Thomas Pynchon Wiki - User contributions [en]

Chapter 13: 125-145

2011-07-27T12:27:47Z

Jr039: /* Page 129 */

==Page 125==
'''against the Day swelling near''' 
just note.

'''whiten'd Rock Walls''' 
White is the color of the buildings in the Columbian Exposition in ATD. White is usually the color of the elite in ATD. Also Cf. The White Visitation in GR.

'''James's Town''' 
No curfew, everyone full of a good time, ruled by the moon. A Pynchon 'paradise". "Not Cape Town".

==Page 128==

'''Governor Hutchinson''' 
British royal governor of colonial Massachusetts from 1771 to 1774 and a prominent Loyalist in the years before the American Revolution. See [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thomas_Hutchinson_%28governor%29 WIKI].

==Page 129==
'''no one here knows how he appears to anyone else''' 
Americans there, then, exist independently. All status is more or less equal. A century later, Alexis de Tocqueville will write of the awareness by others--status consciousness-- in society
as a defining trait of Americans.

'''the face of a Woman of the Town, multiply-patch'd''' 
In the 18th century, black silk patches were worn not only to cover blemishes like pox scars. Their placement on different regions of the face was used as a code to indicate the wearer's attitudes.

==Page 130==
'''strange mind-to-mind throb''' 
Many believe that in pre-modern communities, the community inhabitants
thought and felt much as if of one mind. See J. James book, The Origins of Consciousness in the Breakdown of the Bicameral Mind. See an early Powell movie......[to be researched]

==Page 132==
'''violent explosion''' 
Internal metpahor re America? Founded with violence, as many including D.H.Lawrence famously emphasised, which can erupt again at any moment?

==Page 134==
'''Mathesis''' 
Hypothetical universal science modeled on mathematics envisaged by Leibniz and Descartes. From [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mathesis_universalis WIKI]

'''Saint Brendan''' 
Irish monastic, St Brendan is chiefly renowned for his legendary journey to The Isle of the Blessed as described in the ninth century ''Voyage of St Brendan the Navigator''. See [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Saint_Brendan WIKI].

'''Paradise''' 
Age of Reason disposes of the notion. Cf. search for Shambala in ATD.

==Page 135==
'''Motto of Jacob Bernouilli''' 
One of the many prominent mathematicians in the Bernoulli family. Following his father's wish, Jacob studied theology and entered the ministry. But contrary to the desires of his parents, he also studied mathematics and astronomy. See [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jacob_Bernouilli WIKI].

==Page 139==
'''common acquaintance but lately withdrawn''' 
The absent God, again.

==Page 141==
'''Longitude Act of 1714''' 
The Longitude Prize was a reward offered by the British government through an Act of Parliament in 1714 for a simple and practical method for the precise determination of a ship's longitude. The prize was administered by the Board of Longitude. See [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Longitude_Act WIKI].

==Page 142==
'''using what influence you can with Astronomers of other Principalities, as well as among the Jesuits &c... my Zero Meridian not upon Greenwich, nor Paris, but a certain Himalayan Observatory''' 
See [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jesuit_China_missions WIKI] entry for Jesuit China missions.

'''Dr. Zhang''' 
Though Zhang is common name in the East, it is likely that Pynchon had Zhang Heng in mind in regard to this character. An anachronism, Zhang was an astronomer, mathematician, inventor, geographer, cartographer, artist, poet, statesman, and literary scholar from Nanyang, Henan, and lived during the Eastern Han Dynasty (CE 25–220) of China. See [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zhang_Heng WIKI] for much more.

==Annotation Index==

{{MD PbP}}

Chapter 9: 87-93

2011-07-26T17:19:01Z

Jr039: /* Page 93 */

==Page 87==

'''"Bull's Eye"''' 
(Pic?)
The Oxford English Dictionary confirms the definition provided in the text: "10. Naut. ‘A little dark cloud, reddish in the middle, chiefly appearing about the Cape of Good Hope’ (Chambers Cycl. Supp. 1753), supposed to portend a storm; hence the storm itself." The OED's usage sample relates the bull's eye to a tornado, thus, perhaps, explaining the fear of the girls on page 91.

'''actually, twain''' 
I think he's implying that it's not really in two pieces, but that the ends are no longer attached

==Page 88==

'''Elytra''' 
[R] Leathery fore wings of Coleoptera, meeting in a straight line and serving as protective covers for the hind wings when at rest; unfolded in flight; jointed in families whose adults (imagines) are apterous and incapable of flying.
 
 
The beetle's elytra visually echo the ripping of the bodice mentioned in the previous line, i.e. separating in twain to reveal that which lies beneath.

'''the English kiss''' 
Flirting with Mason and his reticence re the amorous.

==Page 89==

'''''Data'' of Biography''' 
all that material excretion which slaves see in handling our stuff.

'''lixiviated''' 
Purified via lye-bath.

Or, "healed" usually through the process of leeching.

'''hangs there in Misery''' 
Cf Buster Keaton's comic persona.

'''Beetle''' 
(Pic?)

==Page 91==

'''Light?...hellish red''' 
light darkening image that is right at home in ATD. Note that the change in light is blaimed on the Bull's Eye.

'''Kommando''' 
anachronous allusion to 20th Century NazI Germany and its Aryan beliefs? The Kommando Spezialkräfte (Special Forces Command, KSK) is part of Germany's Special Forces. It is closely modelled on the British Special Air Service (SAS).

'''Droster Republick''' 
South Africa.drosters - runaways from service contracts. South African usage.

==Page 92==

'''Cape Madeira... violet''' 
CAPE MADEIRA" (Probably forged Madeira from South Africa.), a very heavy improperly made wine.

'''Transit of Venus''' 
A transit of Venus across the Sun takes place when the planet Venus passes directly between the Sun and Earth, obscuring a small portion of the Sun's disk. During a transit, Venus can be seen from Earth as a small black disk moving across the face of the Sun. The duration of such transits is usually measured in hours (the transit of 2004 lasted six hours). A transit is similar to a solar eclipse by the Moon, but, although the diameter of Venus is almost 4 times that of the Moon, Venus appears much smaller because it is much farther away from Earth. Before the space age, observations of transits of Venus helped scientists using the parallax method to calculate the distance between the Sun and the Earth. 
Venus is also the Roman goddess of love and beauty after which the planet was named.

'''Fescue... simple Indication''' 
The Fescues: The fescues are cool season grasses. They can be long and tall like fronds or feathers. 

The OED also defines "fescue" as "a small stick, pin, etc. used for pointing out the letters to children learning to read; a pointer." This definition seems to fit the text better, both literally (insofar as the fescue is ebony, hefty enought to be rapped on a table, and is used for "simple Indication") and figuratively (there is some phallic suggestiveness in the passage). Or perhaps sinister-looking fescue = riding crop in the naughty minds of the pleasingly squirming Vroom daughters.

