MDDM Ch. 73

[jbor]

706.3 Suppose that ....

NB subjunctive space framed as scientific hypothesis

Cf., perhaps,

http://earlyamerica.com/earlyamerica/milestones/journal/journaltext.html

as a general reference, rather than one which is specific to this chapter.

706.9 as if enacting a discarded draft of Zeno's Paradox

http://www.mathacademy.com/pr/prime/articles/zeno_tort/

(cf. also the tree-chopping race between Stig and the were-beaver)

Zeno (of Elea) was admired by Aristotle as the inventor of philosophical
dialectic. His arguments exploit the abstract mathematical notion of
infinity. Zeno's Paradox is perhaps the first use of the idea of infinite
regress, or mise en abyme, a prominent image or trope in the postmodernist
literary repertoire.

Xeno's arguments against motion ('The Flying Arrow', 'The Stadium' and 'The
Row of Solids', along with the paradox of 'Achilles and the Tortoise'
described at the link above) were refuted by Aristotle, but were reinstated
by such thinkers as Lewis Carroll, Henri Bergson, Bertrand Russell and, of
course, postmodernists like Pynchon. He gets a mention in Plato's dialogue
'Parmenides' as Socrates' teacher.

707.5 like certain Stars in Chinese Astrology, they lose their Invisibility

http://www.purpleking.com/html/introduction.htm

http://www.purpleking.com/html/history.htm

http://www.purpleking.com/html/stars.cfm

707.8-12 NB that cosmic eye view again ... "the magick of Celestial
Trigonometry" (96.7): another variation on this theme

707.21 Nonius

http://www.newadvent.org/cathen/11163a.htm

707.32 They acquire a Sidekick, a French-Shawanese half-breed Renegado nam'd
Vongolli  ? (cf. Whappo in GR?)

Vongolli = von Goll  ?

707.34 tho' like the Quaker in the Joak, they are not so sure of him  ?

707-8 where thousands of Mummies occupy the streets  ? (cf. _Vineland_'s
Thanatoids?)

708.9 the Line's own *Vis Inertiae* ...  i.e. the Line's force of inertia
(cf. Tim Tox's Golem's "*Vis Fulgoris*", or lightning energy at 685.23)

Ties in with Dixon's description of the way the Native Americans imagine the
Visto as some "great invisible Thing ...  devouring all in its Path". (678)
 
Reminds me a little of "the Nothing" in Michael Ende's _The Neverending
Story_, too. And, of course, entropy.

708.10-17 NB another premonition of the North-South divide which will
eventually devolve into Civil War

708.18 a strange tribal sect  ?

708 NB that the intrepid duo actually "discover" Uranus in their, and its,
subjunctivity (and cf. 95.14)

708.34 a Copley medal

http://www.royalsoc.ac.uk/royalsoc/med_copl.htm

http://helios.acomp.usf.edu/~rcmartin/CopleyMedal.html

709.33 "a Continental D.I.O." (cf. 127.4 & 413.3)

"Damme, I'm Off!" - a men's catchphrase of the late 18th & early 19th
centuries. (Hyperarts)

710.21 "Indian, White, African, aswarm well before the Twilight"

NB the "real" point of reference, or what should be the real point of
reference, for that symbolic "red, white and blue" (?)

710.23 "these Consequences you have loos'd like Vermin" NB (and cf. "the
last Cadre, out in the uninterrupted Visto,-- from a certain Height, oddly
verminous upon the pale Riband unfolding" at 683)

711.2 "my boy Adolphus"  ?

710-711 a bizarro-world counterpart to that more hilarious, though actual,
liaison between "Tom Hynes, Catherine Wheat, and their Baby" back in Ch. 59:

     ... the award-winning "Love Laughs at a Line" episode, that seem'd but
    light-hearted Frolick that first time through. (711.9)

712.2 in full Susurrus and Chirp

susurrus n. (Literary) a soft rustling sound; whimper; murmur [17th C. from
Latin *susurrare* to whisper]

So, both their dresses and their conversation. A literary trope.

712.3 a Consort of Crumhornes

http://www.s-hamilton.k12.ia.us/antiqua/crumhorn.htm

712.15 " ... the Spanish Extremadura"

Extremadura: landlocked province in western Spain, on the border of
Portugal, birthplace of Francisco Pizarro (cf. Pynchon's letter to Thomas
Hirsch in David Seed's book), and significant locale in Gaddis's _The
Recognitions_, shares its latitude with Delaware Bay and the Line.

712.25 "Along the Beacons"  ?

http://www.thebooknook.net/forgot.html

712.32 "St Brendan's Isle ... Gaming-Rooms"

It's Las Vegas-y for sure, but I'm not convinced that it's Indian casinos
which are a reference point here either, even despite the "Population ... of
uncritickal youngsters" who throng to the "Pleasure-Grounds" as employees
from "far-off lands" where "death" is even more "ubiquitous". (712-713)

Taking up an earlier comment of Bandwraith's, on something which I admit is,
perhaps, a hobby-horse of my own, on a number of levels, I think that back
at Lord Lepton's the croupiers were probably of African/slave descent. Thus,
though not unequivocally:

http://www.littlesteven.com/songs-suncity.html#Sun%20City

But even that's a stretch; the narrator's imagery at 421.3 seems to target a
much broader vision. Whatever, I'd argue that no connection was made between
LL's "Paradise of Chance" and casinos on Indian lands in latter-day America,
which is a whole 'nother story of the oppressiveness of the reservation
system and the accompanying cultural decimation, indigenous land rights
issues, white man's guilt disguised as charity, legal loopholes etc. I think
it's important to recognise ethnic minorities and subcultures, and to
acknowledge their experiences under the yoke of colonialism and empire, as
unique and particular rather than trying to bunch them all together into an
indiscriminate blur. I'd argue that Pynchon's novels read in this way as
well. But, as I said, it's probably just me ....

best