld, [[F#fumanchu|Fu Manchu]]; Alan Sterling, young orchid-hunter, first saw her on the little French beach and knew that he had never seen anyone more beautiful; he's also portrayed as the love-suffering young man receiving eloquent advice from Sir Denis Nayland-Smith.

'''Stettin''' 
or Szczecin in Polish; a Baltic seaport, ceded by German to Poland following WWII; 293; 408; 418;

'''Steve''' 
449-50: GE employee and Charles' "colleague" on the Toiletship; husband of Sheila

'''Stickstoff Syndikat''' 
580; Jamf "getting Weimar to subsidize the IG's";

'''Stick, Joaquin''' 
9; at Pirate's maisonette

'''Stiletto May''' 
129; character conjured by the presence of the black man in choir at the Advent service attended by Roger and Jessica

'''Stinnes, Hugo (1870-1924)''' 
A German industrialist and politician; 284; "Bland either saw the Stinnes crash coming before most of its other victims, or was just naturally nervous. Early in '23 he began to sell off his interests in the Stinnes operations." 285-86; "'Schwindel' was [Jamf's] code name for Hugo Stinnes." 286; "Stinnes, like every industrial emperor, had his own company spy system." 286; "You were meant to think of Hugo Stinnes, the tireless operator behind the scenes of apparent Inflation, apparent history: gambler, financial wizard, archgangster...a fussy bürgerlich mouth, jowls, graceless moves, a first impression of comic technocracy" 579; "Fibel worked for Siemens back when it was still part of the Stinnes trust." 587; [[Sasuly's IG Farben]]

'''Stodda''' 
406; "treatise on steam turbines" studied by Pökler at Peenemünde in '38

[[Stones|'''STONES''']]

'''Stonybloke, Will''' 
65; friend of Slothrop's who appears in toilet adventure

'''Sträggeli''' 
258; listed under "Espionage, Industrial" on the list of Zürich cafés, where Slothrop meets Mario Schweitar; 268;

'''Stralsund''' 
532; "Semlower Strasse in" 692;

'''streets''' 
692; "Semlower Strasse in Stralsund"; "Hafenstrasse in Greifswald"; "Slüterstrasse in the old part of Rostock"; "Wandfärberstrasse in Lüneburg";

'''Stresemann, Gustav (1878-1929)''' 
452; German statesman who entered the Reichtag in 1907, rose to prominance leading the National Liberal Party and eventually, for a few months in 1923, was chancellor of the new German (Weimar) Republic. He won the Nobel Peace Prize in 1926; "'They pray not only for their daily bread [he said] but also for their daily illusion'"

'''Strobe''' 
89; "Strobe's stimulus" appeared in early Viking editions of Gravity's Rainbow, but was quickly changed to "Jamf's stimulus"; apparently "Strobe" was an early working name for "Jamf"

'''Stuggles, Constable''' 
73; tried to stop LeFroyd from jumping off cliff; 74

'''Südwest''' 
99; German colony from 1892 until1915 when it was taken by South African forces during WWI. It was made a Protectorate of South-West Africa under the League of Nations; now called Namibia, it was under South African control until 1990 when it gained its independence. [MORE]; [MAP]

'''Sue, Eugene (1804-57)''' 
13; "a Eugene Sue melodrama"

:Parisian journalist, called the "king of the popular novel," one of the most widely read writers of melodramatic fiction in the 19th-century France. Sue was sponsored by Prince Eugène de Beauharnais and the empress Joséphine; he used the prince's name to form his famous pen name. Sue gained fame through the roman-feuilleton, the serial novel which gained its height in the French periodical press in the 1840's. Sue's republican and socialist views are reflected in his best-known novels, Les Mystères de Paris (1842-43), set in the Paris slums, and Le Juif errant (1844-45), published in installments for Le Constitutionnel in 1842-1843. ''' 
The above is from this [http://www.kirjasto.sci.fi/esue.htm excellent online biography].

'''Suggenthal''' 
269;

'''Sundial''' 
472; cartoon character

'''surface''' 
"she fears the Change, choosing instead only trivially to revise what matters least, ornament and clothing, going no further than politic transvestism" 97; "lust in the face--the mask--of instant talion" 100; "house is outward-and-visible sign" 448;

'''sus. per coll. crowd''' 
329; In the English practice, a calendar is made out of attainted criminals, and the judge signs the calendar with their separate judgments in the margin. In the case of a capital felony. it is written opposite the prisoner's name, "let him be hanged by the neck," which, when the proceedings were in Latin, was, "suspendatur per collum," or, in the abbreviated form, "sus' per coll'."

