Thomas Pynchon Wiki - User contributions [en]

Chapter 1: 5-11

2022-11-08T03:15:33Z

Jkvannort: /* Page 7 */ tense agreement

==Page 3==

'''Latitudes and Departures''' 
Portmanteau of 'latitudes and longitudes' with 'arrivals and departures'.

==Page 5==
'''Snow-Balls have flown their Arcs''' 
In [http://gravitys-rainbow.pynchonwiki.com/wiki ''Gravity's Rainbow''], the arc - or the parabola - always had a sinister implication. In the title alone, the "Rainbow" of "Gravity" is the trajectory of a rocket. An arc is the precursor to utter destruction. Here, Pynchon's first image is again the image of a projectile, flying in a parabolic trajectory -- only this time, it is a snowball thrown by a child. This sets the tone of the whole novel, in the first sentence.

One possible interpretation of this beautiful opening, concerning the 'snow-balls', is that it is a sly reference to the recent (assumed) ending of the Cold War, i.e. that the Cold War is over now ("snow-balls have flown their Arcs"), and that it was all a game, a charade.

'''[capitalization]''' 
At first there seems to be no discernible pattern: caps seem accented to be rhythmically stressed, as in reading poetry.

Uncapitalised nouns in the first paragraph include: shoes, slaps, afternoon, rear, years, table, side-benches, branch, family.

Capitalised abstract nouns include: Arcs, Sides, Descent, Dither, Fly.

The pattern: Significant nouns, reflective of the Germanic roots of Old English. To this day all nouns are capitalized in German, and it was still normal to capitalise nouns in early 18th century English writing - Robinson Crusoe contains a bare handful of uncapitalised nouns, apparently overlooked by the typographer.

By the later 18th century the more familiar nouns - household and familiar objects, indeterminate nouns and those requiring less emphasis when read aloud - were left uncapitalised.

There is a tangential grammatical advantage in that it helps discriminate homonyms - secret is an adjective, Secret is a noun, venture is a verb, Venture is a noun.

'''mis-matche'd side-benches....Lancaster County" 
Lancaster County is one place where wood craftsmen like the Shakers and the Amish settled. Suggests handmade individual pieces?

'''a sinister and wonderful Card Table [which has a grain called] Wand’ring Heart, causing an illusion of Depth into which for years children have gaz’d as into the illustrated Pages of Books.''' 
Obviously, with this simile, Pynchon links the table to books. This invites the reader to see the entire description of the table as an example of the common postmodernist technique of ''mise-en-abyme'', (literally, “placing into infinity”). Basically, a writer uses this technique to summarise or encapsulate a theme or aim of the entire novel. Thus, in this instance, the reader is invited to see ''Mason & Dixon'' itself as possessing “an illusion of Depth […] with so many hinges, sliding Mortises, hidden catches, and secret compartments that neither the twins nor their Sister [nor the reader] can say they have been to the end of it.” That it is specifically a ''card'' table suggests the ludic or playful quality so often recognised in Pynchon’s fiction. The text of ''Mason and Dixon'' itself, perhaps, is a table upon which the reader plays.

==Page 6==
'''Christmastide of 1786''' 
sometime between December 25 and January 6. 'This Advent' further down the page, suggests before Christmas Day.

'''City today might be an Isle upon an Ocean''' 
Cf. the Earth in [http://against-the-day.pynchonwiki.com/wiki ''Against the Day'']: World-Island.

'''and the Nation bickering itself into fragments''' 
America then was, politically, a "Nation" of states, each with their own laws, agendas and even currency. In the following year, 1787, a "national" convention was called for. That convention was gathered merely to revise the earlier Articles of Confederation but chose instead to abandon the articles in favor of a completely new document. The Constitution, of course. On [[1787#September|September]] 17, 1787, the Constitution was finished in Philadelphia and Benjamin Franklin urged unanimous acceptance by all the states.

