3.01 **A screaming comes across the sky** These opening words are forever linked with the V-2 (German A4) rocket. They may bring associations with bombs whistling as they fall, or with the high whine of postwar jet engines. But they are **not** a description of the sound actually made in target zones by the V-2 rocket, which was typically -- depending on the auditor's location -- the sharp "cracking" explosion of the 750-kg warhead followed by a deeper, more or less extended sonic boom. Within this opening nightmare, the "screaming" connects more strongly to the wailing of air-raid sirens and/or, more poetically, to the panic of the city dwellers seeking escape. For what it's worth, the audiobook of _Gravity's Rainbow_ -- presumably approved by Pynchon or his wife and agent, Melanie Jackson -- begins with an audio montage of air-raid sirens and snatches of WWII radio broadcasts. 3.03 **The Evacuation** First instance in _Gravity's Rainbow_ of a lifetime stylistic trait of Pynchon's: unpredictable use of Capitalization. - In _Mason & Dixon_, Pynchon employs capitalization of nouns widely in semi-accordance with the style of 18th-century written English. - All nouns are capitalized in German. Worth noting because the country, language and history loom so large in _Gravity's Rainbow_ as well as Pynchon's first two novels, so much so that Pynchon scholar David Cowart refers these novels as Pynchon's "German period." 3.03 **theatre** Besides the normal meanings, including "theater of war", 'theatre' is the name that fireworks' organizers call a sky display. 3.05 **iron queen** a queensize bed made of iron. Hardly made after 1900. Queen Victoria had a famous brass (and iron) one in the Crystal Palace! "Beds made of hollow tubes of steel, iron, and brass came to be manufactured in the mid 19th century. These were to be used both by soldiers and civilians. Their main advantage at that time was that unlike wooden beds, these could not be infested with bedbugs. Queen Victoria's brass bed at the Crystal Palace has been the most famous antique brass bed. By the late 19th century, metal beds were nearly out of fashion." Antique beds [[[1]](http://www.bestinbeds.com/beds/antique-bed.html)] Also, In The Odyssey, when Odysseus goes to the Underworld, he refers to Persephone as **the Iron Queen**. Of the four gods of Empedocles' elements it is the name of Persephone alone that is taboo, for the Greeks knew another face of Persephone as well. She was also the terrible Queen of the dead, whose name was not safe to speak aloud, who was named simply "The Maiden". Wikipedia [[[2]](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Persephone)] 3.07 **crystal palace** See Alpha entry, especially this re cultural meaning: The Crystal Palace made a strong impression on visitors coming from all over Europe, including a number of writers. It soon became a symbol of modernity and civilization, hailed by some and decried by others. In _What Is to Be Done?_, Russian author and philosopher Nikolai Chernyshevsky pledges to transform the society into a Crystal Palace thanks to a socialist revolution. Fyodor Dostoevsky implicitly replied to Chernyshevsky in _Notes from Underground_. The narrator thinks that human nature will prefer destruction and chaos to the harmony symbolized by the Crystal Palace. When the first major international exhibition of arts and industries was held in London in 1851, the London Crystal Palace epitomized the achievements of the entire world at a time when progress was racing forward at a speed never before known to mankind. The Great Exhibition marked the beginning of a tradition of world's fairs, which would be held in major cities all across the globe. Following the success of the London fair, it was inevitable that other nations would soon try their hand at organizing their own exhibitions. In fact, the next international fair was held only two years later, in 1853, in New York City. This fair would have its own Crystal Palace to symbolize not only the achievements of the world, but also the nationalistic pride of a relatively young nation and all that she stood for. Walt Whitman, the great American poet, wrote in "The Song of the Exposition": [http://www.ric.edu/rpotter/cryspal.html](http://www.ric.edu/rpotter/cryspal.html) That the Crystal Palace Exhibition "marked the beginning of a tradition of world's fairs" can remind that _Against the Day_ starts at the Columbian Exhibition of 1893 in Chicago. More international optimism. 3.14 **second sheep** Compare the narrator’s discussion of William Slothrop’s heretical tract "On Preterition," which argued for the holiness of the preterite, and Weisenburger’s note at [555.29-31](https://gravitys-rainbow.pynchonwiki.com/wiki/index.php?title=Pages_549-557#555 "Pages 549-557"). A wide symbology relates to sheep in ancient art, traditions and culture. Judaism uses many sheep references including the Passover lamb. Christianity uses sheep-related images, such as: Christ as the good shepherd, or as the sacrificed Lamb of God (Agnus Dei); the bishop's Pastoral; the lion lying down with the lamb (a reference to all of creation being at peace, without suffering, predation or otherwise). Greek Easter celebrations traditionally feature a meal of Paschal lamb. Sheep also have considerable importance in Arab culture; Eid ul-Adha is a major annual festival in Islam in which a sheep is sacrificed. Herding sheep plays an important historico-symbolic part in the Jewish and Christian faiths, since Abraham, Jacob, Moses, and King David all worked as shepherds. wikipedia [[3]](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sheep) Sheep are often associated with obedience due to the widespread perception that they lack intelligence and their undoubted herd mentality, hence the pejorative connotation of the adjective 'ovine'. In George Orwell's satirical novel _Animal Farm_, sheep are used to represent the ignorant and uneducated masses of revolutionary Russia. The sheep are unable to be taught the subtleties of revolutionary ideology and can only be taught repetitive slogans such as "Four legs good, two legs bad" which they bleat in unison at rallies. The rock group Pink Floyd wrote a song using sheep as a symbol for ordinary people, that is, everyone who isn't a pig or dog. People who accept overbearing governments have been pejoratively referred to as "sheeple". wikipedia [[4]](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sheep) 3.19 **half-silvered** adj. (of a mirror) having an incomplete reflective coating, so that half the incident light is reflected and half transmitted: used in optical instruments and two-way mirrors. Collins Dictionary See the splitting of light all through _Against the Day_, Pynchon's 2006 novel. 3.19 **view finder** as two words, this seems to refer to handheld devices in which slides were slid and viewed in 3-dimensions. Here is a version still being made [view finder](http://porters.com/Merchant2/merchant.mvc?Screen=PROD&Store_Code=PCS&Product_Code=520098&Product_Count=&Category_Code=). "half-silvered" above seems most correct with this kind of device. 3.22 **They pass in line** A Pynchonian leitmotif. The linearity of lining up has resonances throughout his work, articulated most straightforwardly in _Against the Day_, which starts with "Single up all Lines!", and perhaps dealt with most profoundly in _Mason & Dixon_, a novel about creating the "Mason & Dixon line". 3.25 **Rain comes down** Pynchon's first published story is called _The Small Rain_. See his remarks on rain in fiction in _Slow Learner_. 3.30 **naptha winters** Naptha is the flammable liquid obtained from the distillation of coal and used to fire gaslights and heaters. ... 3.32 **rolling-stock absence** Rolling stock is the collective term that describes all the vehicles which move on a railway. 3.35 **Absolute Zero** Theoretical state when no molecules move. [Zero](http://www.pa.msu.edu/sciencet/ask_st/012992.html..Absolute). State of entropy, a key concept of Thomas Pynchon's. See the early story "Entropy" in _Slow Learner_. 3.36 **places whose _names he has never heard_** 'secret cities of poor', deep under these fallen girders. Places that have never been spoken of, yet exist. Lower than _Low-lands_. Later in Pynchon's world,in other books, _Mason & Dixon_ and _Against the Day_, we will travel deeper underground, to places with no names we know, it seems. See a "progressive _knotting into_", 3.26 in GR. 3.37 **the walls break down** See "wall of death" later in _Gravity's Rainbow_. A-and in _Against the Day_. ## Page 4 4.01 **getting narrower...cornering tighter and tighter** Cf. the rationalization of choice and similar phrasing in _Against the Day_, pynchon wiki p. [10](http://against-the-day.pynchonwiki.com/wiki/index.php?title=ATD_1-25) 4.03 **It is a judgment from which there is no appeal** What began as an evacuation from a city under attack is becoming, obliquely but unmistakably, the way to the death camps of the Third Reich. 4.05 **caravan** 1) a procession, in single file, of merchants or pilgrims 2) a procession of mules, camels or certain other animals. Sources: Online dictionary and wikipedia. Pilgrim has Pynchonian resonances, especially in _Against the Day_. A-And, once again, notice the singleing up of lines. 4.07 **cockade** 1) n. An ornament, such as a rosette or knot of ribbon, usually worn on the hat as a badge. [Alteration of obsolete cockard , from French.] 2) Operational code name for Allied deception operations intended to draw attention away from Normandy prior to D-Day [[5]](http://www.secondworldwar.co.uk/glossc.html) Cf. pun: cock aid, esp. as Slothrop's 'condition' within _Gravity's Rainbow_ is revealed. 4.07 **the color of lead** cockades are usually brightly colored. Lead is not. Lead is a malleable toxic metallic element, bluish-white in color that tarnishes to a dull gray. [Lead](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lead) Lead is what bullets are made of. 4.12 **corridors straight and functional** More forced linearity. 4.31 **But it is already light...light has come percolating in** See also the opening lines of Pynchon's next book, 'Vineland', which begins with someone waking from a (possibly prophetic) dream, with light streaming in. 4.37 **the different levels of the enormous room** The transition from dream to waking is so subtle, and beautifully done, right down to little details, such as how the dreamer's real and dreamt surroundings cross over: the multi-levelled carriage of the dream becomes, on awaking, the room with many levels; the carriage's evacuees ('second sheep') become the room's 'drunken wastrels', etc. ## Page 5 5.03 **His name is Capt. Geoffrey ("Pirate") Prentice.** Pirate’s name derives from Gilbert and Sullivan’s operetta _The Pirates of Penzance_, in which the hero’s nurse has made a fateful error in carrying out her employer’s instructions: Instead of having the boy apprenticed to a (ship’s) **pilot**, he was apprenticed to a pirate, hence a "**pirate** ‘prentice." The name, though, is not simply a fortuitous pun: In her error, the nurse has lost a message, like the hare of Herero myth, and thus guaranteed her young charge’s preterition. (There are also connections here to the theme of "communications entropy," which is central to _The Crying of Lot 49_ and the short story "Entropy.") 5.03 **He is wrapped in a thick blanket, a tartan of orange, rust, and scarlet. His skull feels made of metal.** The rust in the tartan goes well with the metal-feeling skull. And there's a lot of metal in the preceding pages - lead, girders, the iron queen, the metal train tracks, etc. So it's appropriate that Prentice wakes feeling metallic. 5.22-24 **a maisonette erected last century, not far from Chelsea Embankment, by Corydon Throsp, an acquaintance of the Rossettis' who wore hair smocks and liked to cultivate pharmaceutical plants up on the roof** There appears to be no single maisonette near the Chelsea Embankment fitting the description of Pirate's: mullioned windows (p4), French windows, spiral ladder to the roof, parapets and a view of the Thames (p6), mediaeval windows (p93), roof ledges (p111), and of course a roof large and flat enough to hold a bananery, or some pigs. Rossetti, who we're told Throsp is on nodding terms with, and Swinburne lived at No. 16 Cheyne Walk; Rossetti kept a small zoo in the house, including peacocks (die Pfaue). Thomas Carlyle's house is nearby in Cheyne Row. There is a bust of Rossetti in the strip of park separating Cheyne Walk, where Keith Richards, not unfamiliar with Osbie Feel's kind of mushrooms, once lived, from the embankment. Rossetti's wife died of a drug overdose, and he took to keeping wombats as pets; one of these wombats used to attend the dinner table, and was said to have provided the inspiration for the Dormouse character in Alice in Wonderland. That Dormouse's advice - "feed your head" - was used at the end of Jefferson Airplane's mushroom flavoured, Alice-inspired song 'White Rabbit'. Way later on in the book, Slothrop has a dream in which a statue of the White Rabbit in Llandudno is giving him sage advice, but he loses it as he wakes. Oddly enough, the drug that killed Rossetti's wife was laudanum, which isn't very different from 'Llandudno'. Of course that's almost certainly just a coincidence, but all of the foregoing is the sort of stuff you find yourself digging up by chasing after the countless references Pynchon sews into the fabric of the book. 5.32 **all got scumbled together, eventually, by the knives of the seasons, to an impasto, feet thick, of unbelievable black topsoil** [http://dictionary.reference.com/search?q=scumbled](http://dictionary.reference.com/search?q=scumbled) "To blur the outlines of: a writer who scumbled the line that divides history and fiction." A-and the wonderful phrase, "knives of the seasons" embodies another lifelong deep theme in Pynchon's work: that the 'wheeling' of time [see later in _Gravity's Rainbow_ and _Against the Day_], the cycle of nature, is an ineluctable good thing, even as it knifes us, ravages, us. It thickens us, impasto-like, gives us topsoil in our characters, so to speak. Recapitulated later in "...corrode in the busy knives of weather pushing relentlessly into all the rooms." (533.22) 5.41 **the politics of bacteria... rings and chains in nets** Along with "fragments of peculiar alkaloids" a few lines earlier, this begins a recurring use of chemical and biochemical language and perspectives. Sometimes it points toward synthetic industrial chemistry and the geopolitics of coal, oil and steel, sometimes toward the endless variety and vitality of life. Thomas R. Pynchon III (1823-1904), the author's great-great-uncle, was an eminent chemist and educator at Trinity College in Hartford, CT. ## Page 6 [](https://gravitys-rainbow.pynchonwiki.com/wiki/index.php?title=File:Dna-molecule.jpg) [](https://gravitys-rainbow.pynchonwiki.com/wiki/index.php?title=File:Dna-molecule.jpg "Enlarge") 6.09 **a spiral ladder** Suggests the double-helix structure of the DNA molecule that preserves the "living genetic chains" evoked at [10.14](https://gravitys-rainbow.pynchonwiki.com/wiki/index.php?title=Pages_7-16#10 "Pages 7-16"). Double-helix structure like a mandala, pervasive in GR: "Mandala" is an ancient Sanskrit word meaning "sacred circle that protects the soul." It also refers to the sacred cosmograms that serve as core symbols of all cultures. Westerners have been fascinated for centuries about the mandalas of the Hindu-Buddhist cultures of Asia, most often painted geometric diagrams of great beauty and sophistication, that draw the viewer into a realm of balance, harmony, and calm. But such diagrams are actually architectural blueprints of the purified realm of bliss that we can only realize through enlightenment. They represent three-dimensional spaces of personal and communal exaltation, palaces for the regal confidence of love, compassion, and universal satisfaction of self and other. Understanding their role in anchoring the world-picture of a culture or a person provides a new insight into the "mandalas" of our own culture – the national space anchored by the Washington monument and its environs, or the personal cosmological space anchored by the models of the solar system, **the DNA double-helix molecule**, and the atom. [Mandala](http://www.amazon.com/Mandala-Enlightenment-Denise-Patry-Leidy/dp/1585678503) A recent scientific magazine also had an essay [citation needed] on the similarity of the double-helix sructure and the structure of the mandala. A-and, GR, containing mandalas, has been argued to be structured like a mandala. SPOILER of upcoming GR tropes: "Slothrop finds mandalas, sees mandalas in the sky and all around him, and becomes a mandala himself". "mandalas are part of a spiritual or mythic panoply"... From _Thomas Pynchon, The Art of Illusion_ by David Cowart, p. 126. Cf. p. 209, _Mason & Dixon_: " oblique angles with all meridians and that is a spiral coiling round the poles but never reaching them."... Cf. _V._ where the isle of Malta is also likened to a sort of mandala. 6.12 **The great power station and the gasworks beyond** Pirate is looking at the Battersea Power Station. Built in 1937, the Station is well known for appearing below a giant inflatable pig on the cover of Pink Floyd's 1977 album Animals. It has been defunct since 1983. At the time GR is set the plant had two smokestacks; today it has four. According to the London Encyclopedia (ed. C. Hibbert and B. Weinreb) a plaque commemorating Michael Faraday hangs on one wall, but it's not possible to confirm this as the entire site is fenced off. "The gasworks beyond" is the still operational British Gas plant just southeast of the power station. Viewed from Pirate's stretch of the Embankment it seems to lie more to the right of the power station than "beyond" it. ## Page 7 7.09 **Pick bananas** Pirate's decision after a paragraph on the inevitablity of the rocket's flight can remind one of a famous Buddhist sutra on picking a strawberry: The Sweetest Strawberry Buddha told a parable in a sutra: A man traveling across a field encountered a tiger. He fled, the tiger after him. Coming to a precipice, he caught hold of the root of a wild vine and swung himself down over the edge. The tiger sniffed at him from above. Trembling, the man looked down to where, far below, another tiger was waiting to eat him. Only the vine sustained him. Two mice, one white and one black, little by little started to gnaw away the vine. The man saw a luscious strawberry near him. Grasping the vine with one hand, he plucked the strawberry with the other. How sweet it tasted! -Paul Reps, _Zen Flesh, Zen Bones_ from _Everyday Mind_, edited by Jean Smith [[[6]](http://www.tricycle.com/issues/2_174/dailydharma/3192-1.html)] **seven squares** The use of the squares to separate chapters was suggested by the production department or editors of GR, not by Pynchon himself. See Edward Mendelson, "Gravity's Encyclopedia," fn. 4. Gerald Howard, [Bookforum](http://www.bookforum.com/archive/sum_05/pynchon.html): _"It is generally thought that the line of seven squares that serves as a graphic device to separate the unnumbered chapters in the novel is meant to suggest the sprocket holes in film reels, indicating that the book is to be "read" cinematically as a kind of film in prose. Wrong. In one of his letters Kennebeck refers pointedly to the "oblong holes" in censored correspondence from World War II soldiers, then termed V-mail (there's that letter again), and in a letter to Donald Barthelme accompanying a finished copy of the book, Kennebeck makes jocular mention of the sprocket-hole theory, first floated in the Poirier review, and comments, "I little knew what I was contributing to the history of literature." Sometimes a rectangle is just a rectangle—or maybe a censor's mark."_ A further angle on the squares is this: they are _vignettes_. Regard the etymology and definition of the word (from Wiktionary [http://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/vignette](http://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/vignette)) _Etymology_: First attested in 1751. From French vignette, diminutive of vigne (“vine”) < Latin vīnea < vīnum (“wine”). _Definition_: (architecture) A running ornament consisting of leaves and tendrils, used in Gothic architecture. (printing) A decorative design, originally representing vine branches or tendrils, at the head of a chapter, of a manuscript or printed book, or in a similar position. (by extension) Any small borderless picture in a book, especially an engraving, photograph, or the like, which vanishes gradually at the edge. (by extension) A short story that presents a scene or tableau, or paints a picture. The small picture on a postage stamp. Lends new meaning to the line "Tonight they will shoot _wine_." # Pages 7-16 This page-by-page annotation is organized by sections, as delineated by the seven squares (sprockets) which separate each section. The page numbers for this page-by-page annotation are for the original Viking edition (760 pages). Editions by other publishers vary in pagination — the newer Penguin editions are 776 pages; the Bantam edition is 886 pages. **Contributors:** Please use a 760-page edition (either the original Viking edition with the orange cover or the Penguin USA edition with the blue cover and rocket diagram — there are [plenty on Ebay](http://search.ebay.com/search/search.dll?sofocus=bs&sbrftog=1&from=R10&submitsearch=Search&satitle=pynchon+rainbow&sacat=267%26catref%3DC6&sargn=-1%26saslc%3D2&sadis=200&fpos=94610&ftrt=1&ftrv=1&saprclo=&saprchi=&fsop=1%26fsoo%3D1&coaction=compare&copagenum=1&coentrypage=search) for around $10) or search the [Google edition](http://books.google.com/books?id=iPDGp7VT8H8C&printsec=frontcover&source=gbs_navlinks_s#v=onepage&q=&f=false) for the correct page number. **Readers:** To calculate the Bantam edition use this formula: Bantam page # x 1.165. Before p.50 it's about a page earlier; as you get later in the book, add a page. Finally, profound thanks to Prof. Don Larsson for providing the foundation for this page-by-page annotation. ## Contents - [1 Page 9](https://gravitys-rainbow.pynchonwiki.com/wiki/index.php?title=Pages_7-16#Page_9) - [2 Page 10](https://gravitys-rainbow.pynchonwiki.com/wiki/index.php?title=Pages_7-16#Page_10) - [3 Page 11](https://gravitys-rainbow.pynchonwiki.com/wiki/index.php?title=Pages_7-16#Page_11) - [4 Page 12](https://gravitys-rainbow.pynchonwiki.com/wiki/index.php?title=Pages_7-16#Page_12) - [5 Page 13](https://gravitys-rainbow.pynchonwiki.com/wiki/index.php?title=Pages_7-16#Page_13) - [6 Page 14](https://gravitys-rainbow.pynchonwiki.com/wiki/index.php?title=Pages_7-16#Page_14) - [7 Page 15](https://gravitys-rainbow.pynchonwiki.com/wiki/index.php?title=Pages_7-16#Page_15) ## Page 9 9.03 **Miss Grable** Betty Grable actually became a pin-up favorite in **1943** (not 1944), when she had a photo series released. Although she had been featured in various films since the late 1920s, she first became a major box office attraction with the 1940 film _Down Argentine Way_. The poster is also an example of the motif of the turning head that recurs throughout _Gravity’s Rainbow_. Correspondent Hazen Bob Dixon notes that Grable was actually pregnant when the picture was taken, which is why her back was turned in the first place. The story is plausible, since Grable did give birth to a daughter (by her husband, band leader Harry James) in March 1944; however, there are other versions of how the image came to be taken. 9.05 **Civvie Street** In other words, Peacetime, when military personnel will again wear civilian clothes ("civvies"). George Formby had a postwar film titled George in Civvy Street (1946). See note at [18.25](https://gravitys-rainbow.pynchonwiki.com/wiki/index.php?title=Pages_17-19#18 "Pages 17-19"). 9.29 **Jungfrau** Correspondent Igor Zabel notes that the name of the famous mountain actually means "Virgin." Matthias Bauer adds: "The name of the mountain means _virgin`` in 20th century German. Translated from Kluge_ Etymologisches Wörterbuch der deutschen Sprache``, 23th edition, de Gruyter, Berlin, New York, 1999: _originally meaning young lady, later generalized to young (unmarried) woman. Mysticism used the word for the Virgin Mary, and the meaning shifted towards young (virgin) woman."_ Jungfrau is also the German for the zodiacal sign "Virgo." Another female "V." -- which figures later in the story and in history. Note as well the oblique reference to Venus, the "planet of love". In astrology Venus is "fallen" in Virgo. Light. 9.14-19 **Bartley Gobbitch, DeCoverley Pox . . . SNIPE AND SHAFT, Teddy Bloat** "Gobbitch" comes from the archaic word "gobbet," which Webster’s New World Dictionary defines as "a fragment or bit, especially of raw flesh." The names "Pox" and "Bloat" are obvious enough, but "DeCoverley" comes from Sir Roger Decoverley, the prototypical country squire created by Addison and Steele for the Spectator and named in turn for a country reel dance. Overall, the names suggest another version of the "Whole Sick Crew" of Pynchon’s V. "Snipe" (backbite, take potshots) and "shaft" (undercut, screw over) are what these men are presumably assigned to do to others in their various bureaucratic jobs and what they do in conversations at the eponymous pub. 9.14-15 **Maurice "Saxophone" Reed** More is Reed?. A saxophone is a single reed instrument. 9.19 **the legend SNIPE AND SHAFT [as a pub sign]** A snipe is naval slang for a member of the engineering crew on a ship. Historically, there was always tension between snipes and the deck crew. [http://oldsnipe.com/SnipeBegin.html](http://oldsnipe.com/SnipeBegin.html) shaft: Any sensible canal boater carries a wooden pole on the cabin top, in order to punt the boat afloat again when it runs aground, and the most suitable length just happens to be about ten feet. It will normally be about two inches in diameter, and usually made of a hard wood. However, the working boatmen of old called it a 'shaft', never a 'pole', and the term continues amongst experienced boaters today.[http://www.grannybuttons.com/granny_buttons/2004/04/define_shaft.html](http://www.grannybuttons.com/granny_buttons/2004/04/define_shaft.html) The pub name can also be read as two phallic references. "Shaft" is obvious. Snipe, dear reader, is an anagram. 9.26 **Vat 69** A whiskey. A sexual pun. Vat 69 whisky is a scotch blended whisky. In 1882 William Sanderson prepared one hundred casks of blended whiskey and hired a panel of experts to taste them. The batch from the vat with number 69 was proclaimed as the best tasting one and the famous blend got its name. The whisky was at first bottled in port wine bottles. Wikipedia 9.28 **Joaquin Stick** Say it out loud--another classic Pynchon name. ## Page 10 10.28 **C'est magnifique, mais ce n'est pas la guerre** It's magnificent, but it's not war. The "French observer" was Marshal Pierre Bosque. 10.41 **like a rude metal double-fart** Telephones in the UK use a double-ring, sounding like bzzt-bzzt. ## Page 11 11.25 **his batman, a Corporal Wayne** [](https://gravitys-rainbow.pynchonwiki.com/wiki/index.php?title=File:Batman.jpg) [](https://gravitys-rainbow.pynchonwiki.com/wiki/index.php?title=File:Batman.jpg "Enlarge") Weisenburger correctly defines "batman" (an aide assigned to a British officer) but misses Pynchon’s joke: Any "batman" with the last name of "Wayne" must have the first name "Bruce" (batman's secret identity)! (Alfred Appel in Nabokov’s Dark Cinema also missed the joke, claiming that Pynchon was poking fun at John Wayne by demoting him to a "mere" corporal!) ## Page 12 12.07 **to cup and bleed** To bleed [into a cup]: To let blood from; to take or draw blood from, as by opening a vein. A medical way through the 16th Century to treat some illnesses. Notice here Pynchon presents 'anxiety' as a physical illness treated in this old-fashioned discredited way (jokingly, of course). Blood-letting flourished under the theory of Humours [bodily fluids], the Four Temperaments and their corresponding liquid in the body: In re previous entry: "Cupping" is the application of heated cups to the skin. As the cup, and the air within, cool, a partial vacuum is created, drawing an increased amount of blood toward the surface. A lancet may then be used to release the blood in an attempt to "balance the humours" of the body. The "[into a cup]" as used above is incorrect, or at best misleading. In _On the Temperaments_ Galen said an ideal temperament involved a balanced mixture of the four qualities. Galen identified four temperaments in which one of the qualities dominated. These last four, sanguine, choleric, melancholic and phlegmatic, eventually became better known than the others. While the term "temperament" came to refer just to psychological dispositions, Galen used it to refer to bodily dispositions, which determined a person's susceptibility to particular diseases as well as behavioral and emotional inclinations. Methods of treatment like blood letting, emetics and purges were aimed at expelling a harmful surplus of a humour. They remained part of mainstream Western medicine into the 16th century when William Harvey investigated the circulatory system. 12.15 **P.M.S. Blackett, "You can't run a war on gusts of emotion."** P.M.S. Blackett was an English experimental physicist who contributed to a variety of scientific fields, including paleomagnetism and particle physics. As the quote above reflects, he is most widely recognized for his work with military strategy and operational research during World War II. Here one sees yet another lovely example of Pynchon playing with names, as well as a quick look into one of the book's central dichotomies. Although it's conceivable that others might print Patrick Blackett's name as "P.M.S. Blackett" with no thought of [premenstrual syndrome](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Premenstrual_syndrome), given that the quote attributed to him involves staying calm and unemotional, we know better than to expect Pynchon to ignore this delicious morsel of irony. The quote, as well as its author, provides an early glimpse into the book's central theme of war as both a sterile, bureaucratic process and a nightmarish, human ordeal. Blackett's main goal as an adviser to the British military was to make strategic decisions based solely on numbers, rather than emotions or gut feelings. Math itself is a leitmotif of _Gravity's Rainbow_, where the ordered and pristine world it inhabits is in stark contrast to the hell of war, clearly illustrated in the novel's title. "... A million bureaucrats are diligently plotting death and some of them even know it..." (p. 17) ## Page 13 13.05 **he _knew_** We know from V. that TRP knows some of Wittgenstein's key ideas. This italicized emphasis on knowing without analysis might be a nod to the Witttenstein of _On Certainty_ who argued that universal epistemological doubt was, simply, wrong. "The key, then, is not to claim certain knowledge of propositions like “here is a hand” but rather to recognize that these sorts of propositions lie beyond questions of knowledge or doubt." Universal epistemolgical doubt is said to start, historically, with Descartes, a philosopher TRP seems to dislike for his 'rationality'. see _Against the Day_. 