Chapter 7: 58-76
Contents
Page 58
sepia-shadow'd
sepia: NOUN: 1a. A dark brown ink or pigment originally prepared from the secretion of the cuttlefish. b. A drawing or picture done in this pigment. c. A photograph in a brown tint. 2. A dark grayish yellow brown to dark or moderate olive brown.
ADJECTIVE: 1. Of the color sepia. 2. Done or made in sepia.
Orwell uses this phrase about street shadows--like tea-- in Keep the Aspidistra Flying.
Herren XVII
Modern Dutch spelling "de Heeren XVII," the 17 Lords, board of governors of the V.O.C.
When the Herren XVII ordered the Cape government in 1717 to stop granting land in freehold ... heard by the Herren XVII—who ruled in their favor in 1706, ...
Eighteenth Lord... never be acknowledg'd
Here is what Pynchon may be meaning, as I piece it together. An expert on Holland or The East India Company can correct this. The Dutch East India Company really ran Holland at this time, until 1815 when the British took it back. So, the Eighteenth Lord who was Lord of Holland, had no power, no acknowledged existence. The Eighteenth Lord was:
Lord Forbes is a title in the Peerage of Scotland. It was created in circa 1444 for Alexander Forbes, feudal Baron of Forbes... His [descendant], the eighteenth Lord, fought at the Battle of Waterloo in 1815. Wikipedia
Okay, so the DEIC never "ran Holland." The British never "took Holland back in 1815, that is when the United Kingdom of the Netherlands took Halland back from Napolean. Since the book is taking place in the 1760s it is unlikely that "The eighteenth lord referrs to anyone in the future. This is not a time-travel novel.
V.O.C.
Vereenigde Oostindische Compagnie, the Dutch East India Company.
Page 59
Slaves
Pynchon appears to have cast around for a politically correct subtheme for the Capetown episodes, and picked slavery for want of anything more Pynchonian
He picks slavery because it is the underbelly of the enlightenment. It is the centeral rift that forms along the Mason-Dixon Line, and it is the paradox of America, i.e. libery for some. What could be more Pynchonian than that?
set against
Imperialist strategy of divide-and-conquer.
Page 60
Droster
???
Vroom
vroo*
Jethro's Tent
???
Nimrods
???
Page 61
Fascination
Pynchon needed a personality-contrast between M and D, and chose (arbitarily?) to make M melancholy but charismatic (cf Byron?) and Dixon the opposite. It's hard to see from TRP's descriptions what women see in M.
The Journal of Charles Mason and Jeremiah Dixon is full of passages where Mason's normally scientific writtings give way to poetic and gothic images of ghosts and devils. In the Journals he frequents massacre sites.
Portable Soup... Slabs
An extremely reduced meat stock (not freeze-dried, just boiled down and then dried) in cakes or slabs. Heat in a pan of water and you have soup. Most users regarded it as a necessity rather than a pleasure.
Emerson... Darlington Market
???
Page 62
Kezia
???
Kerenhappuch
???
Page 63
Imp from Hell
Cf. Imp allusions and Poe story cited. Three uses so far in M & D. Here Eels impulsiveness is an apt allusion to impishness, overstated as in speech.
Rattle-Watch
the rattle watch, appointed at the request of the burghers to relieve them of night-watch duty.
"First, the said rattle watch shall be held to appear at the burghers' guard house after the ringing of the nine o'clock bell and together at ten o'clock shall begin making their rounds, giving notice of their presence in all the streets of the village by sounding their rattle and calling [out the hour], and this every hour of the night, until 4 o'clock in the morning. From an Orange County decree, 1859 online.
English Tea-Pot
Free associating, Mason to English to English tea to teapot?
"I'm a little tea-pot, short and stout" allusion? Old song.
Page 64
Vrou
Dutch: lady, woman, wife. Vroom Vroom!
cackling
1. To make the shrill cry characteristic of a hen after laying an egg.
2. To laugh or talk in a shrill manner.
Often said of "witches".
fatally but not yet mortally
fatally: with fatal consequences or implications; "he was fatally ill
equipped for the climb"
mortally: fatal 'unto death"--to an extreme.
American Heritage Dictionary
Is the economics behind slavery what TRP is getting at here through Austra?
Page 65
Dagga
A drug. It consists of dry khaki-green leaves, twigs and pips. It is usually sold to the public in the form of a "stoo" (dagga rolled into a small packet) or a cigarette called a zol, stick, reefer, skyf or joint. It smells and looks quite different from a tobacco cigarette. It is estimated that the drug dagga has been with us since 1 000 BC.
Page 66
dorsal 'Scape
Dorsal landscape = shapely rear end.
five Sprites
The women?
Asian parlor-game
???
Page 67
Indifference-Draught
Traditionally saltpetre. Mason wants a drug to reduce his libido.
