Chapter 6
- Please keep these annotations SPOILER-FREE by not revealing information from later pages in the novel.
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a: ???, b: 120 - Humbert Humbert
Humbert Humbert is the narrator and main character in Vladimir Nabokov's "Lolita" (1955)[1]
b: 121 - eight-year-old
Why does Serge choose eight? Anything below 13 would probably be equally shocking. Numerology might give clues. For instance there are 8 Jungian cognitive functions; Timothy Leary identified 8 levels of consciousness; a byte is 8 bits; V8 is an automobile engine with 8 cilanders and also a vegetable juice drink.[2]
b: 122 - Emory Bortz
The most obvious allusion would be to Emory University in Atlanta, GA,[3] but there are also several individuals of interest named Emory.[4] The last name Bortz might allude to an Hungarian chieftain.[5] It is also
a diamond of inferior quality, commonly used for drill tips; abrasive diamond powder; bort.[6] Also a German slang for a little fellow.[7]
b: 122 - Grace
The wife's name may or may not live up to her name. Free and undeserved favour, especially of God; unmerited divine assistance given to humans for their regeneration or sanctification, or for resisting sin.[8]
b: 123 - Winthrop Tremaine
Winthrop is a colonial era surname, colonial governors of Massachusetts and Connecticut.[9] Tremaine is a Cornish language name, though most often a surname.[10] Johnny Tremain, minus the e at the end was a character and title of a children's book written in 1943. The main character lives through the American Revolution.[11]
b: 123 - girlie magazines
1950's (etc) "porn" magazine featuring scantily-clad females (about like modern underwear ads!!)[12]
b: 123 - riparian
Relating to or living or located on the bank of a natural watercourse.[13]
b: 124 - historical
Of, concerning, or in accordance with recorded history, (particularly) as opposed to legends, myths, and fictions.[14] Oedipa seeks to know the writer, not the myth or legend. The student mocks her by implying that Shakespeare, Marx, and Jesus are unknowable as "historical" figures.
b: 124 - Vatican Library
The Vatican Apostolic Library (Latin: Bibliotheca Apostolica Vaticana, Italian: Biblioteca Apostolica Vaticana), more commonly known as the Vatican Library or informally as the Vat, is the library of the Holy See, located in Vatican City, and is the city-state's national library. It was formally established in 1475, although it is much older—it is one of the oldest libraries in the world and contains one of the most significant collections of historical texts. It has 75,000 codices from throughout history, as well as 1.1 million printed books, which include some 8,500 incunabula.[15]
b: 124 - Bowdlerized
Thomas Bowdler published a version of Shakespeare that removed profanity and sexual references in an effort to be more appropriate for audiences of his time. Since then, the term 'bowdlerize' generally refers to censorship of offensive material from artistic works.[16]
a: 151, b: 124 - K. da chingado
Chingado is Spanish slang meaning "fucker."[17]
b: 126 - abyss
(frequently figurative) A bottomless or unfathomed depth, gulf, or chasm; hence, any deep, immeasurable; any void space. Also a term for Hell. Moral depravity; vast intellectual or moral depth.[18]
b: 126 - depraved
Perverted or extremely wrong in a moral sense.[19] Why does Oedipa describe the girl as depraved but not Metzger?