13.14 **Genital Brain**. Both androgen and estrogen receptors have been identified in brains. Several sex-specific genes not dependent on sex steroids are expressed differently in male and female human brains. From wikipedia. 13.20 **During his Kipling period, beastly Fuzzy-Wuzzies** Contrary to Weisenburger, the Fuzzy-Wuzzies were actually the Sudanese natives fighting **against** (not conscripted for) the British. Here, Pirate is thinking not of the novels of the arch-apologist for Empire but of such Kipling poems as "Fuzzy-Wuzzy" in which a British soldier declares his grudging admiration for the natives’ fighting spirit. 13.34 **No Cary Grant . . . medicine in the punchbowls** [](https://gravitys-rainbow.pynchonwiki.com/wiki/index.php?title=File:Gunga-din.gif) [](https://gravitys-rainbow.pynchonwiki.com/wiki/index.php?title=File:Gunga-din.gif "Enlarge") The reference here is not to the anachronistic Howard Hawks film _Monkey Business_ but to George Stevens’ _Gunga Din_, the 1939 film loosely inspired by Kipling’s famous poem. It refers specifically to a scene where Cary Grant (and only Cary Grant) is indeed "larking in and out" of the tables of a regimental ball "slipping elephant medicine in the punchbowls." He even has to warn one of his compatriots (Victor McLaglen and Douglas Fairbanks, Jr.) to not drink the punch as he is larking in and out. See [Weisenburger's](https://gravitys-rainbow.pynchonwiki.com/wiki/index.php?title=Weisenburger%27s_Companion_to_Gravity%27s_Rainbow "Weisenburger's Companion to Gravity's Rainbow") note at V684.31-35. ## Page 14 14.07 **H.A. Loaf** As in "Half a loaf is better than none"? and "There is at least one Loaf in every outfit". 14.22 **committed to the Long Run as They are** QUOTATION: Long run is a misleading guide to current affairs. In the long run we are all dead. ATTRIBUTION: John Maynard Keynes (1883–1946), British economist. A Tract on Monetary Reform, ch. 3 (1923). 14.27 **street-wake** quantitative model of the “vortex street” wake as a double row of point vortices. An engineering term. Pynchon studied engineering. 14.30-31 **It was a giant Adenoid!** Correspondent Erik Johnson adds the following in relation to the references to the Adenoid here and at 754.38: "An adenoid is an enlarged mass of lymphoid tissue at the back of the pharynx characteristically obstructing breathing--usually used in plural. I believe it's likely that Pynchon is also making reference to 'Adenoid Hynkel,' the character of the dictator (and mockery of Hitler) played by Charlie Chaplin in the film The Great Dictator. Large protoplasmic monsters featured in a number of 1950s and 1960s SF movies, among them: [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Blob](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Blob) [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Space_Master_X-7](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Space_Master_X-7) [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Quatermass_II](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Quatermass_II) 14.34 **Lord Blatherard Osmo** To "blather" is to talk on foolishly (the reason for his mysterious death?). Lord Blather Hard? "Osmo" suggests "osmosis," the process by which the giant Adenoid would absorb its victims. 14.36 **sanjak** Sanjak and Sandjak are the most common English transliterations of the Turkish word Sancak, which literally means "banner". They were the sub-divisions of the Ottoman provinces referred to as vilayet, eyalet or pashaluk. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sanjak](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sanjak) - 14.04 **Redcaps** [](https://gravitys-rainbow.pynchonwiki.com/wiki/index.php?title=File:Redcap.jpg) [](https://gravitys-rainbow.pynchonwiki.com/wiki/index.php?title=File:Redcap.jpg "Enlarge") Web correspondent Stephen Remato comments: " . . . Those serving in the British Army use the term to refer to the Military Police (in the American parlance 'snowdrops' in reference to the white helmets and gaiters); the term 'red caps' refers to the red band around the standard British Army officer's cap, what one might call the headband, which is usually khaki, with the exception of the red of the MPs. This makes much more sense in context, when the ownership of a narcotic cigarette is under scrutiny; why would one care if any Sudanese troops discovered this secret?" Redcaps are also murderous goblins in English folklore that stain their hats red from the blood of their victims, and must keep killing so the blood on their hats doesn't dry out. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Redcap](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Redcap) ## Page 15 15.25 **the balloon rises** Besides the barrage balloons above, "the balloon is up" is British slang for "fighting is engaged", "war has begun". # Pages 17-19 This page-by-page annotation is organized by sections, as delineated by the seven squares (sprockets) which separate each section. The page numbers for this page-by-page annotation are for the original Viking edition (760 pages). Editions by other publishers vary in pagination — the newer Penguin editions are 776 pages; the Bantam edition is 886 pages. **Contributors:** Please use a 760-page edition (either the original Viking edition with the orange cover or the Penguin USA edition with the blue cover and rocket diagram — there are [plenty on Ebay](http://search.ebay.com/search/search.dll?sofocus=bs&sbrftog=1&from=R10&submitsearch=Search&satitle=pynchon+rainbow&sacat=267%26catref%3DC6&sargn=-1%26saslc%3D2&sadis=200&fpos=94610&ftrt=1&ftrv=1&saprclo=&saprchi=&fsop=1%26fsoo%3D1&coaction=compare&copagenum=1&coentrypage=search) for around $10) or search the [Google edition](http://books.google.com/books?id=iPDGp7VT8H8C&printsec=frontcover&source=gbs_navlinks_s#v=onepage&q=&f=false) for the correct page number. **Readers:** To calculate the Bantam edition use this formula: Bantam page # x 1.165. Before p.50 it's about a page earlier; as you get later in the book, add a page. Finally, profound thanks to Prof. Don Larsson for providing the foundation for this page-by-page annotation. ## Page 17 17.11 **which Mother had Garrard's make up for him** Garrard & Co. Ltd., the Crown Jewellers since 1843, are at 112 Regent Street W1, where they moved in 1952. Mrs. Bloat however would have visited them at their former location in Albemarle Street, near the Royal Institution. This elite scientists' club is where Michael Faraday did most of his experimenting and today it houses the Faraday Museum. ## Page 18 18.22-23 **"Johnny Doughboy Found a Rose in Ireland"** Song by Al Goodhart and Kay Twomey, composed for the 1942 film _Johnny Doughboy_, starring Jane Withers and Henry Wilcoxon. Apparently a popular tune, it lasted 16 weeks on the 1942 Hit Parade and was recorded by Kay Kyser and Guy Lombardo, among others. [](https://gravitys-rainbow.pynchonwiki.com/wiki/index.php?title=File:George-formby.jpg) [](https://gravitys-rainbow.pynchonwiki.com/wiki/index.php?title=File:George-formby.jpg "Enlarge") 18.25 **George Formby** See note above at [9.05](https://gravitys-rainbow.pynchonwiki.com/wiki/index.php?title=Pages_7-16#9 "Pages 7-16"). Formby was extraordinarily popular in recordings and films in Britain in the 1940s. [Weisenburger](https://gravitys-rainbow.pynchonwiki.com/wiki/index.php?title=Weisenburger%27s_Companion_to_Gravity%27s_Rainbow "Weisenburger's Companion to Gravity's Rainbow") claims that Formby’s voice was a "high screech," but it was actually a not-unpleasant baritone. Weisenburger may be confusing Formby with the ukulele-strumming 1960s singing phenomenon Tiny Tim. On the other hand, his singing voice did have a rather whiny Lancastrian accent, similar to his speaking voice. You might like to judge for yourself from his own song ["She's Got Two of Everything" on YouTube](http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nSc-e-QffTs), taken from his 1945 film [_I Didn't Do It!_](http://www.georgeformby.co.uk/films/do_it/report.htm). 18.26-28 **lost pieces...jigsaw puzzles...left eye...Weimaraner** TRP mentions the left eye quite a bit. Vera Meroving, in [_V._, p.237](http://v.pynchonwiki.com/wiki/index.php?title=M#meroving), has an artificial left eye inscribed with a clock and the glyphs of the zodiac; and [in _AtD_](http://against-the-day.pynchonwiki.com/wiki/index.php?title=ATD_57-80#Page_61) Blinky Morgan has a damaged left eye that allows him to be a walking interferometer, able to see light polarization unaided. The left eye here belongs to a [Weimaraner](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Weimaraner), a dog which European royalty used to hunt big game like boar and bear. Weimaraner dogs are known for their loyalty to family, sensitivity, high intelligence and problem solving ability and have thus been called the dog with a human brain. Famous owners of the breed include founder of modern Turkey, Attaturk, President Eisenhower, French President Valéry Giscard d'Estaing, Brad Pitt and Trent Reznor. Amber left eye of a dog echoes The Beatles' _I am the Walrus'_: "yellow matter custard dripping from a dead dog's eye." 18.30 **the skin of a Flying Fortress** Correspondent Stephen Remato adds the following comment: "While detailing the debris on Slothrop's desk, Mr. W. suggests that the bomb which explodes over Hiroshima was dropped from a Flying Fortress. While also made by the Boeing company, it was the B29 Super Fortress, not the B17 Flying Fortress, which was the atomic bomber of WW2. The well-known B29 'Enola Gay' dropped the Hiroshima bomb, while the lesser-known B29 'Bock's Car' dropped the Nagasaki bomb. To those unaware, the superficial similarity in name between these types of aircraft is the main similarity only; they are not variations of the same aircraft but quite distinct." 18.31 **G-2** [Military](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Military_intelligence) or ground intelligence. As opposed to N-2, Naval intelligence; A-2 air intelligence, etc. 18.38 **a News of the World** The _NOTW_ was not a daily paper but a highly sensationalistic British weekly tabloid published every Sunday from 1843 to 2011, with virtually no serious news. That "Slothrop is a faithful reader" says much about his intellectual pursuits. [The paper's farewell web page.](http://www.newsoftheworld.co.uk/) NOTW is mentioned in The Beatles song _Polythene Pam_ : "She's the kind of a girl to make the News of the World, yes you could say she was attractively built..." and The Smiths _This Night Has Opened My Eyes_, "Wrap her [a dead baby] up in the News of the World / Dump her on a doorstep" Likely many other songs as well. ## Page 19 [](https://gravitys-rainbow.pynchonwiki.com/wiki/index.php?title=File:Vixen-pantechnicon.jpg) [](https://gravitys-rainbow.pynchonwiki.com/wiki/index.php?title=File:Vixen-pantechnicon.jpg "Enlarge") 19.30 **the pantechnicon** [Weisenburger](https://gravitys-rainbow.pynchonwiki.com/wiki/index.php?title=Weisenburger%27s_Companion_to_Gravity%27s_Rainbow "Weisenburger's Companion to Gravity's Rainbow") gives this as "a bazaar in Victorian London," but a more fitting setting for Tantivy’s story of "Lorraine and Judy, Charles the homosexual constable and the piano" would be a warehouse or furniture van, with additional cargo space over the driver's cab. See [537.16-17.](https://gravitys-rainbow.pynchonwiki.com/wiki/index.php?title=Pages_537-548#537 "Pages 537-548") # Pages 20-29 This page-by-page annotation is organized by sections, as delineated by the seven squares (sprockets) which separate each section. The page numbers for this page-by-page annotation are for the original Viking edition (760 pages). Editions by other publishers vary in pagination — the newer Penguin editions are 776 pages; the Bantam edition is 886 pages. **Contributors:** Please use a 760-page edition (either the original Viking edition with the orange cover or the Penguin USA edition with the blue cover and rocket diagram — there are [plenty on Ebay](http://search.ebay.com/search/search.dll?sofocus=bs&sbrftog=1&from=R10&submitsearch=Search&satitle=pynchon+rainbow&sacat=267%26catref%3DC6&sargn=-1%26saslc%3D2&sadis=200&fpos=94610&ftrt=1&ftrv=1&saprclo=&saprchi=&fsop=1%26fsoo%3D1&coaction=compare&copagenum=1&coentrypage=search) for around $10) or search the [Google edition](http://books.google.com/books?id=iPDGp7VT8H8C&printsec=frontcover&source=gbs_navlinks_s#v=onepage&q=&f=false) for the correct page number. **Readers:** To calculate the Bantam edition use this formula: Bantam page # x 1.165. Before p.50 it's about a page earlier; as you get later in the book, add a page. Finally, profound thanks to Prof. Don Larsson for providing the foundation for this page-by-page annotation. ## Contents - [1 Page 20](https://gravitys-rainbow.pynchonwiki.com/wiki/index.php?title=Pages_20-29#Page_20) - [2 Page 21](https://gravitys-rainbow.pynchonwiki.com/wiki/index.php?title=Pages_20-29#Page_21) - [3 Page 22](https://gravitys-rainbow.pynchonwiki.com/wiki/index.php?title=Pages_20-29#Page_22) - [4 Page 23](https://gravitys-rainbow.pynchonwiki.com/wiki/index.php?title=Pages_20-29#Page_23) - [5 Page 24](https://gravitys-rainbow.pynchonwiki.com/wiki/index.php?title=Pages_20-29#Page_24) - [6 Page 25](https://gravitys-rainbow.pynchonwiki.com/wiki/index.php?title=Pages_20-29#Page_25) - [7 Page 26](https://gravitys-rainbow.pynchonwiki.com/wiki/index.php?title=Pages_20-29#Page_26) - [8 Page 27](https://gravitys-rainbow.pynchonwiki.com/wiki/index.php?title=Pages_20-29#Page_27) - [9 Page 28](https://gravitys-rainbow.pynchonwiki.com/wiki/index.php?title=Pages_20-29#Page_28) - [10 Page 29](https://gravitys-rainbow.pynchonwiki.com/wiki/index.php?title=Pages_20-29#Page_29) - [11 References](https://gravitys-rainbow.pynchonwiki.com/wiki/index.php?title=Pages_20-29#References) ## Page 20 20.21 **What it is is a graphite cylinder** The contents wiull be revealed on pp. 71-72. 20.34 **A-and** Does anyone know how TRP pronounces this? Is it just a stutter? (It will recur in [all](http://www.google.com/search?tbs=bks:1&tbo=p&q=a-and+inauthor:thomas+inauthor:pynchon&num=10) his subsequent books.) 20.36 **TDY** Not "tour of duty," as in Weisenburger, but "temporary duty." 20.37 **East End** This is the East End of London, particularly heavily bombed by the Germans in the war as London's docks were situated there. It was, and still is, the area where the poorest people of London live. Famously, Queen Elizabeth's mother made a royal visit there during the war where she was enthusiastically received. ## Page 21 21.03 **more of that Minnesota Multiphasic shit** The Minnesota Multiphasic Personality Inventory (MMPI) is a standardized test of adult personality and psychopathology. It was first published by the University of Minnesota Press in 1943, and quickly adopted by US armed forces.[[1]](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Minnesota_Multiphasic_Personality_Inventory) 21.07 **A lot of stuff prior to 1944 is getting blurry now.** Even this early in the novel, Slothrop has problems with his "temporal bandwidth." His memories of the Blitz (21.08) put him in London no later than May 1941, and possibly as early as September 1940. Note also "I'm four years overdue" (25.17). The US did have military liaison missions in the UK long before entering the war, but we will get no details of Slothrop's role before the V-weapon campaign. 21.32 **these three years** This puts Slothrop and Tantivy together (presumably at ACHTUNG) since Dec. 1941. What technical intelligence from northern Germany had been targeted that far back? According to the history books, the Allies became aware of the V-weapons programs only in mid-1943. 21.35 **Tantivy's guest at the Junior Athenaeum** According to the London Encyclopedia the Junior Athenaeum purchased Hope House at 116 Piccadilly in 1868, owning it until the building was demolished in 1936. The JA appears to have closed its doors in 1931, making this a possible anachronism. The Athenaeum Club proper is the most intellectually elite of the gentlemen's clubs; Darwin, Dickens and Trollope were members and Michael Faraday was secretary of the first committee. 21.36 **86’d** While sources do agree with Weisenburger that the term "86" might originate in rhyming slang (for "nix"), they also agree that it was first used in the restaurant business to indicate menu items that were no longer available. The wider usage here may not have originated until the 1950s. ## Page 22 22.03 **a build out of the chorus line at the Windmill**; also p39 "It's not backstage at the Windmill" The Windmill opened in 1932 in a building which had been the Palais de Luxe Cinema and then a theatre. It featured comedy and burlesque revues. The only London theatre to remain open throughout the war, the Windmill continued until 1964 when it became a cinema, reverted to a strip club in 1973, became a theatre/restaurant in 1982 and finally re-opened as a strip club in 1986. From a recent advertisement: "The Windmill International - London's Premier Tableside Dancing Club with 75 Beautiful Dancing Girls who will perform tableside for you - full Nudity - fantastic stage and light show - Dress Smart". 22.04 **Frick Frack Club** The term "frick and frack" is often used to designate two people or almost any two items closely associated with each other. The term originates from the stage names of a pair of Swiss skaters who starred in ice shows in the 1930s. Pynchon probably chose the name more for its senseless alliteration (like "Kit-Kat Club") than any specific meaning. 22.25 **Thomas Hooker... wilde Thyme** Thomas Hooker (July 5, 1586 – July 7, 1647) was a prominent Puritan religious and colonial leader, who founded the Colony of Connecticut after dissenting with Puritan leaders in Massachusetts. He was known as an outstanding speaker and a leader of universal Christian suffrage. [[2]](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thomas_Hooker) "wilde Thyme" also brings to mind "Wild Tyme", song by Jefferson Airplane on their 1967 LP _After Bathing At Baxter's_ [[3]](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/After_bathing_at_baxter%27s) ## Page 23 23.10 **Bovril** A beef extract--its main use is as a flavouring for soups, and as a drink when you put a teaspoon of the stuff in a mug of boiling water. The method for making the extract was perfected by Justus von Liebig, who co-founded the eponymous London based company. 23.19 **Wrens** Women's Royal Naval Service - British non-combatent support group of war effort. 23.25 **Ike jacket** [](https://gravitys-rainbow.pynchonwiki.com/wiki/index.php?title=File:Ike_Jacket.jpeg) [](https://gravitys-rainbow.pynchonwiki.com/wiki/index.php?title=File:Ike_Jacket.jpeg "Enlarge") Ike jacket Eisenhower jacket-- officially the M-44; a waist-cropped style jacket designed in 1943 and meant to be worn beneath the standard US field jacket, the M-43, as an added layer of insulation; supposedly made at Eisenhower's request. ## Page 24 24.14 **Humber** Humber is a British automobile marque which could date its beginnings to Thomas Humber's bicycle company founded in 1868. Following their involvement in Humber through Hillman in 1928 the Rootes brothers[1] acquired a controlling interest and joined the Humber board in 1932 making Humber part of their Rootes Group. The range focused on luxury models, such as the Humber Super Snipe. [[4]](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Humber_(car)) 24.30 **Morrison shelter** The Morrison shelter, officially termed _Table (Morrison) Indoor Shelter_, had a cage-like construction beneath it. It was designed by John Baker and named after Herbert Morrison, the Minister of Home Security at the time. It was the result of the realisation that due to the lack of house cellars it was necessary to develop an effective type of indoor shelter. The shelters came in assembly kits, to be bolted together inside the home. They were approximately 6 ft 6 in (2 m) long, 4 ft (1.2 m) wide and 2 ft 6 in (0.75 m) high, had a solid 1/8 in (3 mm) steel plate “table” top, welded wire mesh sides, and a metal lath “mattress”- type floor. Altogether it had 359 parts and had 3 tools supplied with the pack. [[5]](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Morrison_shelter#Morrison_shelter) ## Page 25 25.06-07 **Slothrop’s Progress . . . a parable** "Slothrop’s Progress" echoes John Bunyan’s Puritan allegory _The Pilgrim’s Progress_. The word "parable," interestingly, comes from the same root as "parabola." Slothrop's Progress may be Time itself. Sir Arthur Eddington coined the term "time's arrow" to describe entropy's progress and time's irreversibility-- i.e. "as the universe gets older, it becomes more disordered, following the second law of thermodynamics." Entropy's progress defines time. Cf. _Scientific American_, Jan 2008, p.26 for more. 25. 29 **Bond Street Underground station** This is a station in the wealthier West End of London - also a site on the British version of 'Monopoly' ## Page 26 26.30 **back home in Mingeborough, Massachusetts** The Berkshire town was first created by Pynchon in the short story "The Secret Integration," set in the mid-1960s. This story also introduced the Slothrop family, in the person of Hogan Slothrop, who is apparently the son of Tyrone’s brother. Minges (or "midges") are small, biting insects. However, "minge" was originally also a British slang term for a woman's pubic hair, now generalised to the female genitals. 26.33 **British Double Summer Time** Correspondent Igor Zabel explains this term: " . . . in Britain they had, during the war, the clocks an hour ahead in the winter time and two hours in the summer time." 26.37-38 **Death is a debt to nature due . . . so must you.** Weisenburger claims that this epitaph, with its debt to "nature" rather than God, would be heretical to Puritans. That might be so, but the inscription was fairly common on tombstones in the northeast from the mid-1700s until the early 1800s, a range that includes Constant’s 1760 death. ## Page 27 27.04 **Variable Slothrop** The son of "Constant": The two names play a mathematical pun and suggest the family’s decline as well. Both names seem to be a pun as well on the name of Puritan minister and Harvard president, the Rev. Increase Mather of Massachusetts Bay Colony and his son, Cotton Mather. Increase attempted to decrease the heat surrounding the Salem Witch Trials through a series of sermons seeking moderation in the use of spectral evidence, even though he defended the trials and the judges. Parallels: Second law of thermodynamics - heated trials cooling. Increase-Cotton-Constant-Variable -- 27.31-33 **They began as fur traders, cordwainers, salters and smokers of bacon, went on into glassmaking, became selectmen, builders of tanneries, quarriers of marble.** [](https://gravitys-rainbow.pynchonwiki.com/wiki/index.php?title=File:Berkshire.jpg) [](https://gravitys-rainbow.pynchonwiki.com/wiki/index.php?title=File:Berkshire.jpg "Enlarge") One source listed in Weisenburger but that he did not have time to consult closely is _The Berkshire Hills_ [[1]](https://gravitys-rainbow.pynchonwiki.com/wiki/index.php?title=Pages_20-29#cite_note-1), a guidebook prepared for this western Massachusetts region by the Federal Writers Project during the Depression. (See Pynchon’s comments in his introduction to _Slow Learner_.) Although not the sole source, the book provides important background for "The Secret Integration" and the Berkshire segments of _Gravity’s Rainbow_. Most of the offices and trades listed here (except for "smokers and salters of bacon") are noted at one place or another in the guidebook. Also see my article "From the Berkshires to the Brocken: Transformations of a Source in "The Secret Integration" and Gravity’s Rainbow," Pynchon Notes 22-23 (Spring-Fall 1988): 87-98.[[6]](http://www.ham.miamioh.edu/krafftjm/pn/pn022.pdf) ## Page 28 28.02 **converted acres at a clip into paper** Nothing to do with paperclips, 'at a clip' is UK idiom for 'very quickly'. 28.02-03 **paper—toilet paper, banknote stock, newsprint** The Berkshire Hills describes several paper mills in the region and notes the importance of the industry. One producer, Crane and Company, first used the term "bond" for high-quality paper and provided special paper for U.S. currency from 1879 on [[2]](https://gravitys-rainbow.pynchonwiki.com/wiki/index.php?title=Pages_20-29#cite_note-2). Another company, in the town of Lee, gave the "first practical demonstration in America of the process of manufacturing paper from wood pulp instead of rags" [[3]](https://gravitys-rainbow.pynchonwiki.com/wiki/index.php?title=Pages_20-29#cite_note-3). 28.05 **Somerset Club** The Somerset Club is a private social club in Boston, Massachusetts, founded perhaps as early as 1826. The original club was informal, without a clubhouse. By the 1830s this had evolved into a group called the Temple. In 1851 the group purchased the home of Benjamin W. Crowninshield, located at the corner of Beacon and Somerset Streets. Originally called the Beacon Club, it was renamed the Somerset Club in 1852. In 1871 the Somerset Club purchased the David Sears townhouse at 42 Beacon Street on Beacon Hill. Originally designed by Alexander Parris and built in 1819, Sears had added to the house in 1832 and had built the adjacent Crowninshield-Amory house at 43 Beacon Street for his daughter. The land on which the house stood was originally part of an 18-acre (73,000 m2) parcel owned by John Singleton Copley, who called it "his farm on Beacon Street." Eventually the Club bought 43 Beacon Street and joined the two houses into one large clubhouse. [[7]](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Somerset_Club) 28.29-30 **dying... but never quite to the zero** The third in a series of zeros: Pirate's "idiot chase out to zero longitude" (20.8) Slothrop's fear of death by V-2: "the next second, right, just suddenly... shit... just zero, just nothing..."(25.18) And now the Slothrop family wealth diminishing towards zero The primary referent for the section title "Beyond the Zero" is a concept from Pavlov's theory of reflex conditioning -- but these three may also link it to the East (where the rockets come from), to what lies beyond death, and to negative wealth -- "a debt to nature due" (26.39), or a guilt accumulated by the Slothrops' spoiling of the New World. 28.33-34 **Harrimans and Whitneys gone** The Harrimans are mentioned in passing several times in _The Berkshire Hills_ as being among the wealthy families who spent their summers in the region. William C. Whitney, President Cleveland’s Secretary of the Navy, is specifically mentioned as the founder of a vacation colony in Lenox in 1886 [[4]](https://gravitys-rainbow.pynchonwiki.com/wiki/index.php?title=Pages_20-29#cite_note-4). These decaying vacation homes also appear in "The Secret Integration": "...a miniaturized or toy Venice for the New York candy magnate Ellsworth Baffy, who had caused this place to be built originally. Like many who put castles up among these inland hills, he was a contemporary of Jay Gould and his partner, the jolly Berkshire peddler Jubilee Jim Fisk." 28.40 **the Great Aspinwall Hotel Fire** More historical fact, also possibly from _The Berkshire Hills_. [[8]](http://lostnewengland.com/2016/02/hotel-aspinwall-lenox-mass-1/) ## Page 29 29.04 **Hogan** Tyrone Slothrop’s brother, presumably the father of the Hogan Slothrop of "The Secret Integration," set in the Berkshires a generation later. ## References 1. [↑](https://gravitys-rainbow.pynchonwiki.com/wiki/index.php?title=Pages_20-29#cite_ref-1) _The Berkshire Hills'_, Funk & Wagnalls Company, New York, 1939 2. [↑](https://gravitys-rainbow.pynchonwiki.com/wiki/index.php?title=Pages_20-29#cite_ref-2) Ibid, p. 238 3. [↑](https://gravitys-rainbow.pynchonwiki.com/wiki/index.php?title=Pages_20-29#cite_ref-3) Ibid, p. 143 4. [↑](https://gravitys-rainbow.pynchonwiki.com/wiki/index.php?title=Pages_20-29#cite_ref-4) Ibid, p. 224 # Pages 29-37 This page-by-page annotation is organized by sections, as delineated by the seven squares (sprockets) which separate each section. The page numbers for this page-by-page annotation are for the original Viking edition (760 pages). Editions by other publishers vary in pagination — the newer Penguin editions are 776 pages; the Bantam edition is 886 pages. **Contributors:** Please use a 760-page edition (either the original Viking edition with the orange cover or the Penguin USA edition with the blue cover and rocket diagram — there are [plenty on Ebay](http://search.ebay.com/search/search.dll?sofocus=bs&sbrftog=1&from=R10&submitsearch=Search&satitle=pynchon+rainbow&sacat=267%26catref%3DC6&sargn=-1%26saslc%3D2&sadis=200&fpos=94610&ftrt=1&ftrv=1&saprclo=&saprchi=&fsop=1%26fsoo%3D1&coaction=compare&copagenum=1&coentrypage=search) for around $10) or search the [Google edition](http://books.google.com/books?id=iPDGp7VT8H8C&printsec=frontcover&source=gbs_navlinks_s#v=onepage&q=&f=false) for the correct page number. **Readers:** To calculate the Bantam edition use this formula: Bantam page # x 1.165. Before p.50 it's about a page earlier; as you get later in the book, add a page. Finally, profound thanks to Prof. Don Larsson for providing the foundation for this page-by-page annotation. ## Contents - [1 Page 29](https://gravitys-rainbow.pynchonwiki.com/wiki/index.php?title=Pages_29-37#Page_29) - [2 Page 30](https://gravitys-rainbow.pynchonwiki.com/wiki/index.php?title=Pages_29-37#Page_30) - [3 Page 31](https://gravitys-rainbow.pynchonwiki.com/wiki/index.php?title=Pages_29-37#Page_31) - [4 Page 32](https://gravitys-rainbow.pynchonwiki.com/wiki/index.php?title=Pages_29-37#Page_32) - [5 Page 33](https://gravitys-rainbow.pynchonwiki.com/wiki/index.php?title=Pages_29-37#Page_33) - [6 Page 34](https://gravitys-rainbow.pynchonwiki.com/wiki/index.php?title=Pages_29-37#Page_34) - [7 Page 35](https://gravitys-rainbow.pynchonwiki.com/wiki/index.php?title=Pages_29-37#Page_35) - [8 Page 36](https://gravitys-rainbow.pynchonwiki.com/wiki/index.php?title=Pages_29-37#Page_36) - [9 Page 37](https://gravitys-rainbow.pynchonwiki.com/wiki/index.php?title=Pages_29-37#Page_37) ## Page 29 29.34 **laminar** Laminar flow, sometimes known as streamline flow, occurs when a fluid flows in parallel layers, with no disruption between the layers. [[1]](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Laminar_flow) ## Page 30 30.1 **Camerons officers** Sir Alexander Maurice Cameron: He served in World War II initially as a British General Staff Officer with Anti-Aircraft Command and then as Commander of the Anti-Aircraft Brigade from 1942. He was on the staff of Supreme Headquarters, Allied Expeditionary Force from 1944 to 1945. At this time he started constructing an Allied version of the V2 rocket. [[2]](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alexander_Cameron_(British_Army_officer)) Or: officers of the Cameron Highlanders. [[3]](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Queen%27s_Own_Cameron_Highlanders) 30.37 **Ouspenskian nonsense** Peter D. Ouspensky (March 4, 1878–October 2, 1947), (Pyotr Demianovich Ouspenskii, also Uspenskii or Uspensky, Пётр Демья́нович Успе́нский), a Russian esoteric philosopher known for his expositions of the early work of the Greek-Armenian teacher of esoteric doctrine George Gurdjieff, whom he met in Moscow in 1915. [[4]](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ouspensky) 30.39 **Jessica Swanlake** Jessica’s last name, like other musical references in the novel, is suggestive. Like the heroine of the Tchaikovsky ballet, she finds true love and is transformed, but then is abducted back to her former state by an evil magician (in this case, Pointsman). ## Page 31 31.17 **tripos at Cambridge** Formal exams at Cambridge University to demonstrate understanding and determine class honors. [Wikipedia](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cambridge_Mathematical_Tripos) [](https://gravitys-rainbow.pynchonwiki.com/wiki/index.php?title=File:Carroll-righter.jpg) [](https://gravitys-rainbow.pynchonwiki.com/wiki/index.php?title=File:Carroll-righter.jpg "Enlarge") 31.28 **Carroll Eventyr** As Weisenburger notes, "eventyr" is Danish for "adventure" but in the sense of a tale or story ("The Adventures of . . . "). It can signify "folk tales" or "fairy tales," as in Hans Christian Andersen’s stories. The first name evokes **Lewis** Carroll but it also suggests the astrologer Carroll **Righter**, whose face appeared on the cover of Time magazine for a story about growing interest in the occult on March 21, 1969. Righter, nicknamed "The Gregarious Aquarius," later would read charts for Ronald Reagan, among other celebrities. Also see the note at [742.29](https://gravitys-rainbow.pynchonwiki.com/wiki/index.php?title=Pages_735-760#742 "Pages 735-760"). ## Page 32 32.5 **Zipf's Principle of Least Effort** Zipf's law ( /ˈzɪf/), an empirical law formulated using mathematical statistics, refers to the fact that many types of data studied in the physical and social sciences can be approximated with a Zipfian distribution, one of a family of related discrete power law probability distributions. The law is named after the linguist George Kingsley Zipf who first proposed it (Zipf 1935, 1949), though J.B. Estoup appears to have noticed the regularity before Zipf. [[5]](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zipf%27s_law) 32.20 **frail as organdy** Organdy or organdie is the sheerest and crispest cotton cloth made. Combed yarns contribute to its appearance. - from Wikipedia 32.23 **The usual Mysterious Microfilm Drill** The first of several uses of this idiom ("Disgusting English Candy Drill," "them Tamara/Italo drills," "the 'Nature of Freedom' drill," etc.). They break the fourth wall with the suggestion that we and the narrator know this is familiar, stylized "going through the motions." 