https://gravitys-rainbow.pynchonwiki.com/wiki/api.php?action=feedcontributions&feedformat=atom&user=MKOHUTThomas Pynchon Wiki - User contributions [en]2026-07-11T09:46:21ZUser contributionsMediaWiki 1.43.6https://gravitys-rainbow.pynchonwiki.com/wiki/index.php?title=Pages_3-7&diff=2495Pages 3-72007-10-21T19:11:45Z<p>MKOHUT: </p>
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==Page 3==<br />
<br />
3.03 '''The Evacuation'''<br><br />
First instance in ''Gravity's Rainbow'' of a lifetime stylistic trait of Pynchon's: unpredictable use of Capitalization. Capitalization is usually applied to nouns, but not uniformly. Often a matter of emphasis. See ''Mason & Dixon'' for the widest use, there imitating the writing of the time in which the book is set.<br><br />
The use throughout all his work might indicate how well-read and influenced by works written before capitalization was standardized Pynchon is.<br><br />
The full rules of capitalization for English are complicated. The rules have also changed over time, generally to capitalize fewer terms; to the modern reader, an 18th century document seems to use initial capitals excessively. Wikipedia<br />
<br />
3.03 '''theatre'''<br><br />
Besides the normal meanings, including "theater of war", 'theatre' is the name that fireworks' organizers call a sky display.<br />
<br />
3.05 '''iron queen'''<br><br />
a queensize bed made of iron. Hardly made after 1900. Queen Victoria had a famous brass (and iron) one in the Crystal Palace! "Beds made of hollow tubes of steel, iron, and brass came to be manufactured in the mid 19th century.<br />
These were to be used both by soldiers and civilians. Their main advantage at that time was that unlike wooden beds, these could not be infested with bedbugs. Queen Victoria's brass bed at the Crystal Palace has been the most famous antique brass bed.<br><br />
By the late 19th century, metal beds were nearly out of fashion." Antique beds [[http://www.bestinbeds.com/beds/antique-bed.html]]<br />
<br />
Also, In The Odyssey, when Odysseus goes to the Underworld, he refers to Persephone as '''the Iron Queen'''. Of the four gods of Empedocles' elements it is the name of Persephone alone that is taboo, for the Greeks knew another face of Persephone as well. She was also the terrible Queen of the dead, whose name was not safe to speak aloud, who was named simply "The Maiden". Wikipedia<br />
[[http://www.en.wikipedia.org/Persephone]]<br />
<br />
3.07 '''crystal palace'''<br><br />
See Alpha entry, especially this re cultural meaning:<br><br />
The Crystal Palace made a strong impression on visitors coming from all over Europe, including a number of writers. It soon became a symbol of modernity and civilization, hailed by some and decried by others.<br />
<br />
In ''What Is to Be Done?'', Russian author and philosopher Nikolai Chernyshevsky pledges to transform the society into a Crystal Palace thanks to a socialist revolution.<br> <br />
Fyodor Dostoevsky implicitly replied to Chernyshevsky in ''Notes from Underground''. The narrator thinks that human nature will prefer destruction and chaos to the harmony symbolized by the Crystal Palace. <br />
<br />
When the first major international exhibition of arts and industries was held in London in 1851, the London Crystal Palace epitomized the achievements of the entire world at a time when progress was racing forward at a speed never before known to mankind. The Great Exhibition marked the beginning of a tradition of world's fairs, which would be held in major cities all across the globe. Following the success of the London fair, it was inevitable that other nations would soon try their hand at organizing their own exhibitions. In fact, the next international fair was held only two years later, in 1853, in New York City. This fair would have its own Crystal Palace to symbolize not only the achievements of the world, but also the nationalistic pride of a relatively young nation and all that she stood for. Walt Whitman, the great American poet, wrote in "The Song of the Exposition":<br><br />
http://www.ric.edu/rpotter/cryspal.html<br />
<br />
That the Crystal Palace Exhibition "marked the beginning of a tradition of world's fairs" can remind that ''Against the Day'' starts at the Columbian Exhibition of 1893 in Chicago. More international optimism.<br />
<br />
3.14 '''second sheep'''<br /><br />
Compare the narrator’s discussion of William Slothrop’s heretical tract "On Preterition," which argued for the holiness of the preterite, and Weisenburger’s note at [[Pages 549-557#555|555.29-31]].<br />
<br />
A wide symbology relates to sheep in ancient art, traditions and culture. Judaism uses many sheep references including the Passover lamb. Christianity uses sheep-related images, such as: Christ as the good shepherd, or as the sacrificed Lamb of God (Agnus Dei); the bishop's Pastoral; the lion lying down with the lamb (a reference to all of creation being at peace, without suffering, predation or otherwise). Greek Easter celebrations traditionally feature a meal of Paschal lamb. Sheep also have considerable importance in Arab culture; Eid ul-Adha is a major annual festival in Islam in which a sheep is sacrificed.<br><br />
Herding sheep plays an important historico-symbolic part in the Jewish and Christian faiths, since Abraham, Jacob, Moses, and King David all worked as shepherds. wikipedia <br />
[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sheep]<br><br />
<br />
Sheep are often associated with obedience due to the widespread perception that they lack intelligence and their undoubted herd mentality, hence the pejorative connotation of the adjective 'ovine'. In George Orwell's satirical novel ''Animal Farm'', sheep are used to represent the ignorant and uneducated masses of revolutionary Russia. The sheep are unable to be taught the subtleties of revolutionary ideology and can only be taught repetitive slogans such as "Four legs good, two legs bad" which they bleat in unison at rallies. The rock group Pink Floyd wrote a song using sheep as a symbol for ordinary people, that is, everyone who isn't a pig or dog. People who accept overbearing governments have been pejoratively referred to as "sheeple". wikipedia [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sheep]<br><br />
<br />
3.19 '''half-silvered'''<br><br />
adj. (of a mirror) having an incomplete reflective coating, so that half the incident light is reflected and half transmitted: used in optical instruments and two-way mirrors. Collins Dictionary<br><br />
See the splitting of light all through ''Against the Day'', Pynchon's 2006<br />
novel.<br />
<br />
3.19 '''view finder'''<br><br />
as two words, this seems to refer to handheld devices in which slides were slid and viewed in 3-dimensions. Here is a version still being made <br />
[http://porters.com/Merchant2/merchant.mvc?Screen=PROD&Store_Code=PCS&Product_Code=520098&Product_Count=&Category_Code= view finder].<br> "half-silvered" above seems most correct with this kind of device. <br />
<br />
3.22 '''They pass in line'''<br><br />
A Pynchonian leitmotif. The linearity of lining up has resonances throughout his work, articulated most straightforwardly in ''Against the Day'', which starts with "Single up all Lines!", and perhaps dealt with<br />
most profoundly in ''Mason & Dixon'', a novel about creating the "Mason & Dixon line".<br />
<br />
3.25 '''Rain comes down'''<br><br />
Pynchon's first published story is called ''The Small Rain''. See his remarks on rain in fiction in ''Slow Learner''.<br />
<br />
3.30 '''naptha winters'''<br><br />
Naptha is the flammable liquid obtained from the distillation of coal and used to fire gaslights and heaters. ...<br />
<br />
3.32 '''rolling-stock absence'''<br><br />
Rolling stock is the collective term that describes all the vehicles which move on a railway.<br />
<br />
3.35 '''Absolute Zero'''<br><br />
Theoretical state when no molecules move. [http://www.pa.msu.edu/sciencet/ask_st/012992.html..Absolute Zero]. State<br />
of entropy, a key concept of Thomas Pynchon's. See early story, ''Entropy'' in ''Slow Learner''.<br />
<br />
3.36 '''places whose ''names he has never heard'''''<br><br />
'secret cities of poor', deep under these fallen girders. Places<br />
that have never been spoken of, yet exist. Lower than ''Low-lands''.<br><br />
Later in Pynchon's world,in other books, ''Mason & Dixon'' and ''Against the Day'', we will travel deeper underground, to places with no names we know, it seems. See a "progressive ''knotting into''", 3.26 in GR.<br />
<br />
3.37 '''the walls break down'''<br> <br />
See "wall of death" later in ''Gravity's Rainbow''. A-and in ''Against the Day''.<br />
<br />
===Page 4===<br />
4.01 '''getting narrower...cornering tighter and tighter'''<br><br />
Cf. the rationalization of choice and similar phrasing in ''Against the Day'', pynchon wiki p. [http://against-the-day.pynchonwiki.com/wiki/index.php?title=ATD_1-25 10]<br />
<br />
4.05 '''caravan'''<br><br />
1) a procession, in single file, of merchants or pilgrims<br />
2) a procession of mules, camels or certain other animals. Sources: Online dictionary and wikipedia.<br> 3) ''Caravan'' is a song by Van Morrison included on his 1970 album, ''Moondance''. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Caravan_%28Van_Morrison_song%29 Caravan]<br><br />
Pilgrim has Pynchonian resonances, especially in ''Against the Day''.<br> A-And, once again, notice the singleing up of lines.<br />
<br />
4.07 '''cockade'''<br><br />
1) n. An ornament, such as a rosette or knot of ribbon, usually worn on the hat as a badge. [Alteration of obsolete cockard , from French.]<br><br />
<br />
2) Operational code name for Allied deception operations intended to draw attention away from Normandy prior to D-Day<br />
[http://www.secondworldwar.co.uk/glossc.html]<br />
<br />
Cf. pun: cock aid, esp. as Slothrop's 'condition' within ''Gravity's Rainbow'' is revealed.<br />
<br />
4.07 '''the color of lead'''<br><br />
cockades are usually brightly colored. Lead is not. <br><br />
<br />
Lead is a malleable toxic metallic element, bluish-white in color that<br />
tarnishes to a dull gray. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lead Lead]<br><br />
<br />
Lead is the only currency-carrying element which does not absorb nor emit heat. Entropic, so to speak. Another resonance for "toward the zero"?<br><br />
<br />
Lead is what bullets are made of.<br />
<br />
4.12 '''corridors straight and functional'''<br><br />
More forced linearity.<br />
<br />
==Page 5==<br />
5.03 '''His name is Capt. Geoffrey ("Pirate") Prentice.'''<br /><br />
Pirate’s name derives from Gilbert and Sullivan’s operetta ''The Pirates of Penzance'', in which the hero’s nurse has made a fateful error in carrying out her employer’s instructions: Instead of having the boy apprenticed to a (ship’s) '''pilot''', he was apprenticed to a pirate, hence a "'''pirate''' ‘prentice." The name, though, is not simply a fortuitous pun: In her error, the nurse has lost a message, like the hare of Herero myth, and thus guaranteed her young charge’s preterition. (There are also connections here to the theme of "communications entropy," which is central to ''The Crying of Lot 49'' and the short story "Entropy.")<br />
<br />
5.03 '''all got scumbled together, eventually, by the knives of the seasons, to an impasto, feet thick, of unbelievable black topsoil'''<br /><br />
<br />
Didn't notice 'scumbled' first time round, I was going too fast. Second<br />
read I looked it up. Scumbled? Isn't that some sort of painting<br />
[technique? Pynchon make a mistake there? Mean to say scrambled?<br />
Hmmmmmmmm. Then I thought of the 'knives' bit, wondered if artists might<br />
use a [http://painting.about.com/od/paintingforbeginners/a/Painting_Knife.htm palette knife] to do this scumbling business. A Google search for<br />
"scumble knife palette " found me this:<br />
<br />
http://www.messums.com/sub_newsview.ink?nid=11191<br />
<br />
"Hard impasto ridges left by the edge of the knife provided the texture<br />
I needed to bring the waves crashing in."<br />
<br />
[http://www.thefreedictionary.com/impasto Impasto] eh? I thought that just meant paste. So the knives in "knives of<br />
the seasons" makes perfect sense. And Dictionary.com throws up another<br />
interesting nugget:<br />
<br />
http://dictionary.reference.com/search?q=scumbled<br />
<br />
A-and the wonderful phrase, "knives of the seasons" embodies another lifelong deep theme in Pynchon's work: that the 'wheeling' of time [see later in ''Gravity's Rainbow'' and ''Against the Day''], the cycle of nature, is an ineluctable good thing, even as it knifes us, ravages, us. It thickens us, impasto-like, gives us topsoil in our characters, so to speak.<br />
<br />
"To blur the outlines of: a writer who scumbled the line that divides<br />
history and fiction." <br />
<br />
Apt example!<br />
<br />
<br />
<br /><br />
<br />
==Page 6==<br />
<br />
[[image:dna-molecule.jpg|thumb|100px|right]]6.09 '''a spiral ladder'''<br /><br />
Suggests the double-helix structure of the DNA molecule that preserves the "living genetic chains" evoked at [[Pages 7-16#10|10.14]].<br><br />
Double-helix structure like a mandala, pervasive in GR:<br><br />
"Mandala" is an ancient Sanskrit word meaning "sacred circle that protects the soul." It also refers to the sacred cosmograms that serve as core symbols of all cultures. Westerners have been fascinated for centuries about the mandalas of the Hindu-Buddhist cultures of Asia, most often painted geometric diagrams of great beauty and sophistication, that draw the viewer into a realm of balance, harmony, and calm. But such diagrams are actually architectural blueprints of the purified realm of bliss that we can only realize through enlightenment. They represent three-dimensional spaces of personal and communal exaltation, palaces for the regal confidence of love, compassion, and universal satisfaction of self and other. Understanding their role in anchoring the world-picture of a culture or a person provides a new insight into the "mandalas" of our own culture – the national space anchored by the Washington monument and its environs, or the personal cosmological space anchored by the models of the solar system, '''the DNA double-helix molecule''', and the atom. [http://www.amazon.com/Mandala-Enlightenment-Denise-Patry-Leidy/dp/1585678503 Mandala]<br />
<br><br />
<br />
A recent scientific magazine also had an essay [citation needed] on the similarity of the double-helix sructure and the structure of the mandala. A-and, GR, containing mandalas, has been argued to be structured like a mandala. SPOILER of upcoming GR tropes: "Slothrop finds mandalas, sees mandalas in the sky and all around him, and becomes a mandala himself".<br />
"mandalas are part of a spiritual or mythic panoply"...<br />
From ''Thomas Pynchon, The Art of Illusion'' by David Cowart, p. 126.<br />
<br />
Cf. p. 209, ''Mason & Dixon'': " oblique angles with all meridians and that is a spiral coiling round the poles but never reaching them."...<br />
<br />
==Page 7==<br />
7.09 '''Pick bananas'''<br><br />
Pirate's decision after a paragraph on the inevitablity of the rocket's flight can remind one of a famous Buddhist sutra on picking a strawberry:<br />
The Sweetest Strawberry<br><br />
Buddha told a parable in a sutra:<br><br />
A man traveling across a field encountered a tiger. He fled, the tiger after him. Coming to a precipice, he caught hold of the root of a wild vine and swung himself down over the edge. The tiger sniffed at him from above. Trembling, the man looked down to where, far below, another tiger was waiting to eat him. Only the vine sustained him. Two mice, one white and one black, little by little started to gnaw away the vine. The man saw a luscious strawberry near him. Grasping the vine with one hand, he plucked the strawberry with the other. How sweet it tasted!<br><br />
-Paul Reps, ''Zen Flesh, Zen Bones''<br><br />
from ''Everyday Mind'', edited by Jean Smith <br />
[[http://www.tricycle.com/issues/2_174/dailydharma/3192-1.html]]<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
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==Page 63==<br />
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63.32-37 '''"Yardbird" Parker is finding out [ . . . ]'''<br /><br />
Correspondent Igor Zabel offers the following addition to [[Weisenburger's Companion to Gravity's Rainbow|Weisenburger]]'s note on this passage:<br />
"On one of Parker's CDs (Swedish Schnapps +), I found the passage which was quoted by [[Weisenburger's Companion to Gravity's Rainbow|Weisenburger]] after Max Harrison, but slightly different, and it is interesting because Parker directly mentions Cherokee: 'Well, that night, I was working over 'Cherokee' and, as I did, I found that by using the higher intervals of a chord as a melody line and backing them with appropriately related changes, I could play the thing I'd been hearing. I came alive.' The quotation is taken from 'Hear Me Talkin' To Ya'."<br />
<br />
==Page 65==<br />
<br />
65.15 '''"Gobbler" Biddle'''<br /><br />
The Biddles are one of the leading families of Philadelphia, who sometimes vacationed in the Berkshires.<br />
<br />
65.16 '''Fu’s Folly'''<br /><br />
Although, as [[Weisenburger's Companion to Gravity's Rainbow|Weisenburger]] notes, the character is named for Fu Manchu (who is an important reference for Pointsman later in the novel), it should be recalled that there was also a "Fu" who was a member of the Whole Sick Crew in ''V.''<br />
<br />
65.33 '''Jack Kennedy'''<br /><br />
Contrary to [[Weisenburger's Companion to Gravity's Rainbow|Weisenburger]], Kennedy’s first book was titled '''''Why''' England Slept'' (not "When").<br />
<br />
==Page 68==<br />
<br />
68.01 '''Half an Ark’s better than none.'''<br /><br />
For Crutchfield, there is only '''one''' of everything, as opposed to two of every animal on Noah’s (whole) Ark. (And how much use is half an Ark in a flood, anyway?)<br />
<br />
==Page 69==<br />
<br />
69.14 '''a bandana of the regulation magenta and green'''<br /><br />
The coal-tar colors of organic chemistry that resonate throughout the novel.<br><br />
Coal tar colors? Coal tar is a brown or black liquid of high viscosity,<br />
Wikipedia.<br><br />
Pynchon seems to associate positive things with these colors--see ''Against the Day'' particularly--as he does with bandanas. A-and bananas.<br />
<br />
69.16 '''Rancho Peligroso'''<br /><br />
Evokes the Siege Perilous of the Arthurian Grail legend as well as ''Rancho Notorious'', a 1952 Western directed by Fritz Lang and starring Marlene Dietrich. See note at [[V321.06-07]]<br />
<br />
==Page 71==<br />
[[image:tyrosine.jpg|thumb|100px|Tyrosine Molecule|right]]71.11 '''kryptosam'''<br /><br />
Correspondent Matthias Bauer notes that "sam" derives from the German "samen," for "seed." "Krypto," of course, derives from the same word as "cryptography," the study of codes. [[Weisenburger's Companion to Gravity's Rainbow|Weisenburger]] claims that the "tyrosine" from which kryptosam is supposed to derive is "undoubtedly fictional," but it is in fact an amino acid, which can convert to melanin, just as Jamf's note indicates (although it is unclear whether semen will in fact act as the catalytic agent).<br />
<br />
<br />
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==Page 63==<br />
<br />
63.32-37 '''"Yardbird" Parker is finding out [ . . . ]'''<br /><br />
Correspondent Igor Zabel offers the following addition to [[Weisenburger's Companion to Gravity's Rainbow|Weisenburger]]'s note on this passage:<br />
"On one of Parker's CDs (Swedish Schnapps +), I found the passage which was quoted by [[Weisenburger's Companion to Gravity's Rainbow|Weisenburger]] after Max Harrison, but slightly different, and it is interesting because Parker directly mentions Cherokee: 'Well, that night, I was working over 'Cherokee' and, as I did, I found that by using the higher intervals of a chord as a melody line and backing them with appropriately related changes, I could play the thing I'd been hearing. I came alive.' The quotation is taken from 'Hear Me Talkin' To Ya'."<br />
<br />
==Page 65==<br />
<br />
65.15 '''"Gobbler" Biddle'''<br /><br />
The Biddles are one of the leading families of Philadelphia, who sometimes vacationed in the Berkshires.<br />
<br />
65.16 '''Fu’s Folly'''<br /><br />
Although, as [[Weisenburger's Companion to Gravity's Rainbow|Weisenburger]] notes, the character is named for Fu Manchu (who is an important reference for Pointsman later in the novel), it should be recalled that there was also a "Fu" who was a member of the Whole Sick Crew in ''V.''<br />
<br />
65.33 '''Jack Kennedy'''<br /><br />
Contrary to [[Weisenburger's Companion to Gravity's Rainbow|Weisenburger]], Kennedy’s first book was titled '''''Why''' England Slept'' (not "When").<br />
<br />
==Page 68==<br />
<br />
68.01 '''Half an Ark’s better than none.'''<br /><br />
For Crutchfield, there is only '''one''' of everything, as opposed to two of every animal on Noah’s (whole) Ark. (And how much use is half an Ark in a flood, anyway?)<br />
<br />
==Page 69==<br />
<br />
69.14 '''a bandana of the regulation magenta and green'''<br /><br />
The coal-tar colors of organic chemistry that resonate throughout the novel.<br><br />
Coal tar colors? Coal tar is a brown or black liquid of high viscosity,<br />
Wikipedia.<br><br />
Pynchon seems to associate positive things with these colors--see ''Against the Day'' particularly--as he does with bandanas.A-and bananas.<br />
<br />
69.16 '''Rancho Peligroso'''<br /><br />
Evokes the Siege Perilous of the Arthurian Grail legend as well as ''Rancho Notorious'', a 1952 Western directed by Fritz Lang and starring Marlene Dietrich. See note at [[V321.06-07]]<br />
<br />
==Page 71==<br />
[[image:tyrosine.jpg|thumb|100px|Tyrosine Molecule|right]]71.11 '''kryptosam'''<br /><br />
Correspondent Matthias Bauer notes that "sam" derives from the German "samen," for "seed." "Krypto," of course, derives from the same word as "cryptography," the study of codes. [[Weisenburger's Companion to Gravity's Rainbow|Weisenburger]] claims that the "tyrosine" from which kryptosam is supposed to derive is "undoubtedly fictional," but it is in fact an amino acid, which can convert to melanin, just as Jamf's note indicates (although it is unclear whether semen will in fact act as the catalytic agent).<br />
<br />
<br />
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==Page 3==<br />
<br />
3.03 '''The Evacuation'''<br><br />
First instance in ''Gravity's Rainbow'' of a lifetime stylistic trait of Pynchon's: unpredictable use of Capitalization. Capitalization is usually applied to nouns, but not uniformly. Often a matter of emphasis. See ''Mason & Dixon'' for the widest use, there imitating the writing of the time in which the book is set.<br><br />
The use throughout all his work might indicate how well-read and influenced by works written before capitalization was standardized Pynchon is.<br><br />
The full rules of capitalization for English are complicated. The rules have also changed over time, generally to capitalize fewer terms; to the modern reader, an 18th century document seems to use initial capitals excessively. Wikipedia<br />
<br />
3.03 '''theatre'''<br><br />
Besides the normal meanings, including "theater of war", 'theatre' is the name that fireworks' organizers call a sky display.<br />
<br />
3.05 '''iron queen'''<br><br />
a queensize bed made of iron. Hardly made after 1900. Queen Victoria had a famous brass (and iron) one in the Crystal Palace! "Beds made of hollow tubes of steel, iron, and brass came to be manufactured in the mid 19th century.<br />
These were to be used both by soldiers and civilians. Their main advantage at that time was that unlike wooden beds, these could not be infested with bedbugs. Queen Victoria's brass bed at the Crystal Palace has been the most famous antique brass bed.<br><br />
By the late 19th century, metal beds were nearly out of fashion." Antique beds [[http://www.bestinbeds.com/beds/antique-bed.html]]<br />
<br />
Also, In The Odyssey, when Odysseus goes to the Underworld, he refers to Persephone as '''the Iron Queen'''. Of the four gods of Empedocles' elements it is the name of Persephone alone that is taboo, for the Greeks knew another face of Persephone as well. She was also the terrible Queen of the dead, whose name was not safe to speak aloud, who was named simply "The Maiden". Wikipedia<br />
[[http://www.en.wikipedia.org/Persephone]]<br />
<br />
3.07 '''crystal palace'''<br><br />
See Alpha entry, especially this re cultural meaning:<br><br />
The Crystal Palace made a strong impression on visitors coming from all over Europe, including a number of writers. It soon became a symbol of modernity and civilization, hailed by some and decried by others.<br />
<br />
In ''What Is to Be Done?'', Russian author and philosopher Nikolai Chernyshevsky pledges to transform the society into a Crystal Palace thanks to a socialist revolution.<br> <br />
Fyodor Dostoevsky implicitly replied to Chernyshevsky in ''Notes from Underground''. The narrator thinks that human nature will prefer destruction and chaos to the harmony symbolized by the Crystal Palace. <br />
<br />
When the first major international exhibition of arts and industries was held in London in 1851, the London Crystal Palace epitomized the achievements of the entire world at a time when progress was racing forward at a speed never before known to mankind. The Great Exhibition marked the beginning of a tradition of world's fairs, which would be held in major cities all across the globe. Following the success of the London fair, it was inevitable that other nations would soon try their hand at organizing their own exhibitions. In fact, the next international fair was held only two years later, in 1853, in New York City. This fair would have its own Crystal Palace to symbolize not only the achievements of the world, but also the nationalistic pride of a relatively young nation and all that she stood for. Walt Whitman, the great American poet, wrote in "The Song of the Exposition":<br><br />
http://www.ric.edu/rpotter/cryspal.html<br />
<br />
That the Crystal Palace Exhibition "marked the beginning of a tradition of world's fairs" can remind that ''Against the Day'' starts at the Columbian Exhibition of 1893 in Chicago. More international optimism.<br />
<br />
3.14 '''second sheep'''<br /><br />
Compare the narrator’s discussion of William Slothrop’s heretical tract "On Preterition," which argued for the holiness of the preterite, and Weisenburger’s note at [[Pages 549-557#555|555.29-31]].<br />
<br />
A wide symbology relates to sheep in ancient art, traditions and culture. Judaism uses many sheep references including the Passover lamb. Christianity uses sheep-related images, such as: Christ as the good shepherd, or as the sacrificed Lamb of God (Agnus Dei); the bishop's Pastoral; the lion lying down with the lamb (a reference to all of creation being at peace, without suffering, predation or otherwise). Greek Easter celebrations traditionally feature a meal of Paschal lamb. Sheep also have considerable importance in Arab culture; Eid ul-Adha is a major annual festival in Islam in which a sheep is sacrificed.<br><br />
Herding sheep plays an important historico-symbolic part in the Jewish and Christian faiths, since Abraham, Jacob, Moses, and King David all worked as shepherds. wikipedia <br />
[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sheep]<br><br />
<br />
Sheep are often associated with obedience due to the widespread perception that they lack intelligence and their undoubted herd mentality, hence the pejorative connotation of the adjective 'ovine'. In George Orwell's satirical novel ''Animal Farm'', sheep are used to represent the ignorant and uneducated masses of revolutionary Russia. The sheep are unable to be taught the subtleties of revolutionary ideology and can only be taught repetitive slogans such as "Four legs good, two legs bad" which they bleat in unison at rallies. The rock group Pink Floyd wrote a song using sheep as a symbol for ordinary people, that is, everyone who isn't a pig or dog. People who accept overbearing governments have been pejoratively referred to as "sheeple". wikipedia [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sheep]<br><br />
<br />
3.19 '''half-silvered'''<br><br />
adj. (of a mirror) having an incomplete reflective coating, so that half the incident light is reflected and half transmitted: used in optical instruments and two-way mirrors. Collins Dictionary<br><br />
See the splitting of light all through ''Against the Day'', Pynchon's 2006<br />
novel.<br />
<br />
3.19 '''view finder'''<br><br />
as two words, this seems to refer to handheld devices in which slides were slid and viewed in 3-dimensions. Here is a version still being made <br />
[http://porters.com/Merchant2/merchant.mvc?Screen=PROD&Store_Code=PCS&Product_Code=520098&Product_Count=&Category_Code= view finder].<br> "half-silvered" above seems most correct with this kind of device. <br />
<br />
3.22 '''They pass in line'''<br><br />
A Pynchonian leitmotif. The linearity of lining up has resonances throughout his work, articulated most straightforwardly in ''Against the Day'', which starts with "Single up all Lines!", and perhaps dealt with<br />
most profoundly in ''Mason & Dixon'', a novel about creating the "Mason & Dixon line".<br />
<br />
3.25 '''Rain comes down'''<br><br />
Pynchon's first published story is called ''The Small Rain''. See his remarks on rain in fiction in ''Slow Learner''.<br />
<br />
3.30 '''naptha winters'''<br><br />
Naptha is the flammable liquid obtained from the distillation of coal and used to fire gaslights and heaters. ...<br />
<br />
3.32 '''rolling-stock absence'''<br><br />
Rolling stock is the collective term that describes all the vehicles which move on a railway.<br />
<br />
3.35 '''Absolute Zero'''<br><br />
Theoretical state when no molecules move. [http://www.pa.msu.edu/sciencet/ask_st/012992.html..Absolute Zero]. State<br />
of entropy, a key concept of Thomas Pynchon's. See early story, ''Entropy'' in ''Slow Learner''.<br />
<br />
3.36 '''places whose ''names he has never heard'''''<br><br />
'secret cities of poor', deep under these fallen girders. Places<br />
that have never been spoken of, yet exist. Lower than ''Low-lands''.<br><br />
Cf. Oedipa Maas's experiences and visions of the secret poor toward the end of ''Crying of Lot 49''.<br><br />
Later in Pynchon's world,in other books, ''Mason & Dixon'' and ''Against the Day'', we will travel deeper underground, to places with no names we know, it seems. See a "progressive ''knotting into''", 3.26 in GR.<br><br />
<br />
Cf. Moby Dick, Chapter 12, first paragraph: "It [where Queeqeg was from] is not down in any map. True places never are."<br />
<br />
Cf. ''Against the Day'': '''and one or two places, strictly speaking, not on the map at all'''.<br />
<br />
3.37 '''the walls break down'''<br> <br />
See "wall of death" later in ''Gravity's Rainbow''. A-and in ''Against the Day''.<br />
<br />
===Page 4===<br />
4.01 '''getting narrower...cornering tighter and tighter'''<br><br />
Cf. the rationalization of choice and similar phrasing in ''Against the Day'', pynchon wiki p. [http://against-the-day.pynchonwiki.com/wiki/index.php?title=ATD_1-25 10]<br />
<br />
4.05 '''caravan'''<br><br />
1) a procession, in single file, of merchants or pilgrims<br />
2) a procession of mules, camels or certain other animals. Sources: Online dictionary and wikipedia.<br> 3) ''Caravan'' is a song by Van Morrison included on his 1970 album, ''Moondance''. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Caravan_%28Van_Morrison_song%29 Caravan]<br><br />
Pilgrim has Pynchonian resonances, especially in ''Against the Day''.<br> A-And, once again, notice the singleing up of lines.<br />
<br />
4.07 '''cockade'''<br><br />
1) n. An ornament, such as a rosette or knot of ribbon, usually worn on the hat as a badge. [Alteration of obsolete cockard , from French.]<br><br />
<br />
2) Operational code name for Allied deception operations intended to draw attention away from Normandy prior to D-Day<br />
[http://www.secondworldwar.co.uk/glossc.html]<br />
<br />
Cf. pun: cock aid, esp. as Slothrop's 'condition' within ''Gravity's Rainbow'' is revealed.<br />
<br />
4.07 '''the color of lead'''<br><br />
cockades are usually brightly colored. Lead is not. <br><br />
<br />
Lead is a malleable toxic metallic element, bluish-white in color that<br />
tarnishes to a dull gray. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lead Lead]<br><br />
<br />
Lead is the only currency-carrying element which does not absorb nor emit heat. Entropic, so to speak. Another resonance for "toward the zero"?<br><br />
<br />
Lead is what bullets are made of.<br />
<br />
4.12 '''corridors straight and functional'''<br><br />
More forced linearity.<br />
<br />
==Page 5==<br />
5.03 '''His name is Capt. Geoffrey ("Pirate") Prentice.'''<br /><br />
Pirate’s name derives from Gilbert and Sullivan’s operetta ''The Pirates of Penzance'', in which the hero’s nurse has made a fateful error in carrying out her employer’s instructions: Instead of having the boy apprenticed to a (ship’s) '''pilot''', he was apprenticed to a pirate, hence a "'''pirate''' ‘prentice." The name, though, is not simply a fortuitous pun: In her error, the nurse has lost a message, like the hare of Herero myth, and thus guaranteed her young charge’s preterition. (There are also connections here to the theme of "communications entropy," which is central to ''The Crying of Lot 49'' and the short story "Entropy.")<br />
<br />
5.03 '''all got scumbled together, eventually, by the knives of the seasons, to an impasto, feet thick, of unbelievable black topsoil'''<br /><br />
<br />
Didn't notice 'scumbled' first time round, I was going too fast. Second<br />
read I looked it up. Scumbled? Isn't that some sort of painting<br />
[technique? Pynchon make a mistake there? Mean to say scrambled?<br />
Hmmmmmmmm. Then I thought of the 'knives' bit, wondered if artists might<br />
use a [http://painting.about.com/od/paintingforbeginners/a/Painting_Knife.htm palette knife] to do this scumbling business. A Google search for<br />
"scumble knife palette " found me this:<br />
<br />
http://www.messums.com/sub_newsview.ink?nid=11191<br />
<br />
"Hard impasto ridges left by the edge of the knife provided the texture<br />
I needed to bring the waves crashing in."<br />
<br />
[http://www.thefreedictionary.com/impasto Impasto] eh? I thought that just meant paste. So the knives in "knives of<br />
the seasons" makes perfect sense. And Dictionary.com throws up another<br />
interesting nugget:<br />
<br />
http://dictionary.reference.com/search?q=scumbled<br />
<br />
A-and the wonderful phrase, "knives of the seasons" embodies another lifelong deep theme in Pynchon's work: that the 'wheeling' of time [see later in ''Gravity's Rainbow'' and ''Against the Day''], the cycle of nature, is an ineluctable good thing, even as it knifes us, ravages, us. It thickens us, impasto-like, gives us topsoil in our characters, so to speak.<br />
<br />
"To blur the outlines of: a writer who scumbled the line that divides<br />
history and fiction." <br />
<br />
Apt example!<br />
<br />
<br />
<br /><br />
<br />
==Page 6==<br />
<br />
[[image:dna-molecule.jpg|thumb|100px|right]]6.09 '''a spiral ladder'''<br /><br />
Suggests the double-helix structure of the DNA molecule that preserves the "living genetic chains" evoked at [[Pages 7-16#10|10.14]].<br><br />
"Mandala" is an ancient Sanskrit word meaning "sacred circle that protects the soul." It also refers to the sacred cosmograms that serve as core symbols of all cultures. Westerners have been fascinated for centuries about the mandalas of the Hindu-Buddhist cultures of Asia, most often painted geometric diagrams of great beauty and sophistication, that draw the viewer into a realm of balance, harmony, and calm. But such diagrams are actually architectural blueprints of the purified realm of bliss that we can only realize through enlightenment. They represent three-dimensional spaces of personal and communal exaltation, palaces for the regal confidence of love, compassion, and universal satisfaction of self and other. Understanding their role in anchoring the world-picture of a culture or a person provides a new insight into the "mandalas" of our own culture – the national space anchored by the Washington monument and its environs, or the personal cosmological space anchored by the models of the solar system, '''the DNA double-helix molecule''', and the atom. [http://www.amazon.com/Mandala-Enlightenment-Denise-Patry-Leidy/dp/1585678503 Mandala]<br />
<br><br />
<br />
A recent scientific magazine also had an essay [citation needed] on the similarity of the double-helix sructure and the structure of the mandala. A-and, GR, containing mandalas, has been argued to be structured like a mandala. SPOILER of upcoming GR tropes: "Slothrop finds mandalas, sees mandalas in the sky and all around him, and becomes a mandala himself".<br />
"mandalas are part of a spiritual or mythic panoply"...<br />
From ''Thomas Pynchon, The Art of Illusion'' by David Cowart, p. 126.<br />
<br />
Cf. p. 209, ''Mason & Dixon'': " oblique angles with all meridians and that is a spiral coiling round the poles but never reaching them."...<br />
<br />
==Page 7==<br />
7.09 '''Pick bananas'''<br><br />
Pirate's decision after a paragraph on the inevitablity of the rocket's flight can remind one of a famous Buddhist sutra on picking a strawberry:<br />
The Sweetest Strawberry<br><br />
Buddha told a parable in a sutra:<br><br />
A man traveling across a field encountered a tiger. He fled, the tiger after him. Coming to a precipice, he caught hold of the root of a wild vine and swung himself down over the edge. The tiger sniffed at him from above. Trembling, the man looked down to where, far below, another tiger was waiting to eat him. Only the vine sustained him. Two mice, one white and one black, little by little started to gnaw away the vine. The man saw a luscious strawberry near him. Grasping the vine with one hand, he plucked the strawberry with the other. How sweet it tasted!<br><br />
-Paul Reps, ''Zen Flesh, Zen Bones''<br><br />
from ''Everyday Mind'', edited by Jean Smith <br />
[[http://www.tricycle.com/issues/2_174/dailydharma/3192-1.html]]<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
{{GR PbP}}</div>MKOHUThttps://gravitys-rainbow.pynchonwiki.com/wiki/index.php?title=Pages_3-7&diff=2486Pages 3-72007-10-18T19:48:26Z<p>MKOHUT: /* Page 3 */</p>
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==Page 3==<br />
<br />
3.03 '''The Evacuation'''<br><br />
First instance in ''Gravity's Rainbow'' of a lifetime stylistic trait of Pynchon's: unpredictable use of Capitalization. Capitalization is usually applied to nouns, but not uniformly. Often a matter of emphasis. See ''Mason & Dixon'' for the widest use, there imitating the writing of the time in which the book is set.<br><br />
The use throughout all his work might indicate how well-read and influenced by works written before capitalization was standardized Pynchon is.<br><br />
The full rules of capitalization for English are complicated. The rules have also changed over time, generally to capitalize fewer terms; to the modern reader, an 18th century document seems to use initial capitals excessively. Wikipedia<br />
<br />
3.03 '''theatre'''<br><br />
Besides the normal meanings, including "theater of war", 'theatre' is the name that fireworks' organizers call a sky display.<br />
<br />
3.05 '''iron queen'''<br><br />
a queensize bed made of iron. Hardly made after 1900. Queen Victoria had a famous brass (and iron) one in the Crystal Palace! "Beds made of hollow tubes of steel, iron, and brass came to be manufactured in the mid 19th century.<br />
These were to be used both by soldiers and civilians. Their main advantage at that time was that unlike wooden beds, these could not be infested with bedbugs. Queen Victoria's brass bed at the Crystal Palace has been the most famous antique brass bed.<br><br />
By the late 19th century, metal beds were nearly out of fashion." Antique beds [[http://www.bestinbeds.com/beds/antique-bed.html]]<br />
<br />
Also, In The Odyssey, when Odysseus goes to the Underworld, he refers to Persephone as '''the Iron Queen'''. Of the four gods of Empedocles' elements it is the name of Persephone alone that is taboo, for the Greeks knew another face of Persephone as well. She was also the terrible Queen of the dead, whose name was not safe to speak aloud, who was named simply "The Maiden". Wikipedia<br />
[[http://www.en.wikipedia.org/Persephone]]<br />
<br />
3.07 '''crystal palace'''<br><br />
See Alpha entry, especially this re cultural meaning:<br><br />
The Crystal Palace made a strong impression on visitors coming from all over Europe, including a number of writers. It soon became a symbol of modernity and civilization, hailed by some and decried by others.<br />
<br />
In ''What Is to Be Done?'', Russian author and philosopher Nikolai Chernyshevsky pledges to transform the society into a Crystal Palace thanks to a socialist revolution.<br> <br />
Fyodor Dostoevsky implicitly replied to Chernyshevsky in ''Notes from Underground''. The narrator thinks that human nature will prefer destruction and chaos to the harmony symbolized by the Crystal Palace. <br />
<br />
When the first major international exhibition of arts and industries was held in London in 1851, the London Crystal Palace epitomized the achievements of the entire world at a time when progress was racing forward at a speed never before known to mankind. The Great Exhibition marked the beginning of a tradition of world's fairs, which would be held in major cities all across the globe. Following the success of the London fair, it was inevitable that other nations would soon try their hand at organizing their own exhibitions. In fact, the next international fair was held only two years later, in 1853, in New York City. This fair would have its own Crystal Palace to symbolize not only the achievements of the world, but also the nationalistic pride of a relatively young nation and all that she stood for. Walt Whitman, the great American poet, wrote in "The Song of the Exposition":<br><br />
http://www.ric.edu/rpotter/cryspal.html<br />
<br />
That the Crystal Palace Exhibition "marked the beginning of a tradition of world's fairs" can remind that ''Against the Day'' starts at the Columbian Exhibition of 1893 in Chicago. More international optimism.<br />
<br />
3.14 '''second sheep'''<br /><br />
Compare the narrator’s discussion of William Slothrop’s heretical tract "On Preterition," which argued for the holiness of the preterite, and Weisenburger’s note at [[Pages 549-557#555|555.29-31]].<br />
<br />
A wide symbology relates to sheep in ancient art, traditions and culture. Judaism uses many sheep references including the Passover lamb. Christianity uses sheep-related images, such as: Christ as the good shepherd, or as the sacrificed Lamb of God (Agnus Dei); the bishop's Pastoral; the lion lying down with the lamb (a reference to all of creation being at peace, without suffering, predation or otherwise). Greek Easter celebrations traditionally feature a meal of Paschal lamb. Sheep also have considerable importance in Arab culture; Eid ul-Adha is a major annual festival in Islam in which a sheep is sacrificed.<br><br />
Herding sheep plays an important historico-symbolic part in the Jewish and Christian faiths, since Abraham, Jacob, Moses, and King David all worked as shepherds. wikipedia <br />
[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sheep]<br><br />
<br />
Sheep are often associated with obedience due to the widespread perception that they lack intelligence and their undoubted herd mentality, hence the pejorative connotation of the adjective 'ovine'. In George Orwell's satirical novel ''Animal Farm'', sheep are used to represent the ignorant and uneducated masses of revolutionary Russia. The sheep are unable to be taught the subtleties of revolutionary ideology and can only be taught repetitive slogans such as "Four legs good, two legs bad" which they bleat in unison at rallies. The rock group Pink Floyd wrote a song using sheep as a symbol for ordinary people, that is, everyone who isn't a pig or dog. People who accept overbearing governments have been pejoratively referred to as "sheeple". wikipedia [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sheep]<br><br />
<br />
3.19 '''half-silvered'''<br><br />
adj. (of a mirror) having an incomplete reflective coating, so that half the incident light is reflected and half transmitted: used in optical instruments and two-way mirrors. Collins Dictionary<br><br />
See the splitting of light all through ''Against the Day'', Pynchon's 2006<br />
novel.<br />
<br />
3.19 '''view finder'''<br><br />
as two words, this seems to refer to handheld devices in which slides were slid and viewed in 3-dimensions. Here is a version still being made <br />
[http://porters.com/Merchant2/merchant.mvc?Screen=PROD&Store_Code=PCS&Product_Code=520098&Product_Count=&Category_Code= view finder].<br> "half-silvered" above seems most correct with this kind of device. <br />
<br />
3.22 '''They pass in line'''<br><br />
A Pynchonian leitmotif. The linearity of lining up has resonances throughout his work, articulated most straightforwardly in ''Against the Day'', which starts with "Single up all Lines!", and perhaps dealt with<br />
most profoundly in ''Mason & Dixon'', a novel about creating the "Mason & Dixon line".<br />
<br />
3.25 '''Rain comes down'''<br><br />
Pynchon's first published story is called ''The Small Rain''. See his remarks on rain in fiction in ''Slow Learner''.<br />
<br />
3.30 '''naptha winters'''<br><br />
Naptha is the flammable liquid obtained from the distillation of coal and used to fire gaslights and heaters. ...<br />
<br />
3.32 '''rolling-stock absence'''<br><br />
Rolling stock is the collective term that describes all the vehicles which move on a railway.<br />
<br />
3.35 '''Absolute Zero'''<br><br />
Theoretical state when no molecules move. [http://www.pa.msu.edu/sciencet/ask_st/012992.html..Absolute Zero]. State<br />
of entropy, a key concept of Thomas Pynchon's. See early story, ''Entropy'' in ''Slow Learner''.<br />
<br />
3.36 '''places whose ''names he has never heard'''''<br><br />
'secret cities of poor', deep under these fallen girders. Places<br />
that have never been spoken of, yet exist. Lower than ''Low-lands''.<br><br />
Later in Pynchon's world,in other books, ''Mason & Dixon'' and ''Against the Day'', we will travel deeper underground, to places with no names we know, it seems. See a "progressive ''knotting into''", 3.26 in GR.<br><br />
<br />
Cf. Moby Dick, Chapter 12, first paragraph: "It [where Queeqeg was from] is not down in any map. True places never are."<br />
<br />
Cf. ''Against the Day'': '''and one or two places, strictly speaking, not on the map at all'''.<br />
<br />
3.37 '''the walls break down'''<br> <br />
See "wall of death" later in ''Gravity's Rainbow''. A-and in ''Against the Day''.<br />
<br />
===Page 4===<br />
4.01 '''getting narrower...cornering tighter and tighter'''<br><br />
Cf. the rationalization of choice and similar phrasing in ''Against the Day'', pynchon wiki p. [http://against-the-day.pynchonwiki.com/wiki/index.php?title=ATD_1-25 10]<br />
<br />
4.05 '''caravan'''<br><br />
1) a procession, in single file, of merchants or pilgrims<br />
2) a procession of mules, camels or certain other animals. Sources: Online dictionary and wikipedia.<br> 3) ''Caravan'' is a song by Van Morrison included on his 1970 album, ''Moondance''. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Caravan_%28Van_Morrison_song%29 Caravan]<br><br />
Pilgrim has Pynchonian resonances, especially in ''Against the Day''.<br> A-And, once again, notice the singleing up of lines.<br />
<br />
4.07 '''cockade'''<br><br />
1) n. An ornament, such as a rosette or knot of ribbon, usually worn on the hat as a badge. [Alteration of obsolete cockard , from French.]<br><br />
<br />
2) Operational code name for Allied deception operations intended to draw attention away from Normandy prior to D-Day<br />
[http://www.secondworldwar.co.uk/glossc.html]<br />
<br />
Cf. pun: cock aid, esp. as Slothrop's 'condition' within ''Gravity's Rainbow'' is revealed.<br />
<br />
4.07 '''the color of lead'''<br><br />
cockades are usually brightly colored. Lead is not. <br><br />
<br />
Lead is a malleable toxic metallic element, bluish-white in color that<br />
tarnishes to a dull gray. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lead Lead]<br><br />
<br />
Lead is the only currency-carrying element which does not absorb nor emit heat. Entropic, so to speak. Another resonance for "toward the zero"?<br><br />
<br />
Lead is what bullets are made of.<br />
<br />
4.12 '''corridors straight and functional'''<br><br />
More forced linearity.<br />
<br />
==Page 5==<br />
5.03 '''His name is Capt. Geoffrey ("Pirate") Prentice.'''<br /><br />
Pirate’s name derives from Gilbert and Sullivan’s operetta ''The Pirates of Penzance'', in which the hero’s nurse has made a fateful error in carrying out her employer’s instructions: Instead of having the boy apprenticed to a (ship’s) '''pilot''', he was apprenticed to a pirate, hence a "'''pirate''' ‘prentice." The name, though, is not simply a fortuitous pun: In her error, the nurse has lost a message, like the hare of Herero myth, and thus guaranteed her young charge’s preterition. (There are also connections here to the theme of "communications entropy," which is central to ''The Crying of Lot 49'' and the short story "Entropy.")<br />
<br />
5.03 '''all got scumbled together, eventually, by the knives of the seasons, to an impasto, feet thick, of unbelievable black topsoil'''<br /><br />
<br />
Didn't notice 'scumbled' first time round, I was going too fast. Second<br />
read I looked it up. Scumbled? Isn't that some sort of painting<br />
[technique? Pynchon make a mistake there? Mean to say scrambled?<br />
Hmmmmmmmm. Then I thought of the 'knives' bit, wondered if artists might<br />
use a [http://painting.about.com/od/paintingforbeginners/a/Painting_Knife.htm palette knife] to do this scumbling business. A Google search for<br />
"scumble knife palette " found me this:<br />
<br />
http://www.messums.com/sub_newsview.ink?nid=11191<br />
<br />
"Hard impasto ridges left by the edge of the knife provided the texture<br />
I needed to bring the waves crashing in."<br />
<br />
[http://www.thefreedictionary.com/impasto Impasto] eh? I thought that just meant paste. So the knives in "knives of<br />
the seasons" makes perfect sense. And Dictionary.com throws up another<br />
interesting nugget:<br />
<br />
http://dictionary.reference.com/search?q=scumbled<br />
<br />
A-and the wonderful phrase, "knives of the seasons" embodies another lifelong deep theme in Pynchon's work: that the 'wheeling' of time [see later in ''Gravity's Rainbow'' and ''Against the Day''], the cycle of nature, is an ineluctable good thing, even as it knifes us, ravages, us. It thickens us, impasto-like, gives us topsoil in our characters, so to speak.<br />
<br />
"To blur the outlines of: a writer who scumbled the line that divides<br />
history and fiction." <br />
<br />
Apt example!<br />
<br />
<br />
<br /><br />
<br />
==Page 6==<br />
<br />
[[image:dna-molecule.jpg|thumb|100px|right]]6.09 '''a spiral ladder'''<br /><br />
Suggests the double-helix structure of the DNA molecule that preserves the "living genetic chains" evoked at [[Pages 7-16#10|10.14]].<br><br />
"Mandala" is an ancient Sanskrit word meaning "sacred circle that protects the soul." It also refers to the sacred cosmograms that serve as core symbols of all cultures. Westerners have been fascinated for centuries about the mandalas of the Hindu-Buddhist cultures of Asia, most often painted geometric diagrams of great beauty and sophistication, that draw the viewer into a realm of balance, harmony, and calm. But such diagrams are actually architectural blueprints of the purified realm of bliss that we can only realize through enlightenment. They represent three-dimensional spaces of personal and communal exaltation, palaces for the regal confidence of love, compassion, and universal satisfaction of self and other. Understanding their role in anchoring the world-picture of a culture or a person provides a new insight into the "mandalas" of our own culture – the national space anchored by the Washington monument and its environs, or the personal cosmological space anchored by the models of the solar system, '''the DNA double-helix molecule''', and the atom. [http://www.amazon.com/Mandala-Enlightenment-Denise-Patry-Leidy/dp/1585678503 Mandala]<br />
<br><br />
<br />
A recent scientific magazine also had an essay [citation needed] on the similarity of the double-helix sructure and the structure of the mandala. A-and, GR, containing mandalas, has been argued to be structured like a mandala. SPOILER of upcoming GR tropes: "Slothrop finds mandalas, sees mandalas in the sky and all around him, and becomes a mandala himself".<br />
"mandalas are part of a spiritual or mythic panoply"...<br />
From ''Thomas Pynchon, The Art of Illusion'' by David Cowart, p. 126.<br />
<br />
Cf. p. 209, ''Mason & Dixon'': " oblique angles with all meridians and that is a spiral coiling round the poles but never reaching them."...<br />
<br />
==Page 7==<br />
7.09 '''Pick bananas'''<br><br />
Pirate's decision after a paragraph on the inevitablity of the rocket's flight can remind one of a famous Buddhist sutra on picking a strawberry:<br />
The Sweetest Strawberry<br><br />
Buddha told a parable in a sutra:<br><br />
A man traveling across a field encountered a tiger. He fled, the tiger after him. Coming to a precipice, he caught hold of the root of a wild vine and swung himself down over the edge. The tiger sniffed at him from above. Trembling, the man looked down to where, far below, another tiger was waiting to eat him. Only the vine sustained him. Two mice, one white and one black, little by little started to gnaw away the vine. The man saw a luscious strawberry near him. Grasping the vine with one hand, he plucked the strawberry with the other. How sweet it tasted!<br><br />
-Paul Reps, ''Zen Flesh, Zen Bones''<br><br />
from ''Everyday Mind'', edited by Jean Smith <br />
[[http://www.tricycle.com/issues/2_174/dailydharma/3192-1.html]]<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
{{GR PbP}}</div>MKOHUThttps://gravitys-rainbow.pynchonwiki.com/wiki/index.php?title=Pages_3-7&diff=2485Pages 3-72007-10-18T15:14:59Z<p>MKOHUT: /* Page 6 */</p>
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==Page 3==<br />
<br />
3.03 '''The Evacuation'''<br><br />
First instance in ''Gravity's Rainbow'' of a lifetime stylistic trait of Pynchon's: unpredictable use of Capitalization. Capitalization is usually applied to nouns, but not uniformly. Often a matter of emphasis. See ''Mason & Dixon'' for the widest use, there imitating the writing of the time in which the book is set.<br><br />
The use throughout all his work might indicate how well-read and influenced by works written before capitalization was standardized Pynchon is.<br><br />
The full rules of capitalization for English are complicated. The rules have also changed over time, generally to capitalize fewer terms; to the modern reader, an 18th century document seems to use initial capitals excessively. Wikipedia<br />
<br />
3.03 '''theatre'''<br><br />
Besides the normal meanings, including "theater of war", 'theatre' is the name that fireworks' organizers call a sky display.<br />
<br />
3.05 '''iron queen'''<br><br />
a queensize bed made of iron. Hardly made after 1900. Queen Victoria had a famous brass (and iron) one in the Crystal Palace! "Beds made of hollow tubes of steel, iron, and brass came to be manufactured in the mid 19th century.<br />
These were to be used both by soldiers and civilians. Their main advantage at that time was that unlike wooden beds, these could not be infested with bedbugs. Queen Victoria's brass bed at the Crystal Palace has been the most famous antique brass bed.<br><br />
By the late 19th century, metal beds were nearly out of fashion." Antique beds [[http://www.bestinbeds.com/beds/antique-bed.html]]<br />
<br />
Also, In The Odyssey, when Odysseus goes to the Underworld, he refers to Persephone as '''the Iron Queen'''. Of the four gods of Empedocles' elements it is the name of Persephone alone that is taboo, for the Greeks knew another face of Persephone as well. She was also the terrible Queen of the dead, whose name was not safe to speak aloud, who was named simply "The Maiden". Wikipedia<br />
[[http://www.en.wikipedia.org/Persephone]]<br />
<br />
3.07 '''crystal palace'''<br><br />
See Alpha entry, especially this re cultural meaning:<br><br />
The Crystal Palace made a strong impression on visitors coming from all over Europe, including a number of writers. It soon became a symbol of modernity and civilization, hailed by some and decried by others.<br />
<br />
In ''What Is to Be Done?'', Russian author and philosopher Nikolai Chernyshevsky pledges to transform the society into a Crystal Palace thanks to a socialist revolution.<br> <br />
Fyodor Dostoevsky implicitly replied to Chernyshevsky in ''Notes from Underground''. The narrator thinks that human nature will prefer destruction and chaos to the harmony symbolized by the Crystal Palace. <br />
<br />
When the first major international exhibition of arts and industries was held in London in 1851, the London Crystal Palace epitomized the achievements of the entire world at a time when progress was racing forward at a speed never before known to mankind. The Great Exhibition marked the beginning of a tradition of world's fairs, which would be held in major cities all across the globe. Following the success of the London fair, it was inevitable that other nations would soon try their hand at organizing their own exhibitions. In fact, the next international fair was held only two years later, in 1853, in New York City. This fair would have its own Crystal Palace to symbolize not only the achievements of the world, but also the nationalistic pride of a relatively young nation and all that she stood for. Walt Whitman, the great American poet, wrote in "The Song of the Exposition":<br><br />
http://www.ric.edu/rpotter/cryspal.html<br />
<br />
That the Crystal Palace Exhibition "marked the beginning of a tradition of world's fairs" can remind that ''Against the Day'' starts at the Columbian Exhibition of 1893 in Chicago. More international optimism.<br />
<br />
3.14 '''second sheep'''<br /><br />
Compare the narrator’s discussion of William Slothrop’s heretical tract "On Preterition," which argued for the holiness of the preterite, and Weisenburger’s note at [[Pages 549-557#555|555.29-31]].<br />
<br />
A wide symbology relates to sheep in ancient art, traditions and culture. Judaism uses many sheep references including the Passover lamb. Christianity uses sheep-related images, such as: Christ as the good shepherd, or as the sacrificed Lamb of God (Agnus Dei); the bishop's Pastoral; the lion lying down with the lamb (a reference to all of creation being at peace, without suffering, predation or otherwise). Greek Easter celebrations traditionally feature a meal of Paschal lamb. Sheep also have considerable importance in Arab culture; Eid ul-Adha is a major annual festival in Islam in which a sheep is sacrificed.<br><br />
Herding sheep plays an important historico-symbolic part in the Jewish and Christian faiths, since Abraham, Jacob, Moses, and King David all worked as shepherds. wikipedia <br />
[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sheep]<br><br />
<br />
Sheep are often associated with obedience due to the widespread perception that they lack intelligence and their undoubted herd mentality, hence the pejorative connotation of the adjective 'ovine'. In George Orwell's satirical novel ''Animal Farm'', sheep are used to represent the ignorant and uneducated masses of revolutionary Russia. The sheep are unable to be taught the subtleties of revolutionary ideology and can only be taught repetitive slogans such as "Four legs good, two legs bad" which they bleat in unison at rallies. The rock group Pink Floyd wrote a song using sheep as a symbol for ordinary people, that is, everyone who isn't a pig or dog. People who accept overbearing governments have been pejoratively referred to as "sheeple". wikipedia [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sheep]<br><br />
<br />
3.19 '''half-silvered'''<br><br />
adj. (of a mirror) having an incomplete reflective coating, so that half the incident light is reflected and half transmitted: used in optical instruments and two-way mirrors. Collins Dictionary<br><br />
See the splitting of light all through ''Against the Day'', Pynchon's 2006<br />
novel.<br />
<br />
3.19 '''view finder'''<br><br />
as two words, this seems to refer to handheld devices in which slides were slid and viewed in 3-dimensions. Here is a version still being made <br />
[http://porters.com/Merchant2/merchant.mvc?Screen=PROD&Store_Code=PCS&Product_Code=520098&Product_Count=&Category_Code= view finder].<br> "half-silvered" above seems most correct with this kind of device. <br />
<br />
3.22 '''They pass in line'''<br><br />
A Pynchonian leitmotif. The linearity of lining up has resonances throughout his work, articulated most straightforwardly in ''Against the Day'', which starts with "Single up all Lines!", and perhaps dealt with<br />
most profoundly in ''Mason & Dixon'', a novel about creating the "Mason & Dixon line".<br />
<br />
3.25 '''Rain comes down'''<br><br />
Pynchon's first published story is called ''The Small Rain''. See his remarks on rain in fiction in ''Slow Learner''.<br />
<br />
3.30 '''naptha winters'''<br><br />
Naptha is the flammable liquid obtained from the distillation of coal and used to fire gaslights and heaters. ...<br />
<br />
3.32 '''rolling-stock absence'''<br><br />
Rolling stock is the collective term that describes all the vehicles which move on a railway.<br />
<br />
3.35 '''Absolute Zero'''<br><br />
Theoretical state when no molecules move. [http://www.pa.msu.edu/sciencet/ask_st/012992.html..Absolute Zero]. State<br />
of entropy, a key concept of Thomas Pynchon's. See early story, ''Entropy'' in ''Slow Learner''.<br />
<br />
3.36 '''places whose ''names he has never heard'''''<br><br />
'secret cities of poor', deep under these fallen girders. Places<br />
that have never been spoken of, yet exist. Lower than ''Low-lands''.<br><br />
Later in Pynchon's world,in other books, ''Mason & Dixon'' and ''Against the Day'', we will travel deeper underground, to places with no names we know, it seems. See a "progressive ''knotting into''", 3.26 in GR.<br />
<br />
3.37 '''the walls break down'''<br> <br />
See "wall of death" later in ''Gravity's Rainbow''. A-and in ''Against the Day''.<br />
<br />
===Page 4===<br />
4.01 '''getting narrower...cornering tighter and tighter'''<br><br />
Cf. the rationalization of choice and similar phrasing in ''Against the Day'', pynchon wiki p. [http://against-the-day.pynchonwiki.com/wiki/index.php?title=ATD_1-25 10]<br />
<br />
4.05 '''caravan'''<br><br />
1) a procession, in single file, of merchants or pilgrims<br />
2) a procession of mules, camels or certain other animals. Sources: Online dictionary and wikipedia.<br> 3) ''Caravan'' is a song by Van Morrison included on his 1970 album, ''Moondance''. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Caravan_%28Van_Morrison_song%29 Caravan]<br><br />
Pilgrim has Pynchonian resonances, especially in ''Against the Day''.<br> A-And, once again, notice the singleing up of lines.<br />
<br />
4.07 '''cockade'''<br><br />
1) n. An ornament, such as a rosette or knot of ribbon, usually worn on the hat as a badge. [Alteration of obsolete cockard , from French.]<br><br />
<br />
2) Operational code name for Allied deception operations intended to draw attention away from Normandy prior to D-Day<br />
[http://www.secondworldwar.co.uk/glossc.html]<br />
<br />
Cf. pun: cock aid, esp. as Slothrop's 'condition' within ''Gravity's Rainbow'' is revealed.<br />
<br />
4.07 '''the color of lead'''<br><br />
cockades are usually brightly colored. Lead is not. <br><br />
<br />
Lead is a malleable toxic metallic element, bluish-white in color that<br />
tarnishes to a dull gray. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lead Lead]<br><br />
<br />
Lead is the only currency-carrying element which does not absorb nor emit heat. Entropic, so to speak. Another resonance for "toward the zero"?<br><br />
<br />
Lead is what bullets are made of.<br />
<br />
4.12 '''corridors straight and functional'''<br><br />
More forced linearity.<br />
<br />
==Page 5==<br />
5.03 '''His name is Capt. Geoffrey ("Pirate") Prentice.'''<br /><br />
Pirate’s name derives from Gilbert and Sullivan’s operetta ''The Pirates of Penzance'', in which the hero’s nurse has made a fateful error in carrying out her employer’s instructions: Instead of having the boy apprenticed to a (ship’s) '''pilot''', he was apprenticed to a pirate, hence a "'''pirate''' ‘prentice." The name, though, is not simply a fortuitous pun: In her error, the nurse has lost a message, like the hare of Herero myth, and thus guaranteed her young charge’s preterition. (There are also connections here to the theme of "communications entropy," which is central to ''The Crying of Lot 49'' and the short story "Entropy.")<br />
<br />
5.03 '''all got scumbled together, eventually, by the knives of the seasons, to an impasto, feet thick, of unbelievable black topsoil'''<br /><br />
<br />
Didn't notice 'scumbled' first time round, I was going too fast. Second<br />
read I looked it up. Scumbled? Isn't that some sort of painting<br />
[technique? Pynchon make a mistake there? Mean to say scrambled?<br />
Hmmmmmmmm. Then I thought of the 'knives' bit, wondered if artists might<br />
use a [http://painting.about.com/od/paintingforbeginners/a/Painting_Knife.htm palette knife] to do this scumbling business. A Google search for<br />
"scumble knife palette " found me this:<br />
<br />
http://www.messums.com/sub_newsview.ink?nid=11191<br />
<br />
"Hard impasto ridges left by the edge of the knife provided the texture<br />
I needed to bring the waves crashing in."<br />
<br />
[http://www.thefreedictionary.com/impasto Impasto] eh? I thought that just meant paste. So the knives in "knives of<br />
the seasons" makes perfect sense. And Dictionary.com throws up another<br />
interesting nugget:<br />
<br />
http://dictionary.reference.com/search?q=scumbled<br />
<br />
A-and the wonderful phrase, "knives of the seasons" embodies another lifelong deep theme in Pynchon's work: that the 'wheeling' of time [see later in ''Gravity's Rainbow'' and ''Against the Day''], the cycle of nature, is an ineluctable good thing, even as it knifes us, ravages, us. It thickens us, impasto-like, gives us topsoil in our characters, so to speak.<br />
<br />
"To blur the outlines of: a writer who scumbled the line that divides<br />
history and fiction." <br />
<br />
Apt example!<br />
<br />
<br />
<br /><br />
<br />
==Page 6==<br />
<br />
[[image:dna-molecule.jpg|thumb|100px|right]]6.09 '''a spiral ladder'''<br /><br />
Suggests the double-helix structure of the DNA molecule that preserves the "living genetic chains" evoked at [[Pages 7-16#10|10.14]].<br><br />
"Mandala" is an ancient Sanskrit word meaning "sacred circle that protects the soul." It also refers to the sacred cosmograms that serve as core symbols of all cultures. Westerners have been fascinated for centuries about the mandalas of the Hindu-Buddhist cultures of Asia, most often painted geometric diagrams of great beauty and sophistication, that draw the viewer into a realm of balance, harmony, and calm. But such diagrams are actually architectural blueprints of the purified realm of bliss that we can only realize through enlightenment. They represent three-dimensional spaces of personal and communal exaltation, palaces for the regal confidence of love, compassion, and universal satisfaction of self and other. Understanding their role in anchoring the world-picture of a culture or a person provides a new insight into the "mandalas" of our own culture – the national space anchored by the Washington monument and its environs, or the personal cosmological space anchored by the models of the solar system, '''the DNA double-helix molecule''', and the atom. [http://www.amazon.com/Mandala-Enlightenment-Denise-Patry-Leidy/dp/1585678503 Mandala]<br />
<br><br />
<br />
A recent scientific magazine also had an essay [citation needed] on the similarity of the double-helix sructure and the structure of the mandala. A-and, GR, containing mandalas, has been argued to be structured like a mandala. SPOILER of upcoming GR tropes: "Slothrop finds mandalas, sees mandalas in the sky and all around him, and becomes a mandala himself".<br />
"mandalas are part of a spiritual or mythic panoply"...<br />
From ''Thomas Pynchon, The Art of Illusion'' by David Cowart, p. 126.<br />
<br />
Cf. p. 209, ''Mason & Dixon'': " oblique angles with all meridians and that is a spiral coiling round the poles but never reaching them."...<br />
<br />
==Page 7==<br />
7.09 '''Pick bananas'''<br><br />
Pirate's decision after a paragraph on the inevitablity of the rocket's flight can remind one of a famous Buddhist sutra on picking a strawberry:<br />