== Page 93 ==

'''gravid Earth''' 
Gravid - "pregnant, heavy with young" (OED)

'''the Fescue become a widthless Wand of Light" 
The literal usage of "fescue" escapes me here ... perhaps simply poetic license to further the image of impregnation (or climax) in this paragraph?

Fescue here seems to be another brilliant extended metaphor from our author. A fescue, a pointer--a rod--seems to mean the rods (of rods and cones) that comprise our eyes! "The retina contains two types of photoreceptors, rods and cones. The rods are more numerous, some 120 million, and are more sensitive than the cones. However, they are not sensitive to color." [http://hyperphysics.phy-astr.gsu.edu/hbase/vision/rodcone.html] 
This sensitivity only to white in rods makes the rest of the image work. Feels far-fetched. Mason's ebony fescue simply "becomes" a widthless wand of light in the mind's eye as Mason instructs the girls on celestial mechanics. However, there's an interesting black/white reversal (ebony becoming light) that recalls imagery from AtD.

==Annotation Index==

{{MD PbP}}

Chapter 9: 87-93

2011-07-26T17:15:29Z

Jr039: /* Page 93 */

==Page 87==

'''"Bull's Eye"''' 
(Pic?)
The Oxford English Dictionary confirms the definition provided in the text: "10. Naut. ‘A little dark cloud, reddish in the middle, chiefly appearing about the Cape of Good Hope’ (Chambers Cycl. Supp. 1753), supposed to portend a storm; hence the storm itself." The OED's usage sample relates the bull's eye to a tornado, thus, perhaps, explaining the fear of the girls on page 91.

'''actually, twain''' 
I think he's implying that it's not really in two pieces, but that the ends are no longer attached

==Page 88==

'''Elytra''' 
[R] Leathery fore wings of Coleoptera, meeting in a straight line and serving as protective covers for the hind wings when at rest; unfolded in flight; jointed in families whose adults (imagines) are apterous and incapable of flying.
 
 
The beetle's elytra visually echo the ripping of the bodice mentioned in the previous line, i.e. separating in twain to reveal that which lies beneath.

'''the English kiss''' 
Flirting with Mason and his reticence re the amorous.

==Page 89==

'''''Data'' of Biography''' 
all that material excretion which slaves see in handling our stuff.

'''lixiviated''' 
Purified via lye-bath.

Or, "healed" usually through the process of leeching.

'''hangs there in Misery''' 
Cf Buster Keaton's comic persona.

'''Beetle''' 
(Pic?)

==Page 91==

'''Light?...hellish red''' 
light darkening image that is right at home in ATD. Note that the change in light is blaimed on the Bull's Eye.

'''Kommando''' 
anachronous allusion to 20th Century NazI Germany and its Aryan beliefs? The Kommando Spezialkräfte (Special Forces Command, KSK) is part of Germany's Special Forces. It is closely modelled on the British Special Air Service (SAS).

'''Droster Republick''' 
South Africa.drosters - runaways from service contracts. South African usage.

==Page 92==

'''Cape Madeira... violet''' 
CAPE MADEIRA" (Probably forged Madeira from South Africa.), a very heavy improperly made wine.

'''Transit of Venus''' 
A transit of Venus across the Sun takes place when the planet Venus passes directly between the Sun and Earth, obscuring a small portion of the Sun's disk. During a transit, Venus can be seen from Earth as a small black disk moving across the face of the Sun. The duration of such transits is usually measured in hours (the transit of 2004 lasted six hours). A transit is similar to a solar eclipse by the Moon, but, although the diameter of Venus is almost 4 times that of the Moon, Venus appears much smaller because it is much farther away from Earth. Before the space age, observations of transits of Venus helped scientists using the parallax method to calculate the distance between the Sun and the Earth. 
Venus is also the Roman goddess of love and beauty after which the planet was named.

'''Fescue... simple Indication''' 
The Fescues: The fescues are cool season grasses. They can be long and tall like fronds or feathers. 

The OED also defines "fescue" as "a small stick, pin, etc. used for pointing out the letters to children learning to read; a pointer." This definition seems to fit the text better, both literally (insofar as the fescue is ebony, hefty enought to be rapped on a table, and is used for "simple Indication") and figuratively (there is some phallic suggestiveness in the passage). Or perhaps sinister-looking fescue = riding crop in the naughty minds of the pleasingly squirming Vroom daughters.

== Page 93 ==

'''gravid Earth''' 
Gravid - "pregnant, heavy with young" (OED)

'''the Fescue become a widthless Wand of Light" 
The literal usage of "fescue" escapes me here ... perhaps simply poetic license to further the image of impregnation (or climax) in this paragraph?

Fescue here seems to be another brilliant extended metaphor from our author. A fescue, a pointer--a rod--seems to mean the rods (of rods and cones) that comprise our eyes! "The retina contains two types of photoreceptors, rods and cones. The rods are more numerous, some 120 million, and are more sensitive than the cones. However, they are not sensitive to color." [http://hyperphysics.phy-astr.gsu.edu/hbase/vision/rodcone.html] 
This sensitivity only to white in rods makes the rest of the image work.
 
Feels far-fetched. Mason's ebony fescue simply "becomes" a widthless wand of light in the mind's eye as Mason instructs the girls on celestial mechanics. However, there's an interesting black/white reversal (ebony becoming light) that recalls imagery from AtD.

==Annotation Index==

{{MD PbP}}

Chapter 9: 87-93

2011-07-26T17:14:30Z

Jr039: /* Page 93 */

==Page 87==

'''"Bull's Eye"''' 
(Pic?)
The Oxford English Dictionary confirms the definition provided in the text: "10. Naut. ‘A little dark cloud, reddish in the middle, chiefly appearing about the Cape of Good Hope’ (Chambers Cycl. Supp. 1753), supposed to portend a storm; hence the storm itself." The OED's usage sample relates the bull's eye to a tornado, thus, perhaps, explaining the fear of the girls on page 91.

'''actually, twain''' 
I think he's implying that it's not really in two pieces, but that the ends are no longer attached

==Page 88==

'''Elytra''' 
[R] Leathery fore wings of Coleoptera, meeting in a straight line and serving as protective covers for the hind wings when at rest; unfolded in flight; jointed in families whose adults (imagines) are apterous and incapable of flying.
 
 
The beetle's elytra visually echo the ripping of the bodice mentioned in the previous line, i.e. separating in twain to reveal that which lies beneath.

'''the English kiss''' 
Flirting with Mason and his reticence re the amorous.

==Page 89==

'''''Data'' of Biography''' 
all that material excretion which slaves see in handling our stuff.