b: 126 - taken a Brody
Steve Brodie [sic] was a New York City bookie who claimed to have survived the 135 foot jump from the Brooklyn Bridge in 1886. The notoriety surrounding this story is the source of phrases such as "pull a Brodie" or "take a Brodie." As Driblette's walk into the Pacific was fatal and did not include a fall from a great height, Oedipa's appropriation of the expression is forced at best.[20]
b: 127 - woodcuts
Woodcut is a relief printing technique in printmaking. An artist carves an image into the surface of a block of wood—typically with gouges—leaving the printing parts level with the surface while removing the non-printing parts. Areas that the artist cuts away carry no ink, while characters or images at surface level carry the ink to produce the print. The block is cut along the wood grain (unlike wood engraving, where the block is cut in the end-grain). The surface is covered with ink by rolling over the surface with an ink-covered roller (brayer), leaving ink upon the flat surface but not in the non-printing areas.[21]
b: 127 - poetaster
An inferior poet; a writer of insignificant or shoddy poetry.[22]
b: 127 - figure of Death
Personifications of death are found in many religions and mythologies. In some mythologies, a character known as the Grim Reaper (usually depicted as a berobed skeleton wielding a scythe) causes the victim's death by coming to collect that person's soul. Other beliefs hold that the spectre of death is only a psychopomp, a benevolent figure who serves to gently sever the last ties between the soul and the body, and to guide the deceased to the afterlife, without having any control over when or how the victim dies. Death is most often personified in male form, although in certain cultures death is perceived as female (for instance, Marzanna in Slavic mythology, or Santa Muerte in Mexico). Death is also portrayed as one of the Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse. Most claims of its appearance occur in states of near-death.[23]
b: 127 - Protestant
Protestantism is a branch of Christianity[a] that emphasizes justification of sinners through faith alone, the teaching that salvation comes by unmerited divine grace, the priesthood of all believers, and the Bible as the sole infallible source of authority for Christian faith and practice.[1][2] The five solae summarize the basic theological beliefs of mainstream Protestantism.[24]
b: 127 - Scurvhamite
Another possible portmanteau name. Scurvy is a disease resulting from a lack of vitamin C (ascorbic acid). Early symptoms of deficiency include weakness, fatigue, and sore arms and legs. Without treatment, decreased red blood cells, gum disease, changes to hair, and bleeding from the skin may occur. As scurvy worsens, there can be poor wound healing, personality changes, and finally death from infection or bleeding.[25] "ham" ends many British towns and parishes, so a diseased hamlet? Also may be a reference/pun on Benthamites.[26][27]
b: 128 - Charles I
Charles I (19 November 1600 – 30 January 1649) was King of England, Scotland, and Ireland from 27 March 1625 until his execution in 1649.[28]
b: 128 - sect
A sect is a subgroup of a religious, political, or philosophical belief system, usually an offshoot of a larger group. Although the term was originally a classification for religious separated groups, it can now refer to any organization that breaks away from a larger one to follow a different set of rules and principles. Sects are usually created due to perception of heresy by the subgroup and/or the larger group.[29]
b: 128 - predestination
Predestination, in theology, is the doctrine that all events have been willed by God, usually with reference to the eventual fate of the individual soul. Explanations of predestination often seek to address the paradox of free will, whereby God's omniscience seems incompatible with human free will. In this usage, predestination can be regarded as a form of religious determinism; and usually predeterminism, also known as theological determinism.[30] The Scurvhamites take the concept of predestination and separate it from the rest of the working world, which they describe similar to the watchmaker god of Deism although with probably evil intent.
b: 128 - sodality
(Christianity) Spiritual communion with a divine being, a fellowship.[31]
b: 128 - annihilation
The act of destroying or otherwise turning into nothing, or nonexistence.[32]
b: 128 - the Word
The first verse of the Gospel of John reads: "In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God." Jesus is often referred to as the Word or Logos in Greek.[33]
b: 129 - vertiginous
Having an aspect of great depth, drawing the eye to look downwards.[34] More void/abyss imagery.
b: 129 - peregrination
A journey made by a pilgrim; a pilgrimage. Also an archaic term for the journey to the afterlife.[35]
b: 129 - tabernacle
According to the Hebrew Bible, the tabernacle (Hebrew: מִשְׁכַּן, romanized: miškan, lit. 'residence, dwelling place'), also known as the Tent of the Congregation (Hebrew: אֹהֶל מוֹעֵד, romanized: ʔōhel mōʕēḏ, also Tent of Meeting), was the portable earthly dwelling of God used by the Israelites from the Exodus until the conquest of Canaan. Moses was instructed at Mount Sinai to construct and transport the tabernacle with the Israelites on their journey through the wilderness and their subsequent conquest of the Promised Land. After 480 years, Solomon's Temple in Jerusalem superseded it as the dwelling-place of God.[36]
b: 129 - Diocletian
Diocletian, nicknamed Jovius, was Roman emperor from 284 until his abdication in 305. He is known for his persecution of early Christians.[37]
b: 129 - Blobb
A shapeless or amorphous mass; a vague shape or amount, especially of a liquid or semisolid substance; a clump, group or collection that lacks definite shape.[38]
b: 129 - Torre and Tassis
The Tasso family (from the Italian word for "badger", the family's heraldic animal) was a Lombard family in the area of Bergamo. The earliest records place them in Almenno in the Val Brembana around 1200, before they fled to the more distant village of Cornello to escape feuding between Bergamo's Colleoni (Guelf) and Suardi (Ghibelline) families. Around 1290, after Milan had conquered Bergamo, Omodeo Tasso organized 32 of his relatives into the Company of Couriers (Compagnia dei Corrieri) and linked Milan with Venice and Rome. The recipient of royal and papal patronage, his post riders were so comparatively efficient that they became known as bergamaschi throughout Italy.