Anaphrodisiac
Page 68
the wrongs committed daily...invisible, yet possessing mass and velocity
Cf. gravity in GR and mass in ATD. Very Pychonesque motif and phrasing here.
need to keep the Ghost propitiated
see the ghosts and major dark spirit in ATD.
keep to the margins
Dixon stays where Pynchon's valued characters live. See "Low-Lands" and passim in other works.
This paragraph is so fine in expressing a kind
of place beyond all the ways of being mapped, known, predicted, so to speak. Off the grid, so to speak. Where some anarchists argue we should strive to be. Another deep Pynchon theme.
Page 69
Velleity
NOUN: Inflected forms: pl. vel·le·i·ties
1. Volition at its lowest level. 2. A mere wish or inclination.
ETYMOLOGY: New Latin velleits, from Latin velle, to wish. American heritage Dictionary
Rix-Dollar
Reichsdollar, a Dutch coin.
German Reichsthaler, Dutch Rijksdaalder; current throughout the European colonies.
Dutch Company which is ev'rywhere & ev'rything
East India Company pervades as "[the Deists']God?"--Dixon
Late Blow
Mason suggests Dixon threw an illegal punch with that last metaphor comparing the East India Company with God.
Butter-Bag Castle
A current meaning of butter-bag seems to be a purse or larger bag made of
leather as soft as butter. Doesn't seem to fit contextually.
Page 70
karis
The word was later adapted into English as curries.'
Senoi
This tribe is/was real, although I did not think they were known about until the later age of anthropological study. They did share dreams and conquered their fears this way. If a child had a dream of falling, say, when shared with all, the adults would tell him to just fly next time--and he would. Their dream life was incorporates into their whole life and they were a happy, contented people. Researching.
Page 71
Routs
See especially in this context definition #5--a fashionable gathering
rout (rout)
n. 1A)A disorderly retreat or flight following defeat.
1B)An overwhelming defeat.
2A) A disorderly crowd of people; a mob. 2B) People of the lowest class; rabble. 3) A public disturbance; a riot. 4) A company, as of knights or wolves, that are in movement. See synonyms at flock 1. 5) A fashionable gathering. tr.v., rout·ed, rout·ing, routs.
Ridottoes
The ridotto was a space behind the theatres, much like a foyer, where visitors of all layers of society mingled and engaged in discussion, gambling, or other spirited forms of entertainment. Most visitors wore masks. It was the famous black and white bauta which made recognition virtually impossible. Started in Venice.
In all of the approximately 20 ridotti of Venice, gambling was the main activity. Young aristocrats sold their military duty to poor souls in need of money. Servants, poets, flower girls, singers, merchants, foreign visitors, and dignitaries all passed through the ridotto. Casanova praised the beautiful women, playwright Goldoni found willing listeners to his fantastic stories in the ridotto. The painters Longhi, Guardi, and Tiepolo all found inspiration in the dark-lit establishments.
Page 72
Blight
A direct address use of this verb as a noun to describe Dixon ruining [blighting] Mason's fantasies with common-sense.
terre mauvais
badlands. GR: terre mauvais: "badlands" 87
Page 73
Spanish Inquisitors
equated with [all] 'Authorities'!
two Punches in a Droll-booth
As in Punch-and-Judy slapstick puppets.
Jesuits... Invisible College
philosophical riff on whether M & D are "free" or controlled by others, Jesuits, Dixon and the Invisible College, Mason.
The Invisible College was a precursor to the Royal Society of United Kingdom. It consisted of a group of scientists including Robert Boyle, John Wilkins, John Wallis, John Evelyn, Robert Hooke, Christopher Wren and William Petty. In letters in 1646 and 1647, Boyle refers to "our invisible college" or "our philosophical college". The society's common theme was to acquire knowledge through experimental investigation.[1]
The idea of an invisible college became influential in seventeenth century Europe, in particular, in the form of a network of savants or intellectuals exchanging ideas (by post, as it would have been understood at the time). The invisible college idea is exemplified by the network of astronomers, professors, mathematicians, and natural philosophers in 16th century Europe. Men such as Johannes Kepler, Georg Joachim Rheticus, John Dee and Tycho Brahe passed information and ideas to each other in an invisible college. One of the most common methods used to communicate was through annotations written in personal copies of books that were loaned, given, or sold from person to person.
Nervus Probandi
nervus probandi (L): the crux of the argument; the most conclusive and decisive proof
Mr. Peach
???
Spotted Cubes
Dice.
Sector Wallah
"Wallah," in British India, a specialist or tradesman. Sector Wallah, the person in charge of the Sector.
Page 74
Stuffata
???
dating back to Walpole
???
Clive
Clive of India.
Maskelyne
Reverend Dr Nevil Maskelyne. Astronomer, Lunarian, enimy of John Harrison, 5th Astronomer Royal.
Robert Waddington
???
Bleak
???
Piggotts... A long stare
???
Page 75
Bodkin
???
History is the Dance of our Hunt for Christ
Nice.