'''"Mischianza"''' 
From [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mischianza Wikipedia]:

The Mischianza (Italian for a medley or mixture), or Meschianza, was an elaborate fête given in honor of British General Sir William Howe in Philadelphia on May 18, 1778. Howe, the commander-in-chief of the British forces in America during the early years of the Revolution, had resigned his post and was about to return to England. The ball was thrown by his corps of officers, who put up a sum of 3,312 guineas to pay for it. The events, which were planned by Captain John André and John Montresor, included a regatta along the Delaware River, accompanied by three musical bands and a 17-gun salute by British warships, a procession, a tournament of jousting knights, and a ball and banquet with fireworks display. The site was Walnut Grove, the rural seat of Joseph Wharton of the great Philadelphia Whartons.

The crowd of over 400 guests included Admiral of the Fleet Richard Lord Howe, the general's brother; General Henry Clinton, commandant at New York and Howe's replacement; Peggy Shippen, future wife of Benedict Arnold; Peggy Chew, daughter of Benjamin Chew; Rebecca Franks, daughter of loyalist David Franks; Lord Cathcart; Banastre Tarleton; and Wilhelm von Knyphausen, Hessian general.

'''Nerve-Lines''' 
1. A line or place at which two things are joined. 2. Anatomy- a. A tract of nerve fibers passing from one side to the other of the spinal cord or brain. b. The point or surface where two parts, such as the eyelids, lips, or cardiac valves, join or form a connection. 3. Botany- The surface or place along which two structures, such as carpels, are joined. Also "commissure". American Heritage Dictionary

'''Northern Liberties''' 
located north of Center City (specifically, Old City) and is bordered by Girard Avenue to the north and the Delaware River to the east.
The district first gained limited autonomy from the township by an Act of Assembly on March 9, 1771. The Act provided for the appointment of persons to regulate streets, direction of buildings, etc. By March 30, 1791 a second Act enabled the inhabitants of a portion of the Northern Liberties to lay taxes for the purpose of lighting, watching and establishing pumps within those bounds. Wikipedia, excerpted.

'''Spring Garden''' 
Spring Garden District is a defunct district that was located in Philadelphia County, Pennsylvania. The district ceased to exist and was incorporated into the City of Philadelphia following the passage of the Act of Consolidation, 1854. Spring Garden appears in Varie’s map of 1796 as a small settlement between Vine Street and Buttonwood Lane.

'''Germantown''' 
Germantown was originally the Borough of Germantown, a town in Philadelphia County, Pennsylvania and is today a neighborhood in Philadelphia, about six miles northwest from the center of the city. The neighborhood has been fully built up as a part of an urban city, but is rich in historic sites and buildings that have been preserved. Many of these are open to the public. Germantown stretches for about two miles along Germantown Avenue northwest "though there is no universally recognized exact boundary".

'''as impossible to calculate... as the Distance to a Star''' 
Because of the very small changes in parallax involved, start distances were not calculable until 1838, by which time the instruments were sensitive enough to measure it . 
The statement ignores that Sun is also a star; from the Transit of Venus data from 1761 and 1769, Lalande got a figure of 153 million kilometres (±1 million km), only 2.27% off the correct value of 149,597,870,691 ± 30 metres

[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Transit_of_Venus Transit of Venus]
[http://www.astro.virginia.edu/~rjp0i/museum/astrometry History of Astrometry]

'''Wicks Cherrycoke''' 
An ancestor of Gravity's Rainbow's Ronald Cherrycoke perhaps?

==Page 7==

'''Boppo''' 
Just a descriptive word like "Bam!" or "Pow!"

'''Winter's Block and Blade''' 
Block and Blade could just as well be synecdoche, alluding to the Guillotine [more likely execution by beheading with an axe, the guillotine has no block], and implying that the harsh Winter would mean Cherrycoke's death. A 'block' is also the heavy composite wooden table used by butchers.

Compare 'the knives of the seasons', used twice as a metaphor for decay in GR (first on p5).

'''An Herodotic Web of Adventures and Curiosities selected''' 
The density and web-like nature of Herodotus’s The ''Histories'' closely resembles Pynchon’s ''Mason & Dixon''. Herodotus lived in a time of transition, and would have composed his history before Socrates, Plato and Aristotle interrogated commonplace assumptions about the world and asserted their own unifying (and totalising) philosophies. His status as pre-Socratic perhaps mirrors Pynchon’s own as post-Enlightenment. Herodotus's method is to present numerous truths which, according to J. Evans, would probably have been composed from memory (''Herodotus''. 17). This led to him being demonised in the ancient (and, following their example, modern) world as being a greater writer of fiction than non-fiction, first implicitly (though transparently) by Thucydides in ''The Peloponnesian Wars'', and second explicitly (though clumsily) by Plutarch in ''The Malice of Herodotus''.

