Chapter 4

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a: 81, b: 64 - '''everything she saw, smelled''' 
Although the novel delves more into Tristero in later pages, this sentence may suggest that it can be interpreted as far more than an actual secret organization, perhaps some metaphor for paranoia as a whole, in which everything experienced (saw, smelled, dreamed, remembered) by the paranoiac seems to connect to some great conspiracy. 
At least one reader was reminded of Shakespeare's lines in ''A Midsummer's Night's Dream'': 
The lunatic, the lover, and the poet 
Are of imagination all compact: 
One sees more devils than vast hell can hold, 
[http://www.bartleby.com/cgi-bin/texis/webinator/sitesearch?db=db&filter=col100&query=imagination A Midsummer's Night's Dream]

a: 83, b: 65 - '''Clayton "Bloody" Chiclitz''' 
Chiclets are a famous brand of candy-coated chewing gum. The sentence "After the fight he was spitting out bloody Chiclets" means he had had some teeth knocked out; incisors are about the size and shape of Chiclets. 
This character also appears in ''V.'' (55; the munitions king; 152; president of Yoyodyne, Inc., 226-27) and ''Gravity's Rainbow'' (558-62): "about as fat as Marvy and wears hornrimmed glasses, and the top of his head's as shiny as his face"; American industrialist with T-Force scouting German engineering (esp. secret weaponry); owns a toy factory in Nutley, NJ; he's running a fur operation, employing 30 kids whom he eventually wants to take to Hollywood to be movie stars.

That reference to the [http://www.vheissu.info/art/art_eng_puns_hollander.htm '''Fur Operation'''] is part of a well-crypted pun that points back to William Pynchon, founder of Springfield who started as a fur-trapper, trader and owner of the mills in and around around Springfield.

a: 83, b: 65 - '''Aura Lee''' 
"Aura Lee" (also known as "Aura Lea") is an American Civil War song about a maiden. The Elvis Presley song "Love Me Tender" (lyric by Ken Darby) is sung to the same tune as "Aura Lee". [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aura_Lee Wikipedia]

a: 84, b: 67 - '''Kirby sent me''' 
She saw Kirby's name back on page 52.

a: 86, b: 68 - '''James Clerk Maxwell''' 
(1831 – 1879) was a Scottish mathematician and theoretical physicist. His most significant achievement was formulating a set of equations — eponymously named Maxwell's equations — that for the first time expressed the basic laws of electricity and magnetism in a unified fashion. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/James_Clerk_Maxwell Wikipedia]

a: 86, b: 68 - '''Maxwell's demon''' 
Pynchon explains it pretty well. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Maxwell%27s_demon Wikipedia]
:Pynchon may have read about the demon in the writings of historian Henry Adams, whose ''Education of Henry Adams'' Pynchon cites approvingly in other works. In Adams' manuscript, ''The Rule of Phase Applied to History'', he attempted to use Maxwell's demon as an historical metaphor, though he seems to have misunderstood and misapplied the principle.

a: 88, b: 70 - '''in school they got brainwashed''' 
Pynchon studied engineering physics at Cornell before joining the Navy and ultimately graduating with a degree in English. His portrayal of Koteks seems to be an indictment on the sad state of the profession of engineering in the corporate age, when patents are in the hands of corporations instead of pioneering inventors like Edison.

a: 90, b: 72 - '''Vesperhaven House''' 
[http://www.thefreedictionary.com/vesper '''Vesper'''] mostly points towards "evening", [http://www.thefreedictionary.com/haven '''Haven'''] is a place of rest and safety. Kerry Grant, in [http://tinyurl.com/2nvey6 '''A Companion to the Crying of Lot 49'''] calls it a "surprisingly straightforward name" for a rest home.

a: 91, b: 72 - '''Leon Schlesinger''' 
[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Leon_Schlesinger '''Leon Schlesinger'''] was an early film producer who developed the [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Looney_Tunes '''Looney Tunes/Merrie Melodies'''] cartoon series just as sound recording emerged in 1930.

a: 91, b: 72 - '''Mr Thoth''' 
The Ancient Egyptian deity [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thoth '''Thoth'''] is usually depicted in human form with the head of an [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ibis '''Ibis''']. He is the scribe of the Gods, credited with the invention of writing and the hieroglyphic alphabet. See also [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aleister_Crowley '''Alastair Crowley's'''][http://tinyurl.com/ywn2zy '''Book of Thoth'''].

a: 91, b: 73 - '''Pony Express''' 
The [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pony_Express '''Pony Express'''] fast overland mail service was in operation a little over a year when the [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/First_Transcontinental_Telegraph '''First Transcontinental Telegraph'''] rendered it obsolete in October of 1861.

a: 91, b: 73 - '''it was all mixed up with a Porky Pig cartoon''' 
[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Porky_Pig '''Porky Pig'''] was developed by animator [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bob_Clampett '''Bob Clampett'''] in 1935. Pynchon's novels incorporate a heavy cartoonish element. Porky Pig appears as a tattoo in ''Gravity's Rainbow''. Pynchon is reported to be a fan of pigs in general and it's been suggested that his affinity for Porky stems from his stutter.

a: 91, b: 73 - '''Porky Pig and the anarchist''' 
The cartoon is called [http://faculty.sunydutchess.edu/oneill/lot49.htm '''The Blow-Out'''], a Warner Brothers/Leon Schlesinger 1936 production, "Supervised by Fred [not yet "Tex"] Avery" and including the animation work of Charles [not yet "Chuck"] Jones this early Porky Pig feature features our Porcine Hero in his earlier, fatter days. The black-cloaked Anarchist bomb-maker cackles like [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Margaret_Hamilton '''Margaret Hamilton'''] in the [http://www.filmsite.org/wiza.html '''Wizard of Oz'''].

[[Image:ponystamp.jpg|thumb|150px|right|80th Anniversary of the Pony Express stamp, 1940]]

a: 94, b: 75 - '''Genghis Cohen, philatelist''' 
[http://philatelyandpostalhistory.com/ '''Philately'''] is the study of [http://www.geocities.com/claghorn1p/Argentina/ju22200204.JPG '''Revenue'''] or [http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/3/36/Penny_black.jpg '''Postage'''] [http://tinyurl.com/3y4bld '''Stamps'''].

[http://www.erowid.org/culture/characters/cohen_sidney/cohen_sidney.shtml '''Sidney Cohen'''] was a noted [http://www.a1b2c3.com/drugs/lsd03.htm '''Authority'''] on [http://www.druglibrary.org/SCHAFFER/LIBRARY/studies/cu/CU47.html '''LSD'''] while it was still legal, his name appearing in [http://www.druglibrary.org/schaffer/lsd/stevens2.htm '''Henry Luce's'''] [http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,876484,00.html '''Time'''] magazine. [http://genghiscohen.com/ '''Gengis Cohen'''] also links to the [http://against-the-day.pynchonwiki.com/wiki/index.php?title=ATD_219-242#Page_220 '''Grand Cohen'''] [http://waste.org/mail/?list=pynchon-l&month=0706&msg=119858&keywords=nookshaft%20crowley '''Nicholas Nookshaft''']in [http://against-the-day.pynchonwiki.com/wiki/index.php?title=Main_Page '''''Against the Day'''''] and [http://www.luckymojo.com/devil.html '''Nickey'''][http://www.geocities.com/dark_guides_l/alcrowley.html '''Nookshaft'''] is [http://www.capurromrc.it/devil/738alistair.jpg '''He Who Shall Not Be Named'''], [http://www.luminist.org/archives/hofmann_lsd.htm '''Grand Cohen'''] of the obvious precusors of the [http://oto-usa.org/ '''T.W.I.T.s'''].
See [[Philately_Gone_Wild|'''Philately Gone Wild''']]
:In 1966, the novelist Romain Gary accused Pynchon of stealing the name Genghis Cohen from one of his books. Pynchon penned a humorous [http://www.themodernword.com/pynchon/pynchon_essays_cohen.html reply] in a letter to the editor of the New York Times Book Review.

a: 94, b: 76 - '''I picked the dandelions in a cemetary''' 
Like the charcoal from bones turned into ink and cigarette filters, dead people are once again being recycled.

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The Paranoids

2007-12-16T13:56:50Z

Gelitripping: New page: Music plays a large role in all of Thomas Pynchon's novels, none more so the '''''The Crying of Lot 49'''''. The [http://www.pandora.com/?tc=x-036823-0035-1149&?searchFilter=artist&search=...

Music plays a large role in all of Thomas Pynchon's novels, none more so the '''''The Crying of Lot 49'''''. The [http://www.pandora.com/?tc=x-036823-0035-1149&?searchFilter=artist&search=The+Byrds '''Byrds'''] were making demos for World Pacific in 1964, consciously modeling their work on the '''Beatles''', the Liverpool dance band that very suddenly developed an unprecedented level of fame in America in the immediate wake of the assassination of President John F. Kennedy. The Byrds, developing their sound and style by consciously modeling themselves after theBeatles appear to be a primary reference for the Paranoids. "Miles", who probably was named after '''Miles Davis''' has " . . . . a Beatles haircut and a lapless, cuffless, one-button mohair suit. . . ." The Beatles have a seriously silly '''Let it Be''' outtake as '''Los Paranoias''', available on '''Anthology, Volume 3'''

Pynchon claimed to prefer the Beach Boys over the Beatles. See [http://gravitys-rainbow.pynchonwiki.com/wiki/index.php?title=Pynchon_and_Brian_Wilson '''Pynchon and Brian Wilson'''].

Chapter 2

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Hallways & Staircases

2007-12-16T13:49:06Z

Music plays a large role in all of Thomas Pynchon's novels, none more so the '''''The Crying of Lot 49'''''. The [http://www.pandora.com/?tc=x-036823-0035-1149&?searchFilter=artist&search=The+Byrds '''Byrds'''] were making demos for World Pacific in 1964, consciously modeling their work on the '''Beatles''', the Liverpool dance band that very suddenly developed an unprecedented level of fame in America in the immediate wake of the assassination of President John F. Kennedy. The Byrds, developing their fame by consciously modeling themselves after the sound and style of the Beatles appear to be a primary reference for the Paranoids. "Miles", who probably was named after '''Miles Davis''' has " . . . . a Beatles haircut and a lapless, cuffless, one-button mohair suit. . . ." The Beatles have a seriously silly '''Let it Be''' outtake as '''Los Paranoias''', available on '''Anthology, Volume 3'''

Note as well TRP's fondness for the Beach Boys. See [http://gravitys-rainbow.pynchonwiki.com/wiki/index.php?title=Pynchon_and_Brian_Wilson '''Pynchon and Brian Wilson''']. .