The Sweetest Strawberry<br><br />
Buddha told a parable in a sutra:<br><br />
A man traveling across a field encountered a tiger. He fled, the tiger after him. Coming to a precipice, he caught hold of the root of a wild vine and swung himself down over the edge. The tiger sniffed at him from above. Trembling, the man looked down to where, far below, another tiger was waiting to eat him. Only the vine sustained him. Two mice, one white and one black, little by little started to gnaw away the vine. The man saw a luscious strawberry near him. Grasping the vine with one hand, he plucked the strawberry with the other. How sweet it tasted!<br><br />
-Paul Reps, ''Zen Flesh, Zen Bones''<br><br />
from ''Everyday Mind'', edited by Jean Smith <br />
[[http://www.tricycle.com/issues/2_174/dailydharma/3192-1.html]]<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
{{GR PbP}}</div>MKOHUThttps://gravitys-rainbow.pynchonwiki.com/wiki/index.php?title=Pages_3-7&diff=2484Pages 3-72007-10-18T15:11:10Z<p>MKOHUT: /* Page 6 */</p>
<hr />
<div>{{GR PbP Text}}<br />
<br />
==Page 3==<br />
<br />
3.03 '''The Evacuation'''<br><br />
First instance in ''Gravity's Rainbow'' of a lifetime stylistic trait of Pynchon's: unpredictable use of Capitalization. Capitalization is usually applied to nouns, but not uniformly. Often a matter of emphasis. See ''Mason & Dixon'' for the widest use, there imitating the writing of the time in which the book is set.<br><br />
The use throughout all his work might indicate how well-read and influenced by works written before capitalization was standardized Pynchon is.<br><br />
The full rules of capitalization for English are complicated. The rules have also changed over time, generally to capitalize fewer terms; to the modern reader, an 18th century document seems to use initial capitals excessively. Wikipedia<br />
<br />
3.03 '''theatre'''<br><br />
Besides the normal meanings, including "theater of war", 'theatre' is the name that fireworks' organizers call a sky display.<br />
<br />
3.05 '''iron queen'''<br><br />
a queensize bed made of iron. Hardly made after 1900. Queen Victoria had a famous brass (and iron) one in the Crystal Palace! "Beds made of hollow tubes of steel, iron, and brass came to be manufactured in the mid 19th century.<br />
These were to be used both by soldiers and civilians. Their main advantage at that time was that unlike wooden beds, these could not be infested with bedbugs. Queen Victoria's brass bed at the Crystal Palace has been the most famous antique brass bed.<br><br />
By the late 19th century, metal beds were nearly out of fashion." Antique beds [[http://www.bestinbeds.com/beds/antique-bed.html]]<br />
<br />
Also, In The Odyssey, when Odysseus goes to the Underworld, he refers to Persephone as '''the Iron Queen'''. Of the four gods of Empedocles' elements it is the name of Persephone alone that is taboo, for the Greeks knew another face of Persephone as well. She was also the terrible Queen of the dead, whose name was not safe to speak aloud, who was named simply "The Maiden". Wikipedia<br />
[[http://www.en.wikipedia.org/Persephone]]<br />
<br />
3.07 '''crystal palace'''<br><br />
See Alpha entry, especially this re cultural meaning:<br><br />
The Crystal Palace made a strong impression on visitors coming from all over Europe, including a number of writers. It soon became a symbol of modernity and civilization, hailed by some and decried by others.<br />
<br />
In ''What Is to Be Done?'', Russian author and philosopher Nikolai Chernyshevsky pledges to transform the society into a Crystal Palace thanks to a socialist revolution.<br> <br />
Fyodor Dostoevsky implicitly replied to Chernyshevsky in ''Notes from Underground''. The narrator thinks that human nature will prefer destruction and chaos to the harmony symbolized by the Crystal Palace. <br />
<br />
When the first major international exhibition of arts and industries was held in London in 1851, the London Crystal Palace epitomized the achievements of the entire world at a time when progress was racing forward at a speed never before known to mankind. The Great Exhibition marked the beginning of a tradition of world's fairs, which would be held in major cities all across the globe. Following the success of the London fair, it was inevitable that other nations would soon try their hand at organizing their own exhibitions. In fact, the next international fair was held only two years later, in 1853, in New York City. This fair would have its own Crystal Palace to symbolize not only the achievements of the world, but also the nationalistic pride of a relatively young nation and all that she stood for. Walt Whitman, the great American poet, wrote in "The Song of the Exposition":<br><br />
http://www.ric.edu/rpotter/cryspal.html<br />
<br />
That the Crystal Palace Exhibition "marked the beginning of a tradition of world's fairs" can remind that ''Against the Day'' starts at the Columbian Exhibition of 1893 in Chicago. More international optimism.<br />
<br />
3.14 '''second sheep'''<br /><br />
Compare the narrator’s discussion of William Slothrop’s heretical tract "On Preterition," which argued for the holiness of the preterite, and Weisenburger’s note at [[Pages 549-557#555|555.29-31]].<br />
<br />
A wide symbology relates to sheep in ancient art, traditions and culture. Judaism uses many sheep references including the Passover lamb. Christianity uses sheep-related images, such as: Christ as the good shepherd, or as the sacrificed Lamb of God (Agnus Dei); the bishop's Pastoral; the lion lying down with the lamb (a reference to all of creation being at peace, without suffering, predation or otherwise). Greek Easter celebrations traditionally feature a meal of Paschal lamb. Sheep also have considerable importance in Arab culture; Eid ul-Adha is a major annual festival in Islam in which a sheep is sacrificed.<br><br />
Herding sheep plays an important historico-symbolic part in the Jewish and Christian faiths, since Abraham, Jacob, Moses, and King David all worked as shepherds. wikipedia <br />
[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sheep]<br><br />
<br />
Sheep are often associated with obedience due to the widespread perception that they lack intelligence and their undoubted herd mentality, hence the pejorative connotation of the adjective 'ovine'. In George Orwell's satirical novel ''Animal Farm'', sheep are used to represent the ignorant and uneducated masses of revolutionary Russia. The sheep are unable to be taught the subtleties of revolutionary ideology and can only be taught repetitive slogans such as "Four legs good, two legs bad" which they bleat in unison at rallies. The rock group Pink Floyd wrote a song using sheep as a symbol for ordinary people, that is, everyone who isn't a pig or dog. People who accept overbearing governments have been pejoratively referred to as "sheeple". wikipedia [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sheep]<br><br />
<br />
3.19 '''half-silvered'''<br><br />
adj. (of a mirror) having an incomplete reflective coating, so that half the incident light is reflected and half transmitted: used in optical instruments and two-way mirrors. Collins Dictionary<br><br />
See the splitting of light all through ''Against the Day'', Pynchon's 2006<br />
novel.<br />
<br />
3.19 '''view finder'''<br><br />
as two words, this seems to refer to handheld devices in which slides were slid and viewed in 3-dimensions. Here is a version still being made <br />
[http://porters.com/Merchant2/merchant.mvc?Screen=PROD&Store_Code=PCS&Product_Code=520098&Product_Count=&Category_Code= view finder].<br> "half-silvered" above seems most correct with this kind of device. <br />
<br />
3.22 '''They pass in line'''<br><br />
A Pynchonian leitmotif. The linearity of lining up has resonances throughout his work, articulated most straightforwardly in ''Against the Day'', which starts with "Single up all Lines!", and perhaps dealt with<br />
most profoundly in ''Mason & Dixon'', a novel about creating the "Mason & Dixon line".<br />
<br />
3.25 '''Rain comes down'''<br><br />
Pynchon's first published story is called ''The Small Rain''. See his remarks on rain in fiction in ''Slow Learner''.<br />
<br />
3.30 '''naptha winters'''<br><br />
Naptha is the flammable liquid obtained from the distillation of coal and used to fire gaslights and heaters. ...<br />
<br />
3.32 '''rolling-stock absence'''<br><br />
Rolling stock is the collective term that describes all the vehicles which move on a railway.<br />
<br />
3.35 '''Absolute Zero'''<br><br />
Theoretical state when no molecules move. [http://www.pa.msu.edu/sciencet/ask_st/012992.html..Absolute Zero]. State<br />
of entropy, a key concept of Thomas Pynchon's. See early story, ''Entropy'' in ''Slow Learner''.<br />
<br />
3.36 '''places whose ''names he has never heard'''''<br><br />
'secret cities of poor', deep under these fallen girders. Places<br />
that have never been spoken of, yet exist. Lower than ''Low-lands''.<br><br />
Later in Pynchon's world,in other books, ''Mason & Dixon'' and ''Against the Day'', we will travel deeper underground, to places with no names we know, it seems. See a "progressive ''knotting into''", 3.26 in GR.<br />
<br />
3.37 '''the walls break down'''<br> <br />
See "wall of death" later in ''Gravity's Rainbow''. A-and in ''Against the Day''.<br />
<br />
===Page 4===<br />
4.01 '''getting narrower...cornering tighter and tighter'''<br><br />
Cf. the rationalization of choice and similar phrasing in ''Against the Day'', pynchon wiki p. [http://against-the-day.pynchonwiki.com/wiki/index.php?title=ATD_1-25 10]<br />
<br />
4.05 '''caravan'''<br><br />
1) a procession, in single file, of merchants or pilgrims<br />
2) a procession of mules, camels or certain other animals. Sources: Online dictionary and wikipedia.<br> 3) ''Caravan'' is a song by Van Morrison included on his 1970 album, ''Moondance''. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Caravan_%28Van_Morrison_song%29 Caravan]<br><br />
Pilgrim has Pynchonian resonances, especially in ''Against the Day''.<br> A-And, once again, notice the singleing up of lines.<br />
<br />
4.07 '''cockade'''<br><br />
1) n. An ornament, such as a rosette or knot of ribbon, usually worn on the hat as a badge. [Alteration of obsolete cockard , from French.]<br><br />
<br />
2) Operational code name for Allied deception operations intended to draw attention away from Normandy prior to D-Day<br />
[http://www.secondworldwar.co.uk/glossc.html]<br />
<br />
Cf. pun: cock aid, esp. as Slothrop's 'condition' within ''Gravity's Rainbow'' is revealed.<br />
<br />
4.07 '''the color of lead'''<br><br />
cockades are usually brightly colored. Lead is not. <br><br />
<br />
Lead is a malleable toxic metallic element, bluish-white in color that<br />
tarnishes to a dull gray. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lead Lead]<br><br />
<br />
Lead is the only currency-carrying element which does not absorb nor emit heat. Entropic, so to speak. Another resonance for "toward the zero"?<br><br />
<br />
Lead is what bullets are made of.<br />
<br />
4.12 '''corridors straight and functional'''<br><br />
More forced linearity.<br />
<br />
==Page 5==<br />
5.03 '''His name is Capt. Geoffrey ("Pirate") Prentice.'''<br /><br />
Pirate’s name derives from Gilbert and Sullivan’s operetta ''The Pirates of Penzance'', in which the hero’s nurse has made a fateful error in carrying out her employer’s instructions: Instead of having the boy apprenticed to a (ship’s) '''pilot''', he was apprenticed to a pirate, hence a "'''pirate''' ‘prentice." The name, though, is not simply a fortuitous pun: In her error, the nurse has lost a message, like the hare of Herero myth, and thus guaranteed her young charge’s preterition. (There are also connections here to the theme of "communications entropy," which is central to ''The Crying of Lot 49'' and the short story "Entropy.")<br />
<br />
5.03 '''all got scumbled together, eventually, by the knives of the seasons, to an impasto, feet thick, of unbelievable black topsoil'''<br /><br />
<br />
Didn't notice 'scumbled' first time round, I was going too fast. Second<br />
read I looked it up. Scumbled? Isn't that some sort of painting<br />
[technique? Pynchon make a mistake there? Mean to say scrambled?<br />
Hmmmmmmmm. Then I thought of the 'knives' bit, wondered if artists might<br />
use a [http://painting.about.com/od/paintingforbeginners/a/Painting_Knife.htm palette knife] to do this scumbling business. A Google search for<br />
"scumble knife palette " found me this:<br />
<br />
http://www.messums.com/sub_newsview.ink?nid=11191<br />
<br />
"Hard impasto ridges left by the edge of the knife provided the texture<br />
I needed to bring the waves crashing in."<br />
<br />
[http://www.thefreedictionary.com/impasto Impasto] eh? I thought that just meant paste. So the knives in "knives of<br />
the seasons" makes perfect sense. And Dictionary.com throws up another<br />
interesting nugget:<br />
<br />
http://dictionary.reference.com/search?q=scumbled<br />
<br />
A-and the wonderful phrase, "knives of the seasons" embodies another lifelong deep theme in Pynchon's work: that the 'wheeling' of time [see later in ''Gravity's Rainbow'' and ''Against the Day''], the cycle of nature, is an ineluctable good thing, even as it knifes us, ravages, us. It thickens us, impasto-like, gives us topsoil in our characters, so to speak.<br />
<br />
"To blur the outlines of: a writer who scumbled the line that divides<br />
history and fiction." <br />
<br />
Apt example!<br />
<br />
<br />
<br /><br />
<br />
==Page 6==<br />
<br />
[[image:dna-molecule.jpg|thumb|100px|right]]6.09 '''a spiral ladder'''<br /><br />
Suggests the double-helix structure of the DNA molecule that preserves the "living genetic chains" evoked at [[Pages 7-16#10|10.14]].<br><br />
"Mandala" is an ancient Sanskrit word meaning "sacred circle that protects the soul." It also refers to the sacred cosmograms that serve as core symbols of all cultures. Westerners have been fascinated for centuries about the mandalas of the Hindu-Buddhist cultures of Asia, most often painted geometric diagrams of great beauty and sophistication, that draw the viewer into a realm of balance, harmony, and calm. But such diagrams are actually architectural blueprints of the purified realm of bliss that we can only realize through enlightenment. They represent three-dimensional spaces of personal and communal exaltation, palaces for the regal confidence of love, compassion, and universal satisfaction of self and other. Understanding their role in anchoring the world-picture of a culture or a person provides a new insight into the "mandalas" of our own culture – the national space anchored by the Washington monument and its environs, or the personal cosmological space anchored by the models of the solar system, '''the DNA double-helix molecule''', and the atom.<br><br />
<br />
A recent scientific magazine also had an essay[citation needed] on the similarity of the double-helix sructure and the structure of the mandala. A-and, GR, containing mandalas, has been argued to be structured like a mandala. SPOILER of upcoming GR tropes: "Slothrop finds mandalas, sees mandalas in the sky and all around him, and becomes a mandala himself".<br />
"mandalas are part of a spiritual or mythic panoply"...<br />
From ''Thomas Pynchon, The Art of Illusion'' by David Cowart, p. 126.<br />
<br />
Cf. p. 209, ''Mason & Dixon'': " oblique angles with all meridians and that is a spiral coiling round the poles but never reaching them."...<br />
<br />
==Page 7==<br />
7.09 '''Pick bananas'''<br><br />
Pirate's decision after a paragraph on the inevitablity of the rocket's flight can remind one of a famous Buddhist sutra on picking a strawberry:<br />
The Sweetest Strawberry<br><br />
Buddha told a parable in a sutra:<br><br />
A man traveling across a field encountered a tiger. He fled, the tiger after him. Coming to a precipice, he caught hold of the root of a wild vine and swung himself down over the edge. The tiger sniffed at him from above. Trembling, the man looked down to where, far below, another tiger was waiting to eat him. Only the vine sustained him. Two mice, one white and one black, little by little started to gnaw away the vine. The man saw a luscious strawberry near him. Grasping the vine with one hand, he plucked the strawberry with the other. How sweet it tasted!<br><br />
-Paul Reps, ''Zen Flesh, Zen Bones''<br><br />
from ''Everyday Mind'', edited by Jean Smith <br />
[[http://www.tricycle.com/issues/2_174/dailydharma/3192-1.html]]<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
{{GR PbP}}</div>MKOHUThttps://gravitys-rainbow.pynchonwiki.com/wiki/index.php?title=Pages_3-7&diff=2483Pages 3-72007-10-18T15:02:33Z<p>MKOHUT: </p>
<hr />
<div>{{GR PbP Text}}<br />
<br />
==Page 3==<br />
<br />
3.03 '''The Evacuation'''<br><br />
First instance in ''Gravity's Rainbow'' of a lifetime stylistic trait of Pynchon's: unpredictable use of Capitalization. Capitalization is usually applied to nouns, but not uniformly. Often a matter of emphasis. See ''Mason & Dixon'' for the widest use, there imitating the writing of the time in which the book is set.<br><br />
The use throughout all his work might indicate how well-read and influenced by works written before capitalization was standardized Pynchon is.<br><br />
The full rules of capitalization for English are complicated. The rules have also changed over time, generally to capitalize fewer terms; to the modern reader, an 18th century document seems to use initial capitals excessively. Wikipedia<br />
<br />
3.03 '''theatre'''<br><br />
Besides the normal meanings, including "theater of war", 'theatre' is the name that fireworks' organizers call a sky display.<br />
<br />
3.05 '''iron queen'''<br><br />
a queensize bed made of iron. Hardly made after 1900. Queen Victoria had a famous brass (and iron) one in the Crystal Palace! "Beds made of hollow tubes of steel, iron, and brass came to be manufactured in the mid 19th century.<br />
These were to be used both by soldiers and civilians. Their main advantage at that time was that unlike wooden beds, these could not be infested with bedbugs. Queen Victoria's brass bed at the Crystal Palace has been the most famous antique brass bed.<br><br />
By the late 19th century, metal beds were nearly out of fashion." Antique beds [[http://www.bestinbeds.com/beds/antique-bed.html]]<br />
<br />
Also, In The Odyssey, when Odysseus goes to the Underworld, he refers to Persephone as '''the Iron Queen'''. Of the four gods of Empedocles' elements it is the name of Persephone alone that is taboo, for the Greeks knew another face of Persephone as well. She was also the terrible Queen of the dead, whose name was not safe to speak aloud, who was named simply "The Maiden". Wikipedia<br />
[[http://www.en.wikipedia.org/Persephone]]<br />
<br />
3.07 '''crystal palace'''<br><br />
See Alpha entry, especially this re cultural meaning:<br><br />
The Crystal Palace made a strong impression on visitors coming from all over Europe, including a number of writers. It soon became a symbol of modernity and civilization, hailed by some and decried by others.<br />
<br />
In ''What Is to Be Done?'', Russian author and philosopher Nikolai Chernyshevsky pledges to transform the society into a Crystal Palace thanks to a socialist revolution.<br> <br />
Fyodor Dostoevsky implicitly replied to Chernyshevsky in ''Notes from Underground''. The narrator thinks that human nature will prefer destruction and chaos to the harmony symbolized by the Crystal Palace. <br />
<br />
When the first major international exhibition of arts and industries was held in London in 1851, the London Crystal Palace epitomized the achievements of the entire world at a time when progress was racing forward at a speed never before known to mankind. The Great Exhibition marked the beginning of a tradition of world's fairs, which would be held in major cities all across the globe. Following the success of the London fair, it was inevitable that other nations would soon try their hand at organizing their own exhibitions. In fact, the next international fair was held only two years later, in 1853, in New York City. This fair would have its own Crystal Palace to symbolize not only the achievements of the world, but also the nationalistic pride of a relatively young nation and all that she stood for. Walt Whitman, the great American poet, wrote in "The Song of the Exposition":<br><br />
http://www.ric.edu/rpotter/cryspal.html<br />
<br />
That the Crystal Palace Exhibition "marked the beginning of a tradition of world's fairs" can remind that ''Against the Day'' starts at the Columbian Exhibition of 1893 in Chicago. More international optimism.<br />
<br />
3.14 '''second sheep'''<br /><br />
Compare the narrator’s discussion of William Slothrop’s heretical tract "On Preterition," which argued for the holiness of the preterite, and Weisenburger’s note at [[Pages 549-557#555|555.29-31]].<br />
<br />
A wide symbology relates to sheep in ancient art, traditions and culture. Judaism uses many sheep references including the Passover lamb. Christianity uses sheep-related images, such as: Christ as the good shepherd, or as the sacrificed Lamb of God (Agnus Dei); the bishop's Pastoral; the lion lying down with the lamb (a reference to all of creation being at peace, without suffering, predation or otherwise). Greek Easter celebrations traditionally feature a meal of Paschal lamb. Sheep also have considerable importance in Arab culture; Eid ul-Adha is a major annual festival in Islam in which a sheep is sacrificed.<br><br />
Herding sheep plays an important historico-symbolic part in the Jewish and Christian faiths, since Abraham, Jacob, Moses, and King David all worked as shepherds. wikipedia <br />
[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sheep]<br><br />
<br />
Sheep are often associated with obedience due to the widespread perception that they lack intelligence and their undoubted herd mentality, hence the pejorative connotation of the adjective 'ovine'. In George Orwell's satirical novel ''Animal Farm'', sheep are used to represent the ignorant and uneducated masses of revolutionary Russia. The sheep are unable to be taught the subtleties of revolutionary ideology and can only be taught repetitive slogans such as "Four legs good, two legs bad" which they bleat in unison at rallies. The rock group Pink Floyd wrote a song using sheep as a symbol for ordinary people, that is, everyone who isn't a pig or dog. People who accept overbearing governments have been pejoratively referred to as "sheeple". wikipedia [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sheep]<br><br />
<br />
3.19 '''half-silvered'''<br><br />
adj. (of a mirror) having an incomplete reflective coating, so that half the incident light is reflected and half transmitted: used in optical instruments and two-way mirrors. Collins Dictionary<br><br />
See the splitting of light all through ''Against the Day'', Pynchon's 2006<br />
novel.<br />
<br />
3.19 '''view finder'''<br><br />
as two words, this seems to refer to handheld devices in which slides were slid and viewed in 3-dimensions. Here is a version still being made <br />
[http://porters.com/Merchant2/merchant.mvc?Screen=PROD&Store_Code=PCS&Product_Code=520098&Product_Count=&Category_Code= view finder].<br> "half-silvered" above seems most correct with this kind of device. <br />
<br />
3.22 '''They pass in line'''<br><br />
A Pynchonian leitmotif. The linearity of lining up has resonances throughout his work, articulated most straightforwardly in ''Against the Day'', which starts with "Single up all Lines!", and perhaps dealt with<br />
most profoundly in ''Mason & Dixon'', a novel about creating the "Mason & Dixon line".<br />
<br />
3.25 '''Rain comes down'''<br><br />
Pynchon's first published story is called ''The Small Rain''. See his remarks on rain in fiction in ''Slow Learner''.<br />
<br />
3.30 '''naptha winters'''<br><br />
Naptha is the flammable liquid obtained from the distillation of coal and used to fire gaslights and heaters. ...<br />
<br />
3.32 '''rolling-stock absence'''<br><br />
Rolling stock is the collective term that describes all the vehicles which move on a railway.<br />
<br />
3.35 '''Absolute Zero'''<br><br />
Theoretical state when no molecules move. [http://www.pa.msu.edu/sciencet/ask_st/012992.html..Absolute Zero]. State<br />
of entropy, a key concept of Thomas Pynchon's. See early story, ''Entropy'' in ''Slow Learner''.<br />
<br />
3.36 '''places whose ''names he has never heard'''''<br><br />
'secret cities of poor', deep under these fallen girders. Places<br />
that have never been spoken of, yet exist. Lower than ''Low-lands''.<br><br />
Later in Pynchon's world,in other books, ''Mason & Dixon'' and ''Against the Day'', we will travel deeper underground, to places with no names we know, it seems. See a "progressive ''knotting into''", 3.26 in GR.<br />
<br />
3.37 '''the walls break down'''<br> <br />
See "wall of death" later in ''Gravity's Rainbow''. A-and in ''Against the Day''.<br />
<br />
===Page 4===<br />
4.01 '''getting narrower...cornering tighter and tighter'''<br><br />
Cf. the rationalization of choice and similar phrasing in ''Against the Day'', pynchon wiki p. [http://against-the-day.pynchonwiki.com/wiki/index.php?title=ATD_1-25 10]<br />
<br />
4.05 '''caravan'''<br><br />
1) a procession, in single file, of merchants or pilgrims<br />
2) a procession of mules, camels or certain other animals. Sources: Online dictionary and wikipedia.<br> 3) ''Caravan'' is a song by Van Morrison included on his 1970 album, ''Moondance''. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Caravan_%28Van_Morrison_song%29 Caravan]<br><br />
Pilgrim has Pynchonian resonances, especially in ''Against the Day''.<br> A-And, once again, notice the singleing up of lines.<br />
<br />
4.07 '''cockade'''<br><br />
1) n. An ornament, such as a rosette or knot of ribbon, usually worn on the hat as a badge. [Alteration of obsolete cockard , from French.]<br><br />
<br />
2) Operational code name for Allied deception operations intended to draw attention away from Normandy prior to D-Day<br />
[http://www.secondworldwar.co.uk/glossc.html]<br />
<br />
Cf. pun: cock aid, esp. as Slothrop's 'condition' within ''Gravity's Rainbow'' is revealed.<br />
<br />
4.07 '''the color of lead'''<br><br />
cockades are usually brightly colored. Lead is not. <br><br />
<br />
Lead is a malleable toxic metallic element, bluish-white in color that<br />
tarnishes to a dull gray. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lead Lead]<br><br />
<br />
Lead is the only currency-carrying element which does not absorb nor emit heat. Entropic, so to speak. Another resonance for "toward the zero"?<br><br />
<br />
Lead is what bullets are made of.<br />
<br />
4.12 '''corridors straight and functional'''<br><br />
More forced linearity.<br />
<br />
==Page 5==<br />
5.03 '''His name is Capt. Geoffrey ("Pirate") Prentice.'''<br /><br />
Pirate’s name derives from Gilbert and Sullivan’s operetta ''The Pirates of Penzance'', in which the hero’s nurse has made a fateful error in carrying out her employer’s instructions: Instead of having the boy apprenticed to a (ship’s) '''pilot''', he was apprenticed to a pirate, hence a "'''pirate''' ‘prentice." The name, though, is not simply a fortuitous pun: In her error, the nurse has lost a message, like the hare of Herero myth, and thus guaranteed her young charge’s preterition. (There are also connections here to the theme of "communications entropy," which is central to ''The Crying of Lot 49'' and the short story "Entropy.")<br />
<br />
5.03 '''all got scumbled together, eventually, by the knives of the seasons, to an impasto, feet thick, of unbelievable black topsoil'''<br /><br />
<br />
Didn't notice 'scumbled' first time round, I was going too fast. Second<br />
read I looked it up. Scumbled? Isn't that some sort of painting<br />
[technique? Pynchon make a mistake there? Mean to say scrambled?<br />
Hmmmmmmmm. Then I thought of the 'knives' bit, wondered if artists might<br />
use a [http://painting.about.com/od/paintingforbeginners/a/Painting_Knife.htm palette knife] to do this scumbling business. A Google search for<br />
"scumble knife palette " found me this:<br />
<br />
http://www.messums.com/sub_newsview.ink?nid=11191<br />
<br />
"Hard impasto ridges left by the edge of the knife provided the texture<br />
I needed to bring the waves crashing in."<br />
<br />
[http://www.thefreedictionary.com/impasto Impasto] eh? I thought that just meant paste. So the knives in "knives of<br />
the seasons" makes perfect sense. And Dictionary.com throws up another<br />
interesting nugget:<br />
<br />
http://dictionary.reference.com/search?q=scumbled<br />
<br />
A-and the wonderful phrase, "knives of the seasons" embodies another lifelong deep theme in Pynchon's work: that the 'wheeling' of time [see later in ''Gravity's Rainbow'' and ''Against the Day''], the cycle of nature, is an ineluctable good thing, even as it knifes us, ravages, us. It thickens us, impasto-like, gives us topsoil in our characters, so to speak.<br />
<br />
"To blur the outlines of: a writer who scumbled the line that divides<br />
history and fiction." <br />
<br />
Apt example!<br />
<br />
<br />
<br /><br />
<br />
==Page 6==<br />
<br />
[[image:dna-molecule.jpg|thumb|100px|right]]6.09 '''a spiral ladder'''<br /><br />
Suggests the double-helix structure of the DNA molecule that preserves the "living genetic chains" evoked at [[Pages 7-16#10|10.14]].<br><br />
A recent scientific magazine [citation needed] had an essay on the similarity of the double-helix sructure and the structure of the mandala. A-and, GR, containing mandalas, has been argued to be structured like a mandala. SPOILER of upcoming GR tropes: "Slothrop finds mandalas, sees mandalas in the sky and all around him, and becomes a mandala himself".<br />
"mandalas are part of a spiritual or mythic panoply"...<br />
From ''Thomas Pynchon, The Art of Illusion'' by David Cowart, p. 126.<br />
<br />
Cf. p. 209, ''Mason & Dixon'': " oblique angles with all meridians and that is a spiral coiling round the poles but never reaching them."...<br />
<br />
==Page 7==<br />
7.09 '''Pick bananas'''<br><br />
Pirate's decision after a paragraph on the inevitablity of the rocket's flight can remind one of a famous Buddhist sutra on picking a strawberry:<br />
The Sweetest Strawberry<br><br />
Buddha told a parable in a sutra:<br><br />
A man traveling across a field encountered a tiger. He fled, the tiger after him. Coming to a precipice, he caught hold of the root of a wild vine and swung himself down over the edge. The tiger sniffed at him from above. Trembling, the man looked down to where, far below, another tiger was waiting to eat him. Only the vine sustained him. Two mice, one white and one black, little by little started to gnaw away the vine. The man saw a luscious strawberry near him. Grasping the vine with one hand, he plucked the strawberry with the other. How sweet it tasted!<br><br />
-Paul Reps, ''Zen Flesh, Zen Bones''<br><br />
from ''Everyday Mind'', edited by Jean Smith <br />
[[http://www.tricycle.com/issues/2_174/dailydharma/3192-1.html]]<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
{{GR PbP}}</div>MKOHUThttps://gravitys-rainbow.pynchonwiki.com/wiki/index.php?title=Pages_3-7&diff=2482Pages 3-72007-10-18T14:38:08Z<p>MKOHUT: /* Page 6 */</p>
<hr />
<div>{{GR PbP Text}}<br />
<br />
==Page 3==<br />
<br />
3.03 '''The Evacuation'''<br><br />
First instance in ''Gravity's Rainbow'' of a lifetime stylistic trait of Pynchon's: unpredictable use of Capitalization. Capitalization is usually applied to nouns, but not uniformly. Often a matter of emphasis. See ''Mason & Dixon'' for the widest use, there imitating the writing of the time in which the book is set.<br><br />
The use throughout all his work might indicate how well-read and influenced by works written before capitalization was standardized Pynchon is.<br><br />
The full rules of capitalization for English are complicated. The rules have also changed over time, generally to capitalize fewer terms; to the modern reader, an 18th century document seems to use initial capitals excessively. Wikipedia<br />
<br />
3.03 '''theatre'''<br><br />
Besides the normal meanings, including "theater of war", 'theatre' is the name that fireworks' organizers call a sky display.<br />
<br />
3.05 '''iron queen'''<br><br />
a queensize bed made of iron. Hardly made after 1900. Queen Victoria had a famous brass (and iron) one in the Crystal Palace! "Beds made of hollow tubes of steel, iron, and brass came to be manufactured in the mid 19th century.<br />
These were to be used both by soldiers and civilians. Their main advantage at that time was that unlike wooden beds, these could not be infested with bedbugs. Queen Victoria's brass bed at the Crystal Palace has been the most famous antique brass bed.<br><br />
By the late 19th century, metal beds were nearly out of fashion." Antique beds [[http://www.bestinbeds.com/beds/antique-bed.html]]<br />
<br />
Also, In The Odyssey, when Odysseus goes to the Underworld, he refers to Persephone as '''the Iron Queen'''. Of the four gods of Empedocles' elements it is the name of Persephone alone that is taboo, for the Greeks knew another face of Persephone as well. She was also the terrible Queen of the dead, whose name was not safe to speak aloud, who was named simply "The Maiden". Wikipedia<br />
[[http://www.en.wikipedia.org/Persephone]]<br />
<br />
3.07 '''crystal palace'''<br><br />
See Alpha entry, especially this re cultural meaning:<br><br />
The Crystal Palace made a strong impression on visitors coming from all over Europe, including a number of writers. It soon became a symbol of modernity and civilization, hailed by some and decried by others.<br />
<br />
In ''What Is to Be Done?'', Russian author and philosopher Nikolai Chernyshevsky pledges to transform the society into a Crystal Palace thanks to a socialist revolution.<br> <br />
Fyodor Dostoevsky implicitly replied to Chernyshevsky in ''Notes from Underground''. The narrator thinks that human nature will prefer destruction and chaos to the harmony symbolized by the Crystal Palace. <br />
<br />
When the first major international exhibition of arts and industries was held in London in 1851, the London Crystal Palace epitomized the achievements of the entire world at a time when progress was racing forward at a speed never before known to mankind. The Great Exhibition marked the beginning of a tradition of world's fairs, which would be held in major cities all across the globe. Following the success of the London fair, it was inevitable that other nations would soon try their hand at organizing their own exhibitions. In fact, the next international fair was held only two years later, in 1853, in New York City. This fair would have its own Crystal Palace to symbolize not only the achievements of the world, but also the nationalistic pride of a relatively young nation and all that she stood for. Walt Whitman, the great American poet, wrote in "The Song of the Exposition":<br><br />
http://www.ric.edu/rpotter/cryspal.html<br />
<br />
That the Crystal Palace Exhibition "marked the beginning of a tradition of world's fairs" can remind that ''Against the Day'' starts at the Columbian Exhibition of 1893 in Chicago. More international optimism.<br />
<br />
3.14 '''second sheep'''<br /><br />
Compare the narrator’s discussion of William Slothrop’s heretical tract "On Preterition," which argued for the holiness of the preterite, and Weisenburger’s note at [[Pages 549-557#555|555.29-31]].<br />
<br />
A wide symbology relates to sheep in ancient art, traditions and culture. Judaism uses many sheep references including the Passover lamb. Christianity uses sheep-related images, such as: Christ as the good shepherd, or as the sacrificed Lamb of God (Agnus Dei); the bishop's Pastoral; the lion lying down with the lamb (a reference to all of creation being at peace, without suffering, predation or otherwise). Greek Easter celebrations traditionally feature a meal of Paschal lamb. Sheep also have considerable importance in Arab culture; Eid ul-Adha is a major annual festival in Islam in which a sheep is sacrificed.<br><br />
Herding sheep plays an important historico-symbolic part in the Jewish and Christian faiths, since Abraham, Jacob, Moses, and King David all worked as shepherds. wikipedia <br />
[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sheep]<br><br />
<br />
Sheep are often associated with obedience due to the widespread perception that they lack intelligence and their undoubted herd mentality, hence the pejorative connotation of the adjective 'ovine'. In George Orwell's satirical novel ''Animal Farm'', sheep are used to represent the ignorant and uneducated masses of revolutionary Russia. The sheep are unable to be taught the subtleties of revolutionary ideology and can only be taught repetitive slogans such as "Four legs good, two legs bad" which they bleat in unison at rallies. The rock group Pink Floyd wrote a song using sheep as a symbol for ordinary people, that is, everyone who isn't a pig or dog. People who accept overbearing governments have been pejoratively referred to as "sheeple". wikipedia [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sheep]<br><br />
<br />
3.19 '''half-silvered'''<br><br />
adj. (of a mirror) having an incomplete reflective coating, so that half the incident light is reflected and half transmitted: used in optical instruments and two-way mirrors. Collins Dictionary<br><br />
See the splitting of light all through ''Against the Day'', Pynchon's 2006<br />
novel.<br />
<br />
3.19 '''view finder'''<br><br />
as two words, this seems to refer to handheld devices in which slides were slid and viewed in 3-dimensions. Here is a version still being made <br />
[http://porters.com/Merchant2/merchant.mvc?Screen=PROD&Store_Code=PCS&Product_Code=520098&Product_Count=&Category_Code= view finder].<br> "half-silvered" above seems most correct with this kind of device. <br />
<br />
3.22 '''They pass in line'''<br><br />
A Pynchonian leitmotif. The linearity of lining up has resonances throughout his work, articulated most straightforwardly in ''Against the Day'', which starts with "Single up all Lines!", and perhaps dealt with<br />
most profoundly in ''Mason & Dixon'', a novel about creating the "Mason & Dixon line".<br />
<br />
3.25 '''Rain comes down'''<br><br />
Pynchon's first published story is called ''The Small Rain''. See his remarks on rain in fiction in ''Slow Learner''.<br />
<br />
3.30 '''naptha winters'''<br><br />
Naptha is the flammable liquid obtained from the distillation of coal and used to fire gaslights and heaters. ...<br />
<br />
3.32 '''rolling-stock absence'''<br><br />
Rolling stock is the collective term that describes all the vehicles which move on a railway.<br />
<br />
3.35 '''Absolute Zero'''<br><br />
Theoretical state when no molecules move. [http://www.pa.msu.edu/sciencet/ask_st/012992.html..Absolute Zero]. State<br />
of entropy, a key concept of Thomas Pynchon's. See early story, ''Entropy'' in ''Slow Learner''.<br />
<br />
3.36 '''places whose ''names he has never heard'''''<br><br />
'secret cities of poor', deep under these fallen girders. Places<br />
that have never been spoken of, yet exist. Lower than ''Low-lands''.<br><br />
Later in Pynchon's world,in other books, ''Mason & Dixon'' and ''Against the Day'', we will travel deeper underground, to places with no names we know, it seems. See a "progressive ''knotting into''", 3.26 in GR.<br />
<br />
3.37 '''the walls break down'''<br> <br />
See "wall of death" later in ''Gravity's Rainbow''. A-and in ''Against the Day''.<br />
<br />
===Page 4===<br />
4.01 '''getting narrower...cornering tighter and tighter'''<br><br />
Cf. the rationalization of choice and similar phrasing in ''Against the Day'', pynchon wiki p. [http://against-the-day.pynchonwiki.com/wiki/index.php?title=ATD_1-25 10]<br />
<br />
4.05 '''caravan'''<br><br />
1) a procession, in single file, of merchants or pilgrims<br />
2) a procession of mules, camels or certain other animals. Sources: Online dictionary and wikipedia.<br> 3) ''Caravan'' is a song by Van Morrison included on his 1970 album, ''Moondance''. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Caravan_%28Van_Morrison_song%29 Caravan]<br><br />
Pilgrim has Pynchonian resonances, especially in ''Against the Day''.<br> A-And, once again, notice the singleing up of lines.<br />
<br />
4.07 '''cockade'''<br><br />
1) n. An ornament, such as a rosette or knot of ribbon, usually worn on the hat as a badge. [Alteration of obsolete cockard , from French.]<br><br />
<br />
2) Operational code name for Allied deception operations intended to draw attention away from Normandy prior to D-Day<br />
[http://www.secondworldwar.co.uk/glossc.html]<br />
<br />
Cf. pun: cock aid, esp. as Slothrop's 'condition' within ''Gravity's Rainbow'' is revealed.<br />
<br />
4.07 '''the color of lead'''<br><br />
cockades are usually brightly colored. Lead is not. <br><br />
<br />
Lead is a malleable toxic metallic element, bluish-white in color that<br />
tarnishes to a dull gray. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lead Lead]<br><br />
<br />
Lead is the only currency-carrying element which does not absorb nor emit heat. Entropic, so to speak. Another resonance for "toward the zero"?<br><br />
<br />
Lead is what bullets are made of.<br />
<br />
4.12 '''corridors straight and functional'''<br><br />
More forced linearity.<br />
<br />
==Page 5==<br />
5.03 '''His name is Capt. Geoffrey ("Pirate") Prentice.'''<br /><br />
Pirate’s name derives from Gilbert and Sullivan’s operetta ''The Pirates of Penzance'', in which the hero’s nurse has made a fateful error in carrying out her employer’s instructions: Instead of having the boy apprenticed to a (ship’s) '''pilot''', he was apprenticed to a pirate, hence a "'''pirate''' ‘prentice." The name, though, is not simply a fortuitous pun: In her error, the nurse has lost a message, like the hare of Herero myth, and thus guaranteed her young charge’s preterition. (There are also connections here to the theme of "communications entropy," which is central to ''The Crying of Lot 49'' and the short story "Entropy.")<br />
<br />
5.03 '''all got scumbled together, eventually, by the knives of the seasons, to an impasto, feet thick, of unbelievable black topsoil'''<br /><br />
<br />
Didn't notice 'scumbled' first time round, I was going too fast. Second<br />
read I looked it up. Scumbled? Isn't that some sort of painting<br />
[technique? Pynchon make a mistake there? Mean to say scrambled?<br />
Hmmmmmmmm. Then I thought of the 'knives' bit, wondered if artists might<br />
use a [http://painting.about.com/od/paintingforbeginners/a/Painting_Knife.htm palette knife] to do this scumbling business. A Google search for<br />
"scumble knife palette " found me this:<br />
<br />
http://www.messums.com/sub_newsview.ink?nid=11191<br />
<br />
"Hard impasto ridges left by the edge of the knife provided the texture<br />
I needed to bring the waves crashing in."<br />
<br />
[http://www.thefreedictionary.com/impasto Impasto] eh? I thought that just meant paste. So the knives in "knives of<br />
the seasons" makes perfect sense. And Dictionary.com throws up another<br />
interesting nugget:<br />
<br />
http://dictionary.reference.com/search?q=scumbled<br />
<br />
A-and the wonderful phrase, "knives of the seasons" embodies another lifelong deep theme in Pynchon's work: that the 'wheeling' of time [see later in ''Gravity's Rainbow'' and ''Against the Day''], the cycle of nature, is an ineluctable good thing, even as it knifes us, ravages, us. It thickens us, impasto-like, gives us topsoil in our characters, so to speak.<br />
<br />
"To blur the outlines of: a writer who scumbled the line that divides<br />
history and fiction." <br />
<br />
Apt example!<br />
<br />
<br />
<br /><br />
<br />
==Page 6==<br />
<br />
[[image:dna-molecule.jpg|thumb|100px|right]]6.09 '''a spiral ladder'''<br /><br />
Suggests the double-helix structure of the DNA molecule that preserves the "living genetic chains" evoked at [[Pages 7-16#10|10.14]].<br><br />
A recent scientific magazine [citation needed] had an essay on the similarity of the double-helix sructure and the structure of the mandala. A-and, GR, containing mandalas, has been argued to be structured like a mandala. SPOILER of upcoming GR tropes: "Slothrop finds mandalas, sees mandalas in the sky and all around him, and becomes a mandala himself".<br />
"mandalas are part of a spiritual or mythic panoply that Pynchon rather renovates than revivifies".<br />
From ''Thomas Pynchon, The Art of Illusion'' by David Cowart, p. 126.<br />
<br />
Cf. p. 209, ''Mason & Dixon'': " oblique angles with all meridians and that is a spiral coiling round the poles but never reaching them."...<br />
<br />
==Page 7==<br />
7.09 '''Pick bananas'''<br><br />
Pirate's decision after a paragraph on the inevitablity of the rocket's flight can remind one of a famous Buddhist sutra on picking a strawberry:<br />
The Sweetest Strawberry<br><br />
Buddha told a parable in a sutra:<br><br />
A man traveling across a field encountered a tiger. He fled, the tiger after him. Coming to a precipice, he caught hold of the root of a wild vine and swung himself down over the edge. The tiger sniffed at him from above. Trembling, the man looked down to where, far below, another tiger was waiting to eat him. Only the vine sustained him. Two mice, one white and one black, little by little started to gnaw away the vine. The man saw a luscious strawberry near him. Grasping the vine with one hand, he plucked the strawberry with the other. How sweet it tasted!<br><br />
-Paul Reps, ''Zen Flesh, Zen Bones''<br><br />
from ''Everyday Mind'', edited by Jean Smith <br />
[[http://www.tricycle.com/issues/2_174/dailydharma/3192-1.html]]<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
{{GR PbP}}</div>MKOHUThttps://gravitys-rainbow.pynchonwiki.com/wiki/index.php?title=Pages_3-7&diff=2481Pages 3-72007-10-14T23:48:11Z<p>MKOHUT: /* Page 6 */</p>
<hr />
<div>{{GR PbP Text}}<br />
<br />
==Page 3==<br />
<br />
3.03 '''The Evacuation'''<br><br />
First instance in ''Gravity's Rainbow'' of a lifetime stylistic trait of Pynchon's: unpredictable use of Capitalization. Capitalization is usually applied to nouns, but not uniformly. Often a matter of emphasis. See ''Mason & Dixon'' for the widest use, there imitating the writing of the time in which the book is set.<br><br />
The use throughout all his work might indicate how well-read and influenced by works written before capitalization was standardized Pynchon is.<br><br />
The full rules of capitalization for English are complicated. The rules have also changed over time, generally to capitalize fewer terms; to the modern reader, an 18th century document seems to use initial capitals excessively. Wikipedia<br />
<br />
3.03 '''theatre'''<br><br />
Besides the normal meanings, including "theater of war", 'theatre' is the name that fireworks' organizers call a sky display.<br />
<br />
3.05 '''iron queen'''<br><br />
a queensize bed made of iron. Hardly made after 1900. Queen Victoria had a famous brass (and iron) one in the Crystal Palace! "Beds made of hollow tubes of steel, iron, and brass came to be manufactured in the mid 19th century.<br />
These were to be used both by soldiers and civilians. Their main advantage at that time was that unlike wooden beds, these could not be infested with bedbugs. Queen Victoria's brass bed at the Crystal Palace has been the most famous antique brass bed.<br><br />
By the late 19th century, metal beds were nearly out of fashion." Antique beds [[http://www.bestinbeds.com/beds/antique-bed.html]]<br />
<br />
Also, In The Odyssey, when Odysseus goes to the Underworld, he refers to Persephone as '''the Iron Queen'''. Of the four gods of Empedocles' elements it is the name of Persephone alone that is taboo, for the Greeks knew another face of Persephone as well. She was also the terrible Queen of the dead, whose name was not safe to speak aloud, who was named simply "The Maiden". Wikipedia<br />
[[http://www.en.wikipedia.org/Persephone]]<br />
<br />
3.07 '''crystal palace'''<br><br />
See Alpha entry, especially this re cultural meaning:<br><br />
The Crystal Palace made a strong impression on visitors coming from all over Europe, including a number of writers. It soon became a symbol of modernity and civilization, hailed by some and decried by others.<br />
<br />
In ''What Is to Be Done?'', Russian author and philosopher Nikolai Chernyshevsky pledges to transform the society into a Crystal Palace thanks to a socialist revolution.<br> <br />
Fyodor Dostoevsky implicitly replied to Chernyshevsky in ''Notes from Underground''. The narrator thinks that human nature will prefer destruction and chaos to the harmony symbolized by the Crystal Palace. <br />
<br />
When the first major international exhibition of arts and industries was held in London in 1851, the London Crystal Palace epitomized the achievements of the entire world at a time when progress was racing forward at a speed never before known to mankind. The Great Exhibition marked the beginning of a tradition of world's fairs, which would be held in major cities all across the globe. Following the success of the London fair, it was inevitable that other nations would soon try their hand at organizing their own exhibitions. In fact, the next international fair was held only two years later, in 1853, in New York City. This fair would have its own Crystal Palace to symbolize not only the achievements of the world, but also the nationalistic pride of a relatively young nation and all that she stood for. Walt Whitman, the great American poet, wrote in "The Song of the Exposition":<br><br />
http://www.ric.edu/rpotter/cryspal.html<br />
<br />
That the Crystal Palace Exhibition "marked the beginning of a tradition of world's fairs" can remind that ''Against the Day'' starts at the Columbian Exhibition of 1893 in Chicago. More international optimism.<br />
<br />
3.14 '''second sheep'''<br /><br />
Compare the narrator’s discussion of William Slothrop’s heretical tract "On Preterition," which argued for the holiness of the preterite, and Weisenburger’s note at [[Pages 549-557#555|555.29-31]].<br />
<br />
A wide symbology relates to sheep in ancient art, traditions and culture. Judaism uses many sheep references including the Passover lamb. Christianity uses sheep-related images, such as: Christ as the good shepherd, or as the sacrificed Lamb of God (Agnus Dei); the bishop's Pastoral; the lion lying down with the lamb (a reference to all of creation being at peace, without suffering, predation or otherwise). Greek Easter celebrations traditionally feature a meal of Paschal lamb. Sheep also have considerable importance in Arab culture; Eid ul-Adha is a major annual festival in Islam in which a sheep is sacrificed.<br><br />
Herding sheep plays an important historico-symbolic part in the Jewish and Christian faiths, since Abraham, Jacob, Moses, and King David all worked as shepherds. wikipedia <br />
[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sheep]<br><br />
<br />
Sheep are often associated with obedience due to the widespread perception that they lack intelligence and their undoubted herd mentality, hence the pejorative connotation of the adjective 'ovine'. In George Orwell's satirical novel ''Animal Farm'', sheep are used to represent the ignorant and uneducated masses of revolutionary Russia. The sheep are unable to be taught the subtleties of revolutionary ideology and can only be taught repetitive slogans such as "Four legs good, two legs bad" which they bleat in unison at rallies. The rock group Pink Floyd wrote a song using sheep as a symbol for ordinary people, that is, everyone who isn't a pig or dog. People who accept overbearing governments have been pejoratively referred to as "sheeple". wikipedia [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sheep]<br><br />
<br />
3.19 '''half-silvered'''<br><br />
adj. (of a mirror) having an incomplete reflective coating, so that half the incident light is reflected and half transmitted: used in optical instruments and two-way mirrors. Collins Dictionary<br><br />
See the splitting of light all through ''Against the Day'', Pynchon's 2006<br />
novel.<br />
<br />
3.19 '''view finder'''<br><br />
as two words, this seems to refer to handheld devices in which slides were slid and viewed in 3-dimensions. Here is a version still being made <br />
[http://porters.com/Merchant2/merchant.mvc?Screen=PROD&Store_Code=PCS&Product_Code=520098&Product_Count=&Category_Code= view finder].<br> "half-silvered" above seems most correct with this kind of device. <br />
<br />
3.22 '''They pass in line'''<br><br />
A Pynchonian leitmotif. The linearity of lining up has resonances throughout his work, articulated most straightforwardly in ''Against the Day'', which starts with "Single up all Lines!", and perhaps dealt with<br />
most profoundly in ''Mason & Dixon'', a novel about creating the "Mason & Dixon line".<br />
<br />
3.25 '''Rain comes down'''<br><br />
Pynchon's first published story is called ''The Small Rain''. See his remarks on rain in fiction in ''Slow Learner''.<br />
<br />
3.30 '''naptha winters'''<br><br />
Naptha is the flammable liquid obtained from the distillation of coal and used to fire gaslights and heaters. ...<br />
<br />
3.32 '''rolling-stock absence'''<br><br />
Rolling stock is the collective term that describes all the vehicles which move on a railway.<br />
<br />
3.35 '''Absolute Zero'''<br><br />
Theoretical state when no molecules move. [http://www.pa.msu.edu/sciencet/ask_st/012992.html..Absolute Zero]. State<br />
of entropy, a key concept of Thomas Pynchon's. See early story, ''Entropy'' in ''Slow Learner''.<br />
<br />
3.36 '''places whose ''names he has never heard'''''<br><br />
'secret cities of poor', deep under these fallen girders. Places<br />
that have never been spoken of, yet exist. Lower than ''Low-lands''.<br><br />
Later in Pynchon's world,in other books, ''Mason & Dixon'' and ''Against the Day'', we will travel deeper underground, to places with no names we know, it seems. See a "progressive ''knotting into''", 3.26 in GR.<br />
<br />
3.37 '''the walls break down'''<br> <br />
See "wall of death" later in ''Gravity's Rainbow''. A-and in ''Against the Day''.<br />
<br />
===Page 4===<br />
4.01 '''getting narrower...cornering tighter and tighter'''<br><br />
Cf. the rationalization of choice and similar phrasing in ''Against the Day'', pynchon wiki p. [http://against-the-day.pynchonwiki.com/wiki/index.php?title=ATD_1-25 10]<br />
<br />
4.05 '''caravan'''<br><br />
1) a procession, in single file, of merchants or pilgrims<br />
2) a procession of mules, camels or certain other animals. Sources: Online dictionary and wikipedia.<br> 3) ''Caravan'' is a song by Van Morrison included on his 1970 album, ''Moondance''. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Caravan_%28Van_Morrison_song%29 Caravan]<br><br />
Pilgrim has Pynchonian resonances, especially in ''Against the Day''.<br> A-And, once again, notice the singleing up of lines.<br />
<br />
4.07 '''cockade'''<br><br />
1) n. An ornament, such as a rosette or knot of ribbon, usually worn on the hat as a badge. [Alteration of obsolete cockard , from French.]<br><br />
<br />
2) Operational code name for Allied deception operations intended to draw attention away from Normandy prior to D-Day<br />
[http://www.secondworldwar.co.uk/glossc.html]<br />
<br />
Cf. pun: cock aid, esp. as Slothrop's 'condition' within ''Gravity's Rainbow'' is revealed.<br />
<br />
4.07 '''the color of lead'''<br><br />
cockades are usually brightly colored. Lead is not. <br><br />
<br />
Lead is a malleable toxic metallic element, bluish-white in color that<br />
tarnishes to a dull gray. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lead Lead]<br><br />
<br />
Lead is the only currency-carrying element which does not absorb nor emit heat. Entropic, so to speak. Another resonance for "toward the zero"?<br><br />
<br />
Lead is what bullets are made of.<br />
<br />
4.12 '''corridors straight and functional'''<br><br />
More forced linearity.<br />
<br />
==Page 5==<br />
5.03 '''His name is Capt. Geoffrey ("Pirate") Prentice.'''<br /><br />
Pirate’s name derives from Gilbert and Sullivan’s operetta ''The Pirates of Penzance'', in which the hero’s nurse has made a fateful error in carrying out her employer’s instructions: Instead of having the boy apprenticed to a (ship’s) '''pilot''', he was apprenticed to a pirate, hence a "'''pirate''' ‘prentice." The name, though, is not simply a fortuitous pun: In her error, the nurse has lost a message, like the hare of Herero myth, and thus guaranteed her young charge’s preterition. (There are also connections here to the theme of "communications entropy," which is central to ''The Crying of Lot 49'' and the short story "Entropy.")<br />
<br />
5.03 '''all got scumbled together, eventually, by the knives of the seasons, to an impasto, feet thick, of unbelievable black topsoil'''<br /><br />
<br />
Didn't notice 'scumbled' first time round, I was going too fast. Second<br />
read I looked it up. Scumbled? Isn't that some sort of painting<br />
[technique? Pynchon make a mistake there? Mean to say scrambled?<br />
Hmmmmmmmm. Then I thought of the 'knives' bit, wondered if artists might<br />
use a [http://painting.about.com/od/paintingforbeginners/a/Painting_Knife.htm palette knife] to do this scumbling business. A Google search for<br />
"scumble knife palette " found me this:<br />
<br />
http://www.messums.com/sub_newsview.ink?nid=11191<br />
<br />
"Hard impasto ridges left by the edge of the knife provided the texture<br />
I needed to bring the waves crashing in."<br />
<br />
[http://www.thefreedictionary.com/impasto Impasto] eh? I thought that just meant paste. So the knives in "knives of<br />
the seasons" makes perfect sense. And Dictionary.com throws up another<br />
interesting nugget:<br />
<br />
http://dictionary.reference.com/search?q=scumbled<br />
<br />
A-and the wonderful phrase, "knives of the seasons" embodies another lifelong deep theme in Pynchon's work: that the 'wheeling' of time [see later in ''Gravity's Rainbow'' and ''Against the Day''], the cycle of nature, is an ineluctable good thing, even as it knifes us, ravages, us. It thickens us, impasto-like, gives us topsoil in our characters, so to speak.<br />
<br />
"To blur the outlines of: a writer who scumbled the line that divides<br />
history and fiction." <br />
<br />
Apt example!<br />
<br />
<br />
<br /><br />
<br />
==Page 6==<br />
<br />
[[image:dna-molecule.jpg|thumb|100px|right]]6.09 '''a spiral ladder'''<br /><br />
Suggests the double-helix structure of the DNA molecule that preserves the "living genetic chains" evoked at [[Pages 7-16#10|10.14]].<br><br />
A recent scientific magazine [citation needed] had an essay on the similarity of the double-helix sructure and the structure of the mandala. A-and, GR, containing mandalas, has been argued to be structured like a mandala. [citation needed]<br />
<br />
Cf. p. 209, ''Mason & Dixon'': " oblique angles with all meridians and that is a spiral coiling round the poles but never reaching them."...<br />
<br />
==Page 7==<br />
7.09 '''Pick bananas'''<br><br />
Pirate's decision after a paragraph on the inevitablity of the rocket's flight can remind one of a famous Buddhist sutra on picking a strawberry:<br />
The Sweetest Strawberry<br><br />
Buddha told a parable in a sutra:<br><br />
A man traveling across a field encountered a tiger. He fled, the tiger after him. Coming to a precipice, he caught hold of the root of a wild vine and swung himself down over the edge. The tiger sniffed at him from above. Trembling, the man looked down to where, far below, another tiger was waiting to eat him. Only the vine sustained him. Two mice, one white and one black, little by little started to gnaw away the vine. The man saw a luscious strawberry near him. Grasping the vine with one hand, he plucked the strawberry with the other. How sweet it tasted!<br><br />
-Paul Reps, ''Zen Flesh, Zen Bones''<br><br />
from ''Everyday Mind'', edited by Jean Smith <br />
[[http://www.tricycle.com/issues/2_174/dailydharma/3192-1.html]]<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
{{GR PbP}}</div>MKOHUThttps://gravitys-rainbow.pynchonwiki.com/wiki/index.php?title=Pages_3-7&diff=2480Pages 3-72007-10-08T21:45:25Z<p>MKOHUT: /* Page 4 */</p>
<hr />
<div>{{GR PbP Text}}<br />
<br />
==Page 3==<br />
<br />
3.03 '''The Evacuation'''<br><br />
First instance in ''Gravity's Rainbow'' of a lifetime stylistic trait of Pynchon's: unpredictable use of Capitalization. Capitalization is usually applied to nouns, but not uniformly. Often a matter of emphasis. See ''Mason & Dixon'' for the widest use, there imitating the writing of the time in which the book is set.<br><br />
The use throughout all his work might indicate how well-read and influenced by works written before capitalization was standardized Pynchon is.<br><br />
The full rules of capitalization for English are complicated. The rules have also changed over time, generally to capitalize fewer terms; to the modern reader, an 18th century document seems to use initial capitals excessively. Wikipedia<br />
<br />
3.03 '''theatre'''<br><br />
Besides the normal meanings, including "theater of war", 'theatre' is the name that fireworks' organizers call a sky display.<br />
<br />
3.05 '''iron queen'''<br><br />
a queensize bed made of iron. Hardly made after 1900. Queen Victoria had a famous brass (and iron) one in the Crystal Palace! "Beds made of hollow tubes of steel, iron, and brass came to be manufactured in the mid 19th century.<br />
These were to be used both by soldiers and civilians. Their main advantage at that time was that unlike wooden beds, these could not be infested with bedbugs. Queen Victoria's brass bed at the Crystal Palace has been the most famous antique brass bed.<br><br />
By the late 19th century, metal beds were nearly out of fashion." Antique beds [[http://www.bestinbeds.com/beds/antique-bed.html]]<br />
<br />
Also, In The Odyssey, when Odysseus goes to the Underworld, he refers to Persephone as '''the Iron Queen'''. Of the four gods of Empedocles' elements it is the name of Persephone alone that is taboo, for the Greeks knew another face of Persephone as well. She was also the terrible Queen of the dead, whose name was not safe to speak aloud, who was named simply "The Maiden". Wikipedia<br />
[[http://www.en.wikipedia.org/Persephone]]<br />
<br />
3.07 '''crystal palace'''<br><br />
See Alpha entry, especially this re cultural meaning:<br><br />
The Crystal Palace made a strong impression on visitors coming from all over Europe, including a number of writers. It soon became a symbol of modernity and civilization, hailed by some and decried by others.<br />
<br />
In ''What Is to Be Done?'', Russian author and philosopher Nikolai Chernyshevsky pledges to transform the society into a Crystal Palace thanks to a socialist revolution.<br> <br />
Fyodor Dostoevsky implicitly replied to Chernyshevsky in ''Notes from Underground''. The narrator thinks that human nature will prefer destruction and chaos to the harmony symbolized by the Crystal Palace. <br />
<br />
When the first major international exhibition of arts and industries was held in London in 1851, the London Crystal Palace epitomized the achievements of the entire world at a time when progress was racing forward at a speed never before known to mankind. The Great Exhibition marked the beginning of a tradition of world's fairs, which would be held in major cities all across the globe. Following the success of the London fair, it was inevitable that other nations would soon try their hand at organizing their own exhibitions. In fact, the next international fair was held only two years later, in 1853, in New York City. This fair would have its own Crystal Palace to symbolize not only the achievements of the world, but also the nationalistic pride of a relatively young nation and all that she stood for. Walt Whitman, the great American poet, wrote in "The Song of the Exposition":<br><br />
http://www.ric.edu/rpotter/cryspal.html<br />
<br />
That the Crystal Palace Exhibition "marked the beginning of a tradition of world's fairs" can remind that ''Against the Day'' starts at the Columbian Exhibition of 1893 in Chicago. More international optimism.<br />
<br />
3.14 '''second sheep'''<br /><br />
Compare the narrator’s discussion of William Slothrop’s heretical tract "On Preterition," which argued for the holiness of the preterite, and Weisenburger’s note at [[Pages 549-557#555|555.29-31]].<br />
<br />
A wide symbology relates to sheep in ancient art, traditions and culture. Judaism uses many sheep references including the Passover lamb. Christianity uses sheep-related images, such as: Christ as the good shepherd, or as the sacrificed Lamb of God (Agnus Dei); the bishop's Pastoral; the lion lying down with the lamb (a reference to all of creation being at peace, without suffering, predation or otherwise). Greek Easter celebrations traditionally feature a meal of Paschal lamb. Sheep also have considerable importance in Arab culture; Eid ul-Adha is a major annual festival in Islam in which a sheep is sacrificed.<br><br />
Herding sheep plays an important historico-symbolic part in the Jewish and Christian faiths, since Abraham, Jacob, Moses, and King David all worked as shepherds. wikipedia <br />
[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sheep]<br><br />
<br />
Sheep are often associated with obedience due to the widespread perception that they lack intelligence and their undoubted herd mentality, hence the pejorative connotation of the adjective 'ovine'. In George Orwell's satirical novel ''Animal Farm'', sheep are used to represent the ignorant and uneducated masses of revolutionary Russia. The sheep are unable to be taught the subtleties of revolutionary ideology and can only be taught repetitive slogans such as "Four legs good, two legs bad" which they bleat in unison at rallies. The rock group Pink Floyd wrote a song using sheep as a symbol for ordinary people, that is, everyone who isn't a pig or dog. People who accept overbearing governments have been pejoratively referred to as "sheeple". wikipedia [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sheep]<br><br />
<br />
3.19 '''half-silvered'''<br><br />
adj. (of a mirror) having an incomplete reflective coating, so that half the incident light is reflected and half transmitted: used in optical instruments and two-way mirrors. Collins Dictionary<br><br />
See the splitting of light all through ''Against the Day'', Pynchon's 2006<br />
novel.<br />
<br />
3.19 '''view finder'''<br><br />
as two words, this seems to refer to handheld devices in which slides were slid and viewed in 3-dimensions. Here is a version still being made <br />
[http://porters.com/Merchant2/merchant.mvc?Screen=PROD&Store_Code=PCS&Product_Code=520098&Product_Count=&Category_Code= view finder].<br> "half-silvered" above seems most correct with this kind of device. <br />
<br />
3.22 '''They pass in line'''<br><br />
A Pynchonian leitmotif. The linearity of lining up has resonances throughout his work, articulated most straightforwardly in ''Against the Day'', which starts with "Single up all Lines!", and perhaps dealt with<br />
most profoundly in ''Mason & Dixon'', a novel about creating the "Mason & Dixon line".<br />
<br />
3.25 '''Rain comes down'''<br><br />
Pynchon's first published story is called ''The Small Rain''. See his remarks on rain in fiction in ''Slow Learner''.<br />
<br />
3.30 '''naptha winters'''<br><br />
Naptha is the flammable liquid obtained from the distillation of coal and used to fire gaslights and heaters. ...<br />
<br />
3.32 '''rolling-stock absence'''<br><br />
Rolling stock is the collective term that describes all the vehicles which move on a railway.<br />
<br />
3.35 '''Absolute Zero'''<br><br />
Theoretical state when no molecules move. [http://www.pa.msu.edu/sciencet/ask_st/012992.html..Absolute Zero]. State<br />
of entropy, a key concept of Thomas Pynchon's. See early story, ''Entropy'' in ''Slow Learner''.<br />
<br />
3.36 '''places whose ''names he has never heard'''''<br><br />
'secret cities of poor', deep under these fallen girders. Places<br />
that have never been spoken of, yet exist. Lower than ''Low-lands''.<br><br />
Later in Pynchon's world,in other books, ''Mason & Dixon'' and ''Against the Day'', we will travel deeper underground, to places with no names we know, it seems. See a "progressive ''knotting into''", 3.26 in GR.<br />
<br />
3.37 '''the walls break down'''<br> <br />
See "wall of death" later in ''Gravity's Rainbow''. A-and in ''Against the Day''.<br />
<br />
===Page 4===<br />
4.01 '''getting narrower...cornering tighter and tighter'''<br><br />
Cf. the rationalization of choice and similar phrasing in ''Against the Day'', pynchon wiki p. [http://against-the-day.pynchonwiki.com/wiki/index.php?title=ATD_1-25 10]<br />
<br />
4.05 '''caravan'''<br><br />
1) a procession, in single file, of merchants or pilgrims<br />
2) a procession of mules, camels or certain other animals. Sources: Online dictionary and wikipedia.<br> 3) ''Caravan'' is a song by Van Morrison included on his 1970 album, ''Moondance''. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Caravan_%28Van_Morrison_song%29 Caravan]<br><br />