Plurality, multiplicity, heterogeneity are epithets commonly applied to both Pynchon and Herodotus. Herodotus also mirrors Pynchon in his use of the fantastic. As mentioned above, his fabulist anecdotes, such as the "great ants, in size somewhat less than dogs, but bigger than foxes" that dig gold and eat camels (Herodotus 3. 102-4), have led to Herodotus being branded the father of lies rather than the father of history, the label given to him by Cicero. A more rigorous reading of the two texts side by side will undoubtedly uncover greater and deeper associations.

'''Tenebrae''' 
Darkness (Latin). It also refers to a Christian church ritual commemorating Christ’s death. It begins with light and ends in total darkness – perhaps like the novel? It is certainly reminiscent of theories of entropy, prominent in The Crying of Lot 49, and used so often by critics to elucidate Pynchon's novels. In some versions of the service, the Church is gradually stripped of icons, ending in total plainness.

'''A piece whose size and difficulty are already subjects of Discussion in the House.''' 
Needlework is also used self-referentially in [http://cl49.pynchonwiki.com/wiki ''The Crying of Lot 49''].

'''Jabot''' 
A Jabot is a ruffle on the front of a woman's blouse or a man's shirt.

'''Darby and Cope''' 
These are the actual names of the Mason and Dixon's "chainmen" on the expedition. Darby is a character name repeated in [http://against-the-day.pynchonwiki.com/wiki ''Against the Day''].

==Page 8==

'''Secret Relation''' 
His private journal. (relation = narrative or account [http://www.answers.com/relation&r=67 def])

==Page 9==
'''Dick Turpin''' 
Richard Turpin (bapt. 21 September 1705 – 7 April 1739) was an English highwayman whose exploits were romanticised following his execution in York for horse theft. Turpin may have followed his father's trade as a butcher early in his life but, by the early 1730s, he had joined a gang of deer thieves and, later, became a poacher, burglar, horse thief and killer. He is also known for a fictional 200-mile (320 km) overnight ride from London to York on his horse Black Bess, a story that was made famous by the Victorian novelist William Harrison Ainsworth almost 100 years after Turpin's death.

'''The crime of "Anonymity"...Gaol...Exile''' 
With this description of the Rev's 'crime' of exposing power with the intention of being anonymous, and seeking exile as a way of avoiding prison, there is an implication that Cherrycoke's voice is Pynchon himself.

It also a very Foucauldian statement. In "What is an Author", Foucault points out that “In our culture […] discourse was not originally a product, a thing […] it was essentially an act.” Literary texts used to be valorised without there being any question of an author; rather, in the middle ages it was the medical texts that were given the status of authorship. This state of affairs was reversed around the 17th-18th centuries, contemporary to Cherrycoke's supposed misdemeanours, which perhaps helps us explain Pynchon's inclusion of the story here.

==Page 10==

'''my name had never been my own''' 
Bestowed by 'Authorities', there is the implication in the following lines that one is "owned"---like a collar around one's neck---by those authorities.

'''entire loss of Self, perfect union with All''' 
Satirizing certain Eastern religious beliefs? Or embracing them?

'''Captain (John) Smith, of The Seahorse''' 
[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/HMS_Seahorse_%281748%29 HMS Seahorse] was a 24-gun sixth-rate frigate of the Royal Navy, launched in 1748. She is perhaps most famous as the ship on which a young Horatio Nelson served as a midshipman in 1773. Captain James Smith took command of it in October 1758.

A Captain John Smith wrote An Accidence, or the Path-Way to Experience(1626) and offered elemenatary instruction on seamanship in Sea Grammar (1627) an enlarged version of the first book. Cited in a footnote to The Tempest, Arden edition. A different Captain Smith (Captain Edward John Smith) was at the helm of the RMS Titanic on its only voyage.

'''Keep away from harmful Substances, in particular Coffee, Tobacco, and Indian Hemp. If you must use the latter, do not inhale.''' 
A clear reference to Bill Clinton's oft-quoted statement that he had tried marijuana in his youth, but "did not inhale."