'''lixiviated''' 
Purified via lye-bath.

Or, "healed" usually through the process of leeching.

'''hangs there in Misery''' 
Cf Buster Keaton's comic persona.

'''Beetle''' 
(Pic?)

==Page 91==

'''Light?...hellish red''' 
light darkening image that is right at home in ATD. Note that the change in light is blaimed on the Bull's Eye.

'''Kommando''' 
anachronous allusion to 20th Century NazI Germany and its Aryan beliefs? The Kommando Spezialkräfte (Special Forces Command, KSK) is part of Germany's Special Forces. It is closely modelled on the British Special Air Service (SAS).

'''Droster Republick''' 
South Africa.drosters - runaways from service contracts. South African usage.

==Page 92==

'''Cape Madeira... violet''' 
CAPE MADEIRA" (Probably forged Madeira from South Africa.), a very heavy improperly made wine.

'''Transit of Venus''' 
A transit of Venus across the Sun takes place when the planet Venus passes directly between the Sun and Earth, obscuring a small portion of the Sun's disk. During a transit, Venus can be seen from Earth as a small black disk moving across the face of the Sun. The duration of such transits is usually measured in hours (the transit of 2004 lasted six hours). A transit is similar to a solar eclipse by the Moon, but, although the diameter of Venus is almost 4 times that of the Moon, Venus appears much smaller because it is much farther away from Earth. Before the space age, observations of transits of Venus helped scientists using the parallax method to calculate the distance between the Sun and the Earth. 
Venus is also the Roman goddess of love and beauty after which the planet was named.

'''Fescue... simple Indication''' 
The Fescues: The fescues are cool season grasses. They can be long and tall like fronds or feathers. 

The OED also defines "fescue" as "a small stick, pin, etc. used for pointing out the letters to children learning to read; a pointer." This definition seems to fit the text better, both literally (insofar as the fescue is ebony, hefty enought to be rapped on a table, and is used for "simple Indication") and figuratively (there is some phallic suggestiveness in the passage). Or perhaps sinister-looking fescue = riding crop in the naughty minds of the pleasingly squirming Vroom daughters.

== Page 93 ==

'''gravid Earth''' 
Gravid - "pregnant, heavy with young" (OED)

'''the Fescue become a widthless Wand of Light" 
The literal usage of "fescue" escapes me here ... perhaps simply poetic license to further the image of impregnation (or climax) in this paragraph?

Fescue here seems to be another brilliant extended metaphor from our author. A fescue, a pointer--a rod--seems to mean the rods (of rods and cones) that comprise our eyes! "The retina contains two types of photoreceptors, rods and cones. The rods are more numerous, some 120 million, and are more sensitive than the cones. However, they are not sensitive to color." [http://hyperphysics.phy-astr.gsu.edu/hbase/vision/rodcone.html] 
This sensitivity only to white in rods makes the rest of the image work.
 
Feels far-fetched. Mason's ebony fescue simply "becomes" a widthless wand of light in the mind's eye as Mason instructs the girls on celestial mechanics. However, there's an interesting black/white reversal (ebony becoming light) that recalls imagery from AtD.

==Annotation Index==

{{MD PbP}}

Chapter 9: 87-93

2011-07-26T16:57:39Z

Jr039: /* Page 92 */

Chapter 9: 87-93

2011-07-26T16:42:56Z

Jr039: /* Page 88 */

==Page 87==

'''"Bull's Eye"''' 
(Pic?)
The Oxford English Dictionary confirms the definition provided in the text: "10. Naut. ‘A little dark cloud, reddish in the middle, chiefly appearing about the Cape of Good Hope’ (Chambers Cycl. Supp. 1753), supposed to portend a storm; hence the storm itself." The OED's usage sample relates the bull's eye to a tornado, thus, perhaps, explaining the fear of the girls on page 91.

'''actually, twain''' 
I think he's implying that it's not really in two pieces, but that the ends are no longer attached

==Page 88==

'''Elytra''' 
[R] Leathery fore wings of Coleoptera, meeting in a straight line and serving as protective covers for the hind wings when at rest; unfolded in flight; jointed in families whose adults (imagines) are apterous and incapable of flying.
 
 
The beetle's elytra visually echo the ripping of the bodice mentioned in the previous line, i.e. separating in twain to reveal that which lies beneath.

'''the English kiss''' 
Flirting with Mason and his reticence re the amorous.

==Page 89==

'''''Data'' of Biography''' 
all that material excretion which slaves see in handling our stuff.

'''lixiviated''' 
Purified via lye-bath.

Or, "healed" usually through the process of leeching.

'''hangs there in Misery''' 
Cf Buster Keaton's comic persona.

'''Beetle''' 
(Pic?)

==Page 91==

'''Light?...hellish red''' 
light darkening image that is right at home in ATD. Note that the change in light is blaimed on the Bull's Eye.

'''Kommando''' 
anachronous allusion to 20th Century NazI Germany and its Aryan beliefs? The Kommando Spezialkräfte (Special Forces Command, KSK) is part of Germany's Special Forces. It is closely modelled on the British Special Air Service (SAS).

'''Droster Republick''' 
South Africa.drosters - runaways from service contracts. South African usage.

==Page 92==

'''Cape Madeira... violet''' 
CAPE MADEIRA" (Probably forged Madeira from South Africa.), a very heavy improperly made wine.

'''Transit of Venus''' 
A transit of Venus across the Sun takes place when the planet Venus passes directly between the Sun and Earth, obscuring a small portion of the Sun's disk. During a transit, Venus can be seen from Earth as a small black disk moving across the face of the Sun. The duration of such transits is usually measured in hours (the transit of 2004 lasted six hours). A transit is similar to a solar eclipse by the Moon, but, although the diameter of Venus is almost 4 times that of the Moon, Venus appears much smaller because it is much farther away from Earth. Before the space age, observations of transits of Venus helped scientists using the parallax method to calculate the distance between the Sun and the Earth. 
Venus is also the Roman goddess of love and beauty after which the planet was named.

'''Fescue... simple Indication''' 
The Fescues: The fescues are cool season grasses. They can be long and tall like fronds or feathers. 

The OED also defines "fescue" as "a small stick, pin, etc. used for pointing out the letters to children learning to read; a pointer." This definition seems to fit the text better, both literally (insofar as the fescue is ebony, hefty enought to be rapped on a table, and is used for "simple Indication") and figuratively (there is some phallic suggestiveness in the passage).

== Page 93 ==

'''gravid Earth''' 
Gravid - "pregnant, heavy with young" (OED)

'''the Fescue become a widthless Wand of Light" 
The literal usage of "fescue" escapes me here ... perhaps simply poetic license to further the image of impregnation (or climax) in this paragraph?