Chapter 2

2007-12-16T13:25:52Z

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Chapter 1

2007-12-16T13:20:45Z

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Title Page: '''The Crying of Lot 49'''

Many of the concepts of '''''The Crying of Lot 49''''' have to do with Numerology and property law

see: [[7 x 7|'''''7 x 7''''']]

a: 9, b: 1 - '''Oedipa''' 
Oedipus was the mythical king of Thebes who unknowingly killed his father and married his mother. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Oedipus Wikipedia] Oedipus the King, aka Oedipus Rex, is a Greek tragedy written by Sophocles and first performed in 428 BC. Many critics, including Aristotle, consider it the greatest tragedy ever written. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Oedipus_the_King Wikipedia]

:Whether Oedipa has anything to do with Oedipus is an open question. Some critics find zero connection and note that the name indicates that names are only words, and not necessarily full of meaning (mysteries without answers being a theme in CoL49). Others have teased various interpretations from Sophocles' play to connect its protagonist to Pynchon's. So far, no single explanation is remotely concrete or thoroughly convincing.

:Some suggest the Oedipus reference is to an incident earlier in the king's career, having to do, in fact, with the way he became king of Thebes. Oedipus famously solved the riddle of the Sphinx and heroically freed Thebes of her curse (cf. the deeds of young Theseus, the labors of Herakles, etc.). Sophocles' play has an older Oedipus finally figuring out the riddle of his own birth, over-confident in his own ability to figure things out. Oedipus is the riddle-solver, by definition. And doesn't it make sense to think of Oedipa as a riddle-solver? Q.E.D. Now the riddle is sometimes said to be "what walks on four feet in the morning, two feet in the afternoon, and three feet at night?" The answer is man (baby=4; man=2; old man with cane = 3), which is where this gets interesting: one of the legendary precepts engraved on the temple of Apollo at Delphi is "gnothi seauton", "know yourself". This almost certainly is taken to mean not (as we might tend to think) that we should discover ourselves as individuals, but rather that we should know our own nature, i.e. the nature of mankind, i.e. "know that you are mortal". Oedipus solves the riddle of the Sphinx with the answer "man", but he doesn't know himself as a man, fallible and doomed--count no man blessed until he's dead, Greeks were fond of saying--not until the peak of his powers, walking on two legs, so to speak. His story doesn't end there: he wanders the earth blind after putting out his eyes (death would be too good for himself), and eventually as an old man settles on Athens as a place to die, knowing that his spirit will be a powerful force in the land of his death (see Soph., Oedipus at Colonus). This is the essence of a hero for the Greeks, a mortal who remains powerful in death, as is reflected in their practice of hero-cult offerings at grave sites (compare, say, Xtian saints' relics, bones thought to have power). As an old man, Oedipus is like a holy prophet (compare the blind sage Tieresias, or the legendary blind poet Homer), a man who sees without eyes (compare what Paul Atreides becomes in the second Dune novel). So, does Oedipa ascend to some deeper understanding by the end of the novel? Wait and see.

:Oedipa's name is probably pronounced in the American fashion, ED-i-pa, not British fashion, EED-i-pa, because Mucho uses the short form "Oed," which almost has to be ED.

:A further comic level in the name Oedipa: It looks like a feminization of ''Oedipus,'' which is a Latin name derived from the Greek ''Oidipous.'' While ''-pus'' has the look of a word-ending that might alternate between masculine and feminine forms, like proper names ''Julius/Julia'' or adjectives ''sanctus/sanctum/sancta,'' in fact it stands in for Greek ''-pous,'' meaning "foot," a form that doesn't alternate. (All feet are the same gender no matter who's wearing them.) Whoever coined the name Oedipa pretended to know a little more than they really did.

Additionally, there is the Freudian concept of the Oedipal Complex. Basically, a son loves his mother (in an unconscious sexual way) and is jealous of his father and wants to kill him and have his mom all to himself. The daughter version of this is called the Electra Complex. In the Electra Complex the daughter is upset that she has no penis and is jealous of her father's penis and becomes angry at him ("penis envy").

Psychological concepts run rampant throughout '''''The Crying of Lot 49''''', usually parodied as if they were being reflected back in a funhouse mirror. When the novel was issued in 1966, many parodies concerning psychotherapy were in progress, noteably 1967's inspired [http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0062153/ '''The Presidents's Analyst''']. At the center of this parody, the patient saves the doctor from himself.

Viewing [http://classics.mit.edu/Sophocles/oedipus.html '''''Oedipus Rex'''''] as an early [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Whodunit '''Whodunit"'''], as our author does in '''''CoL49''''', one remembers that the plot resolution of 'Oedipus Rex' reveals our proto-typical gumshoe realizing he was the [http://m-w.com/dictionary/perp '''perp''''] all along, Oedipus is the detective that swears vengance on Oedipus the criminal. Oedipus is blinded by his revelation. Revelation, Illumination, the "Knowing" that came to so many who took on hip new therapys in the '60's, sometimes the blindness that came from seeing too much, all elements in the story. . . .

a: 9, b: 1 - '''Maas''' 

'''Maas''' Translates from Dutch & German into '''Web''' or '''Network''' and is also an alternative spelling for the '''Meuse''' river in Belgium and the Netherlands. 
see [[Maas_y_Mas| '''Maas y Mas''']]

a: 9, b: 1 - '''kirsch''' 
Kirschwasser, German for "cherry water", often known simply as Kirsch ("cherry"), is a clear cherry brandy. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kirsch Wikipedia] The mention of "kirsch" in the first sentence begins a considerable sequence of references to Germany, German words or German history through Chapter 1.

a: 9, b: 1 - '''Pierce Inverarity''' 
Pynchon & Company (an East Coast Brokerage house) fell apart in 1931, E.A. Pierce (a larger financial institution) picked up that company's holdings. Thus 'Pierce'. See [http://select.nytimes.com/gst/abstract.html?res=F50910FE3E5F11738DDDAC0A94DC405B818FF1D3 "EXCHANGE SUSPENDS PYNCHON & COMPANY, New York Times April 25, 1931] and note that the details for this article are buried behind the 'pay' wall. [RL]

a: 9, b: 1 - '''California real estate mogul''' 
Many of the terms and concepts in 'The Crying of Lot 49' are derived from laws concerning property and investment. The ancestors of Thomas Ruggles Pynchon [apparentlty the fifth Pynchon to be so named] had much involvement in real estate and property laws. See [http://books.google.com/books?id=asAOAAAAYAAJ&pg=PA51&dq=Stearns+pynchon+springfield&as_brr=1#PPP1,M1 '''''. . . . the Petition of the Springfield Aquaduct'''''], pages 44 - 53. Also see [http://tinyurl.com/2gb8aa '''''Popular Law Library'''''] and go to page 95. [RL]

a: 9, b: 1 - '''greenish dead eye of the TV tube, spoke the name of God. . . .''' 
The New York investment and banking firm of Pynchon & company helped develop Electrical networks and the 'Entertainment Industry'. Pynchon & Company collapsed when a consortium of investors including Western Electric forced William Fox out of movies in order to control patents for the talkies. See "Upton Sinclair Presents William Fox", self published. 1933, and "The Talkies: American Cinema's Transition to Sound 1926 - 1931", Donald Crafton ISBN 0 - 520 - 22128 - 1.
Note also the TV/God connection, and the notion that Television has supplanted God by the mid-sixties. [RL]

a: 10, b: 1 - '''Mazatlán''' 
City in the mexican state of Sinaloa, located on the Pacific coast of Mexico, east from the southernmost tip of the Baja California peninsula. It is worth mentioning that a large wave of German immigrants arrived in the mid 1800s, developing Mazatlán into a thriving commercial seaport. Additionally, Mazatlán played a role in the California gold rush, with people traveling by boat from Mazatlán to San Francisco. Pynchon is placed in Mexico (at least, Mexico City) throughout the 1960s. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mazatlan Wikipedia]

a: 10, b: 1 - '''Cornell University''' 
Ivy league university located in Ithaca, New York. Pynchon began studies in engineering physics in 1953, but left after two years to serve in the U.S. Navy. In 1957, Pynchon returned with a focus in English, a BA he received in 1959. "The Small Rain", Pynchon's first published story, was printed in the ''Cornell Writer'' in May, 1959. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pynchon#Childhood_and_education Wikipedia: Pynchon][http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cornell_University Wikipedia: Cornell]

a: 10, b: 1 - '''Bartók Concerto for Orchestra''' 
Five-movement musical work finished in 1943 by Hungarian composer Béla Bartók (1881 - 1945), after his native exile to the United States in response to the rise of the Nazi party--Bartók is one of a number of references to the theme of "exile" in this first chapter. Interestingly enough, the fourth movement (''Intermezzo interrotto'') is alleged to be neither "dry" nor "disconsolate", the theory suggested by Charles Hollander that Pynchon deliberatly reversed the facts to bring attention to Bartók's status as a political exile. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bartok Wikipedia Bartók][http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Concerto_for_Orchestra_(Bart%C3%B3k)#Fourth_movement Wikipedia: Concerto][http://www.vheissu.info/art/art_eng_49_hollander.htm Hollander Essay]

:"Dry and disconsolate" are not facts but opinions, although the consensus opinion might be "facts". I think Pynchon described this work as it sounded to him (or his character).