32.25 **crown-and-anchor game** Crown and Anchor is a simple dice game, traditionally played for gambling purposes by sailors in the British Royal Navy, and also in the British merchant and fishing fleets. The game originated in the 18th century. It is still popular in the Channel Islands and Bermuda, but is strictly controlled and may be played legally only on certain occasions, such as the Channel Islands' three annual agricultural shows, or Bermuda's annual Cup Match cricket game. Three special dice are used in Crown and Anchor. The dice are equal in size and shape to standard dice, but instead of one through six pips, they are marked with six symbols: crown, anchor, diamond, spade, club and heart. [[6]](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Crown_and_Anchor) 32.35 **grin your Dennis Morgan chap goes about** Dennis Morgan (December 20, 1908 – September 7, 1994) was an American actor-singer. Born as Earl Stanley Morner, he used the acting pseudonym Richard Stanley before adopting his professional name. In 1945, he played "Jefferson Jones" in _Christmas in Connecticut_ opposite Barbara Stanwyck and Sydney Greenstreet. He starred in _God Is My Co-Pilot_, _Kitty Foyle_, _Perfect Strangers_ and _The Desert Song_. Morgan was a leading man with Warner Bros. in the 1940s, starring with best friend Jack Carson in many movies, several of which were "two guys" buddy pictures. His peak years were 1943 to 1949. [[7]](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dennis_Morgan) ## Page 33 33.17 **rattling sitreps** Situation reports. "A command center (often called a war room) is any place that is used to provide centralized command for some purpose." [[8]](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sitrep#Military_and_government) 33.19 **good-whisky-and-cured-Latakia scent of Their rough love** Latakia tobacco is a specially prepared tobacco originally produced in Syria and named after the port city of Latakia. Now the tobacco is mainly produced in Cyprus. It is initially sun-cured like other Turkish tobaccos and then further cured over a pine or oak wood fire, which gives it an intense smokey-peppery taste and smell. Too strong for most people's tastes to smoke straight, it is used as a "condiment" or "blender" (a basic tobacco mixed with other tobaccos to create a blend), especially in English, Balkan, and some American Classic blends. [[9]](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Latakia_%28tobacco%29) 33.26 **Witchcraft Act** Correspondent Igor Zabel offers this interesting elaboration on the reference: "A few years ago, I came upon a short article in our daily newspaper _Delo_, which could be interesting here. It says: 'The British spiritualists started a campaign to acquit Helen Duncan, sentenced as a witch during the World War II. She was sentenced as a consequence of a séance in 1942. She told she had seen in her trance a dead soldier wearing a cap with the inscription HMS Barham, who had told her: My ship was sunken. The news about this fact (the ship was supposedly sunken on 25 November 1942) was kept secret by the British government for two years, as Winston Churchill wrote in his diary. In 1944, Duncan was arrested since they were afraid that she would reveal also the date of the D-day. Her trial was based on the Witchcraft Act from 1735, and she was sentenced to nine months of prison. Argument: Helen Duncan pretends that she conjures the spirits of the dead.' It seems that Mexico refers to this case; the year and quotation from the Act correspond to the conviction of Helen Duncan." A web search using Helen Duncan's name will reveal several websites devoted to the "medium martyr." 33.31-32 **the Scrubs** Wormwood Scrubs Prison, in London, was built by convicts in 1874 ## Page 34 34.21 **"The White Visitation"... devoted to psychological warfare** I have always figured this was a major influence on the White Lodge of _Twin Peaks_. [[10]](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/White_Lodge_%28Twin_Peaks%29) 34.28 **Vichy traitors** Following the armistice signed on June 22, 1940, the zone which was not occupied by the Germans took the name of the French State (État Français) (as opposed to the traditional name, République française or French Republic) and set up its capital in Vichy on July 1, because of the town's relative proximity to Paris (4.5 hours by train) and because it was the city with the second largest hotel capacity at the time. Moreover, the existence of a modern telephone exchange made it possible to reach the whole world via phone. More: [[11]](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vichy) 34.28-29 **Lublin Communists drawing beads on Varsovian shadow-ministers** On 24 July 1944, Lublin was taken by the Soviet Army and became the temporary capital of a Soviet-controlled communist Polish Committee of National Liberation established in the city, which was to serve as basis for a puppet government. The capital was moved to Warsaw in January 1945. [[12]](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lublin) 34.29-30 **ELAS Greeks stalking royalists** The Greek People's Liberation Army or ELAS (Greek: Ελληνικός Λαϊκός Απελευθερωτικός Στρατός, translit. Ellinikós Laïkós Apeleftherotikós Stratós, ΕΛΑΣ), was the military arm of the left-wing National Liberation Front (EAM) during the period of the Greek Resistance until February 1945. [[13]](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Greek_People%27s_Liberation_Army) 34.39 **that stateless lascar...** Lascar: The name lascar was also used to refer to Indian servants, typically engaged by British military officers. [[14]](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lascar) Lascars often appear as sinister henchmen in Sax Rohmer's "Fu Manchu" thrillers, which are referenced repeatedly in _GR_. Perhaps this implies, that though not immediately placeable, Pirate has a bit of an Indian look, outside of the other connotations? 34.41 **They have euchred Mexico** Euchre is a trick-taking card game most commonly played with four people in two partnerships with a deck of 24 standard playing cards. It is the game responsible for introducing the joker into modern packs; this was invented around 1860 to act as a top trump or best bower (from the German word Bauer, "farmer", denoting also the jack). It is believed to be closely related to the French game Écarté that was popularized in the United States by the Cornish and Pennsylvania Dutch, and to the seventeenth-century game of bad repute Loo. It may be sometimes referred to as Knock Euchre to distinguish it from Bid Euchre. [[15]](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Euchre) ## Page 35 35.3 **Behaviorist** Behaviorism, also called the learning perspective (where any physical action is a behavior), is a philosophy of psychology based on the proposition that all things that organisms do—including acting, thinking and feeling—can and should be regarded as behaviors, and that psychological disorders are best treated by altering behavior patterns or modifying the environment. The behaviorist school of thought maintains that behaviors as such can be described scientifically without recourse either to internal physiological events or to hypothetical constructs such as the mind. Behaviorism comprises the position that all theories should have observational correlates but that there are no philosophical differences between publicly observable processes (such as actions) and privately observable processes (such as thinking and feeling). [[16]](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Behaviorist) 35.3 **Pavlovian** Classical conditioning (also Pavlovian or respondent conditioning, Pavlovian reinforcement) is a form of conditioning that was first demonstrated by Ivan Pavlov (1927). The typical procedure for inducing classical conditioning involves presentations of a neutral stimulus along with a stimulus of some significance, the "unconditional stimulus." The neutral stimulus could be any event that does not result in an overt behavioral response from the organism under investigation. Conversely, presentation of the significant stimulus necessarily evokes an innate, often reflexive, response. Pavlov called these the unconditional stimulus (US) and unconditional response (UR), respectively. If the neutral stimulus is presented along with the unconditional stimulus, it would become a conditional stimulus (CS). Pavlov used the term conditional because he wanted to emphasize that learning required a dependent or conditional relationship between CS and US. If the CS and US always occur together and never alone, this perfect dependent relationship or pairing, causes the two stimuli to become associated and the organism produces a behavioral response to the CS. Pavlov called this the conditional response (CR). [[17]](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pavlovian) 35.21 **NAAFI** The Navy, Army and Air Force Institutes (NAAFI) is an organization created by the British government in 1921 to run recreational establishments needed by the British Armed Forces, and to sell goods to servicemen and their families. Combining some of the functions of the American USO and PX (post exchange), it runs clubs, bars, shops, supermarkets, launderettes, restaurants, cafés and other facilities on most British military bases and also canteens on board Royal Navy ships. Commissioned officers are not usually supposed to use the NAAFI clubs and bars, since their messes provide these facilities and their entry, except on official business, is considered to be an intrusion into junior ranks' private lives. [[18]](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/NAAFI) 35.26 **"a T.S. Eliot April"** Reference to "The Waste Land" by T.S. Eliot: _APRIL is the cruellest month, breeding / Lilacs out of the dead land, mixing / Memory and desire, stirring / Dull roots with spring rain_. ## Page 36 36.3 **ICI** Standing for Imperial Chemical Industries. One of the foremost British public companies, known as the bellwether of the British economy before its reconfiguration and relative demise. [[19]](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Imperial_Chemical_Industries) 36.11-12 **what the lyrics to "Dancing in the Dark" are _really_ about...** Howard Dietz' lyrics to the famous tune, outside of their obvious romantic meaning, can also be read more deeply to empathize with the human condition. [[20]](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dancing_in_the_Dark_(Howard_Dietz_and_Arthur_Schwartz_song)) _Dancing in the dark 'til the tune ends/ We're dancing in the dark and it soon ends/ We're waltzing in the wonder of why we're here/ Time hurries by, we're here and we're gone _ _Looking for the light of a new love/ To brighten up the night, I have you love/ And we can face the music together/ Dancing in the dark _ _What though love is old/ What though the song is old/ Through them we can be young/ Hear this heart of mine/ Wiling all the time/ Dear one, tell me that we're one _ _Looking for the light of a new love/ To brighten up the night, I have you love/ And we can face the music together/ Dancing in the dark, dancing in the dark/ Dancing in the dark_ [](https://gravitys-rainbow.pynchonwiki.com/wiki/index.php?title=File:Beaver.jpg) [](https://gravitys-rainbow.pynchonwiki.com/wiki/index.php?title=File:Beaver.jpg "Enlarge") 36.27-28 **the Other Chap in this case being known as Beaver** "Beaver" is the nickname for Jessica’s other and more staid lover, Jeremy. The nickname derives from the ‘40s slang for the beard he sports. (For example, in the "home front" film _Since You Went Away_ [1944], the bearded character played by Monty Woolley is referred to as "Beaver.") The word also is vulgar slang for a woman’s pubic hair or genitals. ## Page 37 37.4 **the cutters are coming** A cutter is a light, fast official vessel used by coast guards, customs officials, etc. -- here carrying on the nautical associations of Pirate & Scorpia's talk. 37.10-11 **Fred Roper’s Company of Wonder Midgets** [](https://gravitys-rainbow.pynchonwiki.com/wiki/index.php?title=File:Fred-roper.jpg) [](https://gravitys-rainbow.pynchonwiki.com/wiki/index.php?title=File:Fred-roper.jpg "Enlarge") This is apparently a real group, although I have no information on them except that a postcard exists captioned "Fred Roper and His Wonderful Midgets" with a tall man in a busby and military greatcoat and a troop of midgets in uniform under the heading "The Toy Soldier Parade." The website for The Princess Theatre Hunstanton (England) notes that the building opened as the Capitol Theatre in 1932. One of the first acts to play there was "Fred Roper and His 20 Wonder Midgets"! A scan of a vintage program from the Fred Roper troop is available online, and video of the troop can be found on YouTube. [[21]](http://finepixtrix.wordpress.com/2013/10/04/fred-roper-and-his-amazing-midgets/) [[22]](http://youtu.be/KHuzWfat8dM) 37.27-28 **rendezvous with a certain high-class vivisectionist** A possible play of "cutters" (above) and "vivisectionist" (one who cuts into live animals), hinting at a parallel between Pirate/Scorpia and Roger/Jessica: both relationships are furtive and would be disapproved by Them. 37.39-40 **whippy as sheets of glass improperly annealed** Annealing is a process of slowly cooling glass to relieve internal stresses after it was formed. The process may be carried out in a temperature-controlled kiln known as a Lehr. Glass which has not been annealed is liable to crack or shatter when subjected to a relatively small temperature change or mechanical shock. Annealing glass is critical to its durability. If glass is not annealed, it will retain many of the thermal stresses caused by quenching and significantly decrease the overall strength of the glass. [[23]](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Annealing_(glass)) # Pages 37-42 This page-by-page annotation is organized by sections, as delineated by the seven squares (sprockets) which separate each section. The page numbers for this page-by-page annotation are for the original Viking edition (760 pages). Editions by other publishers vary in pagination — the newer Penguin editions are 776 pages; the Bantam edition is 886 pages. **Contributors:** Please use a 760-page edition (either the original Viking edition with the orange cover or the Penguin USA edition with the blue cover and rocket diagram — there are [plenty on Ebay](http://search.ebay.com/search/search.dll?sofocus=bs&sbrftog=1&from=R10&submitsearch=Search&satitle=pynchon+rainbow&sacat=267%26catref%3DC6&sargn=-1%26saslc%3D2&sadis=200&fpos=94610&ftrt=1&ftrv=1&saprclo=&saprchi=&fsop=1%26fsoo%3D1&coaction=compare&copagenum=1&coentrypage=search) for around $10) or search the [Google edition](http://books.google.com/books?id=iPDGp7VT8H8C&printsec=frontcover&source=gbs_navlinks_s#v=onepage&q=&f=false) for the correct page number. **Readers:** To calculate the Bantam edition use this formula: Bantam page # x 1.165. Before p.50 it's about a page earlier; as you get later in the book, add a page. Finally, profound thanks to Prof. Don Larsson for providing the foundation for this page-by-page annotation. ## Contents - [1 Page 38](https://gravitys-rainbow.pynchonwiki.com/wiki/index.php?title=Pages_37-42#Page_38) - [2 Page 39](https://gravitys-rainbow.pynchonwiki.com/wiki/index.php?title=Pages_37-42#Page_39) - [3 Page 40](https://gravitys-rainbow.pynchonwiki.com/wiki/index.php?title=Pages_37-42#Page_40) - [4 Page 41](https://gravitys-rainbow.pynchonwiki.com/wiki/index.php?title=Pages_37-42#Page_41) ## Page 38 38.04-05 **you’ve been able to shoot back now and then at the odd flying buzz bomb** The pulse-jet-powered V-1 "buzz-bomb," flying at 400 mph, could sometimes be intercepted by anti-aircraft guns and propeller-driven fighters. The V-2 rocket, at 3500 mph outside the atmosphere and half that speed on impact, could not. 38.06 **"dear old Nutria-"... "_Beaver_." **The nutria (_Myocastor coypus_), also known as the river rat, is a large, herbivorous, semiaquatic rodent and the only member of the family Myocastoridae. Originally native to subtropical and temperate South America, it has since been introduced to North America, Europe, Asia, and Africa, primarily by fur ranchers. Although it is still valued for its fur in some regions, its destructive feeding and burrowing behaviors make this invasive species a pest throughout most of its range. Its fur was a less expensive substitute for beaver. [[1]](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nutria) 38.19 **watching that awful _Going My Way_** _Going My Way_ is a 1944 film directed by Leo McCarey. It is a light-hearted musical comedy-drama about a new young priest (Bing Crosby) taking over a parish from an established old veteran (Barry Fitzgerald). Crosby sings five songs in the film. It was followed the next year by a sequel, _The Bells of St. Mary's_. This picture was the highest-grossing picture of 1944. Its success helped to make movie exhibitors choose Crosby as the biggest box-office draw of the year, a record he would hold for the remainder of the 1940s. [[2]](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Going_my_way) 38.21 **each saccade of her... eyes** Saccades are quick, simultaneous movements of both eyes in the same direction. [[3]](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Saccade) 38.36 **It was what Hollywood likes to call a "cute meet" **On [p.561](https://gravitys-rainbow.pynchonwiki.com/wiki/index.php?title=Pages_557-563#Page_561 "Pages 557-563"), Pynchon has Slothrop singing "LOOK-IN’ FAWR A NEEDLE IN A HAAAAY-STACK!" which is a song from the Fred Astaire/Ginger Rogers film _The Gay Divorce_ (1934). In that number, Astaire sings about finding the woman of his dreams whose name he never learned after they had had a "cute meet." Pynchon uses 'cute meet' again in [Inherent Vice p. 37](http://inherent-vice.pynchonwiki.com/wiki/index.php?title=Chapter_2#Page_37) 38.37 **Tunbridge Wells** Royal Tunbridge Wells (usually shortened to Tunbridge Wells) is a town in west Kent, England, about 40 miles (64 km) south-east of central London by road, 34.5 miles (55.5 km) by rail. The town is close to the border of the county of East Sussex. Due to its position in South East England, during the First World War Tunbridge Wells was made a headquarters for the army, and its hospitals were used to treat soldiers who had been sent home with a "blighty wound"; the town also received 150 Belgian refugees. The Second World War affected Tunbridge Wells in a different way – it became so swollen with refugees from London that accommodation was severely strained. Over 3,800 buildings were damaged by bombing, but only 15 people lost their lives. [[4]](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tunbridge_Wells) 38.39 **ATS skirt** British ATS: British Auxiliary Territorial Service ## Page 39 39.11 **"I'm going the other way. Nearly to Battle."** Battle, East Sussex: site of the Battle of Hastings in 1066[[5]](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle,_East_Sussex), the last successful invasion of Britain. Probably not coincidental for a young woman working in an anti-aircraft gun crew, in a time of bombardment that can't be stopped. 39.39 **mica-dazzle** Possible reference to Wallace Stevens' poem, "Variations on a Summer Day": _Words add to the senses. The words for the dazzle / Of mica, the dithering of grass, / The Arachne integument of dead trees, / Are the eye grown larger, more intense._ The mica group of sheet silicate (phyllosilicate) minerals includes several closely related materials having highly perfect basal cleavage. All are monoclinic, with a tendency towards pseudohexagonal crystals, and are similar in chemical composition. The highly perfect cleavage, which is the most prominent characteristic of mica, is explained by the hexagonal sheet-like arrangement of its atoms. [[6]](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mica) ## Page 40 40.13 **Psi Section** The Greek letter _psi_ was first used in 1942 to signify "the unknown factor in extrasensory perception and psychokinesis experiences that is not explained by known physical or biological mechanisms." [[7]](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Parapsychology) **all the definitely 3-sigma lot** A statistician's shorthand for "very unusual people." It means three or more standard deviations from a mean or typical value, the extreme outlying values (both high and low) of the familiar "bell curve." Only about 2% of a random population sample would be expected to score "3-sigma" on various psychological scales. [[8]](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/68%E2%80%9395%E2%80%9399.7_rule) 40.18 **the chi-square calculations, in between the flips of the Zener cards...** The chi-square test is one of the most common statistical procedures, used to determine if a data set differs from what would be expected if nothing abnormal were affecting it (i.e., to separate "signal" --if any -- from random "noise").[[9]](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chi-squared_test) Zener cards are cards used to conduct experiments for extra-sensory perception (ESP), most often clairvoyance. Perceptual psychologist Karl Zener designed the cards in the early 1930s for experiments conducted with his colleague, parapsychologist J. B. Rhine. [[10]](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zener_cards) 40.21 **fire control** The use of statistical models to direct anti-aircraft fire. For most of WWII, gun crews used timed fuses to detonate shells within a certain range of altitude, hoping to fill the "box" through which bombers were flying with shell fragments and shock waves. Later, proximity fuses with miniaturized radar electronics would detonate when the shell was closest to an aircraft, making AA fire much more effective. 40.34 **Battle of Britain** The Battle of Britain was the most intense period of air combat between the German air force (_Luftwaffe_) and the UK's Royal Air Force (RAF) during the summer and autumn of 1940. The objective of the German campaign was to gain air superiority over RAF Fighter Command, while bombing British targets ("the Blitz") to force surrender or prepare for an invasion. The name derives from a famous speech delivered by Prime Minister Winston Churchill in the House of Commons: "...the Battle of France is over. I expect that the Battle of Britain is about to begin." This was the first major campaign to be fought entirely by air forces. From July 1940 coastal shipping convoys and shipping centres, such as Portsmouth, were the German bombers' main targets; one month later the _Luftwaffe_ shifted its attacks to RAF airfields and infrastructure. As the battle progressed it also targeted aircraft factories and ground infrastructure. Eventually it shifted to targets of political significance and urban areas, with less frequent raids extending into May 1941. The failure of Germany to achieve its objectives is considered its first major defeat and one of the crucial turning points in the war. [[11]](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_britain) 40.36 **Packard** Same make of car as in the beginning of _V._ A high-quality luxury vehicle. ## Page 41 41.28-29 **barrage balloons south of London** Barrage balloons were blimps tethered with steel cables, creating an aerial "obstacle course" to make it more difficult for attacking bombers to line up their approach and keep formation. [[12]](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Barrage_balloon) **The town, evacuated in '40, is still "regulated"** During the war, about 3.75 million British residents were officially evacuated at some time, from target cities and from smaller towns like this on the southern and eastern approaches to London, where German aircraft often dumped their bombs if harried by RAF fighters. Most had returned to their homes in 1941. "Still, the V-1 flying bomb attacks from June 1944 provoked a significant exodus from London. Up to 1.5 million people left by September — only 20% were "official" evacuees. From September 1944, the evacuation process was officially halted and reversed for most areas except for London and the East coast. Returning to London was not officially approved until June 1945." [[13]](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Evacuations_of_civilians_in_Britain_during_the_Second_World_War) See also the description at 53.37. # Pages 42-47 This page-by-page annotation is organized by sections, as delineated by the seven squares (sprockets) which separate each section. The page numbers for this page-by-page annotation are for the original Viking edition (760 pages). Editions by other publishers vary in pagination — the newer Penguin editions are 776 pages; the Bantam edition is 886 pages. **Contributors:** Please use a 760-page edition (either the original Viking edition with the orange cover or the Penguin USA edition with the blue cover and rocket diagram — there are [plenty on Ebay](http://search.ebay.com/search/search.dll?sofocus=bs&sbrftog=1&from=R10&submitsearch=Search&satitle=pynchon+rainbow&sacat=267%26catref%3DC6&sargn=-1%26saslc%3D2&sadis=200&fpos=94610&ftrt=1&ftrv=1&saprclo=&saprchi=&fsop=1%26fsoo%3D1&coaction=compare&copagenum=1&coentrypage=search) for around $10) or search the [Google edition](http://books.google.com/books?id=iPDGp7VT8H8C&printsec=frontcover&source=gbs_navlinks_s#v=onepage&q=&f=false) for the correct page number. **Readers:** To calculate the Bantam edition use this formula: Bantam page # x 1.165. Before p.50 it's about a page earlier; as you get later in the book, add a page. Finally, profound thanks to Prof. Don Larsson for providing the foundation for this page-by-page annotation. ## Contents - [1 Page 42](https://gravitys-rainbow.pynchonwiki.com/wiki/index.php?title=Pages_42-47#Page_42) - [2 Page 43](https://gravitys-rainbow.pynchonwiki.com/wiki/index.php?title=Pages_42-47#Page_43) - [3 Page 44](https://gravitys-rainbow.pynchonwiki.com/wiki/index.php?title=Pages_42-47#Page_44) - [4 Page 45](https://gravitys-rainbow.pynchonwiki.com/wiki/index.php?title=Pages_42-47#Page_45) - [5 Page 46](https://gravitys-rainbow.pynchonwiki.com/wiki/index.php?title=Pages_42-47#Page_46) - [6 Page 47](https://gravitys-rainbow.pynchonwiki.com/wiki/index.php?title=Pages_42-47#Page_47) ## Page 42 42.07 **whose name will be Vladimir (or Ilya, Sergei, Nikolai...)** These recall the Russian names assigned to laboratory dogs in Pavlov's experiments. This wild or abandoned dog, "never having been near a laboratory in his life," _will be_ given such a name: the first assertion of the control that Pointsman craves above all. 42.19 **F.R.C.S.** Fellowship of the Royal College of Surgeons (FRCS) is a professional qualification to practise as a surgeon in the UK. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/FRCS](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/FRCS) [Jpicco](https://gravitys-rainbow.pynchonwiki.com/wiki/index.php?title=User:Jpicco&action=edit&redlink=1 "User:Jpicco (page does not exist)") 09:53, 16 May 2009 (PDT) 42.35 **Balaclava helmet** ...a form of headgear covering the whole head, exposing only the face or upper part of it, and sometimes only the eyes and mouth. More typically known today, in various forms, as a ski mask. The name "balaclava" comes from the town of Balaklava, near Sevastopol in Crimea (now Ukraine).[1] During the Crimean War, knitted balaclavas were sent over to the British troops to help protect them from the bitter cold weather. They are traditionally knitted from wool, and can be rolled up into a hat to cover just the crown of the head. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Balaclava_(clothing)](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Balaclava_(clothing)) [Jpicco](https://gravitys-rainbow.pynchonwiki.com/wiki/index.php?title=User:Jpicco&action=edit&redlink=1 "User:Jpicco (page does not exist)") 09:53, 16 May 2009 (PDT) ## Page 43 43.28 **instead I'm with this _gillie_ or something** Ghillie or gillie is a Scots term that refers to a man or a boy who acts as an attendant on a fishing, fly fishing, hunting, or deer stalking expedition, primarily in the Highlands or on a river such as the River Spey. Jessica is mocking Roger's role tonight as Pointsman's assistant. A ghillie may also serve as a gamekeeper employed by a landowner to prevent poaching on his lands, control unwelcome natural predators such as fox or otter, and monitor the health of the wildlife. [[1]](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gillie) ## Page 44 44.09 **"this isn't Kenya or something"** I.e., not big-game hunting (Kenya was then a British colony) with Roger as beater, driving animals into the open for Pointsman to shoot. See also "'Moment-- of truth!'" on line 38 below, borrowed from the matador's kill in bullfighting. The two manly, exotic comparisons frame another, with a famous pet collie -- and all three are comically inappropriate with this chase after a potential lab animal. 