Fescue here seems to be another brilliant extended metaphor from our author. A fescue, a pointer--a rod--seems to mean the rods (of rods and cones) that comprise our eyes! "The retina contains two types of photoreceptors, rods and cones. The rods are more numerous, some 120 million, and are more sensitive than the cones. However, they are not sensitive to color." [http://hyperphysics.phy-astr.gsu.edu/hbase/vision/rodcone.html] 
This sensitivity only to white in rods makes the rest of the image work.

==Annotation Index==

{{MD PbP}}

Chapter 7: 58-76

2011-07-26T11:37:59Z

Jr039: /* Page 73 */

==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" refers 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==

'''Monsieur Lacaille''' 
Nicolas Louis de Lacaille, French astronomer. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lacaille WIKI]

'''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 central rift that forms along the Mason-Dixon Line, and it is the paradox of America, i.e. liberty for some. What could be more Pynchonian than that? "Casting around for a politically correct subtheme" feels like a total misrepresentation. Slavery is an integral theme of the novel.

'''Castle of the Compagnie''' 
The Castle of Good Hope, see [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Castle_of_Good_Hope WIKI].

'''set against''' 
Imperialist strategy of divide-and-conquer.

==Page 60==

'''Droster''' 
drosters' - runaways from service contracts. South African usage.

'''Vroom''' 
[http://onelook.com/?w=vroo*&ls=a vroo*]. Dutch for ''pious''

'''Jethro's Tent''' 
Biblical: Jethro (also called Reuel), a Midean priest, was Moses' father-in-law. Moses came to live with Jethro after he rescued his seven daughters and helped them water their sheep. See ([http://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Exodus%202:15-25,%20Exodus%203:1-2;&version=9; Exodus 2:15-25, 3:1-2])

'''Nimrods''' 
Biblical: Son of Cush, a founder of Babylon (see [http://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?book_id=1&chapter=10&verse=8&end_verse=10&version=9&context=context Genesis 10:8-10]). A hunter. Informal. A person regarded as silly, foolish, or stupid.

'''Kaffirs''' 
Early "offensive" word for a black person, see [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kaffir_%28racial_term%29 WIKI].

==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.

'''Darlington Market''' 
In Darlington , County Durham. Still a good market today--21st Century-- says an online British guidebook.

==Page 62==

'''Kezia''' 
the name of Job's second daughter ([http://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Job%2042:13-15;&version=9; Job 42:14]), born after prosperity had returned to him. Also Cassia.

'''Kerenhappuch''' 
(the horn of beauty), the youngest of the daughters of Job, born to him during the period of his reviving prosperity. ([http://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Job%2042:13-15;&version=9; Job 42:14])
Source: Smith's Bible Dictionary

==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''' 
# To make the shrill cry characteristic of a hen after laying an egg.
# 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.
 
 
May also refer to cannabis sativa, per Wikipedia.

==Page 66==

'''dorsal 'Scape''' 
Dorsal landscape = shapely rear end.

'''five Sprites''' 
The women? Yes, the impish females whose behavior toward Mason is designed to urge him into a sexual liaison with Austra.

'''Asian parlor-game''' 
see [[Chapter_18:_183-189#farces|four-door farces, p. 184]] and [[Chapter_18:_183-189#parlour|Parlour Game, p. 184]]

==Page 67==

'''Malays''' 
Austronesian peoples predominantly inhabiting the Malay Peninsula, see [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ethnic_Malays WIKI].

'''Pygmies''' 
Pygmy as any group whose adult males grow to less than 150 cm (4 feet 11 inches) in average height, see [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pygmies WIKI].

'''Indifference-Draught''' 
Traditionally saltpetre. Mason wants a drug to reduce his libido.
[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anaphrodisiac 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.

==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''' 
Butter-Bag was slang for a Dutchman.

'''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 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.

'''''Krees''''' 
[[File:Kris_bali.jpg|thumb|Krees|right|75px]]
Like the book says, a dagger, but further, both a weapon and a spiritual object. See [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kris WIKI].

==Page 71==

'''...fantastical beings...''' 
Note that Jorge Luis Borges' ''Book of Imaginary Beings'' ([http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Book_of_Imaginary_Beings Wikipedia]) includes a listing for ''Sea Horse'' (see Borges' text on [http://borges.uiowa.edu/vakalo/zf/html/the_sea_horse.html Fantastic Zoology]); the [[S#Seahorse|Seahorse]], is, of course, the ship on which M&D sail to [[Cape of Good Hope]].

'''Shaula''' 
Second brightest star system in the constellation Scorpius, and one of the brightest stars in the nighttime sky, see [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lambda_Scorpii WIKI].

'''Routs''' 
See especially in this context, with ridottoes, definition #5--a fashionable gathering...with other attendant resonances of meaning. 
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. 

'''[[R#Ridotto|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.

'''Ketjap''' 
Original spelling for what we now know as catsup, which seems to have come from an Asian influence on tomato sauce.

==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. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Invisible_College WIKI]

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
 
So, Dixon is essentially asking "Your point?"

'''Mr. Peach''' 
Spoiler Alert: Husband of the Susannah Peach who Mason fantasizes over?

'''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''' 
whole onions and meat as a stew. Also "stifado." However, see OED 1688 "stuffado" and 1771 "stuffata." Also stufata. The latter two are probably Italian. This dish is Greek.

'''dating back to Walpole''' 
Sir Robert Walpole, who held the influential office of First Lord of the Treasury. 4 April 1721 – 11 February 1742. Previous holders of the post had often been important figures in government, but not to such a degree as Walpole. His influence grew even stronger because the King, George I, was not active in English politics, preferring to concentrate on his native Hanover. Walpole is generally regarded as the first Prime Minister, not just because of his influence in Government, but because he could persuade (or force) his colleagues in the Cabinet to act in a harmonious and unified fashion, instead of intriguing against each other for more power. Walpole's office, First Lord of the Treasury, became strongly associated with the leadership of the Government; it became the position which the Prime Minister almost always held... Though Walpole is considered the first "Prime Minister," ...the powers of the monarch were slowly diminished, and those of the Prime Minister gradually increased, over the course of the following years. From [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Robert_Walpole WIKI]

'''Clive''' 
Major-General Robert Clive, 1st Baron Clive, KB (29 September 1725–22 November 1774), also known as Clive of India, was a British soldier who established the military and political supremacy of the East India Company in Southern India and Bengal. He is credited with securing India, and the wealth that followed, for the British crown. Together with Warren Hastings he was one of the key figures in the creation of British India. From [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Robert_Clive,_1st_Baron_Clive Clive of India WIKI]

'''Maskelyne''' [[Image:Maskelyne-nevil-astronomer-01.jpg|thumb|Dr. Nevil Maskelyne|right]]Reverend Dr Nevil Maskelyne. Astronomer, Lunarian, enemy of John Harrison, 5th Astronomer Royal. See [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nevil_Maskelyne WIKI]

'''Robert Waddington''' 
from an old established English family. 27 M iv. Robert Waddington was born in 1743. Waddington genealogy online.

