VV(11): Some Clue

Dave Monroe davidmmonroe at hotmail.com
Wed Mar 14 14:36:34 CST 2001


"Stencil toured one plant out on Long Island.  Among instruments of war, he 
reasoned, some clue to the cabal might show up.  It did."  (V., Ch. 8, Sec. 
iv, p. 227)


"he reasoned"--"by instinct"? "He only felt [...] when a bit of information 
was useful, when not" (p. 226) ...


"a region of offices, drafting boards, blueprint files" (p. 227)

>From the Merriam-Webster Online Dictionary ...

http://m-w.com

Main Entry: re·gion
Pronunciation: 'rE-j&n
Function: noun
Etymology: Middle English, from Middle French, from Latin region-,           
            regio, from regere to rule
Date: 14th century
1: an administrative area, division, or district; especially: the basic 
administrative unit for local government in Scotland
2 a : an indefinite area of the world or universe <few unknown regions       
                left on earth> ...

Note overtones of politics, intrigue ...


"sitting half hidden in a forest of file cabinets" (p. 227)

2 b: a broad geographical area distinguished by similar features <the 
Appalachian region> c (1): a major world area that supports a characteristic 
fauna (2): an area characterized by the prevalence of one or more 
vegetational climax types


"Mondaugen" (p. 227) = moon eyes

"balding and porcine" (p. 227) = moon head, moon body

3 a: any of the major subdivisions into which the body or one of its         
            parts is divisible b: an indefinite area surrounding a specified 
body  part <a pain in the region of the heart>


"uniform-of-the-day" (p. 227)--tres militaire-industrial, non?

"he had worked, yes, at Peenemunde, developing Vergeltungswaffe Eins and 
Zwei" (pp. 227-8)--i.e., Vengeance-Weapons 1 and 2 ...

http://www.v2rocket.com/

Beon, Yves.  Planet Dora: A Memoir of the
   Holocaust and the Birth of the Space Age.
   Trans. Richard L. Fague.  Boulder, CO:
   Westview, 1997.

Dornberger, Walter.  V-2.  New York: Viking, 1954.

Neufeld, Michael J.  The Rocket and the Reich:
   Peenemunde and the Coming of the Ballistic Missile
   Era.  Cambridge, MA: Harvard UP, 1996 [1994]

Wegener, Peter P.  The Peenemunde Wind Tunnels:
   A Memoir.  New Haven, CT: Yale UP, 1996.

4: a sphere of activity or interest: FIELD


http://members.aol.com/InfDiv104/CONCAMP.HTM

http://web.mit.edu/mindell/www/peenemunde.htm

http://www.geocities.com/Pentagon/7087/uk017.htm

http://motlc.wiesenthal.com/pages/t060/t06000.html

http://liftoff.msfc.nasa.gov/academy/History/vonBraun/Visit/Visit.html

5: any of the zones into which the atmosphere is divided according to height 
or the sea according to depth


"The magic initial!" (p. 228)--i.e., V. ...

"an abominable imitation of Munich beer" (p. 228)--as in, "Hall Putsch"?  Hm 
...

"Stencil listened attentively.  The tale proper and the questions after took 
no more than thirty minutes.  Yet the next Wednesday afternoon at 
Eigenvalue's office, when Stencil retold it, the yarn had undergone 
considerable change had become, as Eigenvalue put it, Stenclized." (p. 228)

6: an open connected set together with none, some, or all of the points on 
its boundary <a simple closed curve divides a plane into two regions>
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