==Page 11==

'''midwatch''' 
Under the naval watch system, the middle watch or midwatch is between 0000 and 0400.

'''Jean Crapaud''' 
Literally, John Toad - but in British parlance 'Johnny Frog'.

==Annotation Index==

{{MD PbP}}

Chapter 5: 42-46

2022-11-08T02:29:21Z

Jkvannort: /* Page 45 */ Replaced faulty link with new link to same pdf.

==Page 42==

'''Him so strange...All that Coal-mining, I guess''' 
The joke is that Mason is referring to God and Dixon thinks he means the Devil.

==Page 43==

'''Raby Meeting''' 

The Quakers (Society of Friends) do not have churches, only 'Meeting Houses' - So Raby Meeting is the congregation.

==Page 45==
'''In swift reply comes a Letter of Reproach and Threat from the Royal Society''' 
Much of the back and forth correspondence is available [https://www.mdlpp.org/_files/ugd/6f029b_1e1f89b3705f4a2e99383ad41a804c49.pdf here.]

From the RS letter:
"Resolved unanimously, That the Council are extremely surprised at their declining to
pursue their Voyage to Bencoolen and which they have solemnly undertaken; and have
actually received several sums of money upon account of their expences, and in earnest
of performing their contract.
That their refusal to proceed upon this voyage after their having so publickly and
notoriously ingaged in it, will be a Reproach to the Nation in General, to the Royal
Society in particular, and more especially and fatally to themselves: And that, after the
Crown has been graciously and generously pleased to encourage this undertaking by a
grant of money towards carrying it on; and the Lords of Admiralty to fit out a ship of
war, on purpose to carry these gentlemen to Bencoolen; and after the expectation of this
and various other nations has been raised, to attend the event of their voyage; their
declining it at this critical juncture, when it is too late to supply their Places, cannot fail
to bring an indelible scandal upon their character and probably end in their utter Ruin.
That in case they shall persist in their refusal, or volun-tarily frustrate the end and
disappoint the Intention of their Voyage, or take any steps to thwart it, they may assure
themselves of being treated by the Council with the most inflexible Resentment, and
prosecuted with the utmost Severity of Law."

'''As if...there were no single Destiny''' 
This paragraph echoes a common them in Pynchon's work, the collapsing of many possible realities into a single Reality through time, a concept that is also echoed in [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Quantum_mechanics quantum mechanics] with the [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wave_function_collapse collapse of the wave function], where a haze of possibilities is collapsed into a single state when observed. Or alternatively, as the [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Many_worlds_interpretation "many-worlds interpretation" of quantum mechanics] would have it, perhaps there isn't a collapse into one single reality, but each possiblity continues to form a thread in an infinity of realized outcomes.

This theme is revisited numerous times in ''M & D'', with reality either collapsing or diverging:

* "the event not yet 'reduc'd to certainty' ([[17: 175-182#Page 177|p. 177]])
* "Transition between Two Worlds" ([[17: 175-182#Page 180|p. 180]])
* "Or let us postulate two Dixons, then, one in an unmoving Stupor throughout, the other, for Simplicity, assum'd to've ridden [...] out to Nelson's Ferry" ([[39: 391-398#Page 393|p. 393]])
* "I myself did stumble [...] into that very Whirlpool in Time, finding myself in September third, 1752 [...] as ev'ryone else mov'd on to the Fourteenth of September." ([[56: 554-561#Page 556|p. 556]])
* "Suppose that Mason and Dixon and their Line cross Ohio after all..." ([[73: 706-713#Page 706|p. 706]])

On [[Chapter_26:_257-265#Page_258|page 258]], Pynchon uses the nautical term "single up all lines" in what could be interpreted as a metaphor for the reduction of many lines into a single line. "Single up all lines" also appears in [http://v.pynchonwiki.com/wiki/index.php?title=Chapter_1#single_up_all_lines ''V.'', p.11]; [http://cl49.pynchonwiki.com/wiki/index.php?title=Chapter_2#single_up_all_lines ''The Crying of Lot 49'', p.31]; [http://gravitys-rainbow.pynchonwiki.com/wiki/index.php?title=Pages_488-491#single_up_all_lines ''Gravity's Rainbow'', p.489]; and [[Chapter_26:_257-265#Page_258|''Mason & Dixon'', pp.258 and 260]]; and [http://against-the-day.pynchonwiki.com/wiki/index.php?title=ATD_1-25#Page_3 ''Against the Day''] where Pynchon deploys the term as both a positive ("Cheerily now [...] Prepare to cast her off!") and a negative (cattle "rationalized into movement only in straight lines and at right angles and a progressive reduction of choices, until the final turn through the final gate that led to the killing-floor"). ([http://against-the-day.pynchonwiki.com/wiki/index.php?title=ATD_1-25#Page_10 p. 10])