'''Bleak''' 
Bleak \Bleak\, n. [From Bleak, a., cf. Blay.] (Zo["o]l.) 
A small European river fish (Leuciscus alburnus), of the
family Cyprinid[ae]; the blay. [Written also blick.] Source: Webster's unabridged Dictionary 1913.

'''if Beetles be your Passion, why the Beetle Variety there!''' 
Anachronistic allusion to Charles Darwin and a famous remark about evolution? For years, after dropping out of medical school, Darwin had a passion for collecting beetles. 
And, "the contemplation of nature can give rise to some curious reflexions. There is a famous (possibly apocryphal) story about the great biologist J.B.S. Haldane.[20th Century] At a major British public occasion, Haldane was sitting next to an Anglican bishop, who asked him what biology had shown him about the designs and predilections of the Creator. Haldane is supposed to have replied "An inordinate fondness for beetles."

'''Piggotts... A long stare''' 
Piggotts were evidently a British family with members into astronomy. Later, the Victorian age, the family seemed to found a lighting company.
Piggotts have been providing Christmas Illuminations since the Victorian Age. We provide a range of modern innovative schemes: across the street' designs, building fasciae, lamp columns and themed displays. We also provide striking mall illuminations to a diverse range of customers and individuals. Piggotts service includes the design, manufacture, installation, maintenance, refurbishment and storage of your scheme.

'''St. Helena''' 
Island of volcanic origin and a British overseas territory in the South Atlantic Ocean, see [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Saint_Helena WIKI].

==Page 75==

'''Tom Birch''' 
18th Century English historian, see [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thomas_Birch WIKI]. Friend of Ben Franklin, and as well, member of Royal Society.

'''Bodkin''' 
medieval type of arrowhead designed to shoot through protective chain mail usually worn by Knights.

More likely refers to a thick, blunt needle used in taped or corded hemming, or in leather work.

'''History is the Dance of our Hunt for Christ''' 
Nice.

==Annotation Index==

{{MD PbP}}

Chapter 7: 58-76

2011-07-26T11:31:00Z

Jr039: /* Page 65 */

==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" refers 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==

'''Monsieur Lacaille''' 
Nicolas Louis de Lacaille, French astronomer. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lacaille WIKI]

'''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 central rift that forms along the Mason-Dixon Line, and it is the paradox of America, i.e. liberty for some. What could be more Pynchonian than that? "Casting around for a politically correct subtheme" feels like a total misrepresentation. Slavery is an integral theme of the novel.

'''Castle of the Compagnie''' 
The Castle of Good Hope, see [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Castle_of_Good_Hope WIKI].

'''set against''' 
Imperialist strategy of divide-and-conquer.

==Page 60==

'''Droster''' 
drosters' - runaways from service contracts. South African usage.

'''Vroom''' 
[http://onelook.com/?w=vroo*&ls=a vroo*]. Dutch for ''pious''

'''Jethro's Tent''' 
Biblical: Jethro (also called Reuel), a Midean priest, was Moses' father-in-law. Moses came to live with Jethro after he rescued his seven daughters and helped them water their sheep. See ([http://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Exodus%202:15-25,%20Exodus%203:1-2;&version=9; Exodus 2:15-25, 3:1-2])

'''Nimrods''' 
Biblical: Son of Cush, a founder of Babylon (see [http://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?book_id=1&chapter=10&verse=8&end_verse=10&version=9&context=context Genesis 10:8-10]). A hunter. Informal. A person regarded as silly, foolish, or stupid.

'''Kaffirs''' 
Early "offensive" word for a black person, see [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kaffir_%28racial_term%29 WIKI].

==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.

'''Darlington Market''' 
In Darlington , County Durham. Still a good market today--21st Century-- says an online British guidebook.

==Page 62==

'''Kezia''' 
the name of Job's second daughter ([http://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Job%2042:13-15;&version=9; Job 42:14]), born after prosperity had returned to him. Also Cassia.

'''Kerenhappuch''' 
(the horn of beauty), the youngest of the daughters of Job, born to him during the period of his reviving prosperity. ([http://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Job%2042:13-15;&version=9; Job 42:14])
Source: Smith's Bible Dictionary

==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''' 
# To make the shrill cry characteristic of a hen after laying an egg.
# 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.
 
 
May also refer to cannabis sativa, per Wikipedia.

==Page 66==

'''dorsal 'Scape''' 
Dorsal landscape = shapely rear end.

'''five Sprites''' 
The women? Yes, the impish females whose behavior toward Mason is designed to urge him into a sexual liaison with Austra.

'''Asian parlor-game''' 
see [[Chapter_18:_183-189#farces|four-door farces, p. 184]] and [[Chapter_18:_183-189#parlour|Parlour Game, p. 184]]

==Page 67==

'''Malays''' 
Austronesian peoples predominantly inhabiting the Malay Peninsula, see [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ethnic_Malays WIKI].

'''Pygmies''' 
Pygmy as any group whose adult males grow to less than 150 cm (4 feet 11 inches) in average height, see [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pygmies WIKI].

'''Indifference-Draught''' 
Traditionally saltpetre. Mason wants a drug to reduce his libido.
[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anaphrodisiac 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.

==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''' 
Butter-Bag was slang for a Dutchman.

'''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 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.

'''''Krees''''' 
[[File:Kris_bali.jpg|thumb|Krees|right|75px]]
Like the book says, a dagger, but further, both a weapon and a spiritual object. See [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kris WIKI].

==Page 71==

'''...fantastical beings...''' 
Note that Jorge Luis Borges' ''Book of Imaginary Beings'' ([http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Book_of_Imaginary_Beings Wikipedia]) includes a listing for ''Sea Horse'' (see Borges' text on [http://borges.uiowa.edu/vakalo/zf/html/the_sea_horse.html Fantastic Zoology]); the [[S#Seahorse|Seahorse]], is, of course, the ship on which M&D sail to [[Cape of Good Hope]].

'''Shaula''' 
Second brightest star system in the constellation Scorpius, and one of the brightest stars in the nighttime sky, see [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lambda_Scorpii WIKI].

'''Routs''' 
See especially in this context, with ridottoes, definition #5--a fashionable gathering...with other attendant resonances of meaning. 
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. 

'''[[R#Ridotto|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.

'''Ketjap''' 
Original spelling for what we now know as catsup, which seems to have come from an Asian influence on tomato sauce.

==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. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Invisible_College WIKI]

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''' 
Spoiler Alert: Husband of the Susannah Peach who Mason fantasizes over?