Pilgrim has Pynchonian resonances, especially in ''Against the Day''.<br> A-And, once again, notice the singleing up of lines.<br />
<br />
4.07 '''cockade'''<br><br />
1) n. An ornament, such as a rosette or knot of ribbon, usually worn on the hat as a badge. [Alteration of obsolete cockard , from French.]<br><br />
<br />
2) Operational code name for Allied deception operations intended to draw attention away from Normandy prior to D-Day<br />
[http://www.secondworldwar.co.uk/glossc.html]<br />
<br />
Cf. pun: cock aid, esp. as Slothrop's 'condition' within ''Gravity's Rainbow'' is revealed.<br />
<br />
4.07 '''the color of lead'''<br><br />
cockades are usually brightly colored. Lead is not. <br><br />
<br />
Lead is a malleable toxic metallic element, bluish-white in color that<br />
tarnishes to a dull gray. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lead Lead]<br><br />
<br />
Lead is the only currency-carrying element which does not absorb nor emit heat. Entropic, so to speak. Another resonance for "toward the zero"?<br><br />
<br />
Lead is what bullets are made of.<br />
<br />
4.12 '''corridors straight and functional'''<br><br />
More forced linearity.<br />
<br />
==Page 5==<br />
5.03 '''His name is Capt. Geoffrey ("Pirate") Prentice.'''<br /><br />
Pirate’s name derives from Gilbert and Sullivan’s operetta ''The Pirates of Penzance'', in which the hero’s nurse has made a fateful error in carrying out her employer’s instructions: Instead of having the boy apprenticed to a (ship’s) '''pilot''', he was apprenticed to a pirate, hence a "'''pirate''' ‘prentice." The name, though, is not simply a fortuitous pun: In her error, the nurse has lost a message, like the hare of Herero myth, and thus guaranteed her young charge’s preterition. (There are also connections here to the theme of "communications entropy," which is central to ''The Crying of Lot 49'' and the short story "Entropy.")<br />
<br />
5.03 '''all got scumbled together, eventually, by the knives of the seasons, to an impasto, feet thick, of unbelievable black topsoil'''<br /><br />
<br />
Didn't notice 'scumbled' first time round, I was going too fast. Second<br />
read I looked it up. Scumbled? Isn't that some sort of painting<br />
[technique? Pynchon make a mistake there? Mean to say scrambled?<br />
Hmmmmmmmm. Then I thought of the 'knives' bit, wondered if artists might<br />
use a [http://painting.about.com/od/paintingforbeginners/a/Painting_Knife.htm palette knife] to do this scumbling business. A Google search for<br />
"scumble knife palette " found me this:<br />
<br />
http://www.messums.com/sub_newsview.ink?nid=11191<br />
<br />
"Hard impasto ridges left by the edge of the knife provided the texture<br />
I needed to bring the waves crashing in."<br />
<br />
[http://www.thefreedictionary.com/impasto Impasto] eh? I thought that just meant paste. So the knives in "knives of<br />
the seasons" makes perfect sense. And Dictionary.com throws up another<br />
interesting nugget:<br />
<br />
http://dictionary.reference.com/search?q=scumbled<br />
<br />
A-and the wonderful phrase, "knives of the seasons" embodies another lifelong deep theme in Pynchon's work: that the 'wheeling' of time [see later in ''Gravity's Rainbow'' and ''Against the Day''], the cycle of nature, is an ineluctable good thing, even as it knifes us, ravages, us. It thickens us, impasto-like, gives us topsoil in our characters, so to speak.<br />
<br />
"To blur the outlines of: a writer who scumbled the line that divides<br />
history and fiction." <br />
<br />
Apt example!<br />
<br />
<br />
<br /><br />
<br />
==Page 6==<br />
<br />
[[image:dna-molecule.jpg|thumb|100px|right]]6.09 '''a spiral ladder'''<br /><br />
Suggests the double-helix structure of the DNA molecule that preserves the "living genetic chains" evoked at [[Pages 7-16#10|10.14]].<br><br />
Cf. p. 209, ''Mason & Dixon'': " oblique angles with all meridians and that is a spiral coiling round the poles but never reaching them."...<br />
<br />
==Page 7==<br />
7.09 '''Pick bananas'''<br><br />
Pirate's decision after a paragraph on the inevitablity of the rocket's flight can remind one of a famous Buddhist sutra on picking a strawberry:<br />
The Sweetest Strawberry<br><br />
Buddha told a parable in a sutra:<br><br />
A man traveling across a field encountered a tiger. He fled, the tiger after him. Coming to a precipice, he caught hold of the root of a wild vine and swung himself down over the edge. The tiger sniffed at him from above. Trembling, the man looked down to where, far below, another tiger was waiting to eat him. Only the vine sustained him. Two mice, one white and one black, little by little started to gnaw away the vine. The man saw a luscious strawberry near him. Grasping the vine with one hand, he plucked the strawberry with the other. How sweet it tasted!<br><br />
-Paul Reps, ''Zen Flesh, Zen Bones''<br><br />
from ''Everyday Mind'', edited by Jean Smith <br />
[[http://www.tricycle.com/issues/2_174/dailydharma/3192-1.html]]<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
{{GR PbP}}</div>MKOHUThttps://gravitys-rainbow.pynchonwiki.com/wiki/index.php?title=Pages_3-7&diff=2479Pages 3-72007-10-08T19:46:42Z<p>MKOHUT: /* Page 3 */</p>
<hr />
<div>{{GR PbP Text}}<br />
<br />
==Page 3==<br />
<br />
3.03 '''The Evacuation'''<br><br />
First instance in ''Gravity's Rainbow'' of a lifetime stylistic trait of Pynchon's: unpredictable use of Capitalization. Capitalization is usually applied to nouns, but not uniformly. Often a matter of emphasis. See ''Mason & Dixon'' for the widest use, there imitating the writing of the time in which the book is set.<br><br />
The use throughout all his work might indicate how well-read and influenced by works written before capitalization was standardized Pynchon is.<br><br />
The full rules of capitalization for English are complicated. The rules have also changed over time, generally to capitalize fewer terms; to the modern reader, an 18th century document seems to use initial capitals excessively. Wikipedia<br />
<br />
3.03 '''theatre'''<br><br />
Besides the normal meanings, including "theater of war", 'theatre' is the name that fireworks' organizers call a sky display.<br />
<br />
3.05 '''iron queen'''<br><br />
a queensize bed made of iron. Hardly made after 1900. Queen Victoria had a famous brass (and iron) one in the Crystal Palace! "Beds made of hollow tubes of steel, iron, and brass came to be manufactured in the mid 19th century.<br />
These were to be used both by soldiers and civilians. Their main advantage at that time was that unlike wooden beds, these could not be infested with bedbugs. Queen Victoria's brass bed at the Crystal Palace has been the most famous antique brass bed.<br><br />
By the late 19th century, metal beds were nearly out of fashion." Antique beds [[http://www.bestinbeds.com/beds/antique-bed.html]]<br />
<br />
Also, In The Odyssey, when Odysseus goes to the Underworld, he refers to Persephone as '''the Iron Queen'''. Of the four gods of Empedocles' elements it is the name of Persephone alone that is taboo, for the Greeks knew another face of Persephone as well. She was also the terrible Queen of the dead, whose name was not safe to speak aloud, who was named simply "The Maiden". Wikipedia<br />
[[http://www.en.wikipedia.org/Persephone]]<br />
<br />
3.07 '''crystal palace'''<br><br />
See Alpha entry, especially this re cultural meaning:<br><br />
The Crystal Palace made a strong impression on visitors coming from all over Europe, including a number of writers. It soon became a symbol of modernity and civilization, hailed by some and decried by others.<br />
<br />
In ''What Is to Be Done?'', Russian author and philosopher Nikolai Chernyshevsky pledges to transform the society into a Crystal Palace thanks to a socialist revolution.<br> <br />
Fyodor Dostoevsky implicitly replied to Chernyshevsky in ''Notes from Underground''. The narrator thinks that human nature will prefer destruction and chaos to the harmony symbolized by the Crystal Palace. <br />
<br />
When the first major international exhibition of arts and industries was held in London in 1851, the London Crystal Palace epitomized the achievements of the entire world at a time when progress was racing forward at a speed never before known to mankind. The Great Exhibition marked the beginning of a tradition of world's fairs, which would be held in major cities all across the globe. Following the success of the London fair, it was inevitable that other nations would soon try their hand at organizing their own exhibitions. In fact, the next international fair was held only two years later, in 1853, in New York City. This fair would have its own Crystal Palace to symbolize not only the achievements of the world, but also the nationalistic pride of a relatively young nation and all that she stood for. Walt Whitman, the great American poet, wrote in "The Song of the Exposition":<br><br />
http://www.ric.edu/rpotter/cryspal.html<br />
<br />
That the Crystal Palace Exhibition "marked the beginning of a tradition of world's fairs" can remind that ''Against the Day'' starts at the Columbian Exhibition of 1893 in Chicago. More international optimism.<br />
<br />
3.14 '''second sheep'''<br /><br />
Compare the narrator’s discussion of William Slothrop’s heretical tract "On Preterition," which argued for the holiness of the preterite, and Weisenburger’s note at [[Pages 549-557#555|555.29-31]].<br />
<br />
A wide symbology relates to sheep in ancient art, traditions and culture. Judaism uses many sheep references including the Passover lamb. Christianity uses sheep-related images, such as: Christ as the good shepherd, or as the sacrificed Lamb of God (Agnus Dei); the bishop's Pastoral; the lion lying down with the lamb (a reference to all of creation being at peace, without suffering, predation or otherwise). Greek Easter celebrations traditionally feature a meal of Paschal lamb. Sheep also have considerable importance in Arab culture; Eid ul-Adha is a major annual festival in Islam in which a sheep is sacrificed.<br><br />
Herding sheep plays an important historico-symbolic part in the Jewish and Christian faiths, since Abraham, Jacob, Moses, and King David all worked as shepherds. wikipedia <br />
[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sheep]<br><br />
<br />
Sheep are often associated with obedience due to the widespread perception that they lack intelligence and their undoubted herd mentality, hence the pejorative connotation of the adjective 'ovine'. In George Orwell's satirical novel ''Animal Farm'', sheep are used to represent the ignorant and uneducated masses of revolutionary Russia. The sheep are unable to be taught the subtleties of revolutionary ideology and can only be taught repetitive slogans such as "Four legs good, two legs bad" which they bleat in unison at rallies. The rock group Pink Floyd wrote a song using sheep as a symbol for ordinary people, that is, everyone who isn't a pig or dog. People who accept overbearing governments have been pejoratively referred to as "sheeple". wikipedia [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sheep]<br><br />
<br />
3.19 '''half-silvered'''<br><br />
adj. (of a mirror) having an incomplete reflective coating, so that half the incident light is reflected and half transmitted: used in optical instruments and two-way mirrors. Collins Dictionary<br><br />
See the splitting of light all through ''Against the Day'', Pynchon's 2006<br />
novel.<br />
<br />
3.19 '''view finder'''<br><br />
as two words, this seems to refer to handheld devices in which slides were slid and viewed in 3-dimensions. Here is a version still being made <br />
[http://porters.com/Merchant2/merchant.mvc?Screen=PROD&Store_Code=PCS&Product_Code=520098&Product_Count=&Category_Code= view finder].<br> "half-silvered" above seems most correct with this kind of device. <br />
<br />
3.22 '''They pass in line'''<br><br />
A Pynchonian leitmotif. The linearity of lining up has resonances throughout his work, articulated most straightforwardly in ''Against the Day'', which starts with "Single up all Lines!", and perhaps dealt with<br />
most profoundly in ''Mason & Dixon'', a novel about creating the "Mason & Dixon line".<br />
<br />
3.25 '''Rain comes down'''<br><br />
Pynchon's first published story is called ''The Small Rain''. See his remarks on rain in fiction in ''Slow Learner''.<br />
<br />
3.30 '''naptha winters'''<br><br />
Naptha is the flammable liquid obtained from the distillation of coal and used to fire gaslights and heaters. ...<br />
<br />
3.32 '''rolling-stock absence'''<br><br />
Rolling stock is the collective term that describes all the vehicles which move on a railway.<br />
<br />
3.35 '''Absolute Zero'''<br><br />
Theoretical state when no molecules move. [http://www.pa.msu.edu/sciencet/ask_st/012992.html..Absolute Zero]. State<br />
of entropy, a key concept of Thomas Pynchon's. See early story, ''Entropy'' in ''Slow Learner''.<br />
<br />
3.36 '''places whose ''names he has never heard'''''<br><br />
'secret cities of poor', deep under these fallen girders. Places<br />
that have never been spoken of, yet exist. Lower than ''Low-lands''.<br><br />
Later in Pynchon's world,in other books, ''Mason & Dixon'' and ''Against the Day'', we will travel deeper underground, to places with no names we know, it seems. See a "progressive ''knotting into''", 3.26 in GR.<br />
<br />
3.37 '''the walls break down'''<br> <br />
See "wall of death" later in ''Gravity's Rainbow''. A-and in ''Against the Day''.<br />
<br />
===Page 4===<br />
4.01 '''getting narrower...cornering tighter and tighter'''<br><br />
Cf. the rationalization of choice and similar phrasing in ''Against the Day'', pynchon wiki p. [http://against-the-day.pynchonwiki.com/wiki/index.php?title=ATD_1-25 10]<br />
<br />
4.05 '''caravan'''<br><br />
1) a procession, in single file, of merchants or pilgrims<br />
2) a procession of mules, camels or certain other animals. Sources: Online dictionary and wikipedia.<br> 3) ''Caravan'' is a song by Van Morrison included on his 1970 album, ''Moondance''. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Caravan_%28Van_Morrison_song%29 Caravan]<br><br />
Pilgrim has Pynchonian resonances, especially in ''Against the Day''.<br> A-And, once again, notice the singleing up of lines.<br />
<br />
4.07 '''cockade'''<br><br />
1) n. An ornament, such as a rosette or knot of ribbon, usually worn on the hat as a badge. [Alteration of obsolete cockard , from French.]<br><br />
<br />
2) Operational code name for Allied deception operations intended to draw attention away from Normandy prior to D-Day<br />
[http://www.secondworldwar.co.uk/glossc.html]<br />
<br />
Cf. pun: cock aid, esp. as Slothrop's 'condition' within ''Gravity's Rainbow'' is revealed.<br />
<br />
4.07 '''the color of lead'''<br><br />
cockades are usually brightly colored. Lead is not. <br><br />
<br />
Lead is a malleable toxic metallic element, bluish-white in color that<br />
tarnishes to a dull gray. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lead Lead]<br><br />
<br />
Lead is the only currency-carrying element which does not absorb nor emit heat. Entropic, so to speak. Another resonance for "toward the zero"?<br><br />
<br />
Lead is what bullets are made of.<br />
<br />
==Page 5==<br />
5.03 '''His name is Capt. Geoffrey ("Pirate") Prentice.'''<br /><br />
Pirate’s name derives from Gilbert and Sullivan’s operetta ''The Pirates of Penzance'', in which the hero’s nurse has made a fateful error in carrying out her employer’s instructions: Instead of having the boy apprenticed to a (ship’s) '''pilot''', he was apprenticed to a pirate, hence a "'''pirate''' ‘prentice." The name, though, is not simply a fortuitous pun: In her error, the nurse has lost a message, like the hare of Herero myth, and thus guaranteed her young charge’s preterition. (There are also connections here to the theme of "communications entropy," which is central to ''The Crying of Lot 49'' and the short story "Entropy.")<br />
<br />
5.03 '''all got scumbled together, eventually, by the knives of the seasons, to an impasto, feet thick, of unbelievable black topsoil'''<br /><br />
<br />
Didn't notice 'scumbled' first time round, I was going too fast. Second<br />
read I looked it up. Scumbled? Isn't that some sort of painting<br />
[technique? Pynchon make a mistake there? Mean to say scrambled?<br />
Hmmmmmmmm. Then I thought of the 'knives' bit, wondered if artists might<br />
use a [http://painting.about.com/od/paintingforbeginners/a/Painting_Knife.htm palette knife] to do this scumbling business. A Google search for<br />
"scumble knife palette " found me this:<br />
<br />
http://www.messums.com/sub_newsview.ink?nid=11191<br />
<br />
"Hard impasto ridges left by the edge of the knife provided the texture<br />
I needed to bring the waves crashing in."<br />
<br />
[http://www.thefreedictionary.com/impasto Impasto] eh? I thought that just meant paste. So the knives in "knives of<br />
the seasons" makes perfect sense. And Dictionary.com throws up another<br />
interesting nugget:<br />
<br />
http://dictionary.reference.com/search?q=scumbled<br />
<br />
A-and the wonderful phrase, "knives of the seasons" embodies another lifelong deep theme in Pynchon's work: that the 'wheeling' of time [see later in ''Gravity's Rainbow'' and ''Against the Day''], the cycle of nature, is an ineluctable good thing, even as it knifes us, ravages, us. It thickens us, impasto-like, gives us topsoil in our characters, so to speak.<br />
<br />
"To blur the outlines of: a writer who scumbled the line that divides<br />
history and fiction." <br />
<br />
Apt example!<br />
<br />
<br />
<br /><br />
<br />
==Page 6==<br />
<br />
[[image:dna-molecule.jpg|thumb|100px|right]]6.09 '''a spiral ladder'''<br /><br />
Suggests the double-helix structure of the DNA molecule that preserves the "living genetic chains" evoked at [[Pages 7-16#10|10.14]].<br><br />
Cf. p. 209, ''Mason & Dixon'': " oblique angles with all meridians and that is a spiral coiling round the poles but never reaching them."...<br />
<br />
==Page 7==<br />
7.09 '''Pick bananas'''<br><br />
Pirate's decision after a paragraph on the inevitablity of the rocket's flight can remind one of a famous Buddhist sutra on picking a strawberry:<br />
The Sweetest Strawberry<br><br />
Buddha told a parable in a sutra:<br><br />
A man traveling across a field encountered a tiger. He fled, the tiger after him. Coming to a precipice, he caught hold of the root of a wild vine and swung himself down over the edge. The tiger sniffed at him from above. Trembling, the man looked down to where, far below, another tiger was waiting to eat him. Only the vine sustained him. Two mice, one white and one black, little by little started to gnaw away the vine. The man saw a luscious strawberry near him. Grasping the vine with one hand, he plucked the strawberry with the other. How sweet it tasted!<br><br />
-Paul Reps, ''Zen Flesh, Zen Bones''<br><br />
from ''Everyday Mind'', edited by Jean Smith <br />
[[http://www.tricycle.com/issues/2_174/dailydharma/3192-1.html]]<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
{{GR PbP}}</div>MKOHUThttps://gravitys-rainbow.pynchonwiki.com/wiki/index.php?title=Pages_3-7&diff=2478Pages 3-72007-10-08T19:45:18Z<p>MKOHUT: /* Page 4 */</p>
<hr />
<div>{{GR PbP Text}}<br />
<br />
==Page 3==<br />
<br />
3.03 '''The Evacuation'''<br><br />
First instance in GR of a lifetime stylistic trait of Pynchon's: unpredictable use of Capitalization. Capitalization is usually applied to nouns, but not uniformly. Often a matter of emphasis. See ''Mason & Dixon'' for the widest use, there imitating the writing of the time in which the book is set.<br><br />
The use throughout all his work might indicate how well-read and influenced by works written before capitalization was standardized Pynchon is.<br><br />
The full rules of capitalization for English are complicated. The rules have also changed over time, generally to capitalize fewer terms; to the modern reader, an 18th century document seems to use initial capitals excessively. Wikipedia<br />
<br />
3.03 '''theatre'''<br><br />
Besides the normal meanings, including "theater of war", 'theatre' is the name that fireworks' organizers call a sky display.<br />
<br />
3.05 '''iron queen'''<br><br />
a queensize bed made of iron. Hardly made after 1900. Queen Victoria had a famous brass (and iron) one in the Crystal Palace! "Beds made of hollow tubes of steel, iron, and brass came to be manufactured in the mid 19th century.<br />
These were to be used both by soldiers and civilians. Their main advantage at that time was that unlike wooden beds, these could not be infested with bedbugs. Queen Victoria's brass bed at the Crystal Palace has been the most famous antique brass bed.<br><br />
By the late 19th century, metal beds were nearly out of fashion." Antique beds [[http://www.bestinbeds.com/beds/antique-bed.html]]<br />
<br />
Also, In The Odyssey, when Odysseus goes to the Underworld, he refers to Persephone as '''the Iron Queen'''. Of the four gods of Empedocles' elements it is the name of Persephone alone that is taboo, for the Greeks knew another face of Persephone as well. She was also the terrible Queen of the dead, whose name was not safe to speak aloud, who was named simply "The Maiden". Wikipedia<br />
[[http://www.en.wikipedia.org/Persephone]]<br />
<br />
3.07 '''crystal palace'''<br><br />
See Alpha entry, especially this re cultural meaning:<br><br />
The Crystal Palace made a strong impression on visitors coming from all over Europe, including a number of writers. It soon became a symbol of modernity and civilization, hailed by some and decried by others.<br />
<br />
In ''What Is to Be Done?'', Russian author and philosopher Nikolai Chernyshevsky pledges to transform the society into a Crystal Palace thanks to a socialist revolution.<br> <br />
Fyodor Dostoevsky implicitly replied to Chernyshevsky in ''Notes from Underground''. The narrator thinks that human nature will prefer destruction and chaos to the harmony symbolized by the Crystal Palace. <br />
<br />
When the first major international exhibition of arts and industries was held in London in 1851, the London Crystal Palace epitomized the achievements of the entire world at a time when progress was racing forward at a speed never before known to mankind. The Great Exhibition marked the beginning of a tradition of world's fairs, which would be held in major cities all across the globe. Following the success of the London fair, it was inevitable that other nations would soon try their hand at organizing their own exhibitions. In fact, the next international fair was held only two years later, in 1853, in New York City. This fair would have its own Crystal Palace to symbolize not only the achievements of the world, but also the nationalistic pride of a relatively young nation and all that she stood for. Walt Whitman, the great American poet, wrote in "The Song of the Exposition":<br><br />
http://www.ric.edu/rpotter/cryspal.html<br />
<br />
That the Crystal Palace Exhibition "marked the beginning of a tradition of world's fairs" can remind that ''Against the Day'' starts at the Columbian Exhibition of 1893 in Chicago. More international optimism.<br />
<br />
3.14 '''second sheep'''<br /><br />
Compare the narrator’s discussion of William Slothrop’s heretical tract "On Preterition," which argued for the holiness of the preterite, and Weisenburger’s note at [[Pages 549-557#555|555.29-31]].<br />
<br />
A wide symbology relates to sheep in ancient art, traditions and culture. Judaism uses many sheep references including the Passover lamb. Christianity uses sheep-related images, such as: Christ as the good shepherd, or as the sacrificed Lamb of God (Agnus Dei); the bishop's Pastoral; the lion lying down with the lamb (a reference to all of creation being at peace, without suffering, predation or otherwise). Greek Easter celebrations traditionally feature a meal of Paschal lamb. Sheep also have considerable importance in Arab culture; Eid ul-Adha is a major annual festival in Islam in which a sheep is sacrificed.<br><br />
Herding sheep plays an important historico-symbolic part in the Jewish and Christian faiths, since Abraham, Jacob, Moses, and King David all worked as shepherds. wikipedia <br />
[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sheep]<br><br />
<br />
Sheep are often associated with obedience due to the widespread perception that they lack intelligence and their undoubted herd mentality, hence the pejorative connotation of the adjective 'ovine'. In George Orwell's satirical novel ''Animal Farm'', sheep are used to represent the ignorant and uneducated masses of revolutionary Russia. The sheep are unable to be taught the subtleties of revolutionary ideology and can only be taught repetitive slogans such as "Four legs good, two legs bad" which they bleat in unison at rallies. The rock group Pink Floyd wrote a song using sheep as a symbol for ordinary people, that is, everyone who isn't a pig or dog. People who accept overbearing governments have been pejoratively referred to as "sheeple". wikipedia [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sheep]<br><br />
<br />
3.19 '''half-silvered'''<br><br />
adj. (of a mirror) having an incomplete reflective coating, so that half the incident light is reflected and half transmitted: used in optical instruments and two-way mirrors. Collins Dictionary<br><br />
See the splitting of light all through ''Against the Day'', Pynchon's 2006<br />
novel.<br />
<br />
3.19 '''view finder'''<br><br />
as two words, this seems to refer to handheld devices in which slides were slid and viewed in 3-dimensions. Here is a version still being made <br />
[http://porters.com/Merchant2/merchant.mvc?Screen=PROD&Store_Code=PCS&Product_Code=520098&Product_Count=&Category_Code= view finder].<br> "half-silvered" above seems most correct with this kind of device. <br />
<br />
3.22 '''They pass in line'''<br><br />
A Pynchonian leitmotif. The linearity of lining up has resonances throughout his work, articulated most straightforwardly in ''Against the Day'', which starts with "Single up all Lines!", and perhaps dealt with<br />
most profoundly in ''Mason & Dixon'', a novel about creating the "Mason & Dixon line".<br />
<br />
3.25 '''Rain comes down'''<br><br />
Pynchon's first published story is called ''The Small Rain''. See his remarks on rain in fiction in ''Slow Learner''.<br />
<br />
3.30 '''naptha winters'''<br><br />
Naptha is the flammable liquid obtained from the distillation of coal and used to fire gaslights and heaters. ...<br />
<br />
3.32 '''rolling-stock absence'''<br><br />
Rolling stock is the collective term that describes all the vehicles which move on a railway.<br />
<br />
3.35 '''Absolute Zero'''<br><br />
Theoretical state when no molecules move. [http://www.pa.msu.edu/sciencet/ask_st/012992.html..Absolute Zero]. State<br />
of entropy, a key concept of Thomas Pynchon's. See early story, ''Entropy'' in ''Slow Learner''.<br />
<br />
3.36 '''places whose ''names he has never heard'''''<br><br />
'secret cities of poor', deep under these fallen girders. Places<br />
that have never been spoken of, yet exist. Lower than ''Low-lands''.<br><br />
Later in Pynchon's world,in other books, ''Mason & Dixon'' and ''Against the Day'', we will travel deeper underground, to places with no names we know, it seems. See a "progressive ''knotting into''", 3.26 in GR.<br />
<br />
3.37 '''the walls break down'''<br> <br />
See "wall of death" later in ''Gravity's Rainbow''. A-and in ''Against the Day''.<br />
<br />
===Page 4===<br />
4.01 '''getting narrower...cornering tighter and tighter'''<br><br />
Cf. the rationalization of choice and similar phrasing in ''Against the Day'', pynchon wiki p. [http://against-the-day.pynchonwiki.com/wiki/index.php?title=ATD_1-25 10]<br />
<br />
4.05 '''caravan'''<br><br />
1) a procession, in single file, of merchants or pilgrims<br />
2) a procession of mules, camels or certain other animals. Sources: Online dictionary and wikipedia.<br> 3) ''Caravan'' is a song by Van Morrison included on his 1970 album, ''Moondance''. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Caravan_%28Van_Morrison_song%29 Caravan]<br><br />
Pilgrim has Pynchonian resonances, especially in ''Against the Day''.<br> A-And, once again, notice the singleing up of lines.<br />
<br />
4.07 '''cockade'''<br><br />
1) n. An ornament, such as a rosette or knot of ribbon, usually worn on the hat as a badge. [Alteration of obsolete cockard , from French.]<br><br />
<br />
2) Operational code name for Allied deception operations intended to draw attention away from Normandy prior to D-Day<br />
[http://www.secondworldwar.co.uk/glossc.html]<br />
<br />
Cf. pun: cock aid, esp. as Slothrop's 'condition' within ''Gravity's Rainbow'' is revealed.<br />
<br />
4.07 '''the color of lead'''<br><br />
cockades are usually brightly colored. Lead is not. <br><br />
<br />
Lead is a malleable toxic metallic element, bluish-white in color that<br />
tarnishes to a dull gray. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lead Lead]<br><br />
<br />
Lead is the only currency-carrying element which does not absorb nor emit heat. Entropic, so to speak. Another resonance for "toward the zero"?<br><br />
<br />
Lead is what bullets are made of.<br />
<br />
==Page 5==<br />
5.03 '''His name is Capt. Geoffrey ("Pirate") Prentice.'''<br /><br />
Pirate’s name derives from Gilbert and Sullivan’s operetta ''The Pirates of Penzance'', in which the hero’s nurse has made a fateful error in carrying out her employer’s instructions: Instead of having the boy apprenticed to a (ship’s) '''pilot''', he was apprenticed to a pirate, hence a "'''pirate''' ‘prentice." The name, though, is not simply a fortuitous pun: In her error, the nurse has lost a message, like the hare of Herero myth, and thus guaranteed her young charge’s preterition. (There are also connections here to the theme of "communications entropy," which is central to ''The Crying of Lot 49'' and the short story "Entropy.")<br />
<br />
5.03 '''all got scumbled together, eventually, by the knives of the seasons, to an impasto, feet thick, of unbelievable black topsoil'''<br /><br />
<br />
Didn't notice 'scumbled' first time round, I was going too fast. Second<br />
read I looked it up. Scumbled? Isn't that some sort of painting<br />
[technique? Pynchon make a mistake there? Mean to say scrambled?<br />
Hmmmmmmmm. Then I thought of the 'knives' bit, wondered if artists might<br />
use a [http://painting.about.com/od/paintingforbeginners/a/Painting_Knife.htm palette knife] to do this scumbling business. A Google search for<br />
"scumble knife palette " found me this:<br />
<br />
http://www.messums.com/sub_newsview.ink?nid=11191<br />
<br />
"Hard impasto ridges left by the edge of the knife provided the texture<br />
I needed to bring the waves crashing in."<br />
<br />
[http://www.thefreedictionary.com/impasto Impasto] eh? I thought that just meant paste. So the knives in "knives of<br />
the seasons" makes perfect sense. And Dictionary.com throws up another<br />
interesting nugget:<br />
<br />
http://dictionary.reference.com/search?q=scumbled<br />
<br />
A-and the wonderful phrase, "knives of the seasons" embodies another lifelong deep theme in Pynchon's work: that the 'wheeling' of time [see later in ''Gravity's Rainbow'' and ''Against the Day''], the cycle of nature, is an ineluctable good thing, even as it knifes us, ravages, us. It thickens us, impasto-like, gives us topsoil in our characters, so to speak.<br />
<br />
"To blur the outlines of: a writer who scumbled the line that divides<br />
history and fiction." <br />
<br />
Apt example!<br />
<br />
<br />
<br /><br />
<br />
==Page 6==<br />
<br />
[[image:dna-molecule.jpg|thumb|100px|right]]6.09 '''a spiral ladder'''<br /><br />
Suggests the double-helix structure of the DNA molecule that preserves the "living genetic chains" evoked at [[Pages 7-16#10|10.14]].<br><br />
Cf. p. 209, ''Mason & Dixon'': " oblique angles with all meridians and that is a spiral coiling round the poles but never reaching them."...<br />
<br />
==Page 7==<br />
7.09 '''Pick bananas'''<br><br />
Pirate's decision after a paragraph on the inevitablity of the rocket's flight can remind one of a famous Buddhist sutra on picking a strawberry:<br />
The Sweetest Strawberry<br><br />
Buddha told a parable in a sutra:<br><br />
A man traveling across a field encountered a tiger. He fled, the tiger after him. Coming to a precipice, he caught hold of the root of a wild vine and swung himself down over the edge. The tiger sniffed at him from above. Trembling, the man looked down to where, far below, another tiger was waiting to eat him. Only the vine sustained him. Two mice, one white and one black, little by little started to gnaw away the vine. The man saw a luscious strawberry near him. Grasping the vine with one hand, he plucked the strawberry with the other. How sweet it tasted!<br><br />
-Paul Reps, ''Zen Flesh, Zen Bones''<br><br />
from ''Everyday Mind'', edited by Jean Smith <br />
[[http://www.tricycle.com/issues/2_174/dailydharma/3192-1.html]]<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
{{GR PbP}}</div>MKOHUThttps://gravitys-rainbow.pynchonwiki.com/wiki/index.php?title=Pages_3-7&diff=2477Pages 3-72007-10-08T17:46:04Z<p>MKOHUT: /* Page 4 */</p>
<hr />
<div>{{GR PbP Text}}<br />
<br />
==Page 3==<br />
<br />
3.03 '''The Evacuation'''<br><br />
First instance in GR of a lifetime stylistic trait of Pynchon's: unpredictable use of Capitalization. Capitalization is usually applied to nouns, but not uniformly. Often a matter of emphasis. See ''Mason & Dixon'' for the widest use, there imitating the writing of the time in which the book is set.<br><br />
The use throughout all his work might indicate how well-read and influenced by works written before capitalization was standardized Pynchon is.<br><br />
The full rules of capitalization for English are complicated. The rules have also changed over time, generally to capitalize fewer terms; to the modern reader, an 18th century document seems to use initial capitals excessively. Wikipedia<br />
<br />
3.03 '''theatre'''<br><br />
Besides the normal meanings, including "theater of war", 'theatre' is the name that fireworks' organizers call a sky display.<br />
<br />
3.05 '''iron queen'''<br><br />
a queensize bed made of iron. Hardly made after 1900. Queen Victoria had a famous brass (and iron) one in the Crystal Palace! "Beds made of hollow tubes of steel, iron, and brass came to be manufactured in the mid 19th century.<br />
These were to be used both by soldiers and civilians. Their main advantage at that time was that unlike wooden beds, these could not be infested with bedbugs. Queen Victoria's brass bed at the Crystal Palace has been the most famous antique brass bed.<br><br />
By the late 19th century, metal beds were nearly out of fashion." Antique beds [[http://www.bestinbeds.com/beds/antique-bed.html]]<br />
<br />
Also, In The Odyssey, when Odysseus goes to the Underworld, he refers to Persephone as '''the Iron Queen'''. Of the four gods of Empedocles' elements it is the name of Persephone alone that is taboo, for the Greeks knew another face of Persephone as well. She was also the terrible Queen of the dead, whose name was not safe to speak aloud, who was named simply "The Maiden". Wikipedia<br />
[[http://www.en.wikipedia.org/Persephone]]<br />
<br />
3.07 '''crystal palace'''<br><br />
See Alpha entry, especially this re cultural meaning:<br><br />
The Crystal Palace made a strong impression on visitors coming from all over Europe, including a number of writers. It soon became a symbol of modernity and civilization, hailed by some and decried by others.<br />
<br />
In ''What Is to Be Done?'', Russian author and philosopher Nikolai Chernyshevsky pledges to transform the society into a Crystal Palace thanks to a socialist revolution.<br> <br />
Fyodor Dostoevsky implicitly replied to Chernyshevsky in ''Notes from Underground''. The narrator thinks that human nature will prefer destruction and chaos to the harmony symbolized by the Crystal Palace. <br />
<br />
When the first major international exhibition of arts and industries was held in London in 1851, the London Crystal Palace epitomized the achievements of the entire world at a time when progress was racing forward at a speed never before known to mankind. The Great Exhibition marked the beginning of a tradition of world's fairs, which would be held in major cities all across the globe. Following the success of the London fair, it was inevitable that other nations would soon try their hand at organizing their own exhibitions. In fact, the next international fair was held only two years later, in 1853, in New York City. This fair would have its own Crystal Palace to symbolize not only the achievements of the world, but also the nationalistic pride of a relatively young nation and all that she stood for. Walt Whitman, the great American poet, wrote in "The Song of the Exposition":<br><br />
http://www.ric.edu/rpotter/cryspal.html<br />
<br />
That the Crystal Palace Exhibition "marked the beginning of a tradition of world's fairs" can remind that ''Against the Day'' starts at the Columbian Exhibition of 1893 in Chicago. More international optimism.<br />
<br />
3.14 '''second sheep'''<br /><br />
Compare the narrator’s discussion of William Slothrop’s heretical tract "On Preterition," which argued for the holiness of the preterite, and Weisenburger’s note at [[Pages 549-557#555|555.29-31]].<br />
<br />
A wide symbology relates to sheep in ancient art, traditions and culture. Judaism uses many sheep references including the Passover lamb. Christianity uses sheep-related images, such as: Christ as the good shepherd, or as the sacrificed Lamb of God (Agnus Dei); the bishop's Pastoral; the lion lying down with the lamb (a reference to all of creation being at peace, without suffering, predation or otherwise). Greek Easter celebrations traditionally feature a meal of Paschal lamb. Sheep also have considerable importance in Arab culture; Eid ul-Adha is a major annual festival in Islam in which a sheep is sacrificed.<br><br />
Herding sheep plays an important historico-symbolic part in the Jewish and Christian faiths, since Abraham, Jacob, Moses, and King David all worked as shepherds. wikipedia <br />
[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sheep]<br><br />
<br />
Sheep are often associated with obedience due to the widespread perception that they lack intelligence and their undoubted herd mentality, hence the pejorative connotation of the adjective 'ovine'. In George Orwell's satirical novel ''Animal Farm'', sheep are used to represent the ignorant and uneducated masses of revolutionary Russia. The sheep are unable to be taught the subtleties of revolutionary ideology and can only be taught repetitive slogans such as "Four legs good, two legs bad" which they bleat in unison at rallies. The rock group Pink Floyd wrote a song using sheep as a symbol for ordinary people, that is, everyone who isn't a pig or dog. People who accept overbearing governments have been pejoratively referred to as "sheeple". wikipedia [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sheep]<br><br />
<br />
3.19 '''half-silvered'''<br><br />
adj. (of a mirror) having an incomplete reflective coating, so that half the incident light is reflected and half transmitted: used in optical instruments and two-way mirrors. Collins Dictionary<br><br />
See the splitting of light all through ''Against the Day'', Pynchon's 2006<br />
novel.<br />
<br />
3.19 '''view finder'''<br><br />
as two words, this seems to refer to handheld devices in which slides were slid and viewed in 3-dimensions. Here is a version still being made <br />
[http://porters.com/Merchant2/merchant.mvc?Screen=PROD&Store_Code=PCS&Product_Code=520098&Product_Count=&Category_Code= view finder].<br> "half-silvered" above seems most correct with this kind of device. <br />
<br />
3.22 '''They pass in line'''<br><br />
A Pynchonian leitmotif. The linearity of lining up has resonances throughout his work, articulated most straightforwardly in ''Against the Day'', which starts with "Single up all Lines!", and perhaps dealt with<br />
most profoundly in ''Mason & Dixon'', a novel about creating the "Mason & Dixon line".<br />
<br />
3.25 '''Rain comes down'''<br><br />
Pynchon's first published story is called ''The Small Rain''. See his remarks on rain in fiction in ''Slow Learner''.<br />
<br />
3.30 '''naptha winters'''<br><br />
Naptha is the flammable liquid obtained from the distillation of coal and used to fire gaslights and heaters. ...<br />
<br />
3.32 '''rolling-stock absence'''<br><br />
Rolling stock is the collective term that describes all the vehicles which move on a railway.<br />
<br />
3.35 '''Absolute Zero'''<br><br />
Theoretical state when no molecules move. [http://www.pa.msu.edu/sciencet/ask_st/012992.html..Absolute Zero]. State<br />
of entropy, a key concept of Thomas Pynchon's. See early story, ''Entropy'' in ''Slow Learner''.<br />
<br />
3.36 '''places whose ''names he has never heard'''''<br><br />
'secret cities of poor', deep under these fallen girders. Places<br />
that have never been spoken of, yet exist. Lower than ''Low-lands''.<br><br />
Later in Pynchon's world,in other books, ''Mason & Dixon'' and ''Against the Day'', we will travel deeper underground, to places with no names we know, it seems. See a "progressive ''knotting into''", 3.26 in GR.<br />
<br />
3.37 '''the walls break down'''<br> <br />
See "wall of death" later in ''Gravity's Rainbow''. A-and in ''Against the Day''.<br />
<br />
===Page 4===<br />
4.01 '''getting narrower...cornering tighter and tighter'''<br><br />
Cf. the rationalization of choice and similar phrasing in ''Against the Day'', pynchon wiki p. [http://against-the-day.pynchonwiki.com/wiki/index.php?title=ATD_1-25 10]<br />
<br />
4.05 '''caravan'''<br><br />
1) a procession, in single file, of merchants or pilgrims<br />
2) a procession of mules, camels or certain other animals. Sources: Online dictionary and wikipedia.<br> 3) ''Caravan'' is a song by Van Morrison included on his 1970 album, ''Moondance''. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Caravan_%28Van_Morrison_song%29 Caravan]<br><br />
Pilgrim has Pynchonian resonances, especially in ''Against the Day''.<br> A-And, once again, notice the singleing up of lines.<br />
<br />
4.07 '''cockade'''<br><br />
1) n. An ornament, such as a rosette or knot of ribbon, usually worn on the hat as a badge. [Alteration of obsolete cockard , from French.]<br><br />
<br />
2) Operational code name for Allied deception operations intended to draw attention away from Normandy prior to D-Day<br />
[http://www.secondworldwar.co.uk/glossc.html]<br />
<br />
4.07 '''the color of lead'''<br><br />
cockades are usually brightly colored. Lead is not. <br><br />
<br />
Lead is a malleable toxic metallic element, bluish-white in color that<br />
tarnishes to a dull gray. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lead Lead]<br><br />
<br />
Lead is the only currency-carrying element which does not absorb nor emit heat. Entropic, so to speak. Another resonance for "toward the zero"?<br><br />
<br />
Lead is what bullets are made of.<br />
<br />
==Page 5==<br />
5.03 '''His name is Capt. Geoffrey ("Pirate") Prentice.'''<br /><br />
Pirate’s name derives from Gilbert and Sullivan’s operetta ''The Pirates of Penzance'', in which the hero’s nurse has made a fateful error in carrying out her employer’s instructions: Instead of having the boy apprenticed to a (ship’s) '''pilot''', he was apprenticed to a pirate, hence a "'''pirate''' ‘prentice." The name, though, is not simply a fortuitous pun: In her error, the nurse has lost a message, like the hare of Herero myth, and thus guaranteed her young charge’s preterition. (There are also connections here to the theme of "communications entropy," which is central to ''The Crying of Lot 49'' and the short story "Entropy.")<br />
<br />
5.03 '''all got scumbled together, eventually, by the knives of the seasons, to an impasto, feet thick, of unbelievable black topsoil'''<br /><br />
<br />
Didn't notice 'scumbled' first time round, I was going too fast. Second<br />
read I looked it up. Scumbled? Isn't that some sort of painting<br />
[technique? Pynchon make a mistake there? Mean to say scrambled?<br />
Hmmmmmmmm. Then I thought of the 'knives' bit, wondered if artists might<br />
use a [http://painting.about.com/od/paintingforbeginners/a/Painting_Knife.htm palette knife] to do this scumbling business. A Google search for<br />
"scumble knife palette " found me this:<br />
<br />
http://www.messums.com/sub_newsview.ink?nid=11191<br />
<br />
"Hard impasto ridges left by the edge of the knife provided the texture<br />
I needed to bring the waves crashing in."<br />
<br />
[http://www.thefreedictionary.com/impasto Impasto] eh? I thought that just meant paste. So the knives in "knives of<br />
the seasons" makes perfect sense. And Dictionary.com throws up another<br />
interesting nugget:<br />
<br />
http://dictionary.reference.com/search?q=scumbled<br />
<br />
A-and the wonderful phrase, "knives of the seasons" embodies another lifelong deep theme in Pynchon's work: that the 'wheeling' of time [see later in ''Gravity's Rainbow'' and ''Against the Day''], the cycle of nature, is an ineluctable good thing, even as it knifes us, ravages, us. It thickens us, impasto-like, gives us topsoil in our characters, so to speak.<br />
<br />
"To blur the outlines of: a writer who scumbled the line that divides<br />
history and fiction." <br />
<br />
Apt example!<br />
<br />
<br />
<br /><br />
<br />
==Page 6==<br />
<br />
[[image:dna-molecule.jpg|thumb|100px|right]]6.09 '''a spiral ladder'''<br /><br />
Suggests the double-helix structure of the DNA molecule that preserves the "living genetic chains" evoked at [[Pages 7-16#10|10.14]].<br><br />
Cf. p. 209, ''Mason & Dixon'': " oblique angles with all meridians and that is a spiral coiling round the poles but never reaching them."...<br />
<br />
==Page 7==<br />
7.09 '''Pick bananas'''<br><br />
Pirate's decision after a paragraph on the inevitablity of the rocket's flight can remind one of a famous Buddhist sutra on picking a strawberry:<br />
The Sweetest Strawberry<br><br />
Buddha told a parable in a sutra:<br><br />
A man traveling across a field encountered a tiger. He fled, the tiger after him. Coming to a precipice, he caught hold of the root of a wild vine and swung himself down over the edge. The tiger sniffed at him from above. Trembling, the man looked down to where, far below, another tiger was waiting to eat him. Only the vine sustained him. Two mice, one white and one black, little by little started to gnaw away the vine. The man saw a luscious strawberry near him. Grasping the vine with one hand, he plucked the strawberry with the other. How sweet it tasted!<br><br />
-Paul Reps, ''Zen Flesh, Zen Bones''<br><br />
from ''Everyday Mind'', edited by Jean Smith <br />
[[http://www.tricycle.com/issues/2_174/dailydharma/3192-1.html]]<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
{{GR PbP}}</div>MKOHUThttps://gravitys-rainbow.pynchonwiki.com/wiki/index.php?title=Pages_3-7&diff=2476Pages 3-72007-10-08T17:44:57Z<p>MKOHUT: /* Page 4 */</p>
<hr />
<div>{{GR PbP Text}}<br />
<br />
==Page 3==<br />
<br />
3.03 '''The Evacuation'''<br><br />
First instance in GR of a lifetime stylistic trait of Pynchon's: unpredictable use of Capitalization. Capitalization is usually applied to nouns, but not uniformly. Often a matter of emphasis. See ''Mason & Dixon'' for the widest use, there imitating the writing of the time in which the book is set.<br><br />
The use throughout all his work might indicate how well-read and influenced by works written before capitalization was standardized Pynchon is.<br><br />
The full rules of capitalization for English are complicated. The rules have also changed over time, generally to capitalize fewer terms; to the modern reader, an 18th century document seems to use initial capitals excessively. Wikipedia<br />
<br />
3.03 '''theatre'''<br><br />
Besides the normal meanings, including "theater of war", 'theatre' is the name that fireworks' organizers call a sky display.<br />
<br />
3.05 '''iron queen'''<br><br />
a queensize bed made of iron. Hardly made after 1900. Queen Victoria had a famous brass (and iron) one in the Crystal Palace! "Beds made of hollow tubes of steel, iron, and brass came to be manufactured in the mid 19th century.<br />
These were to be used both by soldiers and civilians. Their main advantage at that time was that unlike wooden beds, these could not be infested with bedbugs. Queen Victoria's brass bed at the Crystal Palace has been the most famous antique brass bed.<br><br />
By the late 19th century, metal beds were nearly out of fashion." Antique beds [[http://www.bestinbeds.com/beds/antique-bed.html]]<br />
<br />
Also, In The Odyssey, when Odysseus goes to the Underworld, he refers to Persephone as '''the Iron Queen'''. Of the four gods of Empedocles' elements it is the name of Persephone alone that is taboo, for the Greeks knew another face of Persephone as well. She was also the terrible Queen of the dead, whose name was not safe to speak aloud, who was named simply "The Maiden". Wikipedia<br />
[[http://www.en.wikipedia.org/Persephone]]<br />
<br />
3.07 '''crystal palace'''<br><br />
See Alpha entry, especially this re cultural meaning:<br><br />
The Crystal Palace made a strong impression on visitors coming from all over Europe, including a number of writers. It soon became a symbol of modernity and civilization, hailed by some and decried by others.<br />
<br />
In ''What Is to Be Done?'', Russian author and philosopher Nikolai Chernyshevsky pledges to transform the society into a Crystal Palace thanks to a socialist revolution.<br> <br />
Fyodor Dostoevsky implicitly replied to Chernyshevsky in ''Notes from Underground''. The narrator thinks that human nature will prefer destruction and chaos to the harmony symbolized by the Crystal Palace. <br />
<br />
When the first major international exhibition of arts and industries was held in London in 1851, the London Crystal Palace epitomized the achievements of the entire world at a time when progress was racing forward at a speed never before known to mankind. The Great Exhibition marked the beginning of a tradition of world's fairs, which would be held in major cities all across the globe. Following the success of the London fair, it was inevitable that other nations would soon try their hand at organizing their own exhibitions. In fact, the next international fair was held only two years later, in 1853, in New York City. This fair would have its own Crystal Palace to symbolize not only the achievements of the world, but also the nationalistic pride of a relatively young nation and all that she stood for. Walt Whitman, the great American poet, wrote in "The Song of the Exposition":<br><br />
http://www.ric.edu/rpotter/cryspal.html<br />
<br />
That the Crystal Palace Exhibition "marked the beginning of a tradition of world's fairs" can remind that ''Against the Day'' starts at the Columbian Exhibition of 1893 in Chicago. More international optimism.<br />
<br />
3.14 '''second sheep'''<br /><br />
Compare the narrator’s discussion of William Slothrop’s heretical tract "On Preterition," which argued for the holiness of the preterite, and Weisenburger’s note at [[Pages 549-557#555|555.29-31]].<br />
<br />
A wide symbology relates to sheep in ancient art, traditions and culture. Judaism uses many sheep references including the Passover lamb. Christianity uses sheep-related images, such as: Christ as the good shepherd, or as the sacrificed Lamb of God (Agnus Dei); the bishop's Pastoral; the lion lying down with the lamb (a reference to all of creation being at peace, without suffering, predation or otherwise). Greek Easter celebrations traditionally feature a meal of Paschal lamb. Sheep also have considerable importance in Arab culture; Eid ul-Adha is a major annual festival in Islam in which a sheep is sacrificed.<br><br />
Herding sheep plays an important historico-symbolic part in the Jewish and Christian faiths, since Abraham, Jacob, Moses, and King David all worked as shepherds. wikipedia <br />
[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sheep]<br><br />
<br />
Sheep are often associated with obedience due to the widespread perception that they lack intelligence and their undoubted herd mentality, hence the pejorative connotation of the adjective 'ovine'. In George Orwell's satirical novel ''Animal Farm'', sheep are used to represent the ignorant and uneducated masses of revolutionary Russia. The sheep are unable to be taught the subtleties of revolutionary ideology and can only be taught repetitive slogans such as "Four legs good, two legs bad" which they bleat in unison at rallies. The rock group Pink Floyd wrote a song using sheep as a symbol for ordinary people, that is, everyone who isn't a pig or dog. People who accept overbearing governments have been pejoratively referred to as "sheeple". wikipedia [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sheep]<br><br />
<br />
3.19 '''half-silvered'''<br><br />
adj. (of a mirror) having an incomplete reflective coating, so that half the incident light is reflected and half transmitted: used in optical instruments and two-way mirrors. Collins Dictionary<br><br />
See the splitting of light all through ''Against the Day'', Pynchon's 2006<br />
novel.<br />
<br />
3.19 '''view finder'''<br><br />
as two words, this seems to refer to handheld devices in which slides were slid and viewed in 3-dimensions. Here is a version still being made <br />
[http://porters.com/Merchant2/merchant.mvc?Screen=PROD&Store_Code=PCS&Product_Code=520098&Product_Count=&Category_Code= view finder].<br> "half-silvered" above seems most correct with this kind of device. <br />
<br />
3.22 '''They pass in line'''<br><br />
A Pynchonian leitmotif. The linearity of lining up has resonances throughout his work, articulated most straightforwardly in ''Against the Day'', which starts with "Single up all Lines!", and perhaps dealt with<br />
most profoundly in ''Mason & Dixon'', a novel about creating the "Mason & Dixon line".<br />
<br />
3.25 '''Rain comes down'''<br><br />
Pynchon's first published story is called ''The Small Rain''. See his remarks on rain in fiction in ''Slow Learner''.<br />
<br />
3.30 '''naptha winters'''<br><br />
Naptha is the flammable liquid obtained from the distillation of coal and used to fire gaslights and heaters. ...<br />
<br />
3.32 '''rolling-stock absence'''<br><br />
Rolling stock is the collective term that describes all the vehicles which move on a railway.<br />
<br />
3.35 '''Absolute Zero'''<br><br />
Theoretical state when no molecules move. [http://www.pa.msu.edu/sciencet/ask_st/012992.html..Absolute Zero]. State<br />
of entropy, a key concept of Thomas Pynchon's. See early story, ''Entropy'' in ''Slow Learner''.<br />
<br />
3.36 '''places whose ''names he has never heard'''''<br><br />
'secret cities of poor', deep under these fallen girders. Places<br />
that have never been spoken of, yet exist. Lower than ''Low-lands''.<br><br />
Later in Pynchon's world,in other books, ''Mason & Dixon'' and ''Against the Day'', we will travel deeper underground, to places with no names we know, it seems. See a "progressive ''knotting into''", 3.26 in GR.<br />
<br />
3.37 '''the walls break down'''<br> <br />
See "wall of death" later in ''Gravity's Rainbow''. A-and in ''Against the Day''.<br />
<br />
===Page 4===<br />
4.01 '''getting narrower...cornering tighter and tighter'''<br><br />
Cf. the rationalization of choice and similar phrasing in ''Against the Day'', pynchon wiki p. [http://against-the-day.pynchonwiki.com/wiki/index.php?title=ATD_1-25 10]<br />
<br />
4.05 '''caravan'''<br><br />
1) a procession, in single file, of merchants or pilgrims<br />
2) a procession of mules, camels or certain other animals. Sources: Online dictionary and wikipedia.<br> 3) ''Caravan'' is a song by Van Morrison included on his 1970 album, ''Moondance''. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Caravan_%28Van_Morrison_song%29 Caravan]<br><br />
Pilgrim has Pynchonian resonances, especially in ''Against the Day''.<br> A-And, once again, notice the singleing up of lines.<br />
<br />
4.07 '''cockade'''<br><br />
1) n. An ornament, such as a rosette or knot of ribbon, usually worn on the hat as a badge. [Alteration of obsolete cockard , from French.]<br><br />
<br />
2) Operational code name for Allied deception operations intended to draw attention away from Normandy prior to D-Day<br />
[http://www.secondworldwar.co.uk/glossc.html]<br />
<br />
4.07 '''the color of lead'''<br><br />
cockades are usually brightly colored. Lead is not. <br><br />
<br />
Lead is a malleable toxic metallic element, bluish-white in color that<br />
tarnishes to a dull gray. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lead Lead]<br><br />
<br />
Lead is the only currency-carrying element which does not absorb nor emit heat. Entropic, so to speak. Another resonance for "toward the zero"?<br><br />
Lead is what bullets are made of.<br />
<br />
==Page 5==<br />
5.03 '''His name is Capt. Geoffrey ("Pirate") Prentice.'''<br /><br />
Pirate’s name derives from Gilbert and Sullivan’s operetta ''The Pirates of Penzance'', in which the hero’s nurse has made a fateful error in carrying out her employer’s instructions: Instead of having the boy apprenticed to a (ship’s) '''pilot''', he was apprenticed to a pirate, hence a "'''pirate''' ‘prentice." The name, though, is not simply a fortuitous pun: In her error, the nurse has lost a message, like the hare of Herero myth, and thus guaranteed her young charge’s preterition. (There are also connections here to the theme of "communications entropy," which is central to ''The Crying of Lot 49'' and the short story "Entropy.")<br />
<br />
5.03 '''all got scumbled together, eventually, by the knives of the seasons, to an impasto, feet thick, of unbelievable black topsoil'''<br /><br />
<br />
Didn't notice 'scumbled' first time round, I was going too fast. Second<br />
read I looked it up. Scumbled? Isn't that some sort of painting<br />
[technique? Pynchon make a mistake there? Mean to say scrambled?<br />
Hmmmmmmmm. Then I thought of the 'knives' bit, wondered if artists might<br />
use a [http://painting.about.com/od/paintingforbeginners/a/Painting_Knife.htm palette knife] to do this scumbling business. A Google search for<br />
"scumble knife palette " found me this:<br />
<br />
http://www.messums.com/sub_newsview.ink?nid=11191<br />
<br />
"Hard impasto ridges left by the edge of the knife provided the texture<br />
I needed to bring the waves crashing in."<br />
<br />
[http://www.thefreedictionary.com/impasto Impasto] eh? I thought that just meant paste. So the knives in "knives of<br />
the seasons" makes perfect sense. And Dictionary.com throws up another<br />
interesting nugget:<br />
<br />
http://dictionary.reference.com/search?q=scumbled<br />
<br />
A-and the wonderful phrase, "knives of the seasons" embodies another lifelong deep theme in Pynchon's work: that the 'wheeling' of time [see later in ''Gravity's Rainbow'' and ''Against the Day''], the cycle of nature, is an ineluctable good thing, even as it knifes us, ravages, us. It thickens us, impasto-like, gives us topsoil in our characters, so to speak.<br />
<br />
"To blur the outlines of: a writer who scumbled the line that divides<br />
history and fiction." <br />
<br />
Apt example!<br />
<br />
<br />
<br /><br />
<br />
==Page 6==<br />
<br />
[[image:dna-molecule.jpg|thumb|100px|right]]6.09 '''a spiral ladder'''<br /><br />
Suggests the double-helix structure of the DNA molecule that preserves the "living genetic chains" evoked at [[Pages 7-16#10|10.14]].<br><br />
Cf. p. 209, ''Mason & Dixon'': " oblique angles with all meridians and that is a spiral coiling round the poles but never reaching them."...<br />
<br />
==Page 7==<br />
7.09 '''Pick bananas'''<br><br />
Pirate's decision after a paragraph on the inevitablity of the rocket's flight can remind one of a famous Buddhist sutra on picking a strawberry:<br />
The Sweetest Strawberry<br><br />
Buddha told a parable in a sutra:<br><br />
A man traveling across a field encountered a tiger. He fled, the tiger after him. Coming to a precipice, he caught hold of the root of a wild vine and swung himself down over the edge. The tiger sniffed at him from above. Trembling, the man looked down to where, far below, another tiger was waiting to eat him. Only the vine sustained him. Two mice, one white and one black, little by little started to gnaw away the vine. The man saw a luscious strawberry near him. Grasping the vine with one hand, he plucked the strawberry with the other. How sweet it tasted!<br><br />
-Paul Reps, ''Zen Flesh, Zen Bones''<br><br />
from ''Everyday Mind'', edited by Jean Smith <br />
[[http://www.tricycle.com/issues/2_174/dailydharma/3192-1.html]]<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
{{GR PbP}}</div>MKOHUThttps://gravitys-rainbow.pynchonwiki.com/wiki/index.php?title=Pages_3-7&diff=2475Pages 3-72007-10-08T17:37:08Z<p>MKOHUT: /* Page 4 */</p>
<hr />
<div>{{GR PbP Text}}<br />
<br />
==Page 3==<br />
<br />
3.03 '''The Evacuation'''<br><br />
First instance in GR of a lifetime stylistic trait of Pynchon's: unpredictable use of Capitalization. Capitalization is usually applied to nouns, but not uniformly. Often a matter of emphasis. See ''Mason & Dixon'' for the widest use, there imitating the writing of the time in which the book is set.<br><br />
The use throughout all his work might indicate how well-read and influenced by works written before capitalization was standardized Pynchon is.<br><br />
The full rules of capitalization for English are complicated. The rules have also changed over time, generally to capitalize fewer terms; to the modern reader, an 18th century document seems to use initial capitals excessively. Wikipedia<br />
<br />
3.03 '''theatre'''<br><br />
Besides the normal meanings, including "theater of war", 'theatre' is the name that fireworks' organizers call a sky display.<br />
<br />
3.05 '''iron queen'''<br><br />
a queensize bed made of iron. Hardly made after 1900. Queen Victoria had a famous brass (and iron) one in the Crystal Palace! "Beds made of hollow tubes of steel, iron, and brass came to be manufactured in the mid 19th century.<br />
These were to be used both by soldiers and civilians. Their main advantage at that time was that unlike wooden beds, these could not be infested with bedbugs. Queen Victoria's brass bed at the Crystal Palace has been the most famous antique brass bed.<br><br />
By the late 19th century, metal beds were nearly out of fashion." Antique beds [[http://www.bestinbeds.com/beds/antique-bed.html]]<br />
<br />
Also, In The Odyssey, when Odysseus goes to the Underworld, he refers to Persephone as '''the Iron Queen'''. Of the four gods of Empedocles' elements it is the name of Persephone alone that is taboo, for the Greeks knew another face of Persephone as well. She was also the terrible Queen of the dead, whose name was not safe to speak aloud, who was named simply "The Maiden". Wikipedia<br />
[[http://www.en.wikipedia.org/Persephone]]<br />
<br />
3.07 '''crystal palace'''<br><br />
See Alpha entry, especially this re cultural meaning:<br><br />
The Crystal Palace made a strong impression on visitors coming from all over Europe, including a number of writers. It soon became a symbol of modernity and civilization, hailed by some and decried by others.<br />
<br />
In ''What Is to Be Done?'', Russian author and philosopher Nikolai Chernyshevsky pledges to transform the society into a Crystal Palace thanks to a socialist revolution.<br> <br />
Fyodor Dostoevsky implicitly replied to Chernyshevsky in ''Notes from Underground''. The narrator thinks that human nature will prefer destruction and chaos to the harmony symbolized by the Crystal Palace. <br />
<br />
When the first major international exhibition of arts and industries was held in London in 1851, the London Crystal Palace epitomized the achievements of the entire world at a time when progress was racing forward at a speed never before known to mankind. The Great Exhibition marked the beginning of a tradition of world's fairs, which would be held in major cities all across the globe. Following the success of the London fair, it was inevitable that other nations would soon try their hand at organizing their own exhibitions. In fact, the next international fair was held only two years later, in 1853, in New York City. This fair would have its own Crystal Palace to symbolize not only the achievements of the world, but also the nationalistic pride of a relatively young nation and all that she stood for. Walt Whitman, the great American poet, wrote in "The Song of the Exposition":<br><br />
http://www.ric.edu/rpotter/cryspal.html<br />
<br />
That the Crystal Palace Exhibition "marked the beginning of a tradition of world's fairs" can remind that ''Against the Day'' starts at the Columbian Exhibition of 1893 in Chicago. More international optimism.<br />
<br />
3.14 '''second sheep'''<br /><br />
Compare the narrator’s discussion of William Slothrop’s heretical tract "On Preterition," which argued for the holiness of the preterite, and Weisenburger’s note at [[Pages 549-557#555|555.29-31]].<br />
<br />
A wide symbology relates to sheep in ancient art, traditions and culture. Judaism uses many sheep references including the Passover lamb. Christianity uses sheep-related images, such as: Christ as the good shepherd, or as the sacrificed Lamb of God (Agnus Dei); the bishop's Pastoral; the lion lying down with the lamb (a reference to all of creation being at peace, without suffering, predation or otherwise). Greek Easter celebrations traditionally feature a meal of Paschal lamb. Sheep also have considerable importance in Arab culture; Eid ul-Adha is a major annual festival in Islam in which a sheep is sacrificed.<br><br />
Herding sheep plays an important historico-symbolic part in the Jewish and Christian faiths, since Abraham, Jacob, Moses, and King David all worked as shepherds. wikipedia <br />
[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sheep]<br><br />
<br />
Sheep are often associated with obedience due to the widespread perception that they lack intelligence and their undoubted herd mentality, hence the pejorative connotation of the adjective 'ovine'. In George Orwell's satirical novel ''Animal Farm'', sheep are used to represent the ignorant and uneducated masses of revolutionary Russia. The sheep are unable to be taught the subtleties of revolutionary ideology and can only be taught repetitive slogans such as "Four legs good, two legs bad" which they bleat in unison at rallies. The rock group Pink Floyd wrote a song using sheep as a symbol for ordinary people, that is, everyone who isn't a pig or dog. People who accept overbearing governments have been pejoratively referred to as "sheeple". wikipedia [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sheep]<br><br />
<br />
3.19 '''half-silvered'''<br><br />
adj. (of a mirror) having an incomplete reflective coating, so that half the incident light is reflected and half transmitted: used in optical instruments and two-way mirrors. Collins Dictionary<br><br />
See the splitting of light all through ''Against the Day'', Pynchon's 2006<br />
novel.<br />
<br />
3.19 '''view finder'''<br><br />
as two words, this seems to refer to handheld devices in which slides were slid and viewed in 3-dimensions. Here is a version still being made <br />
[http://porters.com/Merchant2/merchant.mvc?Screen=PROD&Store_Code=PCS&Product_Code=520098&Product_Count=&Category_Code= view finder].<br> "half-silvered" above seems most correct with this kind of device. <br />
<br />
3.22 '''They pass in line'''<br><br />
A Pynchonian leitmotif. The linearity of lining up has resonances throughout his work, articulated most straightforwardly in ''Against the Day'', which starts with "Single up all Lines!", and perhaps dealt with<br />
most profoundly in ''Mason & Dixon'', a novel about creating the "Mason & Dixon line".<br />
<br />
3.25 '''Rain comes down'''<br><br />
Pynchon's first published story is called ''The Small Rain''. See his remarks on rain in fiction in ''Slow Learner''.<br />
<br />
3.30 '''naptha winters'''<br><br />
Naptha is the flammable liquid obtained from the distillation of coal and used to fire gaslights and heaters. ...<br />
<br />
3.32 '''rolling-stock absence'''<br><br />
Rolling stock is the collective term that describes all the vehicles which move on a railway.<br />
<br />
3.35 '''Absolute Zero'''<br><br />
Theoretical state when no molecules move. [http://www.pa.msu.edu/sciencet/ask_st/012992.html..Absolute Zero]. State<br />
of entropy, a key concept of Thomas Pynchon's. See early story, ''Entropy'' in ''Slow Learner''.<br />
<br />
3.36 '''places whose ''names he has never heard'''''<br><br />
'secret cities of poor', deep under these fallen girders. Places<br />
that have never been spoken of, yet exist. Lower than ''Low-lands''.<br><br />
Later in Pynchon's world,in other books, ''Mason & Dixon'' and ''Against the Day'', we will travel deeper underground, to places with no names we know, it seems. See a "progressive ''knotting into''", 3.26 in GR.<br />
<br />
3.37 '''the walls break down'''<br> <br />
See "wall of death" later in ''Gravity's Rainbow''. A-and in ''Against the Day''.<br />
<br />