44.17-18 **"Why it's Mrs. Nussbaum!"...Fred Allen..."You vere ekshpecting maybe _Lessie?_"** Pansy Nussbaum was a Jewish housewife character on Fred Allen's radio show. [[2]](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fred_Allen#Allen.27s_Alley) See more about the actress, Minerva Pious, who played Mrs Nussbaum [here.](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Minerva_Pious) On the Fred Allen Show, she often said the lines "You were expecting maybe..." in a thick Yiddish accent. "Lessie" refers to Lassie, the famous fictional dog of American TV and movies. [[3]](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lassie) --[Jpicco](https://gravitys-rainbow.pynchonwiki.com/wiki/index.php?title=User:Jpicco&action=edit&redlink=1 "User:Jpicco (page does not exist)") 10:04, 16 May 2009 (PDT) This section of the novel is so cartoonish, I can't help thinking of Merrie Melodies in general and a specific Bugs Bunny episode called [French Rarebit](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/French_Rarebit) in which a French cook with a thick accent says "You were expecting maybe Humphrey Bogart." The video is up on [dailymotion.](http://www.dailymotion.com/video/x2z3efi) 44.22 **"Pointsman just wants to count the old drops of saliva..."** This was the setup for Pavlov's classic early experiments: dogs were conditioned to associate feeding (and their natural salivation) with a bell. Once the new response was established, they would salivate at the sound of the bell alone. A surgically implanted drain from the salivary ducts allowed measurement of the strength of the response. ## Page 45 45.16 **"Do you have any cigarettes?" asks Jessica.** Her nonchalance amid collapsing prams, flailing nets and "a system of lever arms that can plunge them into deadly collapse at any moment" tells us that she knows slapstick when she sees it. Pynchon alternately encourages and undermines our readiness to cast Jessica as the more tender/emotional of the couple. 45.40 **“We’re for it”** Or "in for it," in US idiom. ## Page 46 46.32 **not toward any apical God** God at the apex: the top of a cathedral spire or church steeple. (Or of the Chain of Being, p. 77.) 46.41 **St. Veronica** Saint Veronica, according to the "Acta Sanctorum" published by the Bollandists (under February 4), was a pious woman of Jerusalem who, moved with pity as Jesus carried his cross to Golgotha, gave him her veil that he might wipe his forehead. Jesus accepted the offering and after using it handed it back to her, the image of his face miraculously impressed upon it... The closest reference in the canonical scriptures is the miracle of the woman who was healed by touching the hem of Jesus’ garment (Luke 8:43–48); her name is later identified as Veronica by the apocryphal "Acts of Pilate". The story was later elaborated in the 11th century by adding that Christ gave her a portrait of himself on a cloth, with which she later cured the Emperor Tiberius. [[4]](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/St._Veronica) ## Page 47 47.03 **The Book** Weisenburger identifies this as volume 2 of Pavlov's _Lectures on Conditioned Reflexes_, "his effort to branch out of physiological studies and into psychology." It was published in Russian in 1940, translated into English 1941. # Pages 47-53 This page-by-page annotation is organized by sections, as delineated by the seven squares (sprockets) which separate each section. The page numbers for this page-by-page annotation are for the original Viking edition (760 pages). Editions by other publishers vary in pagination — the newer Penguin editions are 776 pages; the Bantam edition is 886 pages. **Contributors:** Please use a 760-page edition (either the original Viking edition with the orange cover or the Penguin USA edition with the blue cover and rocket diagram — there are [plenty on Ebay](http://search.ebay.com/search/search.dll?sofocus=bs&sbrftog=1&from=R10&submitsearch=Search&satitle=pynchon+rainbow&sacat=267%26catref%3DC6&sargn=-1%26saslc%3D2&sadis=200&fpos=94610&ftrt=1&ftrv=1&saprclo=&saprchi=&fsop=1%26fsoo%3D1&coaction=compare&copagenum=1&coentrypage=search) for around $10) or search the [Google edition](http://books.google.com/books?id=iPDGp7VT8H8C&printsec=frontcover&source=gbs_navlinks_s#v=onepage&q=&f=false) for the correct page number. **Readers:** To calculate the Bantam edition use this formula: Bantam page # x 1.165. Before p.50 it's about a page earlier; as you get later in the book, add a page. Finally, profound thanks to Prof. Don Larsson for providing the foundation for this page-by-page annotation. ## Contents - [1 Page 47](https://gravitys-rainbow.pynchonwiki.com/wiki/index.php?title=Pages_47-53#Page_47) - [2 Page 48](https://gravitys-rainbow.pynchonwiki.com/wiki/index.php?title=Pages_47-53#Page_48) - [3 Page 49](https://gravitys-rainbow.pynchonwiki.com/wiki/index.php?title=Pages_47-53#Page_49) - [4 Page 50](https://gravitys-rainbow.pynchonwiki.com/wiki/index.php?title=Pages_47-53#Page_50) - [5 Page 51](https://gravitys-rainbow.pynchonwiki.com/wiki/index.php?title=Pages_47-53#Page_51) - [6 Page 52](https://gravitys-rainbow.pynchonwiki.com/wiki/index.php?title=Pages_47-53#Page_52) - [7 Page 53](https://gravitys-rainbow.pynchonwiki.com/wiki/index.php?title=Pages_47-53#Page_53) ## Page 47 47.26 **autoclave** An autoclave sterilizes equipment and supplies by subjecting them to high pressure saturated steam at 121 °C for around 15–20 minutes depending on the size of the load and the contents. It was invented by Charles Chamberland in 1879, although a precursor known as the steam digester was created by Denis Papin in 1679. The name comes from Greek auto-, ultimately meaning self, and Latin clavis meaning key — a self-locking device. [[1]](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Autoclave) The "fine clutter of steel bones" inside the autoclave should sensitize us to other hot enclosures to come -- domestic, folkloric, and genocidal. This is reinforced at once by patients' cries of pain "as from cold metal." 47.34-35 **run three times around the building without thinking of a fox and you can cure anything** Pynchon's source may be folkloric, shared with Douglas Hofstadter -- who in _Godel, Escher, Bach_ (1979) would illustrate paradox by citing "this surefire cure for hiccups: 'Run around the house three times without thinking of the word "wolf."'" Note that an injunction not to think of something is a perfect example of anthropologist Gregory Bateson's "double bind." Pointsman's own thinking may have absorbed a bit too much of the "paradoxical state" and "idea of the opposite" he studies. ## Page 48 48.13-14 **sybilline cries arriving out of the darkness** Copy editor napping: "**Sybil**" is a woman's given name. **Sibyls** were female oracles in classical times. _The Sibyl, with frenzied mouth uttering things not to be laughed at, unadorned and unperfumed, yet reaches to a thousand years with her voice by aid of the god._ - Homer [[2]](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sibyl) **Abreactions of the Lord of the Night** Abreaction is a psychoanalytical term for reliving an experience in order to purge it of its emotional excesses; a type of catharsis. Sometimes it is a method of becoming conscious of repressed traumatic events. [[3]](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Abreaction) 48.25 " **. . . one of Lazslo Jamf’s subjects . . .** " The name "Jamf" apparently derives from an acronym used by Charlie Parker: "**J**ive-**A**ss **M**other-**F**ucker"! 48.38 Transmarginal and Paradoxical phases see [here](https://gravitys-rainbow.pynchonwiki.com/wiki/index.php?title=T#Transmarginal "T") ## Page 49 49.26-29 **pain-voices of the... Lord of the Night's children... sooner or later an abreaction** The quick repetition of these ideas within two pages, here, seems to dig at the idea that Pynchon is inferring that the aural psychical effects of the bombing victims come after the fact of death just as the bombs sound come after their delivery. In other words, because of the instantaneous nature of their death there is much psychic energy that is let off which affects the environment afterward, ie. all over the frost & harrowed city. 49.30 **...as once again the floor is a giant lift.. the walls blown outward** This paragraph takes us into the drugged, traumatized dreams and memories of the "rocketbombed" patients, narrated in a second person that unites us with the victims: "your sudden paralysis...the sight of your blood spurting..." We might later recall that voice and several of the fragmentary images --"The cinema kiss never completed... crying from the rows either side... the sudden light" -- if we find ourselves in another movie theater, if we remember, if there is time. ## Page 50 50.10 **mummery** Strictly speaking, a mummer is an actor in a traditional seasonal folk play. The term is also humorously (or derogatorily) applied to any actor. [[4]](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mummer_%28disambiguation%29) 50.16 **palimpsests** A palimpsest is a manuscript, usually parchment or vellum, from which the text has been scraped off and which can be used again. Over time the earlier writing can re-emerge, creating multiple superimposed layers -- symbolic of the mind as well as history. [[5]](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Palimpsests) 50.22 **Realpolitik** Realpolitik refers to politics or diplomacy based primarily on power and on practical and material factors and considerations, rather than ideological notions or moralistic or ethical premises... Realpolitik is a theory of politics that focuses on considerations of power, not ideals, morals, or principles. [[6]](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Realpolitik) ## Page 51 51.04 **you are the Traveler's Aid** The Travelers Aid organization began with an 1851 bequest from St. Louis mayor Bryan Mullanphy. Its efforts were directed first to settlers traveling West, and later became worldwide (including a role in the USO -- United Service Organizations -- supporting Allied troops in WWII.)[[7]](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Travelers_Aid_International) One of Travelers Aid's early concerns was to protect stranded female travelers from the over-hyped "white slave trade." That gives ironic poignance to Pointsman's tenderness -- "for the moment," that is. 51.06 **AWOL bag** AWOL = "away without [official] leave." An AWOL bag is a small unframed man's bag with handles, usually leather or canvas. It was named for its convenience as "grab and go" luggage into which a weekend's clothes could be hastily tossed. [](https://gravitys-rainbow.pynchonwiki.com/wiki/index.php?title=File:Lymer.jpg) [](https://gravitys-rainbow.pynchonwiki.com/wiki/index.php?title=File:Lymer.jpg "Enlarge") Cobb & Beach at Lyme Regis 51.31-32 **the Ick Regis jetty** The name is Pynchon’s but evokes "The Cobb," the famous jetty at the city of Lyme Regis on the southern coast of England. Regis is the Latin genitive of Rex, "the King" thus, "of the king." As William Safire notes, "The colloquial noun and interjection [ick](http://www.nytimes.com/2005/09/25/magazine/25onlanguage.html?_r=1&oref=slogin), as well as its adjectival form, icky, are terms of disgust, distaste and revulsion." Oedipa Maas uses the term in [CoL49](http://cl49.pynchonwiki.com/wiki/index.php?title=Chapter_3) in response to a grisly play. Combining Ick and Regis, could therefore render the anarchic sentiment "sick of the king." Ick Regis, when spoken aloud, sounds like 'egregious'--perhaps a comment on the programs being run at the White Visitation? Interestingly, for PISCES and White Visitation to be headquartered in a place named Ick Regis, brings associations with the fish sickness "ick" also known as [the white spot disease](http://edis.ifas.ufl.edu/FA006), which is a severe dermatitis of freshwater fish caused by a protozoan of the genus Ichthyophthirius and is especially destructive in aquariums and hatcheries called also ichthyophthiriasis, ichthyophthirius. Hence, the "white visitation" could, again, be a sickness. 51.37 **blastulablob** Apparently a TRP neologism. More about blastulas [here.](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blastula) --[Jpicco](https://gravitys-rainbow.pynchonwiki.com/wiki/index.php?title=User:Jpicco&action=edit&redlink=1 "User:Jpicco (page does not exist)") ## Page 52 52.23 **it's the damned Rundstedt offensive** Pointsman ascribes his tight budget to high-level concerns over the German counteroffensive in Belgium, France, and Luxembourg (not Holland, per Weisenburger) that would be remembered as the Battle of the Bulge. [Freedictionary](http://encyclopedia2.thefreedictionary.com/Rundstedt+Offensive) and [Wiki](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_the_Bulge). --[Jpicco](https://gravitys-rainbow.pynchonwiki.com/wiki/index.php?title=User:Jpicco&action=edit&redlink=1 "User:Jpicco (page does not exist)") 52.39 **Deptford** Deptford is a district of south London, England, located on the south bank of the River Thames. It is named after a ford of the River Ravensbourne, and from the mid 16th century to the late 19th was home to Deptford Dockyard, the first of the Royal Dockyards... Deptford experienced economic decline in the 20th century with the closing of the docks, and the damage caused by the bombing during the Second World War: one V-2 rocket alone destroyed a Woolworth's store outside Deptford Town Hall, killing 160 people. [[8]](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Deptford) ## Page 53 53.03 **"'One, little, _Fox!_'" **Compare with Spectro's use of "fox" for patients (47.34), now recast as Pointsman's prey -- the ultimate lab animal. "Fox" recurs nearly twenty times in the novel, often with eerie connotations (e.g. 138.23). # Pages 53-60 This page-by-page annotation is organized by sections, as delineated by the seven squares (sprockets) which separate each section. The page numbers for this page-by-page annotation are for the original Viking edition (760 pages). Editions by other publishers vary in pagination — the newer Penguin editions are 776 pages; the Bantam edition is 886 pages. **Contributors:** Please use a 760-page edition (either the original Viking edition with the orange cover or the Penguin USA edition with the blue cover and rocket diagram — there are [plenty on Ebay](http://search.ebay.com/search/search.dll?sofocus=bs&sbrftog=1&from=R10&submitsearch=Search&satitle=pynchon+rainbow&sacat=267%26catref%3DC6&sargn=-1%26saslc%3D2&sadis=200&fpos=94610&ftrt=1&ftrv=1&saprclo=&saprchi=&fsop=1%26fsoo%3D1&coaction=compare&copagenum=1&coentrypage=search) for around $10) or search the [Google edition](http://books.google.com/books?id=iPDGp7VT8H8C&printsec=frontcover&source=gbs_navlinks_s#v=onepage&q=&f=false) for the correct page number. **Readers:** To calculate the Bantam edition use this formula: Bantam page # x 1.165. Before p.50 it's about a page earlier; as you get later in the book, add a page. Finally, profound thanks to Prof. Don Larsson for providing the foundation for this page-by-page annotation. ## Contents - [1 Page 53](https://gravitys-rainbow.pynchonwiki.com/wiki/index.php?title=Pages_53-60#Page_53) - [2 Page 54](https://gravitys-rainbow.pynchonwiki.com/wiki/index.php?title=Pages_53-60#Page_54) - [3 Page 55](https://gravitys-rainbow.pynchonwiki.com/wiki/index.php?title=Pages_53-60#Page_55) - [4 Page 56](https://gravitys-rainbow.pynchonwiki.com/wiki/index.php?title=Pages_53-60#Page_56) - [5 Page 57](https://gravitys-rainbow.pynchonwiki.com/wiki/index.php?title=Pages_53-60#Page_57) - [6 Page 58](https://gravitys-rainbow.pynchonwiki.com/wiki/index.php?title=Pages_53-60#Page_58) - [7 Page 59](https://gravitys-rainbow.pynchonwiki.com/wiki/index.php?title=Pages_53-60#Page_59) ### Page 53 53.29-30 **out into the snow tracked over by foxes, rabbits, long lost dogs** With Pointsman's "One, little, _Fox_!" on line 3 above, another overlapping of hunters and prey. 53.30-31 **Empty canals of snow thread away into trees and town whose name they still don’t know.** Echoing "places _whose names he has never heard_" on p. 3, or the "slopes and serifs of an un-readable legend on the lintel" at St. Veronica's on p. 47, this is a recurring Pynchonian flourish of What Is Not Said. 53.34 **Late lorry motors** Lorry is the British word for a truck. 53.39-40 **she does wish there were others about** See 41.28 ## Page 54 54.25 **Poisson Distribution/Equation** "In probability theory and statistics, the Poisson distribution is a discrete probability distribution that expresses the probability of a number of events occurring in a fixed period of time if these events occur with a known average rate and independently of the time since the last event. The Poisson distribution can also be used for the number of events in other specified intervals such as distance, area or volume."[[1]](https://gravitys-rainbow.pynchonwiki.com/wiki/index.php?title=Pages_53-60#cite_note-1) For instance, if on average London received one rocket strike per square kilometer per day, the Poisson equation could be used to predict the probability of a random 1 km2 area of London receiving 0, 1, 10 or any other number of rocket strikes. Of relevance to the novel, an necessary assumption of the Poisson distribution is that events are independent: even if a given square kilometer of London has already received 100 rocket strikes today, it is still just as likely to be hit again as any other square kilometer of London. This concept recurs on pp. 55, 56, 85, 140, 171, 270. _Poisson_, though the name of an actual person, is also French for _fish_. Could this be an echo of [PISCES](https://gravitys-rainbow.pynchonwiki.com/wiki/index.php?title=P "P")? 1. [↑](https://gravitys-rainbow.pynchonwiki.com/wiki/index.php?title=Pages_53-60#cite_ref-1) [Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia](http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Poisson_distribution&oldid=327409885). Retrieved 16:45, November 23, 2009 ## Page 55 55.01 **His little bureau** A jump cut here -- not confirmed until the next paragraph -- to Roger's London workplace, and interpolated scenes of his exchanges with Pointsman 55.11 **Whittaker and Watson** The co-authors (and informal name) of a book formally titled _A Course of Modern Analysis._ Weisenburger notwithstanding, it is a calculus text with only incidental appearance of a few statistical functions.(Read the whole thing if you want at [Google Books](http://books.google.com/books?id=_hoPAAAAIAAJ)!) Notice the very cinematic, scene-setting "slow pan," with the book and snapshot as Hollywood-heavy symbols of Roger's divided loyalty. 55.13-15 **dogs wait with cheeks laid open... to fill the wax cup or graduated tube** See 44.22 ## Page 56 56.08 **Monte Carlo Fallacy** The belief that if events have deviated from our expectations of "chance" in one direction, they are bound to deviate in the opposite direction soon, as if to compensate. The name is drawn from a famous event at the Monte Carlo Casino in 1913, when a roulette ball settled on black 26 times in a row -- and the casino grew richer as more and more patrons bet on red, anticipating a "rebound."[[1]](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gambler%27s_fallacy) As Roger patiently explains, no rocket is influenced by what previous rockets have done, any more than the roulette ball was influenced by what it had done on a previous spin -- or 25 previous spins -- of the wheel. The Poisson distribution depends on the assumption that events in a data set are genuinely random and independent -- i.e. that in this case, there is no systematic "skew" in how the V-2s are aimed and launched, or in the many manufacturing and environmental variables that affect their trajectory and scatter their impacts around the target point. ## Page 57 57.08 **...she gives him her Fay Wray look...** Fay Wray played the heroine, Ann Darrow, in the 1933 film _King Kong._ So the look Jess gives Roger must've been something like [this.](http://i4.photobucket.com/albums/y134/jpicco/wrayfd08.jpg) Lot of photos at [Getty Images](http://www.gettyimages.com/photos/fay-wray). 57.31 **Beveridge Proposal** The _Report of the Inter-Departmental Committee on Social Insurance and Allied Services_, known commonly as the _Beveridge Report_ was an influential document in the founding of the Welfare State in the United Kingdom. It was chaired by William Beveridge, an economist, who identified five "Giant Evils" in society: squalor, ignorance, want, idleness and disease, and went on to propose widespread reform to the system of social welfare to address these. Highly popular with the public, the report formed the basis for the post-war reforms known as the Welfare State, which include the expansion of National Insurance and the creation of the National Health Service. [[2]](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Beveridge_Report) ## Page 58 58.02 **the good dog alerted by the eternal scent, the explosion... always just about to come** This begins to smell familiar, especially with "a skulk of foxes, a cowardice of curs... whispering in the yards and lanes" farther down the page. ## Page 59 59.01-02 **Frank Bridge Variations** The "Frank Bridge Variations" is a composition ("Variations on a Theme by Frank Bridge," Opus 10, 1937) by [Benjamin Britten](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Benjamin_Britten), named after one of his teachers. It was one of Britten's first works to win international notice. [Wikipedia entry...](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Variations_on_a_Theme_of_Frank_Bridge) 59.03 **Montrachet** Montrachet is an _Appellation d'origine contrôlée_ (AOC) and Grand Cru vineyard for white wine from Chardonnay in the Côte de Beaune subregion of Burgundy. It is situated across the border between the two communes of Chassagne-Montrachet and Puligny-Montrachet and produces what many consider to be the greatest dry white wine in the world. It is surrounded by four other Grand Cru vineyards all having "Montrachet" as part of their names. Montrachet itself is generally considered superior to its four Grand Cru neighbours. 59.09 **"Don't be ridic, I'm serious, Roger..."** Brings to mind the Carmen Sternwood character, played by Martha Vickers, in the 1946 film production of _The Big Sleep_. If I remember correctly, Carmen used this "don't be ridic" phrase quite often, generally in conversation w/ Philip Marlowe/Humphrey Bogart. [[3]](http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0038355/) 59.16 **Edward VIII abdicated** Only months into his reign, he caused a constitutional crisis by proposing marriage to the American socialite Wallis Simpson, who had divorced her first husband and was seeking a divorce from her second. The prime ministers of the United Kingdom and the Dominions opposed the marriage, arguing that the people would never accept a divorced woman with two living ex-husbands as queen. Additionally, such a marriage would have conflicted with Edward's status as head of the Church of England, which opposed the remarriage of divorced people if their former spouses were still alive. Edward knew that the government led by British Prime Minister Stanley Baldwin would resign if the marriage went ahead, which could have dragged the King into a general election and ruined irreparably his status as a politically neutral constitutional monarch. Rather than end his relationship with Mrs. Simpson, Edward abdicated. He was succeeded by his younger brother Albert, who chose the regnal name George VI. With a reign of 326 days, Edward was one of the shortest-reigning monarchs in British and Commonwealth history. He was never crowned. [[4]](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Edward_viii) 59.20 **pinafores** Pinafores may be worn by girls as a decorative garment and by both girls and women as a protective apron. A related term is pinafore dress, which is British English for what in American English is known as a jumper dress, i.e. a sleeveless dress intended to be worn over a top or blouse. A key difference between a pinafore and a jumper dress is that the pinafore is open in the back. In informal British usage however, a pinafore dress is sometimes referred to as simply a pinafore, which can lead to confusion. [[5]](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pinafores) # Pages 60-71 This page-by-page annotation is organized by sections, as delineated by the seven squares (sprockets) which separate each section. The page numbers for this page-by-page annotation are for the original Viking edition (760 pages). Editions by other publishers vary in pagination — the newer Penguin editions are 776 pages; the Bantam edition is 886 pages. **Contributors:** Please use a 760-page edition (either the original Viking edition with the orange cover or the Penguin USA edition with the blue cover and rocket diagram — there are [plenty on Ebay](http://search.ebay.com/search/search.dll?sofocus=bs&sbrftog=1&from=R10&submitsearch=Search&satitle=pynchon+rainbow&sacat=267%26catref%3DC6&sargn=-1%26saslc%3D2&sadis=200&fpos=94610&ftrt=1&ftrv=1&saprclo=&saprchi=&fsop=1%26fsoo%3D1&coaction=compare&copagenum=1&coentrypage=search) for around $10) or search the [Google edition](http://books.google.com/books?id=iPDGp7VT8H8C&printsec=frontcover&source=gbs_navlinks_s#v=onepage&q=&f=false) for the correct page number. **Readers:** To calculate the Bantam edition use this formula: Bantam page # x 1.165. Before p.50 it's about a page earlier; as you get later in the book, add a page. Finally, profound thanks to Prof. Don Larsson for providing the foundation for this page-by-page annotation. ## Contents - [1 Page 61](https://gravitys-rainbow.pynchonwiki.com/wiki/index.php?title=Pages_60-71#Page_61) - [2 Page 62](https://gravitys-rainbow.pynchonwiki.com/wiki/index.php?title=Pages_60-71#Page_62) - [3 Page 63](https://gravitys-rainbow.pynchonwiki.com/wiki/index.php?title=Pages_60-71#Page_63) - [4 Page 64](https://gravitys-rainbow.pynchonwiki.com/wiki/index.php?title=Pages_60-71#Page_64) - [5 Page 65](https://gravitys-rainbow.pynchonwiki.com/wiki/index.php?title=Pages_60-71#Page_65) - [6 Page 66](https://gravitys-rainbow.pynchonwiki.com/wiki/index.php?title=Pages_60-71#Page_66) - [7 Page 67](https://gravitys-rainbow.pynchonwiki.com/wiki/index.php?title=Pages_60-71#Page_67) - [8 Page 68](https://gravitys-rainbow.pynchonwiki.com/wiki/index.php?title=Pages_60-71#Page_68) - [9 Page 69](https://gravitys-rainbow.pynchonwiki.com/wiki/index.php?title=Pages_60-71#Page_69) - [10 Page 70](https://gravitys-rainbow.pynchonwiki.com/wiki/index.php?title=Pages_60-71#Page_70) - [11 Page 71](https://gravitys-rainbow.pynchonwiki.com/wiki/index.php?title=Pages_60-71#Page_71) ## Page 61 61.19 **Sodium Amytal** Also known as "truth serum", Amobarbital is a drug that is a barbiturate derivative. It has sedative-hypnotic and analgesic properties. It is a white crystalline powder with no odor and a slightly bitter taste. It was first synthesized in Germany in 1923. If amobarbital is taken for extended periods of time, physical and psychological dependence can develop.[[1]](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sodium_amytal) 61.25 **Got a hardon in my fist...** This song goes right along with the tune of "Bye Bye Blackbird," starting with the "Pack up all my cares and woe..." refrain that, in this [YouTube](http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eO6PpD-tRLU), begins at about 0:52. [](https://gravitys-rainbow.pynchonwiki.com/wiki/index.php?title=File:Ruptured_Duck.jpeg) [](https://gravitys-rainbow.pynchonwiki.com/wiki/index.php?title=File:Ruptured_Duck.jpeg "Enlarge") Ruptured duck 61.30 **"ruptured duck"** The sarcastic nickname for a lapel pin issued at honorable discharge from the US armed forces in WWII, depicting a screaming eagle inside a wreath. "Ruptured" = herniated. ## Page 62 62.05 **Roxbury** The town of Roxbury was founded in 1630 by the author's ancestor William Pynchon, and is now a neighborhood of Boston, MA. It had been an immigrant neighborhood for generations before African-Americans began to migrate from the South after WWI. While writing _GR_, Pynchon would certainly have been aware of rioting there at the time of Martin Luther King Jr.'s assassination in 1968. [[2]](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Roxbury,_Boston) ## Page 63 63.03 **Roseland Ballroom** Not the better-known Roseland Ballroom in New York City, but the one on Massachusetts Avenue in Roxbury. "The stretch of Mass. Ave. between Huntington and Columbus was, by the late ’40s, Boston’s answer to 52nd Street in Manhattan -— with not only the Roseland, but the Savoy Café, the Hi-Hat, Wally’s, and a handful of smaller clubs."[[3]](http://www.bostonmagazine.com/2006/05/the-shape-of-jazz-that-was/) 63.05 **Moxie** One of the first mass-produced carbonated soft drinks in the United States. In its advertising, it used “Make Mine Moxie!” advertising jingles, the slogan “Just Make It Moxie for Mine”, and a "Moxie Man" logo. Uncapitalized, "moxie" became slang for energy and daring. The brand suffered a significant decline in sales during the 1930s. 63.22 **Red, the Negro shoeshine boy** Stating the obvious, Red is [Malcolm X](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Malcom_X#_note-timeline), whose nickname "Red" referred to his hair color -- a dark cinnamon brown. In February 1941 Malcolm moved to Boston to live with his older half-sister, worked a variety of jobs including shoeshine and became involved in Boston's "underworld fringe," pimping among other things. [[4]](http://www.baystate-banner.com/archives/stories/2006/02/021606-03.htm) 63.32-37 **"Yardbird" Parker is finding out [ . . . ]** Refers to jazz saxophonist Charlie Parker. Correspondent Igor Zabel offers the following addition to [Weisenburger](https://gravitys-rainbow.pynchonwiki.com/wiki/index.php?title=Weisenburger%27s_Companion_to_Gravity%27s_Rainbow "Weisenburger's Companion to Gravity's Rainbow")'s note on this passage: "On one of Parker's CDs (Swedish Schnapps +), I found the passage which was quoted by [Weisenburger](https://gravitys-rainbow.pynchonwiki.com/wiki/index.php?title=Weisenburger%27s_Companion_to_Gravity%27s_Rainbow "Weisenburger's Companion to Gravity's Rainbow") after Max Harrison, but slightly different, and it is interesting because Parker directly mentions Cherokee: 'Well, that night, I was working over 'Cherokee' and, as I did, I found that by using the higher intervals of a chord as a melody line and backing them with appropriately related changes, I could play the thing I'd been hearing. I came alive.' The quotation is taken from 'Hear Me Talkin' To Ya'." ## Page 64 64.19 **"'Slip the talcum to me, Malcolm!'"