:Hollander's reference to Bartók seems somewhat superficial. Most Hungarian listeners can identify the "serenade theme" in Movement Four as the chorus of a popular irredentist song, nostalgic enough as it was written after Hungary's dismemberment in the Treaty of Trianon (1920), when Transylvania was attached to Romania (see the reference to the "Transylvanian Consulate" on the following page). So even if not "dry", it definitely sounds "disconsolate", an expression of desperate homesickness. Musicologists cannot quite pin down why Bartók chose to paraphrase such a trivial song; the most recent theory is that by giving it a Romanian rhythmic twist, he expressed his nostalgia for the multicultural Greater Hungary thad had been lost forever. (Sorry but I can only give a Hungarian link; the excerpt from the musical sheet is at the bottom of the page: [http://www.muzsika.net/cikknezo.php3?cikk_id=2089 Bartók's Strange Nostalgia]. It was published by Rózsavölgyi & Co., ''not'' coincidentally.) I think the main theme here is intrusion rather than exile as the serenade tune is disrupted by the Shostakovichian "drunken gang".

a: 10, b: 1 - '''Jay Gould''' 
(1836 – 1892) Infamous American financier (known as the "Mephistopheles of Wall Street"), who became a leading American railroad builder and speculator in the mid 19th century. In 1869, the Fisk-Gould Scandal (also known as Black Friday) spread financial panic as a result of Gould and fellow financier James Fisk's efforts to corner the gold market. Further political scandals and unfair dealings have cemented his reputation (both throughout his life and during the century after his death) as one of the most unethical of the 19th century American robber barons. It is worth note that the bust of Jay Gould is the "only ikon in the house" of Pierce Inverarity, and that Oedipa expressed the fear that it (on a shelf over the bed) would "someday topple on them". [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jay_Gould Wikipedia: Gould][http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Black_Friday_%281869%29 Wikipedia: Black Friday]

<div id="warpe">a: 10, b: 2 - '''Warpe, Wistfull, Kubitschek and McMingus'''</div>
Law firm representing Pierce Inverarity.

:"Warpe," possible reference to the municipality of Warpe located in the district of Nienburg, in Lower Saxony, Germany (Germany and Nazism being referenced thoroughly in Chapter 1). [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Warpe Wikipedia]

:"Kubitschek" is possibly drawn from Juscelino Kubitschek de Oliveira (1902 - 1976), a Brazilian social reformer and 24th President of Brazil (1956 - 1961) who went into a self-imposed exile after a military coup d'état, which had later been claimed to have been taking as a preemptive measure to deter an "inevitable communist revolution" (the coup having been tacitly (and directly) assisted and supported by the United States government and the CIA)--this is another in a series of anecdotal references to "exile" as well as a potential comment on United States foreign policy. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Juscelino_Kubitschek Wikipedia: Kubitschek][http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Brazilian_1964_coup_d%27%C3%A9tat Wikipedia: 1964 Brazilian Coup]

:"McMingus" is a probable nod toward Jazz legend Charles Mingus (1922 - 1979). Pynchon is a lifelong Jazz fan, making this unlikely to be a coincidence. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Charles_Mingus Wikipedia]

:Pynchon's penchant for absurd, punning law firm names is continued in [http://gravitys-rainbow.pynchonwiki.com/wiki/index.php?title=S#salitieri ''Gravity's Rainbow''] with Salitieri, Poore, Nash, De Brutus and Short.

In 1964 E.A. Pierce consolidated forces with Merrill Lynch thus creating Merrill, Lynch, Fenner, Pierce and Smith, an investment house that deployed Television Advertisement by the mid-sixties.

a: 10, b: 2 - '''Metzger''' 
Co-executor of Inverarity's will and signatory of the letter Oedipa receives in Chapter 1. Metzger is German for "butcher", and could also be a reference to Wolfgang Metzger (1899 - 1979), a german psychologist who served as one of the main representatives of Gestalt psychology, a theory that proposes that the operational principle of the brain is holistic, parallel, and analog, with self-organizing tendencies; or, that the whole is greater than the sum of its parts. This concept will recur later in the chapter, under the term "Triptych". Additionally, the introduction of Dr Hilarius, a German psychologist, will strengthen this association. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wolfgang_Metzger Wikipedia: Metzger][http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gestalt_psychology Wikipedia: Gestalt]. 
:One might add, in the Gestalt mode, that "Metzger" can evoke "regrets", wistfully if you like: how would it feel to find yourself called on, as Oedipa is, by the ghost of an old lover? 
:[http://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Metzgerpost Metzgerpost] ("butcher post") was an early type of mail service in the western regions of the Holy Roman Empire, superseded by the Thurn und Taxis-dominated imperial system. 

Compare '''Meztger''' to [http://www.csp.org/chrestomathy/unfolding_self.html '''Ralph Metzner'''], co-author with [http://www.timothyleary.us/ '''Timothy Leary'''] and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ram_Dass '''Richard Alpert'''], also known as [http://www.ramdass.org/ '''Ram Dass'''], of [http://tinyurl.com/337xqe '''The Psychedelic Experience''']. 

a: 10, b: 2 - '''Kinneret-Among-The-Pines''' 
Fictional California town that Oedipa Maas resides in. Yam Kinneret (Sea of Kinnereth) is the modern Hebrew name for the Sea of Galilee, Israel's largest freshwater lake. Upon the shores of Galilee, much of the ministry of Christ was said to have occurred, among which include His Sermon on the Mount, as well as the miracles of His walking on water, calming a storm, and feeding the
multitude with five loaves of bread and two fish. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sea_of_Galilee Wikipedia]. During the years Pynchon was working on 'The Crying of Lot 49, College buddy [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Richard_Fariña '''Richard Farina'''] lived in [http://ci.carmel.ca.us/ '''Carmel by the Sea'''].

a: 10, b: 2 - '''settecento''' 
Settecento is the Italian word for seven hundred, and is the standard Italian term for the 18th century (not the 17th century, but the years beginning with 17). It is used in English mostly to refer to art-historical and architectural movements and styles of that period. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Settecento Wikipedia]

a: 10, b: 2 - '''variorum''' 
A work containing all known varients of a text whereby all variations and emendations are set side-by-side to track textual decisions. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Variorum Wikipedia]

a: 10, b: 2 - '''Vivaldi Kazoo Concerto''' 
Kazoos appear in [http://gravitys-rainbow.pynchonwiki.com/wiki/ ''Gravity's Rainbow'']. The title isn't as outlandish as it may seem; Vivaldi's concerti are often performed on instruments they were not written for. Example: [http://idrs.colorado.edu/Publications/DR/DR7.1/vivaldi.html concerto for two cellos] recast for bassoon trio. Cross referenced search of kazoos in the Gravity's Rainbow Wiki: [http://gravitys-rainbow.pynchonwiki.com/wiki/index.php?title=B ][http://gravitys-rainbow.pynchonwiki.com/wiki/index.php?title=Songs/Compositions ][http://gravitys-rainbow.pynchonwiki.com/wiki/index.php?title=H ][http://gravitys-rainbow.pynchonwiki.com/wiki/index.php?title=O ][http://gravitys-rainbow.pynchonwiki.com/wiki/index.php?title=Dope_in_Gravity%27s_Rainbow]

a: 10, b: 2 - '''Boyd Beaver''' 
Soloist for the Vivaldi Kazoo Concerto. "Boyd" might stem from the Gaelic word for "blond", while "Beaver" is a chiefly American slang term for female genitalia, possibly prompting the image of a blonde vagina playing a kazoo. One might also take "Boy", evoked by "Boyd", combined with the "female" beaver, and find the same gender-bending implied in Oedipa's name itself (or in a male author writing a female protagonist, or the Muse inspiring the poet). The name also bears an obvious resemblance to Zoyd Wheeler, the protagonist of ''Vineland'', though he played the keyboard.

a: 11, b: 2 - '''Wendell ("Mucho") Maas''' 
"Mucho más" is common Spanish phrase, meaning "much more." Mucho Maas reappears in ''Vineland''.

:''Maas'' is also Dutch for ''mesh'' and ''loophole'' (in the architectural and the figurative sense as well), which may be related to the book's treatement of webs or networks.

:The near-likeness "mass" becomes an important word/concept in ''Gravity's Rainbow'' and, especially, ''Against The Day'', although the associative meanings do not seem to mesh.! [[User:MKOHUT|MKOHUT]] 13:42, 11 July 2007 (PDT)

a: 11, b: 2 - '''Pachuco dialect''' 
Pachucos were Mexican American youth who developed their own subculture during the 1930s and 1940s in the Southwestern United States. They wore distinctive clothes (such as Zoot Suits) and spoke their own dialect (Caló). [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pachuco Wikipedia] Zoot suits appear a few times in [http://gravitys-rainbow.pynchonwiki.com/wiki/ ''Gravity's Rainbow''].

a: 11, b: 2 - '''chingas and maricones''' 
Spanish slang words. "Chingas" is a conjugation of the word "chingar" (slang for "to fuck"), translating "chingas" as "[you] fuck" (or, better, just a plural of "chinga"). "Maricones" refers to the term "maricón" (based on the word "marica" or "male homosexual") which is equivalent to the English insult "faggot".

a: 11, b: 3 - '''Lamont Cranston''' 

One identity adopted by The Shadow, a character of pulp fiction, radio shows, and comic books. Cranston was a wealthy young man about town. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Shadow Wikipedia]

[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Shadow '''The Shadow'''] first appeared on radio in 1930. The banking institution Pynchon & Company collapsed in 1931. The last words Oedipa hears from Pierce:
:"I heard that," Pierce said. "I think it's time Wendell Maas had a little visit from the Shadow."
were spoken a year before she received the letter from Warpe, Wistful, Kubitschek and McMingus.

a: 11, b: 3 - '''Commissioner Weston... Professor Quackenbush''' 
Police [http://www.angelfire.com/yt/Weston/ '''Commissioner Weston'''] was the [http://theshadowfan.com/theshadowfan/past-shadow/movies/the-shadow-serial-1940/ '''Shadow's'''] friend and running mate. [http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0028772/ '''Professor Quackenbush'''] is most likely a reference to Dr. Quackenbush from[http://www.evl.uic.edu/pape/Marx/films/posters/DayAtTheRaces2.jpg '''Day at the Races'''].

a: 13, b: 4 - '''Mucho shaved his ... throw them further off''' 
All of the references in this section refer to the stereotypical (often Italian) used car salesman with greased back hair, a very short mustache, and huge lapels on his suit.

