MDMD(2): Notes and Questions

[ckaratnytsky at nypl.org]

     What follows are Andrew Dinn's Notes and Questions.  Taking my lumps 
     as they are deserved, I promise not be offended if they inspire more 
     interest than my offerings. 
     
     Chris, who's almost done with being pathetic    
      
  
     42.5  `Eeh - that is, I'm not sure which one tha mean' i.e God or the 
     Devil.  Is Dixon a Manichean?  If so why is it because of `all thah' 
     Coal-Mining'? (42.8)
     
     43.8  `Raby Meeting' after Raby castle just outside Staindrop in Co 
     Durham.  Anyone know the history of Raby?
     
     45.11  `Bradley' the AR to whom Mason served as assistant
     
     45.19  `'Twas Morton his signature' Morton?
     
     45.27  `. . . Whenever their circumstances, now uncertain and 
     eventual, shall happen to be reduced to Certainty' Is this from a real 
     `Letter of Reproach and Threat'? (45.5) What an image and how well 
     Pynchon uses it in the next few lines. Compare this removal of choice 
     with the fate of the preterite in GR or the Thanatoids in Vineland.
     
     47.5  `Skanderoon' Where?
     
     47.23  `Loxodorome' OED has `loxodromic' n&a L17 Naut + Math A.1 A 
     loxodromic line or table L17 A.2 in pl The art or practice of sailing 
     to a constant compass bearing E18 B adj Of or pertaining to motion or 
     alignment at a constant angle to the meridians, esp sailing by the 
     rhumb (on a constant compass bearing) E18, `loxodromic curve, line, 
     spiral' a rhumb-line, a path which cuts the meridians at a constant 
     angle (not a right angle), `loxodrome' a loxodromic line, a rhumb-line 
     L19. So, we have a C19th usage, indicating that he cuts an angle 
     across the lines of the room bearing straight on the drinks cabinet. 
     Is there also maybe a suggestion that LeSpark has his angle on things, 
     not a right angle, mind, but a crooked one?
     
     48.6  `rattle-head' = rattle-brain, a foolish, noisy person
     
     48.14  `Route to India' their new destination? visiting Clive?
     
     49.1  `the Brilliant, 36,' i.e. a 36 gun frigate
     
     49.11  `HMS Unreflective' no rilly?
     
     49.34  `Mustard-Grinder' ???
     
     50.12  `Morton and all of his Hench-men' cf 45.19
     
     50.30  ff `Yards' cross-spars on mast which sails hang off `preventer' 
     a rope used to provide additional support to rigging in high winds or 
     storms `swifters' a rope drawn taut to tighten or make fast rigging, 
     esp the forward shroud supporting the lower mast of a ship 
     `Futtock-Staves' futtock = any of the timber pieces forming a ship's 
     frames or ribs, futtock-shroud = each of the small ropes or metal rods 
     supporting the top on a lower mast n.b. `reeving' on next line 
     suggests he means shrouds `reeving' passing a rope through a ring, 
     hole or block.
     
     51.1  `gig' a light narrow clinker-built ship's boat for rowing or 
     sailing
     
     51.7 `Stock' OED has, inter alia, a band of usu stiff close-fitting 
     material worn around the neck, formerly by men generally and now by 
     both sexes in horse-riding?
     
     51.28  `Queue-Tie' ???
     
     54.20  `Cheerly. Cheerly, then, lads . . .' cf Tempest 1.1 cheerly = 
     cheerfully, heartily
     
     54.21  `Euphroes' phaps from Gk Euphron = cheerful, gladsome, merry,
     light-hearted (from eu = good + phren = heart/spirit) i.e. having 
     asked them to be cheerful they then suggest they need something cheery 
     and O'Brian (Pat!) is called for.
     
     54.23  `Hey t'en, Pat' ??? t'en???
     
     54.28  `Boatswain, Mr Higgs' = Higgs Boson
     
     55.2  `Turk's Head' A knot made to form a stopper on the end of a 
     rope, resembling a turban in shape M19(!)
     
     55.5  `warping and kedging' warping = move or tow a ship by hauling on 
     a rope, kedging = same but with rope fixed to an anchor n.b in OED 
     entry for warp in above sense one T. Pynchon is cited! `Men stand on 
     the shore waiting to take lines and warp the barges in' Anyone know 
     the source?
     
     55.7  `Matthew Walker' a knot tied in the separated strands of the end 
     of a rope
     
     55.13  ff `Stockholm Tar' a kind of tar prepared from resinous 
     pinewood and used in ship-building `Hooks too carelessly mous'd' mouse 
     n. = small collar made with yarn round a wire or rope and intended to 
     hold an eye etc in place v. = secure a hook with a mouse `fray'd 
     Throat-Seizing' seizing = yarn or cord for binding something, 
     throat-halyards = ropes used to hoist or lower a gaff `Dead-eyes' 
     round flat three hole block for extending shrouds
     
     55.19  `Jeweel-Block' either of two small blocks suspended at te ends 
     of the main and fore-topsail yards through which the halyards of the 
     studding-sails are passed.
     
     55.25  `Sal si puedes' sauve-qui-peut - every man for himself?
     
     55.36  `Pollywogs' literally = tadpoles
     
     57.6 `Barcarole' song sung by Venetian gondoliers or in imitation of 
     such
     
     58.10 `Cape Town' the next stop (you just missed it or rather M&D did)
     
     58.18  `guest Suite' of the VOC's fort?
     
