VV(5) Notes p. 74-90

[jill]

74.29 Hothouse of his (Waldetar's) fellow Sephardim-compare to Hothouse
sense of time the WSC has. Hothouse is a place where the tender young
plants can get past the delecate days of youth before they're strong enough
to weather the storm. Sephardim are black Jews from the Levant who hold
strong traditions who have been seen as a burden to other Jews in the way
that huge poor Catholic immigrant families were seen as burden in the US.
Sephardim are the butt of jokes of the other Jews. Hothouse is probably
used by Henry Adams somewhere to describe a particular safety of a more
linear way of looking at history. I am probably generalizing, so fill it in
someone if you wish.

David Morris Wrote:
One of Stencil's impersonations will soon express some very poignant
thoughts about being at the Mercy of Fortune....

And it was Waldetar who does this. Waldtedar is a "highly religious man"
but probably has no knowledge of life in the place he dreams he will once
go, to Israel, where his people will be tossed back out to the desert to
settle the undesirable parts of Israel. 

75-Ptolemy Theos Philopator (the Ptolemy VIII, 63-47 BC) King of Egypt
(51-47) Ruling jointly with his sister and wife Cleopatra VII until he and
his advisor expelled her in 48. He murdered Pompey after his defeat by
Caesar, hoping for Caesar's favor, but when Caesar reinstated Cleopatra,
Ptolomy opposed him and was killed...This reminds me of the mixed
impressions of the relationship of Victoria Wren to Alastair, being
interpreted as both his wife, mistress and daugter. Also, there is a
Ptolemy IV (Ptolemy Philopator) (tol´umE filop´utur) king of ancient Egypt
(221-205 B.C.), of the Macedonian dynasty, son of Ptolemy III and Berenice
of Cyrene. He had his mother, his brother, his uncle, and possibly his wife
(who was his sister Arsinoë) killed. Antiochus III invaded the Egyptian
lands in Palestine, and Ptolemy managed to defeat him at Raphia in 217 (an
event mentioned in 2 Maccabees), but administration disintegrated in Egypt.
Ptolemy's main interest was building remarkable ships, each equipped with
4,000 oars. Ptolemaic system is a universe in which spheres, containing the
orbits of Venus, Mercury, Sun, Mars, Jupiter and Saturn surround the earth
or something like that.  

75 Soul cannot commend no-soul. Only God can. This reminds me of a reverse
of this, that scene where the poseurs in the V-Note cannot dig the Jazz,
and how perhaps only Theolonius Monk or someone godlike could.

76-Memnon of Thebes-Apparently this huge statue vibrates, as all things
do...in Greek mythology, king of Ethiopia, son of Tithonus and Eos. In the
Trojan War he fought against the Greeks, and after he  had killed
Antilochus, he himself was killed by Achilles. Eos obtained immortality
from Zeus for her son. Memnon was supposed to have lived in Egypt, and the
Greeks gave his name to the great statue of Amenhotep III at Thebes. 
This statue was said to make a musical sound at daybreak, at which time
Memnon greeted his mother, goddess of dawn. 

76--the site of the ancient Eleusis but it's not in Egypt is it? Fourteen
miles west of Athens on the Bay of Eleusis, opposite the island of Salamis.
The tale goes like this, but this is just a snippet of the long story 

--Overcome with renewed grief over Kore, Demeter retired to her temple in
Eleusis and set upon a plan to free her daughter. She caused the world's
crops to fail and threatened all of humanity with starvation
unless Kore was freed. One by one the Greek gods visited her to implore her
to relent, but Demeter refused. Finally Zeus himself was forced to
intervene, arranging with Hades to allow Kore to return to the
earth. But Hades tricked his wife into eating some pomegranate seeds before
she left. The fruit is a symbol of the marriage union and by eating it,
Kore bound herself eternally to Hades. 

Zeus again stepped in to free Kore, decreeing that for two-thirds of the
year, Kore will live on the surface but must return to the underworld of
the dead for the remainder of the year. When in the underworld, she takes
the name Persephone; while on the surface, she is Kore. Grateful for the
return of her daughter for a portion of the year, Demeter renewed the
earth's fertility. (EXCEPT THIS ONE SPOT)
 
76--Lake Mereotis--yes this really did happen: here is an excerpt from a 
General William W. Loring formerly of the United States Army as colonel
of the regiment of Mounted Riflemen, and before that a Confederate Major 
General, and as Pasha in the Egyptian army... So he reports in 1882:
http://home.earthlink.net/~atomic_rom/soldier/app2.htm
 