===Page 4===<br />
4.01 '''getting narrower...cornering tighter and tighter'''<br><br />
Cf. the rationalization of choice and similar phrasing in ''Against the Day'', pynchon wiki p. [http://against-the-day.pynchonwiki.com/wiki/index.php?title=ATD_1-25 10]<br />
<br />
4.05 '''caravan'''<br><br />
1) a procession, in single file, of merchants or pilgrims<br />
2) a procession of mules, camels or certain other animals. Sources: Online dictionary and wikipedia.<br> 3) ''Caravan'' is a song by Van Morrison included on his 1970 album, ''Moondance''. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Caravan_%28Van_Morrison_song%29 Caravan]<br><br />
Pilgrim has Pynchonian resonances, especially in ''Against the Day''.<br> A-And, once again, notice the singleing up of lines.<br />
<br />
4.07 '''cockade'''<br><br />
1) n. An ornament, such as a rosette or knot of ribbon, usually worn on the hat as a badge. [Alteration of obsolete cockard , from French.]<br><br />
<br />
2) Operational code name for Allied deception operations intended to draw attention away from Normandy prior to D-Day<br />
[http://www.secondworldwar.co.uk/glossc.html]<br />
<br />
4.07 '''the color of lead'''<br><br />
cockades are usually brightly colored. Lead is not. <br><br />
Lead is a malleable toxic metallic element, bluish-white in color that<br />
tarnishs to a dull gray. wikipedia<br><br />
Lead is the only currency-carrying element which does not conduct heat. Entropic, so to speak. Another resonance for "toward the zero"?<br><br />
Lead is what bullets are made of.<br />
<br />
==Page 5==<br />
5.03 '''His name is Capt. Geoffrey ("Pirate") Prentice.'''<br /><br />
Pirate’s name derives from Gilbert and Sullivan’s operetta ''The Pirates of Penzance'', in which the hero’s nurse has made a fateful error in carrying out her employer’s instructions: Instead of having the boy apprenticed to a (ship’s) '''pilot''', he was apprenticed to a pirate, hence a "'''pirate''' ‘prentice." The name, though, is not simply a fortuitous pun: In her error, the nurse has lost a message, like the hare of Herero myth, and thus guaranteed her young charge’s preterition. (There are also connections here to the theme of "communications entropy," which is central to ''The Crying of Lot 49'' and the short story "Entropy.")<br />
<br />
5.03 '''all got scumbled together, eventually, by the knives of the seasons, to an impasto, feet thick, of unbelievable black topsoil'''<br /><br />
<br />
Didn't notice 'scumbled' first time round, I was going too fast. Second<br />
read I looked it up. Scumbled? Isn't that some sort of painting<br />
[technique? Pynchon make a mistake there? Mean to say scrambled?<br />
Hmmmmmmmm. Then I thought of the 'knives' bit, wondered if artists might<br />
use a [http://painting.about.com/od/paintingforbeginners/a/Painting_Knife.htm palette knife] to do this scumbling business. A Google search for<br />
"scumble knife palette " found me this:<br />
<br />
http://www.messums.com/sub_newsview.ink?nid=11191<br />
<br />
"Hard impasto ridges left by the edge of the knife provided the texture<br />
I needed to bring the waves crashing in."<br />
<br />
[http://www.thefreedictionary.com/impasto Impasto] eh? I thought that just meant paste. So the knives in "knives of<br />
the seasons" makes perfect sense. And Dictionary.com throws up another<br />
interesting nugget:<br />
<br />
http://dictionary.reference.com/search?q=scumbled<br />
<br />
A-and the wonderful phrase, "knives of the seasons" embodies another lifelong deep theme in Pynchon's work: that the 'wheeling' of time [see later in ''Gravity's Rainbow'' and ''Against the Day''], the cycle of nature, is an ineluctable good thing, even as it knifes us, ravages, us. It thickens us, impasto-like, gives us topsoil in our characters, so to speak.<br />
<br />
"To blur the outlines of: a writer who scumbled the line that divides<br />
history and fiction." <br />
<br />
Apt example!<br />
<br />
<br />
<br /><br />
<br />
==Page 6==<br />
<br />
[[image:dna-molecule.jpg|thumb|100px|right]]6.09 '''a spiral ladder'''<br /><br />
Suggests the double-helix structure of the DNA molecule that preserves the "living genetic chains" evoked at [[Pages 7-16#10|10.14]].<br><br />
Cf. p. 209, ''Mason & Dixon'': " oblique angles with all meridians and that is a spiral coiling round the poles but never reaching them."...<br />
<br />
==Page 7==<br />
7.09 '''Pick bananas'''<br><br />
Pirate's decision after a paragraph on the inevitablity of the rocket's flight can remind one of a famous Buddhist sutra on picking a strawberry:<br />
The Sweetest Strawberry<br><br />
Buddha told a parable in a sutra:<br><br />
A man traveling across a field encountered a tiger. He fled, the tiger after him. Coming to a precipice, he caught hold of the root of a wild vine and swung himself down over the edge. The tiger sniffed at him from above. Trembling, the man looked down to where, far below, another tiger was waiting to eat him. Only the vine sustained him. Two mice, one white and one black, little by little started to gnaw away the vine. The man saw a luscious strawberry near him. Grasping the vine with one hand, he plucked the strawberry with the other. How sweet it tasted!<br><br />
-Paul Reps, ''Zen Flesh, Zen Bones''<br><br />
from ''Everyday Mind'', edited by Jean Smith <br />
[[http://www.tricycle.com/issues/2_174/dailydharma/3192-1.html]]<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
{{GR PbP}}</div>MKOHUThttps://gravitys-rainbow.pynchonwiki.com/wiki/index.php?title=Pages_3-7&diff=2474Pages 3-72007-10-08T16:10:46Z<p>MKOHUT: /* Page 4 */</p>
<hr />
<div>{{GR PbP Text}}<br />
<br />
==Page 3==<br />
<br />
3.03 '''The Evacuation'''<br><br />
First instance in GR of a lifetime stylistic trait of Pynchon's: unpredictable use of Capitalization. Capitalization is usually applied to nouns, but not uniformly. Often a matter of emphasis. See ''Mason & Dixon'' for the widest use, there imitating the writing of the time in which the book is set.<br><br />
The use throughout all his work might indicate how well-read and influenced by works written before capitalization was standardized Pynchon is.<br><br />
The full rules of capitalization for English are complicated. The rules have also changed over time, generally to capitalize fewer terms; to the modern reader, an 18th century document seems to use initial capitals excessively. Wikipedia<br />
<br />
3.03 '''theatre'''<br><br />
Besides the normal meanings, including "theater of war", 'theatre' is the name that fireworks' organizers call a sky display.<br />
<br />
3.05 '''iron queen'''<br><br />
a queensize bed made of iron. Hardly made after 1900. Queen Victoria had a famous brass (and iron) one in the Crystal Palace! "Beds made of hollow tubes of steel, iron, and brass came to be manufactured in the mid 19th century.<br />
These were to be used both by soldiers and civilians. Their main advantage at that time was that unlike wooden beds, these could not be infested with bedbugs. Queen Victoria's brass bed at the Crystal Palace has been the most famous antique brass bed.<br><br />
By the late 19th century, metal beds were nearly out of fashion." Antique beds [[http://www.bestinbeds.com/beds/antique-bed.html]]<br />
<br />
Also, In The Odyssey, when Odysseus goes to the Underworld, he refers to Persephone as '''the Iron Queen'''. Of the four gods of Empedocles' elements it is the name of Persephone alone that is taboo, for the Greeks knew another face of Persephone as well. She was also the terrible Queen of the dead, whose name was not safe to speak aloud, who was named simply "The Maiden". Wikipedia<br />
[[http://www.en.wikipedia.org/Persephone]]<br />
<br />
3.07 '''crystal palace'''<br><br />
See Alpha entry, especially this re cultural meaning:<br><br />
The Crystal Palace made a strong impression on visitors coming from all over Europe, including a number of writers. It soon became a symbol of modernity and civilization, hailed by some and decried by others.<br />
<br />
In ''What Is to Be Done?'', Russian author and philosopher Nikolai Chernyshevsky pledges to transform the society into a Crystal Palace thanks to a socialist revolution.<br> <br />
Fyodor Dostoevsky implicitly replied to Chernyshevsky in ''Notes from Underground''. The narrator thinks that human nature will prefer destruction and chaos to the harmony symbolized by the Crystal Palace. <br />
<br />
When the first major international exhibition of arts and industries was held in London in 1851, the London Crystal Palace epitomized the achievements of the entire world at a time when progress was racing forward at a speed never before known to mankind. The Great Exhibition marked the beginning of a tradition of world's fairs, which would be held in major cities all across the globe. Following the success of the London fair, it was inevitable that other nations would soon try their hand at organizing their own exhibitions. In fact, the next international fair was held only two years later, in 1853, in New York City. This fair would have its own Crystal Palace to symbolize not only the achievements of the world, but also the nationalistic pride of a relatively young nation and all that she stood for. Walt Whitman, the great American poet, wrote in "The Song of the Exposition":<br><br />
http://www.ric.edu/rpotter/cryspal.html<br />
<br />
That the Crystal Palace Exhibition "marked the beginning of a tradition of world's fairs" can remind that ''Against the Day'' starts at the Columbian Exhibition of 1893 in Chicago. More international optimism.<br />
<br />
3.14 '''second sheep'''<br /><br />
Compare the narrator’s discussion of William Slothrop’s heretical tract "On Preterition," which argued for the holiness of the preterite, and Weisenburger’s note at [[Pages 549-557#555|555.29-31]].<br />
<br />
A wide symbology relates to sheep in ancient art, traditions and culture. Judaism uses many sheep references including the Passover lamb. Christianity uses sheep-related images, such as: Christ as the good shepherd, or as the sacrificed Lamb of God (Agnus Dei); the bishop's Pastoral; the lion lying down with the lamb (a reference to all of creation being at peace, without suffering, predation or otherwise). Greek Easter celebrations traditionally feature a meal of Paschal lamb. Sheep also have considerable importance in Arab culture; Eid ul-Adha is a major annual festival in Islam in which a sheep is sacrificed.<br><br />
Herding sheep plays an important historico-symbolic part in the Jewish and Christian faiths, since Abraham, Jacob, Moses, and King David all worked as shepherds. wikipedia <br />
[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sheep]<br><br />
<br />
Sheep are often associated with obedience due to the widespread perception that they lack intelligence and their undoubted herd mentality, hence the pejorative connotation of the adjective 'ovine'. In George Orwell's satirical novel ''Animal Farm'', sheep are used to represent the ignorant and uneducated masses of revolutionary Russia. The sheep are unable to be taught the subtleties of revolutionary ideology and can only be taught repetitive slogans such as "Four legs good, two legs bad" which they bleat in unison at rallies. The rock group Pink Floyd wrote a song using sheep as a symbol for ordinary people, that is, everyone who isn't a pig or dog. People who accept overbearing governments have been pejoratively referred to as "sheeple". wikipedia [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sheep]<br><br />
<br />
3.19 '''half-silvered'''<br><br />
adj. (of a mirror) having an incomplete reflective coating, so that half the incident light is reflected and half transmitted: used in optical instruments and two-way mirrors. Collins Dictionary<br><br />
See the splitting of light all through ''Against the Day'', Pynchon's 2006<br />
novel.<br />
<br />
3.19 '''view finder'''<br><br />
as two words, this seems to refer to handheld devices in which slides were slid and viewed in 3-dimensions. Here is a version still being made <br />
[http://porters.com/Merchant2/merchant.mvc?Screen=PROD&Store_Code=PCS&Product_Code=520098&Product_Count=&Category_Code= view finder].<br> "half-silvered" above seems most correct with this kind of device. <br />
<br />
3.22 '''They pass in line'''<br><br />
A Pynchonian leitmotif. The linearity of lining up has resonances throughout his work, articulated most straightforwardly in ''Against the Day'', which starts with "Single up all Lines!", and perhaps dealt with<br />
most profoundly in ''Mason & Dixon'', a novel about creating the "Mason & Dixon line".<br />
<br />
3.25 '''Rain comes down'''<br><br />
Pynchon's first published story is called ''The Small Rain''. See his remarks on rain in fiction in ''Slow Learner''.<br />
<br />
3.30 '''naptha winters'''<br><br />
Naptha is the flammable liquid obtained from the distillation of coal and used to fire gaslights and heaters. ...<br />
<br />
3.32 '''rolling-stock absence'''<br><br />
Rolling stock is the collective term that describes all the vehicles which move on a railway.<br />
<br />
3.35 '''Absolute Zero'''<br><br />
Theoretical state when no molecules move. [http://www.pa.msu.edu/sciencet/ask_st/012992.html..Absolute Zero]. State<br />
of entropy, a key concept of Thomas Pynchon's. See early story, ''Entropy'' in ''Slow Learner''.<br />
<br />
3.36 '''places whose ''names he has never heard'''''<br><br />
'secret cities of poor', deep under these fallen girders. Places<br />
that have never been spoken of, yet exist. Lower than ''Low-lands''.<br><br />
Later in Pynchon's world,in other books, ''Mason & Dixon'' and ''Against the Day'', we will travel deeper underground, to places with no names we know, it seems. See a "progressive ''knotting into''", 3.26 in GR.<br />
<br />
3.37 '''the walls break down'''<br> <br />
See "wall of death" later in ''Gravity's Rainbow''. A-and in ''Against the Day''.<br />
<br />
===Page 4===<br />
4.01 '''getting narrower...cornering tighter and tighter'''<br><br />
Cf. the rationalization of choice and similar phrasing in ''Against the Day'', pynchon wiki p. [http://against-the-day.pynchonwiki.com/wiki/index.php?title=ATD_1-25 10]<br />
<br />
4.05 '''caravan'''<br><br />
1) a procession, in single file, of merchants or pilgrims<br />
2) a procession of mules, camels or certain other animals. Sources: Online dictionary and wikipedia.<br> 3) ''Caravan'' is a song by Van Morrison included on his 1970 album, ''Moondance''. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Caravan_%28Van_Morrison_song%29 Caravan]<br><br />
Pilgrim has Pynchonian resonances, especially in ''Against the Day''.<br> A-And, once again, notice the singleing up of lines.<br />
<br />
4.07 '''cockade'''<br><br />
1) n. An ornament, such as a rosette or knot of ribbon, usually worn on the hat as a badge. [Alteration of obsolete cockard , from French.]<br><br />
<br />
2) Operational code name for Allied deception operations intended to draw attention away from Normandy prior to D-Day<br />
[http://www.secondworldwar.co.uk/glossc.html]<br />
<br />
4.07 '''the color of lead'''<br><br />
cockades are usually brightly colored. Lead is not. <br><br />
Lead is a malleable toxic metallic element, bluish-white in color that<br />
tarnishs to a dull gray. wikipedia<br><br />
Lead is the only currency-carrying element which does not conduct heat.<br><br />
Lead is what bullets are made of.<br />
<br />
==Page 5==<br />
5.03 '''His name is Capt. Geoffrey ("Pirate") Prentice.'''<br /><br />
Pirate’s name derives from Gilbert and Sullivan’s operetta ''The Pirates of Penzance'', in which the hero’s nurse has made a fateful error in carrying out her employer’s instructions: Instead of having the boy apprenticed to a (ship’s) '''pilot''', he was apprenticed to a pirate, hence a "'''pirate''' ‘prentice." The name, though, is not simply a fortuitous pun: In her error, the nurse has lost a message, like the hare of Herero myth, and thus guaranteed her young charge’s preterition. (There are also connections here to the theme of "communications entropy," which is central to ''The Crying of Lot 49'' and the short story "Entropy.")<br />
<br />
5.03 '''all got scumbled together, eventually, by the knives of the seasons, to an impasto, feet thick, of unbelievable black topsoil'''<br /><br />
<br />
Didn't notice 'scumbled' first time round, I was going too fast. Second<br />
read I looked it up. Scumbled? Isn't that some sort of painting<br />
[technique? Pynchon make a mistake there? Mean to say scrambled?<br />
Hmmmmmmmm. Then I thought of the 'knives' bit, wondered if artists might<br />
use a [http://painting.about.com/od/paintingforbeginners/a/Painting_Knife.htm palette knife] to do this scumbling business. A Google search for<br />
"scumble knife palette " found me this:<br />
<br />
http://www.messums.com/sub_newsview.ink?nid=11191<br />
<br />
"Hard impasto ridges left by the edge of the knife provided the texture<br />
I needed to bring the waves crashing in."<br />
<br />
[http://www.thefreedictionary.com/impasto Impasto] eh? I thought that just meant paste. So the knives in "knives of<br />
the seasons" makes perfect sense. And Dictionary.com throws up another<br />
interesting nugget:<br />
<br />
http://dictionary.reference.com/search?q=scumbled<br />
<br />
A-and the wonderful phrase, "knives of the seasons" embodies another lifelong deep theme in Pynchon's work: that the 'wheeling' of time [see later in ''Gravity's Rainbow'' and ''Against the Day''], the cycle of nature, is an ineluctable good thing, even as it knifes us, ravages, us. It thickens us, impasto-like, gives us topsoil in our characters, so to speak.<br />
<br />
"To blur the outlines of: a writer who scumbled the line that divides<br />
history and fiction." <br />
<br />
Apt example!<br />
<br />
<br />
<br /><br />
<br />
==Page 6==<br />
<br />
[[image:dna-molecule.jpg|thumb|100px|right]]6.09 '''a spiral ladder'''<br /><br />
Suggests the double-helix structure of the DNA molecule that preserves the "living genetic chains" evoked at [[Pages 7-16#10|10.14]].<br><br />
Cf. p. 209, ''Mason & Dixon'': " oblique angles with all meridians and that is a spiral coiling round the poles but never reaching them."...<br />
<br />
==Page 7==<br />
7.09 '''Pick bananas'''<br><br />
Pirate's decision after a paragraph on the inevitablity of the rocket's flight can remind one of a famous Buddhist sutra on picking a strawberry:<br />
The Sweetest Strawberry<br><br />
Buddha told a parable in a sutra:<br><br />
A man traveling across a field encountered a tiger. He fled, the tiger after him. Coming to a precipice, he caught hold of the root of a wild vine and swung himself down over the edge. The tiger sniffed at him from above. Trembling, the man looked down to where, far below, another tiger was waiting to eat him. Only the vine sustained him. Two mice, one white and one black, little by little started to gnaw away the vine. The man saw a luscious strawberry near him. Grasping the vine with one hand, he plucked the strawberry with the other. How sweet it tasted!<br><br />
-Paul Reps, ''Zen Flesh, Zen Bones''<br><br />
from ''Everyday Mind'', edited by Jean Smith <br />
[[http://www.tricycle.com/issues/2_174/dailydharma/3192-1.html]]<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
{{GR PbP}}</div>MKOHUThttps://gravitys-rainbow.pynchonwiki.com/wiki/index.php?title=Pages_3-7&diff=2473Pages 3-72007-10-08T15:59:12Z<p>MKOHUT: /* Page 4 */</p>
<hr />
<div>{{GR PbP Text}}<br />
<br />
==Page 3==<br />
<br />
3.03 '''The Evacuation'''<br><br />
First instance in GR of a lifetime stylistic trait of Pynchon's: unpredictable use of Capitalization. Capitalization is usually applied to nouns, but not uniformly. Often a matter of emphasis. See ''Mason & Dixon'' for the widest use, there imitating the writing of the time in which the book is set.<br><br />
The use throughout all his work might indicate how well-read and influenced by works written before capitalization was standardized Pynchon is.<br><br />
The full rules of capitalization for English are complicated. The rules have also changed over time, generally to capitalize fewer terms; to the modern reader, an 18th century document seems to use initial capitals excessively. Wikipedia<br />
<br />
3.03 '''theatre'''<br><br />
Besides the normal meanings, including "theater of war", 'theatre' is the name that fireworks' organizers call a sky display.<br />
<br />
3.05 '''iron queen'''<br><br />
a queensize bed made of iron. Hardly made after 1900. Queen Victoria had a famous brass (and iron) one in the Crystal Palace! "Beds made of hollow tubes of steel, iron, and brass came to be manufactured in the mid 19th century.<br />
These were to be used both by soldiers and civilians. Their main advantage at that time was that unlike wooden beds, these could not be infested with bedbugs. Queen Victoria's brass bed at the Crystal Palace has been the most famous antique brass bed.<br><br />
By the late 19th century, metal beds were nearly out of fashion." Antique beds [[http://www.bestinbeds.com/beds/antique-bed.html]]<br />
<br />
Also, In The Odyssey, when Odysseus goes to the Underworld, he refers to Persephone as '''the Iron Queen'''. Of the four gods of Empedocles' elements it is the name of Persephone alone that is taboo, for the Greeks knew another face of Persephone as well. She was also the terrible Queen of the dead, whose name was not safe to speak aloud, who was named simply "The Maiden". Wikipedia<br />
[[http://www.en.wikipedia.org/Persephone]]<br />
<br />
3.07 '''crystal palace'''<br><br />
See Alpha entry, especially this re cultural meaning:<br><br />
The Crystal Palace made a strong impression on visitors coming from all over Europe, including a number of writers. It soon became a symbol of modernity and civilization, hailed by some and decried by others.<br />
<br />
In ''What Is to Be Done?'', Russian author and philosopher Nikolai Chernyshevsky pledges to transform the society into a Crystal Palace thanks to a socialist revolution.<br> <br />
Fyodor Dostoevsky implicitly replied to Chernyshevsky in ''Notes from Underground''. The narrator thinks that human nature will prefer destruction and chaos to the harmony symbolized by the Crystal Palace. <br />
<br />
When the first major international exhibition of arts and industries was held in London in 1851, the London Crystal Palace epitomized the achievements of the entire world at a time when progress was racing forward at a speed never before known to mankind. The Great Exhibition marked the beginning of a tradition of world's fairs, which would be held in major cities all across the globe. Following the success of the London fair, it was inevitable that other nations would soon try their hand at organizing their own exhibitions. In fact, the next international fair was held only two years later, in 1853, in New York City. This fair would have its own Crystal Palace to symbolize not only the achievements of the world, but also the nationalistic pride of a relatively young nation and all that she stood for. Walt Whitman, the great American poet, wrote in "The Song of the Exposition":<br><br />
http://www.ric.edu/rpotter/cryspal.html<br />
<br />
That the Crystal Palace Exhibition "marked the beginning of a tradition of world's fairs" can remind that ''Against the Day'' starts at the Columbian Exhibition of 1893 in Chicago. More international optimism.<br />
<br />
3.14 '''second sheep'''<br /><br />
Compare the narrator’s discussion of William Slothrop’s heretical tract "On Preterition," which argued for the holiness of the preterite, and Weisenburger’s note at [[Pages 549-557#555|555.29-31]].<br />
<br />
A wide symbology relates to sheep in ancient art, traditions and culture. Judaism uses many sheep references including the Passover lamb. Christianity uses sheep-related images, such as: Christ as the good shepherd, or as the sacrificed Lamb of God (Agnus Dei); the bishop's Pastoral; the lion lying down with the lamb (a reference to all of creation being at peace, without suffering, predation or otherwise). Greek Easter celebrations traditionally feature a meal of Paschal lamb. Sheep also have considerable importance in Arab culture; Eid ul-Adha is a major annual festival in Islam in which a sheep is sacrificed.<br><br />
Herding sheep plays an important historico-symbolic part in the Jewish and Christian faiths, since Abraham, Jacob, Moses, and King David all worked as shepherds. wikipedia <br />
[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sheep]<br><br />
<br />
Sheep are often associated with obedience due to the widespread perception that they lack intelligence and their undoubted herd mentality, hence the pejorative connotation of the adjective 'ovine'. In George Orwell's satirical novel ''Animal Farm'', sheep are used to represent the ignorant and uneducated masses of revolutionary Russia. The sheep are unable to be taught the subtleties of revolutionary ideology and can only be taught repetitive slogans such as "Four legs good, two legs bad" which they bleat in unison at rallies. The rock group Pink Floyd wrote a song using sheep as a symbol for ordinary people, that is, everyone who isn't a pig or dog. People who accept overbearing governments have been pejoratively referred to as "sheeple". wikipedia [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sheep]<br><br />
<br />
3.19 '''half-silvered'''<br><br />
adj. (of a mirror) having an incomplete reflective coating, so that half the incident light is reflected and half transmitted: used in optical instruments and two-way mirrors. Collins Dictionary<br><br />
See the splitting of light all through ''Against the Day'', Pynchon's 2006<br />
novel.<br />
<br />
3.19 '''view finder'''<br><br />
as two words, this seems to refer to handheld devices in which slides were slid and viewed in 3-dimensions. Here is a version still being made <br />
[http://porters.com/Merchant2/merchant.mvc?Screen=PROD&Store_Code=PCS&Product_Code=520098&Product_Count=&Category_Code= view finder].<br> "half-silvered" above seems most correct with this kind of device. <br />
<br />
3.22 '''They pass in line'''<br><br />
A Pynchonian leitmotif. The linearity of lining up has resonances throughout his work, articulated most straightforwardly in ''Against the Day'', which starts with "Single up all Lines!", and perhaps dealt with<br />
most profoundly in ''Mason & Dixon'', a novel about creating the "Mason & Dixon line".<br />
<br />
3.25 '''Rain comes down'''<br><br />
Pynchon's first published story is called ''The Small Rain''. See his remarks on rain in fiction in ''Slow Learner''.<br />
<br />
3.30 '''naptha winters'''<br><br />
Naptha is the flammable liquid obtained from the distillation of coal and used to fire gaslights and heaters. ...<br />
<br />
3.32 '''rolling-stock absence'''<br><br />
Rolling stock is the collective term that describes all the vehicles which move on a railway.<br />
<br />
3.35 '''Absolute Zero'''<br><br />
Theoretical state when no molecules move. [http://www.pa.msu.edu/sciencet/ask_st/012992.html..Absolute Zero]. State<br />
of entropy, a key concept of Thomas Pynchon's. See early story, ''Entropy'' in ''Slow Learner''.<br />
<br />
3.36 '''places whose ''names he has never heard'''''<br><br />
'secret cities of poor', deep under these fallen girders. Places<br />
that have never been spoken of, yet exist. Lower than ''Low-lands''.<br><br />
Later in Pynchon's world,in other books, ''Mason & Dixon'' and ''Against the Day'', we will travel deeper underground, to places with no names we know, it seems. See a "progressive ''knotting into''", 3.26 in GR.<br />
<br />
3.37 '''the walls break down'''<br> <br />
See "wall of death" later in ''Gravity's Rainbow''. A-and in ''Against the Day''.<br />
<br />
===Page 4===<br />
4.01 '''getting narrower...cornering tighter and tighter'''<br><br />
Cf. the rationalization of choice and similar phrasing in ''Against the Day'', pynchon wiki p. [http://against-the-day.pynchonwiki.com/wiki/index.php?title=ATD_1-25 10]<br />
<br />
4.05 '''caravan'''<br><br />
1) a procession, in single file, of merchants or pilgrims<br />
2) a procession of mules, camels or certain other animals. Sources: Online dictionary and wikipedia.<br> 3) ''Caravan'' is a song by Van Morrison included on his 1970 album, ''Moondance''. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Caravan_%28Van_Morrison_song%29 Caravan]<br><br />
Pilgrim has Pynchonian resonances, especially in ''Against the Day''.<br> A-And, once again, notice the singleing up of lines.<br />
<br />
4.07 '''cockade'''<br><br />
1) n. An ornament, such as a rosette or knot of ribbon, usually worn on the hat as a badge. [Alteration of obsolete cockard , from French.]<br><br />
<br />
2) Operational code name for Allied deception operations intended to draw attention away from Normandy prior to D-Day<br />
[http://www.secondworldwar.co.uk/glossc.html]<br />
<br />
4.07 '''the color of lead'''<br><br />
cockades are usually brightly colored. Lead is not.<br><br />
Lead is what bullets are made of.<br />
<br />
==Page 5==<br />
5.03 '''His name is Capt. Geoffrey ("Pirate") Prentice.'''<br /><br />
Pirate’s name derives from Gilbert and Sullivan’s operetta ''The Pirates of Penzance'', in which the hero’s nurse has made a fateful error in carrying out her employer’s instructions: Instead of having the boy apprenticed to a (ship’s) '''pilot''', he was apprenticed to a pirate, hence a "'''pirate''' ‘prentice." The name, though, is not simply a fortuitous pun: In her error, the nurse has lost a message, like the hare of Herero myth, and thus guaranteed her young charge’s preterition. (There are also connections here to the theme of "communications entropy," which is central to ''The Crying of Lot 49'' and the short story "Entropy.")<br />
<br />
5.03 '''all got scumbled together, eventually, by the knives of the seasons, to an impasto, feet thick, of unbelievable black topsoil'''<br /><br />
<br />
Didn't notice 'scumbled' first time round, I was going too fast. Second<br />
read I looked it up. Scumbled? Isn't that some sort of painting<br />
[technique? Pynchon make a mistake there? Mean to say scrambled?<br />
Hmmmmmmmm. Then I thought of the 'knives' bit, wondered if artists might<br />
use a [http://painting.about.com/od/paintingforbeginners/a/Painting_Knife.htm palette knife] to do this scumbling business. A Google search for<br />
"scumble knife palette " found me this:<br />
<br />
http://www.messums.com/sub_newsview.ink?nid=11191<br />
<br />
"Hard impasto ridges left by the edge of the knife provided the texture<br />
I needed to bring the waves crashing in."<br />
<br />
[http://www.thefreedictionary.com/impasto Impasto] eh? I thought that just meant paste. So the knives in "knives of<br />
the seasons" makes perfect sense. And Dictionary.com throws up another<br />
interesting nugget:<br />
<br />
http://dictionary.reference.com/search?q=scumbled<br />
<br />
A-and the wonderful phrase, "knives of the seasons" embodies another lifelong deep theme in Pynchon's work: that the 'wheeling' of time [see later in ''Gravity's Rainbow'' and ''Against the Day''], the cycle of nature, is an ineluctable good thing, even as it knifes us, ravages, us. It thickens us, impasto-like, gives us topsoil in our characters, so to speak.<br />
<br />
"To blur the outlines of: a writer who scumbled the line that divides<br />
history and fiction." <br />
<br />
Apt example!<br />
<br />
<br />
<br /><br />
<br />
==Page 6==<br />
<br />
[[image:dna-molecule.jpg|thumb|100px|right]]6.09 '''a spiral ladder'''<br /><br />
Suggests the double-helix structure of the DNA molecule that preserves the "living genetic chains" evoked at [[Pages 7-16#10|10.14]].<br><br />
Cf. p. 209, ''Mason & Dixon'': " oblique angles with all meridians and that is a spiral coiling round the poles but never reaching them."...<br />
<br />
==Page 7==<br />
7.09 '''Pick bananas'''<br><br />
Pirate's decision after a paragraph on the inevitablity of the rocket's flight can remind one of a famous Buddhist sutra on picking a strawberry:<br />
The Sweetest Strawberry<br><br />
Buddha told a parable in a sutra:<br><br />
A man traveling across a field encountered a tiger. He fled, the tiger after him. Coming to a precipice, he caught hold of the root of a wild vine and swung himself down over the edge. The tiger sniffed at him from above. Trembling, the man looked down to where, far below, another tiger was waiting to eat him. Only the vine sustained him. Two mice, one white and one black, little by little started to gnaw away the vine. The man saw a luscious strawberry near him. Grasping the vine with one hand, he plucked the strawberry with the other. How sweet it tasted!<br><br />
-Paul Reps, ''Zen Flesh, Zen Bones''<br><br />
from ''Everyday Mind'', edited by Jean Smith <br />
[[http://www.tricycle.com/issues/2_174/dailydharma/3192-1.html]]<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
{{GR PbP}}</div>MKOHUThttps://gravitys-rainbow.pynchonwiki.com/wiki/index.php?title=Pages_3-7&diff=2472Pages 3-72007-10-08T00:13:27Z<p>MKOHUT: /* Page 4 */</p>
<hr />
<div>{{GR PbP Text}}<br />
<br />
==Page 3==<br />
<br />
3.03 '''The Evacuation'''<br><br />
First instance in GR of a lifetime stylistic trait of Pynchon's: unpredictable use of Capitalization. Capitalization is usually applied to nouns, but not uniformly. Often a matter of emphasis. See ''Mason & Dixon'' for the widest use, there imitating the writing of the time in which the book is set.<br><br />
The use throughout all his work might indicate how well-read and influenced by works written before capitalization was standardized Pynchon is.<br><br />
The full rules of capitalization for English are complicated. The rules have also changed over time, generally to capitalize fewer terms; to the modern reader, an 18th century document seems to use initial capitals excessively. Wikipedia<br />
<br />
3.03 '''theatre'''<br><br />
Besides the normal meanings, including "theater of war", 'theatre' is the name that fireworks' organizers call a sky display.<br />
<br />
3.05 '''iron queen'''<br><br />
a queensize bed made of iron. Hardly made after 1900. Queen Victoria had a famous brass (and iron) one in the Crystal Palace! "Beds made of hollow tubes of steel, iron, and brass came to be manufactured in the mid 19th century.<br />
These were to be used both by soldiers and civilians. Their main advantage at that time was that unlike wooden beds, these could not be infested with bedbugs. Queen Victoria's brass bed at the Crystal Palace has been the most famous antique brass bed.<br><br />
By the late 19th century, metal beds were nearly out of fashion." Antique beds [[http://www.bestinbeds.com/beds/antique-bed.html]]<br />
<br />
Also, In The Odyssey, when Odysseus goes to the Underworld, he refers to Persephone as '''the Iron Queen'''. Of the four gods of Empedocles' elements it is the name of Persephone alone that is taboo, for the Greeks knew another face of Persephone as well. She was also the terrible Queen of the dead, whose name was not safe to speak aloud, who was named simply "The Maiden". Wikipedia<br />
[[http://www.en.wikipedia.org/Persephone]]<br />
<br />
3.07 '''crystal palace'''<br><br />
See Alpha entry, especially this re cultural meaning:<br><br />
The Crystal Palace made a strong impression on visitors coming from all over Europe, including a number of writers. It soon became a symbol of modernity and civilization, hailed by some and decried by others.<br />
<br />
In ''What Is to Be Done?'', Russian author and philosopher Nikolai Chernyshevsky pledges to transform the society into a Crystal Palace thanks to a socialist revolution.<br> <br />
Fyodor Dostoevsky implicitly replied to Chernyshevsky in ''Notes from Underground''. The narrator thinks that human nature will prefer destruction and chaos to the harmony symbolized by the Crystal Palace. <br />
<br />
When the first major international exhibition of arts and industries was held in London in 1851, the London Crystal Palace epitomized the achievements of the entire world at a time when progress was racing forward at a speed never before known to mankind. The Great Exhibition marked the beginning of a tradition of world's fairs, which would be held in major cities all across the globe. Following the success of the London fair, it was inevitable that other nations would soon try their hand at organizing their own exhibitions. In fact, the next international fair was held only two years later, in 1853, in New York City. This fair would have its own Crystal Palace to symbolize not only the achievements of the world, but also the nationalistic pride of a relatively young nation and all that she stood for. Walt Whitman, the great American poet, wrote in "The Song of the Exposition":<br><br />
http://www.ric.edu/rpotter/cryspal.html<br />
<br />
That the Crystal Palace Exhibition "marked the beginning of a tradition of world's fairs" can remind that ''Against the Day'' starts at the Columbian Exhibition of 1893 in Chicago. More international optimism.<br />
<br />
3.14 '''second sheep'''<br /><br />
Compare the narrator’s discussion of William Slothrop’s heretical tract "On Preterition," which argued for the holiness of the preterite, and Weisenburger’s note at [[Pages 549-557#555|555.29-31]].<br />
<br />
A wide symbology relates to sheep in ancient art, traditions and culture. Judaism uses many sheep references including the Passover lamb. Christianity uses sheep-related images, such as: Christ as the good shepherd, or as the sacrificed Lamb of God (Agnus Dei); the bishop's Pastoral; the lion lying down with the lamb (a reference to all of creation being at peace, without suffering, predation or otherwise). Greek Easter celebrations traditionally feature a meal of Paschal lamb. Sheep also have considerable importance in Arab culture; Eid ul-Adha is a major annual festival in Islam in which a sheep is sacrificed.<br><br />
Herding sheep plays an important historico-symbolic part in the Jewish and Christian faiths, since Abraham, Jacob, Moses, and King David all worked as shepherds. wikipedia <br />
[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sheep]<br><br />
<br />
Sheep are often associated with obedience due to the widespread perception that they lack intelligence and their undoubted herd mentality, hence the pejorative connotation of the adjective 'ovine'. In George Orwell's satirical novel ''Animal Farm'', sheep are used to represent the ignorant and uneducated masses of revolutionary Russia. The sheep are unable to be taught the subtleties of revolutionary ideology and can only be taught repetitive slogans such as "Four legs good, two legs bad" which they bleat in unison at rallies. The rock group Pink Floyd wrote a song using sheep as a symbol for ordinary people, that is, everyone who isn't a pig or dog. People who accept overbearing governments have been pejoratively referred to as "sheeple". wikipedia [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sheep]<br><br />
<br />
3.19 '''half-silvered'''<br><br />
adj. (of a mirror) having an incomplete reflective coating, so that half the incident light is reflected and half transmitted: used in optical instruments and two-way mirrors. Collins Dictionary<br><br />
See the splitting of light all through ''Against the Day'', Pynchon's 2006<br />
novel.<br />
<br />
3.19 '''view finder'''<br><br />
as two words, this seems to refer to handheld devices in which slides were slid and viewed in 3-dimensions. Here is a version still being made <br />
[http://porters.com/Merchant2/merchant.mvc?Screen=PROD&Store_Code=PCS&Product_Code=520098&Product_Count=&Category_Code= view finder].<br> "half-silvered" above seems most correct with this kind of device. <br />
<br />
3.22 '''They pass in line'''<br><br />
A Pynchonian leitmotif. The linearity of lining up has resonances throughout his work, articulated most straightforwardly in ''Against the Day'', which starts with "Single up all Lines!", and perhaps dealt with<br />
most profoundly in ''Mason & Dixon'', a novel about creating the "Mason & Dixon line".<br />
<br />
3.25 '''Rain comes down'''<br><br />
Pynchon's first published story is called ''The Small Rain''. See his remarks on rain in fiction in ''Slow Learner''.<br />
<br />
3.30 '''naptha winters'''<br><br />
Naptha is the flammable liquid obtained from the distillation of coal and used to fire gaslights and heaters. ...<br />
<br />
3.32 '''rolling-stock absence'''<br><br />
Rolling stock is the collective term that describes all the vehicles which move on a railway.<br />
<br />
3.35 '''Absolute Zero'''<br><br />
Theoretical state when no molecules move. [http://www.pa.msu.edu/sciencet/ask_st/012992.html..Absolute Zero]. State<br />
of entropy, a key concept of Thomas Pynchon's. See early story, ''Entropy'' in ''Slow Learner''.<br />
<br />
3.36 '''places whose ''names he has never heard'''''<br><br />
'secret cities of poor', deep under these fallen girders. Places<br />
that have never been spoken of, yet exist. Lower than ''Low-lands''.<br><br />
Later in Pynchon's world,in other books, ''Mason & Dixon'' and ''Against the Day'', we will travel deeper underground, to places with no names we know, it seems. See a "progressive ''knotting into''", 3.26 in GR.<br />
<br />
3.37 '''the walls break down'''<br> <br />
See "wall of death" later in ''Gravity's Rainbow''. A-and in ''Against the Day''.<br />
<br />
===Page 4===<br />
4.01 '''getting narrower...cornering tighter and tighter'''<br><br />
Cf. the rationalization of choice and similar phrasing in ''Against the Day'', pynchon wiki p. [http://against-the-day.pynchonwiki.com/wiki/index.php?title=ATD_1-25 10]<br />
<br />
4.05 '''caravan'''<br><br />
1) a procession, in single file, of merchants or pilgrims<br />
2) a procession of mules, camels or certain other animals. Sources: Online dictionary and wikipedia.<br> 3) ''Caravan'' is a song by Van Morrison included on his 1970 album, ''Moondance''. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Caravan_%28Van_Morrison_song%29 Caravan]<br><br />
Pilgrim has Pynchonian resonances, especially in ''Against the Day''.<br> A-And, once again, notice the singleing up of lines.<br />
<br />
4.07 '''cockade'''<br><br />
1) n. An ornament, such as a rosette or knot of ribbon, usually worn on the hat as a badge. [Alteration of obsolete cockard , from French.]<br><br />
<br />
2) Operational code name for Allied deception operations intended to draw attention away from Normandy prior to D-Day<br />
[http://www.secondworldwar.co.uk/glossc.html]<br />
<br />
==Page 5==<br />
5.03 '''His name is Capt. Geoffrey ("Pirate") Prentice.'''<br /><br />
Pirate’s name derives from Gilbert and Sullivan’s operetta ''The Pirates of Penzance'', in which the hero’s nurse has made a fateful error in carrying out her employer’s instructions: Instead of having the boy apprenticed to a (ship’s) '''pilot''', he was apprenticed to a pirate, hence a "'''pirate''' ‘prentice." The name, though, is not simply a fortuitous pun: In her error, the nurse has lost a message, like the hare of Herero myth, and thus guaranteed her young charge’s preterition. (There are also connections here to the theme of "communications entropy," which is central to ''The Crying of Lot 49'' and the short story "Entropy.")<br />
<br />
5.03 '''all got scumbled together, eventually, by the knives of the seasons, to an impasto, feet thick, of unbelievable black topsoil'''<br /><br />
<br />
Didn't notice 'scumbled' first time round, I was going too fast. Second<br />
read I looked it up. Scumbled? Isn't that some sort of painting<br />
[technique? Pynchon make a mistake there? Mean to say scrambled?<br />
Hmmmmmmmm. Then I thought of the 'knives' bit, wondered if artists might<br />
use a [http://painting.about.com/od/paintingforbeginners/a/Painting_Knife.htm palette knife] to do this scumbling business. A Google search for<br />
"scumble knife palette " found me this:<br />
<br />
http://www.messums.com/sub_newsview.ink?nid=11191<br />
<br />
"Hard impasto ridges left by the edge of the knife provided the texture<br />
I needed to bring the waves crashing in."<br />
<br />
[http://www.thefreedictionary.com/impasto Impasto] eh? I thought that just meant paste. So the knives in "knives of<br />
the seasons" makes perfect sense. And Dictionary.com throws up another<br />
interesting nugget:<br />
<br />
http://dictionary.reference.com/search?q=scumbled<br />
<br />
A-and the wonderful phrase, "knives of the seasons" embodies another lifelong deep theme in Pynchon's work: that the 'wheeling' of time [see later in ''Gravity's Rainbow'' and ''Against the Day''], the cycle of nature, is an ineluctable good thing, even as it knifes us, ravages, us. It thickens us, impasto-like, gives us topsoil in our characters, so to speak.<br />
<br />
"To blur the outlines of: a writer who scumbled the line that divides<br />
history and fiction." <br />
<br />
Apt example!<br />
<br />
<br />
<br /><br />
<br />
==Page 6==<br />
<br />
[[image:dna-molecule.jpg|thumb|100px|right]]6.09 '''a spiral ladder'''<br /><br />
Suggests the double-helix structure of the DNA molecule that preserves the "living genetic chains" evoked at [[Pages 7-16#10|10.14]].<br><br />
Cf. p. 209, ''Mason & Dixon'': " oblique angles with all meridians and that is a spiral coiling round the poles but never reaching them."...<br />
<br />
==Page 7==<br />
7.09 '''Pick bananas'''<br><br />
Pirate's decision after a paragraph on the inevitablity of the rocket's flight can remind one of a famous Buddhist sutra on picking a strawberry:<br />
The Sweetest Strawberry<br><br />
Buddha told a parable in a sutra:<br><br />
A man traveling across a field encountered a tiger. He fled, the tiger after him. Coming to a precipice, he caught hold of the root of a wild vine and swung himself down over the edge. The tiger sniffed at him from above. Trembling, the man looked down to where, far below, another tiger was waiting to eat him. Only the vine sustained him. Two mice, one white and one black, little by little started to gnaw away the vine. The man saw a luscious strawberry near him. Grasping the vine with one hand, he plucked the strawberry with the other. How sweet it tasted!<br><br />
-Paul Reps, ''Zen Flesh, Zen Bones''<br><br />
from ''Everyday Mind'', edited by Jean Smith <br />
[[http://www.tricycle.com/issues/2_174/dailydharma/3192-1.html]]<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
{{GR PbP}}</div>MKOHUThttps://gravitys-rainbow.pynchonwiki.com/wiki/index.php?title=Pages_3-7&diff=2471Pages 3-72007-10-08T00:12:30Z<p>MKOHUT: /* Page 4 */</p>
<hr />
<div>{{GR PbP Text}}<br />
<br />
==Page 3==<br />
<br />
3.03 '''The Evacuation'''<br><br />
First instance in GR of a lifetime stylistic trait of Pynchon's: unpredictable use of Capitalization. Capitalization is usually applied to nouns, but not uniformly. Often a matter of emphasis. See ''Mason & Dixon'' for the widest use, there imitating the writing of the time in which the book is set.<br><br />
The use throughout all his work might indicate how well-read and influenced by works written before capitalization was standardized Pynchon is.<br><br />
The full rules of capitalization for English are complicated. The rules have also changed over time, generally to capitalize fewer terms; to the modern reader, an 18th century document seems to use initial capitals excessively. Wikipedia<br />
<br />
3.03 '''theatre'''<br><br />
Besides the normal meanings, including "theater of war", 'theatre' is the name that fireworks' organizers call a sky display.<br />
<br />
3.05 '''iron queen'''<br><br />
a queensize bed made of iron. Hardly made after 1900. Queen Victoria had a famous brass (and iron) one in the Crystal Palace! "Beds made of hollow tubes of steel, iron, and brass came to be manufactured in the mid 19th century.<br />
These were to be used both by soldiers and civilians. Their main advantage at that time was that unlike wooden beds, these could not be infested with bedbugs. Queen Victoria's brass bed at the Crystal Palace has been the most famous antique brass bed.<br><br />
By the late 19th century, metal beds were nearly out of fashion." Antique beds [[http://www.bestinbeds.com/beds/antique-bed.html]]<br />
<br />
Also, In The Odyssey, when Odysseus goes to the Underworld, he refers to Persephone as '''the Iron Queen'''. Of the four gods of Empedocles' elements it is the name of Persephone alone that is taboo, for the Greeks knew another face of Persephone as well. She was also the terrible Queen of the dead, whose name was not safe to speak aloud, who was named simply "The Maiden". Wikipedia<br />
[[http://www.en.wikipedia.org/Persephone]]<br />
<br />
3.07 '''crystal palace'''<br><br />
See Alpha entry, especially this re cultural meaning:<br><br />
The Crystal Palace made a strong impression on visitors coming from all over Europe, including a number of writers. It soon became a symbol of modernity and civilization, hailed by some and decried by others.<br />
<br />
In ''What Is to Be Done?'', Russian author and philosopher Nikolai Chernyshevsky pledges to transform the society into a Crystal Palace thanks to a socialist revolution.<br> <br />
Fyodor Dostoevsky implicitly replied to Chernyshevsky in ''Notes from Underground''. The narrator thinks that human nature will prefer destruction and chaos to the harmony symbolized by the Crystal Palace. <br />
<br />
When the first major international exhibition of arts and industries was held in London in 1851, the London Crystal Palace epitomized the achievements of the entire world at a time when progress was racing forward at a speed never before known to mankind. The Great Exhibition marked the beginning of a tradition of world's fairs, which would be held in major cities all across the globe. Following the success of the London fair, it was inevitable that other nations would soon try their hand at organizing their own exhibitions. In fact, the next international fair was held only two years later, in 1853, in New York City. This fair would have its own Crystal Palace to symbolize not only the achievements of the world, but also the nationalistic pride of a relatively young nation and all that she stood for. Walt Whitman, the great American poet, wrote in "The Song of the Exposition":<br><br />
http://www.ric.edu/rpotter/cryspal.html<br />
<br />
That the Crystal Palace Exhibition "marked the beginning of a tradition of world's fairs" can remind that ''Against the Day'' starts at the Columbian Exhibition of 1893 in Chicago. More international optimism.<br />
<br />
3.14 '''second sheep'''<br /><br />
Compare the narrator’s discussion of William Slothrop’s heretical tract "On Preterition," which argued for the holiness of the preterite, and Weisenburger’s note at [[Pages 549-557#555|555.29-31]].<br />
<br />
A wide symbology relates to sheep in ancient art, traditions and culture. Judaism uses many sheep references including the Passover lamb. Christianity uses sheep-related images, such as: Christ as the good shepherd, or as the sacrificed Lamb of God (Agnus Dei); the bishop's Pastoral; the lion lying down with the lamb (a reference to all of creation being at peace, without suffering, predation or otherwise). Greek Easter celebrations traditionally feature a meal of Paschal lamb. Sheep also have considerable importance in Arab culture; Eid ul-Adha is a major annual festival in Islam in which a sheep is sacrificed.<br><br />
Herding sheep plays an important historico-symbolic part in the Jewish and Christian faiths, since Abraham, Jacob, Moses, and King David all worked as shepherds. wikipedia <br />
[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sheep]<br><br />
<br />
Sheep are often associated with obedience due to the widespread perception that they lack intelligence and their undoubted herd mentality, hence the pejorative connotation of the adjective 'ovine'. In George Orwell's satirical novel ''Animal Farm'', sheep are used to represent the ignorant and uneducated masses of revolutionary Russia. The sheep are unable to be taught the subtleties of revolutionary ideology and can only be taught repetitive slogans such as "Four legs good, two legs bad" which they bleat in unison at rallies. The rock group Pink Floyd wrote a song using sheep as a symbol for ordinary people, that is, everyone who isn't a pig or dog. People who accept overbearing governments have been pejoratively referred to as "sheeple". wikipedia [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sheep]<br><br />
<br />
3.19 '''half-silvered'''<br><br />
adj. (of a mirror) having an incomplete reflective coating, so that half the incident light is reflected and half transmitted: used in optical instruments and two-way mirrors. Collins Dictionary<br><br />
See the splitting of light all through ''Against the Day'', Pynchon's 2006<br />
novel.<br />
<br />
3.19 '''view finder'''<br><br />
as two words, this seems to refer to handheld devices in which slides were slid and viewed in 3-dimensions. Here is a version still being made <br />
[http://porters.com/Merchant2/merchant.mvc?Screen=PROD&Store_Code=PCS&Product_Code=520098&Product_Count=&Category_Code= view finder].<br> "half-silvered" above seems most correct with this kind of device. <br />
<br />
3.22 '''They pass in line'''<br><br />
A Pynchonian leitmotif. The linearity of lining up has resonances throughout his work, articulated most straightforwardly in ''Against the Day'', which starts with "Single up all Lines!", and perhaps dealt with<br />
most profoundly in ''Mason & Dixon'', a novel about creating the "Mason & Dixon line".<br />
<br />
3.25 '''Rain comes down'''<br><br />
Pynchon's first published story is called ''The Small Rain''. See his remarks on rain in fiction in ''Slow Learner''.<br />
<br />
3.30 '''naptha winters'''<br><br />
Naptha is the flammable liquid obtained from the distillation of coal and used to fire gaslights and heaters. ...<br />
<br />
3.32 '''rolling-stock absence'''<br><br />
Rolling stock is the collective term that describes all the vehicles which move on a railway.<br />
<br />
3.35 '''Absolute Zero'''<br><br />
Theoretical state when no molecules move. [http://www.pa.msu.edu/sciencet/ask_st/012992.html..Absolute Zero]. State<br />
of entropy, a key concept of Thomas Pynchon's. See early story, ''Entropy'' in ''Slow Learner''.<br />
<br />
3.36 '''places whose ''names he has never heard'''''<br><br />
'secret cities of poor', deep under these fallen girders. Places<br />
that have never been spoken of, yet exist. Lower than ''Low-lands''.<br><br />
Later in Pynchon's world,in other books, ''Mason & Dixon'' and ''Against the Day'', we will travel deeper underground, to places with no names we know, it seems. See a "progressive ''knotting into''", 3.26 in GR.<br />
<br />
3.37 '''the walls break down'''<br> <br />
See "wall of death" later in ''Gravity's Rainbow''. A-and in ''Against the Day''.<br />
<br />
===Page 4===<br />
4.01 '''getting narrower...cornering tighter and tighter'''<br><br />
Cf. the rationalization of choice and similar phrasing in ''Against the Day'', pynchon wiki p. [http://against-the-day.pynchonwiki.com/wiki/index.php?title=ATD_1-25 10]<br />
<br />
4.05 '''caravan'''<br><br />
1) a procession, in single file, of merchants or pilgrims<br />
2) a procession of mules, camels or certain other animals. Sources: Online dictionary and wikipedia.<br> 3) ''Caravan'' is a song by Van Morrison included on his 1970 album, ''Moondance''. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Caravan_%28Van_Morrison_song%29 Caravan]<br><br />
Pilgrim has Pynchonian resonances, especially in ''Against the Day''<br> A-And, once again, notice the singleing up of lines.<br />
<br />
4.07 '''cockade'''<br><br />
1) n. An ornament, such as a rosette or knot of ribbon, usually worn on the hat as a badge. [Alteration of obsolete cockard , from French.]<br><br />
<br />
2) Operational code name for Allied deception operations intended to draw attention away from Normandy prior to D-Day<br />
[http://www.secondworldwar.co.uk/glossc.html]<br />
<br />
==Page 5==<br />
5.03 '''His name is Capt. Geoffrey ("Pirate") Prentice.'''<br /><br />
Pirate’s name derives from Gilbert and Sullivan’s operetta ''The Pirates of Penzance'', in which the hero’s nurse has made a fateful error in carrying out her employer’s instructions: Instead of having the boy apprenticed to a (ship’s) '''pilot''', he was apprenticed to a pirate, hence a "'''pirate''' ‘prentice." The name, though, is not simply a fortuitous pun: In her error, the nurse has lost a message, like the hare of Herero myth, and thus guaranteed her young charge’s preterition. (There are also connections here to the theme of "communications entropy," which is central to ''The Crying of Lot 49'' and the short story "Entropy.")<br />
<br />
5.03 '''all got scumbled together, eventually, by the knives of the seasons, to an impasto, feet thick, of unbelievable black topsoil'''<br /><br />
<br />
Didn't notice 'scumbled' first time round, I was going too fast. Second<br />
read I looked it up. Scumbled? Isn't that some sort of painting<br />
[technique? Pynchon make a mistake there? Mean to say scrambled?<br />
Hmmmmmmmm. Then I thought of the 'knives' bit, wondered if artists might<br />
use a [http://painting.about.com/od/paintingforbeginners/a/Painting_Knife.htm palette knife] to do this scumbling business. A Google search for<br />
"scumble knife palette " found me this:<br />
<br />
http://www.messums.com/sub_newsview.ink?nid=11191<br />
<br />
"Hard impasto ridges left by the edge of the knife provided the texture<br />
I needed to bring the waves crashing in."<br />
<br />
[http://www.thefreedictionary.com/impasto Impasto] eh? I thought that just meant paste. So the knives in "knives of<br />
the seasons" makes perfect sense. And Dictionary.com throws up another<br />
interesting nugget:<br />
<br />
http://dictionary.reference.com/search?q=scumbled<br />
<br />
A-and the wonderful phrase, "knives of the seasons" embodies another lifelong deep theme in Pynchon's work: that the 'wheeling' of time [see later in ''Gravity's Rainbow'' and ''Against the Day''], the cycle of nature, is an ineluctable good thing, even as it knifes us, ravages, us. It thickens us, impasto-like, gives us topsoil in our characters, so to speak.<br />
<br />
"To blur the outlines of: a writer who scumbled the line that divides<br />
history and fiction." <br />
<br />
Apt example!<br />
<br />
<br />
<br /><br />
<br />
==Page 6==<br />
<br />
[[image:dna-molecule.jpg|thumb|100px|right]]6.09 '''a spiral ladder'''<br /><br />
Suggests the double-helix structure of the DNA molecule that preserves the "living genetic chains" evoked at [[Pages 7-16#10|10.14]].<br><br />
Cf. p. 209, ''Mason & Dixon'': " oblique angles with all meridians and that is a spiral coiling round the poles but never reaching them."...<br />
<br />
==Page 7==<br />
7.09 '''Pick bananas'''<br><br />
Pirate's decision after a paragraph on the inevitablity of the rocket's flight can remind one of a famous Buddhist sutra on picking a strawberry:<br />
The Sweetest Strawberry<br><br />
Buddha told a parable in a sutra:<br><br />
A man traveling across a field encountered a tiger. He fled, the tiger after him. Coming to a precipice, he caught hold of the root of a wild vine and swung himself down over the edge. The tiger sniffed at him from above. Trembling, the man looked down to where, far below, another tiger was waiting to eat him. Only the vine sustained him. Two mice, one white and one black, little by little started to gnaw away the vine. The man saw a luscious strawberry near him. Grasping the vine with one hand, he plucked the strawberry with the other. How sweet it tasted!<br><br />
-Paul Reps, ''Zen Flesh, Zen Bones''<br><br />
from ''Everyday Mind'', edited by Jean Smith <br />
[[http://www.tricycle.com/issues/2_174/dailydharma/3192-1.html]]<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
{{GR PbP}}</div>MKOHUThttps://gravitys-rainbow.pynchonwiki.com/wiki/index.php?title=Pages_3-7&diff=2470Pages 3-72007-10-07T23:12:03Z<p>MKOHUT: /* Page 4 */</p>
<hr />
<div>{{GR PbP Text}}<br />
<br />
==Page 3==<br />
<br />
3.03 '''The Evacuation'''<br><br />
First instance in GR of a lifetime stylistic trait of Pynchon's: unpredictable use of Capitalization. Capitalization is usually applied to nouns, but not uniformly. Often a matter of emphasis. See ''Mason & Dixon'' for the widest use, there imitating the writing of the time in which the book is set.<br><br />
The use throughout all his work might indicate how well-read and influenced by works written before capitalization was standardized Pynchon is.<br><br />
The full rules of capitalization for English are complicated. The rules have also changed over time, generally to capitalize fewer terms; to the modern reader, an 18th century document seems to use initial capitals excessively. Wikipedia<br />
<br />
3.03 '''theatre'''<br><br />
Besides the normal meanings, including "theater of war", 'theatre' is the name that fireworks' organizers call a sky display.<br />
<br />
3.05 '''iron queen'''<br><br />
a queensize bed made of iron. Hardly made after 1900. Queen Victoria had a famous brass (and iron) one in the Crystal Palace! "Beds made of hollow tubes of steel, iron, and brass came to be manufactured in the mid 19th century.<br />
These were to be used both by soldiers and civilians. Their main advantage at that time was that unlike wooden beds, these could not be infested with bedbugs. Queen Victoria's brass bed at the Crystal Palace has been the most famous antique brass bed.<br><br />
By the late 19th century, metal beds were nearly out of fashion." Antique beds [[http://www.bestinbeds.com/beds/antique-bed.html]]<br />
<br />
Also, In The Odyssey, when Odysseus goes to the Underworld, he refers to Persephone as '''the Iron Queen'''. Of the four gods of Empedocles' elements it is the name of Persephone alone that is taboo, for the Greeks knew another face of Persephone as well. She was also the terrible Queen of the dead, whose name was not safe to speak aloud, who was named simply "The Maiden". Wikipedia<br />
[[http://www.en.wikipedia.org/Persephone]]<br />
<br />
3.07 '''crystal palace'''<br><br />
See Alpha entry, especially this re cultural meaning:<br><br />
The Crystal Palace made a strong impression on visitors coming from all over Europe, including a number of writers. It soon became a symbol of modernity and civilization, hailed by some and decried by others.<br />
<br />
In ''What Is to Be Done?'', Russian author and philosopher Nikolai Chernyshevsky pledges to transform the society into a Crystal Palace thanks to a socialist revolution.<br> <br />
Fyodor Dostoevsky implicitly replied to Chernyshevsky in ''Notes from Underground''. The narrator thinks that human nature will prefer destruction and chaos to the harmony symbolized by the Crystal Palace. <br />
<br />
When the first major international exhibition of arts and industries was held in London in 1851, the London Crystal Palace epitomized the achievements of the entire world at a time when progress was racing forward at a speed never before known to mankind. The Great Exhibition marked the beginning of a tradition of world's fairs, which would be held in major cities all across the globe. Following the success of the London fair, it was inevitable that other nations would soon try their hand at organizing their own exhibitions. In fact, the next international fair was held only two years later, in 1853, in New York City. This fair would have its own Crystal Palace to symbolize not only the achievements of the world, but also the nationalistic pride of a relatively young nation and all that she stood for. Walt Whitman, the great American poet, wrote in "The Song of the Exposition":<br><br />
http://www.ric.edu/rpotter/cryspal.html<br />
<br />
That the Crystal Palace Exhibition "marked the beginning of a tradition of world's fairs" can remind that ''Against the Day'' starts at the Columbian Exhibition of 1893 in Chicago. More international optimism.<br />
<br />
3.14 '''second sheep'''<br /><br />
Compare the narrator’s discussion of William Slothrop’s heretical tract "On Preterition," which argued for the holiness of the preterite, and Weisenburger’s note at [[Pages 549-557#555|555.29-31]].<br />
<br />
A wide symbology relates to sheep in ancient art, traditions and culture. Judaism uses many sheep references including the Passover lamb. Christianity uses sheep-related images, such as: Christ as the good shepherd, or as the sacrificed Lamb of God (Agnus Dei); the bishop's Pastoral; the lion lying down with the lamb (a reference to all of creation being at peace, without suffering, predation or otherwise). Greek Easter celebrations traditionally feature a meal of Paschal lamb. Sheep also have considerable importance in Arab culture; Eid ul-Adha is a major annual festival in Islam in which a sheep is sacrificed.<br><br />
Herding sheep plays an important historico-symbolic part in the Jewish and Christian faiths, since Abraham, Jacob, Moses, and King David all worked as shepherds. wikipedia <br />
[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sheep]<br><br />
<br />
Sheep are often associated with obedience due to the widespread perception that they lack intelligence and their undoubted herd mentality, hence the pejorative connotation of the adjective 'ovine'. In George Orwell's satirical novel ''Animal Farm'', sheep are used to represent the ignorant and uneducated masses of revolutionary Russia. The sheep are unable to be taught the subtleties of revolutionary ideology and can only be taught repetitive slogans such as "Four legs good, two legs bad" which they bleat in unison at rallies. The rock group Pink Floyd wrote a song using sheep as a symbol for ordinary people, that is, everyone who isn't a pig or dog. People who accept overbearing governments have been pejoratively referred to as "sheeple". wikipedia [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sheep]<br><br />
<br />
3.19 '''half-silvered'''<br><br />
adj. (of a mirror) having an incomplete reflective coating, so that half the incident light is reflected and half transmitted: used in optical instruments and two-way mirrors. Collins Dictionary<br><br />
See the splitting of light all through ''Against the Day'', Pynchon's 2006<br />
novel.<br />
<br />
3.19 '''view finder'''<br><br />
as two words, this seems to refer to handheld devices in which slides were slid and viewed in 3-dimensions. Here is a version still being made <br />
[http://porters.com/Merchant2/merchant.mvc?Screen=PROD&Store_Code=PCS&Product_Code=520098&Product_Count=&Category_Code= view finder].<br> "half-silvered" above seems most correct with this kind of device. <br />
<br />
3.22 '''They pass in line'''<br><br />
A Pynchonian leitmotif. The linearity of lining up has resonances throughout his work, articulated most straightforwardly in ''Against the Day'', which starts with "Single up all Lines!", and perhaps dealt with<br />
most profoundly in ''Mason & Dixon'', a novel about creating the "Mason & Dixon line".<br />
<br />
3.25 '''Rain comes down'''<br><br />
Pynchon's first published story is called ''The Small Rain''. See his remarks on rain in fiction in ''Slow Learner''.<br />
<br />
3.30 '''naptha winters'''<br><br />
Naptha is the flammable liquid obtained from the distillation of coal and used to fire gaslights and heaters. ...<br />
<br />
3.32 '''rolling-stock absence'''<br><br />
Rolling stock is the collective term that describes all the vehicles which move on a railway.<br />
<br />
3.35 '''Absolute Zero'''<br><br />
Theoretical state when no molecules move. [http://www.pa.msu.edu/sciencet/ask_st/012992.html..Absolute Zero]. State<br />
of entropy, a key concept of Thomas Pynchon's. See early story, ''Entropy'' in ''Slow Learner''.<br />
<br />
3.36 '''places whose ''names he has never heard'''''<br><br />
'secret cities of poor', deep under these fallen girders. Places<br />
that have never been spoken of, yet exist. Lower than ''Low-lands''.<br><br />
Later in Pynchon's world,in other books, ''Mason & Dixon'' and ''Against the Day'', we will travel deeper underground, to places with no names we know, it seems. See a "progressive ''knotting into''", 3.26 in GR.<br />
<br />
3.37 '''the walls break down'''<br> <br />
See "wall of death" later in ''Gravity's Rainbow''. A-and in ''Against the Day''.<br />
<br />
===Page 4===<br />
4.01 '''getting narrower...cornering tighter and tighter'''<br><br />
Cf. the rationalization of choice and similar phrasing in ''Against the Day'', pynchon wiki p. [http://against-the-day.pynchonwiki.com/wiki/index.php?title=ATD_1-25 10]<br />
<br />
4.05 '''caravan'''<br><br />
1) a procession, in single file, of merchants or pilgrims 2) a procession of mules, camels or certain other animals. Sources: Online dictionary and wikipedia.<br><br />
''Pilgrim'' has Pynchonian resonances. A-And, once again, notice the singleing up of lines.<br />
<br />
4.07 '''cockade'''<br><br />
1) n. An ornament, such as a rosette or knot of ribbon, usually worn on the hat as a badge. [Alteration of obsolete cockard , from French.]<br><br />
<br />
2) Operational code name for Allied deception operations intended to draw attention away from Normandy prior to D-Day<br />
[http://www.secondworldwar.co.uk/glossc.html]<br />
<br />
==Page 5==<br />
5.03 '''His name is Capt. Geoffrey ("Pirate") Prentice.'''<br /><br />
