mdmd(4) - questions

[Brian D. McCary]

MDMD(4) - Questions

A lot of these questions are phrases I didn't quite get.  AD signifies
Andrew Dinn contribution.

Chapter 11:

106-16         "What's the Mystery?"  Ethelmer shrugs.  "Didn't Days
tak e twentyfour Hours to pass, as they do now?" / Brae peers throu'
the candle-light.  "Why Cos, how in teresting."  Why interesting?

106.24 `the Lines and the Parade' ??? anyone have a map of St Helena?
( AD)

106.25 `all being reduced to geometry and optical illusion' yet another
tardis?

106-27    "...all being reduced to Geometry and optical Illusion, even
what is waiting there all around, what is never to be nam'd directly."
What is this?  The sea?  God?

107.7 `In the Astrology of this island, the Sun must be reckoned of
less importance than Darkness incorporated as some integral, anti-luminary
object with its own motions , positions and aspects,-- Black Sheep of
the family of Planets, neither to be sacrificed to Hades nor sp oken of
by Name. . . .' someone want to relate this to the Rev^d's cosmological
metaphor? or otherwise m ake sense of itchiness?  (AD)

107-10    "Sun...Black sheep of the family of Planets, neither to be
sacrificed to Hades nor spoken of by Name...."  Another unnamed or the
same.  Is the sun that which is never to be nam'd directly?  Don't make
sense...

107-25    "Eagres and Riffles and Cataracts"  Eagre - A tidal flood or
flow: BORE.  Riffles - waves over a shallow area:  Is there an obscure
pun here on bore as in caliber of rifle, or am I just seeing things?

107-33    "For years, travelers have reported..."  anyone know a
reference from whence this came?

107.35 `Mysterion' ???

108-26    "for Commerce without Slavery is unthinkable, whilst Slavery
m ust ever include, as an essential Term, the Gallows,- Slavery without
the Gallows being as hollow and Wast e a Proceeding , as a Crusade
without the Cross."  Um, if so, do we have commerce now, and so slavery
(the working class, perhaps).  More interestingly, what is our
gallows?

109-26    Song of Lord Ferrer's:  I hear a generic lilting 6/8 folk
tune :  anyone have any more concrete suggestions?

110-12    "..as to attend Routs in Chelsa, ..." riots?  any
suggestions?  Also, there must have been a lot of cloudy nights,
otherwise there were a lot of missed observations, no?

110-27    Slow lumbering tune?

111-25    "agents of Lady F"  who is she?

113-12    "This Chateu Gorce...Piquance of these Mots" My french
sucks (he, he) Translations?

113-31    George (Bubb) Dodington?

114-10    "There's one, says Pearse..."  From where?

Chapter 12:

116-7     Christopher Smart?

116-10    Seaton Prize?

117-30    Grub-street Pub-street:  a transliterated yiddishism, or real
British construction?

118-25    Maskelyne's Birthday?

119-19    The Sisson instrument - biography of Sisson?

119-26    Cock Ale Tomorrow - Check the possibility that this is a
homon ymic pun in Malaysian?

Chapter 13 

127-4     DIO for Mr. Waddington:  DIO is?  Also, can someone repost
the info on Waddington?

127-16    "Lot and Lot's Wife" - I assume this is a local landmark...?

130-3     Men in the moon - I hear a 6/8 Jig.  Any guesses?

134-27    Someone want to supply the Story of St. Brendan?

136-23    Tune probably something out of Gilbert and Sullivan....?

138.34 `Epsilonics' ?? epsilon is used to denote a small (how small do
you want) quantity in mathematics, and is commonly employed in taking
limits, maths which was not around until the early C19th. Is this a
historical term for some specific branch of maths? (AD)

139.17 `suggesting you [mason] make him [Dixon] a truculent and wary
neighbor' Has Pynchon made up the horiscope to fit his characters, or
vice versa? And is Maskelyne is also reading the chart so as to arrive
at the implications he desires?  (AD)

140.17 `Snares of Ranelagh' ??? (AD)

142.1 `Others told of Rapture by creatures not precisely Angels, nor
yet Demons . . .' no, they sound more like small greys. Alien
abduction???

143-35    Mason on your mind Song - I can't make this fit Georgia ect.
Any other suggestions?