"The country flooded at that time was from ten to fifteen miles wide and
from sixty to one hundred
miles long, separating a strip of the coast, including Alexandria, Aboukir
and Rosetta, from immediate
communication with the interior. This land had been drained for thousands
of years by the ancient Egyptians, who first established the dike, shutting
out the sea and reducing the water to a mere nominal fresh water lake.
Before it was destroyed by the English centuries of the Nile inundation had
rendered this country extremely fertile, and it was one of the most
beautiful gardens of all Egypt. The ancients had vast structures and
enormous convents throughout its extent. These convents were used by the
early Christians. It was here that Cleopatra and Mark Antony had their
vineyards, from which the most delicious wines then in the world were
obtained for their grand banquets and the most beautiful and sweetly
perfumed flowers to deck them with. Subsequently, through the many
invasions of poor Egypt, these beautiful gardens and the grand
buildings     were levelled in the dust, and finally, through the vandalism
of grim visaged war, by our boasted Western
civilization and the ambition of the two great nations of that day, a
paradise, without regard to life or property, was suddenly converted into a
vast waste of waters. History may repeat itself and give the world another
opportunity to denounce the barbarian who now leads the national party of
Egypt, when the poisoned chalice is presented to another, for having dared
to follow a well remembered precedent. It will be thus noticed how easily
Egypt is defensible on the Mediterranean.”

78-- Clockwork doll. Clockwork requires someone else to wind usually.
Clockwork seems to me to be different than a knife switch. Clockwork runs
out eventually and yet can be overwound. Things clockwork seem to be
symbols for the desire to overcome the second law of Thermodynamics.

82--Mahdist--five British soldiers executed in 1883 during the successful
Mahdist rebellion in Khartoum.

83--Fashoda--I think my readings of historical texts related to Fashoda
cause me to sympathize with the French. Unfortunately we are supposed to
side with the British since they ostensibly were trying to 'stem the slave
trade' And we are supposed to believe that England was being benevolent,
regenerating Egypt. Maybe they were but... Look it up. I cannot begin to
explain Fashoda. I could post up a text bit by bit from Electric Library if
people really want it. ( the librarian in me ) The drama of the French
travelling to Fashoda reminds me of an excellent movie that all of you have
probably already seen called "Fitzcarraldo" or something like that directed
by Herzog.

83--Mahdist--has to do with Fashoda..."Until the Mahdist revolt of the
1880s, led by a Nile boat-builder, Muhammad Ahmad bin Abdullah who
proclaimed himself Mahdi -- herald of the end of the world -- in 1881, the
Upper Nile basin had been part of an Egyptian empire extended into Sudan
first by Muhammad Ali and later by the Khedive Ismail: hence the Egyptian
fort at Fashoda. The defeat of the Anglo-Egyptian force by the Mahdists in
1883, leading to General Gordon's death at Khartoum in 1885 and the
Egyptian evacuation of Sudan, left the field open to French and Belgian
claims to the Upper Nile region known as Bahr al-Ghazal." -"Steaming
through Africa." (Fashoda incident between France and England)(includes
bibliography) Searight, Sarah

84--Montebank=Charlatain, Hawker of Phoney potions.

86--Margate--Seaside resort town in England.

90--Lord Cromer follows Major Evelyn,  p. 69??? Here is a snip from a
british account of..
England In Egypt Relevancy:  Bright, James Franck; 

    With limits restricted to territory which it was within its power to
defend, with finances which, now that the convention (of London) had
secured a
breathing-time, were sufficient for its needs, Egypt was henceforward to
advance rapidly toward prosperity under the masterly leading of Major
Evelyn
Baring, subsequently Lord Cromer.  The period of vacillation seemed to have
reached its conclusion.  Some of the magnificent hopes which had been
formed
in the earlier days of the occupation were laid aside, and a firm hand
directed to complete a sufficient, if more restricted, programme of reform.

And who follows Lord Cromer? Kitchener. And Cromer can't really ever be
assassinated in Part VIII..seems like he retires. See below-  

Chapter 1B. Muhammad Ali and the Nineteenth Century ( Countries of the
World ) Linda D. Lau
          After Dufferin's mission the record of the British occupation is,
in
     effect, the story of three outstanding proconsuls, each of whom bore
the title
     of British agent and consul general: Sir Evelyn Baring, later Lord
Cromer,
     from 1883 until his retirement in 1907; Sir John Eldon Gorst, from
1907 until
     his death in 1911; and Lord Kitchener, from 1911 until 1914. During
their
     tenure it was the British Agency, not the khedive's palace, that was
the real
     locus of authority; an Egyptian ministry functioned under the khedive,
whose
     decrees were ostensibly the principal governmental decisions, but the
basic
     policy was British. Khedive Tawfiq died in 1892 and was succeeded by
his son,
     Abbas Hilmi, also known as Abbas II, who aspired to rid himself of
British
     control.