'''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''' 
whole onions and meat as a stew. Also "stifado." However, see OED 1688 "stuffado" and 1771 "stuffata." Also stufata. The latter two are probably Italian. This dish is Greek.

'''dating back to Walpole''' 
Sir Robert Walpole, who held the influential office of First Lord of the Treasury. 4 April 1721 – 11 February 1742. Previous holders of the post had often been important figures in government, but not to such a degree as Walpole. His influence grew even stronger because the King, George I, was not active in English politics, preferring to concentrate on his native Hanover. Walpole is generally regarded as the first Prime Minister, not just because of his influence in Government, but because he could persuade (or force) his colleagues in the Cabinet to act in a harmonious and unified fashion, instead of intriguing against each other for more power. Walpole's office, First Lord of the Treasury, became strongly associated with the leadership of the Government; it became the position which the Prime Minister almost always held... Though Walpole is considered the first "Prime Minister," ...the powers of the monarch were slowly diminished, and those of the Prime Minister gradually increased, over the course of the following years. From [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Robert_Walpole WIKI]

'''Clive''' 
Major-General Robert Clive, 1st Baron Clive, KB (29 September 1725–22 November 1774), also known as Clive of India, was a British soldier who established the military and political supremacy of the East India Company in Southern India and Bengal. He is credited with securing India, and the wealth that followed, for the British crown. Together with Warren Hastings he was one of the key figures in the creation of British India. From [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Robert_Clive,_1st_Baron_Clive Clive of India WIKI]

'''Maskelyne''' [[Image:Maskelyne-nevil-astronomer-01.jpg|thumb|Dr. Nevil Maskelyne|right]]Reverend Dr Nevil Maskelyne. Astronomer, Lunarian, enemy of John Harrison, 5th Astronomer Royal. See [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nevil_Maskelyne WIKI]

'''Robert Waddington''' 
from an old established English family. 27 M iv. Robert Waddington was born in 1743. Waddington genealogy online.

'''Bleak''' 
Bleak \Bleak\, n. [From Bleak, a., cf. Blay.] (Zo["o]l.) 
A small European river fish (Leuciscus alburnus), of the
family Cyprinid[ae]; the blay. [Written also blick.] Source: Webster's unabridged Dictionary 1913.

'''if Beetles be your Passion, why the Beetle Variety there!''' 
Anachronistic allusion to Charles Darwin and a famous remark about evolution? For years, after dropping out of medical school, Darwin had a passion for collecting beetles. 
And, "the contemplation of nature can give rise to some curious reflexions. There is a famous (possibly apocryphal) story about the great biologist J.B.S. Haldane.[20th Century] At a major British public occasion, Haldane was sitting next to an Anglican bishop, who asked him what biology had shown him about the designs and predilections of the Creator. Haldane is supposed to have replied "An inordinate fondness for beetles."

'''Piggotts... A long stare''' 
Piggotts were evidently a British family with members into astronomy. Later, the Victorian age, the family seemed to found a lighting company.
Piggotts have been providing Christmas Illuminations since the Victorian Age. We provide a range of modern innovative schemes: across the street' designs, building fasciae, lamp columns and themed displays. We also provide striking mall illuminations to a diverse range of customers and individuals. Piggotts service includes the design, manufacture, installation, maintenance, refurbishment and storage of your scheme.

'''St. Helena''' 
Island of volcanic origin and a British overseas territory in the South Atlantic Ocean, see [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Saint_Helena WIKI].

==Page 75==

'''Tom Birch''' 
18th Century English historian, see [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thomas_Birch WIKI]. Friend of Ben Franklin, and as well, member of Royal Society.

'''Bodkin''' 
medieval type of arrowhead designed to shoot through protective chain mail usually worn by Knights.

More likely refers to a thick, blunt needle used in taped or corded hemming, or in leather work.

'''History is the Dance of our Hunt for Christ''' 
Nice.

==Annotation Index==

{{MD PbP}}

Chapter 7: 58-76

2011-07-26T11:28:17Z

Jr039: /* Page 66 */

==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" refers 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==

'''Monsieur Lacaille''' 
Nicolas Louis de Lacaille, French astronomer. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lacaille WIKI]

'''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 central rift that forms along the Mason-Dixon Line, and it is the paradox of America, i.e. liberty for some. What could be more Pynchonian than that? "Casting around for a politically correct subtheme" feels like a total misrepresentation. Slavery is an integral theme of the novel.

'''Castle of the Compagnie''' 
The Castle of Good Hope, see [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Castle_of_Good_Hope WIKI].

'''set against''' 
Imperialist strategy of divide-and-conquer.

==Page 60==

'''Droster''' 
drosters' - runaways from service contracts. South African usage.

'''Vroom''' 
[http://onelook.com/?w=vroo*&ls=a vroo*]. Dutch for ''pious''

'''Jethro's Tent''' 
Biblical: Jethro (also called Reuel), a Midean priest, was Moses' father-in-law. Moses came to live with Jethro after he rescued his seven daughters and helped them water their sheep. See ([http://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Exodus%202:15-25,%20Exodus%203:1-2;&version=9; Exodus 2:15-25, 3:1-2])

'''Nimrods''' 
Biblical: Son of Cush, a founder of Babylon (see [http://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?book_id=1&chapter=10&verse=8&end_verse=10&version=9&context=context Genesis 10:8-10]). A hunter. Informal. A person regarded as silly, foolish, or stupid.

'''Kaffirs''' 
Early "offensive" word for a black person, see [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kaffir_%28racial_term%29 WIKI].

==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.

'''Darlington Market''' 
In Darlington , County Durham. Still a good market today--21st Century-- says an online British guidebook.

==Page 62==

'''Kezia''' 
the name of Job's second daughter ([http://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Job%2042:13-15;&version=9; Job 42:14]), born after prosperity had returned to him. Also Cassia.

'''Kerenhappuch''' 
(the horn of beauty), the youngest of the daughters of Job, born to him during the period of his reviving prosperity. ([http://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Job%2042:13-15;&version=9; Job 42:14])
Source: Smith's Bible Dictionary

==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''' 
# To make the shrill cry characteristic of a hen after laying an egg.
# 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? Yes, the impish females whose behavior toward Mason is designed to urge him into a sexual liaison with Austra.

'''Asian parlor-game''' 
see [[Chapter_18:_183-189#farces|four-door farces, p. 184]] and [[Chapter_18:_183-189#parlour|Parlour Game, p. 184]]

==Page 67==

'''Malays''' 
Austronesian peoples predominantly inhabiting the Malay Peninsula, see [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ethnic_Malays WIKI].

'''Pygmies''' 
Pygmy as any group whose adult males grow to less than 150 cm (4 feet 11 inches) in average height, see [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pygmies WIKI].