[[Image:jacklemmon.jpg|90px|thumb|left|Jack Lemmon and his hair in the 60s]]a: 13, b: 4 - '''used only water, combing it like Jack Lemmon''' 
American actor (1925-2001). He became a favorite actor of director Billy Wilder, starring in his films ''Some Like It Hot'', ''The Apartment'' and others. Wilder felt Lemmon had a natural tendency toward overacting that had to be tempered; the Wilder biography ''Nobody's Perfect'' quotes the director as saying: "Lemmon, I would describe him as a ham, a fine ham, and with ham you have to trim a little fat." [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jack_lemmon Wikipedia]

a: 13, b: 4 - '''creampuff''' 
A very well maintained used car. 

a: 16, b: 7 - '''Dr. Hilarius, her shrink or psychotherapist''' 
[[Image:Hilarius.jpg|right|thumb|St. Hilarius|150px]]According to the Wikipedia, [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pope_Hilarius '''Pope Saint Hilarius'''] was Pope of the Roman Catholic Church from 461 to February 28, 468). He was canonized as a saint after his death. The Sardinian archdeacon of Rome, Hilarius was elected bishop of Rome probably November 17, 461, and was consecrated November 19, 461 and died on February 28 (?), 468.

As archdeacon under Pope Leo I he fought vigorously for the rights of the Roman See and vigorously opposed the condemnation of Flavian of Constantinople at the Second Council of Ephesus in 449 to settle the question of Eutyches. According to a letter to the Empress Pulcheria, collected among the letter of Leo I, Hilarus apologizes for not delivering to her the pope's letter after the synod. . . .

Shrink is a shortened form of headshrinker, which is 50s slang. The OED cites 'shrink' in this text of 1966, as the first recorded written use of it as a slang term. Which must be why Pynchon defined it in the text.

a: 17, b: 8 - '''LSD-25, mescaline, psilocybin''' 
These hallucinogenic drugs are also mentioned in [http://gravitys-rainbow.pynchonwiki.com/wiki/ ''''''Gravity's Rainbow''''']. LSD gets a special mention as an agent of spiritual awareness in [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vineland '''''Vineland''''']. See notes for [http://cl49.pynchonwiki.com/wiki/index.php?title=Chapter_6 '''She Loves You''] on page a: 143, b: 117 of CoL49 wiki, where Mucho Maas is expressing ideas about psychedelics concordant with the writings of [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aldous_Huxley '''Aldous Huxley'''.] Peyote's magical potential is rendered on pages 392-394 of Against the Day, in wholy favorable terms, with the connection of divinatory powers and envisioning agents such as [http://www.britannica.com/eb/topic-405965/Native-American-Church '''Hikuli'''] displayed in a very favorable light.

It remains an open question as to whether and to what extent Pynchon took or was influenced by them. ([http://gravitys-rainbow.pynchonwiki.com/wiki/index.php?title=Smoking_Dope_with_Thomas_Pynchon "whether"?])

a: 18, b:8 - '''lapses from orthodoxy''' 
Orthodox Freudian psychotherapy involved the therapist literally trying not to impose himself at all on the patient. That's why the therapist is often shown sitting behind the patient. The goal is to be a blank canvas and have the patient paint his problems on the therapist, thereby bringing them into consciousness.

[[Image:rorschach1.jpg|150px|thumb|right|The first of the ten cards in the Rorschach inkblot test]]
a: 18, b: 8 - '''Rorschach blot''' 
The Rorschach inkblot test (Pronounced roar-shock) is a method of psychological evaluation. Psychologists use this test to try to examine the personality characteristics and emotional functioning of their patients. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rorschach_inkblot_test Wikipedia]

[[Image:rorschachcomic1.png|thumb|150px|right|Rorschach, a comic book character in ''Watchmen'']]
a: 18, b: 8 - '''a face is symmetrical like a Rorschach blot''' 
In the graphic novel, ''Watchmen'', written by Alan Moore, there is a character named Rorschach who wears a mask with a Rorscach blot on the front. Moore is a self-professed Pynchon fan: he referenced [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/V. ''V.''] in ''V for Vendetta'' and has mentioned [http://gravitys-rainbow.pynchonwiki.com/wiki/ ''Gravity's Rainbow''] in interview. It is possible, not to say probable, that Moore was inspired by this line.

a: 18, b: 8 - '''TAT picture''' 
The TAT is popularly known as the picture interpretation technique because it uses a standard series of 31 provocative yet ambiguous pictures about which the subject must tell a story. It was developed by American psychologists in the 1930s. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thematic_Apperception_Test Wikipedia]

a: 18, b: 9 - '''Fu-Manchu''' 
Dr. Fu Manchu is a fictional character, an evil genius of Chinese origin, first featured in a series of novels by Birmingham author Sax Rohmer during the first half of the 20th century. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fu_Manchu Wikipedia]

a: 18, b: 9 - '''Perry Mason''' 
Perry Mason is a fictional defense attorney who originally appeared in detective fiction by Erle Stanley Gardner. Mason was portrayed by Raymond Burr in a television series which ran on CBS from 1957 to 1966. The typical plot involves Perry Mason unmasking the actual murderer in a final dramatic courtroom showdown. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Perry_Mason Wikipedia]

a: 19, b: 9 - '''''The Profession v. Perry Mason...''''' 
Roseman may be trying to undermine Perry Mason by arguing that the dramatic courtroom twists in the TV show are actually uncommon in the American legal system.

[[Image:remediosvaro.jpg|thumb|175px|''Bornando el manto terrestre'', 1961|left]]
a: 21, b: 11 - '''Bornando el Manto Terrestre''' 
Remedios Varo (1908 - 1963) was a surrealist painter. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Remedios_Varo Wikipedia]

Bill Brown [http://www.notbored.org/crying.html notes] that "Pynchon saw Bordando el Manto Terrestre when, as part of the first full retrospective of the painter's work, it was displayed at the Palacio de Bellas Artes in Mexico City in 1964, a year after her death at the age of 55. Painted in 1961, el Manto (oil on masonite, roughly 40 by 48 inches) is the central panel in an autobiographical triptych. It is possible that Pynchon, writing ''Lot 49'' in 1965, recalled the painting from memory or incomplete notes, and not with a reproduction of it set in front of him. He gets a lot wrong."

[[image:bubble-shades.jpg|thumb|Bubble Shades|120px|right]]
a:21, b:11 - '''she wore dark green bubble shades''' 
This is the sixties, after all...

{{CL49 PbP}}

She Loves You And More

2007-12-15T23:43:53Z

Gelitripping: New page: According to '''The Complete Beatles Chronicle''' by Mark Lewisohn, the Beatles third single and the band's first single to go to number one on the British charts, not once but twice. was...

According to '''The Complete Beatles Chronicle''' by Mark Lewisohn, the Beatles third single and the band's first single to go to number one on the British charts, not once but twice. was recorded on July 1, 1963 at EMI studios #2 in London. The single was mixed to mono along with its 'b' side '''I'll Get You''' on July 4th at EMI Studio # 2 [not yet generally known as Abbey Road Studios]. 'She Loves You' was issued as a single on the Parlophone label in the U. K. on August 23, 1963. Because the A & R people at U. S. EMI subsidiary Capitol Records were disinterested in the music of a group of British rock & roll wanna-be's, the obscure and tiny '''Swan Records''' released 'She Loves You' on September 16th, 1963, making it the last of the Beatles singles to be issued on a label other than one of the subsidiaries of the giant multi-national corporation EMI. Much more information and trivia on the curious history of "She Loves You"/"Sie Liebt Dich" can be found all over the web, starting with the [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/She_Loves_You Wikipedia] article on '''She Loves You'''

Mucho's revelation terrifies Oedipa. His declaration:
:"Whenever I put the headset on now," he continued, "I really do understand what I find there. . . ."
. . . .has the sound of [http://www.gnosis.org/ Gnosis], as things that once were obscure and veiled are now revealed for what they truly are. The 'Doors of Perception' have been cleaned. Mucho Continues:

:". . . .When those kids sing about 'She loves you," yeah well, you know, she does, she's any number of people, all over the world, back through time, different colors, sizes, ages, shapes, distances from death, but she loves. And the 'you' is everybody. And herself. Oedipa, the human voice, you know, it's a flipping miracle." His eyes brimming, reflecting the color of beer.

Wendell "Mucho" Maas is having a religious experience. About the only 'Christian' religion that would consider this spiritual experiance anything other heresy would be the Unitarians and maybe a Quaker or two, but the Wiccans would [and do] have a field day with this one, this glorious outpouring for the Goddess, this pean to what Goethe called the '''Das Ewig-Weiblich''', the eternal feminine, the zero before the one.

Mucho & Zoyd further expound on the spiritual meaning of 'Acid' in 'Vineland':

: "Well I still wish it was back then, when you were the Count. Remember how the acid was? Remember that windowpane, down in Laguna that time? God, I knew then, I knew. . . ."

:They had a look. "Uh-huh, me too. That you were never going to die. Ha! No wonder the State panicked. How are they supposed to control a population that knows it'll never die? When that was always their last big chip, when they thought they had the power of life and death. . . ."
:Vineland, Pgs. 313/314

Chapter 6

2007-12-15T23:43:27Z

Gelitripping:

{{CL49 PbP Text}}

a: 139, b: 114 - '''Edna Mosh''' 
Mucho Maas deliberately distorts the sound of his wife's name to compensate for the [http://www.nutshellhifi.com/library/tinyhistory1.html distortions] of [http://www.tangentsunset.com/laradiohistory.htm AM radio] in the mid-sixties.

a: 143, b: 117 - '''She Loves You''' 

The Beatles third single, issued in the U.S. on the obscure '''Swan''' label.

See: [[She_Loves_You_And_More|'''She Loves You And More''']]

a: 151, b: 124 - '''K. da chingado''' 
''Chingado'' is Spanish slang meaning "fucker."

{{CL49 PbP}}

High Magic to low Puns

2007-12-15T23:37:00Z

Gelitripping: New page: :. . . .[http://tinyurl.com/26788e '''She'''] [http://tinyurl.com/yw3xy8 '''knew'''] that the [http://www.bookpalace.com/acatalog/ParkerSailor.jpg '''sailor'''] had [http://www.pixelslid...