Pirate’s name derives from Gilbert and Sullivan’s operetta ''The Pirates of Penzance'', in which the hero’s nurse has made a fateful error in carrying out her employer’s instructions: Instead of having the boy apprenticed to a (ship’s) '''pilot''', he was apprenticed to a pirate, hence a "'''pirate''' ‘prentice." The name, though, is not simply a fortuitous pun: In her error, the nurse has lost a message, like the hare of Herero myth, and thus guaranteed her young charge’s preterition. (There are also connections here to the theme of "communications entropy," which is central to ''The Crying of Lot 49'' and the short story "Entropy.")<br />
<br />
5.03 '''all got scumbled together, eventually, by the knives of the seasons, to an impasto, feet thick, of unbelievable black topsoil'''<br /><br />
<br />
Didn't notice 'scumbled' first time round, I was going too fast. Second<br />
read I looked it up. Scumbled? Isn't that some sort of painting<br />
[technique? Pynchon make a mistake there? Mean to say scrambled?<br />
Hmmmmmmmm. Then I thought of the 'knives' bit, wondered if artists might<br />
use a [http://painting.about.com/od/paintingforbeginners/a/Painting_Knife.htm palette knife] to do this scumbling business. A Google search for<br />
"scumble knife palette " found me this:<br />
<br />
http://www.messums.com/sub_newsview.ink?nid=11191<br />
<br />
"Hard impasto ridges left by the edge of the knife provided the texture<br />
I needed to bring the waves crashing in."<br />
<br />
[http://www.thefreedictionary.com/impasto Impasto] eh? I thought that just meant paste. So the knives in "knives of<br />
the seasons" makes perfect sense. And Dictionary.com throws up another<br />
interesting nugget:<br />
<br />
http://dictionary.reference.com/search?q=scumbled<br />
<br />
A-and the wonderful phrase, "knives of the seasons" embodies another lifelong deep theme in Pynchon's work: that the 'wheeling' of time [see later in ''Gravity's Rainbow'' and ''Against the Day''], the cycle of nature, is an ineluctable good thing, even as it knifes us, ravages, us. It thickens us, impasto-like, gives us topsoil in our characters, so to speak.<br />
<br />
"To blur the outlines of: a writer who scumbled the line that divides<br />
history and fiction." <br />
<br />
Apt example!<br />
<br />
<br />
<br /><br />
<br />
==Page 6==<br />
<br />
[[image:dna-molecule.jpg|thumb|100px|right]]6.09 '''a spiral ladder'''<br /><br />
Suggests the double-helix structure of the DNA molecule that preserves the "living genetic chains" evoked at [[Pages 7-16#10|10.14]].<br><br />
Cf. p. 209, ''Mason & Dixon'': " oblique angles with all meridians and that is a spiral coiling round the poles but never reaching them."...<br />
<br />
==Page 7==<br />
7.09 '''Pick bananas'''<br><br />
Pirate's decision after a paragraph on the inevitablity of the rocket's flight can remind one of a famous Buddhist sutra on picking a strawberry:<br />
The Sweetest Strawberry<br><br />
Buddha told a parable in a sutra:<br><br />
A man traveling across a field encountered a tiger. He fled, the tiger after him. Coming to a precipice, he caught hold of the root of a wild vine and swung himself down over the edge. The tiger sniffed at him from above. Trembling, the man looked down to where, far below, another tiger was waiting to eat him. Only the vine sustained him. Two mice, one white and one black, little by little started to gnaw away the vine. The man saw a luscious strawberry near him. Grasping the vine with one hand, he plucked the strawberry with the other. How sweet it tasted!<br><br />
-Paul Reps, ''Zen Flesh, Zen Bones''<br><br />
from ''Everyday Mind'', edited by Jean Smith <br />
[[http://www.tricycle.com/issues/2_174/dailydharma/3192-1.html]]<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
{{GR PbP}}</div>MKOHUThttps://gravitys-rainbow.pynchonwiki.com/wiki/index.php?title=Pages_3-7&diff=2469Pages 3-72007-10-07T23:10:40Z<p>MKOHUT: /* Page 4 */</p>
<hr />
<div>{{GR PbP Text}}<br />
<br />
==Page 3==<br />
<br />
3.03 '''The Evacuation'''<br><br />
First instance in GR of a lifetime stylistic trait of Pynchon's: unpredictable use of Capitalization. Capitalization is usually applied to nouns, but not uniformly. Often a matter of emphasis. See ''Mason & Dixon'' for the widest use, there imitating the writing of the time in which the book is set.<br><br />
The use throughout all his work might indicate how well-read and influenced by works written before capitalization was standardized Pynchon is.<br><br />
The full rules of capitalization for English are complicated. The rules have also changed over time, generally to capitalize fewer terms; to the modern reader, an 18th century document seems to use initial capitals excessively. Wikipedia<br />
<br />
3.03 '''theatre'''<br><br />
Besides the normal meanings, including "theater of war", 'theatre' is the name that fireworks' organizers call a sky display.<br />
<br />
3.05 '''iron queen'''<br><br />
a queensize bed made of iron. Hardly made after 1900. Queen Victoria had a famous brass (and iron) one in the Crystal Palace! "Beds made of hollow tubes of steel, iron, and brass came to be manufactured in the mid 19th century.<br />
These were to be used both by soldiers and civilians. Their main advantage at that time was that unlike wooden beds, these could not be infested with bedbugs. Queen Victoria's brass bed at the Crystal Palace has been the most famous antique brass bed.<br><br />
By the late 19th century, metal beds were nearly out of fashion." Antique beds [[http://www.bestinbeds.com/beds/antique-bed.html]]<br />
<br />
Also, In The Odyssey, when Odysseus goes to the Underworld, he refers to Persephone as '''the Iron Queen'''. Of the four gods of Empedocles' elements it is the name of Persephone alone that is taboo, for the Greeks knew another face of Persephone as well. She was also the terrible Queen of the dead, whose name was not safe to speak aloud, who was named simply "The Maiden". Wikipedia<br />
[[http://www.en.wikipedia.org/Persephone]]<br />
<br />
3.07 '''crystal palace'''<br><br />
See Alpha entry, especially this re cultural meaning:<br><br />
The Crystal Palace made a strong impression on visitors coming from all over Europe, including a number of writers. It soon became a symbol of modernity and civilization, hailed by some and decried by others.<br />
<br />
In ''What Is to Be Done?'', Russian author and philosopher Nikolai Chernyshevsky pledges to transform the society into a Crystal Palace thanks to a socialist revolution.<br> <br />
Fyodor Dostoevsky implicitly replied to Chernyshevsky in ''Notes from Underground''. The narrator thinks that human nature will prefer destruction and chaos to the harmony symbolized by the Crystal Palace. <br />
<br />
When the first major international exhibition of arts and industries was held in London in 1851, the London Crystal Palace epitomized the achievements of the entire world at a time when progress was racing forward at a speed never before known to mankind. The Great Exhibition marked the beginning of a tradition of world's fairs, which would be held in major cities all across the globe. Following the success of the London fair, it was inevitable that other nations would soon try their hand at organizing their own exhibitions. In fact, the next international fair was held only two years later, in 1853, in New York City. This fair would have its own Crystal Palace to symbolize not only the achievements of the world, but also the nationalistic pride of a relatively young nation and all that she stood for. Walt Whitman, the great American poet, wrote in "The Song of the Exposition":<br><br />
http://www.ric.edu/rpotter/cryspal.html<br />
<br />
That the Crystal Palace Exhibition "marked the beginning of a tradition of world's fairs" can remind that ''Against the Day'' starts at the Columbian Exhibition of 1893 in Chicago. More international optimism.<br />
<br />
3.14 '''second sheep'''<br /><br />
Compare the narrator’s discussion of William Slothrop’s heretical tract "On Preterition," which argued for the holiness of the preterite, and Weisenburger’s note at [[Pages 549-557#555|555.29-31]].<br />
<br />
A wide symbology relates to sheep in ancient art, traditions and culture. Judaism uses many sheep references including the Passover lamb. Christianity uses sheep-related images, such as: Christ as the good shepherd, or as the sacrificed Lamb of God (Agnus Dei); the bishop's Pastoral; the lion lying down with the lamb (a reference to all of creation being at peace, without suffering, predation or otherwise). Greek Easter celebrations traditionally feature a meal of Paschal lamb. Sheep also have considerable importance in Arab culture; Eid ul-Adha is a major annual festival in Islam in which a sheep is sacrificed.<br><br />
Herding sheep plays an important historico-symbolic part in the Jewish and Christian faiths, since Abraham, Jacob, Moses, and King David all worked as shepherds. wikipedia <br />
[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sheep]<br><br />
<br />
Sheep are often associated with obedience due to the widespread perception that they lack intelligence and their undoubted herd mentality, hence the pejorative connotation of the adjective 'ovine'. In George Orwell's satirical novel ''Animal Farm'', sheep are used to represent the ignorant and uneducated masses of revolutionary Russia. The sheep are unable to be taught the subtleties of revolutionary ideology and can only be taught repetitive slogans such as "Four legs good, two legs bad" which they bleat in unison at rallies. The rock group Pink Floyd wrote a song using sheep as a symbol for ordinary people, that is, everyone who isn't a pig or dog. People who accept overbearing governments have been pejoratively referred to as "sheeple". wikipedia [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sheep]<br><br />
<br />
3.19 '''half-silvered'''<br><br />
adj. (of a mirror) having an incomplete reflective coating, so that half the incident light is reflected and half transmitted: used in optical instruments and two-way mirrors. Collins Dictionary<br><br />
See the splitting of light all through ''Against the Day'', Pynchon's 2006<br />
novel.<br />
<br />
3.19 '''view finder'''<br><br />
as two words, this seems to refer to handheld devices in which slides were slid and viewed in 3-dimensions. Here is a version still being made <br />
[http://porters.com/Merchant2/merchant.mvc?Screen=PROD&Store_Code=PCS&Product_Code=520098&Product_Count=&Category_Code= view finder].<br> "half-silvered" above seems most correct with this kind of device. <br />
<br />
3.22 '''They pass in line'''<br><br />
A Pynchonian leitmotif. The linearity of lining up has resonances throughout his work, articulated most straightforwardly in ''Against the Day'', which starts with "Single up all Lines!", and perhaps dealt with<br />
most profoundly in ''Mason & Dixon'', a novel about creating the "Mason & Dixon line".<br />
<br />
3.25 '''Rain comes down'''<br><br />
Pynchon's first published story is called ''The Small Rain''. See his remarks on rain in fiction in ''Slow Learner''.<br />
<br />
3.30 '''naptha winters'''<br><br />
Naptha is the flammable liquid obtained from the distillation of coal and used to fire gaslights and heaters. ...<br />
<br />
3.32 '''rolling-stock absence'''<br><br />
Rolling stock is the collective term that describes all the vehicles which move on a railway.<br />
<br />
3.35 '''Absolute Zero'''<br><br />
Theoretical state when no molecules move. [http://www.pa.msu.edu/sciencet/ask_st/012992.html..Absolute Zero]. State<br />
of entropy, a key concept of Thomas Pynchon's. See early story, ''Entropy'' in ''Slow Learner''.<br />
<br />
3.36 '''places whose ''names he has never heard'''''<br><br />
'secret cities of poor', deep under these fallen girders. Places<br />
that have never been spoken of, yet exist. Lower than ''Low-lands''.<br><br />
Later in Pynchon's world,in other books, ''Mason & Dixon'' and ''Against the Day'', we will travel deeper underground, to places with no names we know, it seems. See a "progressive ''knotting into''", 3.26 in GR.<br />
<br />
3.37 '''the walls break down'''<br> <br />
See "wall of death" later in ''Gravity's Rainbow''. A-and in ''Against the Day''.<br />
<br />
===Page 4===<br />
4.01 '''getting narrower...cornering tighter and tighter'''<br><br />
Cf. the rationalization of choice and similar phrasing in ''Against the Day'', pynchon wiki p. [http://against-the-day.pynchonwiki.com/wiki/index.php?title=ATD_1-25 10]<br />
<br />
4.05 '''caravan'''<br><br />
1)a procession, in single file, of merchants or pilgrims 2) a procession of mules, camels or certain other animals. Sources: Online dictionary and wikipedia.<br><br />
''Pilgrim'' has Pynchonian resonances. A-And, once again, notice the singleing up of lines.<br />
<br />
4.07 '''cockade'''<br><br />
1) n. An ornament, such as a rosette or knot of ribbon, usually worn on the hat as a badge. [Alteration of obsolete cockard , from French.]<br><br />
<br />
2) Operational code name for Allied deception operations intended to draw attention away from Normandy prior to D-Day<br />
[http://www.secondworldwar.co.uk/glossc.html]<br />
<br />
==Page 5==<br />
5.03 '''His name is Capt. Geoffrey ("Pirate") Prentice.'''<br /><br />
Pirate’s name derives from Gilbert and Sullivan’s operetta ''The Pirates of Penzance'', in which the hero’s nurse has made a fateful error in carrying out her employer’s instructions: Instead of having the boy apprenticed to a (ship’s) '''pilot''', he was apprenticed to a pirate, hence a "'''pirate''' ‘prentice." The name, though, is not simply a fortuitous pun: In her error, the nurse has lost a message, like the hare of Herero myth, and thus guaranteed her young charge’s preterition. (There are also connections here to the theme of "communications entropy," which is central to ''The Crying of Lot 49'' and the short story "Entropy.")<br />
<br />
5.03 '''all got scumbled together, eventually, by the knives of the seasons, to an impasto, feet thick, of unbelievable black topsoil'''<br /><br />
<br />
Didn't notice 'scumbled' first time round, I was going too fast. Second<br />
read I looked it up. Scumbled? Isn't that some sort of painting<br />
[technique? Pynchon make a mistake there? Mean to say scrambled?<br />
Hmmmmmmmm. Then I thought of the 'knives' bit, wondered if artists might<br />
use a [http://painting.about.com/od/paintingforbeginners/a/Painting_Knife.htm palette knife] to do this scumbling business. A Google search for<br />
"scumble knife palette " found me this:<br />
<br />
http://www.messums.com/sub_newsview.ink?nid=11191<br />
<br />
"Hard impasto ridges left by the edge of the knife provided the texture<br />
I needed to bring the waves crashing in."<br />
<br />
[http://www.thefreedictionary.com/impasto Impasto] eh? I thought that just meant paste. So the knives in "knives of<br />
the seasons" makes perfect sense. And Dictionary.com throws up another<br />
interesting nugget:<br />
<br />
http://dictionary.reference.com/search?q=scumbled<br />
<br />
A-and the wonderful phrase, "knives of the seasons" embodies another lifelong deep theme in Pynchon's work: that the 'wheeling' of time [see later in ''Gravity's Rainbow'' and ''Against the Day''], the cycle of nature, is an ineluctable good thing, even as it knifes us, ravages, us. It thickens us, impasto-like, gives us topsoil in our characters, so to speak.<br />
<br />
"To blur the outlines of: a writer who scumbled the line that divides<br />
history and fiction." <br />
<br />
Apt example!<br />
<br />
<br />
<br /><br />
<br />
==Page 6==<br />
<br />
[[image:dna-molecule.jpg|thumb|100px|right]]6.09 '''a spiral ladder'''<br /><br />
Suggests the double-helix structure of the DNA molecule that preserves the "living genetic chains" evoked at [[Pages 7-16#10|10.14]].<br><br />
Cf. p. 209, ''Mason & Dixon'': " oblique angles with all meridians and that is a spiral coiling round the poles but never reaching them."...<br />
<br />
==Page 7==<br />
7.09 '''Pick bananas'''<br><br />
Pirate's decision after a paragraph on the inevitablity of the rocket's flight can remind one of a famous Buddhist sutra on picking a strawberry:<br />
The Sweetest Strawberry<br><br />
Buddha told a parable in a sutra:<br><br />
A man traveling across a field encountered a tiger. He fled, the tiger after him. Coming to a precipice, he caught hold of the root of a wild vine and swung himself down over the edge. The tiger sniffed at him from above. Trembling, the man looked down to where, far below, another tiger was waiting to eat him. Only the vine sustained him. Two mice, one white and one black, little by little started to gnaw away the vine. The man saw a luscious strawberry near him. Grasping the vine with one hand, he plucked the strawberry with the other. How sweet it tasted!<br><br />
-Paul Reps, ''Zen Flesh, Zen Bones''<br><br />
from ''Everyday Mind'', edited by Jean Smith <br />
[[http://www.tricycle.com/issues/2_174/dailydharma/3192-1.html]]<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
{{GR PbP}}</div>MKOHUThttps://gravitys-rainbow.pynchonwiki.com/wiki/index.php?title=Pages_3-7&diff=2468Pages 3-72007-10-07T22:54:11Z<p>MKOHUT: /* Page 3 */</p>
<hr />
<div>{{GR PbP Text}}<br />
<br />
==Page 3==<br />
<br />
3.03 '''The Evacuation'''<br><br />
First instance in GR of a lifetime stylistic trait of Pynchon's: unpredictable use of Capitalization. Capitalization is usually applied to nouns, but not uniformly. Often a matter of emphasis. See ''Mason & Dixon'' for the widest use, there imitating the writing of the time in which the book is set.<br><br />
The use throughout all his work might indicate how well-read and influenced by works written before capitalization was standardized Pynchon is.<br><br />
The full rules of capitalization for English are complicated. The rules have also changed over time, generally to capitalize fewer terms; to the modern reader, an 18th century document seems to use initial capitals excessively. Wikipedia<br />
<br />
3.03 '''theatre'''<br><br />
Besides the normal meanings, including "theater of war", 'theatre' is the name that fireworks' organizers call a sky display.<br />
<br />
3.05 '''iron queen'''<br><br />
a queensize bed made of iron. Hardly made after 1900. Queen Victoria had a famous brass (and iron) one in the Crystal Palace! "Beds made of hollow tubes of steel, iron, and brass came to be manufactured in the mid 19th century.<br />
These were to be used both by soldiers and civilians. Their main advantage at that time was that unlike wooden beds, these could not be infested with bedbugs. Queen Victoria's brass bed at the Crystal Palace has been the most famous antique brass bed.<br><br />
By the late 19th century, metal beds were nearly out of fashion." Antique beds [[http://www.bestinbeds.com/beds/antique-bed.html]]<br />
<br />
Also, In The Odyssey, when Odysseus goes to the Underworld, he refers to Persephone as '''the Iron Queen'''. Of the four gods of Empedocles' elements it is the name of Persephone alone that is taboo, for the Greeks knew another face of Persephone as well. She was also the terrible Queen of the dead, whose name was not safe to speak aloud, who was named simply "The Maiden". Wikipedia<br />
[[http://www.en.wikipedia.org/Persephone]]<br />
<br />
3.07 '''crystal palace'''<br><br />
See Alpha entry, especially this re cultural meaning:<br><br />
The Crystal Palace made a strong impression on visitors coming from all over Europe, including a number of writers. It soon became a symbol of modernity and civilization, hailed by some and decried by others.<br />
<br />
In ''What Is to Be Done?'', Russian author and philosopher Nikolai Chernyshevsky pledges to transform the society into a Crystal Palace thanks to a socialist revolution.<br> <br />
Fyodor Dostoevsky implicitly replied to Chernyshevsky in ''Notes from Underground''. The narrator thinks that human nature will prefer destruction and chaos to the harmony symbolized by the Crystal Palace. <br />
<br />
When the first major international exhibition of arts and industries was held in London in 1851, the London Crystal Palace epitomized the achievements of the entire world at a time when progress was racing forward at a speed never before known to mankind. The Great Exhibition marked the beginning of a tradition of world's fairs, which would be held in major cities all across the globe. Following the success of the London fair, it was inevitable that other nations would soon try their hand at organizing their own exhibitions. In fact, the next international fair was held only two years later, in 1853, in New York City. This fair would have its own Crystal Palace to symbolize not only the achievements of the world, but also the nationalistic pride of a relatively young nation and all that she stood for. Walt Whitman, the great American poet, wrote in "The Song of the Exposition":<br><br />
http://www.ric.edu/rpotter/cryspal.html<br />
<br />
That the Crystal Palace Exhibition "marked the beginning of a tradition of world's fairs" can remind that ''Against the Day'' starts at the Columbian Exhibition of 1893 in Chicago. More international optimism.<br />
<br />
3.14 '''second sheep'''<br /><br />
Compare the narrator’s discussion of William Slothrop’s heretical tract "On Preterition," which argued for the holiness of the preterite, and Weisenburger’s note at [[Pages 549-557#555|555.29-31]].<br />
<br />
A wide symbology relates to sheep in ancient art, traditions and culture. Judaism uses many sheep references including the Passover lamb. Christianity uses sheep-related images, such as: Christ as the good shepherd, or as the sacrificed Lamb of God (Agnus Dei); the bishop's Pastoral; the lion lying down with the lamb (a reference to all of creation being at peace, without suffering, predation or otherwise). Greek Easter celebrations traditionally feature a meal of Paschal lamb. Sheep also have considerable importance in Arab culture; Eid ul-Adha is a major annual festival in Islam in which a sheep is sacrificed.<br><br />
Herding sheep plays an important historico-symbolic part in the Jewish and Christian faiths, since Abraham, Jacob, Moses, and King David all worked as shepherds. wikipedia <br />
[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sheep]<br><br />
<br />
Sheep are often associated with obedience due to the widespread perception that they lack intelligence and their undoubted herd mentality, hence the pejorative connotation of the adjective 'ovine'. In George Orwell's satirical novel ''Animal Farm'', sheep are used to represent the ignorant and uneducated masses of revolutionary Russia. The sheep are unable to be taught the subtleties of revolutionary ideology and can only be taught repetitive slogans such as "Four legs good, two legs bad" which they bleat in unison at rallies. The rock group Pink Floyd wrote a song using sheep as a symbol for ordinary people, that is, everyone who isn't a pig or dog. People who accept overbearing governments have been pejoratively referred to as "sheeple". wikipedia [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sheep]<br><br />
<br />
3.19 '''half-silvered'''<br><br />
adj. (of a mirror) having an incomplete reflective coating, so that half the incident light is reflected and half transmitted: used in optical instruments and two-way mirrors. Collins Dictionary<br><br />
See the splitting of light all through ''Against the Day'', Pynchon's 2006<br />
novel.<br />
<br />
3.19 '''view finder'''<br><br />
as two words, this seems to refer to handheld devices in which slides were slid and viewed in 3-dimensions. Here is a version still being made <br />
[http://porters.com/Merchant2/merchant.mvc?Screen=PROD&Store_Code=PCS&Product_Code=520098&Product_Count=&Category_Code= view finder].<br> "half-silvered" above seems most correct with this kind of device. <br />
<br />
3.22 '''They pass in line'''<br><br />
A Pynchonian leitmotif. The linearity of lining up has resonances throughout his work, articulated most straightforwardly in ''Against the Day'', which starts with "Single up all Lines!", and perhaps dealt with<br />
most profoundly in ''Mason & Dixon'', a novel about creating the "Mason & Dixon line".<br />
<br />
3.25 '''Rain comes down'''<br><br />
Pynchon's first published story is called ''The Small Rain''. See his remarks on rain in fiction in ''Slow Learner''.<br />
<br />
3.30 '''naptha winters'''<br><br />
Naptha is the flammable liquid obtained from the distillation of coal and used to fire gaslights and heaters. ...<br />
<br />
3.32 '''rolling-stock absence'''<br><br />
Rolling stock is the collective term that describes all the vehicles which move on a railway.<br />
<br />
3.35 '''Absolute Zero'''<br><br />
Theoretical state when no molecules move. [http://www.pa.msu.edu/sciencet/ask_st/012992.html..Absolute Zero]. State<br />
of entropy, a key concept of Thomas Pynchon's. See early story, ''Entropy'' in ''Slow Learner''.<br />
<br />
3.36 '''places whose ''names he has never heard'''''<br><br />
'secret cities of poor', deep under these fallen girders. Places<br />
that have never been spoken of, yet exist. Lower than ''Low-lands''.<br><br />
Later in Pynchon's world,in other books, ''Mason & Dixon'' and ''Against the Day'', we will travel deeper underground, to places with no names we know, it seems. See a "progressive ''knotting into''", 3.26 in GR.<br />
<br />
3.37 '''the walls break down'''<br> <br />
See "wall of death" later in ''Gravity's Rainbow''. A-and in ''Against the Day''.<br />
<br />
===Page 4===<br />
4.01 '''getting narrower...cornering tighter and tighter'''<br><br />
Cf. the rationalization of choice and similar phrasing in ''Against the Day'', pynchon wiki p. [http://against-the-day.pynchonwiki.com/wiki/index.php?title=ATD_1-25 10]<br />
<br />
4.05 '''caravan'''<br><br />
1)a procession, in single file, of merchants or pilgrims 2) a procession of mules, camels or certain other animals. Sources: Online dictionary and wikipedia.<br><br />
''Pilgrim'' has Pynchonian resonances. A-And, once again, notice the singleing up of lines.<br />
<br />
4.07 '''cockade'''<br><br />
1)n. An ornament, such as a rosette or knot of ribbon, usually worn on the hat as a badge. [Alteration of obsolete cockard , from French.]<br><br />
2)<br />
<br />
==Page 5==<br />
5.03 '''His name is Capt. Geoffrey ("Pirate") Prentice.'''<br /><br />
Pirate’s name derives from Gilbert and Sullivan’s operetta ''The Pirates of Penzance'', in which the hero’s nurse has made a fateful error in carrying out her employer’s instructions: Instead of having the boy apprenticed to a (ship’s) '''pilot''', he was apprenticed to a pirate, hence a "'''pirate''' ‘prentice." The name, though, is not simply a fortuitous pun: In her error, the nurse has lost a message, like the hare of Herero myth, and thus guaranteed her young charge’s preterition. (There are also connections here to the theme of "communications entropy," which is central to ''The Crying of Lot 49'' and the short story "Entropy.")<br />
<br />
5.03 '''all got scumbled together, eventually, by the knives of the seasons, to an impasto, feet thick, of unbelievable black topsoil'''<br /><br />
<br />
Didn't notice 'scumbled' first time round, I was going too fast. Second<br />
read I looked it up. Scumbled? Isn't that some sort of painting<br />
[technique? Pynchon make a mistake there? Mean to say scrambled?<br />
Hmmmmmmmm. Then I thought of the 'knives' bit, wondered if artists might<br />
use a [http://painting.about.com/od/paintingforbeginners/a/Painting_Knife.htm palette knife] to do this scumbling business. A Google search for<br />
"scumble knife palette " found me this:<br />
<br />
http://www.messums.com/sub_newsview.ink?nid=11191<br />
<br />
"Hard impasto ridges left by the edge of the knife provided the texture<br />
I needed to bring the waves crashing in."<br />
<br />
[http://www.thefreedictionary.com/impasto Impasto] eh? I thought that just meant paste. So the knives in "knives of<br />
the seasons" makes perfect sense. And Dictionary.com throws up another<br />
interesting nugget:<br />
<br />
http://dictionary.reference.com/search?q=scumbled<br />
<br />
A-and the wonderful phrase, "knives of the seasons" embodies another lifelong deep theme in Pynchon's work: that the 'wheeling' of time [see later in ''Gravity's Rainbow'' and ''Against the Day''], the cycle of nature, is an ineluctable good thing, even as it knifes us, ravages, us. It thickens us, impasto-like, gives us topsoil in our characters, so to speak.<br />
<br />
"To blur the outlines of: a writer who scumbled the line that divides<br />
history and fiction." <br />
<br />
Apt example!<br />
<br />
<br />
<br /><br />
<br />
==Page 6==<br />
<br />
[[image:dna-molecule.jpg|thumb|100px|right]]6.09 '''a spiral ladder'''<br /><br />
Suggests the double-helix structure of the DNA molecule that preserves the "living genetic chains" evoked at [[Pages 7-16#10|10.14]].<br><br />
Cf. p. 209, ''Mason & Dixon'': " oblique angles with all meridians and that is a spiral coiling round the poles but never reaching them."...<br />
<br />
==Page 7==<br />
7.09 '''Pick bananas'''<br><br />
Pirate's decision after a paragraph on the inevitablity of the rocket's flight can remind one of a famous Buddhist sutra on picking a strawberry:<br />
The Sweetest Strawberry<br><br />
Buddha told a parable in a sutra:<br><br />
A man traveling across a field encountered a tiger. He fled, the tiger after him. Coming to a precipice, he caught hold of the root of a wild vine and swung himself down over the edge. The tiger sniffed at him from above. Trembling, the man looked down to where, far below, another tiger was waiting to eat him. Only the vine sustained him. Two mice, one white and one black, little by little started to gnaw away the vine. The man saw a luscious strawberry near him. Grasping the vine with one hand, he plucked the strawberry with the other. How sweet it tasted!<br><br />
-Paul Reps, ''Zen Flesh, Zen Bones''<br><br />
from ''Everyday Mind'', edited by Jean Smith <br />
[[http://www.tricycle.com/issues/2_174/dailydharma/3192-1.html]]<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
{{GR PbP}}</div>MKOHUThttps://gravitys-rainbow.pynchonwiki.com/wiki/index.php?title=Pages_3-7&diff=2467Pages 3-72007-10-07T22:40:30Z<p>MKOHUT: /* Page 4 */</p>
<hr />
<div>{{GR PbP Text}}<br />
<br />
==Page 3==<br />
<br />
3.03 '''The Evacuation'''<br><br />
First instance in GR of a lifetime stylistic trait of Pynchon's: unpredictable use of Capitalization. Capitalization is usually applied to nouns, but not uniformly. Often a matter of emphasis. See ''Mason & Dixon'' for the widest use, there imitating the writing of the time in which the book is set.<br><br />
The use throughout all his work might indicate how well-read and influenced by works written before capitalization was standardized Pynchon is.<br><br />
The full rules of capitalization for English are complicated. The rules have also changed over time, generally to capitalize fewer terms; to the modern reader, an 18th century document seems to use initial capitals excessively. Wikipedia<br />
<br />
3.03 '''theatre'''<br><br />
Besides the normal meanings, including "theater of war", 'theatre' is the name that fireworks' organizers call a sky display.<br />
<br />
3.05 '''iron queen'''<br><br />
a queensize bed made of iron. Hardly made after 1900. Queen Victoria had a famous brass (and iron) one in the Crystal Palace! "Beds made of hollow tubes of steel, iron, and brass came to be manufactured in the mid 19th century.<br />
These were to be used both by soldiers and civilians. Their main advantage at that time was that unlike wooden beds, these could not be infested with bedbugs. Queen Victoria's brass bed at the Crystal Palace has been the most famous antique brass bed.<br><br />
By the late 19th century, metal beds were nearly out of fashion." Antique beds [[http://www.bestinbeds.com/beds/antique-bed.html]]<br />
<br />
Also, In The Odyssey, when Odysseus goes to the Underworld, he refers to Persephone as '''the Iron Queen'''. Of the four gods of Empedocles' elements it is the name of Persephone alone that is taboo, for the Greeks knew another face of Persephone as well. She was also the terrible Queen of the dead, whose name was not safe to speak aloud, who was named simply "The Maiden". Wikipedia<br />
[[http://www.en.wikipedia.org/Persephone]]<br />
<br />
3.07 '''crystal palace'''<br><br />
See Alpha entry, especially this re cultural meaning:<br><br />
The Crystal Palace made a strong impression on visitors coming from all over Europe, including a number of writers. It soon became a symbol of modernity and civilization, hailed by some and decried by others.<br />
<br />
In ''What Is to Be Done?'', Russian author and philosopher Nikolai Chernyshevsky pledges to transform the society into a Crystal Palace thanks to a socialist revolution.<br> <br />
Fyodor Dostoevsky implicitly replied to Chernyshevsky in ''Notes from Underground''. The narrator thinks that human nature will prefer destruction and chaos to the harmony symbolized by the Crystal Palace. <br />
<br />
When the first major international exhibition of arts and industries was held in London in 1851, the London Crystal Palace epitomized the achievements of the entire world at a time when progress was racing forward at a speed never before known to mankind. The Great Exhibition marked the beginning of a tradition of world's fairs, which would be held in major cities all across the globe. Following the success of the London fair, it was inevitable that other nations would soon try their hand at organizing their own exhibitions. In fact, the next international fair was held only two years later, in 1853, in New York City. This fair would have its own Crystal Palace to symbolize not only the achievements of the world, but also the nationalistic pride of a relatively young nation and all that she stood for. Walt Whitman, the great American poet, wrote in "The Song of the Exposition":<br><br />
http://www.ric.edu/rpotter/cryspal.html<br />
<br />
That the Crystal Palace Exhibition "marked the beginning of a tradition of world's fairs" can remind that ''Against the Day'' starts at the Columbian Exhibition of 1893 in Chicago. More international optimism.<br />
<br />
3.14 '''second sheep'''<br /><br />
Compare the narrator’s discussion of William Slothrop’s heretical tract "On Preterition," which argued for the holiness of the preterite, and Weisenburger’s note at [[Pages 549-557#555|555.29-31]].<br />
<br />
A wide symbology relates to sheep in ancient art, traditions and culture. Judaism uses many sheep references including the Passover lamb. Christianity uses sheep-related images, such as: Christ as the good shepherd, or as the sacrificed Lamb of God (Agnus Dei); the bishop's Pastoral; the lion lying down with the lamb (a reference to all of creation being at peace, without suffering, predation or otherwise). Greek Easter celebrations traditionally feature a meal of Paschal lamb. Sheep also have considerable importance in Arab culture; Eid ul-Adha is a major annual festival in Islam in which a sheep is sacrificed.<br><br />
Herding sheep plays an important historico-symbolic part in the Jewish and Christian faiths, since Abraham, Jacob, Moses, and King David all worked as shepherds. wikipedia <br />
[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sheep]<br><br />
<br />
Sheep are often associated with obedience due to the widespread perception that they lack intelligence and their undoubted herd mentality, hence the pejorative connotation of the adjective 'ovine'. In George Orwell's satirical novel ''Animal Farm'', sheep are used to represent the ignorant and uneducated masses of revolutionary Russia. The sheep are unable to be taught the subtleties of revolutionary ideology and can only be taught repetitive slogans such as "Four legs good, two legs bad" which they bleat in unison at rallies. The rock group Pink Floyd wrote a song using sheep as a symbol for ordinary people, that is, everyone who isn't a pig or dog. People who accept overbearing governments have been pejoratively referred to as "sheeple". wikipedia [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sheep]<br><br />
<br />
3.19 '''half-silvered'''<br><br />
adj. (of a mirror) having an incomplete reflective coating, so that half the incident light is reflected and half transmitted: used in optical instruments and two-way mirrors. Collins Dictionary<br><br />
See the splitting of light all through ''Against the Day'', Pynchon's 2006<br />
novel.<br />
<br />
3.19 '''view finder'''<br><br />
as two words, this seems to refer to handheld devices in which slides were slid and viewed in 3-dimensions. Here is a version still being made <br />
[http://porters.com/Merchant2/merchant.mvc?Screen=PROD&Store_Code=PCS&Product_Code=520098&Product_Count=&Category_Code= view finder].<br> "half-silvered" above seems most correct with this kind of device. <br />
<br />
3.22 '''They pass in line'''<br><br />
A Pynchonian leitmotif. The linearity of lining up has resonances throughout his work, articulated most straightforwardly in ''Against the Day'', which starts with "Single up all Lines!", and perhaps dealt with<br />
most profoundly in ''Mason & Dixon'', a novel about creating the "Mason & Dixon line".<br />
<br />
3.25 '''Rain comes down'''<br><br />
Pynchon's first published story is called ''The Small Rain''. See his remarks on rain in fiction in ''Slow Learner''.<br />
<br />
3.30 '''naptha winters'''<br><br />
Naptha is the flammable liquid obtained from the distillation of coal and used to fire gaslights and heaters. ...<br />
<br />
3.32 '''rolling-stock absence'''<br><br />
Rolling stock is the collective term that describes all the vehicles which move on a railway.<br />
<br />
3.35 '''Absolute Zero'''<br><br />
Theoretical state when no molecules move. [http://www.pa.msu.edu/sciencet/ask_st/012992.html..Absolute Zero]. State<br />
of entropy, a key concept of Thomas Pynchon's. See early story, ''Entropy'' in ''Slow Learner''.<br />
<br />
3.36 '''places whose ''names he has never heard'''''<br><br />
'secret cities of poor', deep under these fallen girders. Places<br />
that have never been spoken of, yet exist. Lower than ''Low-lands''.<br><br />
Later in Pynchon's world,in other books, ''Mason & Dixon'' and ''Against the Day'', we will travel deeper underground, to places with no names we know, it seems. See a "progressive ''knotting into''", 3.26 in GR.<br />
<br />
3.37 '''the walls break down'''<br> <br />
See "wall of death" later in ''Gravity's Rainbow''. A-and in ''Against the Day''.<br />
<br />
===Page 4===<br />
4.01 '''getting narrower...cornering tighter and tighter'''<br><br />
Cf. the rationalization of choice and similar phrasing in ''Against the Day'', pynchon wiki p. [http://against-the-day.pynchonwiki.com/wiki/index.php?title=ATD_1-25 10]<br />
<br />
4.05 '''caravan'''<br><br />
1)a procession, in single file, of merchants or pilgrims 2) a procession of mules, camels or certain other animals. Sources: Online dictionary and wikipedia.<br><br />
''Pilgrim'' has Pynchonian resonances. A-And, once again, notice the singleing up of lines.<br />
<br />
==Page 5==<br />
5.03 '''His name is Capt. Geoffrey ("Pirate") Prentice.'''<br /><br />
Pirate’s name derives from Gilbert and Sullivan’s operetta ''The Pirates of Penzance'', in which the hero’s nurse has made a fateful error in carrying out her employer’s instructions: Instead of having the boy apprenticed to a (ship’s) '''pilot''', he was apprenticed to a pirate, hence a "'''pirate''' ‘prentice." The name, though, is not simply a fortuitous pun: In her error, the nurse has lost a message, like the hare of Herero myth, and thus guaranteed her young charge’s preterition. (There are also connections here to the theme of "communications entropy," which is central to ''The Crying of Lot 49'' and the short story "Entropy.")<br />
<br />
5.03 '''all got scumbled together, eventually, by the knives of the seasons, to an impasto, feet thick, of unbelievable black topsoil'''<br /><br />
<br />
Didn't notice 'scumbled' first time round, I was going too fast. Second<br />
read I looked it up. Scumbled? Isn't that some sort of painting<br />
[technique? Pynchon make a mistake there? Mean to say scrambled?<br />
Hmmmmmmmm. Then I thought of the 'knives' bit, wondered if artists might<br />
use a [http://painting.about.com/od/paintingforbeginners/a/Painting_Knife.htm palette knife] to do this scumbling business. A Google search for<br />
"scumble knife palette " found me this:<br />
<br />
http://www.messums.com/sub_newsview.ink?nid=11191<br />
<br />
"Hard impasto ridges left by the edge of the knife provided the texture<br />
I needed to bring the waves crashing in."<br />
<br />
[http://www.thefreedictionary.com/impasto Impasto] eh? I thought that just meant paste. So the knives in "knives of<br />
the seasons" makes perfect sense. And Dictionary.com throws up another<br />
interesting nugget:<br />
<br />
http://dictionary.reference.com/search?q=scumbled<br />
<br />
A-and the wonderful phrase, "knives of the seasons" embodies another lifelong deep theme in Pynchon's work: that the 'wheeling' of time [see later in ''Gravity's Rainbow'' and ''Against the Day''], the cycle of nature, is an ineluctable good thing, even as it knifes us, ravages, us. It thickens us, impasto-like, gives us topsoil in our characters, so to speak.<br />
<br />
"To blur the outlines of: a writer who scumbled the line that divides<br />
history and fiction." <br />
<br />
Apt example!<br />
<br />
<br />
<br /><br />
<br />
==Page 6==<br />
<br />
[[image:dna-molecule.jpg|thumb|100px|right]]6.09 '''a spiral ladder'''<br /><br />
Suggests the double-helix structure of the DNA molecule that preserves the "living genetic chains" evoked at [[Pages 7-16#10|10.14]].<br><br />
Cf. p. 209, ''Mason & Dixon'': " oblique angles with all meridians and that is a spiral coiling round the poles but never reaching them."...<br />
<br />
==Page 7==<br />
7.09 '''Pick bananas'''<br><br />
Pirate's decision after a paragraph on the inevitablity of the rocket's flight can remind one of a famous Buddhist sutra on picking a strawberry:<br />
The Sweetest Strawberry<br><br />
Buddha told a parable in a sutra:<br><br />
A man traveling across a field encountered a tiger. He fled, the tiger after him. Coming to a precipice, he caught hold of the root of a wild vine and swung himself down over the edge. The tiger sniffed at him from above. Trembling, the man looked down to where, far below, another tiger was waiting to eat him. Only the vine sustained him. Two mice, one white and one black, little by little started to gnaw away the vine. The man saw a luscious strawberry near him. Grasping the vine with one hand, he plucked the strawberry with the other. How sweet it tasted!<br><br />
-Paul Reps, ''Zen Flesh, Zen Bones''<br><br />
from ''Everyday Mind'', edited by Jean Smith <br />
[[http://www.tricycle.com/issues/2_174/dailydharma/3192-1.html]]<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
{{GR PbP}}</div>MKOHUThttps://gravitys-rainbow.pynchonwiki.com/wiki/index.php?title=Pages_3-7&diff=2466Pages 3-72007-10-07T22:32:52Z<p>MKOHUT: /* Page 3 */</p>
<hr />
<div>{{GR PbP Text}}<br />
<br />
==Page 3==<br />
<br />
3.03 '''The Evacuation'''<br><br />
First instance in GR of a lifetime stylistic trait of Pynchon's: unpredictable use of Capitalization. Capitalization is usually applied to nouns, but not uniformly. Often a matter of emphasis. See ''Mason & Dixon'' for the widest use, there imitating the writing of the time in which the book is set.<br><br />
The use throughout all his work might indicate how well-read and influenced by works written before capitalization was standardized Pynchon is.<br><br />
The full rules of capitalization for English are complicated. The rules have also changed over time, generally to capitalize fewer terms; to the modern reader, an 18th century document seems to use initial capitals excessively. Wikipedia<br />
<br />
3.03 '''theatre'''<br><br />
Besides the normal meanings, including "theater of war", 'theatre' is the name that fireworks' organizers call a sky display.<br />
<br />
3.05 '''iron queen'''<br><br />
a queensize bed made of iron. Hardly made after 1900. Queen Victoria had a famous brass (and iron) one in the Crystal Palace! "Beds made of hollow tubes of steel, iron, and brass came to be manufactured in the mid 19th century.<br />
These were to be used both by soldiers and civilians. Their main advantage at that time was that unlike wooden beds, these could not be infested with bedbugs. Queen Victoria's brass bed at the Crystal Palace has been the most famous antique brass bed.<br><br />
By the late 19th century, metal beds were nearly out of fashion." Antique beds [[http://www.bestinbeds.com/beds/antique-bed.html]]<br />
<br />
Also, In The Odyssey, when Odysseus goes to the Underworld, he refers to Persephone as '''the Iron Queen'''. Of the four gods of Empedocles' elements it is the name of Persephone alone that is taboo, for the Greeks knew another face of Persephone as well. She was also the terrible Queen of the dead, whose name was not safe to speak aloud, who was named simply "The Maiden". Wikipedia<br />
[[http://www.en.wikipedia.org/Persephone]]<br />
<br />
3.07 '''crystal palace'''<br><br />
See Alpha entry, especially this re cultural meaning:<br><br />
The Crystal Palace made a strong impression on visitors coming from all over Europe, including a number of writers. It soon became a symbol of modernity and civilization, hailed by some and decried by others.<br />
<br />
In ''What Is to Be Done?'', Russian author and philosopher Nikolai Chernyshevsky pledges to transform the society into a Crystal Palace thanks to a socialist revolution.<br> <br />
Fyodor Dostoevsky implicitly replied to Chernyshevsky in ''Notes from Underground''. The narrator thinks that human nature will prefer destruction and chaos to the harmony symbolized by the Crystal Palace. <br />
<br />
When the first major international exhibition of arts and industries was held in London in 1851, the London Crystal Palace epitomized the achievements of the entire world at a time when progress was racing forward at a speed never before known to mankind. The Great Exhibition marked the beginning of a tradition of world's fairs, which would be held in major cities all across the globe. Following the success of the London fair, it was inevitable that other nations would soon try their hand at organizing their own exhibitions. In fact, the next international fair was held only two years later, in 1853, in New York City. This fair would have its own Crystal Palace to symbolize not only the achievements of the world, but also the nationalistic pride of a relatively young nation and all that she stood for. Walt Whitman, the great American poet, wrote in "The Song of the Exposition":<br><br />
http://www.ric.edu/rpotter/cryspal.html<br />
<br />
That the Crystal Palace Exhibition "marked the beginning of a tradition of world's fairs" can remind that ''Against the Day'' starts at the Columbian Exhibition of 1893 in Chicago. More international optimism.<br />
<br />
3.14 '''second sheep'''<br /><br />
Compare the narrator’s discussion of William Slothrop’s heretical tract "On Preterition," which argued for the holiness of the preterite, and Weisenburger’s note at [[Pages 549-557#555|555.29-31]].<br />
<br />
A wide symbology relates to sheep in ancient art, traditions and culture. Judaism uses many sheep references including the Passover lamb. Christianity uses sheep-related images, such as: Christ as the good shepherd, or as the sacrificed Lamb of God (Agnus Dei); the bishop's Pastoral; the lion lying down with the lamb (a reference to all of creation being at peace, without suffering, predation or otherwise). Greek Easter celebrations traditionally feature a meal of Paschal lamb. Sheep also have considerable importance in Arab culture; Eid ul-Adha is a major annual festival in Islam in which a sheep is sacrificed.<br><br />
Herding sheep plays an important historico-symbolic part in the Jewish and Christian faiths, since Abraham, Jacob, Moses, and King David all worked as shepherds. wikipedia <br />
[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sheep]<br><br />
<br />
Sheep are often associated with obedience due to the widespread perception that they lack intelligence and their undoubted herd mentality, hence the pejorative connotation of the adjective 'ovine'. In George Orwell's satirical novel ''Animal Farm'', sheep are used to represent the ignorant and uneducated masses of revolutionary Russia. The sheep are unable to be taught the subtleties of revolutionary ideology and can only be taught repetitive slogans such as "Four legs good, two legs bad" which they bleat in unison at rallies. The rock group Pink Floyd wrote a song using sheep as a symbol for ordinary people, that is, everyone who isn't a pig or dog. People who accept overbearing governments have been pejoratively referred to as "sheeple". wikipedia [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sheep]<br><br />
<br />
3.19 '''half-silvered'''<br><br />
adj. (of a mirror) having an incomplete reflective coating, so that half the incident light is reflected and half transmitted: used in optical instruments and two-way mirrors. Collins Dictionary<br><br />
See the splitting of light all through ''Against the Day'', Pynchon's 2006<br />
novel.<br />
<br />
3.19 '''view finder'''<br><br />
as two words, this seems to refer to handheld devices in which slides were slid and viewed in 3-dimensions. Here is a version still being made <br />
[http://porters.com/Merchant2/merchant.mvc?Screen=PROD&Store_Code=PCS&Product_Code=520098&Product_Count=&Category_Code= view finder].<br> "half-silvered" above seems most correct with this kind of device. <br />
<br />
3.22 '''They pass in line'''<br><br />
A Pynchonian leitmotif. The linearity of lining up has resonances throughout his work, articulated most straightforwardly in ''Against the Day'', which starts with "Single up all Lines!", and perhaps dealt with<br />
most profoundly in ''Mason & Dixon'', a novel about creating the "Mason & Dixon line".<br />
<br />
3.25 '''Rain comes down'''<br><br />
Pynchon's first published story is called ''The Small Rain''. See his remarks on rain in fiction in ''Slow Learner''.<br />
<br />
3.30 '''naptha winters'''<br><br />
Naptha is the flammable liquid obtained from the distillation of coal and used to fire gaslights and heaters. ...<br />
<br />
3.32 '''rolling-stock absence'''<br><br />
Rolling stock is the collective term that describes all the vehicles which move on a railway.<br />
<br />
3.35 '''Absolute Zero'''<br><br />
Theoretical state when no molecules move. [http://www.pa.msu.edu/sciencet/ask_st/012992.html..Absolute Zero]. State<br />
of entropy, a key concept of Thomas Pynchon's. See early story, ''Entropy'' in ''Slow Learner''.<br />
<br />
3.36 '''places whose ''names he has never heard'''''<br><br />
'secret cities of poor', deep under these fallen girders. Places<br />
that have never been spoken of, yet exist. Lower than ''Low-lands''.<br><br />
Later in Pynchon's world,in other books, ''Mason & Dixon'' and ''Against the Day'', we will travel deeper underground, to places with no names we know, it seems. See a "progressive ''knotting into''", 3.26 in GR.<br />
<br />
3.37 '''the walls break down'''<br> <br />
See "wall of death" later in ''Gravity's Rainbow''. A-and in ''Against the Day''.<br />
<br />
===Page 4===<br />
4.01 '''getting narrower...cornering tighter and tighter'''<br><br />
Cf. the rationalization of choice and similar phrasing in ''Against the Day'', pynchon wiki p. [http://against-the-day.pynchonwiki.com/wiki/index.php?title=ATD_1-25 10]<br />
<br />
==Page 5==<br />
5.03 '''His name is Capt. Geoffrey ("Pirate") Prentice.'''<br /><br />
Pirate’s name derives from Gilbert and Sullivan’s operetta ''The Pirates of Penzance'', in which the hero’s nurse has made a fateful error in carrying out her employer’s instructions: Instead of having the boy apprenticed to a (ship’s) '''pilot''', he was apprenticed to a pirate, hence a "'''pirate''' ‘prentice." The name, though, is not simply a fortuitous pun: In her error, the nurse has lost a message, like the hare of Herero myth, and thus guaranteed her young charge’s preterition. (There are also connections here to the theme of "communications entropy," which is central to ''The Crying of Lot 49'' and the short story "Entropy.")<br />
<br />
5.03 '''all got scumbled together, eventually, by the knives of the seasons, to an impasto, feet thick, of unbelievable black topsoil'''<br /><br />
<br />
Didn't notice 'scumbled' first time round, I was going too fast. Second<br />
read I looked it up. Scumbled? Isn't that some sort of painting<br />
[technique? Pynchon make a mistake there? Mean to say scrambled?<br />
Hmmmmmmmm. Then I thought of the 'knives' bit, wondered if artists might<br />
use a [http://painting.about.com/od/paintingforbeginners/a/Painting_Knife.htm palette knife] to do this scumbling business. A Google search for<br />
"scumble knife palette " found me this:<br />
<br />
http://www.messums.com/sub_newsview.ink?nid=11191<br />
<br />
"Hard impasto ridges left by the edge of the knife provided the texture<br />
I needed to bring the waves crashing in."<br />
<br />
[http://www.thefreedictionary.com/impasto Impasto] eh? I thought that just meant paste. So the knives in "knives of<br />
the seasons" makes perfect sense. And Dictionary.com throws up another<br />
interesting nugget:<br />
<br />
http://dictionary.reference.com/search?q=scumbled<br />
<br />
A-and the wonderful phrase, "knives of the seasons" embodies another lifelong deep theme in Pynchon's work: that the 'wheeling' of time [see later in ''Gravity's Rainbow'' and ''Against the Day''], the cycle of nature, is an ineluctable good thing, even as it knifes us, ravages, us. It thickens us, impasto-like, gives us topsoil in our characters, so to speak.<br />
<br />
"To blur the outlines of: a writer who scumbled the line that divides<br />
history and fiction." <br />
<br />
Apt example!<br />
<br />
<br />
<br /><br />
<br />
==Page 6==<br />
<br />
[[image:dna-molecule.jpg|thumb|100px|right]]6.09 '''a spiral ladder'''<br /><br />
Suggests the double-helix structure of the DNA molecule that preserves the "living genetic chains" evoked at [[Pages 7-16#10|10.14]].<br><br />
Cf. p. 209, ''Mason & Dixon'': " oblique angles with all meridians and that is a spiral coiling round the poles but never reaching them."...<br />
<br />
==Page 7==<br />
7.09 '''Pick bananas'''<br><br />
Pirate's decision after a paragraph on the inevitablity of the rocket's flight can remind one of a famous Buddhist sutra on picking a strawberry:<br />
The Sweetest Strawberry<br><br />
Buddha told a parable in a sutra:<br><br />
A man traveling across a field encountered a tiger. He fled, the tiger after him. Coming to a precipice, he caught hold of the root of a wild vine and swung himself down over the edge. The tiger sniffed at him from above. Trembling, the man looked down to where, far below, another tiger was waiting to eat him. Only the vine sustained him. Two mice, one white and one black, little by little started to gnaw away the vine. The man saw a luscious strawberry near him. Grasping the vine with one hand, he plucked the strawberry with the other. How sweet it tasted!<br><br />
-Paul Reps, ''Zen Flesh, Zen Bones''<br><br />
from ''Everyday Mind'', edited by Jean Smith <br />
[[http://www.tricycle.com/issues/2_174/dailydharma/3192-1.html]]<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
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<hr />
<div>{{GR PbP Text}}<br />
<br />
==Page 3==<br />
<br />
3.03 '''The Evacuation'''<br><br />
First instance in GR of a lifetime stylistic trait of Pynchon's: unpredictable use of Capitalization. Capitalization is usually applied to nouns, but not uniformly. Often a matter of emphasis. See ''Mason & Dixon'' for the widest use, there imitating the writing of the time in which the book is set.<br><br />
The use throughout all his work might indicate how well-read and influenced by works written before capitalization was standardized Pynchon is.<br><br />
The full rules of capitalization for English are complicated. The rules have also changed over time, generally to capitalize fewer terms; to the modern reader, an 18th century document seems to use initial capitals excessively. Wikipedia<br />
<br />
3.03 '''theatre'''<br><br />
Besides the normal meanings, including "theater of war", 'theatre' is the name that fireworks' organizers call a sky display.<br />
<br />
3.05 '''iron queen'''<br><br />
a queensize bed made of iron. Hardly made after 1900. Queen Victoria had a famous brass (and iron) one in the Crystal Palace! "Beds made of hollow tubes of steel, iron, and brass came to be manufactured in the mid 19th century.<br />
These were to be used both by soldiers and civilians. Their main advantage at that time was that unlike wooden beds, these could not be infested with bedbugs. Queen Victoria's brass bed at the Crystal Palace has been the most famous antique brass bed.<br><br />
By the late 19th century, metal beds were nearly out of fashion." Antique beds [[http://www.bestinbeds.com/beds/antique-bed.html]]<br />
<br />
Also, In The Odyssey, when Odysseus goes to the Underworld, he refers to Persephone as '''the Iron Queen'''. Of the four gods of Empedocles' elements it is the name of Persephone alone that is taboo, for the Greeks knew another face of Persephone as well. She was also the terrible Queen of the dead, whose name was not safe to speak aloud, who was named simply "The Maiden". Wikipedia<br />
[[http://www.en.wikipedia.org/Persephone]]<br />
<br />
3.07 '''crystal palace'''<br><br />
See Alpha entry, especially this re cultural meaning:<br><br />
The Crystal Palace made a strong impression on visitors coming from all over Europe, including a number of writers. It soon became a symbol of modernity and civilization, hailed by some and decried by others.<br />
<br />
In ''What Is to Be Done?'', Russian author and philosopher Nikolai Chernyshevsky pledges to transform the society into a Crystal Palace thanks to a socialist revolution.<br> <br />
Fyodor Dostoevsky implicitly replied to Chernyshevsky in ''Notes from Underground''. The narrator thinks that human nature will prefer destruction and chaos to the harmony symbolized by the Crystal Palace. <br />
<br />
When the first major international exhibition of arts and industries was held in London in 1851, the London Crystal Palace epitomized the achievements of the entire world at a time when progress was racing forward at a speed never before known to mankind. The Great Exhibition marked the beginning of a tradition of world's fairs, which would be held in major cities all across the globe. Following the success of the London fair, it was inevitable that other nations would soon try their hand at organizing their own exhibitions. In fact, the next international fair was held only two years later, in 1853, in New York City. This fair would have its own Crystal Palace to symbolize not only the achievements of the world, but also the nationalistic pride of a relatively young nation and all that she stood for. Walt Whitman, the great American poet, wrote in "The Song of the Exposition":<br><br />
http://www.ric.edu/rpotter/cryspal.html<br />
<br />
That the Crystal Palace Exhibition "marked the beginning of a tradition of world's fairs" can remind that ''Against the Day'' starts at the Columbian Exhibition of 1893 in Chicago. More international optimism.<br />
<br />
3.14 '''second sheep'''<br /><br />
Compare the narrator’s discussion of William Slothrop’s heretical tract "On Preterition," which argued for the holiness of the preterite, and Weisenburger’s note at [[Pages 549-557#555|555.29-31]].<br />
<br />
A wide symbology relates to sheep in ancient art, traditions and culture. Judaism uses many sheep references including the Passover lamb. Christianity uses sheep-related images, such as: Christ as the good shepherd, or as the sacrificed Lamb of God (Agnus Dei); the bishop's Pastoral; the lion lying down with the lamb (a reference to all of creation being at peace, without suffering, predation or otherwise). Greek Easter celebrations traditionally feature a meal of Paschal lamb. Sheep also have considerable importance in Arab culture; Eid ul-Adha is a major annual festival in Islam in which a sheep is sacrificed.<br><br />
Herding sheep plays an important historico-symbolic part in the Jewish and Christian faiths, since Abraham, Jacob, Moses, and King David all worked as shepherds. wikipedia <br />
[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sheep]<br><br />
<br />
Sheep are often associated with obedience due to the widespread perception that they lack intelligence and their undoubted herd mentality, hence the pejorative connotation of the adjective 'ovine'. In George Orwell's satirical novel ''Animal Farm'', sheep are used to represent the ignorant and uneducated masses of revolutionary Russia. The sheep are unable to be taught the subtleties of revolutionary ideology and can only be taught repetitive slogans such as "Four legs good, two legs bad" which they bleat in unison at rallies. The rock group Pink Floyd wrote a song using sheep as a symbol for ordinary people, that is, everyone who isn't a pig or dog. People who accept overbearing governments have been pejoratively referred to as "sheeple". wikipedia [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sheep]<br><br />
<br />
3.19 '''half-silvered'''<br><br />
adj. (of a mirror) having an incomplete reflective coating, so that half the incident light is reflected and half transmitted: used in optical instruments and two-way mirrors. Collins Dictionary<br><br />
See the splitting of light all through ''Against the Day'', Pynchon's 2006<br />
novel.<br />
<br />
3.19 '''view finder'''<br><br />
as two words, this seems to refer to handheld devices in which slides were slid and viewed in 3-dimensions. Here is a version still being made <br />
[http://porters.com/Merchant2/merchant.mvc?Screen=PROD&Store_Code=PCS&Product_Code=520098&Product_Count=&Category_Code= view finder].<br> "half-silvered" above seems most correct with this kind of device. <br />
<br />
3.22 '''They pass in line'''<br><br />
A Pynchonian leitmotif. The linearity of lining up has resonances throughout his work, articulated most straightforwardly in ''Against the Day'', which starts with "Single up all Lines!", and perhaps dealt with<br />
most profoundly in ''Mason & Dixon'', a novel about creating the "Mason & Dixon line".<br />
<br />
3.25 '''Rain comes down'''<br><br />
Pynchon's first published story is called ''The Small Rain''. See his remarks on rain in fiction in ''Slow Learner''.<br />
<br />
3.30 '''naptha winters'''<br><br />
Naptha is the flammable liquid obtained from the distillation of coal and used to fire gaslights and heaters. ...<br />
<br />
3.32 '''rolling-stock absence'''<br><br />
Rolling stock is the collective term that describes all the vehicles which move on a railway.<br />
<br />
3.35 '''Absolute Zero'''<br><br />
Theoretical state when no molecules move. [http://www.pa.msu.edu/sciencet/ask_st/012992.html..Absolute Zero]. State<br />
of entropy, a key concept of Thomas Pynchon's. See early story, ''Entropy'' in ''Slow Learner''.<br />
<br />
3.36 '''places whose ''names he has never heard'''''<br><br />
'secret cities of poor', deep under these fallen girders. Places<br />
that have never been spoken of, yet exist. Lower than ''Low-lands''.<br><br />
Later in Pynchon's world,in other books, ''Mason & Dixon'' and ''Against the Day'', we will travel deeper underground, to places with no names we know, it seems. See a "progressive ''knotting into''", 3.26 in GR.<br />
<br />
3.37 '''the walls break down'''<br> <br />
See "wall of death" later in ''Gravity's Rainbow''. A-and in ''Against the Day''.<br />
<br />
===Page 4===<br />
4.01 '''getting narrower...cornering tighter and tighter'''<br><br />
Cf. the rationalization of choice and similar phrasing in ''Against the Day'', p. [http://against-the-day.pynchonwiki.com/wiki/index.php?title=ATD_1-25 10]<br />
<br />
==Page 5==<br />
5.03 '''His name is Capt. Geoffrey ("Pirate") Prentice.'''<br /><br />
Pirate’s name derives from Gilbert and Sullivan’s operetta ''The Pirates of Penzance'', in which the hero’s nurse has made a fateful error in carrying out her employer’s instructions: Instead of having the boy apprenticed to a (ship’s) '''pilot''', he was apprenticed to a pirate, hence a "'''pirate''' ‘prentice." The name, though, is not simply a fortuitous pun: In her error, the nurse has lost a message, like the hare of Herero myth, and thus guaranteed her young charge’s preterition. (There are also connections here to the theme of "communications entropy," which is central to ''The Crying of Lot 49'' and the short story "Entropy.")<br />
<br />
5.03 '''all got scumbled together, eventually, by the knives of the seasons, to an impasto, feet thick, of unbelievable black topsoil'''<br /><br />
<br />
Didn't notice 'scumbled' first time round, I was going too fast. Second<br />
read I looked it up. Scumbled? Isn't that some sort of painting<br />
[technique? Pynchon make a mistake there? Mean to say scrambled?<br />
Hmmmmmmmm. Then I thought of the 'knives' bit, wondered if artists might<br />
use a [http://painting.about.com/od/paintingforbeginners/a/Painting_Knife.htm palette knife] to do this scumbling business. A Google search for<br />
"scumble knife palette " found me this:<br />
<br />
http://www.messums.com/sub_newsview.ink?nid=11191<br />
<br />
"Hard impasto ridges left by the edge of the knife provided the texture<br />
I needed to bring the waves crashing in."<br />
<br />
[http://www.thefreedictionary.com/impasto Impasto] eh? I thought that just meant paste. So the knives in "knives of<br />
the seasons" makes perfect sense. And Dictionary.com throws up another<br />
interesting nugget:<br />
<br />
http://dictionary.reference.com/search?q=scumbled<br />
<br />
A-and the wonderful phrase, "knives of the seasons" embodies another lifelong deep theme in Pynchon's work: that the 'wheeling' of time [see later in ''Gravity's Rainbow'' and ''Against the Day''], the cycle of nature, is an ineluctable good thing, even as it knifes us, ravages, us. It thickens us, impasto-like, gives us topsoil in our characters, so to speak.<br />
<br />
"To blur the outlines of: a writer who scumbled the line that divides<br />
history and fiction." <br />
<br />
Apt example!<br />
<br />
<br />
<br /><br />
<br />
==Page 6==<br />
<br />
[[image:dna-molecule.jpg|thumb|100px|right]]6.09 '''a spiral ladder'''<br /><br />
Suggests the double-helix structure of the DNA molecule that preserves the "living genetic chains" evoked at [[Pages 7-16#10|10.14]].<br><br />
Cf. p. 209, ''Mason & Dixon'': " oblique angles with all meridians and that is a spiral coiling round the poles but never reaching them."...<br />
<br />
==Page 7==<br />
7.09 '''Pick bananas'''<br><br />
Pirate's decision after a paragraph on the inevitablity of the rocket's flight can remind one of a famous Buddhist sutra on picking a strawberry:<br />
The Sweetest Strawberry<br><br />
Buddha told a parable in a sutra:<br><br />
A man traveling across a field encountered a tiger. He fled, the tiger after him. Coming to a precipice, he caught hold of the root of a wild vine and swung himself down over the edge. The tiger sniffed at him from above. Trembling, the man looked down to where, far below, another tiger was waiting to eat him. Only the vine sustained him. Two mice, one white and one black, little by little started to gnaw away the vine. The man saw a luscious strawberry near him. Grasping the vine with one hand, he plucked the strawberry with the other. How sweet it tasted!<br><br />
-Paul Reps, ''Zen Flesh, Zen Bones''<br><br />
from ''Everyday Mind'', edited by Jean Smith <br />
[[http://www.tricycle.com/issues/2_174/dailydharma/3192-1.html]]<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
{{GR PbP}}</div>MKOHUThttps://gravitys-rainbow.pynchonwiki.com/wiki/index.php?title=Pages_3-7&diff=2464Pages 3-72007-10-07T18:36:15Z<p>MKOHUT: /* Page 3 */</p>
<hr />
<div>{{GR PbP Text}}<br />
<br />
==Page 3==<br />
<br />
3.03 '''The Evacuation'''<br><br />
First instance in GR of a lifetime stylistic trait of Pynchon's: unpredictable use of Capitalization. Capitalization is usually applied to nouns, but not uniformly. Often a matter of emphasis. See ''Mason & Dixon'' for the widest use, there imitating the writing of the time in which the book is set.<br><br />
The use throughout all his work might indicate how well-read and influenced by works written before capitalization was standardized Pynchon is.<br><br />
The full rules of capitalization for English are complicated. The rules have also changed over time, generally to capitalize fewer terms; to the modern reader, an 18th century document seems to use initial capitals excessively. Wikipedia<br />
<br />
3.03 '''theatre'''<br><br />
Besides the normal meanings, including "theater of war", 'theatre' is the name that fireworks' organizers call a sky display.<br />
<br />
3.05 '''iron queen'''<br><br />
a queensize bed made of iron. Hardly made after 1900. Queen Victoria had a famous brass (and iron) one in the Crystal Palace! "Beds made of hollow tubes of steel, iron, and brass came to be manufactured in the mid 19th century.<br />
These were to be used both by soldiers and civilians. Their main advantage at that time was that unlike wooden beds, these could not be infested with bedbugs. Queen Victoria's brass bed at the Crystal Palace has been the most famous antique brass bed.<br><br />
By the late 19th century, metal beds were nearly out of fashion." Antique beds [[http://www.bestinbeds.com/beds/antique-bed.html]]<br />
<br />