'''Indifference-Draught''' 
Traditionally saltpetre. Mason wants a drug to reduce his libido.
[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anaphrodisiac 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.

==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''' 
Butter-Bag was slang for a Dutchman.

'''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 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.

'''''Krees''''' 
[[File:Kris_bali.jpg|thumb|Krees|right|75px]]
Like the book says, a dagger, but further, both a weapon and a spiritual object. See [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kris WIKI].

==Page 71==

'''...fantastical beings...''' 
Note that Jorge Luis Borges' ''Book of Imaginary Beings'' ([http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Book_of_Imaginary_Beings Wikipedia]) includes a listing for ''Sea Horse'' (see Borges' text on [http://borges.uiowa.edu/vakalo/zf/html/the_sea_horse.html Fantastic Zoology]); the [[S#Seahorse|Seahorse]], is, of course, the ship on which M&D sail to [[Cape of Good Hope]].

'''Shaula''' 
Second brightest star system in the constellation Scorpius, and one of the brightest stars in the nighttime sky, see [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lambda_Scorpii WIKI].

'''Routs''' 
See especially in this context, with ridottoes, definition #5--a fashionable gathering...with other attendant resonances of meaning. 
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. 

'''[[R#Ridotto|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.

'''Ketjap''' 
Original spelling for what we now know as catsup, which seems to have come from an Asian influence on tomato sauce.

==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. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Invisible_College WIKI]

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''' 
Spoiler Alert: Husband of the Susannah Peach who Mason fantasizes over?

'''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''' 
whole onions and meat as a stew. Also "stifado." However, see OED 1688 "stuffado" and 1771 "stuffata." Also stufata. The latter two are probably Italian. This dish is Greek.

'''dating back to Walpole''' 
Sir Robert Walpole, who held the influential office of First Lord of the Treasury. 4 April 1721 – 11 February 1742. Previous holders of the post had often been important figures in government, but not to such a degree as Walpole. His influence grew even stronger because the King, George I, was not active in English politics, preferring to concentrate on his native Hanover. Walpole is generally regarded as the first Prime Minister, not just because of his influence in Government, but because he could persuade (or force) his colleagues in the Cabinet to act in a harmonious and unified fashion, instead of intriguing against each other for more power. Walpole's office, First Lord of the Treasury, became strongly associated with the leadership of the Government; it became the position which the Prime Minister almost always held... Though Walpole is considered the first "Prime Minister," ...the powers of the monarch were slowly diminished, and those of the Prime Minister gradually increased, over the course of the following years. From [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Robert_Walpole WIKI]

'''Clive''' 
Major-General Robert Clive, 1st Baron Clive, KB (29 September 1725–22 November 1774), also known as Clive of India, was a British soldier who established the military and political supremacy of the East India Company in Southern India and Bengal. He is credited with securing India, and the wealth that followed, for the British crown. Together with Warren Hastings he was one of the key figures in the creation of British India. From [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Robert_Clive,_1st_Baron_Clive Clive of India WIKI]

'''Maskelyne''' [[Image:Maskelyne-nevil-astronomer-01.jpg|thumb|Dr. Nevil Maskelyne|right]]Reverend Dr Nevil Maskelyne. Astronomer, Lunarian, enemy of John Harrison, 5th Astronomer Royal. See [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nevil_Maskelyne WIKI]

'''Robert Waddington''' 
from an old established English family. 27 M iv. Robert Waddington was born in 1743. Waddington genealogy online.

'''Bleak''' 
Bleak \Bleak\, n. [From Bleak, a., cf. Blay.] (Zo["o]l.) 
A small European river fish (Leuciscus alburnus), of the
family Cyprinid[ae]; the blay. [Written also blick.] Source: Webster's unabridged Dictionary 1913.

'''if Beetles be your Passion, why the Beetle Variety there!''' 
Anachronistic allusion to Charles Darwin and a famous remark about evolution? For years, after dropping out of medical school, Darwin had a passion for collecting beetles. 
And, "the contemplation of nature can give rise to some curious reflexions. There is a famous (possibly apocryphal) story about the great biologist J.B.S. Haldane.[20th Century] At a major British public occasion, Haldane was sitting next to an Anglican bishop, who asked him what biology had shown him about the designs and predilections of the Creator. Haldane is supposed to have replied "An inordinate fondness for beetles."

'''Piggotts... A long stare''' 
Piggotts were evidently a British family with members into astronomy. Later, the Victorian age, the family seemed to found a lighting company.
Piggotts have been providing Christmas Illuminations since the Victorian Age. We provide a range of modern innovative schemes: across the street' designs, building fasciae, lamp columns and themed displays. We also provide striking mall illuminations to a diverse range of customers and individuals. Piggotts service includes the design, manufacture, installation, maintenance, refurbishment and storage of your scheme.

'''St. Helena''' 
Island of volcanic origin and a British overseas territory in the South Atlantic Ocean, see [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Saint_Helena WIKI].

==Page 75==

'''Tom Birch''' 
18th Century English historian, see [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thomas_Birch WIKI]. Friend of Ben Franklin, and as well, member of Royal Society.

'''Bodkin''' 
medieval type of arrowhead designed to shoot through protective chain mail usually worn by Knights.

More likely refers to a thick, blunt needle used in taped or corded hemming, or in leather work.

'''History is the Dance of our Hunt for Christ''' 
Nice.

==Annotation Index==

{{MD PbP}}

Chapter 7: 58-76

2011-07-26T11:08:33Z

Jr039:

==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" refers 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==

'''Monsieur Lacaille''' 
Nicolas Louis de Lacaille, French astronomer. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lacaille WIKI]

'''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 central rift that forms along the Mason-Dixon Line, and it is the paradox of America, i.e. liberty for some. What could be more Pynchonian than that? "Casting around for a politically correct subtheme" feels like a total misrepresentation. Slavery is an integral theme of the novel.

'''Castle of the Compagnie''' 
The Castle of Good Hope, see [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Castle_of_Good_Hope WIKI].

'''set against''' 
Imperialist strategy of divide-and-conquer.

==Page 60==

'''Droster''' 
drosters' - runaways from service contracts. South African usage.

'''Vroom''' 
[http://onelook.com/?w=vroo*&ls=a vroo*]. Dutch for ''pious''

'''Jethro's Tent''' 
Biblical: Jethro (also called Reuel), a Midean priest, was Moses' father-in-law. Moses came to live with Jethro after he rescued his seven daughters and helped them water their sheep. See ([http://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Exodus%202:15-25,%20Exodus%203:1-2;&version=9; Exodus 2:15-25, 3:1-2])

'''Nimrods''' 
Biblical: Son of Cush, a founder of Babylon (see [http://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?book_id=1&chapter=10&verse=8&end_verse=10&version=9&context=context Genesis 10:8-10]). A hunter. Informal. A person regarded as silly, foolish, or stupid.