'''Suso, Heinrich (1295-1336)''' 
129; German mystic and preacher. His composition In Dulci Jubilo is a German/Latin macaronic carol (Pynchon (mis)spells it "macronic" and (mis)dates it as "fifteenth century"); the first verse (of four), quoted in GR, can be translated as follows:

:In dulci jubilo (In sweet Joy) 
:Sing and shout all below! 
:He for whom we're pining 
:Lies in praesepio (In a manger) 
:Like the sun is shining 
:Matris in gremio. (In His mothers lap.) 
:Qui est A et O. (Who is Alpha and Omega.) 
:In Dulci Jubilo Web Page

'''Suvorov''' 
350; Rozhdestvenski's flagship on which Tchitcherine's father was a gunner

'''Swanlake, Jessica''' 
30; "young rosy girl in the uniform of an ATS private" who has wartime affair with Roger Mexico; at Snoxall's seance, 30-34; meets Mexico, 38-39; Fay Wray look, 57; girlfriend of Jeremy "Old Beaver" 121; 627; "Her future is with the World's own" 629; working for Pointsman, 631; 640; hardened toward Mexico, 708-09

<div id="nancy"></div>'''Swanlake, Nancy''' 
174-77; Jessica's sister; late husband was Keith; kids: Penelope (also p.277), Claire, Elizabeth

'''Swinemünde''' 
459: a town in NW Poland, on the island of Usedom, at the mouth of the Swina River. It is the outer port for Szczecin (Polish name for "Stettin") and a fishing center and seaside resort. First mention of the town dates from 1181. During World War II, the town was a German naval base.

'''Swope, Gerard (1872-1957)''' 
Swope, president of the General Electric Company (1922-39; 1942-44) in the United States, greatly expanded GE's line of consumer products and pioneered profit-sharing and other benefits programs for its employees. After his retirement from GE in 1939, he chaired the New York City Housing Authority until 1942; "was ace buddies with old FDR [...] one-thim Brain Trusters" 565; "Business Advisory Council set up under Swope of General Electric, whose ideas on matters of 'control' ran close to those of Walter Rathenau, of German GE" 581;

'''Sztup, Mme.''' 
463; Yiddish: "poke" or "fuck"; passenger on the Anubis

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==Page 38==
'''"dear old Nutria-"... "''Beaver''." 
The nutria (Myocastor coypus), also known as the river rat, is a large, herbivorous, semiaquatic rodent and the only member of the family Myocastoridae. Originally native to subtropical and temperate South America, it has since been introduced to North America, Europe, Asia, and Africa, primarily by fur ranchers. Although it is still valued for its fur in some regions, its destructive feeding and burrowing behaviors make this invasive species a pest throughout most of its range. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nutria]

'''watching that awful ''Going My Way''''' 
''Going My Way'' is a 1944 film directed by Leo McCarey. It is a light-hearted musical comedy-drama about a new young priest (Bing Crosby) taking over a parish from an established old veteran (Barry Fitzgerald). Crosby sings five songs in the film. It was followed the next year by a sequel, ''The Bells of St. Mary's''. This picture was the highest-grossing picture of 1944. Its success helped to make movie exhibitors choose Crosby as the biggest box-office draw of the year, a record he would hold for the remainder of the 1940s. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Going_my_way]

'''each saccade of her... eyes''' 
Saccades are quick, simultaneous movements of both eyes in the same direction. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Saccade]

'''It was what Hollywood likes to call a "cute meet" 
On [[Pages_557-563#Page_561|p.561]], Pynchon has Slothrop singing "LOOK-IN’ FAWR A NEEDLE IN A HAAAAY-STACK!" which is a song from the Fred Astaire/Ginger Rogers film ''The Gay Divorce'' (1934). In that number, Astaire sings about finding the woman of his dreams whose name he never learned after they had had a "cute meet."