:. . . .[http://tinyurl.com/26788e '''She'''] [http://tinyurl.com/yw3xy8 '''knew'''] that the [http://www.bookpalace.com/acatalog/ParkerSailor.jpg '''sailor'''] had [http://www.pixelslide.com/hv319.jpg '''seen worlds'''] no other man had [http://www.adcawards.org/images/ADC86CFE.jpg '''seen'''] if only because there was that [http://www.meta-religion.com/Esoterism/images/circleeng.gif '''high magic'''] to [http://tinyurl.com/32wvoh '''low puns'''], because [http://tinyurl.com/e7hk2 '''DT's'''] must give access to [http://tf.nist.gov/phase/Properties/Properties_images/Image5.gif '''dt's'''] of [http://sci.esa.int/science-e-media/img/20/stellar_spectra_3.jpg '''spectra'''] [http://www.arc.cmu.edu/cmu/images/student_work/featured/beyond_6lg.jpg '''beyond'''] the [https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/3999 '''known'''] [http://www.plotinus.com/gnostic_jesus.htm '''sun'''], [http://www.andante.com/article/article.cfm?id=25641 '''music'''] made [http://www.mml.cam.ac.uk/spanish/resources/Rego/PurificationAtTheTemple.jpg '''purely'''] of [http://www.galleryone.com/images/bateman/bateman-antarctic-evening-humpback-whales.jpg '''Antarctic loneliness'''] and [http://www.phobos-deimos.com/Cthulhu/cthulhu.jpg '''fright''' ]. . . .

I suppose the first reasonable question is "'''What is High Magic?'''", [http://spellsandmagic.com/wvshm.html '''''High Magic'''''] being one of those terms we generally assume we already know, the bulk of the readers skimming right past that phrase even though they've never really had the acquaintance of a practioneer, much less participate in a Magick ritual, either high or low. [http://wicca.timerift.net/ceremonial_magic.shtml '''''High Magic'''''] is magic that seeks contact with the [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Divinity '''''Divine'''''], one could also look at it as a form of [http://www.gnosis.org/ '''''Gnosis''''']. "High Magic" is one of the biggest themes in all of Pynchon's books, all aspects of Magic high and low are explored. The number and density of references to magic increase in his output, culminating in the constantly shifting magical realism of [http://against-the-day.pynchonwiki.com/wiki/index.php?title=Main_Page '''''Against the Day''''']. But, quite frequently in Thomas Pynchon's output, there's a [http://www.markforrester.co.za/wp-content/uploads/2006/04/the_latest_on_my_mothers_weed.jpg '''''Home-Grown'''''] word [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wicca '''''Wicca'''''] that can be [http://www.paralumun.com/crystalscry.htm '''''Scryed'''''] in the [http://www.spellsandmagic.com/spells.html '''''Spells'''''] and [http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/twisted '''''Twisted'''''] [http://www.shamanschool.com/resources/courses/howtostudy.html '''''Spelllings'''''] of the [http://www.etymonline.com/index.php?l=g&p=6 '''''Gnarly'''''] [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Etymology '''''Etymological'''''] roots he digs up like some [http://www.newadvent.org/cathen/06052b.htm '''''Witch Doctor'''''] and re-twists into his novels.

The [http://tinyurl.com/2snsm6 '''High Magic'''] of [http://tinyurl.com/2xpet7 '''Angelic Language'''] must be declaimed---[http://www.esotericarchives.com/dee/tfr/tfr2.htm '''Cried'''] is one way to put it---very carefully, with a great and awful [http://www.thefreedictionary.com/locution '''locution]. . . .

From an [http://tinyurl.com/2qtx5f '''Unsigned'''] article on [http://www.maybelogic.org/maybequarterly/06/images/Figure5.jpg '''Enochian'''] calls:

:". . . .Pronunciation proves a problem for the scholar of Enochian. Since the language was only ever really used by Dee and Kelley in its true and correct form, we have only a vague idea of how it was actually spoken. Aleister Crowley of the Golden Dawn fame, proposed a system of pronunciation which took each individual letter as a single sound. This is explained by Sapere Aude (William Wynn Wescott- also of the Golden dawn):

::''In pronouncing the Names, take each letter separately. M is pronounced Em; N is pronounced En (also Nu, since in Hebrew the vowel following the equivalent letter Nun is 'u'); A is Ah; P is Peh; S is Ess; D is Deh.''
::

::''NRFM is pronounced En-Ra-Ef-Em or En-Ar-Ef-Em. ZIZA is pronounced Zod-ee-zod-ah. ADRE is Ah-deh-reh or Ah-deh-er-reh. TAAASD is Teh-ah-ah-ah-ess-deh. AIAOAI is Ah-ee-ah-oh-ah-ee. BDOPA is Beh-deh-oh-peh-ah. BANAA is Beh-ah-en-ah-ah. BITOM is Beh-ee-to-em or Beh-ee-teh-oo-em. NANTA is En-ah-en-tah. HCOMA is Heh-co-em-ah. EXARP is Eh-ex-ar-peh.''

The [http://tinyurl.com/2g683a '''Word'''] must be spoken with the greatest imaginable specificity:

::. . . .The second section is my attempt to rewrite the Calls into some sort of standardized, readable phonetic system. One thing became evident in this process: the pronunciation guide given by Donald Laycock in his Complete Enochian Dictionary is the closest thing to Dee's notes I've seen so far. . . .

::. . . .The angels themselves are no help here:

::Dee: '''''I pray you, is Mozod a word of three letters, or of five?'''''

::Nalvage: '''''In wrote three, it is larger extended.''''' [Dee- Z extended is Zod.]

::Dee: '''''Will you pardon me if I ask you another question of this extension?'''''

::Nal.: '''''Say on: Moz in itself signifieth Joy; but Mozod extended, signifieth the Joy of God'''''

::(Causabon, A True and Faithful Relation..., p. 75). . . .

Of course, taking these concepts a touch closer to [http://www.answers.com/topic/terra-firma '''''Terra Firma'''''], or [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Malkhuth_(Kabbalah) '''''Malkuth'''''] if we want to get [http://www.answers.com/topic/technical '''''Technical'''''] about it, we note that a glossary for '''''The Crying of Lot 49''''' should also fold in a pronounciation guide that points out homonyms or ''sound-alikes'' in the novella, as this little story is overstuffed with puns, homonyms, mondegreens, acronyms, and near misses of famous or useful names. Take [http://tarlton.law.utexas.edu/lpop/etext/okla/sherman24.htm '''Jesus Arrabal'''] as a fine upstanding example of the word games that Thomas Ruggles Pynchon obsessively plays. We all know the name Jesus, in addition to being our [http://www.velocity.net/~edju/ '''''Lord and Savior'''''] [http://elitemrp.net/iat/examples/buddychrist.jpg '''''And All That'''''], is also quite a common [http://www.newadvent.org/cathen/10673c.htm '''Christian Name'''] in predominantly [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Catholic '''Catholic'''] [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Latin_America '''Latin American'''] countries, such as [http://web.clas.ufl.edu/users/agordon/pynchon.htm '''Mexico'''], though, as in [http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0118715/quotes '''''The Big Lebowski'''''] there is a [http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/frisson '''frisson'''] of heresy in recontextualizing the religious figure of [http://www.coptic.net/pictures/Tableau.AlphaAndOmega.gif '''Jesus Christ'''] as a [http://www.bowlings-toulouse.com/Ligue/icones/jesus.bmp '''low'''] and [http://www.whatreallyhappened.com/ATHEISM/puritans.jpg '''excluded'''] [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Preterite '''preterite''']. Pynchon's family history again applies here. William Pynchon, founder of Springfield and a source of a lot that goes on in Pynchon the younger's books, spoke of Jesus Christ as closer to man, closer to those that the [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Predestination_(Calvinism) '''Calvinist Elect'''] saw as excluded from Christ's kingdom. I can't tell you why Our Beloved Author takes up this theme so many times, but it is made explicit in the form of William Slothrop's banned and burned book [http://www.geocities.com/SoHo/3928/pns554.html '''''On Preterition'''''], a fictional book folded into [http://gravitys-rainbow.pynchonwiki.com/wiki/index.php?title=William_Slothrop '''''Gravity's Rainbow''''']. [http://www.drbilllong.com/Words/Preterition.html '''''Preterition'''''] is, of course, one of the most frequently used terms in Pynchon's writing, displaying the author's great depth of knowledge on spiritual topicks including the history of the Calvinists and their impact on [http://reformed-theology.org/html/issue06/calvin.htm '''''America'''''], it is a historical thread that the author will return to again and again.

But the [http://tinyurl.com/22ttb4 '''Arrabal'''] part, where did Our Beloved Author find that one and what does it mean? Charles Hollander, in [http://www.vheissu.info/art/art_eng_49_hollander.htm '''''Pynchon, JFK and the CIA: Magic Eye Views of The Crying of Lot 49'''''], points out that [http://www.genarin.org/imagenes/arrabal.jpg '''''Arrabal'''''] translates from Spanish into [http://www.glaucus.org.uk/suburb.JPG '''Suburb''']. Alternatively, it can mean the [http://www.alanarnette.com/images/guanaco.jpg '''Outlands'''], in the dance of the tango, it's the [http://www.cyber-tango.com/art/t_term.html '''Slums'''], so Jesus Arrabal can also be [http://www.mgilleland.com/images/christ-breadlines.jpg '''''Jesus of the Slums''']. If you say it out loud, it sounds like '''Jesus 'orrible'''. This is not your run-of-the-mill Jesus here.

Then there's Fernando Arrabal, a figure on view but partially obscured in ''The Crying of Lot 49'' much as the satrist [http://www.ottosell.de/pynchon/inferno.htm '''Varo'''] reflects on the visual artist [http://tinyurl.com/29tdf9 '''Remedios Varo''']. According to the Wikipedia article on [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fernando_Arrabal '''Fernando Arrabal''']

::Fernando Arrabal Terán (born August 11, 1932 in Melilla, Spain) is a Spanish playwright, screenwriter, film director, novelist and poet of Spanish origin. He settled in France in 1955. . . .