==Annotation Index==

{{MD PbP}}

Chapter 33: 327-340

2011-07-16T22:43:58Z

Jkvannort: /* Page 330 */

==Page 327==
'''Benjamin Chew''' 
See page [http://masondixon.pynchonwiki.com/wiki/index.php?title=Chapter_30:_296-301#Page_297 297]

'''Whist''' 
Whist is a classic English trick-taking card game which was played widely in the 18th and 19th centuries. It derives from the 16th game of Trump or Ruff, via Ruff and Honours. Although the rules are extremely simple, there is enormous scope for scientific play. From [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Whist WIKI]

==Page 328==
'''In the Summer''' 
this puts the section from Page 327 to 330 as a flashforward to some summer in the future. In the Journal there is a meeting of the commissioners at Christiana Bridge to recognize M&Ds work on the Tangent Line on [[1764#November|November]] 21-25, 1764. I wouldn't call November Summer, though.

'''Juniata''' 
The Juniata River is a tributary of the Susquehanna River, approximately 90 miles (145 km) long, in central Pennsylvania in the United States. The river is considered scenic along much of its route, having a broad and shallow course passing through several mountain ridges and steeply-lined water gaps. It formed an early 18th-century frontier region in Pennsylvania and was the site of Native American attacks against white settlements during the French and Indian War. From [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Juniata_River WIKI]

'''Harris's Ferry''' 
See page [http://masondixon.pynchonwiki.com/wiki/index.php?title=Chapter_31:_302-314#Page_310 310].

'''Proprietarian politics... Anti-Proprietarians''' 
The British kings repeatedly granted territory to an individual or a small group, rather than to a chartered company. These men, called proprietors, or sometimes "Lords Proprietors", were invested not only with property under private law but also with gubernatorial authority to administer it with extraordinary authority, somewhat recalling the earl palatine before the Glorious Revolution. The method was most notably used during the early colonization along the Atlantic coasts of North America and the Caribbean by Great Britain. A good example is the Province of Pennsylvania, granted to William Penn (the state still bears the name meaning "woodlands of Penn") by King Charles II of England. This type of indirect rule eventually fell out of favor as the English Sovereigns sought to concentrate their power and authority, and the colonies were converted to crown colonies, i.e. governed by officials appointed by the King. From [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Proprietary_colony WIKI]

'''Field of Duck-Green, not to mention reliable Magenta''' 
This combined color motif of bright green and magenta comes up several times in ''Inherent Vice'' and also appears on the dust jacket of the book.

==Page 329==
'''Sugar-Islands''' 
The exploitation of the Caribbean landscape dates back to the Spanish conquistadors around 1600 who mined the islands for gold which they brought back to Spain. The more significant development came when Christopher Columbus wrote back to Spain that the islands were made for sugar development. The history of Caribbean agricultural dependency is closely linked with European colonialism which altered the financial potential of the region by introducing a plantation system. Much like the Spanish enslaved indigenous Indians to work in gold mines, the seventeenth brought a new series of oppressors in the form of the Dutch, the English, and the French. By the middle of the eighteenth century sugar was Britain's largest import which made the Caribbean that much more important as a colony. The “New World” plantations were established in order to fulfill the growing needs of the “Old World”. The sugar plantations were built with the intention of exporting the sugar back to Britain which is why the British did not need to stimulate local demand for the sugar with wages. A system of slavery was adapted since it allowed the colonizer to have an abundant work force with little worry about declining demands for sugar. From [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_the_Caribbean WIKI]

'''"A sweetness of immorality and corruption."''' 
This conspiratorial talking about sugar boycotts makes me think that the events of these pages are happening after the [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sugar_Act Sugar Act] of [[1764#April|April]] 5, 1764.