** This homoerotic scene seems based on some facts. It is known that Malcolm X prostituted himself for money and according to Bruce Perry's biography, _Malcolm: The Life of a Man Who Changed Black America_ (Station Hill, New York, 1991) he had various homosexual liaisons throughout his life. Interestingly, Malcolm worked as a butler to a wealthy Boston bachelor, [William Paul Lennon](http://www.guardian.co.uk/g2/story/0,,1486997,00.html). According to Malcolm's sidekick Malcolm Jarvis, he [Malcolm] was paid to sprinkle Lennon with talcum powder and bring him to orgasm. 64.24 **"any of those Sheiks in the drawer?"** Sheik was a popular brand of condom. "Other brands evoked an exotic, Far Eastern world of harems and belly-dancers that automatically triggered sex in many adult minds... Giant [firm]s like Julius Schmid, who made Ramses and Sheiks..." [[5]](http://www.collectorsweekly.com/articles/getting-it-on-the-covert-history-of-the-american-condom/') Hotel bellboys and washroom attendants could often sell these accessories as well as arranging contacts with amiable women ("another luck-changin' phone number there, Red..?"). 64.30 **Red Malcolm the Unthinkable Nihilist** At this depth in the American dream, fears of ideology, race, and class are indistinguishable: after all, a Harvard man in an Arrow shirt is about to be anally gang-raped by Negroes while jazzmen above set fire to a song about love for a Cherokee maiden... ## Page 65 65.09 **Burma-Shave signs** Burma-Shave was an American brand of brushless shaving cream, famous for its advertising gimmick of posting humorous rhyming poems on small, sequential highway billboard signs. [[6]](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Burma-Shave_signs) 65.15 **"Gobbler" Biddle** The Biddles are one of the leading families of Philadelphia, who sometimes vacationed in the Berkshires. Specifically, the "Gobbler" could be Nicholas Biddle (Harvard, 1944). Interestingly [Francis B. Biddle](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Francis_Beverly_Biddle) (Harvard College 1909, Harvard Law 1911) was US Attorney General (1941-1945) at this time. FBB was responsible for directing the FBI to arrest "enemy aliens" leading to Japanese-American internment camps; served as the primary judge during the Nuremberg war crimes tribunal; and authored of _The Fear of Freedom_ and other works. 65.16 **Fu’s Folly in Cambridge** Although, as [Weisenburger](https://gravitys-rainbow.pynchonwiki.com/wiki/index.php?title=Weisenburger%27s_Companion_to_Gravity%27s_Rainbow "Weisenburger's Companion to Gravity's Rainbow") notes, the character is named for Fu Manchu (who is an important reference for Pointsman later in the novel), it should be recalled that there was also a "Fu" who was a member of the Whole Sick Crew in _V._ Resembles the old Young & Yee Restaurant (now closed) at 27 Church Street, Harvard Square, Cambridge, MA, which for over 40 years slopped greasy chop suey. An anachronism to the novel's time period, yes, but perhaps an inspiration to the author. 65.33 **Jack Kennedy** JFK (whose father, Joseph P. Kennedy Sr., was US Ambassador to the UK in 1938-1940) is said to be in Slothrop's Harvard class. Estimating, Slothrop was born ca 1917-18 and entered Harvard in 1936, the year of Harvard's tricentennial.So both were in their mid-20s, Kennedy a PT boat commander in the Pacific, during the action in _GR_. The poignant "might Jack have kept it [the harmonica] from falling, violated gravity somehow?... yes it seems Jack might have" can be read as a retrodiction from the Vietnam War and urban-riot years of _GR_'s composition: some believed that American life would not have taken its darker turn had Kennedy not been assassinated in November 1963. Contrary to [Weisenburger](https://gravitys-rainbow.pynchonwiki.com/wiki/index.php?title=Weisenburger%27s_Companion_to_Gravity%27s_Rainbow "Weisenburger's Companion to Gravity's Rainbow"), Kennedy’s first book was titled _**Why** England Slept_ (not "When") [Corrected in 2nd edition] ## Page 66 66.39 **Capehart** The [Capehart](http://www.myvintagetv.com/capehart.htm) automatic phonograph with a turn-over mechanism was the epitome of luxury phonographs, technical excellence and supreme electronics in the 1930s and 40s. ## Page 67 67.32 **Red Devil Lye in his hair** Lye (sodium hydroxide) was an ingredient in home-made congolene or "conk" hair-straightening mixtures. 67.34-35 **Not "archetypal" westwardman, but _the only_ **An explicit nod to psychologist Carl Jung, and beyond him to the Platonic strain in philosophy: that behind all the multiplicity, variety and changing detail of daylit life, there are (in our minds and/or metaphysical reality) singular, unchanging forms: in this case, the primal explorer-mountain man-cowboy-gunfighter hero. Pynchon also works this trope in the other direction whenever he assimilates a character to archetypes in pop culture (often film), as when Jessica gave Roger "her Fay Wray look"(57) and Roger played the drooling Dirty Old Man (59). ## Page 68 68.01 **Half an Ark’s better than none.** For Crutchfield, there is only **one** of everything, as opposed to two of every animal on Noah’s (whole) Ark. (And how much use is half an Ark in a flood, anyway?) 68.13 **Red River Valley** Original lyrics: From this valley they say you are going We will miss your bright eyes and sweet smile For they say you are taking the sunshine That has brightened our pathways awhile Come and sit by my side, if you love me Do not hasten to bid me adieu Just remember the Red River Valley And the cowboy who loved you so true ## Page 69 69.02 _**terre mauvais**_ French "terre mauvaise" - the "badlands". A rare case of TRP misspelling a foreign word. 69.14 **a bandana of the regulation magenta and green** The coal-tar derived colors of organic chemistry that resonate throughout the novel. The visual clash between these colours appears elsewhere - 'A bit of lime green in with your rose' 12 Pynchon seems to associate positive things with these colors - see _Against the Day_ particularly - as he does with bandanas. A-and bananas. For more on [colors](http://gravitys-rainbow.pynchonwiki.com/wiki/index.php?title=Coloring_Gravity%27s_Rainbow).... Colour-coded bandanas also perform the well-known semiotic function of conveying homosexual availability/preferences in which green and magenta refer respectively to prostitution and piercing, not inapropos of Slothrop's panicky homoerotic fantasies toward Red Malcolm and Crouchfield/Whappo (rattlesnake "(f)angs just tickling the foreskin..."). 69.16 **Rancho Peligroso** "Dangerous Ranch": evokes the Siege Perilous of the Arthurian Grail legend as well as _Rancho Notorious_, a 1952 Western directed by Fritz Lang and starring Marlene Dietrich. See note at [V321.06-07](https://gravitys-rainbow.pynchonwiki.com/wiki/index.php?title=V321.06-07&action=edit&redlink=1 "V321.06-07 (page does not exist)") 69.27 **callipygian rondure** [callipygian](http://www.worldwidewords.org/weirdwords/ww-cal3.htm) -- having shapely buttocks, originally used in conjunction with the noted statue of Aphrodite (which is itself a play on "Afro" and "Venus"), the ["Venus Kallipygos"](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Venus_Kallipygos). This language parodies the typology of "scientific" racism from the late 19th and ealy 20th century. rondure -- a circular or gracefully rounded object. 69.32 **Toro Rojo** Red Bull ## Page 70 70.15 **One _mestiza_. One _criolla_** Mestiza: woman of mixed race, especially mixed of European and Native American ancestry. Criolla: woman of "pure" Spanish ancestry, but born in the New World. 70.29 **the Ardennes** The Ardennes is a region of extensive forests, rolling hills and ridges formed within the Givetian (Devonian) Ardennes mountain range, primarily in Belgium and Luxembourg, but stretching into France... The strategic position of the Ardennes has made it a battleground for European powers for centuries... in both World War I and World War II, Germany successfully gambled on making a rapid passage through the Ardennes to attack a relatively lightly defended part of France. The Ardennes was the site of three major battles during the world wars – the Battle of the Ardennes in World War I, and the Battle of France and Battle of the Bulge in World War II. Many of the towns of the region were badly damaged during the two world wars. [[7]](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ardennes) 70.32 **Newton Upper Falls** Newton Upper Falls is a village situated on the east bank of the Charles River in the city of Newton, Massachusetts, in the United States. [[8]](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Newton_Upper_Falls,_Massachusetts) 70.37 **Ar'tics** A regional name, dropping the first "c" in "Arctic," for metal-buckled rubber galoshes.[[9]](http://www.leroyhistoricalsociety.org/assets/011214---artics.pdf) ## Page 71 71.02 **Beacon Street** Beacon Street is a major thoroughfare in Boston, Massachusetts and several of its western suburbs. Beacon Street in Boston, Brookline, Brighton, and Newton is not to be confused with the Beacon Street in nearby Somerville, or others elsewhere. [[10]](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Beacon_Street) # Pages 71-72 This page-by-page annotation is organized by sections, as delineated by the seven squares (sprockets) which separate each section. The page numbers for this page-by-page annotation are for the original Viking edition (760 pages). Editions by other publishers vary in pagination — the newer Penguin editions are 776 pages; the Bantam edition is 886 pages. **Contributors:** Please use a 760-page edition (either the original Viking edition with the orange cover or the Penguin USA edition with the blue cover and rocket diagram — there are [plenty on Ebay](http://search.ebay.com/search/search.dll?sofocus=bs&sbrftog=1&from=R10&submitsearch=Search&satitle=pynchon+rainbow&sacat=267%26catref%3DC6&sargn=-1%26saslc%3D2&sadis=200&fpos=94610&ftrt=1&ftrv=1&saprclo=&saprchi=&fsop=1%26fsoo%3D1&coaction=compare&copagenum=1&coentrypage=search) for around $10) or search the [Google edition](http://books.google.com/books?id=iPDGp7VT8H8C&printsec=frontcover&source=gbs_navlinks_s#v=onepage&q=&f=false) for the correct page number. **Readers:** To calculate the Bantam edition use this formula: Bantam page # x 1.165. Before p.50 it's about a page earlier; as you get later in the book, add a page. Finally, profound thanks to Prof. Don Larsson for providing the foundation for this page-by-page annotation. ## Page 71 [](https://gravitys-rainbow.pynchonwiki.com/wiki/index.php?title=File:Tyrosine.jpg) [](https://gravitys-rainbow.pynchonwiki.com/wiki/index.php?title=File:Tyrosine.jpg "Enlarge") Tyrosine Molecule 71.15 **Kryptosam** Correspondent Matthias Bauer notes that "sam" derives from the German "samen," for "seed." "Krypto," of course, derives from the same word as "cryptography," the study of codes. [Weisenburger](https://gravitys-rainbow.pynchonwiki.com/wiki/index.php?title=Weisenburger%27s_Companion_to_Gravity%27s_Rainbow "Weisenburger's Companion to Gravity's Rainbow") claims that the "tyrosine" from which kryptosam is supposed to derive is "undoubtedly fictional," but it is in fact an amino acid, which can convert to melanin, just as Jamf's note indicates (although it is unclear whether semen will in fact act as the catalytic agent). Tyrosine is found in casein, and the name derives from the Greek, _tyros_ meaning cheese. Significant properties of note for Tyrosine: - Tyrosine functions as a [phenol](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Phenol), which Nazi doctors used in injections for rapid executions. Phenols were used extensively at Auschwitz-Birkenau. - Tyrosine occurs in proteins that are part of the [signal transduction](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Signal_transduction) process -- a biological processes that converts one kind of signal or stimulus into another -- cell signalling. The SBB (SIS/MI6 forerunner) allegedly discovered that semen, if not a catalyst, did at least make a good invisible ink. [Semen in espionage](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Semen#Semen_in_espionage), [Mansfield Smith Cuming](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mansfield_Smith-Cumming), and [Spymaster](http://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/books/reviews/the-spymaster-who-was-stranger-than-fiction-737707.html) 71.32 **GEHEIME KOMMANDOSACHE** Secret Air Command 71.33 **... von Bayros or Beardsley.** Marquis Franz von Bayros and Aubrey Beardsley were renowned for their erotic sketches in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. Learn more about [Beardsley](http://beardsley.artpassions.net/) and [von Bayros](http://www.all-art.org/er_in_art/07.html) 71.36 **... a De Mille set really...** This is open to skepticism, but I believe he's referring to Cecil B. DeMille, who was famous for his construction of grandiose sets, particularly "The City of the Pharaoh," the largest set in film history. [Cecil B. Demille](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cecil_B._DeMille) at Wikipedia. 71.39 **corselette** Type of underwear that combines a bra and a girdle. [Wiki](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Corselet) ## Page 72 72.17 **nacreous** Nacre or "mother of pearl" coats the inner surface of many seashells. It appears iridescent because the thickness of its microscopic aragonite platelets is close to the wavelength of visible light. This results in constructive and destructive interference of different wavelengths of light, resulting in different colors of light being reflected at different viewing angles. [[1]](http://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/nacreous) 72.27 **...Wuotan and his mad army** Wuotan is the Old High German spelling of Odin; the 'mad army' is mentioned again at [75.13](https://gravitys-rainbow.pynchonwiki.com/wiki/index.php?title=Pages_72-83#Page_75 "Pages 72-83") in German as _Wütende Heer_. It is interesting that Pynchon chose to translate _wütende_ as 'mad' rather than, say, 'angry' or 'furious', thus allowing the reader to take 'mad' to mean 'insane'. On the other hand, the disease rabies is called "Tollwut" in German, so "Wut" may not ring as a totally sane kind of rage. Historians and Nordic legends attributed a behavior called "bärsärkar-gång" (Swedish, same root of the English expression "going beserk") to Odin-worshiping proto-Lombard fighters. Rage, variously tied to willful adrenalin overload, traumatic stress, fly-agaric, or godly intervention, gave them superhuman strength but clouded their judgment and made them dangerous to friend and foe alike. # Pages 72-83 This page-by-page annotation is organized by sections, as delineated by the seven squares (sprockets) which separate each section. The page numbers for this page-by-page annotation are for the original Viking edition (760 pages). Editions by other publishers vary in pagination — the newer Penguin editions are 776 pages; the Bantam edition is 886 pages. **Contributors:** Please use a 760-page edition (either the original Viking edition with the orange cover or the Penguin USA edition with the blue cover and rocket diagram — there are [plenty on Ebay](http://search.ebay.com/search/search.dll?sofocus=bs&sbrftog=1&from=R10&submitsearch=Search&satitle=pynchon+rainbow&sacat=267%26catref%3DC6&sargn=-1%26saslc%3D2&sadis=200&fpos=94610&ftrt=1&ftrv=1&saprclo=&saprchi=&fsop=1%26fsoo%3D1&coaction=compare&copagenum=1&coentrypage=search) for around $10) or search the [Google edition](http://books.google.com/books?id=iPDGp7VT8H8C&printsec=frontcover&source=gbs_navlinks_s#v=onepage&q=&f=false) for the correct page number. **Readers:** To calculate the Bantam edition use this formula: Bantam page # x 1.165. Before p.50 it's about a page earlier; as you get later in the book, add a page. Finally, profound thanks to Prof. Don Larsson for providing the foundation for this page-by-page annotation. ## Contents - [1 Page 72](https://gravitys-rainbow.pynchonwiki.com/wiki/index.php?title=Pages_72-83#Page_72) - [2 Page 73](https://gravitys-rainbow.pynchonwiki.com/wiki/index.php?title=Pages_72-83#Page_73) - [3 Page 74](https://gravitys-rainbow.pynchonwiki.com/wiki/index.php?title=Pages_72-83#Page_74) - [4 Page 75](https://gravitys-rainbow.pynchonwiki.com/wiki/index.php?title=Pages_72-83#Page_75) - [5 Page 76](https://gravitys-rainbow.pynchonwiki.com/wiki/index.php?title=Pages_72-83#Page_76) - [6 Page 77](https://gravitys-rainbow.pynchonwiki.com/wiki/index.php?title=Pages_72-83#Page_77) - [7 Page 78](https://gravitys-rainbow.pynchonwiki.com/wiki/index.php?title=Pages_72-83#Page_78) - [8 Page 79](https://gravitys-rainbow.pynchonwiki.com/wiki/index.php?title=Pages_72-83#Page_79) - [9 Page 80](https://gravitys-rainbow.pynchonwiki.com/wiki/index.php?title=Pages_72-83#Page_80) - [10 Page 81](https://gravitys-rainbow.pynchonwiki.com/wiki/index.php?title=Pages_72-83#Page_81) - [11 Page 82](https://gravitys-rainbow.pynchonwiki.com/wiki/index.php?title=Pages_72-83#Page_82) ## Page 72 72.32 **Was tust du für die Front, für den Sieg? Was has du heute für Deutschland getan?** What are you doing for the front, for the victory? What have you done for Germany today? Also see [ThomasPynchon.com](http://www.thomaspynchon.com/gravitys-rainbow/extra/german.html) for lots of _GR_ translations. Compare this with Roger and Jessica's not-quite-secession from the Home Front (41.20-27). ## Page 73 73.04 **ancient Abbey... its roof long ago taken at the manic whim of Henry VIII** The Dissolution of the Monasteries, sometimes referred to as the Suppression of the Monasteries, was the set of administrative and legal processes between 1536 and 1541 by which Henry VIII disbanded monasteries, priories, convents and friaries in England, Wales and Ireland; appropriated their income, disposed of their assets, and provided for their former members. He was given the authority to do this in England and Wales by the Act of Supremacy, passed by Parliament in 1534, which made him Supreme Head of the Church in England, thus separating England from Papal authority; and by the First Suppression Act (1536) and the Second Suppression Act (1539). Although some monastic foundations dated back to Anglo-Saxon England, the overwhelming majority of the 825 religious communities dissolved by Henry VIII owed their existence to the wave of monastic enthusiasm that had swept England and Wales in the 11th and 12th centuries; in consequence of which religious houses in the 16th century controlled appointment to about a third of all parish benefices, and disposed of about half of all ecclesiastical income. The dissolution still represents the largest legally enforced transfer of property in English history since the Norman Conquest. [[1]](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dissolution_of_the_Monasteries) 73.08 **Palladian house** Palladian architecture is a European style derived from the designs of the Venetian architect Andrea Palladio (1508–1580). His work was strongly based on the symmetry, perspective and values of the formal classical temple architecture of the Ancient Greeks and Romans. ## Page 74 74.15 **rust bouclé** Bouclé is a yarn with a length of loops of similar size which can range from tiny circlets to large curls. To make bouclé, at least two strands are combined, with the tension on one strand being much looser than the other as it is being plied, with the loose strand forming the loops and the other strand as the anchor. [[2]](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Boucle) Radio speaker grille cloths at the time were often bouclé weaves. 74.21 **Dawes-era flashes** The Dawes Plan (as proposed by the Dawes Committee, chaired by Charles G. Dawes) was an attempt in 1924, following World War I for the Triple Entente to collect war reparations debt from Germany. When after five years the plan proved to be unsuccessful, the Young Plan was adopted in 1929 to replace it. [[3]](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dawes_Plan) 74.26 **SHAEF** Supreme Headquarters Allied Expeditionary Force was the headquarters of the Commander of Allied forces in north west Europe, from late 1943 until the end of World War II. U.S. General Dwight D. Eisenhower was in command of SHAEF throughout its existence. The position itself shares a common lineage with Supreme Allied Commander Europe and Atlantic, but they are different titles. [[4]](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SHAEF) 74.30 **"strategy of truth"** Due to the public skepticism of propaganda due to the heavy handed efforts of the Committee on Public Information in the US during World War I, and the fascist regimes propaganda machinery, the US had adopted a "strategy of truth" whereby they would disseminate information but not try to influence the public directly through propaganda. However, seeing the value and need of propaganda, ways were found to circumvent official policy. [[5]](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Writers%27_War_Board) 74.33 **Hereros, ex-colonials from South-West Africa** During the late 19th century, the first Europeans began entering to permanently settle the land. Primarily in Damaraland, German settlers acquired land from the Herero in order to establish farms. In 1883, the merchant Franz Adolf Eduard Lüderitz entered into a contract with the native elders. The exchange later became the basis of German colonial rule. The territory became a German colony under the name of German South-West Africa. Soon after, conflicts between the German colonists and the Herero herdsmen began. Controversies frequently arose because of disputes about access to land and water, but also the legal discrimination against the native population by the white immigrants. [[6]](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hereros) ## Page 75 75.09 **to root out the truffles of truth created, as ancients surmised, during storm, in the instant of lightning blast** The first mention of truffles appears in the inscriptions of the neo-Sumerians regarding their Amorite enemy's eating habits (Third Dynasty of Ur, 20th century) and later in writings of Theophrastus in the fourth century BC. In classical times, their origins were a mystery that challenged many; Plutarch and others thought them to be the result of lightning, warmth and water in the soil, while Juvenal thought thunder and rain to be instrumental in their origin. Cicero deemed them children of the earth, while Dioscorides thought they were tuberous roots. [[7]](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Truffle_(fungus)) 75.10 **American PWD** The Psychological Warfare Division of SHAEF (PWD/SHAEF) was a joint Anglo-American organisation set-up in World War II tasked with conducting principally 'white' tactical psychological warfare against German troops in North-west Europe during and after D-Day. It was headed by US Brigadier-General Robert A. McClure who had previously commanded the Psychological Warfare Branch (PWB/AFHQ) of U.S. General Dwight D. Eisenhower's staff for Operation Torch. [[8]](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Psychological_Warfare_Division) 75.12 **"Schwarzkommando"** German: literally 'black command'; in this case meaning both 'unit composed of blacks' and 'secret unit'; an alternate meaning of _schwartz_ is 'secret' or 'illicit' as in 'Secret Service' or 'black market' 75.13 **"Wütende Heer"** German: 'furious' or 'raging' army; see note at [72.27](https://gravitys-rainbow.pynchonwiki.com/wiki/index.php?title=Pages_71-72#Page_72 "Pages 71-72") 75.30 **Dr. Porkyevitch** Another suggestion of one of Pynchon’s favorite motifs, the little cartoon hero Porky Pig. See note at [545.04-05](https://gravitys-rainbow.pynchonwiki.com/wiki/index.php?title=Pages_537-548#Page_545 "Pages 537-548") 75.31 **before the purge trials** The Great Purge was a series of campaigns of political repression and persecution in the Soviet Union orchestrated by Joseph Stalin from 1936 to 1938. It involved a large-scale purge of the Communist Party and government officials, repression of peasants, Red Army leadership, and the persecution of unaffiliated persons, characterized by widespread police surveillance, widespread suspicion of "saboteurs", imprisonment, and arbitrary executions. In Russian historiography the period of the most intense purge, 1937–1938, is called _Yezhovshchina_ (Russian: ежовщина; literally, the Yezhov regime), after Nikolai Yezhov, the head of the Soviet secret police, NKVD. [[9]](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Purge_Trials) 75.40 **P.W.E.** During World War II, the Political Warfare Executive (PWE) was a British clandestine body created to produce and disseminate both white and black propaganda, with the aim of damaging enemy morale and sustaining the morale of the Occupied countries. [[10]](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Political_Warfare_Executive) ## Page 76 76.06 _**dégagé**_ Detached, disengaged, unconcerned 76.13 **Polygon Wood** The Battle of Polygon Wood took place during the 'second phase' of the Battle of Passchendaele/Third Battle of Ypres in World War I. The battle was fought near Ypres, Belgium, in an area named the Polygon Wood after the layout of the area. However, much of the woodland had been under intense shelling during the Battle of Passchendaele, and the area changed hands several times before this battle. [[11]](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_Polygon_Wood) 76.32 **F.O. Political Intelligence Department at Fitzmaurice House** The Political Intelligence Department was a department of the British Foreign Office during World War II. Established in 1939, its main function was the production of weekly intelligence summaries. It was headed by Foreign Office diplomatist Rex Leeper. In April 1943, the department was merged with the Royal Institute of International Affairs' Foreign Research and Press Service in Oxford, creating the new Foreign Office Research Department. The 'Political Intelligence Department' name continued to exist until 1946 as a cover for the Political Warfare Executive. [[12]](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Political_Intelligence_Department_(1939_-_1943)) 76.34 **OSS** The Office of Strategic Services (OSS) was a United States intelligence agency formed during World War II. It was the wartime intelligence agency, and it was a predecessor of the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA). The OSS was formed in order to coordinate espionage activities behind enemy lines for the branches of the United States Armed Forces. [[13]](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Office_of_Strategic_Services) **OWI** The United States Office of War Information (OWI) was a U.S. government agency created during World War II to consolidate government information services. It operated from June 1942 until September 1945. It coordinated the release of war news for domestic use, and, using posters and radio broadcasts, worked to promote patriotism, warned about foreign spies and attempted to recruit women into war work. The office also established an overseas branch which launched a large scale information and propaganda campaign abroad. [[14]](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/OWI) ## Page 77 77.08 **Chain of Being** The great chain of being (Latin: scala naturae, literally "ladder or stair-way of nature"), is a Christian concept detailing a strict, religious hierarchical structure of all matter and life, believed to have been decreed by the Christian God. [[15]](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chain_of_being) Chain of Being is a major motif in _Mason & Dixon_. 77.10 **... Ypres salient...wastage of only 70% of his unit.** The Ypres Salient is the area around Ypres in Belgium which was the scene of some of the most protracted and grueling trench warfare during World War I. Success was measured in feet and yards as tiny bits of land were captured, lost and recaptured throughout the war. Unit casualty rates were often extremely high. 70% wastage for 40 yards is, at most, only a slight exaggeration. [[16]](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ypres_Salient) 77.20 **Flanders** Flanders Fields is the generic name of the World War I battlefields in the medieval County of Flanders. At the time of World War I, the county no longer existed but corresponded approximately to the Belgian provinces East Flanders and West Flanders and the French Nord-Pas-de-Calais region. The name is particularly associated with the battles of Ypres, Passchendaele, and the Somme. [[17]](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Flanders_Fields) 77.21 **entitled _Things That Can Happen In European Politics_** Here, surprisingly, Pynchon makes a common usage error. Should be _titled_. A book is _titled_ something; someone is _entitled_ to their opinion. 77.22 **Bereshith, as it were...** Bereishit is a Hebrew word, which is the first word of the Torah (the first five books of the Tanach, or Hebrew Bible). It may be translated as the phrase "In the beginning of". [[18]](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bereishit) 77.23 **Ramsay MacDonald** James Ramsay MacDonald, PC, FRS (12 October 1866 – 9 November 1937) was a British Labour politician who rose from humble origins to serve two separate terms as the first ever British Labour Prime Minister. [[19]](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ramsay_Macdonald) 77.35-36 **Couéists** Émile Coué de la Châtaigneraie (February 26, 1857 – July 2, 1926) was a French psychologist and pharmacist who introduced a method of psychotherapy and self-improvement based on optimistic autosuggestion. [[20]](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/%C3%89mile_Cou%C3%A9) **Ouspenskians** See page [30](https://gravitys-rainbow.pynchonwiki.com/wiki/index.php?title=Pages_29-37#Page_30 "Pages 29-37"). **Skinnerites** Burrhus Frederic Skinner (March 20, 1904 – August 18, 1990) was an American behaviorist, author, inventor, social philosopher and poet. He was the Edgar Pierce Professor of Psychology at Harvard University from 1958 until his retirement in 1974. [[21]](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/B._F._Skinner) **Dale Carnegie zealots** Dale Breckenridge Carnegie (November 24, 1888 – November 1, 1955) was an American writer, lecturer, and the developer of famous courses in self-improvement, salesmanship, corporate training, public speaking, and interpersonal skills. Born in poverty on a farm in Missouri, he was the author of _How to Win Friends and Influence People_ (1936), a massive bestseller that remains popular today. He also wrote _How to Stop Worrying and Start Living_ (1948), _Lincoln the Unknown_ (1932), and several other books. [[22]](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dale_Carnegie) ## Page 78 78.05 **Subalterns** A subaltern is a chiefly British military term for a junior officer. Literally meaning "subordinate," subaltern is used to describe commissioned officers below the rank of captain and generally comprises the various grades of lieutenant. In the British Army the senior subaltern rank was captain-lieutenant, obsolete since the 18th century. [[23]](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Subaltern) 78.11 **pearlies** British slang for "teeth", a shortened form of "pearly whites". The Oxford English Dictionary cites this very passage as one of its examples of the word. [](https://gravitys-rainbow.pynchonwiki.com/wiki/index.php?title=File:Asquith.jpg) [](https://gravitys-rainbow.pynchonwiki.com/wiki/index.php?title=File:Asquith.jpg "Enlarge") Lady Asquith by Beaton 78.12 **Cecil Beaton’s photograph of Margot Asquith** Another example of the Turning Head motif. 