::. . . .‘’Arrabal’s theatre is a wild, brutal, cacophonous, and joyously provocative world. It is a dramatic carnival in which the carcass of our “advanced” civilizations is barbecued over the spits of a permanent revolution. He is the artistic heir of Kafka’s lucidity and Jarry’s humor; in his violence, Arrabal is related to Sade and Artaud. Yet he is doubtless the only writer to have pushed derision as far as he did. Deeply political and merrily playful, both revolutionary and bohemian, his work is the syndrome of our century of barbed wire and Gulags, a manner of finding a reprieve. . . .’’

This is Jesus the Anarchist, Jesus the Sadist, Jesus of the Preterite, Jesus of the [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/MKULTRA '''''C.I.A.'''''] [yet another pun, see a: 119, b: 96 - '''Conjuración de los Insurgentes Anarquistas''' above]. He still recieves his copies of the ancient anarcho-syndicalist paper [http://www.afed.org.uk/org/issue66/reviews.html '''''Regeneración'''''] [http://www.mayoph.com/images2/02c582.jpg '''''Postmarked'''''] with a [http://www.rahoorkhuit.net/library/ceremonial/classics/plancy/g4.gif '''''Muted Posthorn.''''']. This is the Jesus of the [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Theatre_of_the_Absurd '''''Theater of the Absurd''''']

Chapter 5

2007-12-15T23:36:46Z

Gelitripping:

Voices, Voices

2007-12-15T23:31:52Z

Gelitripping: New page: There's a dense thicket of religious allusions here, a collection and co-grouping of the spiritual and the technological that rivals the [http://www.georgeharrison.de/Beatles%20Avedon%20Po...

There's a dense thicket of religious allusions here, a collection and co-grouping of the spiritual and the technological that rivals the [http://www.georgeharrison.de/Beatles%20Avedon%20Poster%20Set%202.jpg '''Beatles'''] [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tomorrow_Never_Knows '''Tomorow Never Knows'''], a tune released about the same time [http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,901889,00.html '''''The Crying of Lot 49'''''] first appeared on bookshelves, in that odd religious instant we now know as the [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Sandals '''Summer of 1966'''], the last moments when [http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,899158,00.html '''LSD'''] was still [http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,876484,00.html '''Legal''']. Take a close gander at the religious/spiritual terms on this page, how close this constellation swirling around the Revelation in progress all around her aligns to the nascent [http://www.hippy.com/article-243.html '''Hippie Movement''']:

::. . . .'''''a hieroglyphic sense of concealed meaning'''''
::. . . .'''''a revelation also trembled just past the threshold of her understanding'''''
::. . . .'''''an odd, religious instant'''''
::. . . .'''''with movements stylized as the handling of chrism, censer, chalice'''''
::. . . .'''''voices, voices, the music, its message, surrounded by it, digging it, as were all the faithful it went out to'''''

. . . .all reflected in this [http://cahighways.org/maps/1963routes.jpg '''Map'''] of the [http://personales.ya.com/ejmills/radio_pages/radio/images/dansette222_2.jpg '''Transistor Radio's'''] [http://people.msoe.edu/~reyer/regency/schematic.jpg '''Circuit Board'''], a map that somehow matches the [http://tinyurl.com/3cqkk4 '''Visible Landscape'''] of the [http://www.upa.pdx.edu/IMS/currentprojects/TAHv3/Content/Conservation/JPGS/LA_Smog_Aerial.jpg '''Infected City''']. Note how messages are constantly distorted throughout ''The Crying of Lot 49''. The mode of distorted communication for the revelation in progress all around [http://cl49.pynchonwiki.com/wiki/index.php?title=Chapter_6 '''Edna Mosh'''] being the [http://tinyurl.com/378qzn '''Pocket Sized Portable Transistor Radio'''], a media revolution very much analogous to the emergence of the [http://www.media-visions.com/itv-fox.html '''Talkies'''] in the late '20's, and the current [2007] [http://www.insideretailing.com.au/articles-page.aspx?articleType=ArticleView&articleId=1863 '''I-Pod''']. All these major shifts in audio media have their own distinct sonic qualities, a distinct [http://tinyurl.com/2hl3mk '''Sound'''] akin to a musical instrument's [http://cnx.org/content/m11059/latest/ '''Timbre'''].

::Typical [http://meduci.com/amx2000.html '''AM Radio Sound]''' hardly exceeds 3,000 Hertz -- with audio fidelity that is typical of a telephone line connection -- perhaps ideally suited for news and talk program formats, however not for programing high quality music formats. Many receiver manufacturers intentionally reduce audio bandwidth in their product offerings, to decrease interference from closely spaced AM stations. Another reason for the super narrow audio frequency response is the high frequency noise caused by the disregard for any R.F amplifier stage. Dropping this R.F amplifier stage contributes to further cost savings in the product. Restricted audio bandwidth causes "muddy" music to be reproduced. It is not the medium, it is these lackluster radio designs that are to blame for this muddy sound

We are led to understand that while Mucho is aware that there is some sort of revelation in progress, it is a revelation that Mucho Maas is not yet privy to. As of this moment in the book, Mucho is not a 'believer' in that movement, but things can always change, see page a; 117, b; 143 [http://cl49.pynchonwiki.com/wiki/index.php?title=Chapter_6 '''She Loves You'''].

Note as well the echo of [http://www.tonykline.co.uk/PITBR/German/Rilke.htm#_Toc509812215 '''Rilke'''] contained on this page:

:::'''''Voices, voices. Hear then, my heart, as only'''''
:::'''''saints have heard: so that the mighty call'''''
:::'''''raised them from the earth: they, though, knelt on'''''
:::'''''impossibly and paid no attention:'''''
:::'''''such was their listening. Not that you could withstand'''''
:::'''''God’s voice: far from it.'''''

2007-12-11T18:48:47Z

Gelitripping:

{{CL49 PbP Text}}

a: 47, b: 34 - '''Yoyodyne''' 
The company also appears in ''V.'', where the power (dynamis in Greek, cf. dynamite, dynasty) and physics of the yo-yo's motion is meditated upon. Yoyodyne is said to be 'modeled"--given Pynchon's sea-changing mind--on the Boeing Company where Pynchon worked in the early sixties.

[[Image:oscilloscope.gif|thumb|right|200px|Lissajous figures on an oscilloscope, with 90 degrees phase difference between x and y inputs.]]
a: 47, b: 34 - '''oscilloscope... Lissajous figures''' 
An oscilloscope is a piece of electronic test equipment that allows signal voltages to be viewed, usually as a two-dimensional graph. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Oscilloscope Wikipedia] Lissajous curves (Lissajous figures or Bowditch curves) are the graph of the system of parametric equations which describes complex harmonic motion, and are displayed on oscilloscope monitors. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lissajous_curve Wikipedia]

a: 47, b: 34 - '''Stockhausen''' 
[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Karlheinz_Stockhausen '''Karlheinz Stockhausen'''] (b. 1928, d. 2007) was a German composer, and one of the most important and controversial composers of the 20th century. He is best known for his ground-breaking work in electronic music and controlled chance in serial composition. The Beatles, among other rock musicians, claimed him as an [http://ukpress.google.com/article/ALeqM5j2OLVL0rWGZE0bskTr5kVlUqJLag '''influence''']:

:. . . .So taken were the Beatles by Stockhausen's music, they asked permission to use his photo on the cover of the 1967 LP Sgt Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band. He appears fifth from the left in the back row.

Stockhausen's [http://ccrma.stanford.edu/CCRMA/Courses/154/Hymnen '''Hymnen'''], composed in 1966/1967 is an obvious primary inspriation for John Lennon's experiment in [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Musique_concrète '''Musique Concrète'''], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Revolution_9 '''Revolution # 9'''].

a: 48, b: 34 - '''Mike Fallopian''' 
Obviously, Fallopian tubes are two very fine tubes leading from the ovaries of female mammals into the uterus. 
The ''-ian'' ending of his name indicates that Mike is a member of California's vigorous Armenian-American community.

a: 49, b: 35 - '''Disgruntled''' 
Pynchon's fictional navy includes the USS Scaffold and the Susanna Squaducci (V.), the John E. Badass (GR), and the Inconvenience (ATD).

a: 49, b: 35 - '''Bogatir... Gaidamak''' 
The bogatyr was a medieval Russian heroic warrior, comparable to the Western European knight errant. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bogatyr Wikipedia] The parallel with Charlemagne's "paladins" may be even closer.

At the time of the U.S. Civil War, gaidamak or haydamak denoted an 18th century Ukrainian fighter for national independence. The name is sometimes translated as "Ukrainian Cossack," perhaps in part because it was extended to Cossack anti-Bolshevik troops after the 1917 revolution.

a: 50, b: 36 - '''Birch Society''' 
The John Birch Society is an Americanist organization founded in 1958 to fight what it saw as growing threats to the Constitution of the United States, especially a suspected communist infiltration of the United States government, and to support free enterprise. It was named after John Birch, a United States military intelligence officer and Baptist missionary in World War II who was killed in 1945 by armed supporters of the Communist Party of China, and whom the JBS describes as "the first American victim of the Cold War." [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Birch_Society Wikipedia]

"Our left-leaning friends in the Birch society" is a joke as the Birch Society was right-wing, although of course Fallopian is being serious. The PPS is beyond far right in this sense.

a: 51, b: 37 - '''Marxism... Industrial ''anything''''' 
Some critics have interpreted this to mean that the Pinguid Society is so anti-communist that it even opposed capitalism... because it led inevitably to communism! While funny, this seems to miss the point. The guiding philosophy of the Pinguid Society is not anti-communism. It opposes "industrial ''anything''", which indicates a belief in another philosophy Pynchon has written much on, Ludditisim. See [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Luddite Wikipedia entry on Luddite]; the 1984 essay, [http://www.themodernword.com/pynchon/pynchon_essays_luddite.html Is it OK to be a Luddite?] by Pynchon; and [http://www.themodernword.com/pynchon/paper_gibbs.html Portrait of the Artist as a Young Luddite], an essay on ''Minstral Island'', the aborted sci-fi musical written by Pynchon and future leading Luddite, Kirkpatrick Sale.

a: 52, b: 38 - '''Get in touch with Kirby through WASTE only. . . .''' 
In the author's Introduction to [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Slow_Learner '''''Slow Learner'''''], Pynchon notes:

::". . .. .Apparently I felt I had to put on a whole extra overlay of rain images and references to [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Waste_Land '''''The Waste Land'''''] and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/A_Farewell_to_Arms '''''A Farewell to Arms''''']. I was operating on the motto "Make it literary," a piece of bad advice I made up all by myself and then took. . . ."