Pynchon uses 'cute meet' again in [http://inherent-vice.pynchonwiki.com/wiki/index.php?title=Chapter_2#Page_37 Inherent Vice p. 37]

'''Tunbridge Wells''' 
Royal Tunbridge Wells (usually shortened to Tunbridge Wells) is a town in west Kent, England, about 40 miles (64 km) south-east of central London by road, 34.5 miles (55.5 km) by rail. The town is close to the border of the county of East Sussex... Due to its position in South East England, during the First World War Tunbridge Wells was made a headquarters for the army, and its hospitals were used to treat soldiers who had been sent home with a "blighty wound"; the town also received 150 Belgian refugees. The Second World War affected Tunbridge Wells in a different way – it became so swollen with refugees from London that accommodation was severely strained. Over 3,800 buildings were damaged by bombing, but only 15 people lost their lives. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tunbridge_Wells]

'''ATS skirt''' 
British ATS: British Auxiliary Territorial Service

'''mica-dazzle''' 
Possible reference to Wallace Stevens' poem, "Variations on a Summer Day": ''Words add to the senses. The words for the dazzle / Of mica, the dithering of grass, / The Arachne integument of dead trees, / Are the eye grown larger, more intense.

The mica group of sheet silicate (phyllosilicate) minerals includes several closely related materials having highly perfect basal cleavage. All are monoclinic, with a tendency towards pseudohexagonal crystals, and are similar in chemical composition. The highly perfect cleavage, which is the most prominent characteristic of mica, is explained by the hexagonal sheet-like arrangement of its atoms. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mica]

==Page 40==
'''the chi-square calculations, in between the flips of the Zener cards...''' 
It seems that the chi-square has to do w/ calculations using many observers & their response to something, see [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Probit_model#Berkson.27s_minimum_chi-square_method] for more detail... Zener cards are cards used to conduct experiments for extra-sensory perception (ESP), most often clairvoyance. Perceptual psychologist Karl Zener designed the cards in the early 1930s for experiments conducted with his colleague, parapsychologist J. B. Rhine. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zener_cards]

'''Battle of Britain''' 
The Battle of Britain is the name given to the World War II air campaign waged by the German Air Force (''Luftwaffe'') against the United Kingdom during the summer and autumn of 1940. The objective of the campaign was to gain air superiority over the Royal Air Force (RAF), especially Fighter Command. The name derives from a famous speech delivered by Prime Minister Winston Churchill in the House of Commons: "...the Battle of France is over. I expect that the Battle of Britain is about to begin." The Battle of Britain was the first major campaign to be fought entirely by air forces, and was also the largest and most sustained aerial bombing campaign to that date. From July 1940 coastal shipping convoys and shipping centres, such as Portsmouth, were the main targets; one month later the ''Luftwaffe'' shifted its attacks to RAF airfields and infrastructure. As the battle progressed the ''Luftwaffe'' also targeted aircraft factories and ground infrastructure. Eventually the ''Luftwaffe'' resorted to attacking areas of political significance and using terror bombing tactics. The failure of Germany to achieve its objectives of destroying Britain's air defenses, or forcing Britain to negotiate an armistice or an outright surrender, is considered its first major defeat and one of the crucial turning points in the war. If Germany had gained air superiority over England, Adolf Hitler might have launched Operation Sea Lion, an amphibious and airborne invasion of Britain. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_britain]

'''Packard''' 
Same make of car as in the beginning of ''V.'' A high-quality luxury vehicle.

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User:Dgorsline

2013-09-15T21:51:40Z

Dgorsline: Created page with "I'm rereading ''Gravity's Rainbow'' for the first time since college. I live in Reston, Virginia, and I blog at [http://www.ahoneyofananklet.com/ A Honey of an Anklet]."

I'm rereading ''Gravity's Rainbow'' for the first time since college. I live in Reston, Virginia, and I blog at [http://www.ahoneyofananklet.com/ A Honey of an Anklet].

Pages 17-19

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==Page 17==

17 '''which Mother had Garrard's make up for him''' 
Garrard & Co. Ltd., the Crown Jewellers since 1843, are at 112 Regent Street W1, where they moved in 1952. Mrs. Bloat however would have visited them at their former location in Albemarle Street, near the Royal Institution. This elite scientists' club is where Michael Faraday did most of his experimenting and today it houses the Faraday Museum.

