Difference between revisions of "Pages 371-383"

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'''Berliner Luft'''<br />
 
'''Berliner Luft'''<br />
 
German: "air of Berlin." It is an often-used phrase, in the sense of the special Berlin atmosphere.
 
German: "air of Berlin." It is an often-used phrase, in the sense of the special Berlin atmosphere.
 +
 +
==Page 375==
 +
375.21 '''something in that rocket needed potassium permanganate'''<br />
 +
The turbopump used ''calcium'' permanganate. Whatever caused the shortage of the purple stuff, it wasn't the rocket.
  
 
==Page 376==
 
==Page 376==
'''p. 376.31-33 the knight who leaps perpetually -- across the chessboard of the zone'''<br />
+
376.31-33 '''the knight who leaps perpetually -- across the chessboard of the zone'''<br />
 
In ''Through the Looking Glass,'' Alice attempts to get to the other end of the chessboard to become a queen herself.  Along the way she is helped, without much success by the White Knight.<br>
 
In ''Through the Looking Glass,'' Alice attempts to get to the other end of the chessboard to become a queen herself.  Along the way she is helped, without much success by the White Knight.<br>
The conversation and reactions here between Saure and Slothrop is almost a pastiche of the Alice stories.  By 1973, when ''GR'' appeared, "acid" and Alice were of course linked forever in the popular consciousness -- largely thanks to Jefferson Airplane.
+
The conversation and reactions here between Saure and Slothrop are almost a pastiche of the Alice stories.  By 1973, when ''GR'' appeared, "acid" and Alice were of course linked forever in the popular consciousness -- largely thanks to Jefferson Airplane.
  
 
+
[[image:zorro-poster.jpg|thumb|100px|right]]376.36 '''Zorro? The Green Hornet?'''<br />
 
+
[[XYZ#zorro|Zorro]] and the Green Hornet are two masked superheroes Slothrop would know from comics and movies. Douglas Fairbanks starred in ''The Mark of Zorro'' in 1920, not 1932, as in [[Weisenburger's Companion to Gravity's Rainbow|Weisenburger's first ''Companion'' edition, corrected in the second ed.]]. Tyrone (!) Power starred in a sound remake in 1940. Britt Reid, the secret identity of The Green Hornet, was the son of Dan Reid, the nephew of the [[L#loneranger|Lone Ranger]].
[[image:zorro-poster.jpg|thumb|100px|right]]'''Zorro? The Green Hornet?'''<br />
+
Douglas Fairbanks starred in ''The Mark of Zorro'' in 1920, not 1932, as in [[Weisenburger's Companion to Gravity's Rainbow|Weisenburger's first ''Companion'' edition, corrected in the second ed.]]. Tyrone (!) Power starred in a sound remake in 1940. As noted at [[Pages 735-760#Page 752|p. 752]], Britt Reid, the secret identity of The Green Hornet, was the son of Dan Reid, the nephew of the Lone Ranger.
+
  
 
==Page 377==
 
==Page 377==
'''377.1-2 The wrong word was Schwarzgerat.'''<br />
+
377.1-2 '''The wrong word was Schwarzgerat.'''<br />
Yes, the mythical White Woman is scared away by mention of the "black tool."  Clever innuendo/double entendre here.
+
Yes, the mythical White Woman is scared away by mention of the "black tool."  Clever innuendo/double entendre here. Also possiblly underscoring that the White Woman relates to Virgo(?).
 +
 
 +
377.31-35  '''photo...long, stiff sausage of very large diameter being stuffed into his mouth...though the hand or agency...is not visible'''<br />
 +
Reminiscent of the photos of [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Margaret%2C_Duchess_of_Argyll Margaret, Duchess of Argyll] fellating a naked man where only the man's face and torso, not his head, is shown.
  
 
==Page 378==
 
==Page 378==
 
'''Jubilee Jim'''<br />
 
'''Jubilee Jim'''<br />
 
Slothrop’s song evokes the pre-industrial peddler Jim Fisk mentioned in [[Pages 20-29#Page 27|''The Berkshire Hills'']].
 