[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/T._S._Eliot '''T. S. Eliot's'''] [http://eliotswasteland.tripod.com/ '''''The Waste Land'''''] has many connections to '''''The Crying of Lot 49'''''. First, there is [http://tinyurl.com/2odrbx '''Pynchon v. Stearns''']. See [http://tinyurl.com/2gb8aa '''''Popular Law Library'''''] and go to page 95. This is a law concerning the [http://lsr.nellco.org/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1012&context=duke/fs '''Waste Doctrine'''] in America. The [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Waste_(law) '''Wikipedia'''] article defines the legal concept of waste as:

::. . . . a term used in the law of real property to describe a cause of action that can be brought in court to address a change in condition of real property brought about by a current tenant that damages or destroys the value of that property. A lawsuit for waste can be brought against a life tenant or lessee of a leasehold estate, either by a current landlord or by the owner of a vested future interest. Please note, however, that the holder of an executory interest has no standing to enforce an action for waste, since his future interest is not vested. . . .

These laws concerning property rights and inheritance fold into the family history of the Pynchons. T . S. Eliot's Mother, [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Charlotte_Champe_Stearns '''Charlotte Champe Stearns Eliot'''], was born Charlotte Champe Stearns. Interestingly, she wrote two longish poems concerning Giordano Bruno, see page 564 of [http://books.google.com/books?id=fOdLAAAAMAAJ&pg=PP11&dq=Giordano+Bruno+Charlotte+Eliot&as_brr=1#PPA564,M1 '''Giordano Bruno in Prison''']. [http://books.google.com/books?id=yrrUkKt47SQC&printsec=frontcover&dq=Giordano+Bruno&as_brr=1#PPA2,M1 '''Giordano Bruno'''] was involved in the same [http://www.thefreedictionary.com/hermetic '''hermetic'''] circles as [http://www.johndee.org/ '''John Dee'''], and was also a scientist. According to the [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Giordano_Bruno '''Wikipedia'''] entry for Giordano Bruno:

:. . .In April 1583, he went to England with letters of recommendation from Henry III, working for the French ambassador, Michel de Castelnau. There he became acquainted with the poet Philip Sidney and with the Hermetic circle around John Dee. . .

:. . .His trial was overseen by the inquisitor Cardinal Bellarmine, who demanded a full recantation, which Bruno eventually refused. Instead he appealed in vain to Pope Clement VIII, hoping to save his life through a partial recantation. The Pope expressed himself in favor of a guilty verdict. Consequently, Bruno was declared a heretic, handed over to secular authorities on February 8 1600. At his trial he listened to the verdict on his knees, then stood up and said: "Perhaps you, my judges, pronounce this sentence against me with greater fear than I receive it." A month or so later he was brought to the Campo de' Fiori, a central Roman market square, his tongue in a gag, tied to a pole naked and burned at the stake, on February 17, 1600.

Note the echos of [http://webpage.pace.edu/rmartin/studentprojects/kbohan/studies/tragedy.htm '''The Courier's Tragedy'''] here.

Charlotte Eliot's ancestor [http://members.aol.com/dcurtin1/gene/winthrop.htm '''Issac Stearns'''], founder of the Stearns clan in America, arrived in Massachusetts Bay Colony via the Winthrop Fleet of 1630, the same year as [http://www.bio.umass.edu/biology/conn.river/pynchon.html '''William Pynchon''']. The legal decision "Pynchon v. Stearns" involved the offspring of these founding fathers a few generations down the line.

a: 52, b: 38 - '''Muted Posthorn/Sigil''' 
The visual design of the [http://content.answers.com/main/content/wp/en/4/45/MutedPosthorn.png '''Symbol'''] of the W.A.S.T.E. postal system appears to be an improvised [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sigil_(magic) '''Magical Sigil''']. Note that a number of these sigils can be found in A. E. Waite's [http://tinyurl.com/3cakdj '''Book of Black Magic'''], a work referenced in [http://gravitys-rainbow.pynchonwiki.com/wiki/index.php?title=Pages_733-735 '''Geli Tripping's love spell'''] in the author's next work, [http://gravitys-rainbow.pynchonwiki.com/wiki/index.php?title=Main_Page '''''Gravity's Rainbow''''']. The [http://www.geocities.com/xeroiii/Goetia/Amd.gif '''Seal of Amduscias'''] [found on page 218 of Weiser's 1972 reprint] appears to be the likely inspiration.

a: 53, b: 39 - '''Washington and Dallas chapters''' 
For readers in 1966, singling out Washington and Dallas might bring to mind the recent assassination of President Kennedy.

:Charles Hollander sees CoL49 as a big coded commentary on the assassination. [http://www.vheissu.info/art/art_eng_49_hollander.htm '''''Pynchon, JFK and the CIA: Magic Eye Views of The Crying of Lot 49''''']

a: 56, b: 41 - '''reconstruction of some European pleasure-casino''' 
Perhaps the Casino Hermann Goering from ''Gravity's Rainbow''?

a: 57, b: 42 - '''trimaran''' 
A multihull boat consisting of a main hull and two smaller outrigger hulls, attached to the main hull with lateral struts.

a: 57, b: 42 - '''Godzilla II''' 
There seems to be some kind of joke from somewhere that Pynchon was rumored to be writing a novel about Godzilla and Mothra at some point... More???
In a letter to his editor in the sixties, Cork Smith, as he was writing ''Gravity's Rainbow'', he spoke of also working on two other books. One was about the two
men who created the Mason/Dixon line, an easy one for us, the other was said
to be inspired by Pynchon's love of the Godzilla movies and was about a monster which came from under the ice. [Spoiler for another work]: That, if not a put-on, which TRP did not seem to do with Cork Smith, seems to be a small but real part of what became ''Against the Day''. 
In this context it is important to remember the origins of the Godzilla story.

a: 58, b: 43 - '''sfacim''' 
Italian slang, literally "semen" but also used as an insult roughly equivalent to "son of a bitch."

a: 58, b: 43 - '''Darrowlike''' 
Clarence Seward Darrow (1857 - 1938) was a famous American lawyer and leading member of the American Civil Liberties Union, best known for defending teenaged thrill killers and defending John T. Scopes in the so-called "Monkey" Trial. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Clarence_Darrow Wikipedia]

:Hollander [http://www.vheissu.info/art/art_eng_49_hollander.htm#chap_3 interprets] the mention of Darrow as proof of his theory that the Russian naval encounter described by Fallopian is a reference to the purchase of Alaska from Russia, "Seward's folly."

[[Image:jaguarxke.jpg|thumb|150px|right|a 1965 Jaguar XKE]]
a: 59, b: 43 - '''XKE''' 
The Jaguar XKE was a famous sportscar, later selected by the Museum of Modern Art in New York as the 'world's most beautiful automobile.' Some connection with mafioso Tony Jaguar?

a: 61, b: 46 - '''Lago di Pietà''' 
An actual historical event?

a: 63, b: 48 - '''The Courier's Tragedy''' 
See [[Making sense of The Courier's Tragedy]]

a: 65, b: 49 - '''civil war''' 
The English Civil War consisted of a series of armed conflicts and political machinations that took place between Parliamentarians (known as Roundheads) and Royalists (known as Cavaliers) between 1642 and 1651. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/English_Civil_War Wikipedia]

a: 66, b: 50 - '''Maenad roar of nitre's song''' 
In Greek mythology, Maenads were female worshippers of Dionysus, the Greek god of mystery, wine and intoxication, and the Roman god Bacchus. The word literally translates as "raving ones". They were known as wild, insane women who could not be reasoned with. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Maenads Wikipedia] In Euripides' Bacchae, some of the women are voluntary worshippers of the god, strike the earth for milk, wine, and honey, hunt and tear apart wild animals, eating the flesh raw (sparagmos); the women of Thebes are driven mad as a punishment, however, for not giving the god (from Thebes itself originally, his mother being a Theban princess) full respect. The boy-king Pentheus' own mother tears him apart in a grotesque distortion of the "real" maenads' practice of "sparagmos". Dionysus himself is torn apart (and reborn) in some versions of the story.

Niter or nitre is the mineral form of potassium nitrate, KNO3, also known as saltpeter, an essential ingredient of gunpowder.

a: 66, b: 50 - '''cantus firmus''' 
In music, a cantus firmus ("fixed song") is a pre-existing melody forming the basis of a polyphonic composition, often set apart by being played in long notes. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cantus_firmus Wikipedia]

a: 66, b: 50 - '''Thurn und Taxis''' 
The Princely House of Thurn and Taxis (German: Das Fürstenhaus Thurn und Taxis) is a German family that was a key player in the postal (mail) services in Europe in the 16th century and is well known as owners of breweries and builders of countless castles. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thurn_and_Taxis Wikipedia] Also noteworthy is Rainer Maria Rilke's dedication of [http://homestar.org/bryannan/duino.html '''Duineser Elegien'''] to Princess Maria von Thurn in whose castle Rilke wrote the elegies. Excerpts from the elegies appear in ''GR''.

a: 67, b: 51 - '''aqua regia''' 
Aqua regia (Latin for "royal water") is a highly corrosive mixture of nitric acid and hydrochloric acid. It is one of the few reagents that dissolves gold and platinum. It was so named because it can dissolve the so-called royal, or noble metals. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aqua_regia Wikipedia]

a: 73, b: 57 - '''blank verse''' 
Blank verse is a type of poetry, distinguished by having a regular meter, but no rhyme. In English, the meter most commonly used with blank verse has been iambic pentameter. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blank_verse Wikipedia]

a: 75, b: 59 - '''picket the V.A.''' 
Veteran's Administration, probably.

a: 76, b: 59 - '''Young Republican''' 
Young Republicans is the name of an organization for members of the Republican Party of the United States between the ages of 18 and 40. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Young_Republicans Wikipedia]

a: 76, b: 59 - '''Hap Harrigan comics''' 
Hap Harrigan was a character in the 1931 film, [http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0021973/ The Hot Heiress] (IMDB), but Weisenburger and Grant believe that Pynchon may have meant Hop Harrigan, a comic strip and radio character from the 1940s.

a: 79, b: 62 - '''I'm the projector of the planetarium''' 
This reference to creation recalls the Remedios Varo painting in Chapter 1, in which the girls in the tower weave the world. Cf. "Shall I project a world?" from this novel.

