Maas y Mas

Maas is not merely a definable single word or proper name, but a Web of words, a Network of ideas , much like the analogous Traverse. Meuse is a varient spelling of Maas. From the Wikipedia posting for the Meuse River:

The Meuse (Dutch and German Maas, Latin Mosa) is a major European river, rising in France and flowing through Belgium and the Netherlands before draining into the North Sea. It has a total length of 925 km (575 miles).

The Meuse River was the site of major battles during World War One. World War One plays a major role in Gravity's Rainbow and Against the Day

Maas also translates from the original Dutch into Web or Net. There is also the near-homophone Mass, a word with obvious applications in physics and sometimes in metaphysics as well. Oedipal Mass could have been an overheard and possibly Mondegreened snatch of psychobabble issuing from some shrink's session. Let us not for get that Our Beloved Author is, after all, a Satirist. I suppose an Oedipal Mass could be removed by some sort of specialist. . . .

Also see: Webb Traverse in Against the Day .