Ruggiero de Tassis was named to the court of the Emperor Frederick the Peaceful in 1443. He organized a post system between Bergamo and Vienna by 1450; from Innsbruck to Italy and Styria around 1460; and Vienna with Brussels around 1480. Upon his success, Ruggiero was knighted and made a gentleman of the Chamber. Janetto von Taxis [de] was appointed Chief Master of Postal Services at Innsbruck in 1489. Philip of Burgundy elevated Janetto's brother Francesco I de Tassis [it] to captain of his post in 1502. Owing to a payment dispute with Philip, Francisco opened his post to public use in 1506. In 1512 the family was ennobled by Emperor Maximilian I. By 1516, Francisco had moved the family to Brussels in the Duchy of Brabant, where they became instrumental to Habsburg rule, linking the rich Habsburg Netherlands to the Spanish court. The normal route passed through France, but a secondary route across the Alps to Genoa was available in times of hostility.
In 1608 the Brussels line was raised to the status of hereditary barons, and in 1642 the Innsbruck line as well (which descends from Gabriel de Tassis, d. 1529). When the Brussels line was raised to the hereditary status of counts in 1624, they needed illustrious lineage to legitimize their intended further ascension to the high nobility. Alexandrine von Taxis commissioned genealogists to "clarify" their origin, who until then had only been considered a family descending from medieval knights who had become merchants. They now claimed, albeit without documentary evidence, that they descended from the famous Italian noble family Della Torre, or Torriani, who had ruled in Milan and Lombardy until 1311. She then applied to the emperor for a name change. With the Germanization, the coat of arms symbol of the Milanese family, the tower (Torre), became Thurn (an older German spelling, nowadays Turm) and was placed in front of the actual family name Tasso, translated with Taxis (an older German spelling for Dachs = Badger). The tower of the Torriani was added to the badger as a coat of arms.[39]
b: 129 - Lake of Piety
In Italian this is Lago di Pietà.[40] See Lago di Pietà
b: 129 - cudgel
A short heavy club with a rounded head used as a weapon.[41]
b: 130 - harquebuses
arquebus, hackbuss, hackbut, hagbus, hagbut, hagebut, harbush, harquebuse, harquebuss[42]
An arquebus is a form of long gun that appeared in Europe and the Ottoman Empire during the 15th century. An infantryman armed with an arquebus is called an arquebusier.[43]
b: 130 - counter-revolution
A counter-revolutionary or an anti-revolutionary is anyone who opposes or resists a revolution, particularly one who acts after a revolution in order to try to overturn it or reverse its course, in full or in part.[44] This term didn't come into usage until the French Revolution.
b: 130 - usurpers
A usurper is an illegitimate or controversial claimant to power, often but not always in a monarchy. In other words, one who takes the power of a country, city, or established region for oneself, without any formal or legal right to claim it as one's own.[45]
b: 130 - Motley's
John Lothrop Motley (April 15, 1814 – May 29, 1877) was an American author and diplomat. As a popular historian, he is best known for his works on the Netherlands, the three volume work The Rise of the Dutch Republic and four volume History of the United Netherlands. As United States Minister to Austria in the service of the Abraham Lincoln administration, Motley helped to prevent European intervention on the side of the Confederates in the American Civil War. He later served as Minister to the United Kingdom (Court of St. James) during the Ulysses S. Grant administration.[46]
b: 130 - The Rise of the Dutch Republic
This is the history that Bortz and Oedipa claim to use.[47] However, Albert Rolls claims in an article here that Pynchon uses a book by Adrien Albert Eugène Émile Antoine, Count of Meeûs, known in literature as Adrien de Meeûs, a Belgian Maurrassian writer. He wrote a History of the Belgians, published in English in 1962.[48] This is from the French language wikipedia, translated by Google.
b: 131 - Augustine
Blobb's brother, a minister is named after Augustine of Hippo. Saint Augustine, was a theologian and philosopher of Berber origin and the bishop of Hippo Regius in Numidia, Roman North Africa. His writings influenced the development of Western philosophy and Western Christianity, and he is viewed as one of the most important Church Fathers of the Latin Church in the Patristic Period. His many important works include The City of God, On Christian Doctrine, and Confessions.[49]
b: 131 - Calavera
Tristero’s surname means skull or skeleton, and can also refer to Day of the Dead confections.[50][51]
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