Slothrop’s song evokes the pre-industrial peddler Jim Fisk mentioned in [[Pages 20-29#Page 27|''The Berkshire Hills'']].
 +
 +
==Page 379==
 +
'''A stork flies over, going home...''' <br />
 +
Could this be an allusion to Goethe's Faust, line 746: "Der Kranich nach der Heimat strebt." (The crane endeavors to reach the homeland.)?
  
 
==Page 380==
 
==Page 380==
'''Haupstufe!'''<br />
+
'''Hauptstufe!'''<br />
 
Compare the radio Superman’s words as he is about to fly: "Up, up, and away!"
 
Compare the radio Superman’s words as he is about to fly: "Up, up, and away!"
 +
 +
==Page 381==
 +
[[image:Miss-rheingold.jpg|thumb|300px|left]]381.10 '''When they part company, the newshounds are discussing the candidates for Miss Rheingold 1946. Dorothy Hart’s advocates are the loudest, but Jill Darnley has a majority on her side. It’s all gibberish to Slothrop—it will be months yet before he runs into a beer advertisement featuring the six beauties, and find himself rooting for a girl named Helen Rückert: a blonde with a Dutch surname who will remind him dimly of someone...'''<p>
  
 
==Page 382==
 
==Page 382==
'''Mickey Rooney'''<br />
+
382.3 '''Don't Sit Under the Apple Tree'''<br/>
 +
A 1942 hit song for the Andrews Sisters.
 +
 
 +
382.15 '''Mickey Rooney'''<br />
 
Rooney was in Germany, attached to an Army entertainment unit, at the time of the Potsdam Conference but was unable to go to Potsdam and meet Truman himself.  However, there is a more likely, if more obscure, reason for the movie star’s presence here: Rocketman’s second magazine, ''Hello, Pal Comics'', only lasted for three issues. ''The Comic Buyer’s Guide'' notes, though, that the comic was unusual because it featured a photograph of a movie star on the cover of each issue. The cover of issue #1 was devoted to Mickey Rooney! Also see my article: "Rooney and the Rocketman" [http://www.ham.muohio.edu/~krafftjm/pynchon.html ''Pynchon Notes''] n 24-25 (1989): 113-115. [[Pages 359-371#Page 366|See note at 366]].
 
Rooney was in Germany, attached to an Army entertainment unit, at the time of the Potsdam Conference but was unable to go to Potsdam and meet Truman himself.  However, there is a more likely, if more obscure, reason for the movie star’s presence here: Rocketman’s second magazine, ''Hello, Pal Comics'', only lasted for three issues. ''The Comic Buyer’s Guide'' notes, though, that the comic was unusual because it featured a photograph of a movie star on the cover of each issue. The cover of issue #1 was devoted to Mickey Rooney! Also see my article: "Rooney and the Rocketman" [http://www.ham.muohio.edu/~krafftjm/pynchon.html ''Pynchon Notes''] n 24-25 (1989): 113-115. [[Pages 359-371#Page 366|See note at 366]].
 +
 +
382.15-16 '''Judge Hardy's freckled madcap son'''<br />
 +
Rooney's most famous role was Andy Hardy in a series of 16 films.
 +
 +
382.21-22 '''more tits than they got at Minsky's'''<br />
 +
The four Minsky brothers, Abe, Billy, Herbert and Morton, staged burlesque shows at a number of theaters in New York City. Although the shows were declared obscene and outlawed, they were rather tame by modern standards.
  
 
{{GR PbP}}
 
{{GR PbP}}

Latest revision as of 20:08, 4 July 2021

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 372

Berliner Luft
German: "air of Berlin." It is an often-used phrase, in the sense of the special Berlin atmosphere.

Page 375

375.21 something in that rocket needed potassium permanganate
The turbopump used calcium permanganate. Whatever caused the shortage of the purple stuff, it wasn't the rocket.

Page 376

376.31-33 the knight who leaps perpetually -- across the chessboard of the zone
In Through the Looking Glass, Alice attempts to get to the other end of the chessboard to become a queen herself. Along the way she is helped, without much success by the White Knight.
The conversation and reactions here between Saure and Slothrop are almost a pastiche of the Alice stories. By 1973, when GR appeared, "acid" and Alice were of course linked forever in the popular consciousness -- largely thanks to Jefferson Airplane.