     58.20  `Stinkwood Armoire' any of various trees having wood which 
     gives off a disagreeable smell esp. (S Afr) Ocotea bullata, of the 
     laurel family (more fully `black stinkwood'), . . .; the wood of these 
     trees.
     
     58.21 `a certain Bonk' in UK = fuck but only mildly rude
     
     58.21  `V.O.C.' = ???
     
     59.20  `cryptick Message' for all you paranoids out there
     
     59.23  `taking his trope too far' unlike Pynchon who takes it as far 
     as possible (as ever)
     
     59.25 `English Whiggery' the Whig party grew initially from the 
     supporters of Scots Presbyterianism and then from those opposed to the 
     return of James II. In the C18 they were the party of reform and great 
     supporters of parliamentary sovereignty (i.e. over the monarch). Why 
     therefore the accusation of Whiggery?
     
     60.3  `Droster' OED has drost = dutch bailiff and drostdy = district 
     of landdrost L18 so may be adj from Dutch noun.
     
     60.17  `Jethro's tent' ???
     
     60.19  `legendary Botha brothers' what's the legend?
     
     60.26  `Kaffirs' derogatory term for blacks from the L19 before that 
     meant non-muslims or generally infidel, derived from Arabic, so 
     presumably Pynchon is using it anachronistically? Or maybe the Dutch 
     used it earlier to curse blacks?
     
     61.5  `mu' its that character again, and it means mercy!
     
     62.4  `regulus and procyon' the latter is a star near Sirius, the dog 
     Star, from which it generally rises in July (I guess not in the 
     Southern Hemisphere). Cicero calls it Anticanis which is of the same 
     signification (ante canis = pro kuon)
     
     62.12  `Jemima, Kezia and Kerenhappuch . . . Job' And in all the land 
     there were no women found so fair as the daughters of Job: . . . he 
     has also seven sons and three daughters. And he called the name of the 
     first one, Jemima; and the name of the second, Kezia; and the name of 
     the third Keren-happuch' Job (42.13-15)
     
     63.4  `dispens' ??
     
     63.10  `Rattle-Watch' ??
     
     64.30  `Combers' a long curling wave, a breaker M19
     
     65.4  `Austra' Auster = South Wind in Latin. Austra might be a female 
     variant but would probably mean `of the south' or `southern'.
     
     65.8  `Dagga' L17 S Afr word for cannabis (Indian hemp)
     
     67.26  `Sakti' also Shakti, Hindu, the female principle esp when 
     personified as the wife of a god, as Durga is the Sakti of Siva E19 
     from Skt power, divine energy
     
     68.14  `pomegranate' symbolic of sex
     
     69.15  `Velleity' the least or a low degree of volition, unaccompanied 
     by any effort or advance towards realization E17; a mere wish; a 
     lsight inclination without accompanying action or effort M17 Mason 
     really is indulging his fantasies!
     
     69.24  `Rix-Dollar' from rijksdaler, a monetary unit of Cape provincem 
     L18 also coin used for East Indies trade by various European countries
     
     69.28 `Late Blow, late blow, --' = modern day US what?
     
     69.32  `Butter-Bag Castle' ???
     
     70.22  `karis' = curries
     
     70.19  `Constantia wines' Constantia orig an estate later an area 
     producing sweet desert wines near Cape town L18
     
     70.28  `Krees' OED has kris or crees, Indonesian dagger with straight 
     or wavy blade
     
     71.16  `Routs and Ridottoes' ridotto = entertainment or ball with 
     music + dancing freq. In masquerade popular in the 18th century. OED 
     lists one meaning for rout as a large evening party or reception.
     
     71.23  `Ketjap' = ketchup OED lists as L17 so Dixon ought to be able 
     to find it somewhere - a spicy sauce made from tomatoes, or mushrooms, 
     walnuts etc
     
     72.4  `Palimpsest' one of those words you know you should know, like 
     embonpoint. . . paper or metal written/engraved on then erased and 
     written over, possibly many times
     
     `Nervus Probandi' literally, a nerve to be prodded - Pynchon's ham 
     C18th for `sore point', perhaps?
     
     74.6  `Stuffata' OED has stufato, a meat stew L18
     
     74.11  `Clive' Robert Clive, of India (and in particular of the East 
     India Company), b-in-law to Neville Maskelyne
     
     74.16  `Waddington' any more details
     
     74.24  `Twickenham, . . . Strawberry Hill, Eel-Pie island' all places 
     in SW London on the Thames
     
     74.33  `"A moment's walk tho' not so easy to get back from." "Hmm. Bit 
     like life, isn't it?"' i.e. time is only analogous to a linear (1-d) 
     space if that space is a 1-way street, so it is time which is like 
     life, not space.
     
     75.4  `. . . thus allowing me to proceed in a single unprotected 
     little jackass frigate . . .' so the paranoia was just that. No 
     plotting. Only, worse, callous indifference and carelessness. It's 
     enough to make you paranoid!
     
     75.21  `. . . Had they known how disingenuous they appeared . . .' How 
     do we know they were not actually disingenuous (both within the story 
     and without)? How do we know the Revd is not disingenuous within and 
     Pynchon not disingenuous without. Can we trust either? The remarks on 
     history may just be Pynchon playing the author as God or maybe they 
     say what he really believes about history. Suspect the latter because 
     of 76.1 `. . . with all it's secular Consequences . . .' recall `all 
     talk of cause and effect is just secular history'. What after all is 
     History but synthesis and control?