==Page 18==

18.22-23 '''"Johnny Doughboy Found a Rose in Ireland"''' 
Song by Al Goodhart and Kay Twomey, composed for the 1942 film ''Johnny Doughboy'', starring Jane Withers and Henry Wilcoxon. Apparently a popular tune, it lasted 16 weeks on the 1942 Hit Parade and was recorded by Kay Kyser and Guy Lombardo, among others.

[[image:george-formby.jpg|thumb|50px|right]]18.25 '''George Formby''' 
See note above at [[Pages 7-16#9|9.05]]. Formby was extraordinarily popular in recordings and films in Britain in the 1940s. [[Weisenburger's Companion to Gravity's Rainbow|Weisenburger]] claims that Formby’s voice was a "high screech," but it was actually a not-unpleasant baritone. Weisenburger may be confusing Formby with the ukulele-strumming 1960s singing phenomenon Tiny Tim. On the other hand, his singing voice did have a rather whiny Lancastrian accent, similar to his speaking voice. You might like to judge for yourself from his own song [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nSc-e-QffTs "She's Got Two of Everything" on YouTube], taken from his 1945 film [http://www.georgeformby.co.uk/films/do_it/report.htm ''I Didn't Do It!''].

18.26-28 '''lost pieces...jigsaw puzzles...left eye...Weimaraner''' 

TRP mentions the left eye quite a bit. Vera Meroving, in [http://v.pynchonwiki.com/wiki/index.php?title=M#meroving ''V.'', p.237], has an artificial left eye inscribed with a clock and the glyphs of the zodiac; and [http://against-the-day.pynchonwiki.com/wiki/index.php?title=ATD_57-80#Page_61 in ''AtD''] Blinky Morgan has a damaged left eye that allows him to be a walking interferometer, able to see light polarization unaided.

The left eye here belongs to a [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Weimaraner Weimaraner], a dog which European royalty used to hunt big game like boar and bear. Weimaraner dogs are known for their loyalty to family, sensitivity, high intelligence and problem solving ability and have thus been called the dog with a human brain. Famous owners of the breed include founder of modern Turkey, Attaturk, President Eisenhower, French President Valéry Giscard d'Estaing, Brad Pitt and Trent Reznor.

Amber left eye of a dog echoes The Beatles' ''I am the Walrus''': "yellow matter custard dripping from a dead dog's eye."

18.30 '''the skin of a Flying Fortress''' 
Correspondent Stephen Remato adds the following comment: "While detailing the debris on Slothrop's desk, Mr. W. suggests that the bomb which explodes over Hiroshima was dropped from a Flying Fortress. While also made by the Boeing company, it was the B29 Super Fortress, not the B17 Flying Fortress, which was the atomic bomber of WW2. The well-known B29 'Enola Gay' dropped the Hiroshima bomb, while the lesser-known B29 'Bock's Car' dropped the Nagasaki bomb. To those unaware, the superficial similarity in name between these types of aircraft is the main similarity only; they are not variations of the same aircraft but quite distinct."

18.31 '''G-2''' 
[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Military_intelligence Military] or ground intelligence. As opposed to N-2, Naval intelligence; A-2 air intelligence, etc.

18.38 '''a News of the World''' 
The ''NOTW'' was not a daily paper but a highly sensationalistic British weekly tabloid published every Sunday, with virtually no serious news (still being published, and now owned by Rupert Murdoch's News Corporation). That "Slothrop is a faithful reader" says much about his intellectual pursuits.
[http://www.newsoftheworld.co.uk The paper's current website.]
NOTW is mentioned in The Beatles song ''Polythene Pam'' : "She's the kind of a girl to make the News of the World, yes you could say she was attractively built..." and The Smiths ''This Night Has Opened My Eyes'', "Wrap her [a dead baby] up in the News of the World / Dump her on a doorstep" Likely many other songs as well.

==Page 19==

[[image:vixen-pantechnicon.jpg|thumb|100px|right]]19.30 '''the pantechnicon''' 
[[Weisenburger's Companion to Gravity's Rainbow|Weisenburger]] gives this as "a bazaar in Victorian London," but a more fitting setting for Tantivy’s story of "Lorraine and Judy, Charles the homosexual constable and the piano" would be a warehouse or furniture van. See [[Pages 537-548#537|537.16-17.]]

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