==Page 330==
'''''Macaronic'' profession''' 
Macaronic refers to text spoken or written using a mixture of languages, sometimes including bilingual puns, particularly when the languages are used in the same context (as opposed to different segments of a text being in different languages). The term is occasionally used of hybrid words, which are in effect internally macaronic. A rough equivalent in spoken language is code-switching, a term in linguistics referring to using more than one language or dialect in conversation. The term macaronic has derogatory overtones, and it is usually reserved for works where the mixing of languages has a humorous or satirical intent. It is a matter of debate whether the term can be applied to mixed-language literature of a more serious nature and purpose. From [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Macaronic WIKI]

'''Topick of Virtual Representation''' 
In the early stages of the American Revolution, colonists in North America followed rules imposed upon them by the British Parliament because the colonies were not represented in Parliament. According to the British constitution, colonists argued, taxes could only be levied on British subjects with their consent. Because the colonists were represented only in their provincial assemblies, they said, only those legislatures could levy taxes in the colonies. This concept was famously expressed as "No taxation without representation." From [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Virtual_representation WIKI]

'''Fort Pitt''' [[Image:BraddocksDefeat.jpg|thumb|Braddock's Defeat|right]]Fort Pitt was a fort in what is now the city of Pittsburgh, Allegheny County, Pennsylvania. The fort was built in 1758 during the French and Indian War, next to the site of Fort Duquesne. The French built Fort Duquesne in 1754, at the beginning of that war, and it became a focal point due to its strategic river location. The Braddock expedition, a 1755 attempt to take Fort Duquesne, met with a bloody repulse at the Monongahela River. The French garrison viciously mauled an attacking British regiment in September 1758, but abandoned and destroyed the fort at the approach of General John Forbes's expedition in November. From [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fort_Pitt_(Pennsylvania) WIKI]

''''Tis the year '55 all over... after Braddock's Defeat''' 
See page [http://masondixon.pynchonwiki.com/wiki/index.php?title=Chapter_31:_302-314#Page_309 309].

'''Sun, [[1764#January|January]] 8, 1764''' 
from the journal: "Fixed on the house of Mr. John Harland's (about 31 miles West of Philadelphia) to bring our instruments to." However, it appears that they actually returned to Philadelphia on the 9th to get the observatory and tools and then returned to the Harlands on the 14th where they "set up the sector in his Garden (inclosed in a tent), and in the Evening brought the Instruments into the Meridian, and took the following observations..." 

'''setting up their observatory at John Harland's farm''' 
See the [http://wikimapia.org/13906779/Stargazer-s-Stone LINK]

==Page 333==

'''"By February..." [[1764#February|February]] 28th, 1764 

'''"In March a Company of Axmen...clear a Visto..." [[1764#March|March]] 17- [[1764#April|April]] 12, 1764'''

'''Alexander Bryant's farm''' 
Listed as Alexander ''Bryan'' in the Journal and all historical records. See this [http://www.whiteclayfriends.org/mason_and_dixon.php LINK] for much more info pertaining to M&D around this time.

==Page 334==
'''a newly-set chunk of Rose Quartz''' 
See pages [http://masondixon.pynchonwiki.com/wiki/index.php?title=Chapter_44:_440-447#Page_440 440] & [http://masondixon.pynchonwiki.com/wiki/index.php?title=Chapter_44:_440-447#Page_441 441].

'''By June...they are instructed to proceed...''' 
They set out on [[1764#June|June]] 13, 1764.

'''Tangent Line''' 
[http://www.udel.edu/johnmack/mason_dixon/#fig6 diagram] 

'''Nanticoke''' 
The Nanticoke River is a major tributary of the Chesapeake Bay on the Delmarva Peninsula. It rises in southern Kent County, Delaware, flows through Sussex County, Delaware, and forms the boundary between Dorchester County, Maryland and Wicomico County, Maryland. From [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nanticoke_River WIKI]

'''Great Cypress Swamp''' 
The Great Cypress Swamp (also known as Great Pocomoke Swamp, Cypress Swamp, or Big Cypress Swamp), is a forested freshwater swamp located on the Delmarva Peninsula in South Delaware and Southeastern Maryland... It is the northernmost of the southern swamps and one of many along the coast of the Atlantic Ocean. It covers about 50 square miles (130 km2), mostly in southern Sussex County, Delaware. It is the source of the Pocomoke River, which flows south, and Pepper Creek, which flows northeast. From [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Great_Cypress_Swamp WIKI]

