MDMD(3) Notes & Questions

[Andre Buys & Nicole Slagter]

   101.33 `Sterloops' `inverted silver star' ? first what is a
   Sterloop and second what does it stand for? 

A `sterloop' is not a Dutch word (but I don't know about Afrikaans),
but its constituent parts are. `Ster', of course, means star, and 
`loop' the barrel of a gun; or, pars pro toto, the gun itself. 
Literally, then, `sterloops' are nothing more than `Rifles ... with 
an inverted Silver Star upon the Cheek-Piece'. However, `loop' also 
means `course', as in the course of a river. Coupled to `ster' this 
yields `the course, or orbit, of stars', a meaning so totally 
appropriate to M&D that one would suspect that Pynchon can pun in 
Afrikaans too . . . 

Nicole (longtime lurker)