78.25 **bedlamites** The Bethlem Royal Hospital is a psychiatric hospital located in London, United Kingdom and part of the South London and Maudsley NHS Foundation Trust. Although no longer based at its original location, it is recognised as the world's first and oldest institution to specialise in mental illnesses. It has been variously known as St. Mary Bethlehem, Bethlem Hospital, Bethlehem Hospital and Bedlam... The word bedlam, meaning uproar and confusion, is derived from its name. Although the hospital is now at the forefront of humane psychiatric treatment, for much of its history it was notorious for cruelty and inhumane treatment – the epitome of what the term "madhouse" or "insane asylum" might connote to the modern reader. [[24]](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bethlem_Royal_Hospital) 78.39 **"equivalent" phase, the first of the transmarginal phases...** In psychology, Transmarginal inhibition, or TMI, is an organism's response to overwhelming stimuli. Ivan Pavlov enumerated details of TMI on his work of conditioning animals to pain. He found that organisms had different levels of tolerance. He commented "that the most basic inherited difference among people was how soon they reached this shutdown point and that the quick-to-shut-down have a fundamentally different type of nervous system." Patients who have reached this shutdown point often become socially dysfunctional or develop one of several personality disorders. Often patients who dissociate during and after the experience, will more easily dissociate or shut down during stressful or painful experiences, and may experience post traumatic stress disorder for the remainder of their lives. There are three stages passed through for state of TMI to be reached. 1.equivalent phase: when the response matches the stimuli, which is considered the normal baseline behavior. 2.paradoxical phase: associated with quantity reversal, occurs when small stimuli receive major response and a major stimuli elicit small responses. 3.ultra-paradoxical: the final stage, associated with quality reversal in which negative stimulation results in positive responses and vice versa. [[25]](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Transmarginal_inhibition) ## Page 79 79.13 **Webley Silvernail** Webley is the name of the British gun manufacturer. _The Berkshire Hills_ cites Silvernail House in West Stockbridge as one of the oldest houses in that town (TBH 99). 79.18 **Geza Rozsavolgyi** The family name means neither "evil valley" as it stands in Weisenburger's Companion, nor "of the pink valley" as it is in the Alphabetical Index but "of the Valley of Roses". In fact, this is a Jewish name, the literal Magyarization of the German name Rosenthal. Geza’s first name also suggests the Hungarian-American psychologist Geza Roheim, who was one of the first to employ psychoanalytic critiques of culture. Rozsavolgyi is the name of a famous Budapest music store founded in 1850, which also published works by Liszt, Bartok and Kodaly, among others. 79.25 **"The Weekly Briefings"** In this section, Brigadier Pudding sorta brings to mind Reverend Gail Hightower from Faulkner's _Light In August_. 79.31-32 **Haig** Field Marshal Douglas Haig, 1st Earl Haig, KT, GCB, OM, GCVO, KCIE, ADC, (19 June 1861 – 29 January 1928) was a British senior officer during World War I. He commanded the British Expeditionary Force (BEF) from 1915 to the end of the War. He was commander during the Battle of the Somme (which brought some of the highest casualties in British military history), the Third Battle of Ypres and the Hundred Days Offensive which led to the armistice in 1918. [[26]](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Douglas_Haig,_1st_Earl_Haig) Haig was vehemently denounced -- perhaps too facilely -- in the generation after WWI. Even among his defenders, though, "the richness of his wit" was rarely mentioned. **Lieutenant Sassoon's refusal to fight** Sir Philip Albert Gustave David Sassoon, 3rd Baronet, GBE, CMG (4 December 1888 – 3 June 1939), was a British politician, art collector and social host, entertaining many celebrity guests at his homes, Port Lympne, Kent, and Trent Park, Hertfordshire, England... A second lieutenant in the East Kent Yeomanry, Sassoon served as private secretary to Field Marshal Haig during the First World War. [[27]](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Philip_Sassoon) More likely Pynchon was referring to Lt. Siegfried Sassoon CBE MC (8 September 1886 – 1 September 1967), a decorated war hero who famously refused to return to combat in 1917 and became one of Britain's best known pacifists and poets. This Sassoon was ordered to undergo mental health treatment by British military authorities who could not understand his change in attitude towards the war. [[28]](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Siegfried_Sassoon) 79.41 **Passchendaele horror** The Battle of Passchendaele was one of the major battles of the First World War, taking place between July and November 1917. In a series of operations, Entente troops under British command attacked the Imperial German Army. The battle was fought for control of the village of Passchendaele (modern Passendale) near the town of Ypres in West Flanders, Belgium. The objectives of the offensive were 'wearing out the enemy' and 'securing the Belgian coast and connecting with the Dutch frontier'. Haig expected three phases, capturing Passchendaele Ridge, moving on Roulers and an amphibious landing combined with an attack along the coast from Nieuport. The offensive also served to distract the German army from the French in the Aisne, who were suffering from widespread mutiny. [[29]](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_Passchendaele) ## Page 80 80.02 **cucurbitaceous improbabilities** The plant family Cucurbitaceae consists of squashes, melons, and gourds, including crops such as cucumber, various squashes (including pumpkins), luffas, and melons (including watermelons). The family is predominantly distributed around the tropics, where those with edible fruits were amongst the earliest cultivated plants in both the Old and New Worlds. [[30]](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cucurbitaceous) 80.11 **Toad-in-the-Hole** Toad in the hole is a traditional English dish consisting of sausages in Yorkshire pudding batter, usually served with vegetables and onion gravy. The origin of the name "Toad-in-the-Hole" is often disputed. Many suggestions are that the dish's resemblance to a toad sticking its head out of a hole provides the dish with its somewhat unusual name. [[31]](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Toad_in_the_hole) 80.12 _**rissolé**_ A rissolé is a small croquette, enclosed in pastry or rolled in breadcrumbs, usually baked or deep fried. It is filled with sweet or savory ingredients, most often minced meat or fish, and is served as an entrée, main course, dessert or side dish. [[32]](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rissole) 80.13 **samphire** Originally "sampiere", a corruption of the French "Saint Pierre" (Saint Peter), Samphire was named for the patron saint of fishermen because all of the original plants with its name grow in rocky salt-sprayed regions along the sea coast of northern Europe or in its coastal marsh areas. It is sometimes called sea asparagus or sea pickle. [[33]](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Samphire) 80.21-22 **"Would You Rather Be a Colonel with an Eagle on Your Shoulder, or a Private with a Chicken on Your Knee?"** The World War I song was composed by the team of Sidney Mitchell and Archie Gottlieb in 1918. (**Note**: This is a correction of my earlier error in attributing the song to the team of Harold Arlen and "Yip" Harburg, who also composed the songs for _The Wizard of Oz_.) [Video](http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wxfeMkzvNQU) 80.24 **Electra House** The Electra House, at Moorgate, London, opened in 1902 & was the accommodation for the Eastern and Associated Telegraph Companies. 80.37 **V-E Day** Victory in Europe Day commemorates 8 May 1945 (in Commonwealth countries; 7 May 1945), the date when the World War II Allies formally accepted the unconditional surrender of the armed forces of Nazi Germany and the end of Adolf Hitler's Third Reich. The formal surrender of the occupying German forces in the Channel Islands was not until 9 May 1945. On 30 April Hitler committed suicide during the Battle of Berlin, and so the surrender of Germany was authorized by his replacement, President of Germany Karl Dönitz. The administration headed by Dönitz was known as the Flensburg government. The act of _military surrender_ was signed on 7 May in Reims, France, and ratified on 8 May in Berlin, Germany. [[34]](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/V-E_Day) 80.40 **into a phalanx** Brings to mind the image of God's finger pointing out of a cloud from earlier in the novel. ## Page 81 81.08 **terrible disease like charisma** The term charisma, derived from Ancient Greek was introduced in scholarly [and popular [MKOHUT](https://gravitys-rainbow.pynchonwiki.com/wiki/index.php?title=User:MKOHUT&action=edit&redlink=1 "User:MKOHUT (page does not exist)")] usage by German sociologist Max Weber, in a book first published in 1922. He defined charismatic authority to be one of three forms of authority, the other two being traditional (feudal) authority and legal or rational authority. According to Weber, charisma is defined thus: "a certain quality of an individual personality, by virtue of which s/he is "set apart" from ordinary people and treated as endowed with supernatural, superhuman, or at least specifically exceptional powers or qualities. These as such are not accessible to the ordinary person, but are regarded as divine in origin or as exemplary, and on the basis of them the individual concerned is treated as a leader." adapted from Wikipedia 81.08 **rationalization** Rationalization is a key sociological concept [from online Dictionary of Social Science]:RATIONALIZATION This term has two specific meanings in sociology. (1) The concept was developed by German sociologist Max Weber (1864-1920) who used it in two ways. First, it was the process through which magical, supernatural and religious ideas lose cultural importance in a society and ideas based on science and practical calculation become dominant. For example, in modern societies science has rationalized our understanding of weather patterns. Science explains weather patterns as a result of interaction between physical elements like wind-speed and direction, air and water temperatures, humidity, etc. In some other cultures, weather is thought to express the pleasure or displeasure of gods, or spirits of ancestors. One explanation is rationalized and scientific, the other mysterious and magical. Rationalization also involves the development of forms of social organization devoted to the achievement of precise goals by efficient means. It is this type of rationalization that we see in the development of modern business corporations and of bureaucracy. These are organizations dedicated to the pursuit of defined goals by calculated, systematically administered means. (2) Within symbolic interactionism, rationalization is used more in the everyday sense of the word to refer to providing justifications or excuses for one's actions. See use in _Against the Day_, page 10 [Against the Day](http://against-the-day.pynchonwiki.com/wiki/index.php?title=ATD_1-25) 81.17 **The Reverend Paul de la Nuit** A double pun: "Pall [dark and gloomy covering] of the night"; also "Pall de l’ennui [of boredom]." 81.22 **MMPI** See 21.03 ## Page 82 82.01 **his most famous compatriot** Rozsavolgyi’s fellow countryman would be, of course, Bela Lugosi in his role as Dracula, whose speech patterns are suggested by Pynchon’s punctuation of Rozsavolgyi’s dialogue. 82.11 **Dr. Aaron Throwster** Aaron was the brother of and spokesperson for Moses. A throwster is one who makes threads out of silk. The name is fairly common in Britain. 82.26 **It is a classic "folly"** In architecture, a folly is a building constructed primarily for decoration, but either suggesting by its appearance some other purpose, or merely so extravagant that it transcends the normal range of garden ornaments or other class of building to which it belongs. In the original use of the word, these buildings had no other use, but from the 19th to 20th centuries the term was also applied to highly decorative buildings which had secondary practical functions such as housing, sheltering or business use. [[35]](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Folly) Cf. _Mason & Dixon_ pg. [722](http://masondixon.pynchonwiki.com/wiki/index.php?title=Chapter_74:_717-732#Page_722) 82.27 **The buttery** A buttery was a domestic room in a large medieval house. Along with the pantry, it was generally part of the offices pertaining to the kitchen. Reached from the screens passage at the low end of the Great Hall the buttery was traditionally the place from which the yeoman of the buttery served beer from the wooden butts standing by to those lower members of the household not entitled to drink wine. Candles were also dispensed from the buttery. Even today in Oxford and Cambridge colleges drinks are served from the buttery bar. The buttery generally had a staircase to the beer cellar below. The wine cellars, however, belonged to a different department, that of the yeoman of the cellar and in keeping with the higher value of their contents were often more richly decorated to reflect the higher status of their contents. From the mid-17th century, as it became the custom for servants and their offices to be less conspicuous and sited far from the principal reception rooms, the Great Hall and its neighbouring buttery and pantry lost their original uses. [[36]](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Buttery_(room)) 82.31 **Gloucestershire Old Spots** The Gloucestershire Old Spots is an English breed of pig which is predominantly white with black spots. It is named after the county of Gloucestershire. The Gloucestershire Old Spots pig is known for its docility, intelligence, and prolificacy. [[37]](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gloucestershire_Old_Spots) 82.32 **buckram books** Buckram is a stiff cloth, made of cotton, and still occasionally linen, which is used to cover and protect books. [[38]](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Buckram) 82.36 **...Clive and his elephants stomping the French at Plassy...** The Battle of Plassey (Plassy in text), 23 June 1757, was a decisive victory for the British East India Company, lead by Baron Robert Clive, over the Nawab of Bengal and his French allies. Elephants were used to help move infantry pieces. [[39]](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_Plassey) 82.37 **Salome with the head of John** Salome, the Daughter of Herodias (c AD 14 - between 62 and 71), is known from the New Testament (Mark 6:17-29 and Matt 14:3-11, where, however, her name is not given). Another source from Antiquity, Flavius Josephus's _Jewish Antiquities_, gives her name and some detail about her family relations... Christian traditions depict her as an icon of dangerous female seductiveness, for instance depicting as erotic her dance mentioned in the New Testament (in some later transformations further iconised to the _dance of the seven veils_), or concentrate on her lighthearted and cold foolishness that, according to the gospels, led to John the Baptist's death. [[40]](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Salome) 82.39 **tessellated** A tessellation or tiling of the plane is a pattern of plane figures that fills the plane with no overlaps and no gaps. [[41]](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tessellation) # Pages 83-92 This page-by-page annotation is organized by sections, as delineated by the seven squares (sprockets) which separate each section. The page numbers for this page-by-page annotation are for the original Viking edition (760 pages). Editions by other publishers vary in pagination — the newer Penguin editions are 776 pages; the Bantam edition is 886 pages. **Contributors:** Please use a 760-page edition (either the original Viking edition with the orange cover or the Penguin USA edition with the blue cover and rocket diagram — there are [plenty on Ebay](http://search.ebay.com/search/search.dll?sofocus=bs&sbrftog=1&from=R10&submitsearch=Search&satitle=pynchon+rainbow&sacat=267%26catref%3DC6&sargn=-1%26saslc%3D2&sadis=200&fpos=94610&ftrt=1&ftrv=1&saprclo=&saprchi=&fsop=1%26fsoo%3D1&coaction=compare&copagenum=1&coentrypage=search) for around $10) or search the [Google edition](http://books.google.com/books?id=iPDGp7VT8H8C&printsec=frontcover&source=gbs_navlinks_s#v=onepage&q=&f=false) for the correct page number. **Readers:** To calculate the Bantam edition use this formula: Bantam page # x 1.165. Before p.50 it's about a page earlier; as you get later in the book, add a page. Finally, profound thanks to Prof. Don Larsson for providing the foundation for this page-by-page annotation. ## Contents - [1 Page 83](https://gravitys-rainbow.pynchonwiki.com/wiki/index.php?title=Pages_83-92#Page_83) - [2 Page 84](https://gravitys-rainbow.pynchonwiki.com/wiki/index.php?title=Pages_83-92#Page_84) - [3 Page 85](https://gravitys-rainbow.pynchonwiki.com/wiki/index.php?title=Pages_83-92#Page_85) - [4 Page 86](https://gravitys-rainbow.pynchonwiki.com/wiki/index.php?title=Pages_83-92#Page_86) - [5 Page 87](https://gravitys-rainbow.pynchonwiki.com/wiki/index.php?title=Pages_83-92#Page_87) - [6 Page 88](https://gravitys-rainbow.pynchonwiki.com/wiki/index.php?title=Pages_83-92#Page_88) - [7 Page 89](https://gravitys-rainbow.pynchonwiki.com/wiki/index.php?title=Pages_83-92#Page_89) - [8 Page 90](https://gravitys-rainbow.pynchonwiki.com/wiki/index.php?title=Pages_83-92#Page_90) - [9 Page 91](https://gravitys-rainbow.pynchonwiki.com/wiki/index.php?title=Pages_83-92#Page_91) ## Page 83 **Topiary trees line the drive** Topiary is the horticultural practice of training live perennial plants, by clipping the foliage and twigs of trees, shrubs and subshrubs to develop and maintain clearly defined shapes, perhaps geometric or fanciful; and the term also refers to plants which have been shaped in this way. It can be an art and is a form of living sculpture. The word derives from the Latin word for an ornamental landscape gardener, _topiarius_, creator of topia or "places", a Greek word that Romans applied also to fictive indoor landscapes executed in fresco. No doubt the use of a Greek word betokens the art's origins in the Hellenistic world that was influenced by Persia, for neither Classical Greece nor Republican Rome developed any sophisticated tradition of artful pleasure grounds. [[1]](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Topiary) Cf. _Mason & Dixon_ pg. [722](http://masondixon.pynchonwiki.com/wiki/index.php?title=Chapter_74:_717-732#Page_722) **83.34-37 meddling with another man's mind...Harvard University** During WWII [Dr Henry A. Murray](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Henry_A._Murray), then assistant director of the Harvard Psychological Clinic, joined the OSS in Europe and assisted James Miller in developing psychological profiles of prospective special agents -- so called stress tests. He also analyzed Hitler for the Allies, predicting that if Germany lost the war, Hitler would commit suicide; that Hitler was impotent as far as heterosexual relations were concerned; and that Hitler had possibly participated in a homosexual relationship -- all suggestive of Blicero. After 1947 and the Cold War it seemed every self-respecting psychologist was doing side jobs for the CIA in "persuasion technologies" including LSD, various other drugs, sleep deprivation, isolation tanks, hypnosis, etc. even, allegedly, unto the death of the "patient". Perhaps best well known was [MK Ultra](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/MKULTRA)under the direction of [Dr. Sidney Gottlieb](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sidney_Gottlieb). Murray himself returned to Harvard where he continued his meddling with the minds of others. One of the minds he meddled with from 1958 to 1962 belonged to Theodore Kaczynski. Alston Chase's book _Harvard and the Unabomber: The Education of an American Terrorist_ tells of the psychological experiments which Kaczynski is reported to have undergone at Harvard, under the direction of Murray. Chase connects these experiences in a controversial thesis to Kaczynski's later career as the Unabomber. As is generally well known in Pynchon circles, TRP himself was suspected of being the Unabomber. And then of course there was the Leary-Alpert led [Harvard Psilocybin Project](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Harvard_Psilocybin_Project) between 1960 and 1962 ... ## Page 84 **Watson and Rayner... "Infant Albert"** The Little Albert experiment was a case study showing empirical evidence of classical conditioning in humans. This study was also an example of stimulus generalization. It was conducted in 1920 by John B. Watson along with his assistant Rosalie Rayner. The study was done at Johns Hopkins University. John B. Watson, after observing children in the field, was interested in finding support for his notion that the reaction of children, whenever they heard loud noises, was prompted by fear. Furthermore, he reasoned that this fear was innate or due to an unconditioned response. He felt that following the principles of classical conditioning, he could condition a child to fear another distinctive stimulus which normally would not be feared by a child. [[2]](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Little_Albert_experiment) **Darmstadt** Darmstadt is a city in the Bundesland (federal state) of Hesse in Germany, located in the southern part of the Rhine Main Area. [[3]](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Darmstadt) **Kekulé's own famous switch into chemistry from architecture** Friedrich August Kekule von Stradonitz a.k.a. August Kekulé (7 September 1829–13 July 1896) was a German organic chemist. From the 1850s until his death, Kekule was one of the most prominent chemists in Europe, especially in theoretical chemistry. He was the principal founder of the theory of chemical structure. [[4]](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Friedrich_August_Kekul%C3%A9_von_Stradonitz) **Larson-Keeler three-variable "lie detector"** A device recording both blood pressure and galvanic skin response was invented in 1921 by Dr. John A. Larson of the University of California and first applied in law enforcement work by the Berkeley Police Department under its nationally renowned police chief August Vollmer. Further work on this device was done by Leonarde Keeler. [[5]](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Polygraph) ## Page 85 **"...a silent extinction beyond the zero."** A quote from Pavlov. Read the essay on conditioned reflexes that contains it [here.](http://psychcentral.com/classics/Pavlov/lecture4.htm) Passage in question from Pavlov: Hitherto, when referring to the degree of extinction, we have only spoken of the extinction as being partial or as being complete, but we shall now have to extend our conception. Not only must we speak of partial or of complete extinction of a conditioned reflex, but we must also realize that extinction can proceed beyond the point of reducing a reflex to zero. We cannot therefore judge the degree of extinction only by the magnitude of the reflex or its absence, since there can still be a silent extinction beyond the zero. This statement rests upon the fact that a continued repetition of an extinguished stimulus' beyond the zero of the positive reflex deepens the extinction still further. Such an extension of our conception serves fully to elucidate the experiment just described, and it explains why the seemingly inactive thermal component when subjected to experimental extinction led to such a profound secondary extinction of the stronger tactile component. The importance of considering the degree of extinction in all experiments thus becomes evident. The methods of determining the degree of extinction when it goes beyond zero will be explained in connection with the question which will next be discussed. **85.25 Edwin Treacle** Although derived from a word meaning an antidote to poison, "treacle" is the British term for molasses and is often used to describe something excessively sweet and sticky. **85.37 Poisson Distribution/Equation** See entry on page [54](http://gravitys-rainbow.pynchonwiki.com/wiki/index.php?title=Pages_53-60) ## Page 86 **86.40 Flanders** Northern region of Belgium bordering the North Sea. At least 60 miles from the English coast. ## Page 87 **ultraparadoxical phase** See page [78](https://gravitys-rainbow.pynchonwiki.com/wiki/index.php?title=Pages_72-83#Page_78 "Pages 72-83"). **B-17s** The Boeing B-17 Flying Fortress is a four-engine heavy bomber aircraft developed in the 1930s for the then-United States Army Air Corps (USAAC). Competing against Douglas and Martin for a contract to build 200 bombers, the Boeing entry outperformed both competitors and more than met the Air Corps' expectations. Although Boeing lost the contract because the prototype crashed, the Air Corps was so impressed with Boeing's design that they ordered 13 more B-17s for further evaluation. From its introduction in 1938, the B-17 Flying Fortress evolved through numerous design advances. [[6]](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/B-17) **nacelle** The nacelle is a cover housing (separate from the fuselage) that holds engines, fuel, or equipment on an aircraft. In some cases—the most notable one being the World War II-era P-38 Lightning airplane—an aircraft's cockpit may also be housed in a nacelle. The covering is typically aerodynamically shaped. [[7]](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nacelle) **perspex nose** Poly(methyl methacrylate) (PMMA) is a transparent thermoplastic, often used as a light or shatter-resistant alternative to glass. It is sometimes called acrylic glass. Chemically, it is the synthetic polymer of methyl methacrylate. The material was developed in 1928 in various laboratories, and was first brought to market in 1933 by Rohm and Haas Company, under the trademark Plexiglas. It has since been sold under many different names including Lucite and Perspex. [[8]](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Poly(methyl_methacrylate)) **Battle of Britain** See page [40](https://gravitys-rainbow.pynchonwiki.com/wiki/index.php?title=Pages_37-42#Page_40 "Pages 37-42"). ## Page 88 **Dr. Horsley Gantt** A former student and colleague of Pavlov. **88.10 the submontane Venus** That is, the goddess of the Tannhauser legend and opera. Venus is also the goddess of love, of course. **Harley Street** Harley Street is a street in the City of Westminster in London, England which has been noted since the 19th century for its large number of private specialists in medicine and surgery. [[9]](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Harley_Street) **Ariadne** Ariadne, in Greek mythology, was the daughter of King Minos of Crete, and his queen Pasiphaë, daughter of Helios, the Sun-titan. She aided Theseus in overcoming the Minotaur and was the bride of the god Dionysus. [[10]](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ariadne) **their eyes, which glisten with frost or flakes of mica** Cf. page [38](https://gravitys-rainbow.pynchonwiki.com/wiki/index.php?title=Pages_37-42#Page_38 "Pages 37-42"). **Pierre Janet** Pierre Marie Félix Janet (30 May 1859 - 24 February 1947) was a pioneering French psychologist, philosopher and psychotherapist in the field of dissociation and traumatic memory. He was one of the first people to draw a connection between events in the subject's past life and his or her present day trauma, and coined the words ‘dissociation’ and ‘subconscious’. [[11]](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pierre_Janet) **88.34 yang-yin rubbish** Note that Pointsman here rejects the concept only to become entranced by it later. ## Page 89 **P.R.S.** The Philosophical Research Society (P.R.S.) is an American nonprofit organization founded in 1934, by the prolific author and scholar Manly Palmer Hall, which provides learning and development of a philosophy of life which embraces conciliation of religion and science and higher understandings of life itself. [[12]](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Philosophical_Research_Society) ## Page 90 **MMPI** Minnesota Multiphasic Personality Inventory. Cf. page [81](https://gravitys-rainbow.pynchonwiki.com/wiki/index.php?title=Pages_72-83#Page_81 "Pages 72-83"). **F Scale** The F-scale is a 1947 personality test, designed by Theodor W. Adorno and others to measure the authoritarian personality. The "F" stands for "fascist." The F-scale measures responses on several different components of authoritarianism, including conventionalism, authoritarian submission, authoritarian aggression, anti-intraception, superstition and stereotype, power and "toughness," destructiveness and cynicism, projectivity, and sex. The F-scale is meant to identify how racism develops in people. Scores on the F Scale can be used to generate inferences about other extratest characteristics and behaviors. [[13]](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/F-scale_(personality_test)) **the three phases** See page [78](https://gravitys-rainbow.pynchonwiki.com/wiki/index.php?title=Pages_72-83#Page_78 "Pages 72-83"). ## Page 91 **moiré** In physics, a moiré pattern is an interference pattern created, for example, when two grids are overlaid at an angle, or when they have slightly different mesh sizes. [[14]](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Moire) **91.27 Dr. Bleagh** An expression of disgust. (Try saying it!) **King Tigers** Tiger II is the common name of a German heavy tank of the Second World War. The final official German designation was _Panzerkampfwagen_ Tiger _Ausf. B_, often shortened to Tiger B. The ordnance inventory designation was _Sd.Kfz_. 