'''"Middle Point"''' 
Mason and Dixon confirmed earlier survey work which delineated Delaware's southern boundary from the Atlantic Ocean to the ”Middle Point” stone (along what is today known as the Transpeninsular Line). They proceeded nearly due north from this to the Pennsylvania border. From [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mason_dixon_line WIKI]

==Page 335==

'''centered upon the Spire of the Court House in New Castle''' 
[http://www.newcastlecity.net/visitors/bldgs.html#Courthouse Courthouse]
[http://maps.google.com/maps?f=q&hl=en&q=+211+Delaware+Street,+New+Castle,+DE&ie=UTF8&z=17&ll=39.659801,-75.563643&spn=0.004072,0.010664&om=1 location][http://www.state.de.us/gic/photos/collections/historic/810.shtml photo]

'''Charles II''' 
Charles II (29 May 1630 OS – 6 February 1685) was the King of England, Scotland, and Ireland. See [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Charles_II_of_England WIKI]

'''the younger William Penn''' 
William Penn (October 14, 1644 – July 30, 1718) was an English founder and "Absolute Proprietor" of the Province of Pennsylvania, the English North American colony and the future U.S. State of Pennsylvania. He was known as an early champion of democracy and religious freedom and famous for his good relations and his treaties with the Lenape Indians. Under his direction, Philadelphia was planned and developed. From [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/William_Penn WIKI]

==Page 336==

'''Fermat's Last Theorem''' 
In 1636, Fermat claimed--but never offered--a clever proof to a seemingly obvious math theorem. "The fact that the problem's statement is understandable by schoolchildren makes it all the more frustrating, and it has probably generated more incorrect proofs than any other problem in the history of mathematics. No correct proof was found for 357 years, when a proof was finally published by Andrew Wiles in 1994" -- [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fermat%27s_last_theorem Wikipedia].

'''Finial upon something of Mr. Chippendale's''' 
Finial - "Forming the crown or completion; crowning" (ODE)
Mr. Chippendale: Thomas Chippendale (ca June 5, 1718 - November 1779) ([http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thomas_Chippendale Wikipedia]), a legendary "London cabinet-maker and furniture designer," whose designs--to this untrained poster's eyes--appear extraordinarily ornate?

'''the dead Hand of the second James''' 
"James II of England (also known as James VII of Scotland; 14 October 1633 – 16 September 1701) became King of England, King of Scots, and King of Ireland on 6 February 1685, and Duke of Normandy on 31 December 1660. He was the last Roman Catholic monarch to reign over the Kingdom of Scotland, Kingdom of England, and Kingdom of Ireland. Many of his subjects distrusted his religious policies and supposed despotism, leading a group of them to depose him in the Glorious Revolution. He was replaced not by his Roman Catholic son, James Francis Edward, but by his Protestant daughter and son-in-law, Mary II and William III, who became joint rulers in 1689. The belief that James — not William III or Mary II — was the legitimate ruler became known as [[J#Jacobites|Jacobitism]] (from Jacobus or Iacobus, Latin for James)" -- [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/James_II_of_England Wikipedia]

'''the other Fictions that govern'd that unhappy Monarch's Life''' 
Are the fictions Jacobitism and Catholicism (per the [[Reverend Wicks Cherrycoke |Rev. Cherrycoke's]] POV)?

'''acufloral Meditations''' 
Acufloral is treatment (think acupressure) using floral essences on specific meridian points- however, I am going to gather that here, Pynchon is alluding to Tenebrae's stitching of a floral pattern using pins (ie. acupuncture-like).

'''Fescue''' 
A pointer, used for lessons with children.

Is this a purposeful hearkening of the sexual tensions related to the Fescue on [[Chapter 9: 87-93|pages 92-93]]?