Also, In The Odyssey, when Odysseus goes to the Underworld, he refers to Persephone as '''the Iron Queen'''. Of the four gods of Empedocles' elements it is the name of Persephone alone that is taboo, for the Greeks knew another face of Persephone as well. She was also the terrible Queen of the dead, whose name was not safe to speak aloud, who was named simply "The Maiden". Wikipedia<br />
[[http://www.en.wikipedia.org/Persephone]]<br />
<br />
3.07 '''crystal palace'''<br><br />
See Alpha entry, especially this re cultural meaning:<br><br />
The Crystal Palace made a strong impression on visitors coming from all over Europe, including a number of writers. It soon became a symbol of modernity and civilization, hailed by some and decried by others.<br />
<br />
In ''What Is to Be Done?'', Russian author and philosopher Nikolai Chernyshevsky pledges to transform the society into a Crystal Palace thanks to a socialist revolution.<br> <br />
Fyodor Dostoevsky implicitly replied to Chernyshevsky in ''Notes from Underground''. The narrator thinks that human nature will prefer destruction and chaos to the harmony symbolized by the Crystal Palace. <br />
<br />
When the first major international exhibition of arts and industries was held in London in 1851, the London Crystal Palace epitomized the achievements of the entire world at a time when progress was racing forward at a speed never before known to mankind. The Great Exhibition marked the beginning of a tradition of world's fairs, which would be held in major cities all across the globe. Following the success of the London fair, it was inevitable that other nations would soon try their hand at organizing their own exhibitions. In fact, the next international fair was held only two years later, in 1853, in New York City. This fair would have its own Crystal Palace to symbolize not only the achievements of the world, but also the nationalistic pride of a relatively young nation and all that she stood for. Walt Whitman, the great American poet, wrote in "The Song of the Exposition":<br><br />
http://www.ric.edu/rpotter/cryspal.html<br />
<br />
That the Crystal Palace Exhibition "marked the beginning of a tradition of world's fairs" can remind that ''Against the Day'' starts at the Columbian Exhibition of 1893 in Chicago. More international optimism.<br />
<br />
3.14 '''second sheep'''<br /><br />
Compare the narrator’s discussion of William Slothrop’s heretical tract "On Preterition," which argued for the holiness of the preterite, and Weisenburger’s note at [[Pages 549-557#555|555.29-31]].<br />
<br />
A wide symbology relates to sheep in ancient art, traditions and culture. Judaism uses many sheep references including the Passover lamb. Christianity uses sheep-related images, such as: Christ as the good shepherd, or as the sacrificed Lamb of God (Agnus Dei); the bishop's Pastoral; the lion lying down with the lamb (a reference to all of creation being at peace, without suffering, predation or otherwise). Greek Easter celebrations traditionally feature a meal of Paschal lamb. Sheep also have considerable importance in Arab culture; Eid ul-Adha is a major annual festival in Islam in which a sheep is sacrificed.<br><br />
Herding sheep plays an important historico-symbolic part in the Jewish and Christian faiths, since Abraham, Jacob, Moses, and King David all worked as shepherds. wikipedia <br />
[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sheep]<br><br />
<br />
Sheep are often associated with obedience due to the widespread perception that they lack intelligence and their undoubted herd mentality, hence the pejorative connotation of the adjective 'ovine'. In George Orwell's satirical novel ''Animal Farm'', sheep are used to represent the ignorant and uneducated masses of revolutionary Russia. The sheep are unable to be taught the subtleties of revolutionary ideology and can only be taught repetitive slogans such as "Four legs good, two legs bad" which they bleat in unison at rallies. The rock group Pink Floyd wrote a song using sheep as a symbol for ordinary people, that is, everyone who isn't a pig or dog. People who accept overbearing governments have been pejoratively referred to as "sheeple". wikipedia [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sheep]<br><br />
<br />
3.19 '''half-silvered'''<br><br />
adj. (of a mirror) having an incomplete reflective coating, so that half the incident light is reflected and half transmitted: used in optical instruments and two-way mirrors. Collins Dictionary<br><br />
See the splitting of light all through ''Against the Day'', Pynchon's 2006<br />
novel.<br />
<br />
3.19 '''view finder'''<br><br />
as two words, this seems to refer to handheld devices in which slides were slid and viewed in 3-dimensions. Here is a version still being made <br />
[http://porters.com/Merchant2/merchant.mvc?Screen=PROD&Store_Code=PCS&Product_Code=520098&Product_Count=&Category_Code= view finder].<br> "half-silvered" above seems most correct with this kind of device. <br />
<br />
3.22 '''They pass in line'''<br><br />
A Pynchonian leitmotif. The linearity of lining up has resonances throughout his work, articulated most straightforwardly in ''Against the Day'', which starts with "Single up all Lines!", and perhaps dealt with<br />
most profoundly in ''Mason & Dixon'', a novel about creating the "Mason & Dixon line".<br />
<br />
3.25 '''Rain comes down'''<br><br />
Pynchon's first published story is called ''The Small Rain''. See his remarks on rain in fiction in ''Slow Learner''.<br />
<br />
3.30 '''naptha winters'''<br><br />
Naptha is the flammable liquid obtained from the distillation of coal and used to fire gaslights and heaters. ...<br />
<br />
3.32 '''rolling-stock absence'''<br><br />
Rolling stock is the collective term that describes all the vehicles which move on a railway.<br />
<br />
3.35 '''Absolute Zero'''<br><br />
Theoretical state when no molecules move. [http://www.pa.msu.edu/sciencet/ask_st/012992.html..Absolute Zero]. State<br />
of entropy, a key concept of Thomas Pynchon's. See early story, ''Entropy'' in ''Slow Learner''.<br />
<br />
3.36 '''places whose ''names he has never heard'''''<br><br />
'secret cities of poor', deep under these fallen girders. Places<br />
that have never been spoken of, yet exist. Lower than ''Low-lands''.<br><br />
Later in Pynchon's world,in other books, ''Mason & Dixon'' and ''Against the Day'', we will travel deeper underground, to places with no names we know, it seems. See a "progressive ''knotting into''", 3.26 in GR.<br />
<br />
3.37 '''the walls break down'''<br> <br />
See "wall of death" later in ''Gravity's Rainbow''. A-and in ''Against the Day''.<br />
<br />
===Page 4===<br />
4.01 '''getting narrower...cornering tighter and tighter'''<br><br />
Cf. ''Against the Day'', p.10 [http://against-the-day.pynchonwiki.com/wiki/index.php?title=ATD_1-25 10]<br />
<br />
==Page 5==<br />
5.03 '''His name is Capt. Geoffrey ("Pirate") Prentice.'''<br /><br />
Pirate’s name derives from Gilbert and Sullivan’s operetta ''The Pirates of Penzance'', in which the hero’s nurse has made a fateful error in carrying out her employer’s instructions: Instead of having the boy apprenticed to a (ship’s) '''pilot''', he was apprenticed to a pirate, hence a "'''pirate''' ‘prentice." The name, though, is not simply a fortuitous pun: In her error, the nurse has lost a message, like the hare of Herero myth, and thus guaranteed her young charge’s preterition. (There are also connections here to the theme of "communications entropy," which is central to ''The Crying of Lot 49'' and the short story "Entropy.")<br />
<br />
5.03 '''all got scumbled together, eventually, by the knives of the seasons, to an impasto, feet thick, of unbelievable black topsoil'''<br /><br />
<br />
Didn't notice 'scumbled' first time round, I was going too fast. Second<br />
read I looked it up. Scumbled? Isn't that some sort of painting<br />
[technique? Pynchon make a mistake there? Mean to say scrambled?<br />
Hmmmmmmmm. Then I thought of the 'knives' bit, wondered if artists might<br />
use a [http://painting.about.com/od/paintingforbeginners/a/Painting_Knife.htm palette knife] to do this scumbling business. A Google search for<br />
"scumble knife palette " found me this:<br />
<br />
http://www.messums.com/sub_newsview.ink?nid=11191<br />
<br />
"Hard impasto ridges left by the edge of the knife provided the texture<br />
I needed to bring the waves crashing in."<br />
<br />
[http://www.thefreedictionary.com/impasto Impasto] eh? I thought that just meant paste. So the knives in "knives of<br />
the seasons" makes perfect sense. And Dictionary.com throws up another<br />
interesting nugget:<br />
<br />
http://dictionary.reference.com/search?q=scumbled<br />
<br />
A-and the wonderful phrase, "knives of the seasons" embodies another lifelong deep theme in Pynchon's work: that the 'wheeling' of time [see later in ''Gravity's Rainbow'' and ''Against the Day''], the cycle of nature, is an ineluctable good thing, even as it knifes us, ravages, us. It thickens us, impasto-like, gives us topsoil in our characters, so to speak.<br />
<br />
"To blur the outlines of: a writer who scumbled the line that divides<br />
history and fiction." <br />
<br />
Apt example!<br />
<br />
<br />
<br /><br />
<br />
==Page 6==<br />
<br />
[[image:dna-molecule.jpg|thumb|100px|right]]6.09 '''a spiral ladder'''<br /><br />
Suggests the double-helix structure of the DNA molecule that preserves the "living genetic chains" evoked at [[Pages 7-16#10|10.14]].<br><br />
Cf. p. 209, ''Mason & Dixon'': " oblique angles with all meridians and that is a spiral coiling round the poles but never reaching them."...<br />
<br />
==Page 7==<br />
7.09 '''Pick bananas'''<br><br />
Pirate's decision after a paragraph on the inevitablity of the rocket's flight can remind one of a famous Buddhist sutra on picking a strawberry:<br />
The Sweetest Strawberry<br><br />
Buddha told a parable in a sutra:<br><br />
A man traveling across a field encountered a tiger. He fled, the tiger after him. Coming to a precipice, he caught hold of the root of a wild vine and swung himself down over the edge. The tiger sniffed at him from above. Trembling, the man looked down to where, far below, another tiger was waiting to eat him. Only the vine sustained him. Two mice, one white and one black, little by little started to gnaw away the vine. The man saw a luscious strawberry near him. Grasping the vine with one hand, he plucked the strawberry with the other. How sweet it tasted!<br><br />
-Paul Reps, ''Zen Flesh, Zen Bones''<br><br />
from ''Everyday Mind'', edited by Jean Smith <br />
[[http://www.tricycle.com/issues/2_174/dailydharma/3192-1.html]]<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
{{GR PbP}}</div>MKOHUThttps://gravitys-rainbow.pynchonwiki.com/wiki/index.php?title=Pages_3-7&diff=2463Pages 3-72007-10-07T18:30:02Z<p>MKOHUT: /* Page 3 */</p>
<hr />
<div>{{GR PbP Text}}<br />
<br />
==Page 3==<br />
<br />
3.03 '''The Evacuation'''<br><br />
First instance in GR of a lifetime stylistic trait of Pynchon's: unpredictable use of Capitalization. Capitalization is usually applied to nouns, but not uniformly. Often a matter of emphasis. See ''Mason & Dixon'' for the widest use, there imitating the writing of the time in which the book is set.<br><br />
The use throughout all his work might indicate how well-read and influenced by works written before capitalization was standardized Pynchon is.<br><br />
The full rules of capitalization for English are complicated. The rules have also changed over time, generally to capitalize fewer terms; to the modern reader, an 18th century document seems to use initial capitals excessively. Wikipedia<br />
<br />
3.03 '''theatre'''<br><br />
Besides the normal meanings, including "theater of war", 'theatre' is the name that fireworks' organizers call a sky display.<br />
<br />
3.05 '''iron queen'''<br><br />
a queensize bed made of iron. Hardly made after 1900. Queen Victoria had a famous brass (and iron) one in the Crystal Palace! "Beds made of hollow tubes of steel, iron, and brass came to be manufactured in the mid 19th century.<br />
These were to be used both by soldiers and civilians. Their main advantage at that time was that unlike wooden beds, these could not be infested with bedbugs. Queen Victoria's brass bed at the Crystal Palace has been the most famous antique brass bed.<br><br />
By the late 19th century, metal beds were nearly out of fashion." Antique beds [[http://www.bestinbeds.com/beds/antique-bed.html]]<br />
<br />
Also, In The Odyssey, when Odysseus goes to the Underworld, he refers to Persephone as '''the Iron Queen'''. Of the four gods of Empedocles' elements it is the name of Persephone alone that is taboo, for the Greeks knew another face of Persephone as well. She was also the terrible Queen of the dead, whose name was not safe to speak aloud, who was named simply "The Maiden". Wikipedia<br />
[[http://www.en.wikipedia.org/Persephone]]<br />
<br />
3.07 '''crystal palace'''<br><br />
See Alpha entry, especially this re cultural meaning:<br><br />
The Crystal Palace made a strong impression on visitors coming from all over Europe, including a number of writers. It soon became a symbol of modernity and civilization, hailed by some and decried by others.<br />
<br />
In ''What Is to Be Done?'', Russian author and philosopher Nikolai Chernyshevsky pledges to transform the society into a Crystal Palace thanks to a socialist revolution.<br> <br />
Fyodor Dostoevsky implicitly replied to Chernyshevsky in ''Notes from Underground''. The narrator thinks that human nature will prefer destruction and chaos to the harmony symbolized by the Crystal Palace. <br />
<br />
When the first major international exhibition of arts and industries was held in London in 1851, the London Crystal Palace epitomized the achievements of the entire world at a time when progress was racing forward at a speed never before known to mankind. The Great Exhibition marked the beginning of a tradition of world's fairs, which would be held in major cities all across the globe. Following the success of the London fair, it was inevitable that other nations would soon try their hand at organizing their own exhibitions. In fact, the next international fair was held only two years later, in 1853, in New York City. This fair would have its own Crystal Palace to symbolize not only the achievements of the world, but also the nationalistic pride of a relatively young nation and all that she stood for. Walt Whitman, the great American poet, wrote in "The Song of the Exposition":<br><br />
http://www.ric.edu/rpotter/cryspal.html<br />
<br />
That the Crystal Palace Exhibition "marked the beginning of a tradition of world's fairs" can remind that ''Against the Day'' starts at the Columbian Exhibition of 1893 in Chicago. More international optimism.<br />
<br />
3.14 '''second sheep'''<br /><br />
Compare the narrator’s discussion of William Slothrop’s heretical tract "On Preterition," which argued for the holiness of the preterite, and Weisenburger’s note at [[Pages 549-557#555|555.29-31]].<br />
<br />
A wide symbology relates to sheep in ancient art, traditions and culture. Judaism uses many sheep references including the Passover lamb. Christianity uses sheep-related images, such as: Christ as the good shepherd, or as the sacrificed Lamb of God (Agnus Dei); the bishop's Pastoral; the lion lying down with the lamb (a reference to all of creation being at peace, without suffering, predation or otherwise). Greek Easter celebrations traditionally feature a meal of Paschal lamb. Sheep also have considerable importance in Arab culture; Eid ul-Adha is a major annual festival in Islam in which a sheep is sacrificed.<br><br />
Herding sheep plays an important historico-symbolic part in the Jewish and Christian faiths, since Abraham, Jacob, Moses, and King David all worked as shepherds. wikipedia <br />
[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sheep]<br><br />
<br />
Sheep are often associated with obedience due to the widespread perception that they lack intelligence and their undoubted herd mentality, hence the pejorative connotation of the adjective 'ovine'. In George Orwell's satirical novel ''Animal Farm'', sheep are used to represent the ignorant and uneducated masses of revolutionary Russia. The sheep are unable to be taught the subtleties of revolutionary ideology and can only be taught repetitive slogans such as "Four legs good, two legs bad" which they bleat in unison at rallies. The rock group Pink Floyd wrote a song using sheep as a symbol for ordinary people, that is, everyone who isn't a pig or dog. People who accept overbearing governments have been pejoratively referred to as "sheeple". wikipedia [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sheep]<br><br />
<br />
3.19 '''half-silvered'''<br><br />
adj. (of a mirror) having an incomplete reflective coating, so that half the incident light is reflected and half transmitted: used in optical instruments and two-way mirrors. Collins Dictionary<br><br />
See the splitting of light all through ''Against the Day'', Pynchon's 2006<br />
novel.<br />
<br />
3.19 '''view finder'''<br><br />
as two words, this seems to refer to handheld devices in which slides were slid and viewed in 3-dimensions. Here is a version still being made <br />
[http://porters.com/Merchant2/merchant.mvc?Screen=PROD&Store_Code=PCS&Product_Code=520098&Product_Count=&Category_Code= view finder].<br> "half-silvered" above seems most correct with this kind of device. <br />
<br />
3.22 '''They pass in line'''<br><br />
A Pynchonian leitmotif. The linearity of lining up has resonances throughout his work, articulated most straightforwardly in ''Against the Day'', which starts with "Single up all Lines!", and perhaps dealt with<br />
most profoundly in ''Mason & Dixon'', a novel about creating the "Mason & Dixon line".<br />
<br />
3.25 '''Rain comes down'''<br><br />
Pynchon's first published story is called ''The Small Rain''. See his remarks on rain in fiction in ''Slow Learner''.<br />
<br />
3.30 '''naptha winters'''<br><br />
Naptha is the flammable liquid obtained from the distillation of coal and used to fire gaslights and heaters. ...<br />
<br />
3.32 '''rolling-stock absence'''<br><br />
Rolling stock is the collective term that describes all the vehicles which move on a railway.<br />
<br />
3.35 '''Absolute Zero'''<br><br />
Theoretical state when no molecules move. [http://www.pa.msu.edu/sciencet/ask_st/012992.html..Absolute Zero]. State<br />
of entropy, a key concept of Thomas Pynchon's. See early story, ''Entropy'' in ''Slow Learner''.<br />
<br />
3.36 '''places whose ''names he has never heard'''''<br><br />
'secret cities of poor', deep under these fallen girders. Places<br />
that have never been spoken of, yet exist. Lower than ''Low-lands''.<br><br />
Later in Pynchon's world,in other books, ''Mason & Dixon'' and ''Against the Day'', we will travel deeper underground, to places with no names we know, it seems. See a "progressive ''knotting into''", 3.26 in GR.<br />
<br />
3.37 '''the walls break down'''<br> <br />
See "wall of death" later in ''Gravity's Rainbow''. A-and in ''Against the Day''.<br />
<br />
===Page 4===<br />
4.01 '''getting narrower...cornering tighter and tighter'''<br />
<br />
==Page 5==<br />
5.03 '''His name is Capt. Geoffrey ("Pirate") Prentice.'''<br /><br />
Pirate’s name derives from Gilbert and Sullivan’s operetta ''The Pirates of Penzance'', in which the hero’s nurse has made a fateful error in carrying out her employer’s instructions: Instead of having the boy apprenticed to a (ship’s) '''pilot''', he was apprenticed to a pirate, hence a "'''pirate''' ‘prentice." The name, though, is not simply a fortuitous pun: In her error, the nurse has lost a message, like the hare of Herero myth, and thus guaranteed her young charge’s preterition. (There are also connections here to the theme of "communications entropy," which is central to ''The Crying of Lot 49'' and the short story "Entropy.")<br />
<br />
5.03 '''all got scumbled together, eventually, by the knives of the seasons, to an impasto, feet thick, of unbelievable black topsoil'''<br /><br />
<br />
Didn't notice 'scumbled' first time round, I was going too fast. Second<br />
read I looked it up. Scumbled? Isn't that some sort of painting<br />
[technique? Pynchon make a mistake there? Mean to say scrambled?<br />
Hmmmmmmmm. Then I thought of the 'knives' bit, wondered if artists might<br />
use a [http://painting.about.com/od/paintingforbeginners/a/Painting_Knife.htm palette knife] to do this scumbling business. A Google search for<br />
"scumble knife palette " found me this:<br />
<br />
http://www.messums.com/sub_newsview.ink?nid=11191<br />
<br />
"Hard impasto ridges left by the edge of the knife provided the texture<br />
I needed to bring the waves crashing in."<br />
<br />
[http://www.thefreedictionary.com/impasto Impasto] eh? I thought that just meant paste. So the knives in "knives of<br />
the seasons" makes perfect sense. And Dictionary.com throws up another<br />
interesting nugget:<br />
<br />
http://dictionary.reference.com/search?q=scumbled<br />
<br />
A-and the wonderful phrase, "knives of the seasons" embodies another lifelong deep theme in Pynchon's work: that the 'wheeling' of time [see later in ''Gravity's Rainbow'' and ''Against the Day''], the cycle of nature, is an ineluctable good thing, even as it knifes us, ravages, us. It thickens us, impasto-like, gives us topsoil in our characters, so to speak.<br />
<br />
"To blur the outlines of: a writer who scumbled the line that divides<br />
history and fiction." <br />
<br />
Apt example!<br />
<br />
<br />
<br /><br />
<br />
==Page 6==<br />
<br />
[[image:dna-molecule.jpg|thumb|100px|right]]6.09 '''a spiral ladder'''<br /><br />
Suggests the double-helix structure of the DNA molecule that preserves the "living genetic chains" evoked at [[Pages 7-16#10|10.14]].<br><br />
Cf. p. 209, ''Mason & Dixon'': " oblique angles with all meridians and that is a spiral coiling round the poles but never reaching them."...<br />
<br />
==Page 7==<br />
7.09 '''Pick bananas'''<br><br />
Pirate's decision after a paragraph on the inevitablity of the rocket's flight can remind one of a famous Buddhist sutra on picking a strawberry:<br />
The Sweetest Strawberry<br><br />
Buddha told a parable in a sutra:<br><br />
A man traveling across a field encountered a tiger. He fled, the tiger after him. Coming to a precipice, he caught hold of the root of a wild vine and swung himself down over the edge. The tiger sniffed at him from above. Trembling, the man looked down to where, far below, another tiger was waiting to eat him. Only the vine sustained him. Two mice, one white and one black, little by little started to gnaw away the vine. The man saw a luscious strawberry near him. Grasping the vine with one hand, he plucked the strawberry with the other. How sweet it tasted!<br><br />
-Paul Reps, ''Zen Flesh, Zen Bones''<br><br />
from ''Everyday Mind'', edited by Jean Smith <br />
[[http://www.tricycle.com/issues/2_174/dailydharma/3192-1.html]]<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
{{GR PbP}}</div>MKOHUThttps://gravitys-rainbow.pynchonwiki.com/wiki/index.php?title=Pages_3-7&diff=2462Pages 3-72007-10-07T17:56:53Z<p>MKOHUT: /* Page 3 */</p>
<hr />
<div>{{GR PbP Text}}<br />
<br />
==Page 3==<br />
<br />
3.03 '''The Evacuation'''<br><br />
First instance in GR of a lifetime stylistic trait of Pynchon's: unpredictable use of Capitalization. Capitalization is usually applied to nouns, but not uniformly. Often a matter of emphasis. See ''Mason & Dixon'' for the widest use, there imitating the writing of the time in which the book is set.<br><br />
The use throughout all his work might indicate how well-read and influenced by works written before capitalization was standardized Pynchon is.<br><br />
The full rules of capitalization for English are complicated. The rules have also changed over time, generally to capitalize fewer terms; to the modern reader, an 18th century document seems to use initial capitals excessively. Wikipedia<br />
<br />
3.03 '''theatre'''<br><br />
Besides the normal meanings, including "theater of war", 'theatre' is the name that fireworks' organizers call a sky display.<br />
<br />
3.05 '''iron queen'''<br><br />
a queensize bed made of iron. Hardly made after 1900. Queen Victoria had a famous brass (and iron) one in the Crystal Palace! "Beds made of hollow tubes of steel, iron, and brass came to be manufactured in the mid 19th century.<br />
These were to be used both by soldiers and civilians. Their main advantage at that time was that unlike wooden beds, these could not be infested with bedbugs. Queen Victoria's brass bed at the Crystal Palace has been the most famous antique brass bed.<br><br />
By the late 19th century, metal beds were nearly out of fashion." Antique beds [[http://www.bestinbeds.com/beds/antique-bed.html]]<br />
<br />
Also, In The Odyssey, when Odysseus goes to the Underworld, he refers to Persephone as '''the Iron Queen'''. Of the four gods of Empedocles' elements it is the name of Persephone alone that is taboo, for the Greeks knew another face of Persephone as well. She was also the terrible Queen of the dead, whose name was not safe to speak aloud, who was named simply "The Maiden". Wikipedia<br />
[[http://www.en.wikipedia.org/Persephone]]<br />
<br />
3.07 '''crystal palace'''<br><br />
See Alpha entry, especially this re cultural meaning:<br><br />
The Crystal Palace made a strong impression on visitors coming from all over Europe, including a number of writers. It soon became a symbol of modernity and civilization, hailed by some and decried by others.<br />
<br />
In ''What Is to Be Done?'', Russian author and philosopher Nikolai Chernyshevsky pledges to transform the society into a Crystal Palace thanks to a socialist revolution.<br> <br />
Fyodor Dostoevsky implicitly replied to Chernyshevsky in ''Notes from Underground''. The narrator thinks that human nature will prefer destruction and chaos to the harmony symbolized by the Crystal Palace. <br />
<br />
When the first major international exhibition of arts and industries was held in London in 1851, the London Crystal Palace epitomized the achievements of the entire world at a time when progress was racing forward at a speed never before known to mankind. The Great Exhibition marked the beginning of a tradition of world's fairs, which would be held in major cities all across the globe. Following the success of the London fair, it was inevitable that other nations would soon try their hand at organizing their own exhibitions. In fact, the next international fair was held only two years later, in 1853, in New York City. This fair would have its own Crystal Palace to symbolize not only the achievements of the world, but also the nationalistic pride of a relatively young nation and all that she stood for. Walt Whitman, the great American poet, wrote in "The Song of the Exposition":<br><br />
http://www.ric.edu/rpotter/cryspal.html<br />
<br />
That the Crystal Palace Exhibition "marked the beginning of a tradition of world's fairs" can remind that ''Against the Day'' starts at the Columbian Exhibition of 1893 in Chicago. More international optimism.<br />
<br />
3.14 '''second sheep'''<br /><br />
Compare the narrator’s discussion of William Slothrop’s heretical tract "On Preterition," which argued for the holiness of the preterite, and Weisenburger’s note at [[Pages 549-557#555|555.29-31]].<br />
<br />
A wide symbology relates to sheep in ancient art, traditions and culture. Judaism uses many sheep references including the Passover lamb. Christianity uses sheep-related images, such as: Christ as the good shepherd, or as the sacrificed Lamb of God (Agnus Dei); the bishop's Pastoral; the lion lying down with the lamb (a reference to all of creation being at peace, without suffering, predation or otherwise). Greek Easter celebrations traditionally feature a meal of Paschal lamb. Sheep also have considerable importance in Arab culture; Eid ul-Adha is a major annual festival in Islam in which a sheep is sacrificed.<br><br />
Herding sheep plays an important historico-symbolic part in the Jewish and Christian faiths, since Abraham, Jacob, Moses, and King David all worked as shepherds. wikipedia <br />
[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sheep]<br><br />
<br />
Sheep are often associated with obedience due to the widespread perception that they lack intelligence and their undoubted herd mentality, hence the pejorative connotation of the adjective 'ovine'. In George Orwell's satirical novel ''Animal Farm'', sheep are used to represent the ignorant and uneducated masses of revolutionary Russia. The sheep are unable to be taught the subtleties of revolutionary ideology and can only be taught repetitive slogans such as "Four legs good, two legs bad" which they bleat in unison at rallies. The rock group Pink Floyd wrote a song using sheep as a symbol for ordinary people, that is, everyone who isn't a pig or dog. People who accept overbearing governments have been pejoratively referred to as "sheeple". wikipedia [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sheep]<br><br />
<br />
3.19 '''half-silvered'''<br><br />
adj. (of a mirror) having an incomplete reflective coating, so that half the incident light is reflected and half transmitted: used in optical instruments and two-way mirrors. Collins Dictionary<br><br />
See the splitting of light all through ''Against the Day'', Pynchon's 2006<br />
novel.<br />
<br />
3.19 '''view finder'''<br><br />
as two words, this seems to refer to handheld devices in which slides were slid and viewed in 3-dimensions. Here is a version still being made <br />
[http://porters.com/Merchant2/merchant.mvc?Screen=PROD&Store_Code=PCS&Product_Code=520098&Product_Count=&Category_Code= view finder].<br> "half-silvered" above seems most correct with this kind of device. <br />
<br />
3.22 '''They pass in line'''<br><br />
A Pynchonian leitmotif. The linearity of lining up has resonances throughout his work, articulated most straightforwardly in ''Against the Day'', which starts with "Single up all Lines!", and perhaps dealt with<br />
most profoundly in ''Mason & Dixon'', a novel about creating the "Mason & Dixon line".<br />
<br />
3.25 '''Rain comes down'''<br><br />
Pynchon's first published story is called ''The Small Rain''. See his remarks on rain in fiction in ''Slow Learner''.<br />
<br />
3.30 '''naptha winters'''<br><br />
Naptha is the flammable liquid obtained from the distillation of coal and used to fire gaslights and heaters. ...<br />
<br />
3.32 '''rolling-stock absence'''<br><br />
Rolling stock is the collective term that describes all the vehicles which move on a railway.<br />
<br />
3.35 '''Absolute Zero'''<br><br />
Theoretical state when no molecules move. [http://www.pa.msu.edu/sciencet/ask_st/012992.html..Absolute Zero]. State<br />
of entropy, a key concept of Thomas Pynchon's. See early story, ''Entropy'' in ''Slow Learner''.<br />
<br />
3.36 '''places whose ''names he has never heard'''''<br><br />
'secret cities of poor', deep under these fallen girders. Places<br />
that have never been spoken of, yet exist. Lower than ''Low-lands''.<br><br />
Later in Pynchon's world,in other books, ''Mason & Dixon'' and ''Against the Day'', we will travel deeper underground, to places with no names we know, it seems. See a "progressive ''knotting into''", 3.26 in GR.<br />
<br />
3.37 '''the walls break down'''<br> <br />
See "wall of death" later in ''Gravity's Rainbow''. A-and in ''Against the Day''.<br />
<br />
==Page 5==<br />
5.03 '''His name is Capt. Geoffrey ("Pirate") Prentice.'''<br /><br />
Pirate’s name derives from Gilbert and Sullivan’s operetta ''The Pirates of Penzance'', in which the hero’s nurse has made a fateful error in carrying out her employer’s instructions: Instead of having the boy apprenticed to a (ship’s) '''pilot''', he was apprenticed to a pirate, hence a "'''pirate''' ‘prentice." The name, though, is not simply a fortuitous pun: In her error, the nurse has lost a message, like the hare of Herero myth, and thus guaranteed her young charge’s preterition. (There are also connections here to the theme of "communications entropy," which is central to ''The Crying of Lot 49'' and the short story "Entropy.")<br />
<br />
5.03 '''all got scumbled together, eventually, by the knives of the seasons, to an impasto, feet thick, of unbelievable black topsoil'''<br /><br />
<br />
Didn't notice 'scumbled' first time round, I was going too fast. Second<br />
read I looked it up. Scumbled? Isn't that some sort of painting<br />
[technique? Pynchon make a mistake there? Mean to say scrambled?<br />
Hmmmmmmmm. Then I thought of the 'knives' bit, wondered if artists might<br />
use a [http://painting.about.com/od/paintingforbeginners/a/Painting_Knife.htm palette knife] to do this scumbling business. A Google search for<br />
"scumble knife palette " found me this:<br />
<br />
http://www.messums.com/sub_newsview.ink?nid=11191<br />
<br />
"Hard impasto ridges left by the edge of the knife provided the texture<br />
I needed to bring the waves crashing in."<br />
<br />
[http://www.thefreedictionary.com/impasto Impasto] eh? I thought that just meant paste. So the knives in "knives of<br />
the seasons" makes perfect sense. And Dictionary.com throws up another<br />
interesting nugget:<br />
<br />
http://dictionary.reference.com/search?q=scumbled<br />
<br />
A-and the wonderful phrase, "knives of the seasons" embodies another lifelong deep theme in Pynchon's work: that the 'wheeling' of time [see later in ''Gravity's Rainbow'' and ''Against the Day''], the cycle of nature, is an ineluctable good thing, even as it knifes us, ravages, us. It thickens us, impasto-like, gives us topsoil in our characters, so to speak.<br />
<br />
"To blur the outlines of: a writer who scumbled the line that divides<br />
history and fiction." <br />
<br />
Apt example!<br />
<br />
<br />
<br /><br />
<br />
==Page 6==<br />
<br />
[[image:dna-molecule.jpg|thumb|100px|right]]6.09 '''a spiral ladder'''<br /><br />
Suggests the double-helix structure of the DNA molecule that preserves the "living genetic chains" evoked at [[Pages 7-16#10|10.14]].<br><br />
Cf. p. 209, ''Mason & Dixon'': " oblique angles with all meridians and that is a spiral coiling round the poles but never reaching them."...<br />
<br />
==Page 7==<br />
7.09 '''Pick bananas'''<br><br />
Pirate's decision after a paragraph on the inevitablity of the rocket's flight can remind one of a famous Buddhist sutra on picking a strawberry:<br />
The Sweetest Strawberry<br><br />
Buddha told a parable in a sutra:<br><br />
A man traveling across a field encountered a tiger. He fled, the tiger after him. Coming to a precipice, he caught hold of the root of a wild vine and swung himself down over the edge. The tiger sniffed at him from above. Trembling, the man looked down to where, far below, another tiger was waiting to eat him. Only the vine sustained him. Two mice, one white and one black, little by little started to gnaw away the vine. The man saw a luscious strawberry near him. Grasping the vine with one hand, he plucked the strawberry with the other. How sweet it tasted!<br><br />
-Paul Reps, ''Zen Flesh, Zen Bones''<br><br />
from ''Everyday Mind'', edited by Jean Smith <br />
[[http://www.tricycle.com/issues/2_174/dailydharma/3192-1.html]]<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
{{GR PbP}}</div>MKOHUThttps://gravitys-rainbow.pynchonwiki.com/wiki/index.php?title=Pages_3-7&diff=2461Pages 3-72007-10-04T19:33:14Z<p>MKOHUT: /* Page 3 */</p>
<hr />
<div>{{GR PbP Text}}<br />
<br />
==Page 3==<br />
<br />
3.03 '''The Evacuation'''<br><br />
First instance in GR of a lifetime stylistic trait of Pynchon's: unpredictable use of Capitalization. Capitalization is usually applied to nouns, but not uniformly. Often a matter of emphasis. See ''Mason & Dixon'' for the widest use, there imitating the writing of the time in which the book is set.<br><br />
The use throughout all his work might indicate how well-read and influenced by works written before capitalization was standardized Pynchon is.<br><br />
The full rules of capitalization for English are complicated. The rules have also changed over time, generally to capitalize fewer terms; to the modern reader, an 18th century document seems to use initial capitals excessively. Wikipedia<br />
<br />
3.03 '''theatre'''<br><br />
Besides the normal meanings, including "theater of war", 'theatre' is the name that fireworks' organizers call a sky display.<br />
<br />
3.05 '''iron queen'''<br><br />
a queensize bed made of iron. Hardly made after 1900. Queen Victoria had a famous brass (and iron) one in the Crystal Palace! "Beds made of hollow tubes of steel, iron, and brass came to be manufactured in the mid 19th century.<br />
These were to be used both by soldiers and civilians. Their main advantage at that time was that unlike wooden beds, these could not be infested with bedbugs. Queen Victoria's brass bed at the Crystal Palace has been the most famous antique brass bed.<br><br />
By the late 19th century, metal beds were nearly out of fashion." Antique beds [[http://www.bestinbeds.com/beds/antique-bed.html]]<br />
<br />
Also, In The Odyssey, when Odysseus goes to the Underworld, he refers to Persephone as '''the Iron Queen'''. Of the four gods of Empedocles' elements it is the name of Persephone alone that is taboo, for the Greeks knew another face of Persephone as well. She was also the terrible Queen of the dead, whose name was not safe to speak aloud, who was named simply "The Maiden". Wikipedia<br />
[[http://www.en.wikipedia.org/Persephone]]<br />
<br />
3.07 '''crystal palace'''<br><br />
See Alpha entry, especially this re cultural meaning:<br><br />
The Crystal Palace made a strong impression on visitors coming from all over Europe, including a number of writers. It soon became a symbol of modernity and civilization, hailed by some and decried by others.<br />
<br />
In ''What Is to Be Done?'', Russian author and philosopher Nikolai Chernyshevsky pledges to transform the society into a Crystal Palace thanks to a socialist revolution.<br> <br />
Fyodor Dostoevsky implicitly replied to Chernyshevsky in ''Notes from Underground''. The narrator thinks that human nature will prefer destruction and chaos to the harmony symbolized by the Crystal Palace. <br />
<br />
When the first major international exhibition of arts and industries was held in London in 1851, the London Crystal Palace epitomized the achievements of the entire world at a time when progress was racing forward at a speed never before known to mankind. The Great Exhibition marked the beginning of a tradition of world's fairs, which would be held in major cities all across the globe. Following the success of the London fair, it was inevitable that other nations would soon try their hand at organizing their own exhibitions. In fact, the next international fair was held only two years later, in 1853, in New York City. This fair would have its own Crystal Palace to symbolize not only the achievements of the world, but also the nationalistic pride of a relatively young nation and all that she stood for. Walt Whitman, the great American poet, wrote in "The Song of the Exposition":<br><br />
http://www.ric.edu/rpotter/cryspal.html<br />
<br />
That the Crystal Palace Exhibition "marked the beginning of a tradition of world's fairs" can remind that ''Against the Day'' starts at the Columbian Exhibition of 1893 in Chicago. More international optimism.<br />
<br />
3.14 '''second sheep'''<br /><br />
Compare the narrator’s discussion of William Slothrop’s heretical tract "On Preterition," which argued for the holiness of the preterite, and Weisenburger’s note at [[Pages 549-557#555|555.29-31]].<br />
<br />
A wide symbology relates to sheep in ancient art, traditions and culture. Judaism uses many sheep references including the Passover lamb. Christianity uses sheep-related images, such as: Christ as the good shepherd, or as the sacrificed Lamb of God (Agnus Dei); the bishop's Pastoral; the lion lying down with the lamb (a reference to all of creation being at peace, without suffering, predation or otherwise). Greek Easter celebrations traditionally feature a meal of Paschal lamb. Sheep also have considerable importance in Arab culture; Eid ul-Adha is a major annual festival in Islam in which a sheep is sacrificed.<br><br />
Herding sheep plays an important historico-symbolic part in the Jewish and Christian faiths, since Abraham, Jacob, Moses, and King David all worked as shepherds. wikipedia <br />
[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sheep]<br><br />
<br />
Sheep are often associated with obedience due to the widespread perception that they lack intelligence and their undoubted herd mentality, hence the pejorative connotation of the adjective 'ovine'. In George Orwell's satirical novel ''Animal Farm'', sheep are used to represent the ignorant and uneducated masses of revolutionary Russia. The sheep are unable to be taught the subtleties of revolutionary ideology and can only be taught repetitive slogans such as "Four legs good, two legs bad" which they bleat in unison at rallies. The rock group Pink Floyd wrote a song using sheep as a symbol for ordinary people, that is, everyone who isn't a pig or dog. People who accept overbearing governments have been pejoratively referred to as "sheeple". wikipedia [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sheep]<br><br />
<br />
3.19 '''half-silvered'''<br><br />
adj. (of a mirror) having an incomplete reflective coating, so that half the incident light is reflected and half transmitted: used in optical instruments and two-way mirrors. Collins Dictionary<br><br />
See the splitting of light all through ''Against the Day'', Pynchon's 2006<br />
novel.<br />
<br />
3.19 '''view finder'''<br><br />
as two words, this seems to refer to handheld devices in which slides were slid and viewed in 3-dimensions. Here is a version still being made <br />
[http://porters.com/Merchant2/merchant.mvc?Screen=PROD&Store_Code=PCS&Product_Code=520098&Product_Count=&Category_Code= view finder].<br> "half-silvered" above seems most correct with this kind of device. <br />
<br />
3.22 '''They pass in line'''<br><br />
A Pynchonian leitmotif. The linearity of lining up has resonances throughout his work, articulated most straightforwardly in ''Against the Day'', which starts with "Single up all Lines!", and perhaps dealt with<br />
most profoundly in ''Mason & Dixon'', a novel about creating the "Mason & Dixon line".<br />
<br />
3.25 '''Rain comes down'''<br><br />
Pynchon's first published story is called ''The Small Rain''. See his remarks on rain in fiction in ''Slow Learner''.<br />
<br />
3.30 '''naptha winters'''<br><br />
Naptha is the flammable liquid obtained from the distillation of coal and used to fire gaslights and heaters. ...<br />
<br />
3.32 '''rolling-stock absence'''<br><br />
Rolling stock is the collective term that describes all the vehicles which move on a railway.<br />
<br />
3.35 '''Absolute Zero'''<br><br />
Theoretical state when no molecules move. [http://www.pa.msu.edu/sciencet/ask_st/012992.html..Absolute Zero]. State<br />
of entropy, a key concept of Thomas Pynchon's. See early story, ''Entropy'' in ''Slow Learner''.<br />
<br />
3.36 '''places whose ''names he has never heard'''''<br><br />
'secret cities of poor', deep under these fallen girders. Places<br />
that have never been spoken of, yet exist. Lower than ''Lowlands''<br><br />
Later in Pynchon's world,in other books, ''Mason & Dixon'' and ''Against the Day'', we will travel deeper underground, to places with no names we know, it seems. See a "progressive ''knotting into''", 3.26 in GR.<br />
<br />
3.37 '''the walls break down'''<br> <br />
See "wall of death" later in ''Gravity's Rainbow''. A-and in ''Against the Day''.<br />
<br />
==Page 5==<br />
5.03 '''His name is Capt. Geoffrey ("Pirate") Prentice.'''<br /><br />
Pirate’s name derives from Gilbert and Sullivan’s operetta ''The Pirates of Penzance'', in which the hero’s nurse has made a fateful error in carrying out her employer’s instructions: Instead of having the boy apprenticed to a (ship’s) '''pilot''', he was apprenticed to a pirate, hence a "'''pirate''' ‘prentice." The name, though, is not simply a fortuitous pun: In her error, the nurse has lost a message, like the hare of Herero myth, and thus guaranteed her young charge’s preterition. (There are also connections here to the theme of "communications entropy," which is central to ''The Crying of Lot 49'' and the short story "Entropy.")<br />
<br />
5.03 '''all got scumbled together, eventually, by the knives of the seasons, to an impasto, feet thick, of unbelievable black topsoil'''<br /><br />
<br />
Didn't notice 'scumbled' first time round, I was going too fast. Second<br />
read I looked it up. Scumbled? Isn't that some sort of painting<br />
[technique? Pynchon make a mistake there? Mean to say scrambled?<br />
Hmmmmmmmm. Then I thought of the 'knives' bit, wondered if artists might<br />
use a [http://painting.about.com/od/paintingforbeginners/a/Painting_Knife.htm palette knife] to do this scumbling business. A Google search for<br />
"scumble knife palette " found me this:<br />
<br />
http://www.messums.com/sub_newsview.ink?nid=11191<br />
<br />
"Hard impasto ridges left by the edge of the knife provided the texture<br />
I needed to bring the waves crashing in."<br />
<br />
[http://www.thefreedictionary.com/impasto Impasto] eh? I thought that just meant paste. So the knives in "knives of<br />
the seasons" makes perfect sense. And Dictionary.com throws up another<br />
interesting nugget:<br />
<br />
http://dictionary.reference.com/search?q=scumbled<br />
<br />
A-and the wonderful phrase, "knives of the seasons" embodies another lifelong deep theme in Pynchon's work: that the 'wheeling' of time [see later in ''Gravity's Rainbow'' and ''Against the Day''], the cycle of nature, is an ineluctable good thing, even as it knifes us, ravages, us. It thickens us, impasto-like, gives us topsoil in our characters, so to speak.<br />
<br />
"To blur the outlines of: a writer who scumbled the line that divides<br />
history and fiction." <br />
<br />
Apt example!<br />
<br />
<br />
<br /><br />
<br />
==Page 6==<br />
<br />
[[image:dna-molecule.jpg|thumb|100px|right]]6.09 '''a spiral ladder'''<br /><br />
Suggests the double-helix structure of the DNA molecule that preserves the "living genetic chains" evoked at [[Pages 7-16#10|10.14]].<br><br />
Cf. p. 209, ''Mason & Dixon'': " oblique angles with all meridians and that is a spiral coiling round the poles but never reaching them."...<br />
<br />
==Page 7==<br />
7.09 '''Pick bananas'''<br><br />
Pirate's decision after a paragraph on the inevitablity of the rocket's flight can remind one of a famous Buddhist sutra on picking a strawberry:<br />
The Sweetest Strawberry<br><br />
Buddha told a parable in a sutra:<br><br />
A man traveling across a field encountered a tiger. He fled, the tiger after him. Coming to a precipice, he caught hold of the root of a wild vine and swung himself down over the edge. The tiger sniffed at him from above. Trembling, the man looked down to where, far below, another tiger was waiting to eat him. Only the vine sustained him. Two mice, one white and one black, little by little started to gnaw away the vine. The man saw a luscious strawberry near him. Grasping the vine with one hand, he plucked the strawberry with the other. How sweet it tasted!<br><br />
-Paul Reps, ''Zen Flesh, Zen Bones''<br><br />
from ''Everyday Mind'', edited by Jean Smith <br />
[[http://www.tricycle.com/issues/2_174/dailydharma/3192-1.html]]<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
{{GR PbP}}</div>MKOHUThttps://gravitys-rainbow.pynchonwiki.com/wiki/index.php?title=Pages_3-7&diff=2460Pages 3-72007-10-04T19:19:42Z<p>MKOHUT: /* Page 3 */</p>
<hr />
<div>{{GR PbP Text}}<br />
<br />
==Page 3==<br />
<br />
3.03 '''The Evacuation'''<br><br />
First instance in GR of a lifetime stylistic trait of Pynchon's: unpredictable use of Capitalization. Capitalization is usually applied to nouns, but not uniformly. Often a matter of emphasis. See ''Mason & Dixon'' for the widest use, there imitating the writing of the time in which the book is set.<br><br />
The use throughout all his work might indicate how well-read and influenced by works written before capitalization was standardized Pynchon is.<br><br />
The full rules of capitalization for English are complicated. The rules have also changed over time, generally to capitalize fewer terms; to the modern reader, an 18th century document seems to use initial capitals excessively. Wikipedia<br />
<br />
3.03 '''theatre'''<br><br />
Besides the normal meanings, including "theater of war", 'theatre' is the name that fireworks' organizers call a sky display.<br />
<br />
3.05 '''iron queen'''<br><br />
a queensize bed made of iron. Hardly made after 1900. Queen Victoria had a famous brass (and iron) one in the Crystal Palace! "Beds made of hollow tubes of steel, iron, and brass came to be manufactured in the mid 19th century.<br />
These were to be used both by soldiers and civilians. Their main advantage at that time was that unlike wooden beds, these could not be infested with bedbugs. Queen Victoria's brass bed at the Crystal Palace has been the most famous antique brass bed.<br><br />
By the late 19th century, metal beds were nearly out of fashion." Antique beds [[http://www.bestinbeds.com/beds/antique-bed.html]]<br />
<br />
Also, In The Odyssey, when Odysseus goes to the Underworld, he refers to Persephone as '''the Iron Queen'''. Of the four gods of Empedocles' elements it is the name of Persephone alone that is taboo, for the Greeks knew another face of Persephone as well. She was also the terrible Queen of the dead, whose name was not safe to speak aloud, who was named simply "The Maiden". Wikipedia<br />
[[http://www.en.wikipedia.org/Persephone]]<br />
<br />
3.07 '''crystal palace'''<br><br />
See Alpha entry, especially this re cultural meaning:<br><br />
The Crystal Palace made a strong impression on visitors coming from all over Europe, including a number of writers. It soon became a symbol of modernity and civilization, hailed by some and decried by others.<br />
<br />
In ''What Is to Be Done?'', Russian author and philosopher Nikolai Chernyshevsky pledges to transform the society into a Crystal Palace thanks to a socialist revolution.<br> <br />
Fyodor Dostoevsky implicitly replied to Chernyshevsky in ''Notes from Underground''. The narrator thinks that human nature will prefer destruction and chaos to the harmony symbolized by the Crystal Palace. <br />
<br />
When the first major international exhibition of arts and industries was held in London in 1851, the London Crystal Palace epitomized the achievements of the entire world at a time when progress was racing forward at a speed never before known to mankind. The Great Exhibition marked the beginning of a tradition of world's fairs, which would be held in major cities all across the globe. Following the success of the London fair, it was inevitable that other nations would soon try their hand at organizing their own exhibitions. In fact, the next international fair was held only two years later, in 1853, in New York City. This fair would have its own Crystal Palace to symbolize not only the achievements of the world, but also the nationalistic pride of a relatively young nation and all that she stood for. Walt Whitman, the great American poet, wrote in "The Song of the Exposition":<br><br />
http://www.ric.edu/rpotter/cryspal.html<br />
<br />
That the Crystal Palace Exhibition "marked the beginning of a tradition of world's fairs" can remind that ''Against the Day'' starts at the Columbian Exhibition of 1893 in Chicago. More international optimism.<br />
<br />
3.14 '''second sheep'''<br /><br />
Compare the narrator’s discussion of William Slothrop’s heretical tract "On Preterition," which argued for the holiness of the preterite, and Weisenburger’s note at [[Pages 549-557#555|555.29-31]].<br />
<br />
A wide symbology relates to sheep in ancient art, traditions and culture. Judaism uses many sheep references including the Passover lamb. Christianity uses sheep-related images, such as: Christ as the good shepherd, or as the sacrificed Lamb of God (Agnus Dei); the bishop's Pastoral; the lion lying down with the lamb (a reference to all of creation being at peace, without suffering, predation or otherwise). Greek Easter celebrations traditionally feature a meal of Paschal lamb. Sheep also have considerable importance in Arab culture; Eid ul-Adha is a major annual festival in Islam in which a sheep is sacrificed.<br><br />
Herding sheep plays an important historico-symbolic part in the Jewish and Christian faiths, since Abraham, Jacob, Moses, and King David all worked as shepherds. wikipedia <br />
[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sheep]<br><br />
<br />
Sheep are often associated with obedience due to the widespread perception that they lack intelligence and their undoubted herd mentality, hence the pejorative connotation of the adjective 'ovine'. In George Orwell's satirical novel ''Animal Farm'', sheep are used to represent the ignorant and uneducated masses of revolutionary Russia. The sheep are unable to be taught the subtleties of revolutionary ideology and can only be taught repetitive slogans such as "Four legs good, two legs bad" which they bleat in unison at rallies. The rock group Pink Floyd wrote a song using sheep as a symbol for ordinary people, that is, everyone who isn't a pig or dog. People who accept overbearing governments have been pejoratively referred to as "sheeple". wikipedia [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sheep]<br><br />
<br />
3.19 '''half-silvered'''<br><br />
adj. (of a mirror) having an incomplete reflective coating, so that half the incident light is reflected and half transmitted: used in optical instruments and two-way mirrors. Collins Dictionary<br><br />
See the splitting of light all through ''Against the Day'', Pynchon's 2006<br />
novel.<br />
<br />
3.19 '''view finder'''<br><br />
as two words, this seems to refer to handheld devices in which slides were slid and viewed in 3-dimensions. Here is a version still being made <br />
[http://porters.com/Merchant2/merchant.mvc?Screen=PROD&Store_Code=PCS&Product_Code=520098&Product_Count=&Category_Code= view finder].<br> "half-silvered" above seems most correct with this kind of device. <br />
<br />
3.22 '''They pass in line'''<br><br />
A Pynchonian leitmotif. The linearity of lining up has resonances throughout his work, articulated most straightforwardly in ''Against the Day'', which starts with "Single up all Lines!", and perhaps dealt with<br />
most profoundly in ''Mason & Dixon'', a novel about creating the "Mason & Dixon line".<br />
<br />
3.25 '''Rain comes down'''<br><br />
Pynchon's first published story is called ''The Small Rain''. See his remarks on rain in fiction in ''Slow Learner''.<br />
<br />
3.30 '''naptha winters'''<br><br />
Naptha is the flammable liquid obtained from the distillation of coal and used to fire gaslights and heaters. ...<br />
<br />
3.32 '''rolling-stock absence'''<br><br />
Rolling stock is the collective term that describes all the vehicles which move on a railway.<br />
<br />
3.35 '''Absolute Zero'''<br><br />
Theoretical state when no molecules move. [http://www.pa.msu.edu/sciencet/ask_st/012992.html..Absolute Zero]. State<br />
of entropy, a key concept of Thomas Pynchon's. See early story, ''Entropy'' in ''Slow Learner''.<br />
<br />
3.36 '''places whose ''names he has never heard'''''<br><br />
'secret cities of poor', deep under these fallen girders. Places<br />
that have never been spoken of, yet exist.Lower than ''Lowlands''<br><br />
Later in Pynchon's world,in other books, ''Mason & Dixon'' and ''Against the Day'',we will travel deeper underground, to places with no names we know, it seems. See a "progressive ''knotting into''", 3.26 in GR.<br />
<br />
==Page 5==<br />
5.03 '''His name is Capt. Geoffrey ("Pirate") Prentice.'''<br /><br />
Pirate’s name derives from Gilbert and Sullivan’s operetta ''The Pirates of Penzance'', in which the hero’s nurse has made a fateful error in carrying out her employer’s instructions: Instead of having the boy apprenticed to a (ship’s) '''pilot''', he was apprenticed to a pirate, hence a "'''pirate''' ‘prentice." The name, though, is not simply a fortuitous pun: In her error, the nurse has lost a message, like the hare of Herero myth, and thus guaranteed her young charge’s preterition. (There are also connections here to the theme of "communications entropy," which is central to ''The Crying of Lot 49'' and the short story "Entropy.")<br />
<br />
5.03 '''all got scumbled together, eventually, by the knives of the seasons, to an impasto, feet thick, of unbelievable black topsoil'''<br /><br />
<br />
Didn't notice 'scumbled' first time round, I was going too fast. Second<br />
read I looked it up. Scumbled? Isn't that some sort of painting<br />
[technique? Pynchon make a mistake there? Mean to say scrambled?<br />
Hmmmmmmmm. Then I thought of the 'knives' bit, wondered if artists might<br />
use a [http://painting.about.com/od/paintingforbeginners/a/Painting_Knife.htm palette knife] to do this scumbling business. A Google search for<br />
"scumble knife palette " found me this:<br />
<br />
http://www.messums.com/sub_newsview.ink?nid=11191<br />
<br />
"Hard impasto ridges left by the edge of the knife provided the texture<br />
I needed to bring the waves crashing in."<br />
<br />
[http://www.thefreedictionary.com/impasto Impasto] eh? I thought that just meant paste. So the knives in "knives of<br />
the seasons" makes perfect sense. And Dictionary.com throws up another<br />
interesting nugget:<br />
<br />
http://dictionary.reference.com/search?q=scumbled<br />
<br />
A-and the wonderful phrase, "knives of the seasons" embodies another lifelong deep theme in Pynchon's work: that the 'wheeling' of time [see later in ''Gravity's Rainbow'' and ''Against the Day''], the cycle of nature, is an ineluctable good thing, even as it knifes us, ravages, us. It thickens us, impasto-like, gives us topsoil in our characters, so to speak.<br />
<br />
"To blur the outlines of: a writer who scumbled the line that divides<br />
history and fiction." <br />
<br />
Apt example!<br />
<br />
<br />
<br /><br />
<br />
==Page 6==<br />
<br />
[[image:dna-molecule.jpg|thumb|100px|right]]6.09 '''a spiral ladder'''<br /><br />
Suggests the double-helix structure of the DNA molecule that preserves the "living genetic chains" evoked at [[Pages 7-16#10|10.14]].<br><br />
Cf. p. 209, ''Mason & Dixon'': " oblique angles with all meridians and that is a spiral coiling round the poles but never reaching them."...<br />
<br />
==Page 7==<br />
7.09 '''Pick bananas'''<br><br />
Pirate's decision after a paragraph on the inevitablity of the rocket's flight can remind one of a famous Buddhist sutra on picking a strawberry:<br />
The Sweetest Strawberry<br><br />
Buddha told a parable in a sutra:<br><br />
A man traveling across a field encountered a tiger. He fled, the tiger after him. Coming to a precipice, he caught hold of the root of a wild vine and swung himself down over the edge. The tiger sniffed at him from above. Trembling, the man looked down to where, far below, another tiger was waiting to eat him. Only the vine sustained him. Two mice, one white and one black, little by little started to gnaw away the vine. The man saw a luscious strawberry near him. Grasping the vine with one hand, he plucked the strawberry with the other. How sweet it tasted!<br><br />
-Paul Reps, ''Zen Flesh, Zen Bones''<br><br />
from ''Everyday Mind'', edited by Jean Smith <br />
[[http://www.tricycle.com/issues/2_174/dailydharma/3192-1.html]]<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
{{GR PbP}}</div>MKOHUThttps://gravitys-rainbow.pynchonwiki.com/wiki/index.php?title=Pages_3-7&diff=2459Pages 3-72007-10-04T19:09:02Z<p>MKOHUT: /* Page 3 */</p>
<hr />
<div>{{GR PbP Text}}<br />
<br />
==Page 3==<br />
<br />
3.03 '''The Evacuation'''<br><br />
First instance in GR of a lifetime stylistic trait of Pynchon's: unpredictable use of Capitalization. Capitalization is usually applied to nouns, but not uniformly. Often a matter of emphasis. See ''Mason & Dixon'' for the widest use, there imitating the writing of the time in which the book is set.<br><br />
The use throughout all his work might indicate how well-read and influenced by works written before capitalization was standardized Pynchon is.<br><br />
The full rules of capitalization for English are complicated. The rules have also changed over time, generally to capitalize fewer terms; to the modern reader, an 18th century document seems to use initial capitals excessively. Wikipedia<br />
<br />
3.03 '''theatre'''<br><br />
Besides the normal meanings, including "theater of war", 'theatre' is the name that fireworks' organizers call a sky display.<br />
<br />
3.05 '''iron queen'''<br><br />
a queensize bed made of iron. Hardly made after 1900. Queen Victoria had a famous brass (and iron) one in the Crystal Palace! "Beds made of hollow tubes of steel, iron, and brass came to be manufactured in the mid 19th century.<br />
These were to be used both by soldiers and civilians. Their main advantage at that time was that unlike wooden beds, these could not be infested with bedbugs. Queen Victoria's brass bed at the Crystal Palace has been the most famous antique brass bed.<br><br />
By the late 19th century, metal beds were nearly out of fashion." Antique beds [[http://www.bestinbeds.com/beds/antique-bed.html]]<br />
<br />
Also, In The Odyssey, when Odysseus goes to the Underworld, he refers to Persephone as '''the Iron Queen'''. Of the four gods of Empedocles' elements it is the name of Persephone alone that is taboo, for the Greeks knew another face of Persephone as well. She was also the terrible Queen of the dead, whose name was not safe to speak aloud, who was named simply "The Maiden". Wikipedia<br />
[[http://www.en.wikipedia.org/Persephone]]<br />
<br />
3.07 '''crystal palace'''<br><br />
See Alpha entry, especially this re cultural meaning:<br><br />
The Crystal Palace made a strong impression on visitors coming from all over Europe, including a number of writers. It soon became a symbol of modernity and civilization, hailed by some and decried by others.<br />
<br />
In ''What Is to Be Done?'', Russian author and philosopher Nikolai Chernyshevsky pledges to transform the society into a Crystal Palace thanks to a socialist revolution.<br> <br />
Fyodor Dostoevsky implicitly replied to Chernyshevsky in ''Notes from Underground''. The narrator thinks that human nature will prefer destruction and chaos to the harmony symbolized by the Crystal Palace. <br />
<br />
When the first major international exhibition of arts and industries was held in London in 1851, the London Crystal Palace epitomized the achievements of the entire world at a time when progress was racing forward at a speed never before known to mankind. The Great Exhibition marked the beginning of a tradition of world's fairs, which would be held in major cities all across the globe. Following the success of the London fair, it was inevitable that other nations would soon try their hand at organizing their own exhibitions. In fact, the next international fair was held only two years later, in 1853, in New York City. This fair would have its own Crystal Palace to symbolize not only the achievements of the world, but also the nationalistic pride of a relatively young nation and all that she stood for. Walt Whitman, the great American poet, wrote in "The Song of the Exposition":<br><br />
http://www.ric.edu/rpotter/cryspal.html<br />
<br />
That the Crystal Palace Exhibition "marked the beginning of a tradition of world's fairs" can remind that ''Against the Day'' starts at the Columbian Exhibition of 1893 in Chicago. More international optimism.<br />
<br />
3.14 '''second sheep'''<br /><br />
Compare the narrator’s discussion of William Slothrop’s heretical tract "On Preterition," which argued for the holiness of the preterite, and Weisenburger’s note at [[Pages 549-557#555|555.29-31]].<br />
<br />
A wide symbology relates to sheep in ancient art, traditions and culture. Judaism uses many sheep references including the Passover lamb. Christianity uses sheep-related images, such as: Christ as the good shepherd, or as the sacrificed Lamb of God (Agnus Dei); the bishop's Pastoral; the lion lying down with the lamb (a reference to all of creation being at peace, without suffering, predation or otherwise). Greek Easter celebrations traditionally feature a meal of Paschal lamb. Sheep also have considerable importance in Arab culture; Eid ul-Adha is a major annual festival in Islam in which a sheep is sacrificed.<br><br />
Herding sheep plays an important historico-symbolic part in the Jewish and Christian faiths, since Abraham, Jacob, Moses, and King David all worked as shepherds. wikipedia <br />
[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sheep]<br><br />
<br />
Sheep are often associated with obedience due to the widespread perception that they lack intelligence and their undoubted herd mentality, hence the pejorative connotation of the adjective 'ovine'. In George Orwell's satirical novel ''Animal Farm'', sheep are used to represent the ignorant and uneducated masses of revolutionary Russia. The sheep are unable to be taught the subtleties of revolutionary ideology and can only be taught repetitive slogans such as "Four legs good, two legs bad" which they bleat in unison at rallies. The rock group Pink Floyd wrote a song using sheep as a symbol for ordinary people, that is, everyone who isn't a pig or dog. People who accept overbearing governments have been pejoratively referred to as "sheeple". wikipedia [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sheep]<br><br />
<br />
3.19 '''half-silvered'''<br><br />
adj. (of a mirror) having an incomplete reflective coating, so that half the incident light is reflected and half transmitted: used in optical instruments and two-way mirrors. Collins Dictionary<br><br />
See the splitting of light all through ''Against the Day'', Pynchon's 2006<br />
novel.<br />
<br />
3.19 '''view finder'''<br><br />
as two words, this seems to refer to handheld devices in which slides were slid and viewed in 3-dimensions. Here is a version still being made <br />
[http://porters.com/Merchant2/merchant.mvc?Screen=PROD&Store_Code=PCS&Product_Code=520098&Product_Count=&Category_Code= view finder].<br> "half-silvered" above seems most correct with this kind of device. <br />
<br />
3.22 '''They pass in line'''<br><br />
A Pynchonian leitmotif. The linearity of lining up has resonances throughout his work, articulated most straightforwardly in ''Against the Day'', which starts with "Single up all Lines!", and perhaps dealt with<br />
most profoundly in ''Mason & Dixon'', a novel about creating the "Mason & Dixon line".<br />
<br />
3.25 '''Rain comes down'''<br><br />
Pynchon's first published story is called ''The Small Rain''. See his remarks on rain in fiction in ''Slow Learner''.<br />
<br />
3.30 '''naptha winters'''<br><br />
Naptha is the flammable liquid obtained from the distillation of coal and used to fire gaslights and heaters. ...<br />
<br />
3.32 '''rolling-stock absence'''<br><br />
Rolling stock is the collective term that describes all the vehicles which move on a railway.<br />
<br />
3.35 '''Absolute Zero'''<br><br />
Theoretical state when no molecules move. [http://www.pa.msu.edu/sciencet/ask_st/012992.html..Absolute Zero]. State<br />
of entropy, a key concept of Thomas Pynchon's. See early story, ''Entropy'' in ''Slow Learner''.<br />
<br />
==Page 5==<br />
5.03 '''His name is Capt. Geoffrey ("Pirate") Prentice.'''<br /><br />
Pirate’s name derives from Gilbert and Sullivan’s operetta ''The Pirates of Penzance'', in which the hero’s nurse has made a fateful error in carrying out her employer’s instructions: Instead of having the boy apprenticed to a (ship’s) '''pilot''', he was apprenticed to a pirate, hence a "'''pirate''' ‘prentice." The name, though, is not simply a fortuitous pun: In her error, the nurse has lost a message, like the hare of Herero myth, and thus guaranteed her young charge’s preterition. (There are also connections here to the theme of "communications entropy," which is central to ''The Crying of Lot 49'' and the short story "Entropy.")<br />
<br />
5.03 '''all got scumbled together, eventually, by the knives of the seasons, to an impasto, feet thick, of unbelievable black topsoil'''<br /><br />
<br />
Didn't notice 'scumbled' first time round, I was going too fast. Second<br />
read I looked it up. Scumbled? Isn't that some sort of painting<br />
[technique? Pynchon make a mistake there? Mean to say scrambled?<br />
Hmmmmmmmm. Then I thought of the 'knives' bit, wondered if artists might<br />
use a [http://painting.about.com/od/paintingforbeginners/a/Painting_Knife.htm palette knife] to do this scumbling business. A Google search for<br />
"scumble knife palette " found me this:<br />
<br />
http://www.messums.com/sub_newsview.ink?nid=11191<br />
<br />
"Hard impasto ridges left by the edge of the knife provided the texture<br />
I needed to bring the waves crashing in."<br />
<br />
[http://www.thefreedictionary.com/impasto Impasto] eh? I thought that just meant paste. So the knives in "knives of<br />
the seasons" makes perfect sense. And Dictionary.com throws up another<br />