'''Kaffirs''' 
Early "offensive" word for a black person, see [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kaffir_%28racial_term%29 WIKI].

==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.

'''Darlington Market''' 
In Darlington , County Durham. Still a good market today--21st Century-- says an online British guidebook.

==Page 62==

'''Kezia''' 
the name of Job's second daughter ([http://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Job%2042:13-15;&version=9; Job 42:14]), born after prosperity had returned to him. Also Cassia.

'''Kerenhappuch''' 
(the horn of beauty), the youngest of the daughters of Job, born to him during the period of his reviving prosperity. ([http://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Job%2042:13-15;&version=9; Job 42:14])
Source: Smith's Bible Dictionary

==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''' 
# To make the shrill cry characteristic of a hen after laying an egg.
# 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''' 
see [[Chapter_18:_183-189#farces|four-door farces, p. 184]] and [[Chapter_18:_183-189#parlour|Parlour Game, p. 184]]

==Page 67==

'''Malays''' 
Austronesian peoples predominantly inhabiting the Malay Peninsula, see [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ethnic_Malays WIKI].

'''Pygmies''' 
Pygmy as any group whose adult males grow to less than 150 cm (4 feet 11 inches) in average height, see [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pygmies WIKI].

'''Indifference-Draught''' 
Traditionally saltpetre. Mason wants a drug to reduce his libido.
[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anaphrodisiac 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.

==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''' 
Butter-Bag was slang for a Dutchman.

'''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 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.

'''''Krees''''' 
[[File:Kris_bali.jpg|thumb|Krees|right|75px]]
Like the book says, a dagger, but further, both a weapon and a spiritual object. See [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kris WIKI].

==Page 71==

'''...fantastical beings...''' 
Note that Jorge Luis Borges' ''Book of Imaginary Beings'' ([http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Book_of_Imaginary_Beings Wikipedia]) includes a listing for ''Sea Horse'' (see Borges' text on [http://borges.uiowa.edu/vakalo/zf/html/the_sea_horse.html Fantastic Zoology]); the [[S#Seahorse|Seahorse]], is, of course, the ship on which M&D sail to [[Cape of Good Hope]].

'''Shaula''' 
Second brightest star system in the constellation Scorpius, and one of the brightest stars in the nighttime sky, see [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lambda_Scorpii WIKI].

'''Routs''' 
See especially in this context, with ridottoes, definition #5--a fashionable gathering...with other attendant resonances of meaning. 
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. 

'''[[R#Ridotto|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.

'''Ketjap''' 
Original spelling for what we now know as catsup, which seems to have come from an Asian influence on tomato sauce.

==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. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Invisible_College WIKI]

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''' 
Spoiler Alert: Husband of the Susannah Peach who Mason fantasizes over?

'''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''' 
whole onions and meat as a stew. Also "stifado." However, see OED 1688 "stuffado" and 1771 "stuffata." Also stufata. The latter two are probably Italian. This dish is Greek.

'''dating back to Walpole''' 
Sir Robert Walpole, who held the influential office of First Lord of the Treasury. 4 April 1721 – 11 February 1742. Previous holders of the post had often been important figures in government, but not to such a degree as Walpole. His influence grew even stronger because the King, George I, was not active in English politics, preferring to concentrate on his native Hanover. Walpole is generally regarded as the first Prime Minister, not just because of his influence in Government, but because he could persuade (or force) his colleagues in the Cabinet to act in a harmonious and unified fashion, instead of intriguing against each other for more power. Walpole's office, First Lord of the Treasury, became strongly associated with the leadership of the Government; it became the position which the Prime Minister almost always held... Though Walpole is considered the first "Prime Minister," ...the powers of the monarch were slowly diminished, and those of the Prime Minister gradually increased, over the course of the following years. From [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Robert_Walpole WIKI]

'''Clive''' 
Major-General Robert Clive, 1st Baron Clive, KB (29 September 1725–22 November 1774), also known as Clive of India, was a British soldier who established the military and political supremacy of the East India Company in Southern India and Bengal. He is credited with securing India, and the wealth that followed, for the British crown. Together with Warren Hastings he was one of the key figures in the creation of British India. From [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Robert_Clive,_1st_Baron_Clive Clive of India WIKI]

'''Maskelyne''' [[Image:Maskelyne-nevil-astronomer-01.jpg|thumb|Dr. Nevil Maskelyne|right]]Reverend Dr Nevil Maskelyne. Astronomer, Lunarian, enemy of John Harrison, 5th Astronomer Royal. See [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nevil_Maskelyne WIKI]

'''Robert Waddington''' 
from an old established English family. 27 M iv. Robert Waddington was born in 1743. Waddington genealogy online.

'''Bleak''' 
Bleak \Bleak\, n. [From Bleak, a., cf. Blay.] (Zo["o]l.) 
A small European river fish (Leuciscus alburnus), of the
family Cyprinid[ae]; the blay. [Written also blick.] Source: Webster's unabridged Dictionary 1913.

'''if Beetles be your Passion, why the Beetle Variety there!''' 
Anachronistic allusion to Charles Darwin and a famous remark about evolution? For years, after dropping out of medical school, Darwin had a passion for collecting beetles. 
And, "the contemplation of nature can give rise to some curious reflexions. There is a famous (possibly apocryphal) story about the great biologist J.B.S. Haldane.[20th Century] At a major British public occasion, Haldane was sitting next to an Anglican bishop, who asked him what biology had shown him about the designs and predilections of the Creator. Haldane is supposed to have replied "An inordinate fondness for beetles."

'''Piggotts... A long stare''' 
Piggotts were evidently a British family with members into astronomy. Later, the Victorian age, the family seemed to found a lighting company.
Piggotts have been providing Christmas Illuminations since the Victorian Age. We provide a range of modern innovative schemes: across the street' designs, building fasciae, lamp columns and themed displays. We also provide striking mall illuminations to a diverse range of customers and individuals. Piggotts service includes the design, manufacture, installation, maintenance, refurbishment and storage of your scheme.

'''St. Helena''' 
Island of volcanic origin and a British overseas territory in the South Atlantic Ocean, see [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Saint_Helena WIKI].

==Page 75==

'''Tom Birch''' 
18th Century English historian, see [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thomas_Birch WIKI]. Friend of Ben Franklin, and as well, member of Royal Society.

'''Bodkin''' 
medieval type of arrowhead designed to shoot through protective chain mail usually worn by Knights.

More likely refers to a thick, blunt needle used in taped or corded hemming, or in leather work.

'''History is the Dance of our Hunt for Christ''' 
Nice.

==Annotation Index==

{{MD PbP}}