Zorro-poster.jpg
376.36 Zorro? The Green Hornet?

Zorro and the Green Hornet are two masked superheroes Slothrop would know from comics and movies. Douglas Fairbanks starred in The Mark of Zorro in 1920, not 1932, as in Weisenburger's first Companion edition, corrected in the second ed.. Tyrone (!) Power starred in a sound remake in 1940. Britt Reid, the secret identity of The Green Hornet, was the son of Dan Reid, the nephew of the Lone Ranger.

Page 377

377.1-2 The wrong word was Schwarzgerat.
Yes, the mythical White Woman is scared away by mention of the "black tool." Clever innuendo/double entendre here. Also possiblly underscoring that the White Woman relates to Virgo(?).

377.31-35 photo...long, stiff sausage of very large diameter being stuffed into his mouth...though the hand or agency...is not visible
Reminiscent of the photos of Margaret, Duchess of Argyll fellating a naked man where only the man's face and torso, not his head, is shown.

Page 378

Jubilee Jim
Slothrop’s song evokes the pre-industrial peddler Jim Fisk mentioned in The Berkshire Hills.

Page 379

A stork flies over, going home...
Could this be an allusion to Goethe's Faust, line 746: "Der Kranich nach der Heimat strebt." (The crane endeavors to reach the homeland.)?

Page 380

Hauptstufe!
Compare the radio Superman’s words as he is about to fly: "Up, up, and away!"

Page 381

Miss-rheingold.jpg
381.10 When they part company, the newshounds are discussing the candidates for Miss Rheingold 1946. Dorothy Hart’s advocates are the loudest, but Jill Darnley has a majority on her side. It’s all gibberish to Slothrop—it will be months yet before he runs into a beer advertisement featuring the six beauties, and find himself rooting for a girl named Helen Rückert: a blonde with a Dutch surname who will remind him dimly of someone...

Page 382

382.3 Don't Sit Under the Apple Tree
A 1942 hit song for the Andrews Sisters.

382.15 Mickey Rooney
Rooney was in Germany, attached to an Army entertainment unit, at the time of the Potsdam Conference but was unable to go to Potsdam and meet Truman himself. However, there is a more likely, if more obscure, reason for the movie star’s presence here: Rocketman’s second magazine, Hello, Pal Comics, only lasted for three issues. The Comic Buyer’s Guide notes, though, that the comic was unusual because it featured a photograph of a movie star on the cover of each issue. The cover of issue #1 was devoted to Mickey Rooney! Also see my article: "Rooney and the Rocketman" Pynchon Notes n 24-25 (1989): 113-115. See note at 366.

382.15-16 Judge Hardy's freckled madcap son
Rooney's most famous role was Andy Hardy in a series of 16 films.

382.21-22 more tits than they got at Minsky's
The four Minsky brothers, Abe, Billy, Herbert and Morton, staged burlesque shows at a number of theaters in New York City. Although the shows were declared obscene and outlawed, they were rather tame by modern standards.


1
Beyond the Zero

3-7, 7-16, 17-19, 20-29, 29-37, 37-42, 42-47, 47-53, 53-60, 60-71, 71-72, 72-83, 83-92, 92-113, 114-120, 120-136, 136-144, 145-154, 154-167, 167-174, 174-177

2
Un Perm' au Casino Herman Goering

181-189, 189-205, 205-226, 226-236, 236-244, 244-249, 249-269, 269-278

3
In the Zone

279-295, 295-314, 314-329, 329-336, 336-359, 359-371, 371-383, 383-390, 390-392, 392-397, 397-433, 433-447, 448-456, 457-468, 468-472, 473-482, 482-488, 488-491, 492-505, 505-518, 518-525, 525-532, 532-536, 537-548, 549-557, 557-563, 563-566, 567-577, 577-580, 580-591, 591-610, 610-616

4
The Counterforce

617-626, 626-640, 640-655, 656-663, 663-673, 674-700, 700-706, 706-717, 717-724, 724-733, 733-735, 735-760

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