interesting nugget:<br />
<br />
http://dictionary.reference.com/search?q=scumbled<br />
<br />
A-and the wonderful phrase, "knives of the seasons" embodies another lifelong deep theme in Pynchon's work: that the 'wheeling' of time [see later in ''Gravity's Rainbow'' and ''Against the Day''], the cycle of nature, is an ineluctable good thing, even as it knifes us, ravages, us. It thickens us, impasto-like, gives us topsoil in our characters, so to speak.<br />
<br />
"To blur the outlines of: a writer who scumbled the line that divides<br />
history and fiction." <br />
<br />
Apt example!<br />
<br />
<br />
<br /><br />
<br />
==Page 6==<br />
<br />
[[image:dna-molecule.jpg|thumb|100px|right]]6.09 '''a spiral ladder'''<br /><br />
Suggests the double-helix structure of the DNA molecule that preserves the "living genetic chains" evoked at [[Pages 7-16#10|10.14]].<br><br />
Cf. p. 209, ''Mason & Dixon'': " oblique angles with all meridians and that is a spiral coiling round the poles but never reaching them."...<br />
<br />
==Page 7==<br />
7.09 '''Pick bananas'''<br><br />
Pirate's decision after a paragraph on the inevitablity of the rocket's flight can remind one of a famous Buddhist sutra on picking a strawberry:<br />
The Sweetest Strawberry<br><br />
Buddha told a parable in a sutra:<br><br />
A man traveling across a field encountered a tiger. He fled, the tiger after him. Coming to a precipice, he caught hold of the root of a wild vine and swung himself down over the edge. The tiger sniffed at him from above. Trembling, the man looked down to where, far below, another tiger was waiting to eat him. Only the vine sustained him. Two mice, one white and one black, little by little started to gnaw away the vine. The man saw a luscious strawberry near him. Grasping the vine with one hand, he plucked the strawberry with the other. How sweet it tasted!<br><br />
-Paul Reps, ''Zen Flesh, Zen Bones''<br><br />
from ''Everyday Mind'', edited by Jean Smith <br />
[[http://www.tricycle.com/issues/2_174/dailydharma/3192-1.html]]<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
{{GR PbP}}</div>MKOHUThttps://gravitys-rainbow.pynchonwiki.com/wiki/index.php?title=Pages_3-7&diff=2458Pages 3-72007-10-04T19:02:11Z<p>MKOHUT: /* Page 3 */</p>
<hr />
<div>{{GR PbP Text}}<br />
<br />
==Page 3==<br />
<br />
3.03 '''The Evacuation'''<br><br />
First instance in GR of a lifetime stylistic trait of Pynchon's: unpredictable use of Capitalization. Capitalization is usually applied to nouns, but not uniformly. Often a matter of emphasis. See ''Mason & Dixon'' for the widest use, there imitating the writing of the time in which the book is set.<br><br />
The use throughout all his work might indicate how well-read and influenced by works written before capitalization was standardized Pynchon is.<br><br />
The full rules of capitalization for English are complicated. The rules have also changed over time, generally to capitalize fewer terms; to the modern reader, an 18th century document seems to use initial capitals excessively. Wikipedia<br />
<br />
3.03 '''theatre'''<br><br />
Besides the normal meanings, including "theater of war", 'theatre' is the name that fireworks' organizers call a sky display.<br />
<br />
3.05 '''iron queen'''<br><br />
a queensize bed made of iron. Hardly made after 1900. Queen Victoria had a famous brass (and iron) one in the Crystal Palace! "Beds made of hollow tubes of steel, iron, and brass came to be manufactured in the mid 19th century.<br />
These were to be used both by soldiers and civilians. Their main advantage at that time was that unlike wooden beds, these could not be infested with bedbugs. Queen Victoria's brass bed at the Crystal Palace has been the most famous antique brass bed.<br><br />
By the late 19th century, metal beds were nearly out of fashion." Antique beds [[http://www.bestinbeds.com/beds/antique-bed.html]]<br />
<br />
Also, In The Odyssey, when Odysseus goes to the Underworld, he refers to Persephone as '''the Iron Queen'''. Of the four gods of Empedocles' elements it is the name of Persephone alone that is taboo, for the Greeks knew another face of Persephone as well. She was also the terrible Queen of the dead, whose name was not safe to speak aloud, who was named simply "The Maiden". Wikipedia<br />
[[http://www.en.wikipedia.org/Persephone]]<br />
<br />
3.07 '''crystal palace'''<br><br />
See Alpha entry, especially this re cultural meaning:<br><br />
The Crystal Palace made a strong impression on visitors coming from all over Europe, including a number of writers. It soon became a symbol of modernity and civilization, hailed by some and decried by others.<br />
<br />
In ''What Is to Be Done?'', Russian author and philosopher Nikolai Chernyshevsky pledges to transform the society into a Crystal Palace thanks to a socialist revolution.<br> <br />
Fyodor Dostoevsky implicitly replied to Chernyshevsky in ''Notes from Underground''. The narrator thinks that human nature will prefer destruction and chaos to the harmony symbolized by the Crystal Palace. <br />
<br />
When the first major international exhibition of arts and industries was held in London in 1851, the London Crystal Palace epitomized the achievements of the entire world at a time when progress was racing forward at a speed never before known to mankind. The Great Exhibition marked the beginning of a tradition of world's fairs, which would be held in major cities all across the globe. Following the success of the London fair, it was inevitable that other nations would soon try their hand at organizing their own exhibitions. In fact, the next international fair was held only two years later, in 1853, in New York City. This fair would have its own Crystal Palace to symbolize not only the achievements of the world, but also the nationalistic pride of a relatively young nation and all that she stood for. Walt Whitman, the great American poet, wrote in "The Song of the Exposition":<br><br />
http://www.ric.edu/rpotter/cryspal.html<br />
<br />
That the Crystal Palace Exhibition "marked the beginning of a tradition of world's fairs" can remind that ''Against the Day'' starts at the Columbian Exhibition of 1893 in Chicago. More international optimism.<br />
<br />
3.14 '''second sheep'''<br /><br />
Compare the narrator’s discussion of William Slothrop’s heretical tract "On Preterition," which argued for the holiness of the preterite, and Weisenburger’s note at [[Pages 549-557#555|555.29-31]].<br />
<br />
A wide symbology relates to sheep in ancient art, traditions and culture. Judaism uses many sheep references including the Passover lamb. Christianity uses sheep-related images, such as: Christ as the good shepherd, or as the sacrificed Lamb of God (Agnus Dei); the bishop's Pastoral; the lion lying down with the lamb (a reference to all of creation being at peace, without suffering, predation or otherwise). Greek Easter celebrations traditionally feature a meal of Paschal lamb. Sheep also have considerable importance in Arab culture; Eid ul-Adha is a major annual festival in Islam in which a sheep is sacrificed.<br><br />
Herding sheep plays an important historico-symbolic part in the Jewish and Christian faiths, since Abraham, Jacob, Moses, and King David all worked as shepherds. wikipedia <br />
[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sheep]<br><br />
<br />
Sheep are often associated with obedience due to the widespread perception that they lack intelligence and their undoubted herd mentality, hence the pejorative connotation of the adjective 'ovine'. In George Orwell's satirical novel ''Animal Farm'', sheep are used to represent the ignorant and uneducated masses of revolutionary Russia. The sheep are unable to be taught the subtleties of revolutionary ideology and can only be taught repetitive slogans such as "Four legs good, two legs bad" which they bleat in unison at rallies. The rock group Pink Floyd wrote a song using sheep as a symbol for ordinary people, that is, everyone who isn't a pig or dog. People who accept overbearing governments have been pejoratively referred to as "sheeple". wikipedia [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sheep]<br><br />
<br />
3.19 '''half-silvered'''<br><br />
adj. (of a mirror) having an incomplete reflective coating, so that half the incident light is reflected and half transmitted: used in optical instruments and two-way mirrors. Collins Dictionary<br><br />
See the splitting of light all through ''Against the Day'', Pynchon's 2006<br />
novel.<br />
<br />
3.19 '''view finder'''<br><br />
as two words, this seems to refer to handheld devices in which slides were slid and viewed in 3-dimensions. Here is a version still being made <br />
[http://porters.com/Merchant2/merchant.mvc?Screen=PROD&Store_Code=PCS&Product_Code=520098&Product_Count=&Category_Code= view finder].<br> "half-silvered" above seems most correct with this kind of device. <br />
<br />
3.22 '''They pass in line'''<br><br />
A Pynchonian leitmotif. The linearity of lining up has resonances throughout his work, articulated most straightforwardly in ''Against the Day'', which starts with "Single up all Lines!", and perhaps dealt with<br />
most profoundly in ''Mason & Dixon'', a novel about creating the "Mason & Dixon line".<br />
<br />
3.25 '''Rain comes down'''<br><br />
Pynchon's first published story is called ''The Small Rain''. See his remarks on rain in fiction in ''Slow Learner''.<br />
<br />
3.30 '''naptha winters'''<br><br />
Naptha is the flammable liquid obtained from the distillation of coal and used to fire gaslights and heaters. ...<br />
<br />
3.32 '''rolling-stock absence'''<br><br />
Rolling stock is the collective term that describes all the vehicles which move on a railway.<br />
<br />
==Page 5==<br />
5.03 '''His name is Capt. Geoffrey ("Pirate") Prentice.'''<br /><br />
Pirate’s name derives from Gilbert and Sullivan’s operetta ''The Pirates of Penzance'', in which the hero’s nurse has made a fateful error in carrying out her employer’s instructions: Instead of having the boy apprenticed to a (ship’s) '''pilot''', he was apprenticed to a pirate, hence a "'''pirate''' ‘prentice." The name, though, is not simply a fortuitous pun: In her error, the nurse has lost a message, like the hare of Herero myth, and thus guaranteed her young charge’s preterition. (There are also connections here to the theme of "communications entropy," which is central to ''The Crying of Lot 49'' and the short story "Entropy.")<br />
<br />
5.03 '''all got scumbled together, eventually, by the knives of the seasons, to an impasto, feet thick, of unbelievable black topsoil'''<br /><br />
<br />
Didn't notice 'scumbled' first time round, I was going too fast. Second<br />
read I looked it up. Scumbled? Isn't that some sort of painting<br />
[technique? Pynchon make a mistake there? Mean to say scrambled?<br />
Hmmmmmmmm. Then I thought of the 'knives' bit, wondered if artists might<br />
use a [http://painting.about.com/od/paintingforbeginners/a/Painting_Knife.htm palette knife] to do this scumbling business. A Google search for<br />
"scumble knife palette " found me this:<br />
<br />
http://www.messums.com/sub_newsview.ink?nid=11191<br />
<br />
"Hard impasto ridges left by the edge of the knife provided the texture<br />
I needed to bring the waves crashing in."<br />
<br />
[http://www.thefreedictionary.com/impasto Impasto] eh? I thought that just meant paste. So the knives in "knives of<br />
the seasons" makes perfect sense. And Dictionary.com throws up another<br />
interesting nugget:<br />
<br />
http://dictionary.reference.com/search?q=scumbled<br />
<br />
A-and the wonderful phrase, "knives of the seasons" embodies another lifelong deep theme in Pynchon's work: that the 'wheeling' of time [see later in ''Gravity's Rainbow'' and ''Against the Day''], the cycle of nature, is an ineluctable good thing, even as it knifes us, ravages, us. It thickens us, impasto-like, gives us topsoil in our characters, so to speak.<br />
<br />
"To blur the outlines of: a writer who scumbled the line that divides<br />
history and fiction." <br />
<br />
Apt example!<br />
<br />
<br />
<br /><br />
<br />
==Page 6==<br />
<br />
[[image:dna-molecule.jpg|thumb|100px|right]]6.09 '''a spiral ladder'''<br /><br />
Suggests the double-helix structure of the DNA molecule that preserves the "living genetic chains" evoked at [[Pages 7-16#10|10.14]].<br><br />
Cf. p. 209, ''Mason & Dixon'': " oblique angles with all meridians and that is a spiral coiling round the poles but never reaching them."...<br />
<br />
==Page 7==<br />
7.09 '''Pick bananas'''<br><br />
Pirate's decision after a paragraph on the inevitablity of the rocket's flight can remind one of a famous Buddhist sutra on picking a strawberry:<br />
The Sweetest Strawberry<br><br />
Buddha told a parable in a sutra:<br><br />
A man traveling across a field encountered a tiger. He fled, the tiger after him. Coming to a precipice, he caught hold of the root of a wild vine and swung himself down over the edge. The tiger sniffed at him from above. Trembling, the man looked down to where, far below, another tiger was waiting to eat him. Only the vine sustained him. Two mice, one white and one black, little by little started to gnaw away the vine. The man saw a luscious strawberry near him. Grasping the vine with one hand, he plucked the strawberry with the other. How sweet it tasted!<br><br />
-Paul Reps, ''Zen Flesh, Zen Bones''<br><br />
from ''Everyday Mind'', edited by Jean Smith <br />
[[http://www.tricycle.com/issues/2_174/dailydharma/3192-1.html]]<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
{{GR PbP}}</div>MKOHUThttps://gravitys-rainbow.pynchonwiki.com/wiki/index.php?title=Pages_3-7&diff=2457Pages 3-72007-10-04T18:56:48Z<p>MKOHUT: /* Page 3 */</p>
<hr />
<div>{{GR PbP Text}}<br />
<br />
==Page 3==<br />
<br />
3.03 '''The Evacuation'''<br><br />
First instance in GR of a lifetime stylistic trait of Pynchon's: unpredictable use of Capitalization. Capitalization is usually applied to nouns, but not uniformly. Often a matter of emphasis. See ''Mason & Dixon'' for the widest use, there imitating the writing of the time in which the book is set.<br><br />
The use throughout all his work might indicate how well-read and influenced by works written before capitalization was standardized Pynchon is.<br><br />
The full rules of capitalization for English are complicated. The rules have also changed over time, generally to capitalize fewer terms; to the modern reader, an 18th century document seems to use initial capitals excessively. Wikipedia<br />
<br />
3.03 '''theatre'''<br><br />
Besides the normal meanings, including "theater of war", 'theatre' is the name that fireworks' organizers call a sky display.<br />
<br />
3.05 '''iron queen'''<br><br />
a queensize bed made of iron. Hardly made after 1900. Queen Victoria had a famous brass (and iron) one in the Crystal Palace! "Beds made of hollow tubes of steel, iron, and brass came to be manufactured in the mid 19th century.<br />
These were to be used both by soldiers and civilians. Their main advantage at that time was that unlike wooden beds, these could not be infested with bedbugs. Queen Victoria's brass bed at the Crystal Palace has been the most famous antique brass bed.<br><br />
By the late 19th century, metal beds were nearly out of fashion." Antique beds [[http://www.bestinbeds.com/beds/antique-bed.html]]<br />
<br />
Also, In The Odyssey, when Odysseus goes to the Underworld, he refers to Persephone as '''the Iron Queen'''. Of the four gods of Empedocles' elements it is the name of Persephone alone that is taboo, for the Greeks knew another face of Persephone as well. She was also the terrible Queen of the dead, whose name was not safe to speak aloud, who was named simply "The Maiden". Wikipedia<br />
[[http://www.en.wikipedia.org/Persephone]]<br />
<br />
3.07 '''crystal palace'''<br><br />
See Alpha entry, especially this re cultural meaning:<br><br />
The Crystal Palace made a strong impression on visitors coming from all over Europe, including a number of writers. It soon became a symbol of modernity and civilization, hailed by some and decried by others.<br />
<br />
In ''What Is to Be Done?'', Russian author and philosopher Nikolai Chernyshevsky pledges to transform the society into a Crystal Palace thanks to a socialist revolution.<br> <br />
Fyodor Dostoevsky implicitly replied to Chernyshevsky in ''Notes from Underground''. The narrator thinks that human nature will prefer destruction and chaos to the harmony symbolized by the Crystal Palace. <br />
<br />
When the first major international exhibition of arts and industries was held in London in 1851, the London Crystal Palace epitomized the achievements of the entire world at a time when progress was racing forward at a speed never before known to mankind. The Great Exhibition marked the beginning of a tradition of world's fairs, which would be held in major cities all across the globe. Following the success of the London fair, it was inevitable that other nations would soon try their hand at organizing their own exhibitions. In fact, the next international fair was held only two years later, in 1853, in New York City. This fair would have its own Crystal Palace to symbolize not only the achievements of the world, but also the nationalistic pride of a relatively young nation and all that she stood for. Walt Whitman, the great American poet, wrote in "The Song of the Exposition":<br><br />
http://www.ric.edu/rpotter/cryspal.html<br />
<br />
That the Crystal Palace Exhibition "marked the beginning of a tradition of world's fairs" can remind that ''Against the Day'' starts at the Columbian Exhibition of 1893 in Chicago. More international optimism.<br />
<br />
3.14 '''second sheep'''<br /><br />
Compare the narrator’s discussion of William Slothrop’s heretical tract "On Preterition," which argued for the holiness of the preterite, and Weisenburger’s note at [[Pages 549-557#555|555.29-31]].<br />
<br />
A wide symbology relates to sheep in ancient art, traditions and culture. Judaism uses many sheep references including the Passover lamb. Christianity uses sheep-related images, such as: Christ as the good shepherd, or as the sacrificed Lamb of God (Agnus Dei); the bishop's Pastoral; the lion lying down with the lamb (a reference to all of creation being at peace, without suffering, predation or otherwise). Greek Easter celebrations traditionally feature a meal of Paschal lamb. Sheep also have considerable importance in Arab culture; Eid ul-Adha is a major annual festival in Islam in which a sheep is sacrificed.<br><br />
Herding sheep plays an important historico-symbolic part in the Jewish and Christian faiths, since Abraham, Jacob, Moses, and King David all worked as shepherds. wikipedia <br />
[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sheep]<br><br />
<br />
Sheep are often associated with obedience due to the widespread perception that they lack intelligence and their undoubted herd mentality, hence the pejorative connotation of the adjective 'ovine'. In George Orwell's satirical novel ''Animal Farm'', sheep are used to represent the ignorant and uneducated masses of revolutionary Russia. The sheep are unable to be taught the subtleties of revolutionary ideology and can only be taught repetitive slogans such as "Four legs good, two legs bad" which they bleat in unison at rallies. The rock group Pink Floyd wrote a song using sheep as a symbol for ordinary people, that is, everyone who isn't a pig or dog. People who accept overbearing governments have been pejoratively referred to as "sheeple". wikipedia [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sheep]<br><br />
<br />
3.19 '''half-silvered'''<br><br />
adj. (of a mirror) having an incomplete reflective coating, so that half the incident light is reflected and half transmitted: used in optical instruments and two-way mirrors. Collins Dictionary<br><br />
See the splitting of light all through ''Against the Day'', Pynchon's 2006<br />
novel.<br />
<br />
3.19 '''view finder'''<br><br />
as two words, this seems to refer to handheld devices in which slides were slid and viewed in 3-dimensions. Here is a version still being made <br />
[http://porters.com/Merchant2/merchant.mvc?Screen=PROD&Store_Code=PCS&Product_Code=520098&Product_Count=&Category_Code= view finder].<br> "half-silvered" above seems most correct with this kind of device. <br />
<br />
3.22 '''They pass in line'''<br><br />
A Pynchonian leitmotif. The linearity of lining up has resonances throughout his work, articulated most straightforwardly in ''Against the Day'', which starts with "Single up all Lines!", and perhaps dealt with<br />
most profoundly in ''Mason & Dixon'', a novel about creating the "Mason & Dixon line".<br />
<br />
3.25 '''Rain comes down'''<br><br />
Pynchon's first published story is called ''The Small Rain''. See his remarks on rain in fiction in ''Slow Learner''.<br />
<br />
3.30 '''naptha winters'''<br><br />
Naptha is the flammable liquid obtained from the distillation of coal and used to fire gaslights and heaters. ...<br />
<br />
==Page 5==<br />
5.03 '''His name is Capt. Geoffrey ("Pirate") Prentice.'''<br /><br />
Pirate’s name derives from Gilbert and Sullivan’s operetta ''The Pirates of Penzance'', in which the hero’s nurse has made a fateful error in carrying out her employer’s instructions: Instead of having the boy apprenticed to a (ship’s) '''pilot''', he was apprenticed to a pirate, hence a "'''pirate''' ‘prentice." The name, though, is not simply a fortuitous pun: In her error, the nurse has lost a message, like the hare of Herero myth, and thus guaranteed her young charge’s preterition. (There are also connections here to the theme of "communications entropy," which is central to ''The Crying of Lot 49'' and the short story "Entropy.")<br />
<br />
5.03 '''all got scumbled together, eventually, by the knives of the seasons, to an impasto, feet thick, of unbelievable black topsoil'''<br /><br />
<br />
Didn't notice 'scumbled' first time round, I was going too fast. Second<br />
read I looked it up. Scumbled? Isn't that some sort of painting<br />
[technique? Pynchon make a mistake there? Mean to say scrambled?<br />
Hmmmmmmmm. Then I thought of the 'knives' bit, wondered if artists might<br />
use a [http://painting.about.com/od/paintingforbeginners/a/Painting_Knife.htm palette knife] to do this scumbling business. A Google search for<br />
"scumble knife palette " found me this:<br />
<br />
http://www.messums.com/sub_newsview.ink?nid=11191<br />
<br />
"Hard impasto ridges left by the edge of the knife provided the texture<br />
I needed to bring the waves crashing in."<br />
<br />
[http://www.thefreedictionary.com/impasto Impasto] eh? I thought that just meant paste. So the knives in "knives of<br />
the seasons" makes perfect sense. And Dictionary.com throws up another<br />
interesting nugget:<br />
<br />
http://dictionary.reference.com/search?q=scumbled<br />
<br />
A-and the wonderful phrase, "knives of the seasons" embodies another lifelong deep theme in Pynchon's work: that the 'wheeling' of time [see later in ''Gravity's Rainbow'' and ''Against the Day''], the cycle of nature, is an ineluctable good thing, even as it knifes us, ravages, us. It thickens us, impasto-like, gives us topsoil in our characters, so to speak.<br />
<br />
"To blur the outlines of: a writer who scumbled the line that divides<br />
history and fiction." <br />
<br />
Apt example!<br />
<br />
<br />
<br /><br />
<br />
==Page 6==<br />
<br />
[[image:dna-molecule.jpg|thumb|100px|right]]6.09 '''a spiral ladder'''<br /><br />
Suggests the double-helix structure of the DNA molecule that preserves the "living genetic chains" evoked at [[Pages 7-16#10|10.14]].<br><br />
Cf. p. 209, ''Mason & Dixon'': " oblique angles with all meridians and that is a spiral coiling round the poles but never reaching them."...<br />
<br />
==Page 7==<br />
7.09 '''Pick bananas'''<br><br />
Pirate's decision after a paragraph on the inevitablity of the rocket's flight can remind one of a famous Buddhist sutra on picking a strawberry:<br />
The Sweetest Strawberry<br><br />
Buddha told a parable in a sutra:<br><br />
A man traveling across a field encountered a tiger. He fled, the tiger after him. Coming to a precipice, he caught hold of the root of a wild vine and swung himself down over the edge. The tiger sniffed at him from above. Trembling, the man looked down to where, far below, another tiger was waiting to eat him. Only the vine sustained him. Two mice, one white and one black, little by little started to gnaw away the vine. The man saw a luscious strawberry near him. Grasping the vine with one hand, he plucked the strawberry with the other. How sweet it tasted!<br><br />
-Paul Reps, ''Zen Flesh, Zen Bones''<br><br />
from ''Everyday Mind'', edited by Jean Smith <br />
[[http://www.tricycle.com/issues/2_174/dailydharma/3192-1.html]]<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
{{GR PbP}}</div>MKOHUThttps://gravitys-rainbow.pynchonwiki.com/wiki/index.php?title=Pages_3-7&diff=2456Pages 3-72007-10-04T18:43:20Z<p>MKOHUT: /* Page 3 */</p>
<hr />
<div>{{GR PbP Text}}<br />
<br />
==Page 3==<br />
<br />
3.03 '''The Evacuation'''<br><br />
First instance in GR of a lifetime stylistic trait of Pynchon's: unpredictable use of Capitalization. Capitalization is usually applied to nouns, but not uniformly. Often a matter of emphasis. See ''Mason & Dixon'' for the widest use, there imitating the writing of the time in which the book is set.<br><br />
The use throughout all his work might indicate how well-read and influenced by works written before capitalization was standardized Pynchon is.<br><br />
The full rules of capitalization for English are complicated. The rules have also changed over time, generally to capitalize fewer terms; to the modern reader, an 18th century document seems to use initial capitals excessively. Wikipedia<br />
<br />
3.03 '''theatre'''<br><br />
Besides the normal meanings, including "theater of war", 'theatre' is the name that fireworks' organizers call a sky display.<br />
<br />
3.05 '''iron queen'''<br><br />
a queensize bed made of iron. Hardly made after 1900. Queen Victoria had a famous brass (and iron) one in the Crystal Palace! "Beds made of hollow tubes of steel, iron, and brass came to be manufactured in the mid 19th century.<br />
These were to be used both by soldiers and civilians. Their main advantage at that time was that unlike wooden beds, these could not be infested with bedbugs. Queen Victoria's brass bed at the Crystal Palace has been the most famous antique brass bed.<br><br />
By the late 19th century, metal beds were nearly out of fashion." Antique beds [[http://www.bestinbeds.com/beds/antique-bed.html]]<br />
<br />
Also, In The Odyssey, when Odysseus goes to the Underworld, he refers to Persephone as '''the Iron Queen'''. Of the four gods of Empedocles' elements it is the name of Persephone alone that is taboo, for the Greeks knew another face of Persephone as well. She was also the terrible Queen of the dead, whose name was not safe to speak aloud, who was named simply "The Maiden". Wikipedia<br />
[[http://www.en.wikipedia.org/Persephone]]<br />
<br />
3.07 '''crystal palace'''<br><br />
See Alpha entry, especially this re cultural meaning:<br><br />
The Crystal Palace made a strong impression on visitors coming from all over Europe, including a number of writers. It soon became a symbol of modernity and civilization, hailed by some and decried by others.<br />
<br />
In ''What Is to Be Done?'', Russian author and philosopher Nikolai Chernyshevsky pledges to transform the society into a Crystal Palace thanks to a socialist revolution.<br> <br />
Fyodor Dostoevsky implicitly replied to Chernyshevsky in ''Notes from Underground''. The narrator thinks that human nature will prefer destruction and chaos to the harmony symbolized by the Crystal Palace. <br />
<br />
When the first major international exhibition of arts and industries was held in London in 1851, the London Crystal Palace epitomized the achievements of the entire world at a time when progress was racing forward at a speed never before known to mankind. The Great Exhibition marked the beginning of a tradition of world's fairs, which would be held in major cities all across the globe. Following the success of the London fair, it was inevitable that other nations would soon try their hand at organizing their own exhibitions. In fact, the next international fair was held only two years later, in 1853, in New York City. This fair would have its own Crystal Palace to symbolize not only the achievements of the world, but also the nationalistic pride of a relatively young nation and all that she stood for. Walt Whitman, the great American poet, wrote in "The Song of the Exposition":<br><br />
http://www.ric.edu/rpotter/cryspal.html<br />
<br />
That the Crystal Palace Exhibition "marked the beginning of a tradition of world's fairs" can remind that ''Against the Day'' starts at the Columbian Exhibition of 1893 in Chicago. More international optimism.<br />
<br />
3.14 '''second sheep'''<br /><br />
Compare the narrator’s discussion of William Slothrop’s heretical tract "On Preterition," which argued for the holiness of the preterite, and Weisenburger’s note at [[Pages 549-557#555|555.29-31]].<br />
<br />
A wide symbology relates to sheep in ancient art, traditions and culture. Judaism uses many sheep references including the Passover lamb. Christianity uses sheep-related images, such as: Christ as the good shepherd, or as the sacrificed Lamb of God (Agnus Dei); the bishop's Pastoral; the lion lying down with the lamb (a reference to all of creation being at peace, without suffering, predation or otherwise). Greek Easter celebrations traditionally feature a meal of Paschal lamb. Sheep also have considerable importance in Arab culture; Eid ul-Adha is a major annual festival in Islam in which a sheep is sacrificed.<br><br />
Herding sheep plays an important historico-symbolic part in the Jewish and Christian faiths, since Abraham, Jacob, Moses, and King David all worked as shepherds. wikipedia <br />
[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sheep]<br><br />
<br />
Sheep are often associated with obedience due to the widespread perception that they lack intelligence and their undoubted herd mentality, hence the pejorative connotation of the adjective 'ovine'. In George Orwell's satirical novel ''Animal Farm'', sheep are used to represent the ignorant and uneducated masses of revolutionary Russia. The sheep are unable to be taught the subtleties of revolutionary ideology and can only be taught repetitive slogans such as "Four legs good, two legs bad" which they bleat in unison at rallies. The rock group Pink Floyd wrote a song using sheep as a symbol for ordinary people, that is, everyone who isn't a pig or dog. People who accept overbearing governments have been pejoratively referred to as "sheeple". wikipedia [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sheep]<br><br />
<br />
3.19 '''half-silvered'''<br><br />
adj. (of a mirror) having an incomplete reflective coating, so that half the incident light is reflected and half transmitted: used in optical instruments and two-way mirrors. Collins Dictionary<br><br />
See the splitting of light all through ''Against the Day'', Pynchon's 2006<br />
novel.<br />
<br />
3.19 '''view finder'''<br><br />
<br />
3.22 '''They pass in line'''<br><br />
A Pynchonian leitmotif. The linearity of lining up has resonances throughout his work, articulated most straightforwardly in ''Against the Day'', which starts with "Single up all Lines!", and perhaps dealt with<br />
most profoundly in ''Mason & Dixon'', a novel about creating the "Mason & Dixon line".<br />
<br />
3.25 '''Rain comes down'''<br><br />
Pynchon's first published story is called ''The Small Rain''. See his remarks on rain in fiction in ''Slow Learner''.<br />
<br />
3.30 '''naptha winters'''<br><br />
Naptha is the flammable liquid obtained from the distillation of coal and used to fire gaslights and heaters. ...<br />
<br />
==Page 5==<br />
5.03 '''His name is Capt. Geoffrey ("Pirate") Prentice.'''<br /><br />
Pirate’s name derives from Gilbert and Sullivan’s operetta ''The Pirates of Penzance'', in which the hero’s nurse has made a fateful error in carrying out her employer’s instructions: Instead of having the boy apprenticed to a (ship’s) '''pilot''', he was apprenticed to a pirate, hence a "'''pirate''' ‘prentice." The name, though, is not simply a fortuitous pun: In her error, the nurse has lost a message, like the hare of Herero myth, and thus guaranteed her young charge’s preterition. (There are also connections here to the theme of "communications entropy," which is central to ''The Crying of Lot 49'' and the short story "Entropy.")<br />
<br />
5.03 '''all got scumbled together, eventually, by the knives of the seasons, to an impasto, feet thick, of unbelievable black topsoil'''<br /><br />
<br />
Didn't notice 'scumbled' first time round, I was going too fast. Second<br />
read I looked it up. Scumbled? Isn't that some sort of painting<br />
[technique? Pynchon make a mistake there? Mean to say scrambled?<br />
Hmmmmmmmm. Then I thought of the 'knives' bit, wondered if artists might<br />
use a [http://painting.about.com/od/paintingforbeginners/a/Painting_Knife.htm palette knife] to do this scumbling business. A Google search for<br />
"scumble knife palette " found me this:<br />
<br />
http://www.messums.com/sub_newsview.ink?nid=11191<br />
<br />
"Hard impasto ridges left by the edge of the knife provided the texture<br />
I needed to bring the waves crashing in."<br />
<br />
[http://www.thefreedictionary.com/impasto Impasto] eh? I thought that just meant paste. So the knives in "knives of<br />
the seasons" makes perfect sense. And Dictionary.com throws up another<br />
interesting nugget:<br />
<br />
http://dictionary.reference.com/search?q=scumbled<br />
<br />
A-and the wonderful phrase, "knives of the seasons" embodies another lifelong deep theme in Pynchon's work: that the 'wheeling' of time [see later in ''Gravity's Rainbow'' and ''Against the Day''], the cycle of nature, is an ineluctable good thing, even as it knifes us, ravages, us. It thickens us, impasto-like, gives us topsoil in our characters, so to speak.<br />
<br />
"To blur the outlines of: a writer who scumbled the line that divides<br />
history and fiction." <br />
<br />
Apt example!<br />
<br />
<br />
<br /><br />
<br />
==Page 6==<br />
<br />
[[image:dna-molecule.jpg|thumb|100px|right]]6.09 '''a spiral ladder'''<br /><br />
Suggests the double-helix structure of the DNA molecule that preserves the "living genetic chains" evoked at [[Pages 7-16#10|10.14]].<br><br />
Cf. p. 209, ''Mason & Dixon'': " oblique angles with all meridians and that is a spiral coiling round the poles but never reaching them."...<br />
<br />
==Page 7==<br />
7.09 '''Pick bananas'''<br><br />
Pirate's decision after a paragraph on the inevitablity of the rocket's flight can remind one of a famous Buddhist sutra on picking a strawberry:<br />
The Sweetest Strawberry<br><br />
Buddha told a parable in a sutra:<br><br />
A man traveling across a field encountered a tiger. He fled, the tiger after him. Coming to a precipice, he caught hold of the root of a wild vine and swung himself down over the edge. The tiger sniffed at him from above. Trembling, the man looked down to where, far below, another tiger was waiting to eat him. Only the vine sustained him. Two mice, one white and one black, little by little started to gnaw away the vine. The man saw a luscious strawberry near him. Grasping the vine with one hand, he plucked the strawberry with the other. How sweet it tasted!<br><br />
-Paul Reps, ''Zen Flesh, Zen Bones''<br><br />
from ''Everyday Mind'', edited by Jean Smith <br />
[[http://www.tricycle.com/issues/2_174/dailydharma/3192-1.html]]<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
{{GR PbP}}</div>MKOHUThttps://gravitys-rainbow.pynchonwiki.com/wiki/index.php?title=Pages_3-7&diff=2455Pages 3-72007-10-04T18:19:41Z<p>MKOHUT: /* Page 5 */</p>
<hr />
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==Page 3==<br />
<br />
3.03 '''The Evacuation'''<br><br />
First instance in GR of a lifetime stylistic trait of Pynchon's: unpredictable use of Capitalization. Capitalization is usually applied to nouns, but not uniformly. Often a matter of emphasis. See ''Mason & Dixon'' for the widest use, there imitating the writing of the time in which the book is set.<br><br />
The use throughout all his work might indicate how well-read and influenced by works written before capitalization was standardized Pynchon is.<br><br />
The full rules of capitalization for English are complicated. The rules have also changed over time, generally to capitalize fewer terms; to the modern reader, an 18th century document seems to use initial capitals excessively. Wikipedia<br />
<br />
3.03 '''theatre'''<br><br />
Besides the normal meanings, including "theater of war", 'theatre' is the name that fireworks' organizers call a sky display.<br />
<br />
3.05 '''iron queen'''<br><br />
a queensize bed made of iron. Hardly made after 1900. Queen Victoria had a famous brass (and iron) one in the Crystal Palace! "Beds made of hollow tubes of steel, iron, and brass came to be manufactured in the mid 19th century.<br />
These were to be used both by soldiers and civilians. Their main advantage at that time was that unlike wooden beds, these could not be infested with bedbugs. Queen Victoria's brass bed at the Crystal Palace has been the most famous antique brass bed.<br><br />
By the late 19th century, metal beds were nearly out of fashion." Antique beds [[http://www.bestinbeds.com/beds/antique-bed.html]]<br />
<br />
Also, In The Odyssey, when Odysseus goes to the Underworld, he refers to Persephone as '''the Iron Queen'''. Of the four gods of Empedocles' elements it is the name of Persephone alone that is taboo, for the Greeks knew another face of Persephone as well. She was also the terrible Queen of the dead, whose name was not safe to speak aloud, who was named simply "The Maiden". Wikipedia<br />
[[http://www.en.wikipedia.org/Persephone]]<br />
<br />
3.07 '''crystal palace'''<br><br />
See Alpha entry, especially this re cultural meaning:<br><br />
The Crystal Palace made a strong impression on visitors coming from all over Europe, including a number of writers. It soon became a symbol of modernity and civilization, hailed by some and decried by others.<br />
<br />
In ''What Is to Be Done?'', Russian author and philosopher Nikolai Chernyshevsky pledges to transform the society into a Crystal Palace thanks to a socialist revolution.<br> <br />
Fyodor Dostoevsky implicitly replied to Chernyshevsky in ''Notes from Underground''. The narrator thinks that human nature will prefer destruction and chaos to the harmony symbolized by the Crystal Palace. <br />
<br />
When the first major international exhibition of arts and industries was held in London in 1851, the London Crystal Palace epitomized the achievements of the entire world at a time when progress was racing forward at a speed never before known to mankind. The Great Exhibition marked the beginning of a tradition of world's fairs, which would be held in major cities all across the globe. Following the success of the London fair, it was inevitable that other nations would soon try their hand at organizing their own exhibitions. In fact, the next international fair was held only two years later, in 1853, in New York City. This fair would have its own Crystal Palace to symbolize not only the achievements of the world, but also the nationalistic pride of a relatively young nation and all that she stood for. Walt Whitman, the great American poet, wrote in "The Song of the Exposition":<br><br />
http://www.ric.edu/rpotter/cryspal.html<br />
<br />
That the Crystal Palace Exhibition "marked the beginning of a tradition of world's fairs" can remind that ''Against the Day'' starts at the Columbian Exhibition of 1893 in Chicago. More international optimism.<br />
<br />
3.14 '''second sheep'''<br /><br />
Compare the narrator’s discussion of William Slothrop’s heretical tract "On Preterition," which argued for the holiness of the preterite, and Weisenburger’s note at [[Pages 549-557#555|555.29-31]].<br />
<br />
A wide symbology relates to sheep in ancient art, traditions and culture. Judaism uses many sheep references including the Passover lamb. Christianity uses sheep-related images, such as: Christ as the good shepherd, or as the sacrificed Lamb of God (Agnus Dei); the bishop's Pastoral; the lion lying down with the lamb (a reference to all of creation being at peace, without suffering, predation or otherwise). Greek Easter celebrations traditionally feature a meal of Paschal lamb. Sheep also have considerable importance in Arab culture; Eid ul-Adha is a major annual festival in Islam in which a sheep is sacrificed.<br><br />
Herding sheep plays an important historico-symbolic part in the Jewish and Christian faiths, since Abraham, Jacob, Moses, and King David all worked as shepherds. wikipedia <br />
[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sheep]<br><br />
<br />
Sheep are often associated with obedience due to the widespread perception that they lack intelligence and their undoubted herd mentality, hence the pejorative connotation of the adjective 'ovine'. In George Orwell's satirical novel ''Animal Farm'', sheep are used to represent the ignorant and uneducated masses of revolutionary Russia. The sheep are unable to be taught the subtleties of revolutionary ideology and can only be taught repetitive slogans such as "Four legs good, two legs bad" which they bleat in unison at rallies. The rock group Pink Floyd wrote a song using sheep as a symbol for ordinary people, that is, everyone who isn't a pig or dog. People who accept overbearing governments have been pejoratively referred to as "sheeple". wikipedia [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sheep]<br><br />
<br />
3.19 '''half-silvered'''<br><br />
adj. (of a mirror) having an incomplete reflective coating, so that half the incident light is reflected and half transmitted: used in optical instruments and two-way mirrors. Collins Dictionary<br><br />
See the splitting of light all through ''Against the Day'', Pynchon's 2006<br />
novel.<br />
<br />
3.19 '''view finder'''<br><br />
<br />
3.22 '''They pass in line'''<br><br />
A Pynchonian leitmotif. The linearity of lining up has resonances throughout his work, articulated most straightforwardly in ''Against the Day'', which starts with "Single up all Lines!", and perhaps dealt with<br />
most profoundly in ''Mason & Dixon'', a novel about creating the "Mason & Dixon line".<br />
<br />
3.25 '''Rain comes down'''<br><br />
Pynchon's first published story is called ''The Small Rain''. See his remarks on rain in fiction in ''Slow Learner''.<br />
<br />
==Page 5==<br />
5.03 '''His name is Capt. Geoffrey ("Pirate") Prentice.'''<br /><br />
Pirate’s name derives from Gilbert and Sullivan’s operetta ''The Pirates of Penzance'', in which the hero’s nurse has made a fateful error in carrying out her employer’s instructions: Instead of having the boy apprenticed to a (ship’s) '''pilot''', he was apprenticed to a pirate, hence a "'''pirate''' ‘prentice." The name, though, is not simply a fortuitous pun: In her error, the nurse has lost a message, like the hare of Herero myth, and thus guaranteed her young charge’s preterition. (There are also connections here to the theme of "communications entropy," which is central to ''The Crying of Lot 49'' and the short story "Entropy.")<br />
<br />
5.03 '''all got scumbled together, eventually, by the knives of the seasons, to an impasto, feet thick, of unbelievable black topsoil'''<br /><br />
<br />
Didn't notice 'scumbled' first time round, I was going too fast. Second<br />
read I looked it up. Scumbled? Isn't that some sort of painting<br />
[technique? Pynchon make a mistake there? Mean to say scrambled?<br />
Hmmmmmmmm. Then I thought of the 'knives' bit, wondered if artists might<br />
use a [http://painting.about.com/od/paintingforbeginners/a/Painting_Knife.htm palette knife] to do this scumbling business. A Google search for<br />
"scumble knife palette " found me this:<br />
<br />
http://www.messums.com/sub_newsview.ink?nid=11191<br />
<br />
"Hard impasto ridges left by the edge of the knife provided the texture<br />
I needed to bring the waves crashing in."<br />
<br />
[http://www.thefreedictionary.com/impasto Impasto] eh? I thought that just meant paste. So the knives in "knives of<br />
the seasons" makes perfect sense. And Dictionary.com throws up another<br />
interesting nugget:<br />
<br />
http://dictionary.reference.com/search?q=scumbled<br />
<br />
A-and the wonderful phrase, "knives of the seasons" embodies another lifelong deep theme in Pynchon's work: that the 'wheeling' of time [see later in ''Gravity's Rainbow'' and ''Against the Day''], the cycle of nature, is an ineluctable good thing, even as it knifes us, ravages, us. It thickens us, impasto-like, gives us topsoil in our characters, so to speak.<br />
<br />
"To blur the outlines of: a writer who scumbled the line that divides<br />
history and fiction." <br />
<br />
Apt example!<br />
<br />
<br />
<br /><br />
<br />
==Page 6==<br />
<br />
[[image:dna-molecule.jpg|thumb|100px|right]]6.09 '''a spiral ladder'''<br /><br />
Suggests the double-helix structure of the DNA molecule that preserves the "living genetic chains" evoked at [[Pages 7-16#10|10.14]].<br><br />
Cf. p. 209, ''Mason & Dixon'': " oblique angles with all meridians and that is a spiral coiling round the poles but never reaching them."...<br />
<br />
==Page 7==<br />
7.09 '''Pick bananas'''<br><br />
Pirate's decision after a paragraph on the inevitablity of the rocket's flight can remind one of a famous Buddhist sutra on picking a strawberry:<br />
The Sweetest Strawberry<br><br />
Buddha told a parable in a sutra:<br><br />
A man traveling across a field encountered a tiger. He fled, the tiger after him. Coming to a precipice, he caught hold of the root of a wild vine and swung himself down over the edge. The tiger sniffed at him from above. Trembling, the man looked down to where, far below, another tiger was waiting to eat him. Only the vine sustained him. Two mice, one white and one black, little by little started to gnaw away the vine. The man saw a luscious strawberry near him. Grasping the vine with one hand, he plucked the strawberry with the other. How sweet it tasted!<br><br />
-Paul Reps, ''Zen Flesh, Zen Bones''<br><br />
from ''Everyday Mind'', edited by Jean Smith <br />
[[http://www.tricycle.com/issues/2_174/dailydharma/3192-1.html]]<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
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==Page 206==<br />
[[image:plasticman2.jpg|thumb|100px|Plastic Man|right]]'''206.37 A Plasticman comic'''<br /><br />
Plastic Man’s history is a bit different than that given by Weisenburger. The hero first appeared in Police Comics in January 1941. He had his own title starting in 1943 under the Quality Comics label, which ended in 1956. The character was picked up and revived by National Periodicals ("DC" Comics) in 1966, but the new magazine lasted only for ten issues. Since then, some of the original Plastic Man stories have been reprinted from time to time, and the character has appeared in other DC publications. Plastic Man’s costume was mainly red, but also contained yellow and black. His name should be two words, not one as in ''GR''.<br />
<br />
==Page 213==<br />
'''213.21 The Queen of Transylvan-ia'''<br /><br />
Transylvania is, of course, the mountainous region of Romania that is legendary home to Dracula.<br />
<br />
==Page 214==<br />
'''214.04-05 Lady of Spain'''<br /><br />
The song, composed in 1931 by Tolchard Evans, Stanley Demerell and Bob Hargreaves, has become a cliché of accordion music.<br />
<br />
==Page 220==<br />
'''220.31 Schutzmann Joche'''<br /><br />
The constable’s last name, with an umlaut, would approximate another expression of disgust ("yuck-ey").<br />
<br />
==Page 222==<br />
222.02 '''Cagney of the French Riviera'''<br><br />
James Cagney, American actor who played tough guys. Called "the professional gangster". In one famous movie scene, he shoves a grapefruit<br />
into a woman's face over the breakfast table.<br />
<br />
'''V222.37 the bridge music'''<br /><br />
A cinematic reference; the kind of musical accompaniment in which familiar tunes echoed the theme of particular scenes (especially during montage sequences spanning periods of time) was a common feature of classic Hollywood films (for example, the scores of Max Steiner). In this context, the music is background to a montage of scenes of Slothrop and Katje working together.<br />
<br />
==Page 225==<br />
'''225.32 a single clarinet'''<br /><br />
The instrument, with its evocation of "clowns and circuses," suggests Kurt Weill's score for Brecht's ''Three-Penny Opera'' but also Nino Rota’s scores for several Fellini films, notably ''8½'' (1963 &#151; No wonder Slothrop "lacks the European reflexes" to it!)<br />
<br />
==Page 226==<br />
'''IG and radio methods'''<br><br />
IG = INERTIAL guidance, i.e. guidance derived from inertia (Newton's first law)... measuring the forces on a gyroscope, which attempts to maintain the spin and orientation it had before the rocket's flight started. Put those forces (and the time during which they are sensed) through some arithmetic, and you get the current position and velocity of the rocket... leading to the right moment to shut down the engine (Brennschluss).<br><br />
Alternately, the guidance system can receive signals from two or more radio sources (a la GPS, today's Global Positioning System) and use trigonometry to calculate its position. This was planned for the V2 and tested, but never became operational AFAIK. Used extensively by bombers.<br><br />
Either way, the transition from *powered* and *controlled* flight to *ballistic* trajectory -- governed only by gravity, all its future implicit in this moment, fated and irreversible -- is a central metaphor, arguably *the* central metaphor, of the book. <br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
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==Page 75==<br />
<br />
75.30 '''Dr. Porkyevitch'''<br /><br />
Another suggestion of one of Pynchon’s favorite motifs, the little cartoon hero Porky Pig. See note at [[V545.04-05]]<br />
<br />
==Page 78==<br />
<br />
[[image:asquith.jpg|thumb|100px|Lady Asquith by Beaton|right]]78.12 '''Cecil Beaton’s photograph of Margot Asquith'''<br /><br />
Another example of the Turning Head motif.<br />
<br />
==Page 79==<br />
<br />
79.13 '''Webley Silvernail'''<br /><br />
Webley is the name of the British gun manufacturer. ''The Berkshire Hills'' cites Silvernail House in West Stockbridge as one of the oldest houses in that town (TBH 99).<br />
<br />
79.18 '''Geza Rozsavolgyi'''<br /><br />
The family name means neither "evil valley" as it stands in Weisenburger's Companion, nor "of the pink valley" as it is in the Alphabetical Index but "of the Valley of Roses". In fact, this is a Jewish name, the literal Magyarization of the German name Rosenthal. Geza’s first name also suggests the Hungarian-American psychologist Geza Roheim, who was one of the first to employ psychoanalytic critiques of culture. Rozsavolgyi is the name of a famous Budapest music store founded in 1850, which also published works by Liszt, Bartok and Kodaly, among others.<br />
<br />
==Page 80==<br />
<br />
80.21-22 '''"Would You Rather Be a Colonel with an Eagle on Your Shoulder, or a Private with a Chicken on Your Knee?"'''<br /><br />
The World War I song was composed by the team of Sidney Mitchell and Archie Gottlieb in 1918. ('''Note''': This is a correction of my earlier error in attributing the song to the team of Harold Arlen and "Yip" Harburg, who also composed the songs for ''The Wizard of Oz''.)<br />
<br />
==Page 81==<br />
<br />
81.08 '''terrible disease like charisma'''<br><br />
The term charisma, derived from Ancient Greek was introduced in scholarly [and popular [[User:MKOHUT|MKOHUT]]] usage by German sociologist Max Weber, in a book first published in 1922. He defined charismatic authority to be one of three forms of authority, the other two being traditional (feudal) authority and legal or rational authority. According to Weber, charisma is defined thus:<br><br />
"a certain quality of an individual personality, by virtue of which s/he is "set apart" from ordinary people and treated as endowed with supernatural, superhuman, or at least specifically exceptional powers or qualities. These as such are not accessible to the ordinary person, but are regarded as divine in origin or as exemplary, and on the basis of them the individual concerned is treated as a leader." adapted from Wikipedia<br />
<br />
81.08 '''rationalization'''<br><br />
Rationalization is a key sociological concept [from online Dictionary of Social Science]:RATIONALIZATION This term has two specific meanings in sociology. (1) The concept was developed by German sociologist Max Weber (1864-1920) who used it in two ways. First, it was the process through which magical, supernatural and religious ideas lose cultural importance in a society and ideas based on science and practical calculation become dominant. For example, in modern societies science has rationalized our understanding of weather patterns. Science explains weather patterns as a result of interaction between physical elements like wind-speed and direction, air and water temperatures, humidity, etc. In some other cultures, weather is thought to express the pleasure or displeasure of gods, or spirits of ancestors. One explanation is rationalized and scientific, the other mysterious and magical. Rationalization also involves the development of forms of social organization devoted to the achievement of precise goals by efficient means. It is this type of rationalization that we see in the development of modern business corporations and of bureaucracy. These are organizations dedicated to the pursuit of defined goals by calculated, systematically administered means. (2) Within symbolic interactionism, rationalization is used more in the everyday sense of the word to refer to providing justifications or excuses for one's actions.<BR> See use in ''Against the Day'', page 10 [http://against-the-day.pynchonwiki.com/wiki/index.php?title=ATD_1-25 Against the Day]<br />
<br />
81.17 '''The Reverend Paul de la Nuit'''<br /><br />
A double pun: "Pall [dark and gloomy covering] of the night"; also "Pall de l’ennui [of boredom]."<br />
<br />
==Page 82==<br />
<br />
82.01 '''his most famous compatriot'''<br /><br />
Rozsavolgyi’s fellow countryman would be, of course, Bela Lugosi, whose speech patterns are suggested by Pynchon’s punctuation of Rozsavolgyi’s dialogue.<br />
<br />
82.11 '''Dr. Aaron Thowster'''<br /><br />
Aaron was the brother of and spokesperson for Moses. A throwster is one who makes threads out of silk. The name is fairly common in Britain.<br />
<br />
<br />
{{GR PbP}}</div>MKOHUThttps://gravitys-rainbow.pynchonwiki.com/wiki/index.php?title=Pages_72-83&diff=2446Pages 72-832007-09-16T20:05:28Z<p>MKOHUT: /* Page 81 */</p>
<hr />
<div>{{GR PbP Text}}<br />
<br />
==Page 75==<br />
<br />
75.30 '''Dr. Porkyevitch'''<br /><br />
Another suggestion of one of Pynchon’s favorite motifs, the little cartoon hero Porky Pig. See note at [[V545.04-05]]<br />
<br />
==Page 78==<br />
<br />
[[image:asquith.jpg|thumb|100px|Lady Asquith by Beaton|right]]78.12 '''Cecil Beaton’s photograph of Margot Asquith'''<br /><br />
Another example of the Turning Head motif.<br />
<br />
==Page 79==<br />
<br />
79.13 '''Webley Silvernail'''<br /><br />
Webley is the name of the British gun manufacturer. ''The Berkshire Hills'' cites Silvernail House in West Stockbridge as one of the oldest houses in that town (TBH 99).<br />
<br />
79.18 '''Geza Rozsavolgyi'''<br /><br />
The family name means neither "evil valley" as it stands in Weisenburger's Companion, nor "of the pink valley" as it is in the Alphabetical Index but "of the Valley of Roses". In fact, this is a Jewish name, the literal Magyarization of the German name Rosenthal. Geza’s first name also suggests the Hungarian-American psychologist Geza Roheim, who was one of the first to employ psychoanalytic critiques of culture. Rozsavolgyi is the name of a famous Budapest music store founded in 1850, which also published works by Liszt, Bartok and Kodaly, among others.<br />
<br />
==Page 80==<br />
<br />
80.21-22 '''"Would You Rather Be a Colonel with an Eagle on Your Shoulder, or a Private with a Chicken on Your Knee?"'''<br /><br />
The World War I song was composed by the team of Sidney Mitchell and Archie Gottlieb in 1918. ('''Note''': This is a correction of my earlier error in attributing the song to the team of Harold Arlen and "Yip" Harburg, who also composed the songs for ''The Wizard of Oz''.)<br />
<br />
==Page 81==<br />
<br />
81.08 '''terrible disease like charisma'''<br><br />
The term charisma, derived from Ancient Greek was introduced in scholarly [and popular [[User:MKOHUT|MKOHUT]]] usage by German sociologist Max Weber, in a book first published in 1922. He defined charismatic authority to be one of three forms of authority, the other two being traditional (feudal) authority and legal or rational authority. According to Weber, charisma is defined thus:<br><br />
"a certain quality of an individual personality, by virtue of which s/he is "set apart" from ordinary people and treated as endowed with supernatural, superhuman, or at least specifically exceptional powers or qualities. These as such are not accessible to the ordinary person, but are regarded as divine in origin or as exemplary, and on the basis of them the individual concerned is treated as a leader." adapted from Wikipedia<br />
<br />
81.08 '''rationalization'''<br><br />
Rationalization is a key sociological concept [from online Dictionary of Social Science]:RATIONALIZATION This term has two specific meanings in sociology. (1) The concept was developed by German sociologist Max Weber (1864-1920) who used it in two ways. First, it was the process through which magical, supernatural and religious ideas lose cultural importance in a society and ideas based on science and practical calculation become dominant. For example, in modern societies science has rationalized our understanding of weather patterns. Science explains weather patterns as a result of interaction between physical elements like wind-speed and direction, air and water temperatures, humidity, etc. In some other cultures, weather is thought to express the pleasure or displeasure of gods, or spirits of ancestors. One explanation is rationalized and scientific, the other mysterious and magical. Rationalization also involves the development of forms of social organization devoted to the achievement of precise goals by efficient means. It is this type of rationalization that we see in the development of modern business corporations and of bureaucracy. These are organizations dedicated to the pursuit of defined goals by calculated, systematically administered means. (2) Within symbolic interactionism, rationalization is used more in the everyday sense of the word to refer to providing justifications or excuses for one's actions. See use in ''Against the Day'', page 10 [http://against-the-day.pynchonwiki.com/wiki/index.php?title=ATD_1-25 Against the Day]<br />
<br />
81.17 '''The Reverend Paul de la Nuit'''<br /><br />
A double pun: "Pall [dark and gloomy covering] of the night"; also "Pall de l’ennui [of boredom]."<br />
<br />
==Page 82==<br />
<br />
82.01 '''his most famous compatriot'''<br /><br />
Rozsavolgyi’s fellow countryman would be, of course, Bela Lugosi, whose speech patterns are suggested by Pynchon’s punctuation of Rozsavolgyi’s dialogue.<br />
<br />
82.11 '''Dr. Aaron Thowster'''<br /><br />
Aaron was the brother of and spokesperson for Moses. A throwster is one who makes threads out of silk. The name is fairly common in Britain.<br />
<br />
<br />
{{GR PbP}}</div>MKOHUThttps://gravitys-rainbow.pynchonwiki.com/wiki/index.php?title=Pages_3-7&diff=2439Pages 3-72007-08-23T23:35:35Z<p>MKOHUT: /* Page 3 */</p>
<hr />
<div>{{GR PbP Text}}<br />
<br />
==Page 3==<br />
<br />
3.03 '''The Evacuation'''<br><br />
First instance in GR of a lifetime stylistic trait of Pynchon's: unpredictable use of Capitalization. Capitalization is usually applied to nouns, but not uniformly. Often a matter of emphasis. See ''Mason & Dixon'' for the widest use, there imitating the writing of the time in which the book is set.<br><br />
The use throughout all his work might indicate how well-read and influenced by works written before capitalization was standardized Pynchon is.<br><br />
The full rules of capitalization for English are complicated. The rules have also changed over time, generally to capitalize fewer terms; to the modern reader, an 18th century document seems to use initial capitals excessively. Wikipedia<br />
<br />
3.03 '''theatre'''<br><br />
Besides the normal meanings, including "theater of war", 'theatre' is the name that fireworks' organizers call a sky display.<br />
<br />
3.05 '''iron queen'''<br><br />
a queensize bed made of iron. Hardly made after 1900. Queen Victoria had a famous brass (and iron) one in the Crystal Palace! "Beds made of hollow tubes of steel, iron, and brass came to be manufactured in the mid 19th century.<br />
These were to be used both by soldiers and civilians. Their main advantage at that time was that unlike wooden beds, these could not be infested with bedbugs. Queen Victoria's brass bed at the Crystal Palace has been the most famous antique brass bed.<br><br />
By the late 19th century, metal beds were nearly out of fashion." Antique beds [[http://www.bestinbeds.com/beds/antique-bed.html]]<br />
<br />
Also, In The Odyssey, when Odysseus goes to the Underworld, he refers to Persephone as '''the Iron Queen'''. Of the four gods of Empedocles' elements it is the name of Persephone alone that is taboo, for the Greeks knew another face of Persephone as well. She was also the terrible Queen of the dead, whose name was not safe to speak aloud, who was named simply "The Maiden". Wikipedia<br />
[[http://www.en.wikipedia.org/Persephone]]<br />
<br />
3.07 '''crystal palace'''<br><br />
See Alpha entry, especially this re cultural meaning:<br><br />
The Crystal Palace made a strong impression on visitors coming from all over Europe, including a number of writers. It soon became a symbol of modernity and civilization, hailed by some and decried by others.<br />
<br />
In ''What Is to Be Done?'', Russian author and philosopher Nikolai Chernyshevsky pledges to transform the society into a Crystal Palace thanks to a socialist revolution.<br> <br />
Fyodor Dostoevsky implicitly replied to Chernyshevsky in ''Notes from Underground''. The narrator thinks that human nature will prefer destruction and chaos to the harmony symbolized by the Crystal Palace. <br />
<br />
When the first major international exhibition of arts and industries was held in London in 1851, the London Crystal Palace epitomized the achievements of the entire world at a time when progress was racing forward at a speed never before known to mankind. The Great Exhibition marked the beginning of a tradition of world's fairs, which would be held in major cities all across the globe. Following the success of the London fair, it was inevitable that other nations would soon try their hand at organizing their own exhibitions. In fact, the next international fair was held only two years later, in 1853, in New York City. This fair would have its own Crystal Palace to symbolize not only the achievements of the world, but also the nationalistic pride of a relatively young nation and all that she stood for. Walt Whitman, the great American poet, wrote in "The Song of the Exposition":<br><br />
http://www.ric.edu/rpotter/cryspal.html<br />
<br />
That the Crystal Palace Exhibition "marked the beginning of a tradition of world's fairs" can remind that ''Against the Day'' starts at the Columbian Exhibition of 1893 in Chicago. More international optimism.<br />
<br />
3.14 '''second sheep'''<br /><br />
Compare the narrator’s discussion of William Slothrop’s heretical tract "On Preterition," which argued for the holiness of the preterite, and Weisenburger’s note at [[Pages 549-557#555|555.29-31]].<br />
<br />
A wide symbology relates to sheep in ancient art, traditions and culture. Judaism uses many sheep references including the Passover lamb. Christianity uses sheep-related images, such as: Christ as the good shepherd, or as the sacrificed Lamb of God (Agnus Dei); the bishop's Pastoral; the lion lying down with the lamb (a reference to all of creation being at peace, without suffering, predation or otherwise). Greek Easter celebrations traditionally feature a meal of Paschal lamb. Sheep also have considerable importance in Arab culture; Eid ul-Adha is a major annual festival in Islam in which a sheep is sacrificed.<br><br />
Herding sheep plays an important historico-symbolic part in the Jewish and Christian faiths, since Abraham, Jacob, Moses, and King David all worked as shepherds. wikipedia <br />
[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sheep]<br><br />
<br />
Sheep are often associated with obedience due to the widespread perception that they lack intelligence and their undoubted herd mentality, hence the pejorative connotation of the adjective 'ovine'. In George Orwell's satirical novel ''Animal Farm'', sheep are used to represent the ignorant and uneducated masses of revolutionary Russia. The sheep are unable to be taught the subtleties of revolutionary ideology and can only be taught repetitive slogans such as "Four legs good, two legs bad" which they bleat in unison at rallies. The rock group Pink Floyd wrote a song using sheep as a symbol for ordinary people, that is, everyone who isn't a pig or dog. People who accept overbearing governments have been pejoratively referred to as "sheeple". wikipedia [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sheep]<br><br />
<br />
3.19 '''half-silvered'''<br><br />
adj. (of a mirror) having an incomplete reflective coating, so that half the incident light is reflected and half transmitted: used in optical instruments and two-way mirrors. Collins Dictionary<br><br />
See the splitting of light all through ''Against the Day'', Pynchon's 2006<br />
novel.<br />
<br />
3.19 '''view finder'''<br><br />
<br />
3.22 '''They pass in line'''<br><br />
A Pynchonian leitmotif. The linearity of lining up has resonances throughout his work, articulated most straightforwardly in ''Against the Day'', which starts with "Single up all Lines!", and perhaps dealt with<br />
most profoundly in ''Mason & Dixon'', a novel about creating the "Mason & Dixon line".<br />
<br />
3.25 '''Rain comes down'''<br><br />
Pynchon's first published story is called ''The Small Rain''. See his remarks on rain in fiction in ''Slow Learner''.<br />
<br />
==Page 5==<br />
5.03 '''His name is Capt. Geoffrey ("Pirate") Prentice.'''<br /><br />
Pirate’s name derives from Gilbert and Sullivan’s operetta ''The Pirates of Penzance'', in which the hero’s nurse has made a fateful error in carrying out her employer’s instructions: Instead of having the boy apprenticed to a (ship’s) '''pilot''', he was apprenticed to a pirate, hence a "'''pirate''' ‘prentice." The name, though, is not simply a fortuitous pun: In her error, the nurse has lost a message, like the hare of Herero myth, and thus guaranteed her young charge’s preterition. (There are also connections here to the theme of "communications entropy," which is central to ''The Crying of Lot 49'' and the short story "Entropy.")<br />
<br />
5.03 '''all got scumbled together, eventually, by the knives of the seasons, to an impasto, feet thick, of unbelievable black topsoil'''<br /><br />
<br />
Didn't notice 'scumbled' first time round, I was going too fast. Second<br />
read I looked it up. Scumbled? Isn't that some sort of painting<br />
[technique? Pynchon make a mistake there? Mean to say scrambled?<br />
Hmmmmmmmm. Then I thought of the 'knives' bit, wondered if artists might<br />
use a [http://painting.about.com/od/paintingforbeginners/a/Painting_Knife.htm palette knife] to do this scumbling business. A Google search for<br />
"scumble knife palette " found me this:<br />
<br />
http://www.messums.com/sub_newsview.ink?nid=11191<br />
<br />
"Hard impasto ridges left by the edge of the knife provided the texture<br />
I needed to bring the waves crashing in."<br />
<br />
[http://www.thefreedictionary.com/impasto Impasto] eh? I thought that just meant paste. So the knives in "knives of<br />
the seasons" makes perfect sense. And Dictionary.com throws up another<br />
interesting nugget:<br />
<br />
http://dictionary.reference.com/search?q=scumbled<br />
<br />
"To blur the outlines of: a writer who scumbled the line that divides<br />
history and fiction." <br />
<br />
Apt example!<br />
<br />
<br />
<br /><br />
<br />
==Page 6==<br />
<br />
[[image:dna-molecule.jpg|thumb|100px|right]]6.09 '''a spiral ladder'''<br /><br />
Suggests the double-helix structure of the DNA molecule that preserves the "living genetic chains" evoked at [[Pages 7-16#10|10.14]].<br><br />
Cf. p. 209, ''Mason & Dixon'': " oblique angles with all meridians and that is a spiral coiling round the poles but never reaching them."...<br />
<br />
==Page 7==<br />
7.09 '''Pick bananas'''<br><br />