182. It is also known under the informal name _Königstiger_ (the German name for the "Bengal tiger"), often translated as King Tiger or Royal Tiger by Allied soldiers. [[15]](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/King_Tiger) **Zouave** Zouave was the title given to certain light infantry regiments in the French Army, normally serving in French North Africa between 1831 and 1962. The name was also adopted during the 19th century by units in other armies, especially volunteer regiments raised for service in the American Civil War. The chief distinguishing characteristics of such units were the zouave uniform, which included short open-fronted jackets, baggy trousers and often sashes and oriental headgear. [[16]](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zouave) # Pages 92-113 This page-by-page annotation is organized by sections, as delineated by the seven squares (sprockets) which separate each section. The page numbers for this page-by-page annotation are for the original Viking edition (760 pages). Editions by other publishers vary in pagination — the newer Penguin editions are 776 pages; the Bantam edition is 886 pages. **Contributors:** Please use a 760-page edition (either the original Viking edition with the orange cover or the Penguin USA edition with the blue cover and rocket diagram — there are [plenty on Ebay](http://search.ebay.com/search/search.dll?sofocus=bs&sbrftog=1&from=R10&submitsearch=Search&satitle=pynchon+rainbow&sacat=267%26catref%3DC6&sargn=-1%26saslc%3D2&sadis=200&fpos=94610&ftrt=1&ftrv=1&saprclo=&saprchi=&fsop=1%26fsoo%3D1&coaction=compare&copagenum=1&coentrypage=search) for around $10) or search the [Google edition](http://books.google.com/books?id=iPDGp7VT8H8C&printsec=frontcover&source=gbs_navlinks_s#v=onepage&q=&f=false) for the correct page number. **Readers:** To calculate the Bantam edition use this formula: Bantam page # x 1.165. Before p.50 it's about a page earlier; as you get later in the book, add a page. Finally, profound thanks to Prof. Don Larsson for providing the foundation for this page-by-page annotation. ## Contents - [1 Page 93](https://gravitys-rainbow.pynchonwiki.com/wiki/index.php?title=Pages_92-113#Page_93) - [2 Page 94](https://gravitys-rainbow.pynchonwiki.com/wiki/index.php?title=Pages_92-113#Page_94) - [3 Page 95](https://gravitys-rainbow.pynchonwiki.com/wiki/index.php?title=Pages_92-113#Page_95) - [4 Page 96](https://gravitys-rainbow.pynchonwiki.com/wiki/index.php?title=Pages_92-113#Page_96) - [5 Page 97](https://gravitys-rainbow.pynchonwiki.com/wiki/index.php?title=Pages_92-113#Page_97) - [6 Page 98](https://gravitys-rainbow.pynchonwiki.com/wiki/index.php?title=Pages_92-113#Page_98) - [7 Page 99](https://gravitys-rainbow.pynchonwiki.com/wiki/index.php?title=Pages_92-113#Page_99) - [8 Page 100](https://gravitys-rainbow.pynchonwiki.com/wiki/index.php?title=Pages_92-113#Page_100) - [9 Page 101](https://gravitys-rainbow.pynchonwiki.com/wiki/index.php?title=Pages_92-113#Page_101) - [10 Page 106](https://gravitys-rainbow.pynchonwiki.com/wiki/index.php?title=Pages_92-113#Page_106) - [11 Page 108](https://gravitys-rainbow.pynchonwiki.com/wiki/index.php?title=Pages_92-113#Page_108) - [12 Page 109](https://gravitys-rainbow.pynchonwiki.com/wiki/index.php?title=Pages_92-113#Page_109) - [13 Page 110](https://gravitys-rainbow.pynchonwiki.com/wiki/index.php?title=Pages_92-113#Page_110) - [14 Page 111](https://gravitys-rainbow.pynchonwiki.com/wiki/index.php?title=Pages_92-113#Page_111) ## Page 93 _**Amanita muscaria**_ _Amanita muscaria_, commonly known as the fly agaric, is a poisonous and psychoactive basidiomycete fungus, one of many in the genus _Amanita_. Native throughout the temperate and boreal regions of the Northern Hemisphere, _Amanita muscaria_ has been unintentionally introduced to many countries in the Southern Hemisphere, generally as a symbiont with pine plantations, and is now a true cosmopolitan species. It associates with various deciduous and coniferous trees. The quintessential toadstool, it is a large white-gilled, white-spotted, usually deep red mushroom, one of the most recognizable and widely encountered in popular culture. [[1]](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Amanita_muscaria) **Destroying Angel** The name destroying angel applies to several similar, closely related species of deadly all-white mushrooms in the genus _Amanita_. They are _Amanita bisporigera_ and _A. ocreata_ in eastern and western North America, and _A. virosa_ in Europe... Closely related to the death cap (_A. phalloides_), they are among the most toxic known mushrooms, containing amatoxins as death caps do. [[2]](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Destroying_angel) **Dispossessed elves run around up on the roof, gibbering** Appears Osbie is already tripping quite a bit here. **Huntley & Palmers biscuit tin** Huntley & Palmers was a British firm of biscuit makers originally based in Reading, Berkshire. The company created one of the world's first global brands and ran what was once the world’s largest biscuit factory. Over the years, the company was also known as J. Huntley & Son and Huntley & Palmer. [[3]](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Huntley_%26_Palmers) **Rizla** French brand of rolling papers. ## Page 94 **Harvey Nicholls** Harvey Nichols, founded in 1813, is an upmarket department store chain. Its original store is in London. Founded in 1813 as a linen shop, it sells many international brands of clothing for women and men, fashion accessories, beauty products, wine and food. Harvey Nichols attracts more younger shoppers than its rival Harrods. [[4]](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Harvey_Nichols) _**soignée**_ Of a woman: elegant, well-groomed, sophisticated. [[5]](http://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/soign%C3%A9e) **Der Kinderofen** The child-oven **"the Rome-Berlin Axis"** The "Rome-Berlin Axis" became a full military alliance in 1939 under the Pact of Steel, and the Tripartite Pact of 1940 fully integrated the military aims of Germany, Italy, and Japan. [[6]](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rome-Berlin_Axis) **old Märchen** old fable, fairy tale ## Page 95 **NSB** The National Socialist Movement in the Netherlands (Dutch: Nationaal-Socialistische Beweging in Nederland, NSB) was a Dutch fascist and later national socialist political party. As a parliamentary party participating in legislative elections, the NSB had some success during the 1930s. It remained the only legal party in the Netherlands during most of the Second World War. [[7]](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/National_Socialist_Movement_in_the_Netherlands) 95.17 **Wassenaar** Wassenaar is in the Netherlands. **"Hexeszüchtigung"** German: "Witch chastisement". Pynchon has either invented or misremembered this word. The correct form would be "Hexenzüchtigung", but it is in any case extremely rare, not part of the normal vocabulary of witch trials. ## Page 96 **this Northern and ancient form... the strayed children, the wood-wife in the edible house, the captivity, the fattening, the Oven...** "Hansel and Gretel" (German: _Hänsel und Gretel_, "Little John and Little Margaret") is a well-known fairy tale of German origin, recorded by the Brothers Grimm and published in 1812. Hansel and Gretel are a young brother and sister threatened by a cannibalistic witch living deep in the forest in a house constructed of cake and confectionery. The two children save their lives by outwitting her. The tale has been adapted to various media, most notably the opera _Hänsel und Gretel_ (1893) by Engelbert Humperdinck and a stop-motion animated feature film made in the 1950s based on the opera. Under the Aarne-Thompson classification system, "Hansel and Gretel" is classified under Class 327, "The Children and the Ogre". [[8]](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hansel_%26_Gretel) **Dutch underground** Dutch resistance to the Nazi occupation of the Netherlands during World War II can be mainly characterized by its prominent non-violence, summitting in over 300,000 people in hiding in the fall of 1944, tended to by some 60,000 to 200.000 illegal landlords and caretakers and tolerated knowingly by some 1 million people, including German occupiers and military. [[9]](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dutch_underground) ## Page 97 **the Spitfires** The Supermarine Spitfire is a British single-seat fighter aircraft which was used by the Royal Air Force and many other Allied countries throughout the Second World War. The Spitfire continued to be used as a front line fighter and in secondary roles into the 1950s. It was produced in greater numbers than any other British aircraft, and was the only British fighter in production throughout the war. [[10]](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Spitfire) **Mussert's people** Anton Adriaan Mussert (May 11, 1894, Werkendam, North Brabant – May 7, 1946) was one of the founders of the National Socialist Movement (NSB) in the Netherlands and its _de jure_ leader. As such, he was the most prominent national socialist in the Netherlands before and during the Second World War. During the war, he was able to keep this position, due to the support he received from the Germans. After the war, he was convicted and executed for high treason. [[11]](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mussert) **Scheveningen** Scheveningen is one of the eight districts of The Hague, as well as a subdistrict (wijk) of that city. Scheveningen is a modern seaside resort with a long sandy beach, an esplanade, a pier, and a lighthouse. The beach is popular for water sports such as windsurfing and kiteboarding. A nudist section is 1 km to the north. The harbor is used for both fishing and tourism. [[12]](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Scheveningen) **Rilke** René Karl Wilhelm Johann Josef Maria Rilke (4 December 1875 – 29 December 1926), better known as Rainer Maria Rilke, was a Bohemian–Austrian poet. He is considered one of the most significant poets in the German language. His haunting images focus on the difficulty of communion with the ineffable in an age of disbelief, solitude, and profound anxiety: themes that tend to position him as a transitional figure between the traditional and the modernist poets. [[13]](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rilke) ## Page 98 98.16 **Young Rauhandel** A former friend of Blicero, probably a lover willing to indulge his sado-masochistic tastes. The name literally means "Rough Trade." 98.24 **the Ufa-Theatre** Weisenburger’s information on UFA is essentially correct, but he misgives Georg Wilhelm Pabst’s first name as "Rudolf." One curiosity in Pynchon's German film references is the lack of any mention of F.W. Murnau, perhaps the greatest director of that era. His films _Nosferatu_ (the first film version of Dracula) and _Faust_ would seem to be natural allusions for Pynchon to use. Universum Film AG, better known as UFA or Ufa, is a film company that was the principal film studio in Germany, home of the German film industry during the Weimar Republic and through World War II, and a major force in world cinema from 1917 to 1945. After World War II, UFA continued producing movies and television programmes to the present day, making it the longest standing film company in Germany. [[14]](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Universum_Film_AG) **Friedrichstrasse** The Friedrichstraße (lit. Frederick Street) is a major culture and shopping street in central Berlin, forming the core of the Friedrichstadt neighborhood. It runs from the northern part of the old Mitte district (north of which it is called Chausseestraße) to the Hallesches Tor in the district of Kreuzberg. Due to its north-southerly direction, it forms important junctions with the east-western axes, most notably with Leipziger Straße and Unter den Linden. [[15]](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Friedrichstrasse) ## Page 99 99.2 **Wandervogel** German youth movement promoting a love of nature and the outdoors; see note [here](https://gravitys-rainbow.pynchonwiki.com/wiki/index.php?title=W#wandervogel "W") A wanderer. _**Duino Elegies**_ The _Duino Elegies_ (German _Duineser Elegien_) are a set of ten elegies written in German by the poet Rainer Maria Rilke from 1912 to 1922. Rilke had been visiting Princess Marie von Thurn und Taxis in the Duino castle near Trieste in January 1912 and, according to his own recounting, had taken a stroll near the castle, atop the steep cliffs that dropped down to the beach. Rilke said later he had heard a voice calling to him as he walked near the cliffs, and he had used its words as the opening... [[16]](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Duino_Elegies) **the great Herero Rising** The Herero and Namaqua Genocide is considered to have been the first genocide of the 20th century. It took place between 1904 and 1907 in German South-West Africa (modern day Namibia), during the scramble for Africa. On January 12, 1904, the Herero people, led by Samuel Maharero, rebelled against German colonial rule. In August, German general Lothar von Trotha defeated the Herero in the Battle of Waterberg and drove them into the desert of Omaheke, where most of them died of thirst. In October, the Nama people also rebelled against the Germans only to suffer a similar fate. [[17]](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Herero_genocide) ## Page 100 _**Ndjambi Karunga**_ A deity to the Herero peoples, the supreme being. Thought to have created the world, put a tree on it from which humans emerged. Ndjambi returned to heaven. Is all-knowing & giver of blessings & kindness. **Rhenish Missionary Society** The Rhenish Missionary Society (_Rhenish_ - of the river _Rhine_) was one of the largest missionary societies in Germany. Formed from smaller missions founded as far back as 1799, the Society was amalgamated on 23 September 1828, and its first missionaries were ordained and sent off to South Africa by the end of the year. [[18]](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rhenish_Missionary_Society) **talion** Retaliation. **clonic** Pertaining to clonus; having irregular, convulsive spasms. [[19]](http://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/clonic) **Harz** The Harz is the highest mountain range in northern Germany and its rugged terrain extends across parts of Lower Saxony, Saxony-Anhalt and Thuringia. The name _Harz_ derives from the Middle High German word _Hardt_ or _Hart_ (mountain forest). The legendary Brocken is the highest summit in the Harz with a height of 1,141.1 metres (3,744 ft) above sea level. The Wurmberg (971 metres (3,186 ft)) is the highest peak located entirely within Lower Saxony. [[20]](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Harz) **mandala** Maṇḍala is a Sanskrit word that means "circle". In the Hindu and Buddhist religious traditions their sacred art often takes a mandala form. The basic form of most Hindu and Buddhist mandalas is a square with four gates containing a circle with a center point; each gate is in the shape of a T. [[21]](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mandala) ## Page 101 **swastika** The word swastika came from the Sanskrit word _svastika_, meaning any lucky or auspicious object, and in particular a mark made on persons and things to denote good luck. It is composed of _su-_ meaning "good, well" and _asti_ "to be" _svasti_ thus means "well-being." The suffix _-ka_ either forms a diminutive or intensifies the verbal meaning, and _svastika_ might thus be translated literally as "that which is associated with well-being," corresponding to "lucky charm" or "thing that is auspicious." [[22]](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Swastika) 101.1-2 _**In Hoc Signo Vinces**_ Latin, ["in this sign you will conquer."](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/In_hoc_signo_vinces). According to legend Constantine the Great adopted this Greek phrase, "εν τούτω νίκα", after his vision of a chi and rho on the sky just before the Battle of the Milvian Bridge (312 CE). He had his men paint the chi rho on their sheilds and led them all to victory. Thus did he become the Emperor of Rome and subsequently moved the capital of the empire to Constantinople (formerly Byzas, now Istanbul) and most important for the history of the west -- proclaimed Christianity the official religion of the empire. In context in GR there are various possible meanings: - The swastika, the broken cross at the mandala's center on the launch pad, the symbol of the Reich, shall win the war and proclaim a new empire -- the Third Reich which was to last a 1000 years -- which, come to think of it, was about as long as Constantinople was the center of the Roman, then Eastern Roman, then Byzantine (but always Christian) Empire (Constantinople falling to the Ottoman Turks in 1459). Common to both Nazi and Constantine rendering is the interplay of the Cross/Swastika over the face of the sun. - Subsequently, the phrase became the motto of the Sobieski line -- Jan III Sobieski having defeated the Ottomans in 1683 at the Battle of Vienna just outside the city's gates. The phrase has also been used by Irish nobility, the Sacred Military Constantinian Order of Saint George, the Portuguese, the Knights Templars, Freemasons, and the Sigma Chi fraternity. Which leads to the most amusing reading of the passage: whoever carved the words into the tree did so as a fraternity prank. **the Underground** See page [96](https://gravitys-rainbow.pynchonwiki.com/wiki/index.php?title=Pages_92-113#Page_96 "Pages 92-113"). _**Erwartung**_ Anticipation ## Page 106 [](https://gravitys-rainbow.pynchonwiki.com/wiki/index.php?title=File:White-zombie.jpg) [](https://gravitys-rainbow.pynchonwiki.com/wiki/index.php?title=File:White-zombie.jpg "Enlarge") White Zombie 106.34-37 **White Zombie ... perhaps Dumbo** Despite the connections with other forms of death-in-life that are referred to throughout _Gravity’s Rainbow_, White Zombie is the only direct reference to  [](https://gravitys-rainbow.pynchonwiki.com/wiki/index.php?title=File:Dumbo.gif) [](https://gravitys-rainbow.pynchonwiki.com/wiki/index.php?title=File:Dumbo.gif "Enlarge") Dumbo zombies. That may be because the zombie myth is of black and African origin. Pynchon has carefully chosen the title to reflect his use of whiteness as the color of death. Although the depiction of the crows in _Dumbo_ is clearly racist, they give the little elephant the "magic" feather that he thinks he needs (but really doesn’t) in order to fly. The Disney film will continue to be an important touchstone later in the novel when Slothrop meets Pig Bodine. Compare Pynchon's bitterly ironic use of the _Dumbo_ reference at V135.02-07. Although it is not clear that Pynchon was aware of it, the B-17 bomber was nicknamed the "Dumbo" by American troops in the Pacific during World War II. This contributor would bet a first edition hardcover of _Gravity's Rainbow_ that Pynchon was aware of the "Dumbo". Even I knew it and I know next to nothing about WW II factually.[MKOHUT](https://gravitys-rainbow.pynchonwiki.com/wiki/index.php?title=User:MKOHUT&action=edit&redlink=1 "User:MKOHUT (page does not exist)") 13:40, 8 July 2007 (PDT) ## Page 108 108 **ic heb u liever dan ên everswîn** These lines (English: "I love you more than a wild boar / even if it were made of fine gold") are from the 15th century Middle Dutch verse drama [Lanseloet van Denemerken](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lanseloet_van_Denemerken%7C) ("Lancelot of Denmark"). Precisely these two lines are quoted and discussed in Chapter 10 of Jacob Grimm's _Deutsche Mythologie_, Vol. 1, p. 213 in the English translation _Teutonic Mythology_, which must be Pynchon's source. ## Page 109 109.9-11 **freak saffrons, streaming indigos** The isolated Dutchman going slowly mad under the southern sun, whose "very perceptions" are changed (and who writes numerous letters to his brother) seems to be a reference to Vincent Van Gogh; the kind of tacit anachronism that Pynchon likes to use in [Mason & Dixon](http://masondixon.pynchonwiki.com/wiki/). ## Page 110 110.6 **This furious host...** Evokes 'Wuotan and his mad army'; see notes [72.27](https://gravitys-rainbow.pynchonwiki.com/wiki/index.php?title=Pages_71-72#Page_72 "Pages 71-72") and [75.13](https://gravitys-rainbow.pynchonwiki.com/wiki/index.php?title=Pages_72-83#Page_75 "Pages 72-83") ## Page 111 111.07-09 **For as much as they are creatures of God and have the gift of rational discourse, acknowledging that only in his Word is eternal life to be found...** Weisenburger suggests that this is a prayer for new colonial subjects, but the context — Frans van der Groov’s hopes for a Conversion of the Dodos — suggests that it comes from a discourse on the possibility of salvation or conversion for Jews or others. Given Katje’s problematic relationship to the Holocaust, the passage becomes even more suggestively sinister. The sentence does suggest the views of James (or Jacob) Arminius, the Dutch theologian who broke with the Dutch Reformed Church over issues of predestination and election. Arminius argued that Christ’s salvation was available to all in contrast to the official church's staunch belief in predestination. Frans would extend that grace to dodos as well. Also see note at [555.29](https://gravitys-rainbow.pynchonwiki.com/wiki/index.php?title=Pages_549-557#555 "Pages 549-557"). # Pages 114-120 This page-by-page annotation is organized by sections, as delineated by the seven squares (sprockets) which separate each section. The page numbers for this page-by-page annotation are for the original Viking edition (760 pages). Editions by other publishers vary in pagination — the newer Penguin editions are 776 pages; the Bantam edition is 886 pages. **Contributors:** Please use a 760-page edition (either the original Viking edition with the orange cover or the Penguin USA edition with the blue cover and rocket diagram — there are [plenty on Ebay](http://search.ebay.com/search/search.dll?sofocus=bs&sbrftog=1&from=R10&submitsearch=Search&satitle=pynchon+rainbow&sacat=267%26catref%3DC6&sargn=-1%26saslc%3D2&sadis=200&fpos=94610&ftrt=1&ftrv=1&saprclo=&saprchi=&fsop=1%26fsoo%3D1&coaction=compare&copagenum=1&coentrypage=search) for around $10) or search the [Google edition](http://books.google.com/books?id=iPDGp7VT8H8C&printsec=frontcover&source=gbs_navlinks_s#v=onepage&q=&f=false) for the correct page number. **Readers:** To calculate the Bantam edition use this formula: Bantam page # x 1.165. Before p.50 it's about a page earlier; as you get later in the book, add a page. Finally, profound thanks to Prof. Don Larsson for providing the foundation for this page-by-page annotation. ## Contents - [1 Page 114](https://gravitys-rainbow.pynchonwiki.com/wiki/index.php?title=Pages_114-120#Page_114) - [2 Page 115](https://gravitys-rainbow.pynchonwiki.com/wiki/index.php?title=Pages_114-120#Page_115) - [3 Page 116](https://gravitys-rainbow.pynchonwiki.com/wiki/index.php?title=Pages_114-120#Page_116) - [4 Page 117](https://gravitys-rainbow.pynchonwiki.com/wiki/index.php?title=Pages_114-120#Page_117) - [5 Page 118](https://gravitys-rainbow.pynchonwiki.com/wiki/index.php?title=Pages_114-120#Page_118) ## Page 114 114.5 **Section 8** A category of discharge from the United States military for reason of being mentally unfit for service 114.8 **onionskin** A thin, lightweight paper that is usually translucent. Not actually made from onions but has similar texture as the onion's outer layers. It was used for military orders and other documents. Usually a secondary copy with carbon paper. Slothrop would need this paper to return to ACHTUNG. See wikipedia: [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Onionskin](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Onionskin). ## Page 115 115.3 **greensickness** Chlorosis (also known as "green sickness") is a form of anemia named for the greenish tinge of the skin of a patient. Its symptoms include lack of energy, shortness of breath, dyspepsia, headaches, a capricious or scanty appetite and amenorrhoea. Today this disease is diagnosed as hypochromic anemia. 115.3 **tetter** A broad term for numerous types of skin diseases. 115.3 **kibes** An inflamed area on the skin, especially the heel; a chillblain 115.3 **purples** Bright splotches on the skin. 115.3 **imposthumes** A accumulation of pus; an abcess 115.4 **almonds in the ears** Swollen lymph glands, per Weisenburger 115.4 **scurvy** A disease resulting from a deficiency of vitamin C. It leads to the formation of spots on the skin, spongy gums, and bleeding from the mucous membranes. 115.19 **Primo Scala's Accordion Band** An English group, well-known by the mid-1930s, that consisted of four accordions, two pianos, bass, drums and guitar, under the direction of Harry Bidgood. 115.32-33 **Compton Mackenzie novels** British novelist, (1883-1972), both acclaimed and neglected, who wrote more than 100 novels, plays, and biographies 115.35 **Sèvres vase** Sèvres is a French porcelain manufacturer dating to 1740. It was originally a royal, then an imperial, factory, and is now run by the Ministry of Culture. 115.37 **Wardour Street** A street in Soho, London. ## Page 116 116.21 **Lafitte Rothschild** Château Lafite Rothschild (Pynchon adds an extra 't' in 'Lafite') is a wine estate in France, owned by members of the Rothschild banking family of France since the 19th century. The name Lafite comes from the Gascon term "la hite" meaning "small hill". 116.23 **Bernkastler Doktor** German vineyard along the Mosel 116.35 **Gilbert & Sullivan** Composer Sir Arthur Sullivan (1842-1900) and librettist W.S. Gilbert (1836-1911) collaboratively developed a distinctive English form of the operetta. ## Page 117 117.15 **...exactly the sort of thing Hop Harrigan used to pull to get Tank Tinker to quit playing his ocarina...** Both Hop and Tank are aviation heroes from DC comics. Hop is a pilot; Tank is his mechanic. More here: [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hop_Harrigan](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hop_Harrigan) --[Jpicco](https://gravitys-rainbow.pynchonwiki.com/wiki/index.php?title=User:Jpicco&action=edit&redlink=1 "User:Jpicco (page does not exist)") 09:20, 27 May 2009 (PDT) ## Page 118 118.12 **Cubeb? He used to _smoke_ that stuff.** Not an uncommon practice, apparently. "Edgar Rice Burroughs, being fond of smoking cubeb cigarettes, humorously stated that if he had not smoked so many cubebs, there might never have been Tarzan." More here: [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cubeb#Cigarettes_and_spirits](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cubeb#Cigarettes_and_spirits) --[Jpicco](https://gravitys-rainbow.pynchonwiki.com/wiki/index.php?title=User:Jpicco&action=edit&redlink=1 "User:Jpicco (page does not exist)") 09:24, 27 May 2009 (PDT) # Pages 120-136 This page-by-page annotation is organized by sections, as delineated by the seven squares (sprockets) which separate each section. The page numbers for this page-by-page annotation are for the original Viking edition (760 pages). Editions by other publishers vary in pagination — the newer Penguin editions are 776 pages; the Bantam edition is 886 pages. **Contributors:** Please use a 760-page edition (either the original Viking edition with the orange cover or the Penguin USA edition with the blue cover and rocket diagram — there are [plenty on Ebay](http://search.ebay.com/search/search.dll?sofocus=bs&sbrftog=1&from=R10&submitsearch=Search&satitle=pynchon+rainbow&sacat=267%26catref%3DC6&sargn=-1%26saslc%3D2&sadis=200&fpos=94610&ftrt=1&ftrv=1&saprclo=&saprchi=&fsop=1%26fsoo%3D1&coaction=compare&copagenum=1&coentrypage=search) for around $10) or search the [Google edition](http://books.google.com/books?id=iPDGp7VT8H8C&printsec=frontcover&source=gbs_navlinks_s#v=onepage&q=&f=false) for the correct page number. **Readers:** To calculate the Bantam edition use this formula: Bantam page # x 1.165. Before p.50 it's about a page earlier; as you get later in the book, add a page. Finally, profound thanks to Prof. Don Larsson for providing the foundation for this page-by-page annotation. ## Contents - [1 Page 121](https://gravitys-rainbow.pynchonwiki.com/wiki/index.php?title=Pages_120-136#Page_121) - [2 Page 126](https://gravitys-rainbow.pynchonwiki.com/wiki/index.php?title=Pages_120-136#Page_126) - [3 Page 127](https://gravitys-rainbow.pynchonwiki.com/wiki/index.php?title=Pages_120-136#Page_127) - [4 Page 128](https://gravitys-rainbow.pynchonwiki.com/wiki/index.php?title=Pages_120-136#Page_128) - [5 Page 129](https://gravitys-rainbow.pynchonwiki.com/wiki/index.php?title=Pages_120-136#Page_129) - [6 Page 130](https://gravitys-rainbow.pynchonwiki.com/wiki/index.php?title=Pages_120-136#Page_130) - [7 Page 131](https://gravitys-rainbow.pynchonwiki.com/wiki/index.php?title=Pages_120-136#Page_131) - [8 Page 132](https://gravitys-rainbow.pynchonwiki.com/wiki/index.php?title=Pages_120-136#Page_132) - [9 Page 134](https://gravitys-rainbow.pynchonwiki.com/wiki/index.php?title=Pages_120-136#Page_134) - [10 Page 135](https://gravitys-rainbow.pynchonwiki.com/wiki/index.php?title=Pages_120-136#Page_135) - [11 Page 136](https://gravitys-rainbow.pynchonwiki.com/wiki/index.php?title=Pages_120-136#Page_136) ## Page 121 121.13-14 **...watching Maria Montez and Jon Hall...** The duo made a series of six Technicolor adventure films: _Arabian Nights_ (1942), _White Savage_ (1943), _Ali Baba and the Forty Thieves_ (1944), _Cobra Woman_ (1944), _Gypsy Wildcat_ (1944), and _Sudan_ (1945). ## Page 126 126.19 **this seventh Christmas of the War** Although Weisenburger declares this a mistake ("a miscount"), upon closer inspection it's actually quite intentional, a sly device to underscore Roger's and Jessica's confusion. [They're at sixes and sevens, you see...](https://gravitys-rainbow.pynchonwiki.com/wiki/index.php?title=Sixes_and_Sevens "Sixes and Sevens") ## Page 127 127.16 **Tannoy** Tannoy Ltd is an English manufacturer of loudspeakers and public-address (PA) systems. It became a household name as a result of supplying PA systems to the armed forces during World War II, and to Butlins and Pontins holiday camps after the war. ## Page 128 128.14 **join the waits** Leicester's ancient tradition of Town Waits — official musicians who supported the Lord Mayor at civic events, entertained townspeople and feted visitors. The waits were originally guards or watchmen who walked round the town at night looking out for fires or other trouble. They rang bells to tell people the time, or called out '2 o'clock and all's well'. They also played music for the Lord Mayor's guests on big occasions, and entertained the general public. This became their main job. By 1900 the waits' instruments were a cornet, a euphonium, a tenor horn and a trombone. From then, the waits mostly played popular requests for a small fee, which was given to charity. By the 1940s, a request would cost about half a crown (12p). The Leicester Waits were disbanded around 1947. [[1]](http://www.leicester.gov.uk/NewsSite/index01.asp?pgid=3182); [Picture](https://gravitys-rainbow.pynchonwiki.com/wiki/index.php?title=W#waits "W") ## Page 129 129.9 **Tallis, Thomas (c. 1505–1585)** An English composer. Tallis flourished as a church musician in 16th century Tudor England. 129.9 **Purcell, Henry (c. 1659-1695)** An English organist and Baroque composer of secular and sacred music. 