Pages 505-518

This page-by-page annotation is organized by sections, as delineated by the seven squares (sprockets) which separate each section. The page numbers for this page-by-page annotation are for the original Viking edition (760 pages). Editions by other publishers vary in pagination — the newer Penguin editions are 776 pages; the Bantam edition is 886 pages.

Contributors: Please use a 760-page edition (either the original Viking edition with the orange cover or the Penguin USA edition with the blue cover and rocket diagram — there are plenty on Ebay for around $10) or search the Google edition for the correct page number. Readers: To calculate the Bantam edition use this formula: Bantam page # x 1.165. Before p.50 it's about a page earlier; as you get later in the book, add a page.

Finally, profound thanks to Prof. Don Larsson for providing the foundation for this page-by-page annotation.

Page 508

508.26 Now Narrisch here's a guidance man Another concealed poem (or lyric?) See pages 167, 451, and 626.

Page 513

513.9 pogoni
Plural of pogon, 'insignia of grade rank' in Russian, epaulet with stars.

Page 516

516.3-17 John Dillinger...easier into death
On July 22, 1934, the police and FBI, lead by agent Melvin Purvis, closed in on the Biograph Theater in Chicago where Dillinger had gone to see a movie, Manhattan Melodrama, starring Clark Gable as gangster "Blackie" Gallagher and William Powell as politician Jim Wade. Dillinger was shot three times as he attempted to flee the theater.

516.22 Der Müde Tod
A 1921 Fritz Lang film. There is an interesting sidelight to this film. In order to win her lover back from Death, the heroine must try to save his life in three different times and places. (Death wins each time, natch.) The second episode of the film is set in Renaissance Italy, where a courier is attacked by a group of men dressed in black. Could this episode have inspired "The Courier’s Tragedy" and the Tristero of The Crying of Lot 49?

Page 518

518.06 Driwelling and Schmeill
The former’s name, as pronounced in German, would sound like "drivelling"—drooling, talking on in a childish manner.