Chapter 3: 14-29
Contents
Page 14
Spiritual Day-Book
??
Day's Fatigue
A kind of foreecho, so to speak, of a leitmotif of Against the Day. The working day against which, etc., etc.
Extrapolating from a letter TRP wrote to his editor after V., in which he spoke of working on three books at the time, some people think he may have worked on his later works simultaneously---discretely simultaneously, of course, perhaps a little like another theme of ATD.
waking Traverse was done
Traverse: Here are key definitions that might apply most to M & D: . 9. To survey by traverse 6. To look over carefully; examine.
NOUN: trav·erse ( trvrs, tr-vûrs) 8. A line established by sighting in surveying a tract of land. 1. A passing across, over, or through. 2. A route or path across or over. 3. Something that lies across, especially: a. An intersecting line; a transversal. 4. Something that obstructs and thwarts; an obstacle. American Heritage Dictionary.
Traverse is the main family name in ATD; Webb Traverse and his three generation family. There are a lot of associations, see any unabridged dictionary, AHD above is online; ATD and wikipedia. All of the associations are worth looking up and reflecting on with Pynchon, especially as he seems to love the manifold associations, using it also in Vineland, where descendants of Webb live in America in the late 20th Century.
another Term in the Contract
The social contract?--- with all attendant allusions to Rousseau, with whom the phrase might be most linked, and to many social/political philosophers? The rise of the contract.
The major creators of the Constitution were reading many of these thinkers
during this period, of course.
Herein is the anti-city position stated, at least. It shows that Mason only sees the danger and crowding of the city whilst Dixon is overcome by the marvel that is the result the Contract.
Page 15
Wapping High Street
The area was first settled by Saxons, from whom it takes its name (meaning literally "[the place of] Wæppa's people"). It developed along the embankment of the Thames, hemmed in by the river to the south and the now-drained Wapping Marsh to the north. This gave it a peculiarly narrow and constricted shape, consisting of little more than the axis of Wapping High Street and some north-south side streets. John Stow, the 16th century historian, described it as a "continual street, or a filthy strait passage, with alleys of small tenements or cottages, built, inhabited by sailors' victuallers."
Tyburn
The village [of Tyburn] was notorious for centuries as the site of the Tyburn gallows, London's principal location for public executions by hanging. Executions took place at Tyburn from the 12th to the 18th century (with the prisoners processed from Newgate Prison in the City).
wikipedia, abridged.
Motrix
Female motor. GoogleBooks
Page 16
edging away
Pynchonian cliche.
the forms of You
???
Page 17
Ha-Ha
Ha-ha (garden)
The ha-ha or sunken fence is a type of boundary to a garden, pleasure-ground, or park, designed not to interrupt the view and to be invisible until closely approached. The ha-ha consists of a trench, the inner side of which is perpendicular and faced with stone, with the outer slope face sloped and turfed - making it in effect a sunken fence. The ha-ha is a feature in the landscape gardens laid out by Charles Bridgeman, the originator of the ha-ha, according to Horace Walpole (Walpole 1780) and by William Kent and was an essential component of the "swept" views of Capability Brown.
"The contiguous ground of the park without the sunk fence was to be harmonized with the lawn within; and the garden in its turn was to be set free from its prim regularity, that it might assort with the wilder country without. " — Walpole, "Essay upon modern gardening"
Aristarchus
Aristarchus (310 BC - c. 230 BC) was a Greek astronomer and mathematician, born on the island of Samos, in ancient Greece. He is considered the first person to propose a heliocentric model of the solar system, placing the Sun, not the Earth, at the center of the known universe (hence he is sometimes known as the "Greek Copernicus").
the other fellow
Satan? No, not Satan.
isn't Dixon just rambling on a litst of Astronomers and can't remember some guy's name? I don't think he is referring to Satan here.
Maybe Galileo? Copernicus? Tyco Brahe? I vote for one of the latter two--see wikipedia--or someone else, since Galileo seems harder to forget.
latest Eclipse
???
Page 18
mirror'd Lanthorns
'Lanthorn' is a mistaken variant of 'lantern'. etym
Not mistaken, just a choice of spelling; Shakespeare and many others used this form. --Volver 08:56, 9 January 2007 (PST)
Norfolk Terrier
pix
Page 19
Ministerial
???
Integral of One over (Book) d (Book)
Freshman calculus gag. The antiderivative or integral of the function 1/x is the function logarithm of x. Written (integral sign) 1/x dx = log x. Substitute (Book) for x. Answer: log (Book) = logbook.
Pistoles
Coins. pix
Page 20
upstart Chapels
???
singing
???
Page 21
Fender-Belly
Fender: a cushion hung on the side of a ship to protect it if it bumps into a wharf or so. Old tires now serve this function. Fender-Belly has such a cushion in front.
Coconut-Ale
???
Macaronis
A British and American subculture inspired by the fashion of continential Europe eps. that of Italy. The term comes from the Itallian "maccherone" which means "boorish fool" but was taken on by the British to mean over the top fashionable.
Macaroni
They would often speek in an affected manner and mix latin into their speech.
Macaronic Verse
Lunarians
???
Hostlers
???
Glim-Jacks
???
Page 22
praeternatural... supernatural
???
'Macaroni Italian Style'
454 hits
Page 23
circle of Absence
???
fathom
Six feet.
Bahf
Bath.
Fabulous Jellows
???
a-lop
Lopsided. (One OED cite from 1865)
Page 24
the Point
???
Welsh Main
"...in which eight pairs were matched, the eight victors being again paired, then four, and finally the last surviving pair" EB11-cockfighting
Page 25
Fulhams
???
Three-Threads
???
Euphroe
???
Hepsie
???
smoaks
???
Page 26
'pert
Shortened form of 'apert' (open, bold).
Page 28
share quarters
Quite possible Mauve and Hepsie are the same girl.