Pirate's decision after a paragraph on the inevitablity of the rocket's flight can remind one of a famous Buddhist sutra on picking a strawberry:<br />
The Sweetest Strawberry<br><br />
Buddha told a parable in a sutra:<br><br />
A man traveling across a field encountered a tiger. He fled, the tiger after him. Coming to a precipice, he caught hold of the root of a wild vine and swung himself down over the edge. The tiger sniffed at him from above. Trembling, the man looked down to where, far below, another tiger was waiting to eat him. Only the vine sustained him. Two mice, one white and one black, little by little started to gnaw away the vine. The man saw a luscious strawberry near him. Grasping the vine with one hand, he plucked the strawberry with the other. How sweet it tasted!<br><br />
-Paul Reps, ''Zen Flesh, Zen Bones''<br><br />
from ''Everyday Mind'', edited by Jean Smith <br />
[[http://www.tricycle.com/issues/2_174/dailydharma/3192-1.html]]<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
{{GR PbP}}</div>MKOHUThttps://gravitys-rainbow.pynchonwiki.com/wiki/index.php?title=Talk:Gravity%27s_Rainbow&diff=2438Talk:Gravity's Rainbow2007-08-23T23:31:51Z<p>MKOHUT: New page: Dear Wiki Admin, I wanted to put up on the wiki the source of the Werner von Braun epigraph in GR. I do not know where it might go. Or whether it should not. ^ Von Braun, Wernher, 'Why ...</p>
<hr />
<div>Dear Wiki Admin,<br />
<br />
I wanted to put up on the wiki the source of the Werner von Braun epigraph<br />
in GR. I do not know where it might go.<br />
<br />
Or whether it should not.<br />
<br />
^ Von Braun, Wernher, 'Why I Believe in Immortality', in William Nichols (ed.), The Third Book of Words to Live By, Simon and Schuster, 1962, pp. 119-120. <br />
[[User:MKOHUT|MKOHUT]] 16:31, 23 August 2007 (PDT)</div>MKOHUThttps://gravitys-rainbow.pynchonwiki.com/wiki/index.php?title=Pages_3-7&diff=2437Pages 3-72007-08-23T23:15:49Z<p>MKOHUT: /* Page 3 */</p>
<hr />
<div>{{GR PbP Text}}<br />
<br />
==Page 3==<br />
<br />
3.03 '''The Evacuation'''<br><br />
First instance in GR of a lifetime stylistic trait of Pynchon's: unpredictable use of Capitalization. Capitalization is usually applied to nouns, but not uniformly. Often a matter of emphasis. See ''Mason & Dixon'' for the widest use, there imitating the writing of the time in which the book is set.<br><br />
The use throughout all his work might indicate how well-read and influenced by works written before capitalization was standardized Pynchon is.<br><br />
The full rules of capitalization for English are complicated. The rules have also changed over time, generally to capitalize fewer terms; to the modern reader, an 18th century document seems to use initial capitals excessively. Wikipedia<br />
<br />
3.03 '''theatre'''<br><br />
Besides the normal meanings, including "theater of war", 'theatre' is the name that fireworks' organizers call a sky display.<br />
<br />
3.05 '''iron queen'''<br><br />
a queensize bed made of iron. Hardly made after 1900. Queen Victoria had a famous brass (and iron) one in the Crystal Palace! "Beds made of hollow tubes of steel, iron, and brass came to be manufactured in the mid 19th century.<br />
These were to be used both by soldiers and civilians. Their main advantage at that time was that unlike wooden beds, these could not be infested with bedbugs. Queen Victoria's brass bed at the Crystal Palace has been the most famous antique brass bed.<br><br />
By the late 19th century, metal beds were nearly out of fashion." Antique beds [[http://www.bestinbeds.com/beds/antique-bed.html]]<br />
<br />
Also, In The Odyssey, when Odysseus goes to the Underworld, he refers to Persephone as '''the Iron Queen'''. Of the four gods of Empedocles' elements it is the name of Persephone alone that is taboo, for the Greeks knew another face of Persephone as well. She was also the terrible Queen of the dead, whose name was not safe to speak aloud, who was named simply "The Maiden". Wikipedia<br />
[[http://www.en.wikipedia.org/Persephone]]<br />
<br />
3.07 '''crystal palace'''<br><br />
See Alpha entry, especially this re cultural meaning:<br><br />
The Crystal Palace made a strong impression on visitors coming from all over Europe, including a number of writers. It soon became a symbol of modernity and civilization, hailed by some and decried by others.<br />
<br />
In ''What Is to Be Done?'', Russian author and philosopher Nikolai Chernyshevsky pledges to transform the society into a Crystal Palace thanks to a socialist revolution.<br> <br />
Fyodor Dostoevsky implicitly replied to Chernyshevsky in ''Notes from Underground''. The narrator thinks that human nature will prefer destruction and chaos to the harmony symbolized by the Crystal Palace. <br />
<br />
When the first major international exhibition of arts and industries was held in London in 1851, the London Crystal Palace epitomized the achievements of the entire world at a time when progress was racing forward at a speed never before known to mankind. The Great Exhibition marked the beginning of a tradition of world's fairs, which would be held in major cities all across the globe. Following the success of the London fair, it was inevitable that other nations would soon try their hand at organizing their own exhibitions. In fact, the next international fair was held only two years later, in 1853, in New York City. This fair would have its own Crystal Palace to symbolize not only the achievements of the world, but also the nationalistic pride of a relatively young nation and all that she stood for. Walt Whitman, the great American poet, wrote in "The Song of the Exposition":<br><br />
http://www.ric.edu/rpotter/cryspal.html<br />
<br />
That the Crystal Palace Exhibition "marked the beginning of a tradition of world's fairs" can remind that ''Against the Day'' starts at the Columbian Exhibition of 1893 in Chicago. More international optimism.<br />
<br />
3.14 '''second sheep'''<br /><br />
Compare the narrator’s discussion of William Slothrop’s heretical tract "On Preterition," which argued for the holiness of the preterite, and Weisenburger’s note at [[Pages 549-557#555|555.29-31]].<br />
<br />
A wide symbology relates to sheep in ancient art, traditions and culture. Judaism uses many sheep references including the Passover lamb. Christianity uses sheep-related images, such as: Christ as the good shepherd, or as the sacrificed Lamb of God (Agnus Dei); the bishop's Pastoral; the lion lying down with the lamb (a reference to all of creation being at peace, without suffering, predation or otherwise). Greek Easter celebrations traditionally feature a meal of Paschal lamb. Sheep also have considerable importance in Arab culture; Eid ul-Adha is a major annual festival in Islam in which a sheep is sacrificed.<br><br />
Herding sheep plays an important historico-symbolic part in the Jewish and Christian faiths, since Abraham, Jacob, Moses, and King David all worked as shepherds. wikipedia <br />
[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sheep]<br><br />
<br />
Sheep are often associated with obedience due to the widespread perception that they lack intelligence and their undoubted herd mentality, hence the pejorative connotation of the adjective 'ovine'. In George Orwell's satirical novel ''Animal Farm'', sheep are used to represent the ignorant and uneducated masses of revolutionary Russia. The sheep are unable to be taught the subtleties of revolutionary ideology and can only be taught repetitive slogans such as "Four legs good, two legs bad" which they bleat in unison at rallies. The rock group Pink Floyd wrote a song using sheep as a symbol for ordinary people, that is, everyone who isn't a pig or dog. People who accept overbearing governments have been pejoratively referred to as "sheeple". wikipedia [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sheep]<br><br />
<br />
3.19 '''half-silvered'''<br><br />
adj. (of a mirror) having an incomplete reflective coating, so that half the incident light is reflected and half transmitted: used in optical instruments and two-way mirrors. Collins Dictionary<br><br />
See the splitting of light all through ''Against the Day'', Pynchon's 2006<br />
novel.<br />
<br />
3.19 '''view finder'''<br><br />
<br />
3.22 '''They pass in line'''<br><br />
A Pynchonian leitmotif. The linearity of lining up has resonances throughout his work, articulated most straightforwardly in ''Against the Day'', which starts with "Single up all Lines!", and perhaps dealt with<br />
most profoundly in ''Mason & Dixon'', a novel about creating the "Mason & Dixon line".<br />
<br />
==Page 5==<br />
5.03 '''His name is Capt. Geoffrey ("Pirate") Prentice.'''<br /><br />
Pirate’s name derives from Gilbert and Sullivan’s operetta ''The Pirates of Penzance'', in which the hero’s nurse has made a fateful error in carrying out her employer’s instructions: Instead of having the boy apprenticed to a (ship’s) '''pilot''', he was apprenticed to a pirate, hence a "'''pirate''' ‘prentice." The name, though, is not simply a fortuitous pun: In her error, the nurse has lost a message, like the hare of Herero myth, and thus guaranteed her young charge’s preterition. (There are also connections here to the theme of "communications entropy," which is central to ''The Crying of Lot 49'' and the short story "Entropy.")<br />
<br />
5.03 '''all got scumbled together, eventually, by the knives of the seasons, to an impasto, feet thick, of unbelievable black topsoil'''<br /><br />
<br />
Didn't notice 'scumbled' first time round, I was going too fast. Second<br />
read I looked it up. Scumbled? Isn't that some sort of painting<br />
[technique? Pynchon make a mistake there? Mean to say scrambled?<br />
Hmmmmmmmm. Then I thought of the 'knives' bit, wondered if artists might<br />
use a [http://painting.about.com/od/paintingforbeginners/a/Painting_Knife.htm palette knife] to do this scumbling business. A Google search for<br />
"scumble knife palette " found me this:<br />
<br />
http://www.messums.com/sub_newsview.ink?nid=11191<br />
<br />
"Hard impasto ridges left by the edge of the knife provided the texture<br />
I needed to bring the waves crashing in."<br />
<br />
[http://www.thefreedictionary.com/impasto Impasto] eh? I thought that just meant paste. So the knives in "knives of<br />
the seasons" makes perfect sense. And Dictionary.com throws up another<br />
interesting nugget:<br />
<br />
http://dictionary.reference.com/search?q=scumbled<br />
<br />
"To blur the outlines of: a writer who scumbled the line that divides<br />
history and fiction." <br />
<br />
Apt example!<br />
<br />
<br />
<br /><br />
<br />
==Page 6==<br />
<br />
[[image:dna-molecule.jpg|thumb|100px|right]]6.09 '''a spiral ladder'''<br /><br />
Suggests the double-helix structure of the DNA molecule that preserves the "living genetic chains" evoked at [[Pages 7-16#10|10.14]].<br><br />
Cf. p. 209, ''Mason & Dixon'': " oblique angles with all meridians and that is a spiral coiling round the poles but never reaching them."...<br />
<br />
==Page 7==<br />
7.09 '''Pick bananas'''<br><br />
Pirate's decision after a paragraph on the inevitablity of the rocket's flight can remind one of a famous Buddhist sutra on picking a strawberry:<br />
The Sweetest Strawberry<br><br />
Buddha told a parable in a sutra:<br><br />
A man traveling across a field encountered a tiger. He fled, the tiger after him. Coming to a precipice, he caught hold of the root of a wild vine and swung himself down over the edge. The tiger sniffed at him from above. Trembling, the man looked down to where, far below, another tiger was waiting to eat him. Only the vine sustained him. Two mice, one white and one black, little by little started to gnaw away the vine. The man saw a luscious strawberry near him. Grasping the vine with one hand, he plucked the strawberry with the other. How sweet it tasted!<br><br />
-Paul Reps, ''Zen Flesh, Zen Bones''<br><br />
from ''Everyday Mind'', edited by Jean Smith <br />
[[http://www.tricycle.com/issues/2_174/dailydharma/3192-1.html]]<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
{{GR PbP}}</div>MKOHUThttps://gravitys-rainbow.pynchonwiki.com/wiki/index.php?title=Pages_37-42&diff=2436Pages 37-422007-08-23T23:06:01Z<p>MKOHUT: /* Page xx */</p>
<hr />
<div>{{GR PbP Text}}<br />
<br />
==Page 40==<br />
'''Packard'''<br /><br />
Same make of car as in the beginning of ''V.'' A high-quality luxury vehicle.<br />
<br />
<br />
{{GR PbP}}</div>MKOHUThttps://gravitys-rainbow.pynchonwiki.com/wiki/index.php?title=Pages_735-760&diff=2435Pages 735-7602007-08-23T22:58:10Z<p>MKOHUT: /* Page 758 */</p>
<hr />
<div>{{GR PbP Text}}<br />
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==Page 738==<br />
[[image:wuxtry.jpg|thumb|Wuxtry|60px|right]]738.19 '''Mickey Wuxtry-Wuxtry'''<br /><br />
The last name is the archetypal newsboy’s cry: "Wuxtry! Wuxtry! [Extra! Extra!] Read all about it!" The spelling was commonly used in the 1940s: Jack Kirby’s ''Boy Commandos'', or ''The Newsboy Legion''; a painting by Albert Abramovitz (at the Harn Museum of Art); and articles in ''Time'' and ''Newsweek'', among others.<br />
<br />
==Page 742==<br />
742.29 '''The Fool'''<br /><br />
In the March 21, 1969 ''Time'' cover story on astrology and the occult (see note at [[Page 29-37#31|31.28]]), the following reference to this otherwise-obscure group occurs: "A California rock group called The Fool has recorded several zodiacal songs &#151; not only because they believe only in astrology, but because they feel generally tuned in to the entire occult world (the Fool is the card in the fortunetelling Tarot deck that stands for Man)" [sic] (48).<br />
<br />
==Page 750==<br />
[[image:nymphenburg.jpg|thumb|Nymphenburg|120px|right]]750.11-13 '''on his camera dolly, whooping with joy, barrel-assing down the long corridors at Nymphenburg'''<br /><br />
The palace, near Munich, was the birthplace of [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/King_Ludwig_II King Ludwig II of Bavaria] and also provided some of the sets for Alain Resnais’ ''Last Year at Marienbad'' (along with Ludwig's own Herrenchiemsee), one of several anachronistic references to postwar modernist films in the book, especially here towards the end. As viewers know, Resnais' film features long tracking shots down the corridors of these sets. (See also the reference to the "Bengt Ekarot / Maria Casares Film Festival" at [[Pages 735-760#755|755.3-4]]. As [[Weisenburger's Companion to Gravity's Rainbow|Weisenburger]] notes, both actors played the role of Death, in Bergman’s [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Seventh_Seal ''The Seventh Seal''] and Cocteau’s [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Orph%C3%A9e ''Orpheus''], respectively.) See note at [[Page 392-397#394|394.22]].<br />
<br />
==Page 752==<br />
752.01-03 '''Philip Marlow [sic] . . . Bradbury Building'''<br /><br />
Philip Marlowe did have his office in in the Bradbury Building in one film adaptation of Chandler’s works: ''Marlowe'' (1969), based on ''The Little Sister'', starring James Garner. The Bradbury, long neglected and probably best known as a major setting in Ridley Scott’s ''Blade Runner'' (1982), has been restored and recognized as one of the most remarkable pieces of architecture in Los Angeles.<br />
<br />
[[image:submariner-1.jpg|thumb|Sub-mariner #1|160px|left]]752.04 '''Submariner and his multi-lingual gang will run into battery trouble'''<br /><br />
Some corrections to [[Weisenburger's Companion to Gravity's Rainbow|Weisenburger]]’s notes: ''Timely Comics'', ''Atlas Comics'', and ''Marvel Comics'' were all variant titles for the same company, known only by the last name since the 1950s. Sub-Mariner (pronounced "Sub-MARE-iner") was first created by Bill Everett for a one-time black-and-white giveaway comic called ''Motion Pictures Funnies Weekly''. The character made his first full appearance in issue #1 of ''Marvel Comics'' (published under the ''Timely Comics'' label). Prince Namor (not "Namore") was and remains an unusual hero, since he often has battled mankind and human/humanoid superheroes. As Prince of Atlantis, he was at first pledged to the destruction of humanity. By the time America entered World War II, he had become part of various teams working to defeat the Axis powers. He rarely, if ever, wore a cape. Pynchon’s use of the character here is puzzling for several reasons. First, the super-powered [[image:blackhawk.jpg|thumb|Blackhawk|100px|right]]Atlantean had no need for a battery-powered vehicle since he could breathe and swim underwater at high speeds (see picture on linked cover). Second, despite his team-ups with other groups during the war, he does not seem ever to have been part of a "multi-lingual crew." It may be that Pynchon never actually read the comic book. (His other superhero references &#151; including ''Superman'', ''Batman'', and ''Wonder Woman'' &#151; are mostly to heroes from Marvel’s publishing arch-rival, the DC publishing group.) Pynchon may, like many of the comics’ readers, have pronounced the hero’s name "Subma-REEN-er" and assumed that he actually commanded an underwater vehicle. He may have confused this character further with Blackhawk, the flying ace who did command a "multi-lingual crew" (including American, English, Dutch, Swedish, Free French, Polish, and a horrible, racist portrayal of a Chinese cook)!<br />
<br />
752.07 '''The Lone Ranger will storm in . . .'''<br /><br />
The Lone Ranger began as a locally-produced program on Detroit radio station WXYZ (which also produced ''Sergeant Preston of the Yukon'' and ''The Green Hornet''). It began its television life (with Clayton Moore in the title role) in 1949 on the ABC network. The real name of the Ranger was John Reid. Dan (Jr.) was his nephew, son of John's murdered brother. Dan was featured in a number of radio and TV episodes (and would eventually be the father of Britt Reid, the secret identity of the urban vigilante The Green Hornet!). Here, the Ranger and Tonto are too late to save the nephew. See note at [[Pages 371-383#376|376.36]]<br />
<br />
752.10 '''Tonto, God willing, will put on his ghost shirt ...'''<br /><br />
A reference to the Ghost Dance movement among Native Americans in the 1870s. A Paiute known as Wovoka became a messianic figure as he preached that a dance would eventually restore American Indians to their rightful place in the world and cause the whites to disappear. Part of the movement involved the weaving and wearing of "ghost shirts," which it was believed would give the wearer immunity from soldiers’ bullets. White fear of these beliefs ultimately contributed to the massacre at Wounded Knee in 1890 and the end of both the Ghost Dance movement and Native American resistance to white "manifest destiny." The reference to "cold fire" and the role of the shirt in relation to this passage remain unclear. Also see reference at [[Pages 674-700#697|p. 697]].<br />
<br />
752.14 '''Yes, Jimmy'''<br /><br />
Superman is speaking to his good pal, ''Daily Planet'' cub reporter Jimmy Olsen.<br />
<br />
752.14 '''here, where everybody else walks around suntanned, and red-eyed from one irritant or another'''<br /><br />
In a shift to the present, "here" is sunny, polluted Los Angeles.<br />
<br />
==Page 755==<br />
755.06 '''an inverted "peace sign"'''<br /><br />
Nixon co-opted the "V" peace sign from the beginning of his 1968 Presidential campaign all the way through to his departure by helicopter from the White House after being forced to resign because of the Watergate scandal.<br />
<br />
Popularized most in WW2 by Winston Churchill, it meant Victory and may have been the source of Nixon's use of it, most visibly when he won the national election in 1968,[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/U.S._presidential_election%2C_1968],but perhaps even earlier. Sourcing needed for earlier use by Nixon.<br />
<br />
The "V" hand sign: The first definitive known reference to the V sign is in the works of François Rabelais, a French satirist of the 1500s. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/V_sign] <br />
<br />
Most interesting here from the author of ''V.'', of course.<br />
<br />
==Page 756==<br />
756.39-40 '''a mysteriously-canvased trailer rig and a liquid hydrogen tanker'''<br /><br />
Trucks probably carrying, respectively, a shrouded nuclear missile and its fuel.<br />
<br />
==Page 758==<br />
758 '''Moving now...present'''<br><br />
Very reminiscent of the Zen saying: "Before Enlightenment chop wood carry water, after Enlightenment, chop wood carry water."<br />
<br />
Ties in to the Zen parable(perhaps) behind Pick Bananas, page 7?<br />
<br />
Perhaps ties in to the meaning of the last word, "grace", in ''Against the Day''? And therefore some of Pynchon's deepest visions of life? <br />
<br />
{{GR PbP}}</div>MKOHUThttps://gravitys-rainbow.pynchonwiki.com/wiki/index.php?title=Pages_735-760&diff=2434Pages 735-7602007-08-23T22:25:19Z<p>MKOHUT: /* Page 758 */</p>
<hr />
<div>{{GR PbP Text}}<br />
<br />
==Page 738==<br />
[[image:wuxtry.jpg|thumb|Wuxtry|60px|right]]738.19 '''Mickey Wuxtry-Wuxtry'''<br /><br />
The last name is the archetypal newsboy’s cry: "Wuxtry! Wuxtry! [Extra! Extra!] Read all about it!" The spelling was commonly used in the 1940s: Jack Kirby’s ''Boy Commandos'', or ''The Newsboy Legion''; a painting by Albert Abramovitz (at the Harn Museum of Art); and articles in ''Time'' and ''Newsweek'', among others.<br />
<br />
==Page 742==<br />
742.29 '''The Fool'''<br /><br />
In the March 21, 1969 ''Time'' cover story on astrology and the occult (see note at [[Page 29-37#31|31.28]]), the following reference to this otherwise-obscure group occurs: "A California rock group called The Fool has recorded several zodiacal songs &#151; not only because they believe only in astrology, but because they feel generally tuned in to the entire occult world (the Fool is the card in the fortunetelling Tarot deck that stands for Man)" [sic] (48).<br />
<br />
==Page 750==<br />
[[image:nymphenburg.jpg|thumb|Nymphenburg|120px|right]]750.11-13 '''on his camera dolly, whooping with joy, barrel-assing down the long corridors at Nymphenburg'''<br /><br />
The palace, near Munich, was the birthplace of [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/King_Ludwig_II King Ludwig II of Bavaria] and also provided some of the sets for Alain Resnais’ ''Last Year at Marienbad'' (along with Ludwig's own Herrenchiemsee), one of several anachronistic references to postwar modernist films in the book, especially here towards the end. As viewers know, Resnais' film features long tracking shots down the corridors of these sets. (See also the reference to the "Bengt Ekarot / Maria Casares Film Festival" at [[Pages 735-760#755|755.3-4]]. As [[Weisenburger's Companion to Gravity's Rainbow|Weisenburger]] notes, both actors played the role of Death, in Bergman’s [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Seventh_Seal ''The Seventh Seal''] and Cocteau’s [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Orph%C3%A9e ''Orpheus''], respectively.) See note at [[Page 392-397#394|394.22]].<br />
<br />
==Page 752==<br />
752.01-03 '''Philip Marlow [sic] . . . Bradbury Building'''<br /><br />
Philip Marlowe did have his office in in the Bradbury Building in one film adaptation of Chandler’s works: ''Marlowe'' (1969), based on ''The Little Sister'', starring James Garner. The Bradbury, long neglected and probably best known as a major setting in Ridley Scott’s ''Blade Runner'' (1982), has been restored and recognized as one of the most remarkable pieces of architecture in Los Angeles.<br />
<br />
[[image:submariner-1.jpg|thumb|Sub-mariner #1|160px|left]]752.04 '''Submariner and his multi-lingual gang will run into battery trouble'''<br /><br />
Some corrections to [[Weisenburger's Companion to Gravity's Rainbow|Weisenburger]]’s notes: ''Timely Comics'', ''Atlas Comics'', and ''Marvel Comics'' were all variant titles for the same company, known only by the last name since the 1950s. Sub-Mariner (pronounced "Sub-MARE-iner") was first created by Bill Everett for a one-time black-and-white giveaway comic called ''Motion Pictures Funnies Weekly''. The character made his first full appearance in issue #1 of ''Marvel Comics'' (published under the ''Timely Comics'' label). Prince Namor (not "Namore") was and remains an unusual hero, since he often has battled mankind and human/humanoid superheroes. As Prince of Atlantis, he was at first pledged to the destruction of humanity. By the time America entered World War II, he had become part of various teams working to defeat the Axis powers. He rarely, if ever, wore a cape. Pynchon’s use of the character here is puzzling for several reasons. First, the super-powered [[image:blackhawk.jpg|thumb|Blackhawk|100px|right]]Atlantean had no need for a battery-powered vehicle since he could breathe and swim underwater at high speeds (see picture on linked cover). Second, despite his team-ups with other groups during the war, he does not seem ever to have been part of a "multi-lingual crew." It may be that Pynchon never actually read the comic book. (His other superhero references &#151; including ''Superman'', ''Batman'', and ''Wonder Woman'' &#151; are mostly to heroes from Marvel’s publishing arch-rival, the DC publishing group.) Pynchon may, like many of the comics’ readers, have pronounced the hero’s name "Subma-REEN-er" and assumed that he actually commanded an underwater vehicle. He may have confused this character further with Blackhawk, the flying ace who did command a "multi-lingual crew" (including American, English, Dutch, Swedish, Free French, Polish, and a horrible, racist portrayal of a Chinese cook)!<br />
<br />
752.07 '''The Lone Ranger will storm in . . .'''<br /><br />
The Lone Ranger began as a locally-produced program on Detroit radio station WXYZ (which also produced ''Sergeant Preston of the Yukon'' and ''The Green Hornet''). It began its television life (with Clayton Moore in the title role) in 1949 on the ABC network. The real name of the Ranger was John Reid. Dan (Jr.) was his nephew, son of John's murdered brother. Dan was featured in a number of radio and TV episodes (and would eventually be the father of Britt Reid, the secret identity of the urban vigilante The Green Hornet!). Here, the Ranger and Tonto are too late to save the nephew. See note at [[Pages 371-383#376|376.36]]<br />
<br />
752.10 '''Tonto, God willing, will put on his ghost shirt ...'''<br /><br />
A reference to the Ghost Dance movement among Native Americans in the 1870s. A Paiute known as Wovoka became a messianic figure as he preached that a dance would eventually restore American Indians to their rightful place in the world and cause the whites to disappear. Part of the movement involved the weaving and wearing of "ghost shirts," which it was believed would give the wearer immunity from soldiers’ bullets. White fear of these beliefs ultimately contributed to the massacre at Wounded Knee in 1890 and the end of both the Ghost Dance movement and Native American resistance to white "manifest destiny." The reference to "cold fire" and the role of the shirt in relation to this passage remain unclear. Also see reference at [[Pages 674-700#697|p. 697]].<br />
<br />
752.14 '''Yes, Jimmy'''<br /><br />
Superman is speaking to his good pal, ''Daily Planet'' cub reporter Jimmy Olsen.<br />
<br />
752.14 '''here, where everybody else walks around suntanned, and red-eyed from one irritant or another'''<br /><br />
In a shift to the present, "here" is sunny, polluted Los Angeles.<br />
<br />
==Page 755==<br />
755.06 '''an inverted "peace sign"'''<br /><br />
Nixon co-opted the "V" peace sign from the beginning of his 1968 Presidential campaign all the way through to his departure by helicopter from the White House after being forced to resign because of the Watergate scandal.<br />
<br />
Popularized most in WW2 by Winston Churchill, it meant Victory and may have been the source of Nixon's use of it, most visibly when he won the national election in 1968,[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/U.S._presidential_election%2C_1968],but perhaps even earlier. Sourcing needed for earlier use by Nixon.<br />
<br />
The "V" hand sign: The first definitive known reference to the V sign is in the works of François Rabelais, a French satirist of the 1500s. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/V_sign] <br />
<br />
Most interesting here from the author of ''V.'', of course.<br />
<br />
==Page 756==<br />
756.39-40 '''a mysteriously-canvased trailer rig and a liquid hydrogen tanker'''<br /><br />
Trucks probably carrying, respectively, a shrouded nuclear missile and its fuel.<br />
<br />
==Page 758==<br />
758 '''Moving now...present'''.<br />
Very reminiscent of the Zen saying: "Before Enlightenment chop wood carry water, after Enlightenment, chop wood carry water."<br />
<br />
Ties in to the Zen parable(perhaps) behind Pick Bananas, page 7?<br />
<br />
Perhaps ties in to the meaning of the last word, "grace", in ''Against the Day''? And therefore some of Pynchon's deepest visions of life? <br />
<br />
{{GR PbP}}</div>MKOHUThttps://gravitys-rainbow.pynchonwiki.com/wiki/index.php?title=Pages_735-760&diff=2433Pages 735-7602007-08-23T18:31:06Z<p>MKOHUT: /* Page 755 */</p>
<hr />
<div>{{GR PbP Text}}<br />
<br />
==Page 738==<br />
[[image:wuxtry.jpg|thumb|Wuxtry|60px|right]]738.19 '''Mickey Wuxtry-Wuxtry'''<br /><br />
The last name is the archetypal newsboy’s cry: "Wuxtry! Wuxtry! [Extra! Extra!] Read all about it!" The spelling was commonly used in the 1940s: Jack Kirby’s ''Boy Commandos'', or ''The Newsboy Legion''; a painting by Albert Abramovitz (at the Harn Museum of Art); and articles in ''Time'' and ''Newsweek'', among others.<br />
<br />
==Page 742==<br />
742.29 '''The Fool'''<br /><br />
In the March 21, 1969 ''Time'' cover story on astrology and the occult (see note at [[Page 29-37#31|31.28]]), the following reference to this otherwise-obscure group occurs: "A California rock group called The Fool has recorded several zodiacal songs &#151; not only because they believe only in astrology, but because they feel generally tuned in to the entire occult world (the Fool is the card in the fortunetelling Tarot deck that stands for Man)" [sic] (48).<br />
<br />
==Page 750==<br />
[[image:nymphenburg.jpg|thumb|Nymphenburg|120px|right]]750.11-13 '''on his camera dolly, whooping with joy, barrel-assing down the long corridors at Nymphenburg'''<br /><br />
The palace, near Munich, was the birthplace of [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/King_Ludwig_II King Ludwig II of Bavaria] and also provided some of the sets for Alain Resnais’ ''Last Year at Marienbad'' (along with Ludwig's own Herrenchiemsee), one of several anachronistic references to postwar modernist films in the book, especially here towards the end. As viewers know, Resnais' film features long tracking shots down the corridors of these sets. (See also the reference to the "Bengt Ekarot / Maria Casares Film Festival" at [[Pages 735-760#755|755.3-4]]. As [[Weisenburger's Companion to Gravity's Rainbow|Weisenburger]] notes, both actors played the role of Death, in Bergman’s [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Seventh_Seal ''The Seventh Seal''] and Cocteau’s [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Orph%C3%A9e ''Orpheus''], respectively.) See note at [[Page 392-397#394|394.22]].<br />
<br />
==Page 752==<br />
752.01-03 '''Philip Marlow [sic] . . . Bradbury Building'''<br /><br />
Philip Marlowe did have his office in in the Bradbury Building in one film adaptation of Chandler’s works: ''Marlowe'' (1969), based on ''The Little Sister'', starring James Garner. The Bradbury, long neglected and probably best known as a major setting in Ridley Scott’s ''Blade Runner'' (1982), has been restored and recognized as one of the most remarkable pieces of architecture in Los Angeles.<br />
<br />
[[image:submariner-1.jpg|thumb|Sub-mariner #1|160px|left]]752.04 '''Submariner and his multi-lingual gang will run into battery trouble'''<br /><br />
Some corrections to [[Weisenburger's Companion to Gravity's Rainbow|Weisenburger]]’s notes: ''Timely Comics'', ''Atlas Comics'', and ''Marvel Comics'' were all variant titles for the same company, known only by the last name since the 1950s. Sub-Mariner (pronounced "Sub-MARE-iner") was first created by Bill Everett for a one-time black-and-white giveaway comic called ''Motion Pictures Funnies Weekly''. The character made his first full appearance in issue #1 of ''Marvel Comics'' (published under the ''Timely Comics'' label). Prince Namor (not "Namore") was and remains an unusual hero, since he often has battled mankind and human/humanoid superheroes. As Prince of Atlantis, he was at first pledged to the destruction of humanity. By the time America entered World War II, he had become part of various teams working to defeat the Axis powers. He rarely, if ever, wore a cape. Pynchon’s use of the character here is puzzling for several reasons. First, the super-powered [[image:blackhawk.jpg|thumb|Blackhawk|100px|right]]Atlantean had no need for a battery-powered vehicle since he could breathe and swim underwater at high speeds (see picture on linked cover). Second, despite his team-ups with other groups during the war, he does not seem ever to have been part of a "multi-lingual crew." It may be that Pynchon never actually read the comic book. (His other superhero references &#151; including ''Superman'', ''Batman'', and ''Wonder Woman'' &#151; are mostly to heroes from Marvel’s publishing arch-rival, the DC publishing group.) Pynchon may, like many of the comics’ readers, have pronounced the hero’s name "Subma-REEN-er" and assumed that he actually commanded an underwater vehicle. He may have confused this character further with Blackhawk, the flying ace who did command a "multi-lingual crew" (including American, English, Dutch, Swedish, Free French, Polish, and a horrible, racist portrayal of a Chinese cook)!<br />
<br />
752.07 '''The Lone Ranger will storm in . . .'''<br /><br />
The Lone Ranger began as a locally-produced program on Detroit radio station WXYZ (which also produced ''Sergeant Preston of the Yukon'' and ''The Green Hornet''). It began its television life (with Clayton Moore in the title role) in 1949 on the ABC network. The real name of the Ranger was John Reid. Dan (Jr.) was his nephew, son of John's murdered brother. Dan was featured in a number of radio and TV episodes (and would eventually be the father of Britt Reid, the secret identity of the urban vigilante The Green Hornet!). Here, the Ranger and Tonto are too late to save the nephew. See note at [[Pages 371-383#376|376.36]]<br />
<br />
752.10 '''Tonto, God willing, will put on his ghost shirt ...'''<br /><br />
A reference to the Ghost Dance movement among Native Americans in the 1870s. A Paiute known as Wovoka became a messianic figure as he preached that a dance would eventually restore American Indians to their rightful place in the world and cause the whites to disappear. Part of the movement involved the weaving and wearing of "ghost shirts," which it was believed would give the wearer immunity from soldiers’ bullets. White fear of these beliefs ultimately contributed to the massacre at Wounded Knee in 1890 and the end of both the Ghost Dance movement and Native American resistance to white "manifest destiny." The reference to "cold fire" and the role of the shirt in relation to this passage remain unclear. Also see reference at [[Pages 674-700#697|p. 697]].<br />
<br />
752.14 '''Yes, Jimmy'''<br /><br />
Superman is speaking to his good pal, ''Daily Planet'' cub reporter Jimmy Olsen.<br />
<br />
752.14 '''here, where everybody else walks around suntanned, and red-eyed from one irritant or another'''<br /><br />
In a shift to the present, "here" is sunny, polluted Los Angeles.<br />
<br />
==Page 755==<br />
755.06 '''an inverted "peace sign"'''<br /><br />
Nixon co-opted the "V" peace sign from the beginning of his 1968 Presidential campaign all the way through to his departure by helicopter from the White House after being forced to resign because of the Watergate scandal.<br />
<br />
Popularized most in WW2 by Winston Churchill, it meant Victory and may have been the source of Nixon's use of it, most visibly when he won the national election in 1968,[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/U.S._presidential_election%2C_1968],but perhaps even earlier. Sourcing needed for earlier use by Nixon.<br />
<br />
The "V" hand sign: The first definitive known reference to the V sign is in the works of François Rabelais, a French satirist of the 1500s. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/V_sign] <br />
<br />
Most interesting here from the author of ''V.'', of course.<br />
<br />
==Page 756==<br />
756.39-40 '''a mysteriously-canvased trailer rig and a liquid hydrogen tanker'''<br /><br />
Trucks probably carrying, respectively, a shrouded nuclear missile and its fuel.<br />
<br />
==Page 758==<br />
758 '''Moving now...present'''.<br />
Very reminiscent of the Zen saying: "Before Enlightenment chop wood carry water, after Enlightenment, chop wood carry water."<br />
<br />
Ties in to the Zen parable(perhaps)behind ''Pick Bananas'', page 7?<br />
<br />
Perhaps ties in to the meaning of the last word, "grace", in ''Against the Day''? And therefore some of Pynchon's deepest visions of life? <br />
<br />
{{GR PbP}}</div>MKOHUThttps://gravitys-rainbow.pynchonwiki.com/wiki/index.php?title=Pages_735-760&diff=2432Pages 735-7602007-08-23T18:24:36Z<p>MKOHUT: /* Page 755 */</p>
<hr />
<div>{{GR PbP Text}}<br />
<br />
==Page 738==<br />
[[image:wuxtry.jpg|thumb|Wuxtry|60px|right]]738.19 '''Mickey Wuxtry-Wuxtry'''<br /><br />
The last name is the archetypal newsboy’s cry: "Wuxtry! Wuxtry! [Extra! Extra!] Read all about it!" The spelling was commonly used in the 1940s: Jack Kirby’s ''Boy Commandos'', or ''The Newsboy Legion''; a painting by Albert Abramovitz (at the Harn Museum of Art); and articles in ''Time'' and ''Newsweek'', among others.<br />
<br />
==Page 742==<br />
742.29 '''The Fool'''<br /><br />
In the March 21, 1969 ''Time'' cover story on astrology and the occult (see note at [[Page 29-37#31|31.28]]), the following reference to this otherwise-obscure group occurs: "A California rock group called The Fool has recorded several zodiacal songs &#151; not only because they believe only in astrology, but because they feel generally tuned in to the entire occult world (the Fool is the card in the fortunetelling Tarot deck that stands for Man)" [sic] (48).<br />
<br />
==Page 750==<br />
[[image:nymphenburg.jpg|thumb|Nymphenburg|120px|right]]750.11-13 '''on his camera dolly, whooping with joy, barrel-assing down the long corridors at Nymphenburg'''<br /><br />
The palace, near Munich, was the birthplace of [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/King_Ludwig_II King Ludwig II of Bavaria] and also provided some of the sets for Alain Resnais’ ''Last Year at Marienbad'' (along with Ludwig's own Herrenchiemsee), one of several anachronistic references to postwar modernist films in the book, especially here towards the end. As viewers know, Resnais' film features long tracking shots down the corridors of these sets. (See also the reference to the "Bengt Ekarot / Maria Casares Film Festival" at [[Pages 735-760#755|755.3-4]]. As [[Weisenburger's Companion to Gravity's Rainbow|Weisenburger]] notes, both actors played the role of Death, in Bergman’s [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Seventh_Seal ''The Seventh Seal''] and Cocteau’s [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Orph%C3%A9e ''Orpheus''], respectively.) See note at [[Page 392-397#394|394.22]].<br />
<br />
==Page 752==<br />
752.01-03 '''Philip Marlow [sic] . . . Bradbury Building'''<br /><br />
Philip Marlowe did have his office in in the Bradbury Building in one film adaptation of Chandler’s works: ''Marlowe'' (1969), based on ''The Little Sister'', starring James Garner. The Bradbury, long neglected and probably best known as a major setting in Ridley Scott’s ''Blade Runner'' (1982), has been restored and recognized as one of the most remarkable pieces of architecture in Los Angeles.<br />
<br />
[[image:submariner-1.jpg|thumb|Sub-mariner #1|160px|left]]752.04 '''Submariner and his multi-lingual gang will run into battery trouble'''<br /><br />
Some corrections to [[Weisenburger's Companion to Gravity's Rainbow|Weisenburger]]’s notes: ''Timely Comics'', ''Atlas Comics'', and ''Marvel Comics'' were all variant titles for the same company, known only by the last name since the 1950s. Sub-Mariner (pronounced "Sub-MARE-iner") was first created by Bill Everett for a one-time black-and-white giveaway comic called ''Motion Pictures Funnies Weekly''. The character made his first full appearance in issue #1 of ''Marvel Comics'' (published under the ''Timely Comics'' label). Prince Namor (not "Namore") was and remains an unusual hero, since he often has battled mankind and human/humanoid superheroes. As Prince of Atlantis, he was at first pledged to the destruction of humanity. By the time America entered World War II, he had become part of various teams working to defeat the Axis powers. He rarely, if ever, wore a cape. Pynchon’s use of the character here is puzzling for several reasons. First, the super-powered [[image:blackhawk.jpg|thumb|Blackhawk|100px|right]]Atlantean had no need for a battery-powered vehicle since he could breathe and swim underwater at high speeds (see picture on linked cover). Second, despite his team-ups with other groups during the war, he does not seem ever to have been part of a "multi-lingual crew." It may be that Pynchon never actually read the comic book. (His other superhero references &#151; including ''Superman'', ''Batman'', and ''Wonder Woman'' &#151; are mostly to heroes from Marvel’s publishing arch-rival, the DC publishing group.) Pynchon may, like many of the comics’ readers, have pronounced the hero’s name "Subma-REEN-er" and assumed that he actually commanded an underwater vehicle. He may have confused this character further with Blackhawk, the flying ace who did command a "multi-lingual crew" (including American, English, Dutch, Swedish, Free French, Polish, and a horrible, racist portrayal of a Chinese cook)!<br />
<br />
752.07 '''The Lone Ranger will storm in . . .'''<br /><br />
The Lone Ranger began as a locally-produced program on Detroit radio station WXYZ (which also produced ''Sergeant Preston of the Yukon'' and ''The Green Hornet''). It began its television life (with Clayton Moore in the title role) in 1949 on the ABC network. The real name of the Ranger was John Reid. Dan (Jr.) was his nephew, son of John's murdered brother. Dan was featured in a number of radio and TV episodes (and would eventually be the father of Britt Reid, the secret identity of the urban vigilante The Green Hornet!). Here, the Ranger and Tonto are too late to save the nephew. See note at [[Pages 371-383#376|376.36]]<br />
<br />
752.10 '''Tonto, God willing, will put on his ghost shirt ...'''<br /><br />
A reference to the Ghost Dance movement among Native Americans in the 1870s. A Paiute known as Wovoka became a messianic figure as he preached that a dance would eventually restore American Indians to their rightful place in the world and cause the whites to disappear. Part of the movement involved the weaving and wearing of "ghost shirts," which it was believed would give the wearer immunity from soldiers’ bullets. White fear of these beliefs ultimately contributed to the massacre at Wounded Knee in 1890 and the end of both the Ghost Dance movement and Native American resistance to white "manifest destiny." The reference to "cold fire" and the role of the shirt in relation to this passage remain unclear. Also see reference at [[Pages 674-700#697|p. 697]].<br />
<br />
752.14 '''Yes, Jimmy'''<br /><br />
Superman is speaking to his good pal, ''Daily Planet'' cub reporter Jimmy Olsen.<br />
<br />
752.14 '''here, where everybody else walks around suntanned, and red-eyed from one irritant or another'''<br /><br />
In a shift to the present, "here" is sunny, polluted Los Angeles.<br />
<br />
==Page 755==<br />
755.06 '''an inverted "peace sign"'''<br /><br />
Nixon co-opted the "V" peace sign from the beginning of his 1968 Presidential campaign all the way through to his departure by helicopter from the White House after being forced to resign because of the Watergate scandal.<br />
<br />
Popularized most in WW2 by Winston Churchill, it meant Victory and may have been the source of Nixon's use of it, most visibly when he won election in 1968, but perhaps even earlier. Sourcing needed.<br />
<br />
The "V" hand sign: The first definitive known reference to the V sign is in the works of François Rabelais, a French satirist of the 1500s. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/V_sign] <br />
<br />
Most interesting here from the author of ''V.'', of course.<br />
<br />
==Page 756==<br />
756.39-40 '''a mysteriously-canvased trailer rig and a liquid hydrogen tanker'''<br /><br />
Trucks probably carrying, respectively, a shrouded nuclear missile and its fuel.<br />
<br />
==Page 758==<br />
758 '''Moving now...present'''.<br />
Very reminiscent of the Zen saying: "Before Enlightenment chop wood carry water, after Enlightenment, chop wood carry water."<br />
<br />
Ties in to the Zen parable(perhaps)behind ''Pick Bananas'', page 7?<br />
<br />
Perhaps ties in to the meaning of the last word, "grace", in ''Against the Day''? And therefore some of Pynchon's deepest visions of life? <br />
<br />
{{GR PbP}}</div>MKOHUThttps://gravitys-rainbow.pynchonwiki.com/wiki/index.php?title=Pages_735-760&diff=2431Pages 735-7602007-08-23T18:21:19Z<p>MKOHUT: /* Page 755 */</p>
<hr />
<div>{{GR PbP Text}}<br />
<br />
==Page 738==<br />
[[image:wuxtry.jpg|thumb|Wuxtry|60px|right]]738.19 '''Mickey Wuxtry-Wuxtry'''<br /><br />
The last name is the archetypal newsboy’s cry: "Wuxtry! Wuxtry! [Extra! Extra!] Read all about it!" The spelling was commonly used in the 1940s: Jack Kirby’s ''Boy Commandos'', or ''The Newsboy Legion''; a painting by Albert Abramovitz (at the Harn Museum of Art); and articles in ''Time'' and ''Newsweek'', among others.<br />
<br />
==Page 742==<br />
742.29 '''The Fool'''<br /><br />
In the March 21, 1969 ''Time'' cover story on astrology and the occult (see note at [[Page 29-37#31|31.28]]), the following reference to this otherwise-obscure group occurs: "A California rock group called The Fool has recorded several zodiacal songs &#151; not only because they believe only in astrology, but because they feel generally tuned in to the entire occult world (the Fool is the card in the fortunetelling Tarot deck that stands for Man)" [sic] (48).<br />
<br />
==Page 750==<br />
[[image:nymphenburg.jpg|thumb|Nymphenburg|120px|right]]750.11-13 '''on his camera dolly, whooping with joy, barrel-assing down the long corridors at Nymphenburg'''<br /><br />
The palace, near Munich, was the birthplace of [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/King_Ludwig_II King Ludwig II of Bavaria] and also provided some of the sets for Alain Resnais’ ''Last Year at Marienbad'' (along with Ludwig's own Herrenchiemsee), one of several anachronistic references to postwar modernist films in the book, especially here towards the end. As viewers know, Resnais' film features long tracking shots down the corridors of these sets. (See also the reference to the "Bengt Ekarot / Maria Casares Film Festival" at [[Pages 735-760#755|755.3-4]]. As [[Weisenburger's Companion to Gravity's Rainbow|Weisenburger]] notes, both actors played the role of Death, in Bergman’s [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Seventh_Seal ''The Seventh Seal''] and Cocteau’s [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Orph%C3%A9e ''Orpheus''], respectively.) See note at [[Page 392-397#394|394.22]].<br />
<br />
==Page 752==<br />
752.01-03 '''Philip Marlow [sic] . . . Bradbury Building'''<br /><br />
Philip Marlowe did have his office in in the Bradbury Building in one film adaptation of Chandler’s works: ''Marlowe'' (1969), based on ''The Little Sister'', starring James Garner. The Bradbury, long neglected and probably best known as a major setting in Ridley Scott’s ''Blade Runner'' (1982), has been restored and recognized as one of the most remarkable pieces of architecture in Los Angeles.<br />
<br />
[[image:submariner-1.jpg|thumb|Sub-mariner #1|160px|left]]752.04 '''Submariner and his multi-lingual gang will run into battery trouble'''<br /><br />
Some corrections to [[Weisenburger's Companion to Gravity's Rainbow|Weisenburger]]’s notes: ''Timely Comics'', ''Atlas Comics'', and ''Marvel Comics'' were all variant titles for the same company, known only by the last name since the 1950s. Sub-Mariner (pronounced "Sub-MARE-iner") was first created by Bill Everett for a one-time black-and-white giveaway comic called ''Motion Pictures Funnies Weekly''. The character made his first full appearance in issue #1 of ''Marvel Comics'' (published under the ''Timely Comics'' label). Prince Namor (not "Namore") was and remains an unusual hero, since he often has battled mankind and human/humanoid superheroes. As Prince of Atlantis, he was at first pledged to the destruction of humanity. By the time America entered World War II, he had become part of various teams working to defeat the Axis powers. He rarely, if ever, wore a cape. Pynchon’s use of the character here is puzzling for several reasons. First, the super-powered [[image:blackhawk.jpg|thumb|Blackhawk|100px|right]]Atlantean had no need for a battery-powered vehicle since he could breathe and swim underwater at high speeds (see picture on linked cover). Second, despite his team-ups with other groups during the war, he does not seem ever to have been part of a "multi-lingual crew." It may be that Pynchon never actually read the comic book. (His other superhero references &#151; including ''Superman'', ''Batman'', and ''Wonder Woman'' &#151; are mostly to heroes from Marvel’s publishing arch-rival, the DC publishing group.) Pynchon may, like many of the comics’ readers, have pronounced the hero’s name "Subma-REEN-er" and assumed that he actually commanded an underwater vehicle. He may have confused this character further with Blackhawk, the flying ace who did command a "multi-lingual crew" (including American, English, Dutch, Swedish, Free French, Polish, and a horrible, racist portrayal of a Chinese cook)!<br />
<br />
752.07 '''The Lone Ranger will storm in . . .'''<br /><br />
The Lone Ranger began as a locally-produced program on Detroit radio station WXYZ (which also produced ''Sergeant Preston of the Yukon'' and ''The Green Hornet''). It began its television life (with Clayton Moore in the title role) in 1949 on the ABC network. The real name of the Ranger was John Reid. Dan (Jr.) was his nephew, son of John's murdered brother. Dan was featured in a number of radio and TV episodes (and would eventually be the father of Britt Reid, the secret identity of the urban vigilante The Green Hornet!). Here, the Ranger and Tonto are too late to save the nephew. See note at [[Pages 371-383#376|376.36]]<br />
<br />
752.10 '''Tonto, God willing, will put on his ghost shirt ...'''<br /><br />
A reference to the Ghost Dance movement among Native Americans in the 1870s. A Paiute known as Wovoka became a messianic figure as he preached that a dance would eventually restore American Indians to their rightful place in the world and cause the whites to disappear. Part of the movement involved the weaving and wearing of "ghost shirts," which it was believed would give the wearer immunity from soldiers’ bullets. White fear of these beliefs ultimately contributed to the massacre at Wounded Knee in 1890 and the end of both the Ghost Dance movement and Native American resistance to white "manifest destiny." The reference to "cold fire" and the role of the shirt in relation to this passage remain unclear. Also see reference at [[Pages 674-700#697|p. 697]].<br />
<br />
752.14 '''Yes, Jimmy'''<br /><br />
Superman is speaking to his good pal, ''Daily Planet'' cub reporter Jimmy Olsen.<br />
<br />
752.14 '''here, where everybody else walks around suntanned, and red-eyed from one irritant or another'''<br /><br />
In a shift to the present, "here" is sunny, polluted Los Angeles.<br />
<br />
==Page 755==<br />
755.06 '''an inverted "peace sign"'''<br /><br />
Nixon co-opted the "V" peace sign from the beginning of his 1968 Presidential campaign all the way through to his departure by helicopter from the White House after being forced to resign because of the Watergate scandal.<br />
<br />
Popularized most in WW2 by Winston Churchill, it meant Victory and may have been the source of Nixon's use of it, most visibly when he won election in 1968, but perhaps even earlier. Sourcing needed.<br />
<br />
The "V" hand sign: The first definitive known reference to the V sign is in the works of François Rabelais, a French satirist of the 1500s. wikipedia<br />
<br />
Most interesting here from the author of ''V.'', of course.<br />
<br />
==Page 756==<br />
756.39-40 '''a mysteriously-canvased trailer rig and a liquid hydrogen tanker'''<br /><br />
Trucks probably carrying, respectively, a shrouded nuclear missile and its fuel.<br />
<br />
==Page 758==<br />
758 '''Moving now...present'''.<br />
Very reminiscent of the Zen saying: "Before Enlightenment chop wood carry water, after Enlightenment, chop wood carry water."<br />
<br />
Ties in to the Zen parable(perhaps)behind ''Pick Bananas'', page 7?<br />
<br />
Perhaps ties in to the meaning of the last word, "grace", in ''Against the Day''? And therefore some of Pynchon's deepest visions of life? <br />
<br />
{{GR PbP}}</div>MKOHUThttps://gravitys-rainbow.pynchonwiki.com/wiki/index.php?title=Pages_735-760&diff=2430Pages 735-7602007-08-23T18:19:51Z<p>MKOHUT: /* Page 755 */</p>
<hr />
<div>{{GR PbP Text}}<br />
<br />
==Page 738==<br />
[[image:wuxtry.jpg|thumb|Wuxtry|60px|right]]738.19 '''Mickey Wuxtry-Wuxtry'''<br /><br />
The last name is the archetypal newsboy’s cry: "Wuxtry! Wuxtry! [Extra! Extra!] Read all about it!" The spelling was commonly used in the 1940s: Jack Kirby’s ''Boy Commandos'', or ''The Newsboy Legion''; a painting by Albert Abramovitz (at the Harn Museum of Art); and articles in ''Time'' and ''Newsweek'', among others.<br />
<br />
==Page 742==<br />
742.29 '''The Fool'''<br /><br />
In the March 21, 1969 ''Time'' cover story on astrology and the occult (see note at [[Page 29-37#31|31.28]]), the following reference to this otherwise-obscure group occurs: "A California rock group called The Fool has recorded several zodiacal songs &#151; not only because they believe only in astrology, but because they feel generally tuned in to the entire occult world (the Fool is the card in the fortunetelling Tarot deck that stands for Man)" [sic] (48).<br />
<br />
==Page 750==<br />
[[image:nymphenburg.jpg|thumb|Nymphenburg|120px|right]]750.11-13 '''on his camera dolly, whooping with joy, barrel-assing down the long corridors at Nymphenburg'''<br /><br />
The palace, near Munich, was the birthplace of [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/King_Ludwig_II King Ludwig II of Bavaria] and also provided some of the sets for Alain Resnais’ ''Last Year at Marienbad'' (along with Ludwig's own Herrenchiemsee), one of several anachronistic references to postwar modernist films in the book, especially here towards the end. As viewers know, Resnais' film features long tracking shots down the corridors of these sets. (See also the reference to the "Bengt Ekarot / Maria Casares Film Festival" at [[Pages 735-760#755|755.3-4]]. As [[Weisenburger's Companion to Gravity's Rainbow|Weisenburger]] notes, both actors played the role of Death, in Bergman’s [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Seventh_Seal ''The Seventh Seal''] and Cocteau’s [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Orph%C3%A9e ''Orpheus''], respectively.) See note at [[Page 392-397#394|394.22]].<br />
<br />
==Page 752==<br />
752.01-03 '''Philip Marlow [sic] . . . Bradbury Building'''<br /><br />
Philip Marlowe did have his office in in the Bradbury Building in one film adaptation of Chandler’s works: ''Marlowe'' (1969), based on ''The Little Sister'', starring James Garner. The Bradbury, long neglected and probably best known as a major setting in Ridley Scott’s ''Blade Runner'' (1982), has been restored and recognized as one of the most remarkable pieces of architecture in Los Angeles.<br />
<br />
[[image:submariner-1.jpg|thumb|Sub-mariner #1|160px|left]]752.04 '''Submariner and his multi-lingual gang will run into battery trouble'''<br /><br />
Some corrections to [[Weisenburger's Companion to Gravity's Rainbow|Weisenburger]]’s notes: ''Timely Comics'', ''Atlas Comics'', and ''Marvel Comics'' were all variant titles for the same company, known only by the last name since the 1950s. Sub-Mariner (pronounced "Sub-MARE-iner") was first created by Bill Everett for a one-time black-and-white giveaway comic called ''Motion Pictures Funnies Weekly''. The character made his first full appearance in issue #1 of ''Marvel Comics'' (published under the ''Timely Comics'' label). Prince Namor (not "Namore") was and remains an unusual hero, since he often has battled mankind and human/humanoid superheroes. As Prince of Atlantis, he was at first pledged to the destruction of humanity. By the time America entered World War II, he had become part of various teams working to defeat the Axis powers. He rarely, if ever, wore a cape. Pynchon’s use of the character here is puzzling for several reasons. First, the super-powered [[image:blackhawk.jpg|thumb|Blackhawk|100px|right]]Atlantean had no need for a battery-powered vehicle since he could breathe and swim underwater at high speeds (see picture on linked cover). Second, despite his team-ups with other groups during the war, he does not seem ever to have been part of a "multi-lingual crew." It may be that Pynchon never actually read the comic book. (His other superhero references &#151; including ''Superman'', ''Batman'', and ''Wonder Woman'' &#151; are mostly to heroes from Marvel’s publishing arch-rival, the DC publishing group.) Pynchon may, like many of the comics’ readers, have pronounced the hero’s name "Subma-REEN-er" and assumed that he actually commanded an underwater vehicle. He may have confused this character further with Blackhawk, the flying ace who did command a "multi-lingual crew" (including American, English, Dutch, Swedish, Free French, Polish, and a horrible, racist portrayal of a Chinese cook)!<br />
<br />
752.07 '''The Lone Ranger will storm in . . .'''<br /><br />
The Lone Ranger began as a locally-produced program on Detroit radio station WXYZ (which also produced ''Sergeant Preston of the Yukon'' and ''The Green Hornet''). It began its television life (with Clayton Moore in the title role) in 1949 on the ABC network. The real name of the Ranger was John Reid. Dan (Jr.) was his nephew, son of John's murdered brother. Dan was featured in a number of radio and TV episodes (and would eventually be the father of Britt Reid, the secret identity of the urban vigilante The Green Hornet!). Here, the Ranger and Tonto are too late to save the nephew. See note at [[Pages 371-383#376|376.36]]<br />
<br />
752.10 '''Tonto, God willing, will put on his ghost shirt ...'''<br /><br />
A reference to the Ghost Dance movement among Native Americans in the 1870s. A Paiute known as Wovoka became a messianic figure as he preached that a dance would eventually restore American Indians to their rightful place in the world and cause the whites to disappear. Part of the movement involved the weaving and wearing of "ghost shirts," which it was believed would give the wearer immunity from soldiers’ bullets. White fear of these beliefs ultimately contributed to the massacre at Wounded Knee in 1890 and the end of both the Ghost Dance movement and Native American resistance to white "manifest destiny." The reference to "cold fire" and the role of the shirt in relation to this passage remain unclear. Also see reference at [[Pages 674-700#697|p. 697]].<br />
<br />
752.14 '''Yes, Jimmy'''<br /><br />
Superman is speaking to his good pal, ''Daily Planet'' cub reporter Jimmy Olsen.<br />
<br />
752.14 '''here, where everybody else walks around suntanned, and red-eyed from one irritant or another'''<br /><br />
In a shift to the present, "here" is sunny, polluted Los Angeles.<br />
<br />
==Page 755==<br />
755.06 '''an inverted "peace sign"'''<br /><br />
Nixon co-opted the "V" peace sign from the beginning of his 1968 Presidential campaign all the way through to his departure by helicopter from the White House after being forced to resign because of the Watergate scandal.<br />
<br />
Popularized most in WW2 by Winston Churchill, it meant Victory and may have been the source of Nixon's use of it, most visibly when he won electionin 1968, but perhaps even earlier. Sourcing needed.<br />
<br />
The "V" hand sign: The first definitive known reference to the V sign is in the works of François Rabelais, a French satirist of the 1500s. wikipedia<br />
<br />
Most interesting here from the author of ''V.'', of course.<br />
<br />
==Page 756==<br />
756.39-40 '''a mysteriously-canvased trailer rig and a liquid hydrogen tanker'''<br /><br />
Trucks probably carrying, respectively, a shrouded nuclear missile and its fuel.<br />
<br />
==Page 758==<br />
758 '''Moving now...present'''.<br />
Very reminiscent of the Zen saying: "Before Enlightenment chop wood carry water, after Enlightenment, chop wood carry water."<br />
<br />
Ties in to the Zen parable(perhaps)behind ''Pick Bananas'', page 7?<br />
<br />
Perhaps ties in to the meaning of the last word, "grace", in ''Against the Day''? And therefore some of Pynchon's deepest visions of life? <br />
<br />
{{GR PbP}}</div>MKOHUThttps://gravitys-rainbow.pynchonwiki.com/wiki/index.php?title=Pages_735-760&diff=2429Pages 735-7602007-08-23T17:51:35Z<p>MKOHUT: /* Page 756 */</p>
<hr />
<div>{{GR PbP Text}}<br />
<br />
==Page 738==<br />
[[image:wuxtry.jpg|thumb|Wuxtry|60px|right]]738.19 '''Mickey Wuxtry-Wuxtry'''<br /><br />
The last name is the archetypal newsboy’s cry: "Wuxtry! Wuxtry! [Extra! Extra!] Read all about it!" The spelling was commonly used in the 1940s: Jack Kirby’s ''Boy Commandos'', or ''The Newsboy Legion''; a painting by Albert Abramovitz (at the Harn Museum of Art); and articles in ''Time'' and ''Newsweek'', among others.<br />
<br />
==Page 742==<br />
742.29 '''The Fool'''<br /><br />
In the March 21, 1969 ''Time'' cover story on astrology and the occult (see note at [[Page 29-37#31|31.28]]), the following reference to this otherwise-obscure group occurs: "A California rock group called The Fool has recorded several zodiacal songs &#151; not only because they believe only in astrology, but because they feel generally tuned in to the entire occult world (the Fool is the card in the fortunetelling Tarot deck that stands for Man)" [sic] (48).<br />
<br />
==Page 750==<br />
[[image:nymphenburg.jpg|thumb|Nymphenburg|120px|right]]750.11-13 '''on his camera dolly, whooping with joy, barrel-assing down the long corridors at Nymphenburg'''<br /><br />
The palace, near Munich, was the birthplace of [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/King_Ludwig_II King Ludwig II of Bavaria] and also provided some of the sets for Alain Resnais’ ''Last Year at Marienbad'' (along with Ludwig's own Herrenchiemsee), one of several anachronistic references to postwar modernist films in the book, especially here towards the end. As viewers know, Resnais' film features long tracking shots down the corridors of these sets. (See also the reference to the "Bengt Ekarot / Maria Casares Film Festival" at [[Pages 735-760#755|755.3-4]]. As [[Weisenburger's Companion to Gravity's Rainbow|Weisenburger]] notes, both actors played the role of Death, in Bergman’s [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Seventh_Seal ''The Seventh Seal''] and Cocteau’s [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Orph%C3%A9e ''Orpheus''], respectively.) See note at [[Page 392-397#394|394.22]].<br />
<br />
==Page 752==<br />
752.01-03 '''Philip Marlow [sic] . . . Bradbury Building'''<br /><br />
Philip Marlowe did have his office in in the Bradbury Building in one film adaptation of Chandler’s works: ''Marlowe'' (1969), based on ''The Little Sister'', starring James Garner. The Bradbury, long neglected and probably best known as a major setting in Ridley Scott’s ''Blade Runner'' (1982), has been restored and recognized as one of the most remarkable pieces of architecture in Los Angeles.<br />
<br />
[[image:submariner-1.jpg|thumb|Sub-mariner #1|160px|left]]752.04 '''Submariner and his multi-lingual gang will run into battery trouble'''<br /><br />
Some corrections to [[Weisenburger's Companion to Gravity's Rainbow|Weisenburger]]’s notes: ''Timely Comics'', ''Atlas Comics'', and ''Marvel Comics'' were all variant titles for the same company, known only by the last name since the 1950s. Sub-Mariner (pronounced "Sub-MARE-iner") was first created by Bill Everett for a one-time black-and-white giveaway comic called ''Motion Pictures Funnies Weekly''. The character made his first full appearance in issue #1 of ''Marvel Comics'' (published under the ''Timely Comics'' label). Prince Namor (not "Namore") was and remains an unusual hero, since he often has battled mankind and human/humanoid superheroes. As Prince of Atlantis, he was at first pledged to the destruction of humanity. By the time America entered World War II, he had become part of various teams working to defeat the Axis powers. He rarely, if ever, wore a cape. Pynchon’s use of the character here is puzzling for several reasons. First, the super-powered [[image:blackhawk.jpg|thumb|Blackhawk|100px|right]]Atlantean had no need for a battery-powered vehicle since he could breathe and swim underwater at high speeds (see picture on linked cover). Second, despite his team-ups with other groups during the war, he does not seem ever to have been part of a "multi-lingual crew." It may be that Pynchon never actually read the comic book. (His other superhero references &#151; including ''Superman'', ''Batman'', and ''Wonder Woman'' &#151; are mostly to heroes from Marvel’s publishing arch-rival, the DC publishing group.) Pynchon may, like many of the comics’ readers, have pronounced the hero’s name "Subma-REEN-er" and assumed that he actually commanded an underwater vehicle. He may have confused this character further with Blackhawk, the flying ace who did command a "multi-lingual crew" (including American, English, Dutch, Swedish, Free French, Polish, and a horrible, racist portrayal of a Chinese cook)!<br />
<br />
752.07 '''The Lone Ranger will storm in . . .'''<br /><br />
The Lone Ranger began as a locally-produced program on Detroit radio station WXYZ (which also produced ''Sergeant Preston of the Yukon'' and ''The Green Hornet''). It began its television life (with Clayton Moore in the title role) in 1949 on the ABC network. The real name of the Ranger was John Reid. Dan (Jr.) was his nephew, son of John's murdered brother. Dan was featured in a number of radio and TV episodes (and would eventually be the father of Britt Reid, the secret identity of the urban vigilante The Green Hornet!). Here, the Ranger and Tonto are too late to save the nephew. See note at [[Pages 371-383#376|376.36]]<br />
<br />
752.10 '''Tonto, God willing, will put on his ghost shirt ...'''<br /><br />
A reference to the Ghost Dance movement among Native Americans in the 1870s. A Paiute known as Wovoka became a messianic figure as he preached that a dance would eventually restore American Indians to their rightful place in the world and cause the whites to disappear. Part of the movement involved the weaving and wearing of "ghost shirts," which it was believed would give the wearer immunity from soldiers’ bullets. White fear of these beliefs ultimately contributed to the massacre at Wounded Knee in 1890 and the end of both the Ghost Dance movement and Native American resistance to white "manifest destiny." The reference to "cold fire" and the role of the shirt in relation to this passage remain unclear. Also see reference at [[Pages 674-700#697|p. 697]].<br />
<br />
752.14 '''Yes, Jimmy'''<br /><br />
Superman is speaking to his good pal, ''Daily Planet'' cub reporter Jimmy Olsen.<br />
<br />
752.14 '''here, where everybody else walks around suntanned, and red-eyed from one irritant or another'''<br /><br />
In a shift to the present, "here" is sunny, polluted Los Angeles.<br />
<br />
==Page 755==<br />
755.06 '''an inverted "peace sign"'''<br /><br />
Nixon co-opted the "V" peace sign from the beginning of his 1968 Presidential campaign all the way through to his departure by helicopter from the White House after being forced to resign because of the Watergate scandal.<br />
<br />
==Page 756==<br />
756.39-40 '''a mysteriously-canvased trailer rig and a liquid hydrogen tanker'''<br /><br />
Trucks probably carrying, respectively, a shrouded nuclear missile and its fuel.<br />
<br />
==Page 758==<br />
758 '''Moving now...present'''.<br />
Very reminiscent of the Zen saying: "Before Enlightenment chop wood carry water, after Enlightenment, chop wood carry water."<br />
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Ties in to the Zen parable(perhaps)behind ''Pick Bananas'', page 7?<br />
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Perhaps ties in to the meaning of the last word, "grace", in ''Against the Day''? And therefore some of Pynchon's deepest visions of life? <br />
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