{{CL49 PbP}}

Chapter 2

2007-12-11T18:44:12Z

Gelitripping:

{{CL49 PbP Text}}
 

a: 23, b: 13 - '''Sick Dick and the Volkswagens''' 
Fictional, but a 1970s New York City punk band adopted the name. [http://black2com.blogspot.com/2006/03/black-to-comm-back-issue-update-hey-ya.html] "I Want to Kiss Your Feet" no doubt an allusion to the 1963 Beatles hit, "I Want to Hold Your Hand." Might this mean that Pynchon was fond of the Beatles but "did not believe in" them?

Note that the series of events in ''Dick'' Wharfinger's "''sick''" play (Chapter 3) are also set in motion by an act of foot kissing.

a: 24, b: 14 - '''printed circuit''' 
Many people have undoubtedly seen civilization from a plane or high place and been reminded of a circuit board, but this description is probably one of, if not the first time it's been set down in American fiction.

a: 25, b: 14 - '''believe in his job''' 
There's a dense thicket of religious allusions here, a collection and co-grouping of the spiritual and the technological that rivals the [http://www.georgeharrison.de/Beatles%20Avedon%20Poster%20Set%202.jpg '''Beatles'''] [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tomorrow_Never_Knows '''Tomorow Never Knows'''], a tune released about the same time [http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,901889,00.html '''''The Crying of Lot 49'''''] first appeared on bookshelves, in that odd religious instant we now know as the [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Sandals '''Summer of 1966'''], the last moments when [http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,899158,00.html '''LSD'''] was still [http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,876484,00.html '''Legal''']. Take a close gander at the religious/spiritual terms on this page, how close this constellation swirling around the Revelation in progress all around her aligns to the nascent [http://www.hippy.com/article-243.html '''Hippie Movement''']:

::. . . .'''''a hieroglyphic sense of concealed meaning'''''
::. . . .'''''a revelation also trembled just past the threshold of her understanding'''''
::. . . .'''''an odd, religious instant'''''
::. . . .'''''with movements stylized as the handling of chrism, censer, chalice'''''
::. . . .'''''voices, voices, the music, its message, surrounded by it, digging it, as were all the faithful it went out to'''''

. . . .all reflected in this [http://cahighways.org/maps/1963routes.jpg '''Map'''] of the [http://personales.ya.com/ejmills/radio_pages/radio/images/dansette222_2.jpg '''Transistor Radio's'''] [http://people.msoe.edu/~reyer/regency/schematic.jpg '''Circuit Board'''], a map that somehow matches the [http://tinyurl.com/3cqkk4 '''Visible Landscape'''] of the [http://www.upa.pdx.edu/IMS/currentprojects/TAHv3/Content/Conservation/JPGS/LA_Smog_Aerial.jpg '''Infected City''']. Note how messages are constantly distorted throughout ''The Crying of Lot 49''. The mode of distorted communication for the revelation in progress all around [http://cl49.pynchonwiki.com/wiki/index.php?title=Chapter_6 '''Edna Mosh'''] being the [http://tinyurl.com/378qzn '''Pocket Sized Portable Transistor Radio'''], a media revolution very much analogous to the emergence of the [http://www.media-visions.com/itv-fox.html '''Talkies'''] in the late '20's, and the current [2007] [http://www.insideretailing.com.au/articles-page.aspx?articleType=ArticleView&articleId=1863 '''I-Pod''']. All these major shifts in audio media have their own distinct sonic qualities, a distinct [http://tinyurl.com/2hl3mk '''Sound'''] akin to a musical instrument's [http://cnx.org/content/m11059/latest/ '''Timbre'''].

::Typical [http://meduci.com/amx2000.html '''AM Radio Sound]''' hardly exceeds 3,000 Hertz -- with audio fidelity that is typical of a telephone line connection -- perhaps ideally suited for news and talk program formats, however not for programing high quality music formats. Many receiver manufacturers intentionally reduce audio bandwidth in their product offerings, to decrease interference from closely spaced AM stations. Another reason for the super narrow audio frequency response is the high frequency noise caused by the disregard for any R.F amplifier stage. Dropping this R.F amplifier stage contributes to further cost savings in the product. Restricted audio bandwidth causes "muddy" music to be reproduced. It is not the medium, it is these lackluster radio designs that are to blame for this muddy sound

We are led to understand that while Mucho is aware that there is some sort of revelation in progress, it is a revelation that Mucho Maas is not yet privy to. As of this moment in the book, Mucho is not a 'believer' in that movement, but things can always change, see page a; 117, b; 143 [http://cl49.pynchonwiki.com/wiki/index.php?title=Chapter_6 '''She Loves You'''].

Note as well the echo of [http://www.tonykline.co.uk/PITBR/German/Rilke.htm#_Toc509812215 '''Rilke'''] contained on this page:

:::'''''Voices, voices. Hear then, my heart, as only'''''
:::'''''saints have heard: so that the mighty call'''''
:::'''''raised them from the earth: they, though, knelt on'''''
:::'''''impossibly and paid no attention:'''''
:::'''''such was their listening. Not that you could withstand'''''
:::'''''God’s voice: far from it.'''''

----

Echoes the "believe in" language from two pages back. Pynchon is drawing a metaphor between "believing in" a band and "believing in" a job. 
'
"Believing in" here seems to mean something like identifying with; being one with (sorta); not being alienated from. Which seems thematic to the mystery
within the story.

a: 25, b: 14 - '''religious instant''' 
May be a stretch, but Pynchon's works seem to have many such "religious instants," in which a character experiences a flood of ideas and emotions in just a few moments. [[Talk:Chapter_2|Further discussion]]

a: 25, b: 15 - '''giants of the aerospace industry''' 
Pynchon worked as a technical writer at Boeing from 1960-62.

a: 26, b: 15 - '''horse''' 
Heroin.

a: 26, b: 17 - '''the Paranoids''' 
Some fan has made a mock-up of what a CD by The Paranoids might look like, [http://www.entropic-empire.com/cds/paranoids.html here].

Geli Tripping sez: "I think the Paranoids are a pastische of various record deals the author overheard from Richard Farina, the [http://www.pandora.com/?tc=x-036823-0035-1149&?searchFilter=artist&search=The+Byrds Byrds] were making demos for World Pacific in 1964, the Paranoids appear to be modeled on the Byrds more than anything else. Note as well TRP's fondness for the Beach Boys. The Beatles have a seriously silly Let it Be outtake as 'Los Paranoias.'"

a: 30, b: 19 - '''Gallipoli''' 
The Battle of Gallipoli took place at Gallipoli from April 1915 to December 1915 during the First World War. A joint British and French operation was mounted in an effort to eventually capture the Ottoman capital of Constantinople (Istanbul). The attempt failed, with heavy casualties on both sides. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_Gallipoli Wikipedia]

a: 31, b: 20 - '''hierophany''' 
Physical manifestation of the holy or sacred. This manifestation can be in many forms, often in symbols or rituals. An example of a hierophany would be an apparition or image appearing on a window bearing resemblance to the virgin Mary.

a: 31, b: 20 - '''Book of the Dead''' 
ancient Egyptian funerary text used by the ancient Egyptians as a set of instructions for the afterlife. Not all the spells were used for every burial; some depended on wealth and status. Some spells were gifts to the gods, while other were used so the person could walk, a spell for not dying again in the afterlife, and even a spell 'For preventing a man from going upside down and from eating feces' [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Book_of_the_Dead Wikipedia]

Also a reference to the [http://near-death.com/experiences/buddhism01.html '''''Bardo Thodol'''''], or [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bardo_Thodol '''''Tibetan Book of the Dead'''''], a text [http://www.randychase.com/leary_1.htm '''Timothy Leary''']:

::I was tremendously influenced by Thomas Pynchon whose book, "Gravity’s Rainbow," I think, is the Bible of the information and communication age. Naturally, it’s underestimated and ignored, because it’s so powerful, and because he won’t play the game. . . .
found invaluable in exploring the [http://tinyurl.com/337xqe '''''The Psychedelic Experience''''']. In turn, this rediscovered material from the [http://www.lib.virginia.edu/small/exhibits/dead/otherworld.html '''''Tibetan Book of the Dead'''''] influenced the [http://www.egodeath.com/johnlennonhelp.htm '''Beatles'''] on their first track recorded for the LP [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Revolver_(album) '''Revolver'''], [http://everything2.com/index.pl?node=Tomorrow%20Never%20Knows '''Tomorrow Never Knows.]

<div id="single_up_all_lines">a: 31, b: 20 - '''singling up all lines</div>
Pynchon was in the Navy for a spell and "single up all lines" is a common nautical term. Ships are docked with lines doubled -- that is, with two sets of ropes or chains holding the vessel to the dock. To "single up all lines" is to remove the redundant second lines in preparation to make way.

Pynchon uses this term in almost all his novels, notably as the first sentence of [http://against-the-day.pynchonwiki.com/wiki/ ''Against the Day.''] For more, see [http://against-the-day.pynchonwiki.com/wiki/index.php?title=ATD_1-25#Page_3 ATD, page 3].

a: 33, b: 21 - '''a cash nexus''' 
a phrase of Karl Marx that refers to the way interpersonal relations in a
(Capitalist) society are 'reduced' to economic relationships.

a: 33, b: 22 - '''Manni di Presso''' 
Manic depression?

a: 36, b: 24 - '''Botticelli''' 
Botticelli is a guessing game which requires the players to have a good knowledge of biographical details of famous people. The game has several variants, but the common theme is that one person or team thinks of a famous person, reveals their initial letter, and then answers yes/no questions to allow other players to guess the identity. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Botticelli_%28game%29 Wikipedia]

{{CL49 PbP}}