==Page 337==

'''[[H#Head of Elk|Head of Elk]]''' 
Refers to the head of Maryland's Elk River. It flows through
Cecil County and into Chesapeake Bay in the NE corner of Maryland just west
of the Delaware border. Head of Elk was of strategic significance in the
Revolutionary War: [http://www.ushistory.org/march/phila/elk.htm MORE]

Also, the town of Elkton, a town in Cecil County, Maryland, United States... It was formerly called Head of Elk because it is located at the head of navigation on the Elk River, which flows into the nearby Chesapeake Bay. From [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Elkton,_Maryland WIKI]

'''Calvert agents''' 
Calverts were settlers of Maryland, named after the colony's proprietor, George Calvert. See page [http://masondixon.pynchonwiki.com/wiki/index.php?title=Chapter_22:_215-227#Page_225 225]; page [http://masondixon.pynchonwiki.com/wiki/index.php?title=Chapter_30:_296-301#Page_301 301]

'''Duke of York''' 
See page [http://masondixon.pynchonwiki.com/wiki/index.php?title=Chapter_33:_327-340#Page_336 336] - James II entry

==Page 338==
'''hypnagogic''' 
"The state of intermediate consciousness preceding sleep" (American Heritage Dictionary), associated with hallucinations.

'''fifteen years ago in the era of Don Vicente Lopez''' 
Who is Don Vicente Lopez? 
Vicente Antonio Lopez, 1745-1802 [http://cybergata.com/roots/6809.htm] The dates sorta work, but this Vicente Lopez seems wrong, however, since this Vicente Lopez does not seem to have had an era named after him. Please delete if this is irrelevant.

'''The great Scepter atop the Court House''' 
See "...centered upon the Spire of the Court House in New Castle..." on page 335, above.

'''[[R#Ridotto|Ridotto]] 
A gathering for music and dancing, often in masquerade, popular in 18th century England.

==Page 339==
'''waking each [[G#Glaucous|glaucous]] Dawn into sweat and stillness''' 
Glaucous describes color: a green that has been dulled bluish and grayish. Botanically, it describes green vegetation, dulled with powdery bloom.

'''Catterick''' 
Catterick, sometimes Catterick Village to distinguish it from the nearby Catterick Garrison, is a village in North Yorkshire. It dates back to Roman times, when Cataractonium was a Roman fort protecting the crossing of the Great North Road and Dere Street over the River Swale. From [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Catterick,_North_Yorkshire WIKI]

'''Binchester''' 
Binchester Roman Fort (called Vinovia by the Romans) is situated just over 1 mile (1.6 km) to the north of the town of Bishop Auckland on the banks of the River Wear in County Durham, England. The fort was the site of a hamlet until the late middle-ages, but the modern-day village of Binchester is about 2 miles (3 km) to the east, near Spennymoor. The fort was established to guard the crossing of the River Wear by Dere Street, the main Roman road between York, Hadrian's Wall and Scotland, and also the fort's via principalis. It was the largest Roman fort in County Durham, but only a relatively small part of its centre has been excavated and is open to the public. From [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Binchester_Roman_Fort WIKI]

'''Lanchester''' 
Longovicium (or Lanchester Roman Fort) was an auxiliary castra on Dere Street, in the Roman province of Britannia Inferior (Upper Britain - The Romans judged distances by proximity to Rome, therefore north England is inferior as it is farther away). Its ruins are located at Lanchester in the English county of Durham, roughly 8 miles (13 km) to the west of the city of Durham and 5 miles (8 km) from Consett. From [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Longovicium WIKI]

'''we must stand in [[G#Glaur| Glaur]] of uncertain Depth''' 
Glaur: "liquid mud of the filthiest sort" -- Northumbld. Gloss, 1893 (per OED); lowland Scots for mud. "A fool with his eyes in the glaur" (p. 229) is a Pynchonian way of saying "A man of little foresight."

'''In August they finally go chaining past the eighty-one-mile mark...''' 
happens on [[1764#August|August]] 25, 1764.

==Page 340==
'''Lancaster''' 
Lancaster is a city in the South Central part of the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania and is the county seat of Lancaster County... Lancaster was part of the 1681 Penn's Woods Charter of William Penn, and was laid out by James Hamilton in 1734. It was incorporated as a borough in 1742 and incorporated as a city in 1818. From [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lancaster,_Pennsylvania WIKI]

'''"''Ehw'' deah..."''' 
Oh dear?

==Annotation Index==

{{MD PbP}}