129.9 **Suso, Heinrich (1295-1336)** German mystic and preacher (Heinrich Seuse in German). His composition _In Dulci Jubilo_ is a German/Latin macaronic carol (Pynchon (mis)dates it as "fifteenth century"); the first verse (of four), can be translated as follows: |Original text|English translation| |---|---| |In dulci jubilo,|In sweet rejoicing| |Nun singet und seid froh!|now sing and be glad!| |Alle unsre Wonne|All our joy| |Liegt in praesepio;|lies in the manger;| |Sie leuchtet wie die Sonne|It shines like the sun| |Matris in gremio.|in the mother's lap.| |Alpha es et O!|You are the alpha and omega!| ## Page 130 130.10-27 **...thousands of old used toothpaste tubes...emptied and returned to the War...** War with a minty smile? Menthol to cover the stench of the dead? Toothpaste tubes were made of pewter, a valuable material worth recycling. ## Page 131 [](https://gravitys-rainbow.pynchonwiki.com/wiki/index.php?title=File:Ein_Volk,_Ein_Reich,_Ein_Fuehrer.jpeg) [](https://gravitys-rainbow.pynchonwiki.com/wiki/index.php?title=File:Ein_Volk,_Ein_Reich,_Ein_Fuehrer.jpeg "Enlarge") Ein Volk poster 131.1 **...ein Volk ein Führer...** German: 'one people, one leader' 131.11 **Rundstedt offensive** 1944's Ardennes offensive, or Battle of the Bulge, was directed by the German field marshal Gerd von Rundstedt (1875-1953). ## Page 132 132.11 **Mr. Morrison** Herbert Stanley Morrison (1888-1965), British Labour statesman who played a leading role in London local government for 25 years. At this point he was Home Secretary in Churchill's coalition government. 132.16 **Alasils** An English brand of pain relievers suggested for 'symptomatic pain generally, rheumatism, fibrositis, lumbago, headache, dysmenorrhoea, dental pain'. 132.20 **Eyeties** slang: Italians 132.20 _**Giovinezza**_ The anthem of the Italian National Fascist Party; Italian for 'youth' 132.21 _**Rigoletto**_ An opera in three acts by Giuseppe Verdi. The Italian libretto was written by Francesco Maria Piave based on the play Le roi s'amuse by Victor Hugo. It was first performed at La Fenice in Venice on March 11, 1851. It is considered by many to be the first of the operatic masterpieces of Verdi's middle-to-late career. 132.21 _**La bohème**_ An opera in four acts by Giacomo Puccini. The world premiere performance of La bohème was in Turin on February 1, 1896 at the Teatro Regio and was conducted by the young Arturo Toscanini. 132.29 **cioè** Italian: 'that is', 'i.e.' 132.31 **mano morto** Italian: dead hand (should be mano morta) 132.32 **CBI** China-Burma-India theatre of WWII ## Page 134 134.38-39 **...your mother hoping to hang that Gold Star...** The group American Gold Star Mothers was formed after WWI. The name derives from the custom of families of servicemen hanging a banner called a Service Flag in their front window. It had a star for each family member in the military. Living servicemen were represented by a blue star, and those who had lost their lives were represented by a gold star. 134.40 **Home Service programme** The domestic arm of the BBC, as opposed to Overseas Service and European Service. ## Page 135 135.5 **Miraculous Medal** aka the Medal of the Immaculate Conception; created after a vision of the Virgin Mary; often worn by Catholics (and even non-Catholics) as protection through Mary's intercession 135.33 **...when the 88 fell...** 135.7 a German 88 mm shell 135.33 **SPQR** Latin: senatus populusque Romanus = the senate and the people of Rome; refers to the government of the ancient Roman Republic 135.39 **...tippin' those Toledos...** Scales from the company Toledo Scale, founded in Columbus, OH in 1901; now known as Mettler Toledo ## Page 136 136.6-7 _**O Jesu parvule**_ First two lines of second verse of _In Dulci Jubilo_ (see [129.9 Suso](https://gravitys-rainbow.pynchonwiki.com/wiki/index.php?title=Pages_120-136#Page_129 "Pages 120-136") above) |Original text|English translation| |---|---| |O Jesu parvule|O little Jesus| |Nach dir ist mir so weh...|For thee I long alway...| 136.27 **...Mosquitoes and Lancasters...** Two types of British bomber during WWII. # Pages 136-144 This page-by-page annotation is organized by sections, as delineated by the seven squares (sprockets) which separate each section. The page numbers for this page-by-page annotation are for the original Viking edition (760 pages). Editions by other publishers vary in pagination — the newer Penguin editions are 776 pages; the Bantam edition is 886 pages. **Contributors:** Please use a 760-page edition (either the original Viking edition with the orange cover or the Penguin USA edition with the blue cover and rocket diagram — there are [plenty on Ebay](http://search.ebay.com/search/search.dll?sofocus=bs&sbrftog=1&from=R10&submitsearch=Search&satitle=pynchon+rainbow&sacat=267%26catref%3DC6&sargn=-1%26saslc%3D2&sadis=200&fpos=94610&ftrt=1&ftrv=1&saprclo=&saprchi=&fsop=1%26fsoo%3D1&coaction=compare&copagenum=1&coentrypage=search) for around $10) or search the [Google edition](http://books.google.com/books?id=iPDGp7VT8H8C&printsec=frontcover&source=gbs_navlinks_s#v=onepage&q=&f=false) for the correct page number. **Readers:** To calculate the Bantam edition use this formula: Bantam page # x 1.165. Before p.50 it's about a page earlier; as you get later in the book, add a page. Finally, profound thanks to Prof. Don Larsson for providing the foundation for this page-by-page annotation. ## Page 139 **139.09 Dromond** The word is defined by _Webster’s New World English Dictionary_ as a "large, medieval, swift-sailing water ship." **139.14 the mummy’s curse** An allusion to the supposed fate of the Carter-Carnarvon expedition that opened the tomb of Tut-ankh-Amen. ## Page 141 **141.21 Grand Hotel** [Weisenburger](https://gravitys-rainbow.pynchonwiki.com/wiki/index.php?title=Weisenburger%27s_Companion_to_Gravity%27s_Rainbow "Weisenburger's Companion to Gravity's Rainbow") is likely incorrect in his identification of the Grand Hotel of Saltsjöbaden. The Grand Hôtel with its Nobel suite, is located in the center of Stockholm on the water opposite the Royal Palace and the Old City (Gamla Stan). ## Page 142 **142.32 Reichssieger von Thantatz Alpdrucken** The name of the dog that Pointsman seeks translates loosely as "Realm of Victory over the Nightmare of Death." Dale Jack offers the following explanation and correction: "_Reichssieger_ could be translated simply as "champion" or "victor"; "Reichs" is the possessive prefix tacked on just about everything during Hitler's rule, and refers specifically the Third Reich. "Thantatz" should be spelled "Thanatz", as it is in _GR_ (taken from the Greek word for death). "Von" in this case means "of" or "from" and implies that he induces, rather than vanquishes fear. "Von" in this context could also be a dig at the aristocracy. Your translation of "alpdrucken" is basically correct; it is actually the impression (_drucken_) of dread or fear one has during any bad dream, as opposed to an actual nightmare (_alptraum_). This gives another rough translation: The Reich's Deadly Night-terror Champion. The structure of the name mimics standard pedigree dogs' titles-breeder's kennel, given name, then owner's kennel. For example, Daisy Hill's Fluffy of Shady Lane." Is this the same Weimaraner whose amber eye is pictured in the jigsaw puzzle fragment on Slothrop's desk? (cf. p.26) Is Slothrop somehow catching echoes ala PSI of Pointsman's dreams? This page-by-page annotation is organized by sections, as delineated by the seven squares (sprockets) which separate each section. The page numbers for this page-by-page annotation are for the original Viking edition (760 pages). Editions by other publishers vary in pagination — the newer Penguin editions are 776 pages; the Bantam edition is 886 pages. **Contributors:** Please use a 760-page edition (either the original Viking edition with the orange cover or the Penguin USA edition with the blue cover and rocket diagram — there are [plenty on Ebay](http://search.ebay.com/search/search.dll?sofocus=bs&sbrftog=1&from=R10&submitsearch=Search&satitle=pynchon+rainbow&sacat=267%26catref%3DC6&sargn=-1%26saslc%3D2&sadis=200&fpos=94610&ftrt=1&ftrv=1&saprclo=&saprchi=&fsop=1%26fsoo%3D1&coaction=compare&copagenum=1&coentrypage=search) for around $10) or search the [Google edition](http://books.google.com/books?id=iPDGp7VT8H8C&printsec=frontcover&source=gbs_navlinks_s#v=onepage&q=&f=false) for the correct page number. **Readers:** To calculate the Bantam edition use this formula: Bantam page # x 1.165. Before p.50 it's about a page earlier; as you get later in the book, add a page. Finally, profound thanks to Prof. Don Larsson for providing the foundation for this page-by-page annotation. ## Page 147 Page 147.34 - **Where are the five-digit groups coming from... no one up in London quite knows how to decrypt?** The number groups appear to be an encrypted message that uses a one-time pad. One-time pad encryption uses identical sets of randomly generated numbers shared between sender and receiver to securely encrypt one way messages over an insecure medium like telegraph or radio. They are commonly used in espionage because a properly used one-time pad message is mathematically impossible to crack, even with today's supercomputers, hence London's inability to crack the messages. Ciphers encrypted with one-time pads often use five digit groups, though letters or four-digit groups are used as well. They are normally used for covert, one way communication with field agents, as the pad is easily concealed and requires little training and no special equipment to use. [[1]](http://users.telenet.be/d.rijmenants/en/onetimepad.htm) ## Page 152 152.8 **Neukölln** neighborhood in the southeastern part of Berlin; has one of the highest percentage of immigrants in the city 152.11-12 **More than any mere "Kreis" [ . . . ] full mandalas** Correspondent Igor Zabel offers the following gloss on Weisenberger's note, which makes sense in the context of the passage: "Kreis is not 'cross' but 'circle', here also in the sense of a social circle. We should, therefore, understand the passage in the sense that the social structure of the visitors was so complex that they formed not only a circle but also whole mandalas while sitting around the table during the séances." 152.16 **Walter Asch** The last name derives from "asche": cinders, ashes. He is the first character whose zodical sign is mentioned: Taurus. 152.19 **Wimpe, the IG-man** [](https://gravitys-rainbow.pynchonwiki.com/wiki/index.php?title=File:Wimpy.jpg) [](https://gravitys-rainbow.pynchonwiki.com/wiki/index.php?title=File:Wimpy.jpg "Enlarge") Popeye & Wimpy The name does suggest the word "wimpy," as Weisenburger suggests, but it also evokes Popeye’s hamburger-mooching pal J. Wellington Wimpy. However, correspondent Alex Johnston notes that the actual German pronunciation ("Vimpe") would not have such connotations at all. 152.21 **Lieutenant Weissmann** Weissmann ("white man"), who turns out to be Capt. Blicero, is the decadent character associated with one of the manifestations of the Lady V. in Pynchon’s first novel in the section "Mondaugen's Story." _See note at_ [161.22](https://gravitys-rainbow.pynchonwiki.com/wiki/index.php?title=Pages_154-167#Page_161 "Pages 154-167"). ## Page 154 **154.23 "Die Faust Hoch"** Literally, "the fist high" or "the high fist." As in "hebt die Faust hoch" -- "raise the fist high." Clearly a Labor-Communist-revolutionary workers magazine. Now a rap group. # Pages 154-167 This page-by-page annotation is organized by sections, as delineated by the seven squares (sprockets) which separate each section. The page numbers for this page-by-page annotation are for the original Viking edition (760 pages). Editions by other publishers vary in pagination — the newer Penguin editions are 776 pages; the Bantam edition is 886 pages. **Contributors:** Please use a 760-page edition (either the original Viking edition with the orange cover or the Penguin USA edition with the blue cover and rocket diagram — there are [plenty on Ebay](http://search.ebay.com/search/search.dll?sofocus=bs&sbrftog=1&from=R10&submitsearch=Search&satitle=pynchon+rainbow&sacat=267%26catref%3DC6&sargn=-1%26saslc%3D2&sadis=200&fpos=94610&ftrt=1&ftrv=1&saprclo=&saprchi=&fsop=1%26fsoo%3D1&coaction=compare&copagenum=1&coentrypage=search) for around $10) or search the [Google edition](http://books.google.com/books?id=iPDGp7VT8H8C&printsec=frontcover&source=gbs_navlinks_s#v=onepage&q=&f=false) for the correct page number. **Readers:** To calculate the Bantam edition use this formula: Bantam page # x 1.165. Before p.50 it's about a page earlier; as you get later in the book, add a page. Finally, profound thanks to Prof. Don Larsson for providing the foundation for this page-by-page annotation. ## Contents - [1 Page 154](https://gravitys-rainbow.pynchonwiki.com/wiki/index.php?title=Pages_154-167#Page_154) - [2 Page 156](https://gravitys-rainbow.pynchonwiki.com/wiki/index.php?title=Pages_154-167#Page_156) - [3 Page 157](https://gravitys-rainbow.pynchonwiki.com/wiki/index.php?title=Pages_154-167#Page_157) - [4 Page 159](https://gravitys-rainbow.pynchonwiki.com/wiki/index.php?title=Pages_154-167#Page_159) - [5 Page 160](https://gravitys-rainbow.pynchonwiki.com/wiki/index.php?title=Pages_154-167#Page_160) - [6 Page 161](https://gravitys-rainbow.pynchonwiki.com/wiki/index.php?title=Pages_154-167#Page_161) - [7 Page 162](https://gravitys-rainbow.pynchonwiki.com/wiki/index.php?title=Pages_154-167#Page_162) - [8 Page 163](https://gravitys-rainbow.pynchonwiki.com/wiki/index.php?title=Pages_154-167#Page_163) - [9 Page 165](https://gravitys-rainbow.pynchonwiki.com/wiki/index.php?title=Pages_154-167#Page_165) - [10 Page 166](https://gravitys-rainbow.pynchonwiki.com/wiki/index.php?title=Pages_154-167#Page_166) - [11 Page 167](https://gravitys-rainbow.pynchonwiki.com/wiki/index.php?title=Pages_154-167#Page_167) ## Page 154 154.12 **Studentenheim** German: student residence or dorm ## Page 156 156.18 **the Judenschnautze** As [Weisenburger](https://gravitys-rainbow.pynchonwiki.com/wiki/index.php?title=Weisenburger%27s_Companion_to_Gravity%27s_Rainbow "Weisenburger's Companion to Gravity's Rainbow") notes, Pynchon probably means "Judenschnauze" here, but the term is more likely to mean "Jewish snout" (or nose) than "Jewish jaw." The term reflects Leni’s antisemitic stereotyping. See note at [159.38](https://gravitys-rainbow.pynchonwiki.com/wiki/index.php?title=Pages_154-167#Page_159). Schnauze is a word for a canine face, so it might mean "Jewish mug" as well. It also denotes a manner of speech, as in "Er hat eine berliner Schnauze" ("He speaks the Berlin dialect"). ## Page 157 157.35 **Gymnasium** A type of school in the German secondary education system, typically running grades 6-13. There is a heavy focus on academic study. Graduates take the _Abitur_ exam and many go on to university. ## Page 159 159.19 **Niebelungen** [Weisenburger](https://gravitys-rainbow.pynchonwiki.com/wiki/index.php?title=Weisenburger%27s_Companion_to_Gravity%27s_Rainbow "Weisenburger's Companion to Gravity's Rainbow") takes his description of the film from Siegfried Kracauer’s _From Caligari to Hitler_, but overlooks a key point. It is no wonder that Pokler "missed Attila the Hun roaring in from the East to wipe out the Burgundians"; Attila never did roar in from the East! As Kracauer correctly describes the film’s ending, Attila does massacre the Burgundians, but only after inviting them to dinner and setting a hall on fire (prompted by the urgings of his wife, the wronged Kriemhild). Is the textual error Pokler’s, Leni’s, or Pynchon’s? Given that all the explicit German film references are to films by Fritz Lang and that few of those films were widely available (with the notable exception of _Metropolis_), we could suspect that Pynchon was working from secondary sources or his own memory of a Lang festival at which he, like Pokler, fell asleep. (Lang did appear at such a festival at the Los Angeles County Museum of Art in 1969, when Pynchon may have been living in the area.) Lang is a useful touchstone for Pynchon in this novel since almost all of his films (including such American movies as _You Only Live Once_ and _Scarlet Street_) deal with characters trapped by an inexorable destiny. See note at [578.31](https://gravitys-rainbow.pynchonwiki.com/wiki/index.php?title=Pages_577-580#Page_578 "Pages 577-580"). nibeldin.jpg (74051 bytes) 159.33 _**Die Frau im Mond**_ German: 'woman in the moon'; A science fiction silent film that premiered October 15, 1929. It is often considered to be one of the first "serious" science fiction films.It was written and directed by [Fritz Lang](https://gravitys-rainbow.pynchonwiki.com/wiki/index.php?title=Fritz_Lang "Fritz Lang"), based on the novel _Die Frau im Mond_ (1928, translated as _The Rocket to the Moon_ during 1930) by his then-wife and collaborator Thea von Harbou. It was released in the USA as _By Rocket to the Moon_, and in the UK as _Woman in the Moon_. 159.38 **the Jewish wolf Pflaumbaum** At this stage, for all her professed radicalism, Leni allows herself to be deluded by ethnic stereotyping. Notice her attraction to Rebecca because of her Otherness. Soon, though, Leni will be "Judaized" ([219.41](https://gravitys-rainbow.pynchonwiki.com/wiki/index.php?title=Pages_205-226#Page_219 "Pages 205-226")), even more so when she is sent to the Dora concentration camp. Of Pflaumbaum’s fate, see note at [582.05](https://gravitys-rainbow.pynchonwiki.com/wiki/index.php?title=Pages_580-591#Page_582 "Pages 580-591"). Also see note at [474.39](https://gravitys-rainbow.pynchonwiki.com/wiki/index.php?title=Pages_473-482#Page_474 "Pages 473-482"). ## Page 160 160.11 **T.H.** German: _Technische Hochschule_ literally 'technical highschool', but actually at university level. 160.18 **It may have been a quota film.** With the great influx of films from the United States to Europe between the wars, several film-producing countries, including Germany, enacted decrees that a certain number of films shown had to be of national origin. These "quota" films were often quick and shoddy productions made only to satisfy government demands so that the more profitable American films could still be shown. ## Page 161 [](https://gravitys-rainbow.pynchonwiki.com/wiki/index.php?title=File:Justus-liebig.jpg) [](https://gravitys-rainbow.pynchonwiki.com/wiki/index.php?title=File:Justus-liebig.jpg "Enlarge") Justus Liebig 161.22 **Kurt Mondaugen** Mondaugen was introduced as a character in the South-West Africa episodes of _V._, especially as the focal point of the chapter "Mondaugen’s Story." See note at [152.21](https://gravitys-rainbow.pynchonwiki.com/wiki/index.php?title=Pages_145-154#Page_152 "Pages 145-154"). 161.34-35 **true succession, Liebig to [ . . . ] Jamf** Picture of [Justus Liebig](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Justus_Liebig) (right) ## Page 162 162.12 **Wandervogel** German youth movement promoting a love of nature and the outdoors; see note [here](https://gravitys-rainbow.pynchonwiki.com/wiki/index.php?title=W#wandervogel "W") 162.15 **kleinbürger** German: the lower middle class, translated from the French term _petit bourgeoise_, literally 'little citizen', noted for their small-minded conservative values. 162.18 **Dom** German--cathedral 162.20 **Biedermeier** Refers to the historical period between the years 1815 and 1848, particularly in Germany and Central Europe. It is often used to denote the artistic styles that flourished then and that marked a contrast with the Romantic era which preceded it; mainly in the fields of literature, music, the visual arts and interior design. However, it can also be used, as it is here, to imply a petit-bourgeois conformity. 162.28 **Bürgerlichkeit** German: the quality of being bourgeois ## Page 163 163.20-21 **Leni sang with the other children the charming anti-semitic street refrain of the time** The source of Leni’s initially racist attitudes lies here, in her youth. ## Page 165 165.21 **Herrenklub** German: gentlemen's club ## Page 166 166.1-9 **All right. Mauve [ . . . ]** For more on the history of this breakthrough in dye-making and organic chemistry, see Simon Garfield's _Mauve: How One Man Invented a Color That Changed the World_ (New York: Norton, 2001). ## Page 167 167.29-30 **Heinz Rippenstoss** The name of the would-be Nazi wag is literally "poke in the ribs." Seemingly a riff on "von Ribbentrop", Hitler's foreign minister, found guilty at Nuremberg and hung. This page-by-page annotation is organized by sections, as delineated by the seven squares (sprockets) which separate each section. The page numbers for this page-by-page annotation are for the original Viking edition (760 pages). Editions by other publishers vary in pagination — the newer Penguin editions are 776 pages; the Bantam edition is 886 pages. **Contributors:** Please use a 760-page edition (either the original Viking edition with the orange cover or the Penguin USA edition with the blue cover and rocket diagram — there are [plenty on Ebay](http://search.ebay.com/search/search.dll?sofocus=bs&sbrftog=1&from=R10&submitsearch=Search&satitle=pynchon+rainbow&sacat=267%26catref%3DC6&sargn=-1%26saslc%3D2&sadis=200&fpos=94610&ftrt=1&ftrv=1&saprclo=&saprchi=&fsop=1%26fsoo%3D1&coaction=compare&copagenum=1&coentrypage=search) for around $10) or search the [Google edition](http://books.google.com/books?id=iPDGp7VT8H8C&printsec=frontcover&source=gbs_navlinks_s#v=onepage&q=&f=false) for the correct page number. **Readers:** To calculate the Bantam edition use this formula: Bantam page # x 1.165. Before p.50 it's about a page earlier; as you get later in the book, add a page. Finally, profound thanks to Prof. Don Larsson for providing the foundation for this page-by-page annotation. ## Contents - [1 Page 167](https://gravitys-rainbow.pynchonwiki.com/wiki/index.php?title=Pages_167-174#Page_167) - [2 Page 168](https://gravitys-rainbow.pynchonwiki.com/wiki/index.php?title=Pages_167-174#Page_168) - [3 Page 169](https://gravitys-rainbow.pynchonwiki.com/wiki/index.php?title=Pages_167-174#Page_169) - [4 page 170](https://gravitys-rainbow.pynchonwiki.com/wiki/index.php?title=Pages_167-174#page_170) - [5 page 171](https://gravitys-rainbow.pynchonwiki.com/wiki/index.php?title=Pages_167-174#page_171) - [6 page 172](https://gravitys-rainbow.pynchonwiki.com/wiki/index.php?title=Pages_167-174#page_172) - [7 Page 173](https://gravitys-rainbow.pynchonwiki.com/wiki/index.php?title=Pages_167-174#Page_173) ## Page 167 167.36 **"And the crowds they swarm in Knightsbridge, and the wireless carols drone, and the Underground's a mob-scene, but Pointsman's all alone"** Sung to the tune of the Kinks' "A Well-Respected Man" ... "And he gets up in the morning, and he goes to work at 9, etc etc"] _Comment: interesting observation -- but is there more to corroborate this or is it just a coincidence (if coincidences exist, that is)? Where does the parallels end in this passage?_ ## Page 168 168.22-23 **"What did the Cockney exclaim to the cowboy from San Antonio?"** I think Weisenburger tries way too hard on this one. If you ask me, the punchline to this terrible joke is simply "Cor, Tex!" with the "cor" from the Cockney slang exclamation "Cor blimey!" and the "Tex" from the American cowboy diminutive, indicating a person from Texas. --[Jpicco](https://gravitys-rainbow.pynchonwiki.com/wiki/index.php?title=User:Jpicco&action=edit&redlink=1 "User:Jpicco (page does not exist)") 12:47, 31 May 2009 (PDT) ## Page 169 169.7-8 **...some piece by Ernesto Lecuona, _Siboney_ perhaps...** Ernesto Lecuona y Casado (1895-1963) was a Cuban composer and pianist. _Siboney_ (_Canto Siboney_) was from 1929. Siboney is also a town in Cuba. [1929 version](http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qPy2_XnsFro) on Youtube. 169.30 **bass part to _Diadem_** One of several tunes used for the hymn _All Hail the Power of Jesus' Name_; James Ellor wrote the tune. 169.31 **Flying Fortress** The Boeing B-17 Flying Fortress, a four-engine heavy bomber aircraft developed in the 1930s for the United States Army Air Corps. 169.39 **Welshman in _Henry V_** Refers to Fluellen, a comically stereotyped Welsh soldier in Shakespeare's historical play, believed to have been written around 1599. [Act 5, scene 1,](http://nfs.sparknotes.com/henryv/page_242.html) of _Henry V_ is the famous leek eating scene, which can be hilarious onstage. ## page 170 170.4 **Ashkenazic Jews** also known as Ashkenazi Jews or Ashkenazim; Jews descended from the medieval Jewish communities along the Rhine in Germany from Alsace in the south to the Rhineland in the north. _Ashkenaz_ is the medieval Hebrew name for this region and thus for Germany. Thus, Ashkenazim or Ashkenazi Jews are literally "German Jews." Later, Jews from Western and Central Europe came to be called "Ashkenaz" because the main centers of Jewish learning were located in Germany. 170.10 **BMRs** Basal metabolic rate: the amount of energy expended while at rest in a neutrally temperate environment. 170.13 **Vincentesque invaders** According to Weisenburger, this refers to germs which cause trench-mouth, a disease diagnosed by the French doctor Jean Vincent. 170.29 **Cymri** The Welsh (also _Cymry_); _Cymru_ is the name of the country in Welsh ## page 171 171.7 _**Aberystwyth**_ A tune composed by Joseph Parry in 1876, often used in hymns; Aberystwyth is a city in Wales. 171.11 **bubble-and-squeak** A traditional English dish made with the shallow-fried leftover vegetables, usually potato and cabbage, from a roast dinner. 171.12 **slap-and-tickle** British-English slang: playful kissing, tickling, caressing; foreplay ## page 172 172.29 **the white riders** Death. American [Arizonian; some sources say] Folktale. _The White Rider_[[[1]](http://www.americanfolklore.net/folktales/az2.html)] ## Page 173 [](https://gravitys-rainbow.pynchonwiki.com/wiki/index.php?title=File:Vat_69.jpeg) 173.21 **Vat 69** A brand of blended whisky. [Wiki.](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vat_69) 173.26-27 **babies born...also following a Poisson Distribution** births parallel the rockets of death. 173.39 **Christmas bugs** Waterbugs... that are "agents of unification". Pynchon likes Christmas and creatures in the 'Low-lands'. These bugs were in History's most famous 'manger'....a tranquil world. # Pages 174-177 This page-by-page annotation is organized by sections, as delineated by the seven squares (sprockets) which separate each section. The page numbers for this page-by-page annotation are for the original Viking edition (760 pages). Editions by other publishers vary in pagination — the newer Penguin editions are 776 pages; the Bantam edition is 886 pages. **Contributors:** Please use a 760-page edition (either the original Viking edition with the orange cover or the Penguin USA edition with the blue cover and rocket diagram — there are [plenty on Ebay](http://search.ebay.com/search/search.dll?sofocus=bs&sbrftog=1&from=R10&submitsearch=Search&satitle=pynchon+rainbow&sacat=267%26catref%3DC6&sargn=-1%26saslc%3D2&sadis=200&fpos=94610&ftrt=1&ftrv=1&saprclo=&saprchi=&fsop=1%26fsoo%3D1&coaction=compare&copagenum=1&coentrypage=search) for around $10) or search the [Google edition](http://books.google.com/books?id=iPDGp7VT8H8C&printsec=frontcover&source=gbs_navlinks_s#v=onepage&q=&f=false) for the correct page number. **Readers:** To calculate the Bantam edition use this formula: Bantam page # x 1.165. Before p.50 it's about a page earlier; as you get later in the book, add a page. Finally, profound thanks to Prof. Don Larsson for providing the foundation for this page-by-page annotation. ## Contents - [1 Page 174](https://gravitys-rainbow.pynchonwiki.com/wiki/index.php?title=Pages_174-177#Page_174) - [2 Page 175](https://gravitys-rainbow.pynchonwiki.com/wiki/index.php?title=Pages_174-177#Page_175) - [3 Page 176](https://gravitys-rainbow.pynchonwiki.com/wiki/index.php?title=Pages_174-177#Page_176) - [4 Page 177](https://gravitys-rainbow.pynchonwiki.com/wiki/index.php?title=Pages_174-177#Page_177) ## Page 174 174.19 **golliwog** The Golliwog or Golliwogg is a blackfaced African American caricature created in the late 1800s. It is relatively unknown in the United States, but was historically very popular in Europe. Since the 1960s, the doll has become the subject of a great deal of controversy, with Europeans attempting to decide whether it is a valuable cultural artifact or a racist insult.online dictionary Golliwog was also World War II British naval slang for a Gauloise cigarette, which had tobacco which was nearly black in colour. The American rock group Creedence Clearwater Revival was known as "The Golliwogs" and under this name they released a number of singles before the 1970s. In unofficial military parlance of some countries which has become less common nowadays, the term was used to indicate a piece of equipment that has been tuned, upgraded, and possibly customised to the point where it is no longer similar to the stock item it started as. The term stems from the fact that although the Golliwog itself was black – its standard form was featureless in a sense – it was always represented as decorated smartly with, for example, ribbons and bows. It could be said to be found always dressed up in finery; no Golliwog was ever seen dressed conservatively. Golliwog [[[1]](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/golliwog)] ## Page 175 175.13-14 **...the Tommy...the Jerries...** Tommy is a slang reference to British soldiers; Jerries is British slang for German soldiers or Germans in general; the two nouns in the song allude to the famous cartoon series _Tom & Jerry._ [[[2]](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tom_%26_Jerry)] 175.16 **polythene** polythene, adj., also known as "polyethelyne" or "polyethene", a common thermoplastic. 175.21 **staccato** staccato, n. musical term meaning detached or not connected, with the musical notation being small dots above or below the notes. Staccato is the opposite of slurred. The sound of the crowd's staccato singing possibly mimics the sound of a machine gun, referenced in the lines directly above. 175.35 **she [Penelope] can see the crocheted shawl** The most famous Penelope, of course, is in _The Odyssey_, Odysseus' faithful wife who spent his time away weaving a shroud..and unweaving it at night. ## Page 176 176.1 **refraction** time-forward allusion to a major element of _Against the Day_? 176.38-39 **Quisling molecules** 'traitorous molecules'; Quisling refers to Vidkun Quisling (1887–1945), a Norwegian fascist leader who collaborated with the Nazis and is regarded as Norway's most notorious traitor. ## Page 177 177.9-10 **come-along** _Jeremy will take her like the angel itself, in his joyless, weasel-worded come-along..._. A come-along is a hold used to enforce compliance by military police, in which the prisoner's wrist is bent over the crook of the operatives elbow, with the opposite hand using firm downward pressure. With the hold in place, a much larger and stronger prisoner can be subdued. 177.27-28 **Hark the herald angels sing: Mrs. Simpson's pinched our King...** A schoolyard reworking of the Christmas carol. The second line refers to Bessie Wallis Warfield, later Spencer, then Simpson (1896-1986), an American who married Prince Edward, Duke of Windsor, formerly King Edward VIII. Edward abdicated the throne in order to marry this twice-divorced commoner.